Captive starts with a very simple premise: a group of hard-partying stoners — Ashley (Scout-Taylor Thompson from Bury the Bride, Getaway, Star Light, Get the Girl and oh yes, Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies), her boyfriend Luke (Michael Lovato), Crystal (Taise Lawrence), Mallory (Christina Robinson, Dexter), Claire (Katalina Parrish), Ed (Ryan Stajmiger), Alex (Alex Gopal) and Teddy (Timothy Chivalette) — break into a house where they start smoking, drinking and screwing. You know, everything else that gets you killed in a horror movie.

How much trouble are they asking for? Well, someone grabs an Ouija board and literally says, “Let’s fuck with some ghosts!”

Then they hear some noises in the basement and instead of leaving, everyone goes down to see what is going on.

Everyone should be dead by now.

I mean, we already saw a jogger (Kevin Chambers) get stalked in the beginning. We know something bad is about to happen. Do not tempt fate any more than you have to.

Or do, because otherwise, we wouldn’t have a movie.

In the basement, the gang finds Drake (Cody Frank) chained to the wall, begging to be let loose. He says that a couple picked him up hitchhiking but they took him back here and attacked him, leaving him captive inside their house. 

Only Ashley argues that they should free Drake. She wins over the group and all of a sudden, the mystery, poetry and excitement that she craved stops passing her by, because Drake is, well, if not a vampire — there’s a spoiler coming– pretty close. He quickly bites into her throat and introduces her to the ways of hunting and killing your friends for sustenance.

In the middle of all of these people getting chowed down and drank, the gang decides to throw a party. As bands rock out and bass beats wobble — or whatever it is that they do — Ashley and Drake do their best impersonation of a blood rave. Crystal and Mallory grab a crucifix and a stake, but can they defeat two undead creatures consumed with an unquenchable thirst for blood?

Look for Brendan Fehr from The Amityville Curse and Roswell in this as well as the person who owns this house.

The highlight for me was someone’s mom showing up to the party and immediately being eaten.

Best of all, this dips into The Monster Club playbook* and — spoiler — has Drake and Ashley be a strigoi, which in Romanian mythology would be a troubled spirit that rises from the grave and which was the original inspiration from Bram Stoker to make Dracula. In this movie, they have two hearts, need sunglasses during the day and aren’t stop by religious implements.

Director Gregg Simon (the TV series Blood Drive) and writer Travis Seppala have put together a quick-moving horror movie that sets you up for plenty of mayhem and delays just slightly before giving you all the red stuff. Cinematographer Jordi Ruiz Maso has a good eye for capturing the action and the addition of Bava-esque reds and blues to the credits and kill scenes ramps up the killing scenes.

There’s also a strong soundtrack with bands like WE WERE SUPERHEROES, DRAG, Chicago trumpeter Mitch Manker, Pittsburgh native Barak Shpiez, Matlock, L for Victory, Thomas Dekker (the voice of Littlefoot from The Land Before Time sequels and John Connor on the TV Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? It seems so!), Glen Ballard (who co-wrote Jagged Little Pill), Brad Apodaca (with director Gregg Simon on one song) and Harley Poe.

For a movie that started back in 2020, this seemed to have a long path to its home on Tubi. It’s a good bite of cinematic junk food that’ll get you through a late night looking for something to watch while, well, as baked as the cast.

*”First we have the primate monsters, vampires, werewolves and ghouls – but everyone knows about those. Now pay attention: A vampire and a werewolf would produce a werevamp. A werewolf and a ghoul would produce a weregoo. A vamire and a ghoul would produce a vamgoo. A weregoo and a werevamp would produce a shaddy. A weregoo and a vamgoo would produce a maddy. A werevamp and a vamgoo would produce a raddy. If a shaddy were to mate with a raddy or a maddy, it would result in a mock (which frankly, is just a polite name for a mongrel). Just remember the basic rules of monsterdom: Vampires suck, werewolves hunt and ghouls tear. Shaddies lick, maddies yawn and mocks blow. Oh but a Shadmock, which is the result if a mock were to mate with any other hybrid, whistles – and they don’t do it very often. Now the humegoo, which is a cross between a ghoul and a human being, don’t really do anything interesting but they do have an unfortunate appetite for carrion (which they get, of course, from the ghoul side of the family). It must be noted that although monsters can mate with human beings, the results are almost always disastrous. Any questions?”

You can watch this on Tubi. You can learn more at the official site.