Vampires: Review By Vamp

This is another great vampire movie. For some reason I hadn't seen this movie, and yet my Mom had it in the living room. I don't know what came over me, but I finally watched it and was blown away with it. It's one of the most interesting vampire movies I have seen, and yet it was spun off of a book. A book that I'm going to have to get my hands on!!!!!

So the director of this movie was of course John Carpenter, a visonary master in my opinion, what he doesn't direct he usually writes, and he's done so incredibly with many movies, like the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Christine. I always enjoy movies done in any way by John Carpenter, and this movie was no different story, it was incredible.

The visuals in this movie, like always in a John Carpenter movie, were incredible. The scenes where the vampires and Valek would vamp out and freak on people were incredibly intense to watch unfold, and all the scenes where blood was shed, looked so real. It's one of the few instances where you see realistic looking blood and I was happy with that. Also, I liked how the vampires looked. Pale and intense with staring black eyes. Also, the weapons that Crow and his team had were very advanced, yet realistic looking, and I enjoyed watching them being used.

The storyline of this movie is an intense one. A group of vampire slayers working for the Vatican and the Catholic Church go out on a vampire hunt, and after a very sucessful hunt, minus finding the master vampire, they retire to a hotel in the desert where they have a party with lots of hookers and such. However, this party is soon interrupted, by the master vampire himself, who calls Jack Crow out by name, after killing the entire group except for Jack Crow and his partner in slaying, Anthony Montoya. They must now go out and hunt down this master vampire so that he cannot be unleashed on the world. This was a gripping story, and I loved it. The vampire action coinciding with the whole end of the world plot was very intense, gripping, and fast paced, and I was impressed with the total outcome.

James Woods. veteran of many movies, and a wonderful actor, plays Jack Crow, a man whose father was bitten by a vampire, and kept it from Jack and his mother. Soon his father attacked his mother, and Jack was forced to kill him, and his mother. The Vatican soon took Jack in and trained him to be a master crusader and slayer of vampires. He carries this job out well, that is, until they raid a house in the woods without finding and killing the master vampire, and leave to a motel. Soon the master vampire shows up and kills the entire party, except for one Hooker, Katrina, whom he had bitten, Jack, and Anthony Montoya, Jack's friend. Soon Jack and Anthony must use Katrina to try and track down this vampire. When Jack goes to see his boss from the Vatican, he learns that the vampire that attacked him was Jan Valek, a former priest who had an inverse exorcism performed on him, that turned him into a vampire, and thus he was the first and most powerful vampire. Soon Jack also discovers that Valek is after the cross of Brussier, the cross that was used in his inverse exorcism, and once he gets this cross he can finish the ritual and walk in the daylight as well as in the moonlight. Jack and Montoya with Katrina's aid must now try and stop Valek, and deal with a finickey new priest by the name of Father Adam Guitoe, who was forced into their team by Jack's boss. James Woods does an excellent job in this movie, his character is a real ass hole at some points, but he cares, and that's a hard role to get down I'd think. Being tough yet deep down having to show enough care for what he's got. He does nicely, and it was a very convincing job as well.

Anthony Montoya, Jack Crow's partner and only survivor of the massacre at the hotel in the beginning, is played by Daniel Baldwin. All the Baldwin brothers are great actors and in this one Daniel does not disappoint, his role is another hard one to get down it seems. Montoya has to take orders from Jack while at the same time going against his morals, and when Jack decides to keep Katrina to help them find Valek he isn't happy, but soon he falls in love with Katrina, but she bites him, and he has to keep this secret from Father Guiteau and Jack so that Katrina will not get in trouble and he will not be shot. When he learns what Valek is and plans on doing he immediately starts to help Jack and find ways of bringing Valek down. It's a very strange and interesting role. He's a man falling in love with a woman while the both of them are slowly turning into vampires, but he pulls it off very nicely, and it was very convincing.

Father Adam Guiteau is played by Tim Guinee, who has been in a great many films one being Iron Man. His role in this is another strange one. He is a priest who is used to being the archivist for the Vatican and he is thrust by his boss into working with Jack Crow. He knows many things, and he tries to keep to the book, but he soon finds out that Jack doesn't like to have secrets kept from him and he is thrown about and beaten up and soon he realizes that Jack is doing the right thing and tries to help. His character has much development that he goes through. In the beginning when you first meet him he is a nerdy sort of priest but soon he drops all this and toughens up so that he can focus on the job at hand, stopping Valek and saving pretty much the entire world. Tim Guinee does very good in this role, and he has a pretty funny character, and he's good at being funny, so he was a great addition to the cast.

Sheryl Lee, whom I don't really know that much, plays Katrina. Katrina is a hooker who is bitten by Valek at a party for the vampire slayers, and she begins to change, but as she is the only one besides Jack and Montoya who survived the massacre that ocurred at the hands of Valek in the beginning she must travel with them, but things don't go exactly as she thought they would. She has been bitten and they do not trust her at all at first. She is tied to a bed and kept restrained. Montoya seems to be brutal with her, but he has her best interests at heart, as well as his own and the entire world's interests. She soon finds out what is going on. She was bitten by the master vampire and now has a mental link to him, and they are using her to spy on Valek. She agrees to this because it's the only reason they even brought her with them from the hotel. She soon begins to fall in love with Montoya though and she is constantly trying to fight off the impending vampirism that is ever threatening her. Even though she doesn't have that many lines, Sheryl Lee does very well with this role. She is very good at playing a sick person and she does a convincing job playing a woman whose body is changing because of the bite of a vampire.

Jan Valek, the master vampire, is played by Thomas Ian Griffith, who is another great actor and he is a very good vampire. Jan Valek is a vampire, the first vampire of them all, and he was created thus by an inverse exorcism that was performed on him when he was a young priest. This ritual was only halfway done though as he was interrupted and supposedly burned alive. He survived, however, and became a blood sucker, a walker of the night. He is six hundred years old and he is the oldest and most powerful. He's got inhuman strength, and a link to pretty much every other vampire in the world. He seeks the Cross of Barrier, the cross that was used in the ritual that turned him into a vampire, so that he can complete the ritual and be able to walk in the daylight as well as the moonlight. However his nest in the desert is soon disturbed by Jack Crow and his team, and he is the only one that survives, as he had hidden himself. When night hit, Valek arose and murdered the entire team and all of the party guests except for Jack, Montoya, and Katrina, who now try and stop him. Such dark roles would seem to be hard to play, but Thomas Ian Griffith does incredibly well with this role, and it is a very creepy result. I really liked his character, and it was very convincing.

All in all I'd say this is another must watch vampire movie. I suggest you go out and buy it. Even if you aren't a vampire movie person you should go and rent it because it's a very good thrill ride to watch!!!!!