John Carpenter's Vampires Review

by Simon Calloway (moise17 AT aol DOT com)
March 14th, 1999
'Vampires'

by Simon Calloway

Cast: James Woods; Daniel Baldwin; Sheryl Lee

Vampires is one of the slickest vampire movies to come out of Hollywood is quite some time. In fact, I would even go as far to say it is one of the most entertaining; it ranks right up there behind Interview With the Vampire (1994) and the original masterpiece, Dracula (1931).

Not much in the plot department. Basically the film tells the tale about main vamp slayer Jack Crow (Woods) and his search for the all-mighty master who is, also, on a search of his own: To locate a cross that can give him the power to walk in the sunlight. In this pic, the vampires aren't scared of crosses, don't sleep in caskets, don't mind garlic, etc. I was a little disappointed about all that stuff. I like the old fashion sense of when vampires slept in coffins.

The amount of gore in this film is surprisingly high. From the director of such classics as Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1983), I knew the film would be violent, yet the level of blood is ominously higher than usual, like Carpenter was hiding plot holes with carnage, something that he has never done. Halloween was actually filmed vise versa, with suspense and atmosphere frightening instead of gory violence.

Based on the novel 'Vampire$,' Vampires is a stylishly made, high-octane thriller, but, undoubtably a little disappointing. Instead of all that crimson, maybe Carpenter should have made the master a little like Michael Myers, all silent, never really seen til the last reel, pounces in sudden frames. Overall, Vampires lacks a certain bite, but is nonetheless gruesome fun.

***
~TeenViews (c) 1999~

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