STOKING THE MYTH (BOYS FROM THE COUNTY HELL)

Legend has it that Dracula isn't actually Romanian.

Irish author Bram Stoker may have set his celebrated vampire tale in Transylvania but some claim the legend he based it on originated in Northern Ireland.

Retired Ulster University academic Bob Curran told the BBC in 2018 that Stoker had a keen interest in Irish folklore and based his character on the Celtic chieftain Abhartach, who is purported to have been buried between Garvagh and Dungiven in Co Derry/Londonderry in the townland of Slaughtaverty.

Local legend has it that Abhartach was one of the walking dead who terrorised the local community, demanding a bowl of blood every time he appeared.

He was eventually put to the sword - a special sword made from the wood of a yew tree and was buried upside down.

According to Mr Curran, the story was familiar to Oscar Wilde's mother who he believes passed it on to Stoker who was a regular visitor to the family home in Dublin.

The writing and directing team of Chris Baugh and Brendan Mullin have taken the legend of Abhartach and given it a distinctive Co Tyrone twist in the comedy horror film 'Boys from the County Hell'.

The movie, set in the fictional town of Six Mile Hill, is in the same vein as their bloody farmer revenge tale 'A Bad Day for the Cut' and reunites them with that film's lead, Nigel O'Neill.

Jack Rowan plays Eugene Moffat, the son of O'Neill's local building contractor Francie.

Eugene likes to rake about with his pals in the local pub, The Stoker - so-called because the celebrated 'Dracula' author once visited there.

Guzzling pints with his best friend, Fra Fee's William Bogue who is a local Gaelic Football star and son of the local undertaker John Lynch's George, the duo banter with Louisa Harland's Claire McCann who works behind the bar.

Claire is also William's girlfriend, although he is planning to quit Six Mile Hill to spend time in Australia and hasn't broken the news yet.

Spotting two Canadian tourists, Eugene and William cadge a carryout from them in return to taking them to a local landmark that inspired Stoker - a pile of stones where Abhartach is purportedly buried.

Laying on the local mythology quite thick, the boys admit to never having read 'Dracula' but they have another friend, Michael Hough's SP McCauley primed to leap out from behind the grave with a fake Monster hand and scare the wits out of Jordan Renzo's Christian who angrily storms off with his girlfriend.

There are strange goings on, however, in Six Mile Hill.

Lalor Roddy and Stella McCusker's elderly couple Elliott and Pearl have died in their living room watching TV - bleeding profusely from their nose and eyes.

Tragedy also strikes Eugene's pals when, returning from a boozy night, he witnesses William being gored by a bull but also tumbling onto the grave - one of whose stones pierce his jacket.

George and William's mum, Andrea Irvine's Pauline are overcome with grief.

Eugene is turned away from The Stoker by its landlord, Conor Grimes' Thomas and animosity in the town grows when Francie takes on the contract for a new bypass that requires Abhartach's grave to be demolished.

Eugene, SP and Claire are employed by Francie on the site but their efforts to demolish are soon frustrated.

And when strange things start to happen when Morgan C Jones' local Charlie Harte goes on nightwatch on the site, it soon becomes clear that the spirit of the undead has been unleashed on Six Mile Hill.

Director Baugh and his co-writer Mullin have already shown they can handle bloody action sequences and infuse them with a dark sense of humour in their previous feature.

However the 'Boys From The County Hell' taps into a  'Shaun of the Dead' sense of humour, albeit a bit more culchie (Irish slang for rural).

Viewers will be reminded too of Robert Rodriguez's Quentin Tarantino penned vampire flick 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and as a lower budget version, it holds up quite well.

Baugh, Mullin and their editor Brian Philip Davis do a fantastic job building  up the tension and keeping the action frenetic when the undead are eventually unleashed.

The director again shows he can also elicit spirited performances from his cast - Rowan, Fee, Hough, Lynch, Irvine and Davidson Pearse as a local Police Service of Northern Ireland officer all have a ball.

Robert Strange is a menacing presence as Abhartach.

However it is O'Neill, closely followed by Harland, who takes the acting plaudits .

The former brings a finely tuned comic touch to the part of a gruff countryman.

It is also a bit of a guilty pleasure hearing Co Tyrone colloquialisms like "cub" on the big screen.

There's also a nice nod and a wink to John Landis' 'An American Werewolf in London' in one early gag.

As in 'A Bad Day for the Cut,' Baugh is rather astute in his choice of music with the Saw Doctors, Horslips, Rory Gallagher, Eddie Cochran and Richie Remo on the soundtrack - adding to the culchie vibe.

But if there's another element that makes 'Boys from the County Hell' so delightfully culchie, it is the deployment of builders vans and diggers as the vampire action heats up.

Having mastered the culchie black comedy thriller, Baugh and Mullin have invented the culchie black comedy horror flick.

I for one can't wait to see what genre they tackle next.

('Boys from the County Hell' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 18, 2021)