Toronto horror fans can catch one of the year’s strangest vampire films this week. Familiar, an indie horror comedy from writer-director Bird Rogers, premieres at the Toronto Indie Horror Fest on Oct. 8.
I went in expecting a quick vampire gag. I came out with a funny, strange film that turned surprisingly existential.
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A festival built for movies like this
The Toronto Indie Horror Fest runs Oct. 6 to 10 and has showcased DIY genre films since 2016. Its programming mixes short films from local filmmakers with features from international teams. Found footage gets a spot there too.
Familiar fits that tradition as a one-room found footage film with a vampire at the centre. That scrappy spirit suits a festival devoted to independent horror.
A podcast reunion with a bite
The film opens with a run of college newspaper headlines, each one marking a new milestone for The Winecast. The clips trace the podcast’s rise to campus sensation and set up the timeline for everything that follows.
The friendships strained as the show took off, and the podcast eventually ended. Years later, Bird (Rogers) invites co-host Ellis (Ellis Charles Hoffmeister) over to talk about reviving it. Ellis arrives in rough shape and carrying a secret. He stole a jar of blood from Heather (Heather Velazquez), a Cuban revolutionary vampire he once promised to serve as her familiar.
Heather wants the blood back, and she comes calling after dark. Justin Mendoza plays the third co-host, Trench. Eduardo Machado plays a vampire slayer, and Emma Gryce plays Bird’s wife.
What is a familiar, anyway?
The title carries more history than it first appears. In European folklore, a familiar was a spirit that took animal form and served a witch. Accusers in old witch trials sometimes cited a suspect’s pet cat or toad as evidence.
Vampire fiction later borrowed the word for a human servant who works for a master of the night. Renfield, the devoted and unhinged follower in Dracula, set the template. Modern comedies have played with it too, most memorably through the long-suffering assistant in What We Do in the Shadows.
Familiar leans into that idea of a bargain. Ellis promised to serve a vampire, and the promise was false. In folklore, broken bargains with supernatural beings seldom end well.
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A vampire story with deep roots
Vampire legends have always travelled. Almost every culture has a tale of something that feeds on the living, and the details shift with each retelling. Caribbean lore, for example, gives us the soucouyant, a shape-shifting woman who sheds her skin at night and hunts for blood.
Familiar adds a fresh voice to that long tradition. Its vampire is a Cuban revolutionary who wants her stolen blood back. The result feels both familiar and new.
Found footage built from almost nothing
Rogers shot Familiar in Astoria, Queens. Most of the story plays out in a single room, with brief trips to an outside deck.
The camera work mixes security footage with a handheld camera. Podcasters record everything, so the camera always has a reason to be there. The opening headlines work the same way, because the film builds its backstory from found material.
Found footage has a long lineage in horror, from The Blair Witch Project onward. The best entries use the format to trap characters in one place with something inexplicable. Familiar understands that formula and adds a layer of dark comedy.
A single location could box a film in. Familiar turns that limit into charm.
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Why this horror comedy sticks
I laughed often, and the film kept finding quieter, stranger notes beneath the jokes.
Horror comedy works best when the jokes and the dread feed each other. Familiar finds room for both, and the existential streak running through it gave the film a staying power I did not expect.
Where to see Familiar
Familiar screens at the Toronto Indie Horror Fest on Oct. 8, and the festival runs through Oct. 10. Tickets and showtimes are available through the festival. A comedy like this plays best with a crowd, so a festival screening makes an ideal first look.
If you love vampire stories with a sense of humour, this one deserves a spot on your schedule.
Familiar is hilarious and existential, and it stays entertaining throughout. Fans of horror comedy movies should mark Oct. 8 on the calendar.
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