‘Firebite’ on AMC+ Gives Vampire Fans Something New To Sink Their Teeth Into – Decider

While What We Do In the Shadows and Legacies have given this year at least some vampire representation, a full-blown blood-sucking renaissance appears to be just around the corner. Long-rumored adaptations of Let The Right One In and Interview With the Vampire are finally in the works; Peacock and Netflix have greenlit original series Vampire Academy and First Kill, respectively; and despite outstaying its welcome by several seasons theres even been talk of a revival for HBOs gothic sexfest True Blood.

First out of the coffin, though, is Firebite, an eight-part Australian co-production, which began airing on AMC+ this month. And thanks to its breath-taking setting both figuratively and literally it may well be the most intriguing of the lot.

From Jamie Lee Curtis post-Halloween cash-in Road Games to the franchise-spawning sadism of Wolf Creek, the vast wilderness of the Aussie outback has provided the ideal backdrop for numerous cat and mouse slashers. Yet apart from 1987s The Rocky Horror Picture Show knockoff Outback Vampires, its rare to see anyone with fangs roaming such territory the scorching climate and scarcity of fresh meat are hardly conducive to the lifestyle to be fair.

Firebite, however, grounds its blend of comic book violence, black comedy and family melodrama in one of the more populated communities, Coober the opal capital of the world Pedy. Its an inspired choice which, in a similar vein to underrated Netflix zombie flick Cargo, allows the show to examine all the horror from an Aboriginal perspective.

Creator Warwick Thornton, a native of the Indigenous tribe known as the Kaytetye, has built his career on exploring the discrimination and marginalization of Aboriginal people his 2009 coming-of-age Samson and Delilah and 2017 interwar western Sweet Country have been hailed as two of the finest Aussie films of the modern age. And despite its fantastical nature, his first small screen drama stemmed from the need to highlight a piece of very real underreported history: the First Fleet surgeon, who either mistakenly or purposefully, unleashed the smallpox virus onto the victims of colonialism.

Of course, in the world of Firebite, vampires not vials of variola were used by the British Empire to eliminate all Indigenous traces back in 1788, and more than two centuries on, theyre still hellbent on finishing their mission. And thanks to an influx of new recruits who amusingly arrive not by Royal Navy vessels but via a rundown tour bus, they now appear to be deadlier than ever before.

Luckily for all the areas mortal inhabitants, even if its not always seen that way, they have the unlikely dream team of a wisecracking womanizer and his sulky teenage protg as protection. Tyson (Rob Collins) and an often reluctant Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) spend their nights hunting down those who spend their days holed up in the deserted mine shafts that make the local landscape resemble a block of Emmenthal.

Tyson might not be the most subtle of vampire slayers (Take that you blood-sucking bastards, youre messing with the master blaster now comes the gleeful zinger after his first on-screen kill). But Collins, perhaps best-known for his role in Aboriginal superhero series Cleverman, is so naturally charming that such cockiness can easily be forgiven. A tearful speech to his surrogate daughter and the constant pleas to call him dad also proves that theres more to him than one-liners and decapitating heads.

Meanwhile, Barnes-Cowan, who previously appeared alongside her main co-star in Aboriginal political drama Total Control, brings some welcome girl power as the high school student determined (well, most of the time) to avenge the presumed murder of her missing mother.

Its Shanikas story which proves that her towns human settlers are still just as much of a threat as its supernatural. After understandably lashing out at a fellow pupil for making a sick joke about her mom, only one party gets called to the principals office and its not the privileged white male instigator. Shanika also has to deal with a similarly prejudiced police force, although once again Tysons no-nonsense and scene-stealing ex-girlfriend Kitty (Ngaire Pigram) soon puts them in their place.

From the three episodes made available pre-air, the vampires are sketched a little thinner. Although no stranger to the villainous, Callan Mulvey (Russian terrorist Anatoli in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) lacks the menace needed to convince as the ruler known as the King. And the rest of his army arent given much more to do than stumble around looking like a The Lost Boys tribute act.

Still, Firebite is a series designed to put the Aborigine experience front and center, something it achieves through everything from the preferred method of killing (boomerang through the heart, obviously) to Tysons karaoke number (Indigenous band Coloured Stones revolutionary 80s hit Black Boy). Next years slate of vampire originals may well be more familiar, bigger-budgeted and faster-paced. Its unlikely, however, that any will have such a distinctive bite.

JonOBrien(@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Vulture, Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D and The Guardian.

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'Firebite' on AMC+ Gives Vampire Fans Something New To Sink Their Teeth Into - Decider

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero