The Twilight franchise may have drained its last vein, but vampires of all sorts still remain fairly popular. Indie horror flick The Impaler tries to put a Romanian spin on things, then, taking it all back to the origin story of Vlad the Impaler by dropping a bunch of visiting Los Angeles teens into his old castle, and having the blood flow through an obligatory summoning-gone-wrong.

Some of its budget fixes work okay — at one point director Derek Hockenbrough inventively sidesteps the messy practical requirements of an on-screen stabbing by cutting to just after the moment of violence within a scene — but The Impaler overall doesn’t really have the resources to convincingly pull off its period piece flashbacks with the “real” Vlad, or even sustain tension for long stretches. A plot strand connecting one of the kids to the legacy is both sketchy and familiar, and the actors are all a bit old to be playing high schoolers (it would have been much better to age them up, without any real consequence to the story).

Still, the script — a collaboration by Hockenbrough, Diana Busuioc, Daniel Anghelcev and cinematographer Steve Snyder — at least gets the sense of circle-of-friends joshing and bickering right, as with a mock-argument about the difference between pumps and stilettos. There’s also an interesting idea that the filmmakers basically nip from Seven, about the sins or moral weaknesses of the American interlopers playing into their respective fates. One wishes this had been introduced earlier and interwoven with a bit more devilish flair, as it’s certainly a distinguishing element. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. The Impaler opens exclusively in Los Angeles at the Laemmle NoHo7. For more information on the film, click here to visit its website. (Full Moon Films, unrated, 86 minutes)