Director: Kathyrn Bigelow
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
After meeting a strange woman, a young man finds himself abducted by her friends and is soon ingrained into the group of vampires, but after a couple of encounters, they force him to realize he’s not a human anymore and must decide where his allegiances lie when his family tries to get him back.
Review:
This did have some good moments. The best qualities of the film are its three solid action scenes which provide quite a jolt throughout when they occur. The bar scene is quite fun to watch, simply due to it being the first time there are some actual victims beyond the short scenes of them out stalking and hunting random victims along the road. From the stalking of the bartender to the assaults on the patrons and the short little intermission with the teenage cowboy, there’s some great stuff here alongside the carnage on display that makes for a fantastic highlight seeing just how ruthless and vicious the group can be. The later shootout in the motel amounts to the film's greatest action scene, as the bullets fly around inside the small room with the sunlight filtering in burning the vampires and a fiery, gory climax really makes it stand out. The final showdown, which allows for some really nice gore scenes as well as the big final battle between the two, has a lot to like overall. Combined with the fantastic gore and make-up effects, these are the film’s best points.
There’s not a lot to dislike here but it does have some issues. Among the main issues here is how it treats the main group, including the fact that the villains here are so obviously vampires and nothing is specifically mentioned about that. As there’s no mention of the term, fangs, or even the traditional methods of dealing with vampires such as being staked in the chest, garlic, crosses, and holy water which is completely missing in any way, shape, or form from the movie the only way we know they are is being exposed to sunlight and the blood-drinkings. These don’t act like the traditional impression of vampires, and the change is kind of out there for a lot of the old-school to adapt to as the change in appearance and behavior is enough to cause some grievances with vampire fans. Despite the ingenuity of trying to survive in the sunlight with one of the more clever tactics to do so, trying to do none of the more common tropes and tactics associated with vampire lore without much explanation doesn’t strike as that impressive.
The other factor that drags this one down is the complete lack of action. Since the beginning is relegated to just having the new recruit around and his ability to accept what has happened, which just drags on. There are only two big action scenes and they're both near the end of the film, leaving it to wallow in boredom at the beginning with all the rules being explained and him having to come to terms with the condition. This is just deathly boring and nothing of much happens, rendering it so hard to sit through. The ending is also one of the film's biggest flaws. The reversal of the vampiric condition applied to the one character is quite believable as it was a short while ago that it occurred, but to have it done to the second participant is a little out there. It’s been mentioned that the one had been a vampire for several years before the film started, and with the amount of time to get used to the specific variations between the two to have that simply changed in a simple operation is quite stupid. All things considered, this one felt overrated.
Overview: ***.5/5
With a few really good moments in this and some minor flaws that hold it back, this is a mildly overrated vampire film that won’t really disappoint much unless the flaws are far more detrimental than most. This will mostly be recommended for those new to the vampire genre or who aren’t too bothered by the negative factors, but veterans or hardcore horror fans will be severely disappointed with this one.
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