1313 Boy Crazies is one film to stake

Where to watch
1313: Boy Crazies
Amazon instant video

on DVD from Amazon.com

iTunes

I was looking forward to 1313: Boy Crazies, the latest vampire film by director David DeCoteau, for months. The movie popped up on Amazon in the fall with a release date in February, but then to my surprise Boy Crazies appeared in iTunes. You’ll still have to go through iTunes until Feb 21 when you can buy the DVD. However, 1313: Boy Crazies is terrible.

The 1313 series of films has DeCoteau returning to his roots, lots of hot boys parading around in their underwear. DeCoteau have us The Brotherhood series which kicked off first with a vampire film, one of the most homoerotic straight vampire films since Interview with the Vampire. As a matter of fact, alumni of DeCoteau films include Sam Page, Cory Monteith (from Glee), Kristopher Turner, and Sean Faris (who made a brief appearance as a vamp in Vampire Diaries). Simply put, DeCoteau knows how to spot rising talent. But he’s avoiding giving his male vampires fangs. The Sisterhood even ventured into the same territory with a film featuring female vampires; and they got to have fangs. I’ve been disappointed before and if that’s the aim, this film succeeds.

First off, 1313: Boy Crazies is too short for a feature film, just over 1 hour 12 minutes. And it would be considerably shorter if the same flashback or dream sequence scene wasn’t shown over and over. Honestly I couldn’t tell if our star, the model turned vampire, was sleep walking around the model house, having a dream or just parading, either way he spent a lot of time lying in bed not doing much. The overall concept was great but the plot fell flat, the models never did much and as vampires they were fang-free. Bite Marks was a far better gay vampire film, even if the Boy Crazies models were a bit better looking.

If you’re having a party and need some soft-core silently running on the tv, then Boy Crazies is not half bad, though I’m sure there are better films with that purpose. Otherwise, I’d say take a miss on this movie. I doubt DeCoteau will return to the vampire genre anytime soon, but if he does, I really hope he finally delivers something worth watching; he’s got the ingredients and he’s made great films like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, and House of Usher, but when it comes to male vampires, DeCoteau leaves us wanting far too much.