Vampires

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: October 30, 1998

6.3	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 319 Ratings

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JLuis_001Nov 15, 2018

I had been told that here began John Carpenter's decline and I finally had the chance to see it for myself. Even though he had already shown his failures in Village of the Damned.

1 of 57 users found this helpful156

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SpangleSep 20, 2017

John Carpenter's Vampires is one of those 1990s action films that honestly gives audiences a constant state of deja vu. Though we may know we have never seen this film before, the plot, characters, action, and dialogue, are so intenselyJohn Carpenter's Vampires is one of those 1990s action films that honestly gives audiences a constant state of deja vu. Though we may know we have never seen this film before, the plot, characters, action, and dialogue, are so intensely generic that it feels very familiar. Fortunately, in this cheese and camp, Carpenter does manage to make a rather entertaining film but to call it any good would be quite the over-statement. As resident gun and stake-toting badass Jack Crow, James Woods and crew are tasked with hunting down vampires for the Vatican. However, upon finding a nest in the desert and not finding its "master", Crow and crew stumble upon a supremely powerful vampire, Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith). A 12th Century Priest who renounced God and was turned into a full-on vampire by a botched exorcism done with a black cross, Valek is searching for this cross once more to complete the ceremony which would allow him to become immune to the effects of the sun. Though possessing interesting twists to vampire folklore, Carpenter's film is just so cliche it is hard to truly endorse this film as anything better than aggressively average.

Turning vampires into a Hawksian western, John Carpenter does add a nice bit of stylistic flair to the lore. This element is certainly bolstered by the strong cinematography from Gary B. Kibbe, which gives the film the gritty and decidedly western look that Carpenter so desires. This visual element is just one of the appeals of the film, as Carpenter's additions to the vampire story are often rather interesting. Dispatching of the lore regarding garlic or crucifixes, Carpenter's vampires can only be killed via the sunlight or a stake through the heart. Though revealed through rather grating exposition right after we learned all of this information, these interesting touches make the vampire a far more formidable foe and one that must be fought via action, not with words. This crusade, as a result, becomes one with great stakes and purpose as these are not, "a bunch of **** **** hoppin' around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents." Rather, they are strong and powerful beings that are fully endowed with the dangerous power their sin has brought them.

However, Carpenter approaches this film is such a generic fashion. With an action lead loaded with one-liners, a tragic past that influenced him to become a vampire slayer (and one he mentions every five seconds to give him a backstory), superiors who want to hold him back, a crew of friends who mostly die, an ally who stabs him in the back at the climax, and a super villain who wants to become super strong and is searching for that which will complete his strength, Vampires is a film that feels more akin to one made by Marvel than John Carpenter. Known for his unique worlds filled with cheese and adventure, Vampires is one with a great look that just never establishes worthwhile characters or a valuable plot. Instead, it is just more of the same in the action genre, complete with a badass tragic hero, a fun friend, and a damsel, all of whom must go into battle against this wicked being.

Carpenter's action scenes further betray his established style by simply being generic and repetitive. Each gory showdown with the vampires is exactly the same as the last one as Carpenter relies too heavily on the crutch of dragging them out into the sun or the in-close hand-to-hand combat preceding them being out by the Jeep. The scenes play out the same each time and never really have any tension. Though they may look cool, there is very little substance to them. Instead, it just feels as though Carpenter is running through a checklist on how to make an action scene without any inclination to innovate or change anything. Relying upon his deus ex machina of the sunlight until the very end as the only way to kill them or Valek, especially in the heavily lazy final showdown between Valek and Jack where he fortunately himself in a weakly structured building that can collapse in just the right way to only expose Valek to the sunlight and not bring the whole building down. Lazy, predictable, and exceedingly dull, this action scene exemplifies everything wrong with this film. For such a formidable foe to have such an easily accessible kryptonite simply never inspires any thrill or excitement, robbing the film of a climactic and triumphant feeling of victory.

The film is further betrayed by cheesy one-liners and juvenile jokes, namely when the Priest is on the screen ironically enough. Asking the Priest if he got "wood" when Jack threatened to beat him up, the film returns to this as the Priest confesses to getting some "mahogany" at the end of the film at the realization that he could fight these vampires as well. With other cliche one-liners littered throughout this film, the dialogue feels exceedingly lazy as Carpenter reaches deep into his bag of cliches to find ways to lighten the mood.… Expand

0 of 29 users found this helpful029

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alejandro970Feb 7, 2021

Rednecks vs. vampires. The idea had to say something in its favor but it was not 100%. Why? The abuse of vulgar humor, the scary scenes that are only half fulfilling, and a villain who lacked a more dynamic personality. Better luck next time?

0 of 30 users found this helpful030

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frederik1478Jun 21, 2020

A very good enjoyable John Carpenter film, From his 90s output this is not the worst he has made a very fun Action horror film I would say that all this cinematography is as good as you can expect from him so it is not bad to look at, IA very good enjoyable John Carpenter film, From his 90s output this is not the worst he has made a very fun Action horror film I would say that all this cinematography is as good as you can expect from him so it is not bad to look at, I would recommend it strongly… Expand

0 of 46 users found this helpful046

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