Blood Vessel

 A bunch of people stuck in a life raft are picked up by a nazi ghost ship... and then they're killed one by one. Not by a deranged/possessed George Kennedy; It's been way too long since I saw 1980's Death Ship, so I can't really say if there are any homages here, but barring that the only thing these two movies share is the premise.

 The castaways here are the survivors from the torpedoing of a hospital ship by a U-boat. It's a diverse bunch, but time and genre limits constrain them to caricatures - you can pretty much describe all of them with a couple of adjectives: You've got New Yorker Asshole (Mark Diaco), Tough Black Guy (Christopher Kirby), Australian Cowboy (Nathan Phillips), Compassionate Nurse (Alyssa Sutherland), Snooty Brit (John Lloyd Fillingham), and Stoic Russian (Alex Cooke).

 After a short credit sequence (which includes a very nice take of the life raft shot from underneath during a thunderstorm), the survivors run into and manage to board a nazi corvette. It's an out of the pan into the fire kind of choice, since their rations had run out, but lucky for them there doesn't seem to be a living soul on the ship.

 Or maybe not so lucky. As they search the ship they find some grisly, butchered bodies, a creepy young girl with an antique doll who constantly asks about her family in Rumanian, and... vampire hunter paraphernalia. Oh, and a pretty cool-looking carved sarcophagus, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the plot. 

Aww, they're funpires!

 It takes a while for the Vampires to run amok. That's not a huge problem, as I thought the first part was pretty effective - there's not a lot of mystery as to what's actually going on, but the way the discoveries are dispensed, and the way the cast bounces off each other is pretty entertaining; while the characters never get any development and some of the acting is a bit iffy, they do butt heads and share some fun badass moments. And failing that, they get killed at an acceptable rate even before someone opens the chained coffin.

 Once that happens and the vampires (sorry - Strigoi) come out the pace picks up with regards to character deaths, but it remains weirdly inert. Mostly because apparently Strigoi don't like moving much; a lot of the movie is them looking creepily at the camera, making hand gestures to control the people they've bitten and reacting to stuff from a distance, which... to be honest, looks pretty goofy. They do attack a couple of times, but the (excellent) practical makeup effects must prevent them from moving much because it's all quick edits that show very little actual action.

 Despite that there's enough mayhem to keep things fun. Nothing special, but still a good time. It's creepy, especially at the beginning, but it's never scary - the vibe is closer to a grim action/survival movie than actual horror. It also has precious few jokes and never descends into winking despite the brilliant pun title; That's something I can respect.

 The effects are solid, low-budget work, with some excellent designs; the cramped ship interiors make for great sets, and I loved the various creepy carvings the Nazis had looted from Rumania. The vampires are a bit more animalistic than usual, and the main Striga looks a bit like the monster in The Night Flyer. As mentioned they look kind of goofy, but in a fun way, especially when their eyes light up.
 I also really liked the cool mold-like effect on the walls near the various corpses, to show the corruption in their blood. And there's also an absolutely brilliant maquette explosion. This movie packs quite a bit of nice eye-candy; Director Justin Dix is an F/X guy, and it really shows.

 So we end up with a solid B-movie, which is nothing to sneeze at. I'd prefer the monsters to be a bit more dynamic and the action a bit better, but what we get here is still worthwhile.