Based on the novel Vampire$ by John Streakley, John Carpenter’s Vampires deals with a modern day (for 1998, at least--when the film was made) team of vampire hunters who are led by Jack Crow (well-played with gusto by James Woods), a tough-talking, take no prisoners type of guy who absolutely hates vampires, whom he calls goons. Fully funded by the Vatican to hunt down and kill the vampire scourge wherever it’s found, Jack’s team travels with a priest who gives the vanquished goons the proper last rites. At the start of the film, Crow and his team have tracked down a nest in rural New Mexico and decide to hit it during the day. Using an arsenal of weapons especially created for vampire killing, they stake the vamps in the house one by one, then have the winch on their Jeep pull them outside, where the harsh desert sunlight finishes them off.
The job goes off smoothly, and Jack and his boys celebrate at a motel later that
night with hookers and booze. But Jack is still bothered because they never found
the master vampire, the leader who rules the nest. But the master vamp, whose
name is Valek, hasn't forgotten about them. He crashes the slayer party and slaughters everybody at the motel--with the exception of Jack, his right hand man Montoya (William Baldwin) and Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a hooker who’s been bitten by Valek. Montoya wants to just kill Katrina--she’s just going to turn into a vampire eventually--but Jack brings her with them, because Katrina may well offer a solution for them to hunt down Valek and get some pay back.
Unlike the rampant "romantic vampire" trend, which has basically become another
variation on the romantic novel/movie, Carpenter infuses his vamps with a real
sense of menace. Crow even explains to a newbie priest that real-life vampires
are nothing like how they are in movies--and JC’s Vampires changes the
legend to the point of giving the vamps a better and more interesting origin.
While I don’t mind the romantic vampire version (True Blood is one of my favorite
shows), I’ve always preferred the more monstrous and scary vampires, as seen in
such films as 30 Days Of Night (which also starred Mark Boone Junior, who
appears here as one of Crow’s fearless vampire hunters).
Unfortunately, JC’s Vampires isn’t Carpenter’s best work. After a killer opening,
the film’s pacing slows down a great deal--especially at the end, where it feels
like it’s moving at a snail’s pace. And the constant, super macho posturing of
Woods and Baldwin can start to wear thin after a while. And keep the kids away
from this one, as it’s rated R for a very good reason: the graphic gore is
intense enough to warrant the rating, but the foul-mouthed language was enough
to make a sailor blush. But if you’re a vampire fan--or just a rabid
horror movie fan in general--Vampires is another engrossing and entertaining
horror film entry in the vampire genre that makes great use of its New Mexican
locations. Unlike Twilight, this is a rough and tumble vampire/action flick for the boys.
--SF
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