COFFIN MOON

The unlikeliest of monster hunters teams up with her uncle, a burned-out Vietnam vet, seeking revenge.

Feeling his oats after the knockout twofer of Fever House (2023) and its sequel, The Devil by Name (2024), Rosson returns with an even grungier throwback, dressed up as a vampire-infested road novel. In December 1975, just outside Portland, Oregon, roughneck bartender Duane Minor knows he’s on thin ice. His wife, Heidi, a college student who dreams of becoming a writer, is none too pleased with his PTSD and burgeoning drinking problem. Duane is managing to just hold down his in-laws’ bar, the Last Call Tavern, but he knows something funny is going on with the business. Meanwhile, Heidi and Duane are both trying to connect with Heidi’s 13-year-old niece, Julia, who was reluctantly sent to them after her mother murdered her stepfather. It’s a rough scene made worse when Duane has a bad run-in at the bar one night with a bunch of bikers led by one John Varley. After the century-old Varley viciously dismembers both Heidi and her parents, Duane and Julia hit the road seeking vengeance. For horror fans, this is closer to crime fiction than loftier vampire fare—think Richard Lange’s terrific outlier Rovers (2021) or From Dusk Till Dawn in lieu of tortured immortals in velvet capes. Julia’s character takes a dramatic turn after they encounter a sanctuary dubbed the Children’s Museum, led by an ancient, lonely creature called Adeline. Even as he and Julia navigate this bizarre subculture, Duane’s defining characteristic remains the conflict between his inner demons and his outer ones. “You want that man to come forward, that killer I was, but I’ll drown if I do it. I’ll die,” he swears. Meanwhile, John Varley and his psychotic “thrall” leave a bloody trail across the country, chased by one broken man and a little girl with nothing but half a dozen silver bullets to their names.

A pulpy, entertaining throwback about bad men and real monsters.