Firebite
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''Firebite'' is an Australian drama/horror television series featuring
vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...
s created by
Warwick Thornton Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film '' Samson and Delilah'' won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awar ...
and Brendan Fletcher. A co-production between See-Saw Films and AMC Studios, the series premiered on
AMC+ AMC+ is an American subscription video on demand streaming service owned by AMC Networks that was launched on June 11, 2020. The service is a premium bundle that includes the live feeds and program libraries of the company's television networks ...
on 16 December 2021 and ran for 8 episodes until 3 February 2022. It stars Rob Collins, Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Yael Stone, and Callan Mulvey.


Premise

Set in a remote mining town in the middle of the South Australian desert, the series centres around two
Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
hunters, Tyson and adoptive daughter Shanika, who protect their home, Opal City, from vampires. Their lives are turned upside down when a former hunter from Tyson’s past shows up informing them the last vampire king has arrived with plans that will shift the balance in their war against the vampires. The series aims to tell the story of the
colonisation of Australia 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...
from an Indigenous perspective, using vampires as metaphors for the use of smallpox. The 11 vampires which are brought by the British represent the 11 vials of smallpox carried by the
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
, and allegedly used as a biological weapon against the Indigenous peoples of
Sydney Cove Sydney Cove (Eora language, Eora: ) is a bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, one of several harbours in Port Jackson, on the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Sydney Cove is a focal point for community celebrations, due to its central ...
and surrounds.


Cast

* Rob Collins as Tyson Walker. A former Blood Hunter, and Shanika's guardian. He uses Kangaroo Hunting as cover to hide hunting vampires. He acts immature when raising Shanika but is protective of her and keeps his community safe. He is skilled in using the Indigenous hooked
boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
in hunting vampires. His favorite song is "Black Boy" by Coloured Stone * Shantae Barnes-Cowan as Shanika "Neeks". Tyson's partner and adoptive daughter. She is proud of her Indigenous roots and despises
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
toward her and her people. Her Mum was taken when she was a child resulting in Tyson raising and training her. She loves Tyson but will speak her mind when she wishes to take the fight further with the vampires. * Yael Stone as Eleona. A barmaid in Spud's bar. She has a fling with Tyson. She's revealed to be a vampire who left the Last King to live in peace. She was a mother before the King forced her to feed on her baby resulting in her hate for him and desire for his death. * Callan Mulvey as The Last Vampire King. Last of the 11 original Vampire Lords who invaded Australia. He is cruel, sociopathic, intelligent, and ruthless. He killed Jalingbirri's team upon his arrival. * Jai Koutrae as Spud. Owner of a bar Tyson frequents often. He is partners with Eleona and knows her secret letting her buy him off for access to his tunnels. He also deals in illegal dynamite sales. * Kelton Pell as Jalingbirri. A veteran Blood Hunter and Tyson's mentor. He follows the traditional lore of hunting vampires and disapproves of Tyson's lifestyle. He chased after the Last King but was injured and saved by Tyson and Shanika from the tunnels after an ambush. He owns a modified
Semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called ...
that houses his weapons and gear. * Ngaire Pigram as Kitty Sinclair. Tyson's ex-girlfriend. He still harbors feelings but usually misses his chance. She works at the clinic and cares for Shanika's well-being. She's unaware of vampires and Tyson's past resulting in her believing he's irresponsible in raising Shanika. *Tessa Rose as Aunty Maria. The leader of her community. She knows of vampires and tries to hide their existence to avoid panic in the community. She knows about Tyson's history and tries to get him to take his hunting seriously. * Greg Tait as Smokey. A member of the community who lost all his siblings to the vampires. He wishes for revenge for their deaths. He holds Maria and Tyson responsible for hiding the truth. *
Natasha Wanganeen Natasha Wanganeen (born 20 June 1984) is an Aboriginal Australian actress. She is known for her starring role in the 2002 feature film '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'' and numerous television roles. She made her debut as co-writer and co-producer in a 2 ...
as Rona * Tessa Rose as Aunty Maria * Elaine Crombie as Coralee (2 episodes) * Sam Dugmore as Lucas


Episodes


Production


Development

In June 2021 AMC Studios greenlit a co-production between AMC Studios and See-Saw Films of an 8-part series to be written and directed by
Warwick Thornton Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film '' Samson and Delilah'' won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awar ...
and Brendan Fletcher. Other writers were Kodie Bedford, Devi Telfer, and Josh Sambono. In August 2021, Tony Krawitz joined as a director and AMC+ announced that Yael Stone, Rob Collins, Callan Mulvey, and Shantae Barnes-Cowan would star in the film. Paul Ranford and Dena Curtis co-produced the series. Executive producers were Rachel Gardner, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Warwick Thornton, and Brendan Fletcher. Simon Gillis of See-Saw Films and Kodie Bedford co-executive produced the series, while Libby Sharpe co-produced and Billy Bowring worked asas associate producer. Major funding came from the South Australian Film Corporation.


Filming

The series began filming in August 2021, and is filmed in the traditional Country of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people of the Western Desert and
Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...
People of the
Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast ( Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of A ...
in and around
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, the regional opal mining town of Coober Pedy, and at the Adelaide Studios in South Australia. Coober Pedy has around 250,000 abandoned mine shafts, and executive producer Rachel Gardner said that the town "formed the basis for all design elements of ''Firebite'', from the colour palette to tunnel studio sets. The actual landscape itself and the myriad of tunnels and caves elevated our production values exponentially".


Music

The score of ''Firebite'' was composed by Dan Luscombe and Gareth Liddiard of The Drones, and Jim White, drummer of The Dirty Three, joined them to perform the music. The soundtrack is notable for its use of Australian music only, including: * "Black Boy", by Coloured Stone, a 1984 song which has particular resonance for Aboriginal people * "Some Mutts", by
Amyl and the Sniffers Amyl and the Sniffers are an Pub rock (Australia), Australian pub rock band based in Melbourne, consisting of vocalist Amy Taylor (musician), Amy Taylor, drummer Bryce Wilson, guitarist Declan Mehrtens, and bassist Gus Romer. Their debut album, ...
* "Bow Down", by Barkaa * "I Wish Australia Had Its Guns Again", by Private Function * "Out There", by Tex Perkins and the Fat Rubber Band * "Guillotine", by
High Tension ''High Tension'' (French: ''Haute tension'', ; also known as ''Switchblade Romance'' in some English-speaking countries) is a 2003 French slasher film directed by Alexandre Aja, co-written with Grégory Levasseur, and starring Cécile de France ...


Release

On 7 November 2021, AMC released first look images and announced that the series was scheduled to be released 16 December 2021. In Australia the series was released on both
Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...
and
Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
via the AMC+ streaming bundle. It was broadcast as weekly episodes on free-to-air channel
NITV National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the six-day-a-week ''NITV News Updat ...
from 6 July 2023 as well as the associated streaming service SBS on Demand.


Reception

The review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reports a 86% approval rating with an average rating of 7.20/10, based on 7 reviews for the first season.


References


External links

* {{AMC Shows 2021 Australian television series debuts 2020s Australian drama television series Australian English-language television shows Television shows set in South Australia AMC (TV channel) television dramas Vampires in television