Thralls

Plot synopsis:
NOTE: "Thrall" is from an Old Norse word meaning "slave." Slavery was
supported by Norse mythology, which claimed that thralls had a separate
ancestry through the god Rig. In Thralls, a thrall is a half-vampire, the "white trash of vampires." They often serve in bondage
to a full vampire who keeps them in check by promising to make them full
vampires one day.Thralls opens with a short narrative regarding an ancient
demon named Beli-al and how the saying aloud of his name resulted in the
word becoming flesh, and the flesh becoming the centuries-old book known
as The Necronomicon. Between its covers, hidden within ancient rituals
and archaic superstitions, was contained a spell so powerful that, just to
decipher it would drive the reader insane. Centuries passed, and the name
of Beli-al and The Necronomicon faded away.Cut to a nice house somewhere in suburban Iowa. Rennie [Richard Cox] drives up to
the house and goes upstairs to a white room in which six women, all
dressed in white, are chained by their ankles. He tosses them a rat for
dinner. Then he notices an errant chain. Following it, he finds a chewed
off foot and is immediately staked through the chest by Roxie [Fiona Scott], the
footless thrall. Roxie and her five "sisters"-- Leslie, Lean, Brigette, Buzz,
and Tanya -- escape. As they make off in Rennie's car, they are attacked
by their master, Mr Jones [Lorenzo Lamas]. He grabs Tanya, rips out her heart, takes a
bite, and utters in exasperation, "Women!" as the remaining thralls speed
away. Time passes.Pig-tailed Ashley [Siri Baruc] can no longer live at home now that her alcoholic
father is dead, so she has come to live with her sister Leslie [Leah Cairns]. As Ashley
waits for Leslie in the bus station, she is hassled by a gang of thugs
looking for "a good time." Suddenly, Leslie shows up. Leslie gives Ashley
the keys to her car and tells her to leave the bus station while Leslie
stays behind to deal with the punks. A few kickpunches later, the thugs
are coldcocked. Ashley is duly impressed. When she asks Leslie how she
learned to fight like that, Leslie promises that they will have a talk.Leslie is one of Mr Jones' escaped thralls. She and her sister
thralls now run a very popular nightclub. Just ask Doughboy Jeff [Kevan Ohtsji] who,
accompanied by his cousin Jim [Shawn Roberts], is biting at the reins trying to get into
the club and get himself some "bitches." Tonight is the Winter Solstice,
the longest day of the year, and Doughboy and Jim are ready to experience
their first rave. After Ashley has had a chance to freshen up, she orders
a bottle of water at the bar and meets Jim. The two of them hit it off,
until Cisco [Nigel Vonas] gets into a fight with Jim over Ashley. Lean [Sonya Salomaa] breaks up the
fight, Brigitte [Moneca Delain] takes Cisco to the back room "where we put troublemakers,"
and Ashley and Jim take seats at a table.Ashley notices that Jim's nose is bleeding, so she goes to the back
room for a first-aid kit. When she hears heavy panting through the door,
she peeks through the vent to see Brigitte going down on Cisco. Suddenly,
Brigitte sprouts fangs and bites him. Ashley is taken aback and returns to
the dance floor to find Jim. When Ashley tries to tell Jim that she saw
Brigitte biting Cisco and drinking his blood, Jim concludes that Ashley is
nuts and ditches her. Jim looks around for his cousin Doughboy and finds him in the
deejay booth with Roxie, who is just about to put the bite on him. Jim
interrupts, telling Doughboy what Ashley just told him and asking for the
keys to their car so he can leave. Doughboy hands over the keys and, when
Roxie excuses herself for a few minutes, Doughboy takes over Roxie's job
as deejay.Roxie runs to Brigitte, and Brigitte runs to Lean, who is working the
door as a bouncer. Lean switches places with Brigitte so that she can have
a talk with Leslie about the need to clue in Ashley to the fact that they
are thralls. Lean tells Roxie to get Leslie while she goes to the back
room to speak with Ashley who is packing her bags to go home. When Lean
