After a screening at last weekend’s KC FilmFest at the AMC Mainstreet Theatre in Kansas City’s Power & Light district, the appropriately titled B-movie “Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula” will have a limited run this weekend only at the downtown Screenland Theater.

On the surface, the title sets your expectations perfectly. Tiffany Shepis and Trent Haaga, frequent stars of Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Entertainment pictures, are the murderous 1930s bank robbers. Bonnie and Clyde are out of money and without a car, stuck in an empty whorehouse in the middle of nowhere. The prostitutes are gone because they were bought up by Dr. Loveless (Allen Lowman), a deformed evil doctor who wears a burlap bag over his head. His woman-child sister Annabel (Jennifer Friend) is held captive by the doctor with the help of an electronic dog collar, and the two communicate through room-to-room intercoms.

So where’s Dracula (Russell Friend), you may ask? Well, he’s been revived by Loveless, and is feeding on the prostitutes to gain strength, of course.

Believe it or not, the title and plot summary make “Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula” sound a lot more wacky than it actually is. Writer/director Timothy Friend actually tries to play this ridiculous premise straight, and is helped considerably by Shepis and Haaga, whose chemistry is palpable. Clyde doesn’t want to let her know how desperate things their situation is and, although she is the dominant force in their relationship, Bonnie is not afraid to stand by her man in a bad situation.

For a B-movie with such an absurd title, though, I have to admit I was hoping for some truly demented dialogue and crazier plot twists. Timothy Friend has concocted a pretty straightforward heist-gone-wrong plot and there’s quite a bit of tedious downtime. On the other hand, credit goes to him and his lead actors for creating a believable relationship in a movie that has no business having one.

The HD-shot low budget film–filmed in St. Joseph, MO–looks good and benefits from quite a bit of magic-hour lighting and nice landscape shots. There is also the requisite amount of blood and gore, all of it quite well done.

The only thing that makes the title itself somewhat deceiving is that Bonnie and Clyde don’t actually fight Dracula for very long. In fact, when the final showdown happens, it lasts about one minute and is a little anti-climactic.

Those looking for a “rough and tumble” B-movie good time–as the film’s synopsis promises–may be a little disappointed, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself strangely invested in Bonnie and Clyde themselves.

Tags: b-movie, Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula, film, friend, Haaga, kansas city, movie, review, screenland, Shepis, Tiffany, timothy, Trent

ADDING MORE GREAT PRIZES SO KEEP CHECKING BACK!

We have been lining up lots of cool stuff to do and a lot of great prizes to give away in the raffle Wednesday Oct. 29 at our Night of Rock n Roll Horror event at the Screenland Theater in Kansas City. Here’s the lineup, getting larger every day:

6:30pm:
-First 50 people in the door get free advance passes to Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”
-Raffle tickets will be sold for a chance to win big prizes, such as a brand-new 32GB iPod Touch, donated by our good friends at Transmuto Media.
-Rock Band will be available in the Screenland’s big room for everyone to join in and shred some nasty-hot licks and pound those drums.
-The Screenland’s bar will be open and rocking, and much socializing will occur.
-Food donated by our sponsors will be available until it runs out.

7:30pm:
-Eric will host a horror-movie trivia game. The winner will get one of the extremely cool prizes we have to give away. (Not the iPod, that’s up for grabs in the raffle!)
-Inevitably, someone will think they are playing a real guitar and try to smash the plastic toy in their hand. In true rock-show fashion, the drunken lout will be forcibly ejected.

8:00pm:
-Everything we have, including the iPod Touch (see list below), will be given away in the charity raffle.
-A short reel of cheesy 1980s movies, horror and not, will be shown.
-“Trick or Treat” (1986), starring the guy who played Skippy on “Family Ties,” will be shown in its entirety, and you will learn what happens when bad heavy metal albums are played backwards. The bar will stay open.

Prizes for raffle (updated as they continue to be confirmed):
brand new 32 GB iPod Touch
autographed “Grindhouse” poster
autographed “Grindhouse” mini-poster
Quentin Tarantino action figure from “Grindhouse”
huge “Grindhouse” hardcover book
2 Rob Zombie-autographed “Halloween” posters
“Saw I-IV” DVD Box Set
10 “Saw V” T-Shirts
lots of “Saw V” posters
2 “The Strangers” DVD
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” DVD
“30 Rock” Season Two DVD
2 “The Dark Knight” movie posters
2 “Iron Man” movie posters
“Incredible Hulk” movie poster
2 sets of six “W.” shot glasses
“Religulous” movie poster
2 “The Spirit” movie posters
lots of “Blindness” posters
lots of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” posters
Gift certificate for a free breakfast @ The Classic Cup
25$ Gift Certificate to Grinders
Jazz Bucks from Jazz, a Louisiana Kitchen
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” FX Theater (diorama of boulder scene) from Clint’s Comics

All proceeds go to the Children’s Music Fund.

A special thank you to all of our sponsors, to whom we couldn’t have done this without: Transmuto Media, Allied Advertising, B-BOP Comics, Grinders, The Classic Cup, Jazz, Clint’s Comics, Waldo’s, Zebedee’s rpm, and Chipotle.

Tags: 2008, 29, a, Children's Music Fund, free ipod touch, horror, n, night, october, of, raffle, rock, roll, screenland, theater