Letterboxd
Things I really liked in this film:
I liked the voodoo undertones. Voodoo has always been one of my favorite religious/magic systems in fiction as it is the only one that is kind of compatible with the world as we know it. I feel like voodoo works on rituals rather than spells, much less flashy than D&D magic, but equally effective. Spells create changes with "I cast maaaagic missile", voodoo minimally shifts reality to cause a desired side effect. I like that as I feel that it could actually be compatible with reality, it is the magic of coincidence and misdirection (though, I guess, with "modern" post statistics mathematics, it might be detectable as well).
I liked the idea that certain musicians have some sort of connection to the otherworld(ly) that allows them to sort of pierce the veil between here and there.
I though the accents were quite good, I just loved the way "preacher boy" spoke with something like a drawl and something like chew in his cheek. But I believe all of the accents were well done.
I really liked the prolonged setup. I enjoyed how long we spent setting up the perfect day for smoke and stack.
I enjoyed the idea of gestalt vampires. I couldn't quite tell whether it was a hierarchy or what, but at least at some level it felt like they became a bit of a group mind as they became vampires. It was a little less explored, but perhaps there was at least some argument to be made for the vampire point of view.
I think it was implied that vampires are taken out of the ability to "return to our ancestors" and wasn't clear about whether that meant killing them also meant their souls end (no afterlife). I liked that (minor) moral quandry. You can pick an immortal (though obviously not indestructible) life in our world with no afterlife (as a vampire), or you can pick a mortal but infinite afterlife world (rejecting becoming a vampire). Very hedonistic, very material.