Vampires is one of my all time popular movies, but to be stunning, I could not give it five stars. However, I believe anyone who likes anxiety, vampire movies or spaghetti Westerns MUST gawk this film at least once.

Vampires has almost everything it needs to be a truly vast apprehension flick — and it is ample enough that I’ve been obsessing over owning the video ever since it left the theaters. It has expansive performances — James Woods, of course, can always perform me cringe, laugh or melt with startling ease, and it looks like he had a lot of fun with his role as obsessed vampire slayer Jack Crow. Supporting cast was solid, direction was crisp and expeditiously, the camera work was unbelievable, costuming and props were chilly (cherish the slayers’ tools and Valek’s coat!), and Carpenter’s collect suits what’s going on onscreen perfectly.

Ironically, two of the best performances in the flick — Thomas Ian Griffith as Valek, a genuinely scary and sensual vampire badguy, and Sheryl Lee as Katrina, a nascent vampire being stale by the slayers to track Valek down — had the least to work with where the script is concerned. Neither were given enough lines, but managed to do more with expression, tone and body language to produce their characters believable than many people could have done with ten times that amount of dialog and conceal time. Griffith especially was given short shrift in this department, but tranquil manages to terrify and enthrall.

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Vampires is also bold. Jack Crow (many of whose lines Woods improvised, to sizable achieve) is absolutely uncompromising — tough, flawed, mean, hot-tempered, and nearly as vicious as his quarry. He’s the kind of person who will literally do whatever it takes to regain the job done, and that’s hard to perceive at at times. And no, he’s not a nice guy. He’s not PC (thank GOD!), which apparently irritated a lot of movie critics when Vampires came out. In fact, Jack Crow is a dependable bastard. He’s also the only kind of person who would actually have the guts, and the bloodthirst, and the reach suicidal singlemindedness, to actually go and hunt vampires. He’s not here to charm us or even spare our feelings; he’s here to effect our butts. He’s unnervingly fun to peruse.

So, too, is his archnemesis, Jan Valek, who is good up there among my top ten Common Movie Badguys. Valek grabs the insipid, “vampires as lonely, romantic figures bemoaning their lost humanity and constantly falling in care for with mortals they can never be with” image that has infected the vampire mythos of unhurried and rips the living $^%$%^$@# out of it. He’s a frigid, scheming, vicious, arrogant, merciless, occasionally sadistic killer to whom humans are either tools, or food. He doesn’t give interviews. He doesn’t romance women who enjoy a resemblance to his lost like. He doesn’t go clubbing or win embroiled in human politics or retain human ‘pets’/servants. He is every scuttle the radiant, cunning predator, completely alienated from human kind, and is undeniably a threat. He’s also disturbingly alluring, which in a outlandish draw impartial makes him even more frightful. And, like Crow, he doesn’t do things halfway. Piss him off, he’ll seduce your woman, rush all your friends apart and creep you down no matter how lickety-split you hasten or how far you go. The movie illustrates this with a gory directness which is both disturbing and refreshing.

Ok, so that’s what Vampires has going for it. Here’s what it is lacking: staunch studio backing and funding. I don’t know who dropped the ball on this one, but Vampires definitely needed a bigger budget. It needed to be about half an hour longer for character development’s sake, the effects needed cleaning up in a few places, and the scriptwriter needed to be taken to a deserted station and had a gun held to his head til he revised out the cornier lines (“Unstoppable unless we finish him”?!? “I’ll snap your neck like a twig”?!? Reach ON!) and assign in about three or four more revisions to even out the general myth pacing, fix some of the dialog and GIVE KAT AND VALEK MORE LINES AND Shroud TIME! .

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Sony/Largo/whoever also screwed up where promotion is concerned. There was almost NO advertising of Vampires once the movie actually came out, even though it was #1 nationwide its first week in theaters. The planned second soundtrack (with Marilyn Manson, etc) was to my knowledge never released, nor was there a ‘book of the film’, a ‘making of’ or any posters, etc. created besides the movie poster version you leer on the front of the video box. Hello?!? Vampires made it to #1 for that week glorious grand on its absorb merits. With some genuine relieve from its studio and distributor it could have done a lot better and also been a better movie.

Just my $0.02.

Jack Crow (James Woods) and his band of renegade wannabe Van Helsings are modern-day vampire hunters. Together they bag and ruin the world? s bloodsuckers, and are supported by the church in doing so. One day, seemingly like any other, they station out to rid the world of yet another? nest.? Honest like suitable heroes they raze all vampires reveal. However, they sign that it is quite unfamiliar that there seemed to be no master explain in this particular group of fiends. Brushing that notion aside, the group heads to a local motel to party in celebration of the day? s victory.

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Their party is prick short when the master makes his presence known by killing all explain at the party with the exception of Jack Crow and his partner Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), as well as one random prostitute. This master vampire bites the prostitute and then leaves her with the two remaining vampire hunters. Since she, as she gradually turns into a creature of the night, will have a telepathic link to the one who bit her, Crow keeps her around to lead him to this atrocious nighttime fiend. When the church is questioned regarding this particular vampire, Crow discovers that there is more to this vamp than meets the discover. With a newly acquired church representative in tow, Crow and Montoya area out to destroy the bloodsucker.

Though this is not the best of Carpenter? s work, he can really do no nasty in my book. His secure, though highly cliched, is memorable. The script can be? dangerously cheesy? at times, but that is, in fact, share of the point. The religious undertones are inviting as well. The characters are all well cast, and the acting is gigantic considering the less-than-stellar script and dwelling they had to go with. It? s enthralling to peek the slightly different recall vampire lore. However, the status centers around the hunters, particularly Jack Crow, thus placing the vampires themselves in the background and effectively giving them very itsy-bitsy depth (ok, non-existent depth with the exception of Valek, the head vampire) .

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Nonetheless, this film is extremely favorable of a rental and should not be over-looked by fans of the vampire genre. The opening scene immediately sucks you in and leaves you wanting to ride along for the plug. I would recommend buying this only if you are a die-hard Carpenter fan like myself, as there are indeed better movies of his out there (try Prince of Darkness for one) and better vampire genre films as well.
Colon Cleansing