Summaries

Synopsis

NOTE: "Thrall" is from an Old Norse word meaning "slave." Slavery wassupported by Norse mythology, which claimed that thralls had a separateancestry through the god Rig. In Thralls, a thrall is a half-vampire, the "white trash of vampires." They often serve in bondageto a full vampire who keeps them in check by promising to make them fullvampires one day.

Thralls opens with a short narrative regarding an ancientdemon named Beli-al and how the saying aloud of his name resulted in theword becoming flesh, and the flesh becoming the centuries-old book knownas The Necronomicon. Between its covers, hidden within ancient ritualsand archaic superstitions, was contained a spell so powerful that, just todecipher it would drive the reader insane. Centuries passed, and the nameof Beli-al and The Necronomicon faded away.

Cut to a nice house somewhere in suburban Iowa. Rennie [Richard Cox] drives up tothe house and goes upstairs to a white room in which six women, alldressed in white, are chained by their ankles. He tosses them a rat fordinner. Then he notices an errant chain. Following it, he finds a chewedoff foot and is immediately staked through the chest by Roxie [Fiona Scott], thefootless thrall. Roxie and her five "sisters"-- Leslie, Lean, Brigette, Buzz,and Tanya -- escape. As they make off in Rennie's car, they are attackedby their master, Mr Jones [Lorenzo Lamas]. He grabs Tanya, rips out her heart, takes abite, and utters in exasperation, "Women!" as the remaining thralls speedaway. Time passes.

Pig-tailed Ashley [Siri Baruc] can no longer live at home now that her alcoholicfather is dead, so she has come to live with her sister Leslie [Leah Cairns]. As Ashleywaits for Leslie in the bus station, she is hassled by a gang of thugslooking for "a good time." Suddenly, Leslie shows up. Leslie gives Ashleythe keys to her car and tells her to leave the bus station while Lesliestays behind to deal with the punks. A few kickpunches later, the thugsare coldcocked. Ashley is duly impressed. When she asks Leslie how shelearned to fight like that, Leslie promises that they will have a talk.

Leslie is one of Mr Jones' escaped thralls. She and her sisterthralls now run a very popular nightclub. Just ask Doughboy Jeff [Kevan Ohtsji] who,accompanied by his cousin Jim [Shawn Roberts], is biting at the reins trying to get intothe club and get himself some "bitches." Tonight is the Winter Solstice,the longest day of the year, and Doughboy and Jim are ready to experiencetheir first rave. After Ashley has had a chance to freshen up, she ordersa bottle of water at the bar and meets Jim. The two of them hit it off,until Cisco [Nigel Vonas] gets into a fight with Jim over Ashley. Lean [Sonya Salomaa] breaks up thefight, Brigitte [Moneca Delain] takes Cisco to the back room "where we put troublemakers,"and Ashley and Jim take seats at a table.

Ashley notices that Jim's nose is bleeding, so she goes to the backroom for a first-aid kit. When she hears heavy panting through the door,she peeks through the vent to see Brigitte going down on Cisco. Suddenly,Brigitte sprouts fangs and bites him. Ashley is taken aback and returns tothe dance floor to find Jim. When Ashley tries to tell Jim that she sawBrigitte biting Cisco and drinking his blood, Jim concludes that Ashley isnuts and ditches her. Jim looks around for his cousin Doughboy and finds him in thedeejay booth with Roxie, who is just about to put the bite on him. Jiminterrupts, telling Doughboy what Ashley just told him and asking for thekeys to their car so he can leave. Doughboy hands over the keys and, whenRoxie excuses herself for a few minutes, Doughboy takes over Roxie's jobas deejay.

Roxie runs to Brigitte, and Brigitte runs to Lean, who is working thedoor as a bouncer. Lean switches places with Brigitte so that she can havea talk with Leslie about the need to clue in Ashley to the fact that theyare thralls. Lean tells Roxie to get Leslie while she goes to the backroom to speak with Ashley who is packing her bags to go home. When Leanattempts to explain that they are "different," Ashley thrusts a cross inher face, starts screaming "Vampires!", and runs up to the deejay booth,hoping to get help from Doughboy. Lean, Brigitte, and Buzz [Lisa Marie Caruk] corner Ashleyoutside the deejay booth. Trying to back away from the thralls, Ashleyfalls over the railing, but the thralls form a chain and catch her justbefore she hits the floor. While the dancers cheer at what they think wasa stunt, Leslie whispers in Ashley's ear, "I guess it's time we had thattalk."

