2011’s Suck and Moan is a fun little supernatural web series that pokes fun at genre tropes and it deserved to last longer than one season.
What Is It?
In this web series, two sub-genres collide (vampires and zombies) with hilarious results. The vampires in the series look like normal people who have integrated themselves into our society while keeping their true nature a secret so that they can go about feeding on humans unhindered. The zombies have arrived as the results of a pandemic (though some argue it is not a pandemic and that it is actually hardly worse than the Black Death of the Middle Ages), and their rampage threatens to curtail the food source of the vampires. Oh, and one of the vampires attempted to feed on a zombie (not realizing what it was) and now appears to be infected. But how exactly does zombieism affect the immortal undead?
Aired: YouTube, One Season Totaling 10 Episodes
Cast: Eric Hailey, Carmen Elena Michell, Joel Bryant, Chris Mollica, Kyle Eliason
Crew: Brendon Fong (Writer/Director/Creator)
Legacy:
This was one of many web series that came and went during a time when that format was at the height of its popularity, and it delivered a fun little spoof on the tropes of the supernatural genre.
A Closer Look:
Yet another of the many web series that came out in the late 00s/early 10s, this one takes great delight in skewering both the vampire and zombie genres, and it does so with high doses of wit, demonstrating both brains and a bite with its humor (sorry, couldn’t resist). It focuses mostly on a group of vampires (actually, a support group of the bloodsuckers) as they try to decide the best way to deal with the situation at hand. They debate on what parts of zombie lore from the many movies they have seen are true (seeing as they didn’t realize zombies could exist to begin with), then they start debating on what other supernatural creatures are real as well.
And the series jumps around from one hilariously deadpan conversation to the next (taking many stabs at the Twilight-style vampires) while also mixing in bits of action as the vampires work on thinning out the zombie hoards. And whereas some comedy web series (or network sitcoms or big screen movies for that matter) have few laugh out loud lines, this one just keeps them coming with plenty of ringers in each episode (which run about four to five minutes). I especially loved the part where several vampires debated over whether the myth about vampires having to be invited into a house is real, while all are reluctant to test it out.
The series has some pretty cheesy special effects as you might expect from a web series, but it is still a decent production overall. The actors deadpan their way through their roles, delivering plenty of wry observations on genre tropes that they never really considered important to their world prior to the pandemic. And while some of the switching around from scene to scene can get confusing at times, the show still holds together pretty well.
Vampire and zombie fans alike should enjoy Suck and Moan as should pretty much anybody who appreciates a well written, droll comedy series. And it is a pretty quick watch at ten episodes, all of which can be viewed in under an hour. It is definitely not a big-budget production, but it makes up for that with its wit and charm.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Sadly, only one season of the web series was produced which was not uncommon for these productions. There was not a good platform to monetize this format at that time, and the creative team could generally only get a crew together for about a season’s worth of episodes before the money and the drive ran out. This show ended on a cliffhanger, but it is still worth watching the ten episodes that were produced because they are a ton of fun.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Yes. It would be great to see this property resurrected. They would not easily be able to do a direct continuation seeing as the original actors have aged while the immortal characters they played should have remained ageless. But they could get a new set of actors to come in and reshoot the first season then carry on from there. With the advancements in special effects, this could be done at on an affordable budget, and YouTube and other platforms offer an opportunity to monetize the production and keep it going for several seasons. We don’t see too much in the way of web series these days, but a reboot of Suck and Moan could help revive the format and could turn into a sleeper genre entry.
Interesting Facts:
Actor Stephan Smith Collins, who guest stars as the Count in the series, had played Pinhead in 2011’s Hellraiser: Revelations. They had apparently tried to locate a castle to shoot at for his lair, but could not come up with anything. Thus the jokes about him living in a warehouse.
This series won Outstanding Dramedy, Writing, Directing, Original Score, and Cinematography at the LA Web Series Festival in 2011.
Where Can You Watch It?
The entire series, along with some extras, is available for viewing at the show’s YouTube channel.
Read More About the Show:
If you produced an independent sci fi/fantasy web series during the 2000s and/or 2010s, please contact us at cultscifi.com@gmail.com with the information about the show. Or if you know of productions from that time, please pass along that information as I am working on a project documenting the rise and fall of this format.
