I like Carpenter's earlier work like The Thing, Halloween and The Fog among others but Vampires fails to be a great horror film. It has many great gore effects but nothing more. Carpenter is legendary horror director but this time he seems to be pretty tired.
The film deals with a vampire hunter played by James Woods who is catching vampires with his "army". He knows there is a master vampire somewhere and by destroying him, he would save the world from "vampire virus". What follows is gore, splatter, often bad humor and blood. And did I mention gore?
It is nice to see that he had guts to do the film this bloody and didn't want it to be some PG13 crap without any personal touch. The effects are pretty excessive (the split scene at the beginning is interesting!) and effects group has made fine job. Vampires would've been far more interesting piece of horror cinema, if Carpenter had included his skills in the tension and atmosphere department too. If you want brainless splatter, then you may like this one..
Well, it could've been far worse but I was expecting little more from John. He is still one of my favourite directors and his classics will never die. I hope he will be able to do something personal again.
5 out of 10.
The film deals with a vampire hunter played by James Woods who is catching vampires with his "army". He knows there is a master vampire somewhere and by destroying him, he would save the world from "vampire virus". What follows is gore, splatter, often bad humor and blood. And did I mention gore?
It is nice to see that he had guts to do the film this bloody and didn't want it to be some PG13 crap without any personal touch. The effects are pretty excessive (the split scene at the beginning is interesting!) and effects group has made fine job. Vampires would've been far more interesting piece of horror cinema, if Carpenter had included his skills in the tension and atmosphere department too. If you want brainless splatter, then you may like this one..
Well, it could've been far worse but I was expecting little more from John. He is still one of my favourite directors and his classics will never die. I hope he will be able to do something personal again.
5 out of 10.