Thralls
NOTE: "Thrall" is from an Old Norse word meaning "slave." Slavery was
supported by Norse mythology, which claimed that thralls had a separate
ancestry through the god Rig. In Thralls, a thrall is a half-vampire, the "white trash of vampires." They often serve in bondage
to a full vampire who keeps them in check by promising to make them full
vampires one day.Thralls opens with a short narrative regarding an ancient
demon named Beli-al and how the saying aloud of his name resulted in the
word becoming flesh, and the flesh becoming the centuries-old book known
as The Necronomicon. Between its covers, hidden within ancient rituals
and archaic superstitions, was contained a spell so powerful that, just to
decipher it would drive the reader insane. Centuries passed, and the name
of Beli-al and The Necronomicon faded away.Cut to a nice house somewhere in suburban Iowa. Rennie [Richard Cox] drives up to
the house and goes upstairs to a white room in which six women, all
dressed in white, are chained by their ankles. He tosses them a rat for
dinner. Then he notices an errant chain. Following it, he finds a chewed
off foot and is immediately staked through the chest by Roxie [Fiona Scott], the
footless thrall. Roxie and her five "sisters"-- Leslie, Lean, Brigette, Buzz,
and Tanya -- escape. As they make off in Rennie's car, they are attacked
by their master, Mr Jones [Lorenzo Lamas]. He grabs Tanya, rips out her heart, takes a
bite, and utters in exasperation, "Women!" as the remaining thralls speed
away. Time passes.Pig-tailed Ashley [Siri Baruc] can no longer live at home now that her alcoholic
father is dead, so she has come to live with her sister Leslie [Leah Cairns]. As Ashley
waits for Leslie in the bus station, she is hassled by a gang of thugs
looking for "a good time." Suddenly, Leslie shows up. Leslie gives Ashley
the keys to her car and tells her to leave the bus station while Leslie
stays behind to deal with the punks. A few kickpunches later, the thugs
are coldcocked. Ashley is duly impressed. When she asks Leslie how she
learned to fight like that, Leslie promises that they will have a talk.Leslie is one of Mr Jones' escaped thralls. She and her sister
thralls now run a very popular nightclub. Just ask Doughboy Jeff [Kevan Ohtsji] who,
accompanied by his cousin Jim [Shawn Roberts], is biting at the reins trying to get into
the club and get himself some "bitches." Tonight is the Winter Solstice,
the longest day of the year, and Doughboy and Jim are ready to experience
their first rave. After Ashley has had a chance to freshen up, she orders
a bottle of water at the bar and meets Jim. The two of them hit it off,
until Cisco [Nigel Vonas] gets into a fight with Jim over Ashley. Lean [Sonya Salomaa] breaks up the
fight, Brigitte [Moneca Delain] takes Cisco to the back room "where we put troublemakers,"
and Ashley and Jim take seats at a table.Ashley notices that Jim's nose is bleeding, so she goes to the back
room for a first-aid kit. When she hears heavy panting through the door,
she peeks through the vent to see Brigitte going down on Cisco. Suddenly,
Brigitte sprouts fangs and bites him. Ashley is taken aback and returns to
the dance floor to find Jim. When Ashley tries to tell Jim that she saw
Brigitte biting Cisco and drinking his blood, Jim concludes that Ashley is
nuts and ditches her. Jim looks around for his cousin Doughboy and finds him in the
deejay booth with Roxie, who is just about to put the bite on him. Jim
interrupts, telling Doughboy what Ashley just told him and asking for the
keys to their car so he can leave. Doughboy hands over the keys and, when
Roxie excuses herself for a few minutes, Doughboy takes over Roxie's job
as deejay.Roxie runs to Brigitte, and Brigitte runs to Lean, who is working the
door as a bouncer. Lean switches places with Brigitte so that she can have
a talk with Leslie about the need to clue in Ashley to the fact that they
are thralls. Lean tells Roxie to get Leslie while she goes to the back
room to speak with Ashley who is packing her bags to go home. When Lean
attempts to explain that they are "different," Ashley thrusts a cross in
her face, starts screaming "Vampires!", and runs up to the deejay booth,
hoping to get help from Doughboy. Lean, Brigitte, and Buzz [Lisa Marie Caruk] corner Ashley
outside the deejay booth. Trying to back away from the thralls, Ashley
falls over the railing, but the thralls form a chain and catch her just
before she hits the floor. While the dancers cheer at what they think was
a stunt, Leslie whispers in Ashley's ear, "I guess it's time we had that
talk."The thralls attempt to explain themselves to Ashley, what it means to
be a thrall, how they only drink enough blood to survive, don't kill or
turn their victims, can't fly, and how Mr Jones is the one who made them
this way. But they think that they may have found a way to attain full
vampire status and get back at Jonesy. Lean has gotten her hands on
The Necronomicon and learned that, by performing a ritual to Beli-al on the
Winter Solstice at midnight, they can raise themselves to full vampire
status. Tonight is the Winter Solstice, and it's already 11:40.Out in the parking lot, Jim is searching for the car when he notices
a big bat that turns into Mr Jones. The next thing he knows, Jones is
standing beside him. Rennie, still with the stake sticking out of his
chest, hits Jim from behind. Jones leaves Rennie to bite on Jim with his
fake fangs that keep falling out, while Jones himself goes into the club.
