Vampires (1998)

I really like John Carpenter's work. Every single time, actually. Sure, he's had some misfires and the occasional flop, but every outing his signature is clearly visible, whatever genre he wants to set his mind to. This one is no exception, even though this is one of his least succesfull films. A shame really, because it's a pretty fun hybrid of Western and vampirefilm.

James Woods plays Jack Crow, a 'slayer' trained and hired by the Catholic church to hunt down and destroy vampires. At the start of the film, you'll see the team take out a nest of them with relative ease. But they were looking for a master and that one was missing. Later that night, when the team parties hard with lots of booze and prostitutes, the master shows up and decimates the team, leaving only Crow and his sidekick Montoya alive. They discover that the master has bitten a prostitute named Katrina and take her along because she shares a psychic link. Hopefully they can track him down via this method. Turns out the vampire named Valek is looking for a specific cross in order to be able to walk in the daylight.

Spelled out like this, the story seems a little bit of a rehash of a great many other vampire inspired stories.

This is absolutely true.

However, this is not one of those films you watch for the engaging story. You want to see James Woods be his foulmouthed self and kick ass, which he is and does. Daniel Baldwin (the chubbiest of the Baldwin Brothers) is Montoya, but he isn't as charismatic as his older brother, unfortunately. Sheryl Lee plays Katrina, which is one of the few times she didn't play Laura Palmer-like characters. Too bad that's her main claim to fame, because she mostly played a corpse in that classic series 'Twin Peaks'.

Anyway, what Carpenter does nail, is the atmosphere. Which is no surprise, it is one of those things the man is extremely good at. The dusty New Mexico, the empty Western towns, the fitting music... It all works. It's as if the slayers are the marshalls, come to round up and/or kill the desperados, or in this case: vampires.

There's lots of gory deaths on display, usually involving dismemberment or decapitation and even though most of the vampire tropes are repeated here, it still is a fun watch. Granted, the hamfisted love angle between Montoya and Katrina looks more like an extreme case of Stockholm Syndrome, but that is a minor gripe. The most fleshed out character is the young priest who joins Crow's 'team' after the obliteration of the last one. James Woods just basically stays himself, swearwords and out-of-context penis jokes included.

Granted, the villain is a little weak and there is a plot twist you will see coming from several miles away, but don't let that take away from the enjoyment. This is a fun no-brainer, filled with action. It flies by at an incredible pace and you will be enjoyed. Just don't expect a masterpiece along the lines of, say 'Halloween' or 'The Thing'.