Vampires (1998)

Okay staring this review off I want to say I do love this film but I'm I'm no way going to let my love for the film get in the way of my review if there's flaws with this film I will surely point them out.........okay so we follow Jack Crow the head vampire slayer played but James Woods which did a really good job you can defiantly feel John carpenters hands all over this film as it feels almost like a western and vampire mix the characters are very sharp and had a lot care put into the script which isn't unordinary coming from a novel based film.......the vampires are scary,bloody and what vampires are suppose to be the plot overall works but at times I find myself wanting more vampire scenes! Other than that the direction the film took I think couldn't have gotten much better John carpenter as well as all the other people involved with the making of this film did an excellent job and this film deserves more cult followers than it has I being one of the only ones if your a fan of vampires and classic scary vampires then defiantly give this film a watch

Fmovies: John Carpenter is America's greatest living director of westerns. Although "Vampires" is his first literal western, JC's been turning out 1st rate original westerns from "Assault on Precinct 13" to "They Live" and "Escape From New York" to "The Thing". Even though these movies don't take place in the west, they have all the ingredients of a good western: the lone hero/outlaw, the seige or attack, the showdown, and plenty of action. "Vampires" takes place and was filmed in the southwest (filmed in Sante Fe, NM). Carpenter's DP Gary Kibbe captures some nice wide John Ford-ish western vistas, and Carpenter's minimalist score capture the desolate, hard nature of the place. The real asset of this film is its cast, especially James Woods as the insanely tough and foul-mouthed slayer Jack Crow. He really does some inspired improvised riffs, and when he's not kicking ass Woods has a lot of fun with it all. Jack Crow is a classic Carpenter hero: all man, flinty eyed & completely alone, and Woods plays this unsympathetic character with such a quick wit you can't help but admire the guy. Thomas Ian Griffith plays a great Valek, the master vampire whom Jack has sworn to slay. Griffith plays the character completely straight, and it works extremely well. Griffith is an imposing figure, and you get a real sense of the nobility & savagery of Valek's character. Compared to Woods, Griffith underplays his role, but still commands a very real presence of power & evil. Carpenter stretches the $20 million dollar budget well, but you can sometimes "see the zipper down the monster's back". Despite a few fake looking wounds or rubbery stakes, Carpenter delivers a polished & stylish film, on par with movies costing 10 times as much (better in some cases). I believe Carpenter works best with a little larger budget, but he should stay away from the typical Hollywood giant budget, he works best with a smaller production. "Vampires" is a treat for any Carpenter fan, and hopefully marks the beginning of a new standard in his films.

Who but John Carpenter would have the savvy to make a "vampire western," and do it so well? His WILD BUNCH is a blue-collar crowd doing a dirty job, led by the cocky James Woods (whose wisecracking but nonetheless no-nonsense approach to hunting vampires reminded me more than a little of the early SPIDER-MAN- the one written by Stan Lee and rendered by Steve Ditko). And, just for the record, the movie IS better than the book. MUCH better. Carpenter manages to evoke a sense of time and place that seems to capture the FEEL of the southwest. The music definitely helps in this regard, but it's the director's filmmaking TECHNIQUE that makes this the almost "spiritual odyssey" that it is. When was the last time a movie made you feel you were THERE...?

Vampires fmovies. The crusader Jack Crow (James Woods), Anthony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and their team are vampire slayers working for the Catholic Church under the command of Cardinal Alba (Maximilian Schell). When they find a vampire nest near Mexico, they exterminate all the vampires but their master Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) that is hidden below earth. Jack, Montoya and their friends go to a motel to celebrate with prostitutes. However, Valek comes to the motel, bites the hooker Katrina (Sheryl Lee) and kills all the vampire slayers but Jack and Montoya that flee taking Katrina with them. Jack has a meeting with Cardinal Alba that asks him to join another team. Jack leaves the meeting with Father Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee) and decides to hunt down Valek using Katrina as a bait. Will they succeed?

John Carpenter's Vampires is an entertaining underrated film with a perfect combination of terror, action and humor. There are many funny lines and the casting is perfect. Sheryl Lee is extremely hot especially on the bed scene where she is nude. Once again John Carpenter makes a great film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Vampiros de John Carpenter" ("John Carpenter's Vampires")

The modern American west has been overrun by bloodsucking ghouls, and the Catholic Church hires a crew of fearless exterminators to hunt down the undead and drag them into the sun.

I can certainly sympathize with Jack Crow's (James Woods) partner Anthony (Daniel Baldwin). I do not know if I could resist turning into a vampire with Sheryl Lee doing the biting. She would make me want to avoid daylight for eternity.

This was an action-packed adventure with Thomas Ian Griffith as the chief vampire, and Oscar winner Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg), as the Cardinal that did not want to die.

Oh, that Sheryl Lee! It was only brief nudity, but it was all she had to offer.

The movie opens with a trained, fully-equipped team of vampire slayers, led by Jack Crow (James Woods), methodically purging a "nest" of its fanged occupants. This is one of the best scenes of the movie and sets the viewers up to think, "Hey, these guys know what they're doing. They're some rough-and-ready characters."

But, lo, where is the master vampire? Not to worry, he'll have his chance at revenge...later that very night, as the "trained" vampire hunters go to the nearest town, lay down their weapons, and begin drinking and whoring. And they knew full-well that a master vampire, whose "subjects" they'd just fried, was still lurking about! How stupid can you be???!!!

The movie marches on, showing carnage and betrayal as the plot is advanced. (And, frankly, it's not a bad plot). But there are many holes, many questions that are not answered, like, Why was such an mysterious and important item (a cross that would permit a vampire to walk in the sunlight) guarded by such a inept group of robe-clad nincompoops, who, according to their own harried screams, knew "The day has arrived!"? If they knew that a particularly horrific "day" was inevitably going to "arrive," why, then, did they lack even a modicum of defensive capability. Why were they caught frantically scampering around like a herd of panty-clad Dr. Smiths (from TV's Lost in Space..."Oh the pain, the pain of it all..."). Oh well, we'll never know, and they're too dead to tell us.

Be that as it may, this movie does have some good dialogue, interesting characters, a unique idea or two, and an actual plot--which makes John Carpenter's "Vampires" stand head and shoulders above most of the horror movies that are out today. I enjoyed it despite its defects.