If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Douglas Sirk directed a lesbian vampire fever dream in the abandoned bowels of Philly’s subterranean transit system, well, you’re disturbingly specific. But lucky for you, Bears Rebecca Fonte may have done just that.
A Love Letter to Technicolor, With Bite
Premiering August 2nd at the Queer Screams Film Festival at Portland’s iconic Clinton Street Theater, How Far Does the Dark Go? is not just a film, it’s a whole damn mood. Marrying mid-century Technicolor aesthetics with a synth-slick modern soundtrack, the film bathes its otherworldly drama in hues so saturated they might make Mario Bava blush.
Fonte, the queer genre filmmaker behind Conversion Therapist and Etheria Film Night, returns with her boldest, most unapologetically sensual work yet. Shot with lush stylization and scored like a neon-soaked nightmare on vinyl, the film lives in a liminal space between Cat People and Only Lovers Left Alive, only with more eyeliner and emotional trauma.
A Vampire, A Nurse, and the Subway Tunnels of Philadelphia Walk Into a Bar…
At the center of this dreamy blood-soaked opera is Grace (Anna Hindman), a down-and-out nurse addicted to morphine and, quite frankly, to misery. She’s abducted by Evienne (Chloe Carroll), a centuries-old vampire who doesn’t just lurk, she thrives in the derelict subway tunnels under Philadelphia. Evienne is hiding something more than just her fangs: a dying human son, Henry (genre legend Robert Picardo), who’s succumbing to cancer. And in a delicious twist of genre tropes, the vampire isn’t out for Grace’s blood, but her bedside manner.
The sexual tension is practically viscous. As Grace tends to Henry and unravels the mystery of Evienne’s past, a complex romance blossoms between captor and captive. But the question lingers: is this real connection, or is Evienne just glamoring Grace into a gothic Stockholm syndrome?
Blood, Betrayal, and Queer Camp
As if one brooding vampire isn’t enough, enter Tempest (Sam Rothermel), Evienne’s scorned ex and chaos incarnate. She’s back in town, thirsty for revenge, and she’s got no time for Evienne’s sudden moral hangups or new crush. Meanwhile, vampire slayer Dayanara (Telita Perry) prowls the shadows, bringing stakes (both literal and metaphorical) to this supernatural showdown.
If the stakes sound high, it’s because they are, but not in the usual save-the-world way. Fonte’s film is more interested in the emotional gore of transformation: what we give up when we survive. Can Grace stay human in a world that keeps offering her inhuman power? Is Evienne a monster, or just a mother clinging to her last fragile tether to love?
Camp, Romance, and the Supernatural: A Queer Fever Dream
How Far Does the Dark Go? doesn’t just ask philosophical questions. It struts them down a foggy corridor in stilettos, drenched in color, longing, and just the right amount of camp. The performances are gloriously unrestrained, especially from Chloe Carroll, who vamps it up like she’s in a 1950s fever dream filtered through a Janelle Monáe music video.
Robert Picardo, of Star Trek: Voyager fame, lends the film gravitas as the doomed son who might be the story’s only moral compass or its quietest tragedy.
Clocking in at 98 minutes, the film is an immersive, evocative descent into vampiric desire, moral ambiguity, and queer identity. It dares to wonder: what if becoming a monster gave you more agency than staying human ever did?
Don’t Miss the World Premiere
Catch the world premiere of How Far Does the Dark Go? at the Queer Screams Film Festival:
- Date: Saturday, August 2
- Time: 7:00 PM PT
- Location: Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton Street, Portland, OR
This is one of those films best experienced in a dark theater with a room full of queers who scream, swoon, and sink their teeth into genre storytelling that dares to be both sexy and subversive. Don’t sleep on it, unless you’re undead.
