I don’t like to get too particular about star ratings, but actor Jason Flemyng’s directorial debut Eat Locals is the kind of movie that lies right on the cusp between the two- and three-star astral plains. A larky, cheerfully trashy vampire romp, it was clearly made with a budget of next to nowt and a packet of crisps for the catering table. But it has the wisdom not to take itself seriously in the slightest, and there are moments when it rustles up a few properly amusing gags and well-turned one-liners.

It helps that the cast clearly enjoy sinking their prosthetic teeth into the silliness of playing a cadre of ancient, bickering undead having an away-day meeting at a remote farmhouse when a military unit tracks them to their lair. Annette Crosbie is a particular hoot as a cuddly grandvamp who nobly lays down her knitting to hold off the invaders with a submachine gun and a Zimmer frame. On the debit side, the special and visual effects are too frequently deployed and also desperately unconvincing, and it’s a shame the script isn’t just a shade or two funnier.