The thralls attempt to explain themselves to Ashley, what it means tobe a thrall, how they only drink enough blood to survive, don't kill orturn their victims, can't fly, and how Mr Jones is the one who made themthis way. But they think that they may have found a way to attain fullvampire status and get back at Jonesy. Lean has gotten her hands onThe Necronomicon and learned that, by performing a ritual to Beli-al on theWinter Solstice at midnight, they can raise themselves to full vampirestatus. Tonight is the Winter Solstice, and it's already 11:40.

Out in the parking lot, Jim is searching for the car when he noticesa big bat that turns into Mr Jones. The next thing he knows, Jones isstanding beside him. Rennie, still with the stake sticking out of hischest, hits Jim from behind. Jones leaves Rennie to bite on Jim with hisfake fangs that keep falling out, while Jones himself goes into the club.Once inside, he takes over the deejay booth, ordering all the patronsoutside. When Cisco gets mouthy, Jones simply rips out his spine. Buzzattempts to stop Jones with a gun, but Jones puts a knife to Lean's neck.When Buzz informs him that the gun is loaded with silver bullets, Jonesdrops the knife and releases Lean. Buzz hands the gun to Lean and walksaway. As Buzz passes Jones, he reaches out and quickly pulls out Buzz'sheart. Lean turns the gun on Leslie and Brigitte. It seems that Lean is incahoots with Jones, who is the one who arranged for them to escape withThe Necronomicon, forked over the money to set up the nightclub, and paidfor them to throw this rave on the longest night of the year. In returnfor Lean's help, Jones promised her that they would rule together for alleternity. When Jones tells Lean to retrieve The Necronomicon and Leanmentions that it's in the back room with Leslie's little sister, Jonesdecides to get it himself.

Meanwhile, in the back room, Ashley has been readingThe Necronomicon. Jones comes in and attempts to sweet talk Ashley intobecoming his "little girl," but Ashley will have none of it. She hits himin the forehead with a cross just as Jim, who has managed to get away fromRennie and re-enter the club by crawling through a ventilation duct, dropsdown from the ceiling. Jim grabs Ashley's hand and they run out on thedance floor where Lean is still holding off Leslie and Brigitte with herform of hundreds of bugs and then reconstitutes himself. Ashley warnseveryone about what the ritual of Beli-al is really all about -- Jones isgoing to release the demon so that it will be under his power.

Suddenly, Rennie enters and stabs Ashley. Rennie retrievesThe Necronomicon and hands it to Jones. It's almost time to perform theritual. As Ashley lay dying, Jones begins to chant. Jim pleads with Leslieand Brigitte to do something for Ashley to keep her from dying, but theyexplain that as half-vampires they cannot turn anyone. But twohalf-vampires equal a whole vampire, don't they? What if Ashley is bittenby both Leslie and Brigitte? It's worth a try.

Beli-al's head appears. Jones invokes him to come forth and yells toLean and Roxie in the deejay booth to turn up the power from the psychicpower collector in which Roxie has been storing the psychic energygenerated all night by the dancers. Roxie tries to stop Lean fromreleasing more energy, but Lean shoves a stake through Roxie's chest.Before she succumbs, Roxie manages to grab an iron bar and toss it at thepsychic collector, breaking the collector and dissipating the power flow.Beli-al's head disappears from whence it came.

Jones is POed. When Lean tries to explain to him what happened andreminds him of his promise, he hands her off to Rennie, who can't wait totaste her blood. Lean wants nothing to do with Rennie and, in her struggleto get away, she falls on him and impales herself on the stake stillsticking out of his chest. "Men!" Lean exclaims as she dies. Jones informsLeslie and Brigitte that he's going to take them back home, when suddenlyAshley flies in. She's turned into a full vampire, lost her pigtails, andsomehow managed to learn martial arts as she commences to beat up onJones. Jones turns into a bat, and Ashley offers herself to him as "freshmeat" if he'll let up on Leslie and Brigitte. When Jones flits down for abite, Ashley runs a sword through him.

As Ashley hugs Leslie and Brigitte for making her into a vampire,Jones gets up from the floor, a bit more contrite now that he's beenbested. After getting Ashley to pull the sword out of his gut, he tries tocut them a deal. Since Jones is the one who put up the front money for theclub, he offers them an 80/20 split, 80 for him. No dice. 70/30? 60/40?"How about a nice even split...five ways?" suggests Ashley and chops Jonesinto five easy pieces with her sword. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]