Plot Summary: In Boys from County Hell, the legendary vampire Abhartach emerges from his grave. It is up to a father and son, and their crew of road workers to save the town.
Legend has it that Bram Stoker's Dracula wasn't really an original idea but heavily inspired by local legends.
One such theory is that Dracula was based on the Irish legendary creature, Abhartach because Bram Stoker passed through a quiet little county and learned the story from the locals.
Boys from County Hell is based on that very rumour. In the movie, it is believed that Bram Stoker does pass by their little town which is why the local pub is named after him: Stoker. It is also due to this that many tourists flock to the place, eager to see where Bram Stoker found his inspiration.
It is always fascinating to see where writers find their inspiration, is there not?
Now Abhartach isn't exactly the typical vampire we've read in books. He was an evil, dwarfish creature who tormented the citizens until they decided to kill him and bury him. But the very next day, he reappeared and the citizens once again had to kill him to protect their town.
In one version, Abhartach would return to drink blood and of course, no one was willing to give him that.
When he returned yet again, the citizens came up with a plan to bury Abhartach upside down and place heavy rocks atop his grave so he can't get out.
And that is where he remained for years.
In Boys from County Hell, Abhartach finally emerges from his grave. The story is about it after all.
BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL Movie Plot
When the movie begins, we see an elderly couple watching TV and drinking their tea. It is when the old lady finds a drop of blood in her tea that she calls to her husband. She has too much blood dripping from her nose. But her husband is unable to see anything because he has blood leaking out of his eyes. A trail of blood oozes from under their couches and trails out.
It is some weeks before now and we are introduced to Eugene and his friends William and SP. Eugene is clearly struggling to buy his own alcohol but his friend William is there who buys him drinks and believes in his outlandish ways to make money. When William's girlfriend Claire, reminds him that Eugene needs to settle his tab, the boys get lucky when a tourist couple comes to the Stoker pub because they want to track the places Bram Stoker has been to.
Eugene and his friends immediately agree to take them to see the cairn where Bram got his inspiration for Dracula. The price? A couple of beers.
The couple instantly agrees and set about on the hike up to the place where a cairn is which is to be left undisturbed.
The boys narrate the tale of the Abhartach before scaring them which pisses off the tourists who leave. The Boys wonder if the couple will now break up because the guy scared too easily.
Eugene later funds bones in the basement of his mother's house and immediately thinks of calling archaeologists and earning some extra cash so he can get out of this little town, but when his father Francie learns of his son's plan he reprimands him and forbids him from ruining his mother's house.
Upset and drunk, Eugene hangs out with William late at night, near the cairn when suddenly William is attacked by something that looks like a boar.
William dies and in the next scene, everyone is already at the funeral, paying respects.
Francie runs a construction company and is given the assignment to make a bypass road in the area which means the cairn has to be taken down.
The crew workers are reluctant to do that but Eugene takes it upon himself to topple the cairn just to show his father how responsible he is towards his work.
He does exactly that with a bulldozer and later, leaves the area under another crewman's supervision, Charlie.
But Charlie is attacked and the next day, he cannot be found anywhere. Plus, the cairn is back in its place.
Thinking it's a prank by Charlie, the cairn is taken down again.
Francie dismisses the idea of contacting the police for Charlie's disappearance. Soon enough, Charlie simply walks into the office in a dishevelled state.
Eugene is the only one who takes pity on his state and offers to take him to see the doctor, but Charlie attacks him in the car causing Eugene to crash his car against the bulldozer.
Chaos ensues as Charlie is found to be behaving monstrously. It takes Eugene, his friends and Francie to finally defeat him and bury him under a pile of rocks.
This is also when Eugene and Francie learn that Charlie had turned undead and removing his heart doesn't do the trick either.
But now the road crew has learned the Abhartach has escaped after a trail of blood leads to the cairn and a grey foot pops out.
Eugene, Francie, Claire and SP freak out and run to the closest house which is William's. William's father is in disbelief as the story is narrated to him while Eugene places a call to the sheriff describing Abhartach as a man with grey colour skin looking to attack people for fun. The sheriff thinks it's a prank call but there isn't anything much going on in the sleepy little town so he agrees to take a look around.
In the meantime, the four learn an ugly secret William's father, George, has kept from the town. After seeing his wife's grief, George had dug up his son and used a rock from the cairn to bring him back to life. This causes Pauline to go into shock as William wakes up. But he isn't human anymore and has to be kept locked up.
Eugene convinces George that the guy he has locked up isn't his son anymore and definitely isn't the sort of person who would willingly buy a pint for his friends considering he's a vampire and all.
George agrees to kill his monster son but the plan backfires when Pauline awakens from her catatonic state and shoots her husband in the arm.
William isn't too pleased with that kind of domestic violence and slits Pauline's throat before feeding on her.
Eugene and his friends and father run out of the house and try to get into the car but it won't start.
George comes out again and states that while he can't shoot his son, he will kill himself but as luck would have it, he is out of shells and William attacks his father.
Meanwhile, the sheriff awakens in the middle of the night to pee and is shocked to see blood but not overly so.
As viewers, we have been told that people start oozing blood whenever Abhartach is nearby. The creature doesn't need to attack and feed. He simply has to be near a person and they would start leaking blood and a trail forms right up to him.
BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Eugene, Francie, Claire and SP come up with a plan to contain William in a coffin but he is too strong and attacks everyone before being stuffed into a coffin.
Eugene goes in search of SP, knowing he was hurt and finds the fridge open, and his friend in front of the TV with a beer in his hand.
He declares this was the way he always wanted to go and dies.
The remaining three decide they need to find a way to defeat Abhartach but when Claire learns her parents are leaking blood too, stays with them.
After all, the movie is called Boys from County Hell and there is no place for her in the climax.
Eugene decides that Abhartach must be buried again and must be hiding in his mother's house because of the bones he had found earlier.
Father and son head out there and are promptly attacked by Abhartach.
Francie has his leg almost ripped out and Eugene learns that everything he knew about vampires was wrong, including them disintegrating in sunlight.
So Francie encourages his son to stake the creature and bury him under rocks.
In the chaos, Eugene is unable to find a suitable weapon and Francie offers his leg.
As Abhartach approaches, Eugene stabs the monster with it and then buries him under rocks.
The town is safe for now and all the citizens awaken.
Three months later, Claire is going away while Eugene is now officially part of his father's roadworks company.
His main concern is to make sure there are enough rocks atop Abhartach. His father...it isn't quite certain whether he reattached his leg or using a prosthetic.
The movie ends without showing a full shot of Francie.
Boys from County Hell is a fun film and the comedy is just right without being too over the top.
The legend of Abhartach could be further explored and the creature itself needed more screen time.
Nevertheless, whatever screen time it had was effective.
Scare scale: 4/5
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