Once inside, he takes over the deejay booth, ordering all the patrons
outside. When Cisco gets mouthy, Jones simply rips out his spine. Buzz
attempts to stop Jones with a gun, but Jones puts a knife to Lean's neck.
When Buzz informs him that the gun is loaded with silver bullets, Jones
drops the knife and releases Lean. Buzz hands the gun to Lean and walks
away. As Buzz passes Jones, he reaches out and quickly pulls out Buzz's
heart. Lean turns the gun on Leslie and Brigitte. It seems that Lean is in
cahoots with Jones, who is the one who arranged for them to escape with
The Necronomicon, forked over the money to set up the nightclub, and paid
for them to throw this rave on the longest night of the year. In return
for Lean's help, Jones promised her that they would rule together for all
eternity. When Jones tells Lean to retrieve The Necronomicon and Lean
mentions that it's in the back room with Leslie's little sister, Jones
decides to get it himself.Meanwhile, in the back room, Ashley has been reading
The Necronomicon. Jones comes in and attempts to sweet talk Ashley into
becoming his "little girl," but Ashley will have none of it. She hits him
in the forehead with a cross just as Jim, who has managed to get away from
Rennie and re-enter the club by crawling through a ventilation duct, drops
down from the ceiling. Jim grabs Ashley's hand and they run out on the
dance floor where Lean is still holding off Leslie and Brigitte with her
form of hundreds of bugs and then reconstitutes himself. Ashley warns
everyone about what the ritual of Beli-al is really all about -- Jones is
going to release the demon so that it will be under his power.Suddenly, Rennie enters and stabs Ashley. Rennie retrieves
The Necronomicon and hands it to Jones. It's almost time to perform the
ritual. As Ashley lay dying, Jones begins to chant. Jim pleads with Leslie
and Brigitte to do something for Ashley to keep her from dying, but they
explain that as half-vampires they cannot turn anyone. But two
half-vampires equal a whole vampire, don't they? What if Ashley is bitten
by both Leslie and Brigitte? It's worth a try.Beli-al's head appears. Jones invokes him to come forth and yells to
Lean and Roxie in the deejay booth to turn up the power from the psychic
power collector in which Roxie has been storing the psychic energy
generated all night by the dancers. Roxie tries to stop Lean from
releasing more energy, but Lean shoves a stake through Roxie's chest.
Before she succumbs, Roxie manages to grab an iron bar and toss it at the
psychic collector, breaking the collector and dissipating the power flow.
Beli-al's head disappears from whence it came.Jones is POed. When Lean tries to explain to him what happened and
reminds him of his promise, he hands her off to Rennie, who can't wait to
taste her blood. Lean wants nothing to do with Rennie and, in her struggle
to get away, she falls on him and impales herself on the stake still
sticking out of his chest. "Men!" Lean exclaims as she dies. Jones informs
Leslie and Brigitte that he's going to take them back home, when suddenly
Ashley flies in. She's turned into a full vampire, lost her pigtails, and
somehow managed to learn martial arts as she commences to beat up on
Jones. Jones turns into a bat, and Ashley offers herself to him as "fresh
meat" if he'll let up on Leslie and Brigitte. When Jones flits down for a
bite, Ashley runs a sword through him.As Ashley hugs Leslie and Brigitte for making her into a vampire,
Jones gets up from the floor, a bit more contrite now that he's been
bested. After getting Ashley to pull the sword out of his gut, he tries to
cut them a deal. Since Jones is the one who put up the front money for the
club, he offers them an 80/20 split, 80 for him. No dice. 70/30? 60/40?
"How about a nice even split...five ways?" suggests Ashley and chops Jones
into five easy pieces with her sword. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]
pornographic, violence, murder, flashback