Vampire Zombies...from Space!

Should you actually watch this?

Vampire Zombies...from Space! is a 98-minute Canadian indie horror-comedy where Dracula decides his best move is turning a small town into vampire zombies — and a motley crew of a detective, rookie cop, greaser, and determined young woman have to stop him. It's shot in black and white, packed with practical gore, and staffed with both fresh faces and cult-horror royalty. The film premiered at the Eerie Horror Festival on October 4, 2024, and hit wider release in 2026.

Here's the honest take: If you grew up on Troma releases, 1950s B-movie double features, or the specific joy of a movie that commits fully to its own ridiculousness, this is genuinely worth your time. If rubber monsters and deliberately cheap special effects make you groan, skip it — there's no version of this film that converts the unconverted.

The premise — and why it's committed to the bit

A family stumbles across a vampire inside a flying saucer. That's your opening. From there, Dracula (played with theatrical relish by Craig Gloster, who's clearly having the time of his life) deploys his master plan: transform Marlow's residents into his personal undead army. Standing between total vampire-zombie conquest and salvation is the film's core four — a grizzled detective who's seen it all, a rookie cop still finding his footing, a chain-smoking greaser with opinions on everything, and a determined young woman who might be the sharpest mind in the room.

What strikes me about this film is how much it trusts its audience. A lot of intentional schlock winks too hard — it shows you the seams and then nudges you to laugh at them, which gets exhausting fast. Director Michael Stasko mostly avoids that trap by playing the absurdity straight-faced. You're in on the joke without constant reminders.

The black-and-white cinematography deserves real credit here. It's not just an affectation (though it looks great on the Cleopatra Blu-ray). It genuinely flattens the image in a way that makes the cheap sets feel period-appropriate rather than cheap-cheap. That distinction matters more than you'd think.

Who made it, and why it matters

Michael Stasko directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Jakob Skrzypa and Alex Forman. The production came from The Dot Film Company, a Canadian independent operation, and the creative choices are deliberate throughout — practical gore effects, miniature sets, intentionally rough green-screen work designed to evoke 1950s drive-in cinema.

The cast is where things get genuinely interesting. Jessica Antovski, Rashaun Baldeo, Andrew Bee, Oliver Georgiou, and Craig Gloster anchor the ensemble. But then the film pulled in some remarkable supporting talent: Judith O'Dea — the original Barbra from George Romero's Night of the Living Dead — appears alongside Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma Entertainment and a godfather of low-budget splatter comedy. David Liebe Hart (the outsider artist and comedian familiar to Tim and Eric fans) rounds out the cast. Simon Reynolds also features. That combination of fresh faces and cult icons gives the film a sense of occasion.

It's the kind of ensemble that reads like a love letter to the fringes of genre filmmaking. You can't manufacture that feeling with pure newcomer casts.

What critics actually said (and what they got wrong)

Horror Movie Lists describes the film as "exactly as ridiculous as it sounds" — which, depending on your relationship with 1950s schlock, is either a warning or an endorsement. Fair assessment.

TL;DR Movie Reviews calls it a "delightful parody" that "overstays its welcome" — and they're not entirely wrong. The film does run a touch long for its premise. Some comedic beats repeat in the back half. But here's the thing nobody mentions: the practical effects work is genuinely charming. There's something refreshing about latex and corn syrup instead of a compositing suite. The miniature work, especially, has a handmade quality that CGI simply can't replicate.

Where to stream it right now

Vampire Zombies...from Space! is available on major OTT streaming platforms as of its 2026 wide release. The best move? Check Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker — it updates in real time, so you're not chasing stale information across five different apps. Streaming rights for indie genre titles shift around constantly. What's on one platform this month might migrate by next quarter.

Physical media fans have options too:

• U.S.: Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray
• Canada: Indiecan and Red Water Entertainment Blu-ray releases

Rotten Tomatoes hosts the film's basic credits and synopsis but hasn't compiled a formal critic score yet — not unusual for smaller indie releases that build their audience organically rather than through traditional review aggregation.

If you liked this, you'll want to know...

This isn't a film for everyone. But if you've watched Plan 9 from Outer Space and thought "what this needs is more commitment to the bit," or if you're the type who owns Troma DVDs and actually watches them, Stasko's film is made for you. It's imperfect. Runs maybe five minutes too long. But the craft underneath the schlock is real, and the cast makes it feel like a celebration rather than just a stunt.

The film spent over a year on the festival circuit — the premiere at Eerie Horror Festival on October 4, 2024, was just the beginning — before its wider 2026 release. That's the mark of a project that built a small but genuinely enthusiastic following before most people had a chance to see it.

Quick reference

| Detail | Info | |--------|------| | Runtime | 98 minutes | | Rating | 6.375/10 | | Release | 2026 (wide) | | Premiere | October 4, 2024 (Eerie Horror Festival) | | Director | Michael Stasko | | Where to watch | Movie OTT's tracker (live updates) | | Physical media | Cleopatra (U.S.), Indiecan/Red Water (Canada) |

Bottom line: You can find this right now through Movie OTT, which aggregates current streaming options so you can get to the vampire zombies without hunting across platforms. It's not for the casual viewer, but for the right audience — the people who think "so bad it's good" is a compliment — it's exactly what you're looking for.