attempts to explain that they are "different," Ashley thrusts a cross in
her face, starts screaming "Vampires!", and runs up to the deejay booth,
hoping to get help from Doughboy. Lean, Brigitte, and Buzz [Lisa Marie Caruk] corner Ashley
outside the deejay booth. Trying to back away from the thralls, Ashley
falls over the railing, but the thralls form a chain and catch her just
before she hits the floor. While the dancers cheer at what they think was
a stunt, Leslie whispers in Ashley's ear, "I guess it's time we had that
talk."The thralls attempt to explain themselves to Ashley, what it means to
be a thrall, how they only drink enough blood to survive, don't kill or
turn their victims, can't fly, and how Mr Jones is the one who made them
this way. But they think that they may have found a way to attain full
vampire status and get back at Jonesy. Lean has gotten her hands on
The Necronomicon and learned that, by performing a ritual to Beli-al on the
Winter Solstice at midnight, they can raise themselves to full vampire
status. Tonight is the Winter Solstice, and it's already 11:40.Out in the parking lot, Jim is searching for the car when he notices
a big bat that turns into Mr Jones. The next thing he knows, Jones is
standing beside him. Rennie, still with the stake sticking out of his
chest, hits Jim from behind. Jones leaves Rennie to bite on Jim with his
fake fangs that keep falling out, while Jones himself goes into the club.
Once inside, he takes over the deejay booth, ordering all the patrons
outside. When Cisco gets mouthy, Jones simply rips out his spine. Buzz
attempts to stop Jones with a gun, but Jones puts a knife to Lean's neck.
When Buzz informs him that the gun is loaded with silver bullets, Jones
drops the knife and releases Lean. Buzz hands the gun to Lean and walks
away. As Buzz passes Jones, he reaches out and quickly pulls out Buzz's
heart. Lean turns the gun on Leslie and Brigitte. It seems that Lean is in
cahoots with Jones, who is the one who arranged for them to escape with
The Necronomicon, forked over the money to set up the nightclub, and paid
for them to throw this rave on the longest night of the year. In return
for Lean's help, Jones promised her that they would rule together for all
eternity. When Jones tells Lean to retrieve The Necronomicon and Lean
mentions that it's in the back room with Leslie's little sister, Jones
decides to get it himself.Meanwhile, in the back room, Ashley has been reading
The Necronomicon. Jones comes in and attempts to sweet talk Ashley into
becoming his "little girl," but Ashley will have none of it. She hits him
in the forehead with a cross just as Jim, who has managed to get away from
Rennie and re-enter the club by crawling through a ventilation duct, drops
down from the ceiling. Jim grabs Ashley's hand and they run out on the
dance floor where Lean is still holding off Leslie and Brigitte with her
form of hundreds of bugs and then reconstitutes himself. Ashley warns
everyone about what the ritual of Beli-al is really all about -- Jones is
going to release the demon so that it will be under his power.Suddenly, Rennie enters and stabs Ashley. Rennie retrieves
The Necronomicon and hands it to Jones. It's almost time to perform the
ritual. As Ashley lay dying, Jones begins to chant. Jim pleads with Leslie
and Brigitte to do something for Ashley to keep her from dying, but they
explain that as half-vampires they cannot turn anyone. But two
half-vampires equal a whole vampire, don't they? What if Ashley is bitten
by both Leslie and Brigitte? It's worth a try.Beli-al's head appears. Jones invokes him to come forth and yells to
Lean and Roxie in the deejay booth to turn up the power from the psychic
power collector in which Roxie has been storing the psychic energy
generated all night by the dancers. Roxie tries to stop Lean from
releasing more energy, but Lean shoves a stake through Roxie's chest.
Before she succumbs, Roxie manages to grab an iron bar and toss it at the
psychic collector, breaking the collector and dissipating the power flow.
