I Woke Up a Vampire review: Unintentionally camp and poor in quality

I Woke Up a Vampire is a family fantasy series following Carmie Henley, a young girl who wakes up on her 13th birthday to discover that she’s half-vampire. The episodes are streaming on Netflix.

Story

Carmie Henley finds out that she’s a supernatural creature called a vampling, the daughter of a vampire and a human. She is a part of a group called Blended, who are the offspring of Humans and Mythics.

She gets all this information with the help of her best friend, Kev, who is a comic book fanatic. Carmie is being hunted by Dylan Helsing, a boy her age who comes from a long line of hunters.

She also makes friends with another Blended, Madison, who is a werewolf. A shapeshifter is after blended for nefarious purposes and Carmie has to stay safe with the support of her friends.

Performances

Unfortunately, many of the performances are quite basic and in some cases, annoying. While these young performers deserve some credit for their efforts, they are still rough around the edges in this series.

They can be guilty of going over the top on occasion and come across as silly or inexperienced.

Positives

Keeping in mind the significantly younger target audience, this series still has the makings of a good time. The pacing is brisk and there is some semblance of an interesting story to keep viewers engaged.

Negatives

The special effects are appealing with some truly atrocious uses of the green screen. The practical makeup of the creatures is slightly better but not a marked improvement by any measure.

There is no tonal balance either. The story rushes along and there is no clear indication of what emotions any particular scene is supposed to evoke.

The directors should have done a better job coaxing good performances from their cast but they fail in that aspect considerably. It is quite pedestrian.

The peripheral characters are poorly written and have confusing motivations which are clear by their appearances.

Verdict

I Woke Up a Vampire is a children’s show that is quite disappointing. It is easy to get through and if one is not too critical, one can still see the allure, but there are far too many flaws within this series to actually take it seriously.

There are promising building blocks, but what is finally delivered is low-grade and ridiculous.

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Also Read: I Woke Up a Vampire summary and ending explained