“A Place Among the Dead” (2023) is an autofiction (auto- comes from autobiography) documentary which mixes true crime, reality television with horror. After completing the creative portion of her vampire documentary, a fictionalized Juliet (director and cowriter Juliet Landau) starts working on the section devoted to cruelty, specifically focusing on Santa Barbara serial killer, Darcel (Bryan Michael Hall and Seth Bewley), and ignoring others’ reservations about exploring this topic. As Juliet and Dev (Landau’s real-life husband and co-writer Deverill Weekes) delve deeper into the murder victims’ lives, bizarre events escalate that affect the film and the couple. The vampire documentary reveals two weeks’ worth of footage from behind the scenes.
“A Place Among the Dead” will appeal to viewers who are into found footage films or fake documentaries. Landau takes elements from her personal life, specifically implied psychological abuse from her parents, actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, as the underlying factor which makes her vulnerable. This aspect is the strongest element of the film. It opens with a montage of family photographs with Landau reading from a journal entry. Subsequent voice overs of a man and a woman, presumably playing her parents, saying horrific things until Landau’s voice echoes these words shows how it becomes her internal monologue. This audio accompanies animation of corpuscles, which portends the vampire theme. This narrative device works in multiple ways. It is genuinely the most horrifying aspect of the film because it is insidious child abuse. It provides insight into the protagonist’s motivation as she plunges into the investigation without concern for her personal safety because she feels responsible. It is also supposed to explain the killer’s motivation as a monster. He does not just live on blood but deconstructing people and relationships.
The scripted interviews are another autobiographical element, and they appear as if they were conducted in connection with Landau’s earlier creative project, “The Undead Series” (2016), which never appeared to be publicly disseminated. All the talking heads are associated with popular culture vampires. “A Place Among the Dead” features Gary Oldman, who played the titular vampire in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992); Robert Patrick, who appeared in several vampire projects, “From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money” (1999), “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” (2014), and “True Blood;” Ron Perlman, who was in Guillermo del Toro’s “Cronos” (1992); Lance Henriksen, who acted as the vampire patriarch in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark” (1987); Mariana Klaveno who played Bill’s sire in “True Blood;” director Tom Holland who debuted in “Fright Night” (1985); authors Anne Rice, who penned “The Vampire Chronicles” book series, and Charlaine Harris, who wrote “The Southern Vampire Mysteries,” which was adapted into the HBO series “True Blood,” Landau’s former “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” boss Joss Whedon; screenwriters Kim Newman, who worked on the television series “The Hunger” (1999), and Cole Haddon, who wrote television series “Dracula” (2013-2014). Unfortunately the film does not include captions to provide the name and association of each interviewee so if you are unfamiliar with some of the faces, you will be at a loss without either IMDb or this review as a guide; however, that level of detail is unnecessary.
Normally celebrity interviews distract from the film’s focus and function as a cynical ploy to get more viewers in the theater who may otherwise pass, but in “A Place Among the Dead,” it made the overall narrative more dynamic. When the interviews stop appearing in the latter half of the film, there is some loss of momentum. For those unfamiliar with Landau, she is best known for her iconic role as Drusilla in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” so these interviews are relevant background to establish her quotidian, professional life. They are also very relatable, especially Holland’s concern about losing interest in life or his mind.
Given that this film is autofiction, Juliet shares Landau’s resume and is a well-established actor who does not need to put herself in danger as a gimmick. These interviews are brightly lit, almost oversaturated, which signals that Juliet is turning away from the light and attracted to the darkness, which hangs over the latter half of the film. The dialogue indicates that going to Santa Barbara is a trip down memory lane without giving further details. There are shots of an actor who appears to be playing a younger Juliet, who is dressed like the murder victims, which implies that Juliet may not consciously recall but knew the killer and escaped his thrall to live a full and successful life, but now she is tempted to go back. It could be connected to the fear of aging and death theme, but considering that Landau has barely aged, let’s go with the latter. She also could just strongly empathize with the victims.
