Director/Screenplay/Producer – Matthew Rocca, Photography – Dain Fuentes, Tremain Hayhoe, Brendon Keeley, Robert Leal & Vinnie Pompo, Music – T.J. Landry, Makeup Effects – Brian Butler. Production Company – Lazy Jellyfish Productions.
Garrett Schweighauser (Michael), Matthew Rocca (Steven Cooper), Eva Rocca (Vivian), Brian Butler (Johnny), Diana Lynne Ferrer (Miss Blank), Joe D’Amato (Father Otto)
A group of vampire hunters that have been sanctioned by the Catholic Church operate in San Diego. Michael is one of the group, single-mindedly determined to bring down the master vampire. The master vampire is Steven Cooper, a popular associate pastor at the church. Michael is joined by Vivian, a girl who witnesses a vampire attack on him. He is forced to take along with him, telling her that her life is in danger. As the rest of the vampire hunters are wiped out, Michael and Vivian make plans to obtain crucial evidence from Steven’s laptop while he holds a dinner party.
Bullets, Fangs and Dinner at 8 is a Vampire Film. It has been the only feature-film to date directed by Matthew Rocca, a freelance and wedding videographer based in San Diego. Rocca also plays the leading role of the vampire priest.
The film holds your attention from the first scene where a young man (Brian Butler) interrupts a church service with his angst (which we later find is over being rejected because he is gay) and then pulls out a gun and begins shooting as others burst in, creating a massacre, all before Matthew Rocca’s charismatic priest reveals he is the head vampire.
Possibly for personal reasons – ie. it may well be Rocca’s own background – the film is centred around a local San Diego Catholic church. That said, the film is very divided about whether to regard Catholicism as a positive or not – the vampire hunters are a cadre trained by the church, however the lead vampire is masquerading as a priest.
The idea of the parish priest as vampire was later used in Midnight Mass (2021), which offered a far more sophisticated treatment, although one wonders if Mike Flanagan had not seen and was possibly influenced by Bullets, Fangs and Dinner at 8 – Hamish Linklater’s priest there has an undeniable resemblance to Matthew Rocca’s priest here. In the role, Matthew Rocca gives quite a good performance with a charismatic friendliness that can turn into something sinister and menacing at the drop of a coin.
The film was apparently shot over a period of several years. I have no clue in what order in was shot. However, there are definite sections where the videography looks amateurish. On the other hand, this definitely improves by the end of the film. Being a low-budget film, the action choreography also leaves much to be desired. Rocca keeps going at the film – he has a definite idea where everything is going, even if it may not always seem to cohere at the start – and eventually gets there. The climactic shootouts and showdowns are quite well achieved, even if the dinner party and build-up with sidetracks to nightclubs and the like becomes a little too drawn out.
Trailer here