Your Daily Dracula – The Devil Came Home (2021)
For the most part, this is a typical low-key, homegrown British horror – written and directed by George McCluskey, who also plays a key supporting role, and set almost entirely in one lakeside house. It’s even a domestic drama. Ex-soldier Tim Baxter (Greg Hobbs) dreams he’s being stalked by a boogeyman with a steampunk mask, hat and skull-top cane and his wife Elaine (Diane Ellis) can no longer put his erratic behaviour entirely down to PTSD. When Tim seems to become a threat to Elaine and her sulky teenage daughter Mindy (Jade Callendar), she not only calls in Tim’s shrink Peter (McCluskey) but priest Jonathan (Nick Sheard). Despite earnest arguments, nothing seems to help and Tim is irked to be stuck in a strait-jacket in his bedroom – occasionally ranting in Romanian (a language he doesn’t speak).
A psychic (Suzanna Rickman) is called in, and that’s how the film qualifies for YDD since it’s possible Tim is possessed by a ‘strigoi’ (vampire) called Dragomir who was once best mates with Vlad the Impaler … but not only is he a Dracula-adjacent fiend who once had a stake stuck through his heart but he was reborn for a while as Jack the Ripper, and his current campaign of terror is aimed at settling a score from the 1880s. The gothic horror frills are mildly unusual, but this doesn’t go for much visual expressionism – concentrating on well-acted if slightly clunkily-written hushed dialogue exchanges around kitchen tables or in the living room. Possessed or dissociative identity Tim doesn’t really need to drag in any famous fiends since he’s nasty enough when getting personal and under the skin of the folk earnestly trying to help.
McCluskey riffs a bit on The Exorcist as the priest sees his old mum who he feels guilty about and Tim insinuates that he knows darker secrets than he comes out and says. A Chekhovian illegal firearm brought back from a tour of duty in Bosnia is stashed in a kitchen cupboard early on, but the climax is one area where the film’s low budget hinders its effectiveness as drama.
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