Everyone's hyping how artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize filmmaking. One Substack article even predicted a world where viewers instantly become creators. Hooroo Jackson has actually made that happen with his feature film DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict. Currently a Gumroad exclusive, DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict will be available on Blu-Ray and Amazon on August 30th. The future is here: we'll get to see an animated vampire romance movie created entirely by AI. But just because you can, does that mean you should?
The short answer is no. But as I said in my two previous articles on AI, I'm more interested in what current AI movies are actually like than the moral hazard that comes with AI. They're mostly unwatchable. And DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is particularly interesting in that it takes nearly every trope we currently associate with AI movies and repeats and expands on them over its 90-minute runtime. As such, rather than revolutionary potential, I only see the limitations of using AI for this kind of storytelling.
Dread Club: The Vampire Verdict tells the story of Betty Gray, a bespectacled young college student who frequents the local Dread Club, who falls in love with Duchamp de Vaux, an 80s rock star and drug dealer who claims to also be a vampire. He is on trial for either murdering a woman or writing a novel that infringes the intellectual copyright of his clan, the de Vaux family name, though this is legally distinct from the means he uses to publish anything. A large part of the trial is about whether de Vaux is actually a vampire for some reason, including a scene where the prosecutor commands him to drink what could be either blood or V8. It is never fully revealed in the film.
A pensive Duchamp de Vée in the AI-generated feature DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict.
This synopsis may make Dreadclub: Vampire's Verdict sound a lot more dynamic than it actually is. There's starseeds and aliens and curses, but by the time I got to that part of the story, I was already pretty exhausted. Dreadclub: Vampire's Verdict is a literally exhausting movie. I can't stress this enough: the characters never, ever stop talking. Not even to take a breather. The movie hides this somewhat by having multiple characters constantly talking to each other, but visually, you'll notice this right away, as Dreadclub: Vampire's Verdict just cuts quickly to whoever happens to be talking at the time.
DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is only really an animated film in the technical sense that it is made up of moving pictures. There is no action, and in any given cut, the most movement is lip-syncing. More noticeable than the movement is the tendency for the animation style to change dramatically between cuts; Betty Gray's bespectacled face is almost always recognizable. Ironically, the AI character Jamboree has the most dramatic change in appearance; he becomes a computer, a cell phone, and a bizarre combination of two old robotic objects slammed together.
DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is also notable for being mostly black and white. This isn't a technical limitation; some scenes, especially the dream sequences, are in full color. But the AI-generated colors are so garish that overuse in a film could cause sensory overload. The dream sequences also stand out as the only scenes in the film where fast cuts and dialogue jumps actually seem somewhat natural. This is mainly because DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict allows for a lot more nonsense in a context where nothing should be coherent in the first place.
DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is generally incoherent and occasionally funny; in one scene, someone bribes Jamboree into breaking the law by promising her a trip to the aquarium. The script also manages to subtly portray its own stupidity at times; Duchamps De Ve is pretty nasty to Betty Gray, calling attention to her truly poor judgment.
But I don't think the AI that created DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is particularly self-aware. Such self-awareness is a common trope in fanfiction, where even the most inexperienced writers often realize that their self-projected characters don't have enough flaws to make anyone as cool as a vampire fall for them. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the AI that created DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict probably “learned” how to write vampire romances by reading Twilight fanfiction, because Twilight fanfiction writers are the least likely to get sued.
That's pretty much all I can write positively about Dread Club: The Vampire's Verdict. At times it gets so ridiculous it's barely entertaining. But don't expect that you'll be able to discuss this movie with your friends. There are no pauses between dialogue, and just like the real movie, Dread Club: The Vampire's Verdict can make you wonder if there are some extra background details to make it more coherent. At one point, Betty Gray is in danger of being expelled for her poor grades and has to go teach summer classes. This has a payoff. Sort of. But I would have liked to see our heroes take Jamboree to the aquarium.