Beli-al's head disappears from whence it came.Jones is POed. When Lean tries to explain to him what happened and
reminds him of his promise, he hands her off to Rennie, who can't wait to
taste her blood. Lean wants nothing to do with Rennie and, in her struggle
to get away, she falls on him and impales herself on the stake still
sticking out of his chest. "Men!" Lean exclaims as she dies. Jones informs
Leslie and Brigitte that he's going to take them back home, when suddenly
Ashley flies in. She's turned into a full vampire, lost her pigtails, and
somehow managed to learn martial arts as she commences to beat up on
Jones. Jones turns into a bat, and Ashley offers herself to him as "fresh
meat" if he'll let up on Leslie and Brigitte. When Jones flits down for a
bite, Ashley runs a sword through him.As Ashley hugs Leslie and Brigitte for making her into a vampire,
Jones gets up from the floor, a bit more contrite now that he's been
bested. After getting Ashley to pull the sword out of his gut, he tries to
cut them a deal. Since Jones is the one who put up the front money for the
club, he offers them an 80/20 split, 80 for him. No dice. 70/30? 60/40?
"How about a nice even split...five ways?" suggests Ashley and chops Jones
into five easy pieces with her sword. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: pornographic, violence, murder, flashback

Review:
Ashley is escaping her traumatic past to live with her sister who happens to run a rave with a bunch of her bodacious lady friends.
These girls have got it all.brains, looks, a killer job and oh did I mention they were vampires?
"Blood Angels' (aka Thralls) on the surface does appear to be yet another batch of the same old thing.
But I had fun in the end and with a film like 'Blood Angels' that's all one can hope for..
The story focuses on Ashley (Siri Baruc) a young girl who has an unfortunate home life, thus goes to live with her older sister, who, by golly, is part vampire.
We also get films like "Thralls" that try hard to be American, but fail horrifically.
"Thralls", or "Blood Angels" as it is known now, appears with a very attractive cover and an equally attractive plot: A group of semi-vampire slaves escape from his master in order to become full vampires by themselves using a ritual they read in an old black magic book (the always present Necronomicon).
In the mean time, they pay the bills running a club that looks like a mixture between "Coyote Ugly" and the nightclubs in "Blade".I was not expecting a lot of this Canadian B-Movie, so I was very surprised as it turned out to be enjoyable, on a level similar to the TV series "Buffy the vampire slayer".
In fact, the style of the movie is very similar, with TV level CGI effects, silly comic relief and a great looking cast who put up some Kung-Fu moves, message about family values included.
Also, despite its cover and the small amount of nudity, the movie is a bit feminist, on a "Coyote Ugly" level.Considering its budget, the Make-up and gore are awesome.
The acting is above average, and while lead character Ashley (Siri Baruc) is not at her best, Sonya Salomaa and Leah Cairns gave good support acting.
While I'm not a fan of Lorenzo Lamas' work, he ended up being the most likable character.
Kevan Ohtsji as a rapper wannabe and Richard Ian Cox as the Renfield-like servant were good as comic relief and they helped the movie to be more enjoyable.Overall, it was an entertaining movie; of course, it won't pass on history as one of the best horror/comedy movies ever, but it is good for an afternoon with friends or your beloved.
I expected this to be another low-budget, sexploitation film casted by some guy asking a couple strippers if they wanted to be in a movie...
I couldn't have been more wrong.The movie opens as I would have expected: a half dozen very attractive women in lingerie chained by the ankle.
It made me think more of the club in Hellraiser III as opposed to the Blood Raves in Blade.The special effects were rather weak but the plot was actually well developed and creative with a new addition to the world of vampires in film, "Thralls".Several of the beautiful women in the film (and Lamas) have some respectable acting credits to their names and it shows.
While this will certainly not get a nod from AMPAS, for the genre the acting was really good.Fans of vampire movies (especially ones who enjoy the beautiful, female vampire twist but are tired of really bad movies) will certainly enjoy this movie.
If that sounds like you it's definitely worth a rental.Note: there is only one scene in the movie with frontal female nudity, it's very brief and does not end in a good way (no spoilers here)..
