Ale McHaddo’s 2023 film, Vampire in the Family, is a Portuguese horror comedy currently streaming on Netflix. The film stars actors like Leandro Hassum and Romuli Arantes Neto. The plot revolves around Gregorio’s sudden visit to Fernandinho’s house and the strange occurrences surrounding it. Paranormal activities start occurring at his house after an unexpected visit from his brother-in-law. When Fernandinho learns of the spread of a strange disease in the city, he is sure that Gregorio’s sudden change in behavior has a close connection with the disease. What does Fernandinho discover about his brother-in-law? What happens at the Halloween party? Let’s find out!
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens When Gregorio Reaches Fernandinho’s House?
It was on Fernandinho’s younger daughter’s birthday that his brother-in-law, Gregorio, suddenly popped up at his place. People were amazed when he suddenly came back after five years. When they ask where he’s been, he tells them that he has been on a world tour for the past five years and has seen a lot of new places all over the world. On being questioned about his favorite place, he said that it was Romania. The country has a specific connection to the mythical folklore about vampires as part of its cultural heritage. It is possible that on his visit to Romania, Gregorio must have had supernatural experiences that completely transformed him as an individual.
How does Fernandinho realize that Gregorio is a vampire?
It was right after Gregorio’s arrival that unnatural occurrences started happening at Fernandinho’s house. Fernandinho saw a bat flying in his house, which he tried to hit with a bat, but later, the tables turned, and it attacked him instead. When Gregorio came up to him, he noticed a bruise mark on his forehead, making Fernandinho suspicious. He also noticed that Gregorio would only go out during the night and sleep during the day. When he went into Gregorio’s room to investigate the matter, he saw that all his windows had been painted black, and there was a putrid smell coming out of the room. When he tries to tell his wife, Vanessa, about it, she turns a deaf ear to him. He is seen questioning Vanessa as to why her brother avoided the sunlight, and it is just then that Gregorio pops up. He spends time with the family at the poolside, making Fernandinho wonder why he is not getting charred. Later, Carol gets suspicious of Gregorio and decides to follow him to his room. She finds a rubber suit in his room that he had worn to protect himself from the sun. She also saw him using a coffin to rest, which made her realize that her father had not been lying all along.
Why does Fernandinho decide to help the town?
When Carol tells her father that she has come to know that Gregorio is a vampire, he tells her that they should flee the place. She is, however, reluctant and tells her father that a strange disease has been taking over the town, and they had to help people fight it. People were turning into vampires and were planning on creating an entirely new race of their own. Fernandinho was reluctant to help others at first and only thought about his own family. Later, he found out that his ex-wife Michelle had turned into a vampire, who suddenly attacked him at their hearing for the divorce case. He saved Carol from the clutches of Gregorio, Michelle’s new boyfriend, and fled the spot. He told Carol that she was right in wanting to help others end the problem once and for all.
What Happens at the Halloween Party?
Fernandinho teamed up with Carol and her ex-boyfriend Ameba when he heard that Ullah Drax, the head of the vampires, was coming to Brazil for a Halloween party. They stocked up on all the required equipment to kill the vampires, including the holy cross, holy water, and the wooden stake to pierce their hearts. Carol told them that Ullah Drax, the Romanian businessman, was actually Count Dracula, and if he could be killed, then all the other people who had turned vampires would become normal again. The three entered the party, all dressed as vampires, and just before they were going to pierce Drax’s heart with the spear, they saw that Vanessa and Neymar had also been invited to the party. They had been invited as an expression of appreciation from Drax for Gregorio’s hard work.
The humor in Vampire in the Family is on point when Fernandinho shoots the wooden spear at Drax; it does not seem to affect him. The holy water also did not work on the other vampires, and when Fernandinho asked Ameba if he had gotten them blessed from the church, he said that he did not do that as the church was closed. After Fernandinho brings his family to a safe place, Carol says that a virgin’s blood could make the wooden spears effective and help in killing them. After putting a few drops of Fernandinho’s younger daughter’s blood on the stakes, they managed to kill a few vampires with it, but Gregorio later hindered them and started attacking his own family.
What happens finally?
When Gregorio saw the holy cross on Fernandinho’s t-shirt, he pulled himself back. Finally, when Count Drax came to fight Fernandinho, he told him that vampires were not afraid of the cross but were afraid of the faith that humans put in it. He takes the shape of a bat and attacks Fernandinho and Ameba. Fernandinho manages to break open a glass window with a football, and just as the sun rays fall on the creature, it turns to dust. All the people who had turned into vampires came back to their human forms and forgot all about the experiences that they had. When things seem to be fine, Vanessa’s father turns up at Fernandinho’s house and asks for a few days of shelter. He noticed that his father-in-law showed the symptoms of turning into a werewolf. Hell must have broken loose in the city, where all the people were showing signs of turning into monsters. Fernandinho now had another project in his hands!
Final Words
The director has done justice to the horror-comedy genre through Vampire in the Family. The film has made a reference to a scene from the film ‘The Shining,’ where Michelle peers through an opening in the van, searching for Vanessa and the two kids to kill them. The film is a one-time entertainer that presents a dystopian world in a comic light. Despite having a weak storyline, the 1 hour and 30 minutes of the film were very entertaining and kept me glued to my seat throughout. However, a better exploration of the background where Gregorio had transformed into a vampire in Romania would have added an extra layer to the plot of Vampire in the Family. We can expect a sequel to the film, where Fernandinho would have to deal with a werewolf attack in the city with his family by his side!
