Do you feel like your Bushwick roommate sometimes resembles an annoyingly blood-sucking vampire? You’re not the only one. Summer of Blood, a movie about a Bushwick hipster vampire is now available on Netflix. And despite how ridiculous it sounds, it’s actually pretty good.
It was only a matter of time before vampires invaded Bushwick. Guess the cat’s out of the bag now, huh? Alright, so maybe it’s less of an invasion and more of an eerily accurate portrayal of a Bushwick caricature that can be just as frightening. That’s how movie Summer of Blood (now available on Netflix) starts out, by introducing us to the completely irreverent, selfish, and ever-annoying Erik Sparrow (played and written by Onur Tukel) as he shows his oblivious nature when he offhandedly rejects and dismisses a marriage proposal from his girlfriend. From there a hilarious spiral towards the ridiculousness begins as he searches for other women to fill a lacking void within his life, only to encounter a vampire on one of his late night strolls through Brooklyn.
Once turned into a vampire, Erik begins to learn of his new found powers and virility as he uses a dating site to satiate his dark hungers, desires, and later even convinces his landlord to let him keep his apartment rent free. Imagine a combination of the very playful What We Do In The Shadows and a much less serious Only Lovers Left Alive but with a very Bushwick twist.
Featured last year at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, this was a film that surprised most with its dry humor that leaves you questioning just how aware the characters are of their own personalities. Between a never-ending, self-serving lifestyle and a personality that continually grates on the viewer, the character of Erik Sparrow begins to slowly grow on you as if a welcomed symbiotic friend that you love to hate but just can’t get rid of.
Watch the transformation of a schlubby, paunchy, aging Brooklynite as he learns that maybe there is something a little bit more to life than his own pitiful desires of life free from responsibility or depth.