Mr. Jones (Lorenzo Lamas) is a vampire living an upper class life in Iowa, of all places, in this Ron Oliver-directed film.
He has a Renfield-like acolyte named Rennie (Richard Ian Cox), and most importantly, he's keeping six really hot "half-vampire" slave babes chained up, dressed in sexy white lingerie, in his strangely white "attic".
A major subplot involves Ashley (Siri Baruc), a sister of one of the thralls, who has runaway from an abusive situation with her father.
But has she run into something even more frightening?I like most films, especially most horror, and I start watching any movie with very few preconceptions and a high score in mind.
For Blood Angels, repeatedly I would be cruising along thinking it deserved a high rating, then it would do something awkward or too corny for its own good, and I'd feel compelled to give it a lower mark.
However, for much of the film it sustained an 8 for me.Among the minor problems are that the fight/attack scenes tend to be cut too quickly, there is a strange section of repeated footage in the middle (it's ostensibly a dream/hallucination) that seems like padding, and the bulk of the film is set in a club that just looks like a big warehouse.
While the thrall idea is unique for the film world, at least in its details, the influences for this "extension" were probably a combination of the mythology of role-playing games such as Vampire: The Masquerade and the "gay vampire" novel by author Michael Schiefelbein entitled Vampire Thrall (interestingly, early reports had Blood Angels' plot as an erotic gay vampire flick--that turned out to be wrong (or it was changed); whether that's disappointing or not probably depends on your gender and orientation, especially when we consider that the protagonists are beautiful women clad in skimpy clothing).
Of course, if we look at it from an even less fine-grained perspective, Blood Angels is basically a Dracula story centered on his brides, where the brides have been merged with the popular idea of the vampire acolyte, but where they are not quite willing to be underlings--they're just partial vampires instead.
The thralls' feeding methods are unusual, but certainly not unprecedented--similar ideas have appeared in a number of other vampire films, including Les Avaleuses (1973), Spermula (1976) and the more well-known and mainstream Once Bitten (1985).
Blood Angels may be unprecedented in featuring a protagonist (Ashley) partially modeled on The Wizard of Oz' (1939) Dorothy, and also for featuring an odd bit part for an actor dressed up as Hunter S.
Thompson.Other elements, such as a subplot involving the Necronomicon and raising demons from other dimensions are relative horror clichés by this point, although such things did not tend to be combined very often with vampire lore until "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997).
Also like Buffy, Blood Angels mixes its modern Gothic atmosphere and liberal tongue-in-cheek humor with martial arts.
Part of becoming a vampire, or even a thrall, is that you suddenly turn into a kick-ass kung fu expert.
Of course, post-Buffy, at least, having strong, intelligent and resourceful modern women as protagonists in a horror film isn't unique, but it is still relatively unusual, and it is certainly welcomed.
It's at least nice to see writers and directors try to be a bit more creative with their locales.I was surprised that Blood Angels had as much humor as it does.
There is a very funny comic relief character known as Doughboy (Kevin Ohtsji), an Asian youth trying to be "rap hip", somewhat reminiscent of Nadir (Saïd Serrari), the comic relief wannabe rapper Algerian in Samouraïs (2002) (Although it's a bit bizarre--but I like bizarreness--that the last five minutes of the film before the final credits run are a rap/hip-hop promotional video).
Another positive aspect is that the special effects are good for a low-budget film.
For the other roles, the performances are fine; nothing exceptional, but not problematic, either, even if Lamas starts to show off his scenery-chewing chops by the end.Overall, Blood Angels is above average, especially if you're a big horror fan and you enjoy watching attractive women.
The story focuses on a group of six beautiful women called Thralls, referred to as "the white trash of vampires;" effectively a lower species of vampire.
These Thralls are under the control of Mr. Jones, the vampire who sired them, and whom they are trying desperately to escape.
To do this they must complete a blood ritual which will turn them into full-blown vampires.
