Cinema’s depiction of vampires owes much to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, featuring fiction’s most famous vampire. Boys from County Hell operates under the framework that perhaps Bram Stoker borrowed from a local legend when visiting rural Six Mile High during the mid-1890s. Through his iconic character, Stoker became famous, prompting the small village to capitalize on that one time the author visited, while the locals and their folklore remain mostly obscured. It’s the precise type of setup that provides fertile ground for a horror-comedy when its bumbling young residents accidentally lets loose the creature that inspired Dracula.

Eugene Moffat (Jack Rowan) and his friends love to drink their boredom away at the local pub named after horror author Bram Stoker. They pick up horror-loving tourists and scare them silly using local folklore and an ancient cairn in the middle of a pasture. But when Eugene and his disapproving father (Nigel O’Neill) are tasked with digging through the area surrounding, Eugene topples the cairn and inadvertently awaken Dracula’s unknown and more terrifying inspiration.

Directed and written by Chris Baugh, Boys from County Hell opens with a scene that teases just how unconventional this approach to vampire mythology will be. In terms of the horror side of the horror-comedy, Baugh brings a refreshing take on the classic monster that abides by its own set of rules. There’s nothing romantic about the bloodsucking beasts here. The comedic component doesn’t fare as well. Much of it relies on Eugene’s depiction as an ambitionless youth uninterested in fulfilling responsibilities. The humor is meant to be most overt in the friction between gruff father and aloof son, but it’s often played too straight. It doesn’t help that there’s a parallel father/son dynamic in the fold, offering emotional heft that further shifts the horror-comedy away from the comedy.

For much of the runtime, Baugh takes a less is more approach to his monster. It makes the moments it does appear pop onscreen and lends a mysterious quality, but most of all, it leaves you wanting more, not necessarily in a good way. The third act delivers plenty of bloodshed and monster mayhem, but much of the narrative is occupied by Eugene navigating familial pressure and its effect on his friendships. That may give more robust character arcs, but it also means we’re left with a horror-comedy that doesn’t contain as much horror or comedy as it should.

There’s a lot to love about Boys from County Hell. The vampire mythology means that the standard rules of slaying them don’t apply, and this creature is unlike any vampire before. This killer gets remarkably gory in its kills, too. That Baugh shows extreme restraint in showing the vampire means it doesn’t overstay its welcome, either. It’s the exact opposite. The film is well shot, and the scenic setting only adds to the production value. But, as the title indicates, this isn’t the vampire’s story; that winds up being peripheral to a tale of a directionless youth struggling to find common ground with his gruffer, emotionally distant dad. With that being the focus, the pacing sags in the middle.

Boys from County Hell is more successful as a portrait of small-town life than a raucous horror-comedy, but the film springs to life when Baugh goes all-in on the horror elements. It may not hit all the notes intended, but the film does leave you thirsting for more vampiric slaughter.

Boys from County Hell made its North American Premiere at the Nightstream Film Festival.