For these social media influencers, a business opportunity leads to some dangerous and funny situations in this horror comedy from K. Asher Levin.

Flynn is a gamer who has somehow risen to become a social media influencer because of her expert skills. Her older brother Jack is a viral superstar online especially when it comes to his relationship with diva Kay. Then there’s Jules, whose makeup tips has earned her influencer status. The four are invited to the home of Beverly Rektor, the current CEO of the largest corporation in the city, for a massive business opportunity. Flynn is the only one who thinks something isn’t right, but the others blow her off.

Flynn soon discovers the shocking truth. The corporation is full of vampires. However, Flynn soon finds an unlikely ally in the group’s driver David, who really is Elliott Jones. Jones was a former crime show host whose life was turned upside down when his daughter was killed by a vampire. Dedicating his life to become a “slayer”, Jones finally has a chance to stop the corporation and with the help of Flynn, they are ready for action.

Director Asher Levin takes something interesting with his latest film, this vampire horror-comedy. The film tackles both a literal and figurative meaning of the term “vampire”. In the figurative sense, the corporations are “vampires” in the way they suck the money out of investors, especially when we live in a world that is all about social media influencing. Now, of course, the literal meaning comes to the fact that the corporation we are dealing with in the film is actually a coven of vampires.

Clearly, Thomas Jane is having fun with his role of Elliott Jones, who we see in flashbacks how he went from a crime show host to vampire hunter. As Jones, Jane is also our narrator, who gives us the rules of vampire hunting and when not to cross vampires. While he plays the stone-faced Jones, his partner comes in the form of Kara Hayward’s Flynn, an LGBT+ gamer who couldn’t care less about being famous and while she has a bit of a reputation, she’s more or less there to support her more famous brother Jack, played by Jack Donnelly. Meanwhile, Lydia Hearst and Abigail Breslin round out the influencers as the more dominant May and makeup expert Jules respectively.

Malin Akerman can play quite the villain. After showcasing a villain role as a CEO in Rampage, she may have found her niche. Here, she gets to play not just another CEO-type but a vampiric one at that. Most of the kill scenes are not too graphic, but one particular death is pretty gruesome, and it becomes the catalyst of the adventure that has some amazing video game like effects giving the audience a tally of vampires vs. human. It gets wilder as the film goes on with some nice twists thrown in.

Slayers is a wild and fun ride into the vampire horror-comedy that give the double meaning of the creature’s name. Thomas Jane is clearly having fun with his role and has some great chemistry with Kara Hayward. Malin Akerman found her niche as a corporate villain and the kill scenes are quite enjoyable.

WFG RATING: B

The Avenue presents a Buffalo 8/Fasheun/Loud Labs/Nico Nazar/Renegade Entertainment/Stoked Film Group in association with Film Mode Entertainment and BondIt Media Capital. Director: K. Asher Levin. Producers: Jason Armstrong, Abigail Breslin, Daniel Cummings, Rob Goodrich, and K. Asher Levin. Writers: K. Asher Levin and Zack Imbrogno. Cinematography: Owen Levelle. Editing: Marc Fusco, Vahik Pirhamzei, and Alex Rodriguez.

Cast: Thomas Jane, Kara Hayward, Jack Donnelly, Lydia Hearst, Abigail Breslin, Malin Akerman, Ashley Reyes, Julia Sandstrom, Galen Howard, Emmy James.

The Avenue will be released in select theaters and on Digital on October 21.