Directed by Ross McGowan and co-written with stars Craig McDonald-Kelly and David Hepburn, new vampire Lee (Hepburn), after being stuck inside for months, has a bright idea and drags his best friend Bruce (McDonald-Kelly) along for the reckless ride: to become the world’s first vampire influencer.
One of the things that we never get enough of today is pieces of film and television that are simply created to give audiences a good time. Stories that bring through a little bit of cheesiness, silliness and a big sense of fun, Hangover Food: Vampire Influencer’s filmmakers already proved they can capture that with the first instalment of Hangover Food and now they’re back at it. This time it taps into the influencer culture, which is ripe for parody and exaggeration because at this point influencers can often feel like they’re a satire of themselves without knowing it. However, don’t worry this is not a political statement on their presence in our society, it’s just a great basis for a comedic story.
This time around there’s a hijinks type feel to the way that Lee and Bruce are together, it’s almost a modernised Odd Couple. Craig McDonald-Kelly and David Hepburn make for fantastic on screen best friends, perfectly in sync and their individual qualities are the yin and yang to their relationship. There’s something utterly satisfying about watching two actors have such effortless chemistry onscreen, their timing and tone really compliment each other. Watching their characters experiment with Lee’s newfound vampiredom feels reminiscent of Zachary Levi and Asher Angel in Shazam!.
One of the great signs of a good story is that it can keep things simple and still be a fun time, because it doesn’t need any bells and whistles, which is undoubtedly achieved here. The same goes for the direction, it keeps things on the basic side to give that self-tape feel, and it genuinely doesn’t need any other stylistic additions. The atmosphere it creates feeds into that YouTube and Instagram setting, it’s pushing that bubbly, overtly social energy but at the same time these characters never feel vain, they hold onto their relatable side. That’s one of the key aspects to why Hangover Food: Vampire Influencer works so well, it’s exaggerated but never goes too far, it creates this big personality but it all smoothly serves to give viewers a good time.
Hangover Food: Vampire Influencer creates a satisfying, entertaining and genuinely fun time follow-up to the first short. It’s refreshing to watch these filmmakers build something purely focused on enjoyment and laughs. Bruce and Lee are a fantastic duo who are so enjoyable to watch and are brought to life with huge personality by Craig McDonald-Kelly and David Hepburn. McDonald-Kelly creates a man of the new generation, he’s sweet, sensitive and socially-conscious, while Hepburn’s Lee is one of the lads with a bigger bite, becoming more lovably chaotic as time goes on. It’s very fitting to today but it’s also just strong comedy work all round.
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