Written by Daniel – It’s a cheap kids film! and as far as cheap kids films go, it’s fine. In all honesty I really like the look of this film, its style is pretty cool. But as for the film’s events and certain representations, it’s pretty dated (even by 2014 standards).
The film centres around Draculaura, who has been lead to believe that she’s going to be the next Vampire queen. In reality Lord Stoker (whose been given the responsibility to find the next Vampire Queen) has chosen Draculaura to use her as a puppet leader and shape the world to how he wishes it to be. Upon discovering this, Draculaura goes on a world wide treasure hunt to try and find the rightful queen, eventually leading them all the way to Hauntlywood.
As cheap animated films go, I quite like how it looks, it has a very Tim Burton colour pallet (if that can be considered such a thing), by which I simply mean it’s colours have this hazy, murky quality to them which is fitting to this light-horror genre. The character designs are pretty much what you’d expect for a toy tie-in film. Their design is Bratz but spooky, considering this is the 9th film from this franchise, I’m going to assume they must be pretty popular. As you would expect the film is full of references to the classic Universal horror movies of the 30’s this is perhaps most prominent in some of the character designs of the older characters, such as the teachers at the high school.The settings too are pretty impressive, the scale of them are pretty impressive, but there are also a lot of sets that have been made for the film. I expected the film to be set within the confines of the high school, but instead we do a lot of travel. Opening in the cinema, we then go to Transylvania, then to Lon-doom (London), New Goreleans (New Orleans) and finally to Hauntywood. The sets have a very theatrical look about them, again evoking this 30’s Universal Horror look. Though it really got me thinking of Tim Burton again, who I suppose is a safe influence for children’s animated horror (certainly preferable to the overused Scooby-Doo! aesthetic in these kinds of films). The walls seem to have a life of their own, evoking the feel of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), which is helped by much of the films dynamic lighting.
We also get plenty of references to contemporary films namely the Twilight franchise. Where this film really falls down however, is that for a sizeable portion of the film, we don’t really have anything to do with Hauntywood/Hollywood. It has more of a feel of Tin Tin (1991-92), or perhaps rather National Treasure (2004, 2007), as Draculaura and her friends are taken around the world in a treasure hunt-esque chase to find the real Vampire Queen. Each location they end up is loosely tied in with the arts and writing/directing/acting, but so loosely it feels like a writer was asked to write a film about Hollywood but simply didn’t want too. A close comparison would be with Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood (2016 (two years later)) which is a great Scooby-Doo! film (but an awful Lego film). Haunted Hollywood, succeeds over Frights, Camera, Action! as Scooby-Doo! confines itself to the Hollywood studios, exploring different genders and styles by going around the different film studios. For a film called Frights, Camera, Action! you would expect to have a film about films as opposed to a National Treasure rip-off with a few semi-constructed jokes about Hollywood tagged on at the end. Frights, Camera, Action! did not need to tour the world or have an overly distracting plot of the Vampire Queen, it only ever needed to be a much simpler affair exploring different genders around a large film studio. This film has given us to narratives, and we only really needed one of them, what’s even worse is there was a focus on the narrative which is less interesting and certainly not captured in the films title.
Much in the Tin Tin and National Treasure spirit the film is full of problematic stereotypes of nationality. This is only really seen in two moments of the film (or at least most prominently) as Draculaura and her friends visit Londoom and New Goreleans. As pretty as the setts are, they are distinct caricatures, as are the characters, with their exaggerated accents it’s just difficult to wonder why they even tried. In addition to this our main characters are just a bit unlikable, they have the best intentions when it comes to their quest, but when it comes to their interactions with the wider world and it’s people they’re just a bunch of privileged bratty kids who force their way into getting what they want because they expect it, and on multiple occasions during the film this comes at the expense of people worse off than them. I think the film attempts to pass these moments off for laughs, but it’s just not funny. It’s certainly not something children’s media should be encouraging children to find funny.
The best part of the film is that the end credits contain deleted scenes in which Hoodude Voodo spoofs famous Hollywood movies. It’s genuinely the most charming and sincerely humorous part of the film. The film tries so hard to be funny, but simply just isn’t. It’s full of awful puns as these franchises tend to pull, however in this case half of them don’t even make sense. Namely, “don’t judge a bat by it’s wings”, I get it’s a reference to “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but without context, I don’t see how the two phrases are equatable, I certainly don’t know how it’s meant to be funny. By far the strangest attempt at humour is “Scareintino” which is the main director on the Hauntywood set, who is clearly a reference to Quentin Tarantino. What is so strange about this is that he is depicted as a wind-up Edgar Allan Poe, when Draculaura and her friends first meet him they have to wind up his key for him. Before he wonders off talking to himself about ninjas and explosions. It’s a joke for the parents, presumably. But it’s so weird. Why is Tarantino depicted as a wind-up Edgar Alan Poe?
Some moments in this film can be quite nice. One such moment which sticks with me is a cut away from Draculaura’s quest, back to at the High School where two groups of girls are arguing over who is the more handsome actor. One girl attempts to break up the fight by stating how it is dangerous to form emotional connections with people in the media who you’ll never meet, “looks don’t make the monster, I can’t just crush on a shadow I’ve only ever seen on the silver screen. I mean, it’s what in his heart that counts. You can’t judge a bat by it’s wings” there is a slow zoom on the girl as she speaks, it’s a sincerer moment, and the groups of arguing girls are made to appear foolish for ignoring her. [“You can’t judge a bat by it’s wings” is such an awful line, but the sentiment is nice]. Meanwhile all the boys in the school fail to tell the difference between the two actors, this is significant as the arguments continue, the school decides to hold a trial in a following cut away from Draculaura’s quest (I’m not sure what these cut-away’s add except for time, but I’m quite glad for them, as they make up some of the most interesting moments in the film). The conclusion to the trial finds that the two actors are in fact the same person. The photos they have are of two different characters, played by the same actor whose been digitally altered. Undermining all the girls crushes as not being real (just as the sensible girl had warned earlier).
So in summary, we have a film which looks good, looks great. However, damaged by a feeling of being lost. It’s two films which don’t connect very well together, full of unfunny jokes and troublesome representations. The film shines in its moments of insignificance such as the cut-away moments in the high school or the end credit parodies, presumably because they are scenes which didn’t really matter all that much, allowing the writers to do things that actually interested them.
FNORD 
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