Vampires have adapted to the modern world before, but Vampires of the Velvet Lounge–reaching theatres on March 20—takes the concept to deliriously wicked extremes.
Set deep in the American South, the film unfolds inside a shadowy back-alley absinthe bar where Countess Elizabeth Báthory and her glamorous coven of vampires have found a very contemporary hunting ground: dating apps. Preying on lonely singles who think they’ve scored a late-night hookup, these immortal predators seduce, slaughter and siphon youth to preserve their beauty—until Elizabeth swipes right on the wrong profiles.
What follows is a collision of ancient evil and modern stupidity. An undercover vampire hunter and a pack of emotionally stunted bros crash headlong into Elizabeth’s carefully curated feeding system, triggering a spiraling chain reaction of grindhouse chaos. Blood sprays, fangs flash and the Velvet Lounge transforms into a neon-drenched nightmare of terrible decisions, green-fairy hallucinations, and fashionably fatal carnage.
The film stars Mena Suvari, Dichen Lachman, Stephen Dorff, India Eisley, Tom Berenger, Rosa Salazar, and Tyrese Gibson, backed by a large ensemble cast that leans fully into the film’s heightened tone.
Behind the camera is writer-director Adam Sherman, whose past work (Wristcutters: A Love Story, Happiness Runs) suggests a filmmaker comfortable blending dark humor with emotional absurdity. Here, Sherman applies that sensibility to vampire mythology, filtering grindhouse gore through satire, style and a distinctly modern sense of menace.
Produced by Sherman alongside Marcus Englefield and George Lee for Storyoscopic Films, with Noémi Santo co-producing, the film is being distributed by Strand Releasing, which will open Vampires of the Velvet Lounge exclusively in theaters on Friday, March 20, in select markets including New York and Los Angeles.
With a hard R rating, a 105-minute runtime, and a tone that gleefully embraces excess, Vampires of the Velvet Lounge looks poised to join the lineage of vampire films that understand one eternal truth: immortality doesn’t make you wiser—it just gives you more time to make spectacularly bad choices.