Some may find it unbelievable that police would collaborate with an actor and give a film crew exclusive access to crime scenes, but considering California’s reputation for police misconduct, giving a camera crew access is relatively normal, wholesome, and innocently plausible. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Juliet and Dev to talk about their work which most people probably find boring or too macabre? Imagine you are a victim of a brutal assault, and Juliet is right there to comfort you. Hell, it may increase people’s willingness to talk to the police. “They say snitches get stitches, but come on, have you seen the prices to get into these Comic Cons. Let’s go to the precinct.” This scenario leads to some hilarious, awkward moments, and if the humor had been spread throughout the film, the momentum may have lasted through the end.
As the investigation dominates “A Place Among the Dead,” the documentary fractures into being a straight depiction of what Juliet and Dev are filming, which includes Juliet’s confessionals, and also represents Juliet’s inner psychological state with audio disassociations, overlaying and dissolving multiple scenes into one another and repeating certain cells as if a record was skipping. Time lapse occasionally shows images of two Juliets occupying the same space. The killer’s modus operandi is to give a DVD of colorful illustrations of his next victim to the police, and his crime scenes are collages of dismembered mannequins. The vampire is a wannabe director! Filming disruptions indicate that Darcel is present, not technical difficulties, and as Darcel comes closer, Juliet begins to show the strain. The latter third of the film focuses on this regression and emotional dysregulation, and while it gives Landau an opportunity to explore a wide emotional range, it feels more like an impressive acting exercise than a denouement, especially with the ambiguous ending.
The vampire elements of “A Place Among the Dead” is the weakest part of the film. Even though Darcel is supposed to be a real individual, if there was a twist that Darcel never existed, and there was another explanation for the women’s deteriorating mental state, it would have made sense. Darcel as an alleged vampire is an overt metaphor for parental narcissistic abuse, and it may help viewers to listen to Dr. Ramani’s podcast episode, “My Famous Parents are Narcissists with Juliet Landau,” for a more in depth analysis. The intention is superb, but in a vacuum, Darcel is the least interesting character, which may be the point since a narcissist is nothing without his supply of people to abuse; however, as a character, he is all archetype, not substance. Watching the film, this intention is not as obvious though Juliet does indicate that he is familiar. When they finally face off, images from her parents’ photographs flash on screen. If there could have been a way to link Darcel’s mythology with Juliet’s parents, it would have tied the whole story together instead of just noticing the coincidences of their poisonous effect on their victims. Otherwise this vamp is trite—going to vamp wannabe nightclubs, obsessing over upside down crosses, littering dim lit interiors with candles and giving Goth makeovers to his victims. Imagine Darcel going shopping for bulk candles at Costco or Michael’s to get his crafts. A wannabe, pathetic vamp lover/fan girl, Alex (Meadow Williams), provides comedic relief by worrying that she can’t go to the club if she ages. Oh, honey, you can go. Alex acts as a placeholder warning to viewers not to confuse the image with the reality of cruelty.
“A Place Among the Dead” needed a bit more connective tissue near the end, which has an oneiric, experimental feel. The offscreen collapse of Juliet and Dev’s relationship and Juliet’s mental state felt precipitous, not gradual, though there were earlier expressions of concern. It did not feel plausible that Juliet and Dev would fight, or that Dev would leave her alone. When Juliet starts complaining about a lack of sleep, it feels random since it is the first time that she complained about it. Maybe going to the club robbed her of a good night’s sleep, but a throwaway line of dialogue could have solved it. If Darcel was more developed, there could have been a supernatural explanation for these disruptions. As Juliet explains what is happening to her, it is the problem of telling, not showing what is happening.
“A Place Among the Dead” feels like a mashup of an experimental, impactful take on “Hollywood Babylon” (1992) meets “The Blair Witch Project” (1999). Though a fake documentary, the narrative is more reminiscent of found footage films in which the process of filmmaking ensnares the filmmakers in the dangerous subject that they are studying. The fatal flaw of a found footage protagonist is acting as if the camera will protect them. If Landau had leaned into the experimental, autobiographical side of her film even more and discarded the horror aspects of the narrative, her directorial debut feature would have been a leading innovative standout for 2023, but the vamp elements drain the film of its uniqueness.
