John Carpenter makes a welcome return to my list with this 1998 vampire movie. You could of guessed the vampire bit from the title really couldn’t you? Again for a JC movie it received mixed receptions from the critics with a 6.2 from IMDb but Rotten Tomatoes hated it with a 40% score. So we will have to have a bit of a look at this one to work out why. Starring James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell and Tim Guinee. That maybe why then no big star names in the line up. For me finally seeing Sheryl Lee in something else was good and Daniel Baldwin always tries hard. Then there is James Woods and now I have that Family Guy James Woods song in my head. Damn that is going to be stuck in there for a while. Someone to care for, to be there for I have James Woods. Sorry! OK the numbers are a little sketchy on this as it cost $20m to make and made $20.3m from the box-office which is poop and let’s be honest about that. I shall move onto the plot before explaining all the scores. Someone to do for, muddle through for. You have James Woods… damnit!
We are in an age where Vampires are rife across America but they are clever and hide in small villages or lonely or deserted homes or farm lands. There are now bands of Vampire killers who have crafted a well designed formula for taking out them pesky Vampires. They have a hive type set up with goons and then head vampires. No vampires die the same but the main attack method is to go into the house tanked up and then you stake the vampire/goon with the end of the stake attached to a winch and out they go to the sunlight boom sunlight turns them into very crispy bacon. The gangs of Vampire slayers are commissioned by the church and James Woods is someone to tend to, be a friend to. I have James Woods. OK Character name for the rest or this will just keep happening. John “Jack” Crow is one of the leading vampire slayers and after a successful day in the field they head back to a motel to rest well… party with a bunch of hookers with a ton of beer all paid for by the Vatican. In the midst of the party a master vampire bursts in and kills nearly all of them, but there is something different about this one he is stronger and knows Jacks name. The only survivors of the massacre is Jack and his number two Tony Montoya along with a hooker who has been bitten but still alive. They later return to bury their colleagues and head to speak to a priest about what the hell is going on. They are appointed a new priest and are not out to hunt the hunter. The Vampire now has a telepathic link with the prostitute and they learn that this Vampire is after the black cross which will give him the power to cope with sunlight and thus making a supreme killing machine without any risks and thirsty for human blood. It is now a race against time with a band of four Jack the expert Vampire Killer, his number two, a hooker with a link to the master and a priest who Jack hates. How is this going to end probably at high noon or midnight at an epic battle of death and death.
That’s enough of the plot now. Someone to share joy or despair with, whichever betides you. Sorry all I can say is that it is a good thing that I don’t have many James Woods movies in this list. Just like the last movie I went into this one with a prejudiced but this time without everyone telling me how much I am going to like it but this time it was how bad this movie was going to be. Well this time I was expecting pants and I got something watchable which is why I have it on a par with the other around it. Would I recommend it yes but do not expect the greatness that had become associated with John Carpenter as this is run of the mill spooky horror. I feel that JC was aware that the whole vampire shtick isn’t scary anymore so he went for a spooky adventure movie but people were expecting horror. Well they got very small pockets of horror with more action than anything else.
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