Their plans hit a snag when Ashley, the younger sister of one of the Thralls, comes to visit.
Ashley has no idea what her sister has been up to since moving to the big city nor what she has become...It's a vampire movie, it's got a bunch of hot babes, running around like vampires normally do.
The story is stupid and really starts to annoy me as every vampire movie I see, gets more and more similar to that of the last viewed that I just feel like I've watched the movie already.The acting is decent, it's not good but its usually bearable.
There's quite a bit of blood (well, it is a vampire movie) but nothing overly disgusting.
There can be so many movies that have had a great idea, but the scenes don't have the proper effect on you because the image is too fake.
The main reason why most guys will watch this is because of the women and that really is the only part worth looking at in the movie.
If you watched this for any other reason, you're either female or most likely a homo.Yet another modern vampire romp.
Pretty good for a low budget movie.
Well this movie is kinda special, you know when you look at it, personally i saw it kinda like some kind of fantasy, i mean well there 4 vampires chicks that want to bite you for survival, they don't kill you, only feed on you, so well personally i would have give a little help :p Seriously i mean, the plot was funny, you see its a low budget movie, but personally i really enjoy it, i like a lot vampire movie and this one is original, the actress are beautiful, well i had a lot of fun watching it and so i would like to see more movies like that.
Yeah it did not pretend for movie of the year or anything, but it was a nice Saturday night watching this movie, i like to support this kind of movie personally..
Mr. Jones (Lorenzo Lamas) is a powerful vampire with his minion Rennie.
He keeps six beautiful women prisoners as thralls or semi-vampires.
Ashley realizes that some of the girls are vampires.The dialog is god-awful.
Beautiful women kicking butt can go a little way but it doesn't alleviate the movie's many problems.
The film was done pretty good.
The actresses are also fine-> young, beautiful and talented (I especially liked Fiona Scott).But the story did not impress me.
I wasn't excited when I watched this movie, I was somehow looking forward to the end of it.
When I watch film, I have to understand everything in it-> why is everything just the way it is..
Great Dark Dark Vampire Film.
If you really like the dark side to real young chicks, who have very strange spiritual abilities to suck blood from all different parts of the body, this is the film to watch and enjoy.
Lorenzo Lamas,(Mr. Jones),"The Nowhere Man",'05, is a sort of pimp of a Vampire and has strange powers over some very hot hot females.
Siri Baruc,(Ashley),"Glass Trap",'05, tries to locate her sister in the big city and gets deeply involved with this wild and exciting night spot where her sister works and is controlled by a Cult.
These vampire thralls are here to be liked, not here to upset you because they're in a movie that appears to not give a damn....
Because "Thralls" does actually give a damn about being enjoyable and giving B-movie fanatics a fun time.
A bunch of gorgeous, hot-looking half-vampire babes open up a nightclub in which unsuspecting, trouble-making ravers end-up as a midnight snack.
The plan is to free themselves from slavery by vampire-lord Johnny (played by Lorenzo Lamas who strikes an intentional ridiculous note here) and hereby upgrade themselves from 'thralls' to full-blooded vampires.
And if you don't have any sense of humor at all, then don't even consider giving "Thralls" aka "Blood Angels" a watch.On a side-note: I always have to laugh with Lorenzo Lamas.
But in "Thralls" he's actually quite a bit of fun to watch.
But do support Lorenzo Lamas, and go watch "Shark Thralls vs.
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*A bunch of hot vampire, (Thralls if you want to get technical), women open a nightclub.
They are trying to escape the clutches of vampire master Lamas.
Soon she will get a lesson in how to be a successful Thrall and how to waste a beautiful B-movie concept.Speaking as a B-movie lover, I'm outraged at this film.
When you have more topless guys than girls, you know that the filmmakers don't have a clue as to who will be watching their movie.
You think you're renting a naughty vampire movie but instead are stuck with a Thrall empowerment flick.
Half decent little Vampire flick..
