How much of Ireland did Bram Stoker put into the pages of “Dracula?” Certainly, the country’s moody woodlands, swampy bogs, crumbling castles, and awe-inducing coastlines played their part in establishing the atmosphere of the legendary tale. According to certain folks in the sleepy, fictional, Irish town of Six Mile Hill, their cairn and its ties to the legend of Abhartach, played its own role in sparking the imagination of Stoker, who once visited the sleepy hamlet. For Eugene (Jack Rowan) and William (Fra Fee) it’s now more than a pile of rocks and something that allows them to spook the infrequent visitors who pass through. But one fateful night they’ll become the “Boys From County Hell” when they discover the legend is even more real than they can imagine in this modest and middling horror-comedy that never reaches the peaks of either terrifying or side-splitting.
In a town like Six Mile Hill, everyone knows your business, and friendships turn can to animosity on a dime. Eugene knows that better than anybody as he and his father Francie (Nigel O’Neill) have lately found themselves at odds with the locals when their family construction business gets the gig to help build a highway that will cut right through the burg. More importantly, it will require demolishing the cairn that serves as the closest thing they have to a tourist attraction. But there won’t be much time for getting side-eyed at the pub when one evening, Eugene and William accidentally knock over the cairn, unleashing a bloodthirsty, vampiric force. Along with their pal SP (Michael Hough), William’s girlfriend Claire (“Derry Girls” star Louisa Harland), and Francie, they’ll have to figure out how to get the abhartach buried again before the night is through.
Despite a streamlined premise that is optimally designed to quickly deploy thrills and chills, “Boys From County Hell” takes quite a chunk out of its trim, yet slow-moving 90-minute runtime to get rolling. Writer/director Chris Baugh takes great pains to try and establish a bit of supernatural mythology, but at a certain point, it winds up getting in the way of the film moving along. And frankly, an in-depth understanding of how the Abhartach functions isn’t totally necessary. Aside from a couple of tweaks to your basic vampire lore, the mechanics aren’t that complicated — a powerful, undead creature thirsts for blood, and some well-meaning lads (and a lass) have to stop it.
Once the film focuses on that story, it’s reasonably decent fare. Baugh has cleverly created a small-scale tale that is disguised behind sufficiently sized stakes. It’s not until you’re a fair distance into the film that you realize that most of the action takes place in a small handful of locations, and the core ensemble isn’t getting any bigger. This allows Baugh to get the most mileage he can out of a modest budget, and attempt some tricky shots, including a POV oner that’s mostly flash but nonetheless impressive. Still, you wish that Baugh and Co. had just tried a little harder or gone a little further.
The film’s closest neighbor is “Shaun of the Dead,” which spawned a whole cottage industry of chummy, regional horror, splashed with comedy (see the recent, and very fun “Get Duked!”). But where the former can get two different laughs out of the same joke, while weaving strong character throughlines and the latter fizzes on its own unique vibe, “Boys From County Hell” never quite finds an identity on its own. Baugh struggles to find a consistent tone, with the characters shifting from genuine fear to distanced cynicism sometimes within the same scene. And the film doesn’t make the most of its locality, playing the setting of the rural Irish town in the broadest strokes possible.
There’s a more rewarding film in here had “The Boys From County Hell” pushed the humor a bit further, and pitched the scares a touch higher. Lacking the inventiveness of the best of the genre, the film settles on being comfortable. But when an ancient, undead evil rises and stalks a small town, comfortable is the last thing you should be. [C]
“Boys from County Hell” arrives on Shudder on April 22.
