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Decent Vampire Flick, but Lacks Some Bite, July 23, 2004
Jack Crow (James Woods) and his band of renegade wannabe Van Helsings are modern-day vampire hunters. Together they find and kill the world?s bloodsuckers, and are supported by the church in doing so. One day, seemingly like any other, they set out to rid the world of yet another ?nest.? Just like true heroes they kill all vampires present. However, they note that it is quite odd that there seemed to be no master present in this particular group of fiends. Brushing that thought aside, the group heads to a local motel to party in celebration of the day?s victory.
Their party is cut short when the master makes his presence known by killing all present 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 nasty nighttime fiend. When the church is questioned regarding this particular vampire, Crow discovers that there is more to this vamp than meets the eye. With a newly acquired church representative in tow, Crow and Montoya set out to kill the bloodsucker.
Though this is not the best of Carpenter?s work, he can really do no wrong in my book. His score, though highly cliched, is memorable. The script can be ?dangerously cheesy? at times, but that is, in fact, part of the point. The religious undertones are intriguing as well. The characters are all well cast, and the acting is great considering the less-than-stellar script and plot they had to go with. It?s interesting to see the slightly different take vampire lore. However, the plot centers around the hunters, particularly Jack Crow, thus placing the vampires themselves in the background and effectively giving them very little depth (ok, non-existent depth with the exception of Valek, the head vampire).
Nonetheless, this film is extremely worthy 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 trail along for the ride. 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.
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