Thralls starts as five sexy half Vampire ladies manage to escape Mr. Jones (Lorenzo Lamas) their Vampire master, not wanting to be subservient half Vampires the girls also steal an ancient book called the Necronomicon which contains powerful spells including one to turn them into full vampires.
One Vampire chick Leslie (Leah Cairns) decides to invite her younger sister Ashley (Siri Baruc) to the main event due to take place during a rave on the solstice but the evil Mr. Jones has no intention of letting them go & manages tot rack them all down to their club where he intends to reclaim them & use the Necronomicon himself to summon a powerful demon that will destroy the world, that is unless he can be stopped...More commonly known under the title Blood Angels this Canadian production was directed by Ron Oliver & isn't too bad a Vampire flick, the Vampire film has been done to death & there's not too many places you can go with the concept but Thralls makes a good fist of things & it passes 90 odd minutes.
The majority of the film is set inside a nightclub so in that respect it's not original as Vamp (1986) was also set inside one & the more recent From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) was set in a bar, at night so Thralls is nothing new but it moves along at a decent pace, the lead character's are appealing & thankfully not annoying, the plot is forgettable but there's a reasonable twist & it entertains while it lasts with just about enough incident to keep one amused.
I was actually quite surprised at how much I liked this although that's more of a damnation of todays low budget horror than Thralls being particularly good in itself.One thing that Thralls does have going for it is that the leading Vampire chicks are very hot & are certainly easy on the eye, apparently being a Vampire in Thralls also means that you know martial arts & are pretty damned good at it as there are several fight scenes that feel a bit out of place but are welcome none the less.
The CGI computer effects are kept to a minimum with a decent CGI Vampire bat but an equally awful scene where two snake like creatures burst from a girls nipples.
Stick around for the end credits as a music video plays which feature two guy's rapping & some more very sexy ladies.Filmed in Vancouver in Canada for a budget of about $1,000,000 this has good production values & looks decent with an attractive cast.
The women are all lookers & generally look good throughout but their acting isn't quite as good while Lorenzo Lamas plays the villain.Thralls is a pretty decent Vampire film with lots of sexy chicks, some fights & a bit of gore, you could do better for sure but you could also do a hell of a lot worse too.
Well, I happened to wake up around 2 in the morning (long story) and caught Blood Angels a little less than halfway into the movie.
Who'd watch a vampire movie with ugly chicks?) I like the whole grrrl-vampire team thing.
WHY??Also, if you rip out a guy's spine, he most likely will not look at you in horror for a few seconds before falling down.So anyway, the plot was fairly simple, and the acting was so-so.
Ah well.Overall, the movie wasn't spectacular, and the content was a little naughty for my conservative tastes, but it was pretty fun to watch.Yo.(....You get that if you saw the movie, see?
OK vampire movie.
"Blood Angels" is a much better film than it has every right to be.**SPOILERS**Leslie, (Leah Cairns) who has been away from town for a while, returns home and helps her sister Ashley, (Siri Baruc) get introduced to the rave nightlife she shares with her friends Lean, (Sonya Salomaa) Roxie, (Fiona Scott) Brigitte, (Moneca Delain) and Buzz, (Lisa Marie Caruk) who themselves are vampires and have escapes from the home of Mr. Jones, (Lorenzo Lamas) who turned them into vampires.
When Leslie officially tells her about her and her friends' change into a form of vampire called Thralls, she decides to help them in their fight against Jones.The Good News: This one actually isn't that bad.
The film has a great sense of humor, and is surprisingly funny.
There's three main comedians in the film, though, and generally get a laugh every time.
Lorenzo Lamas' character in particular gets off some great lines, and is perfectly suited for the tone of the film.
The first one is that, as usual, the special effects look incredibly fake and cheesy.
If you can let yourself get into the film or don't let moments like this get you down, though, then those would be the only complaints.The Final Verdict: I wasn't expecting such a good time with this one, but it actually does manage to impress.
At least worthy of a look-see for vampire fans or for anyone else into these kinds of films.