Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26291 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Latin
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first few minutes of John Carpenter's Vampires--in which James Woods' vampire killer leads a dawn raid on a New Mexico "goon nest" of bloodsuckers--not only suggests a horror movie that refuses to pull its punches, but even evokes some of the more disturbing dream-memories of American Westerns. Muscular and uncompromising, the sequence suggests a new Carpenter classic unravelling before one's eyes. Things don't quite work out that way, but this is still a film to reckon with. There are a few serious (and surprising) misjudgements on the director's part, particularly a mishandling of Sheryl Lee's role as a prostitute poisoned by the bite of a "master vampire" (who pretty much wiped out Woods' team of goon terminators). But aside from some weaknesses, the action is jolting, the suggested complicity of the Catholic Church in destroying monsters is provocative, and the traces of Howard Hawks' continuing influence on Carpenter's storytelling are in evidence. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Original Theatrical Trailer
Filmographies
Commentary By The Director
Featurette
Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\Icelandic\Norwegian\Spanish\Swedish

Customer Reviews

John Carpenter turns his hand to vampires...
This is not so much a vampire film by John Carpenter as it is a John Carpenter film that just happens to have vampires in it. Carpenter returns to the vampire western setting immediately reminiscent of Near Dark, but this is a very different movie, not least because it focuses on the "other side".

Jack Crow [James Woods] is out for revenge after the vampire master Valek [Thomas Ian Griffith] kills off all but one of his slaying team (which was in itself an act of revenge...nevermind). To track him down, Woods uses a prostitute, Katrina [Sheryl Lee], who has developed a psychic link with Valek after being bitten. Also with him are his remaining slayer pal Montoya and naive priest Father Adam. Once Valek is revealed to be the first vampire on a mission for omnipotence, Crow certainly has his work cut out...

Crow is a standard hardened cynical hero, tough and efficient, happy to use threats to get results. He works for the establishment but plays by his own rules (becoming a habit with these modern slayers...). Much like all the major Carpenter leads, he finds himself set up and has a job to do. This flawed crusader role fits James Wood perfectly, and he delivers the cycnicism cuttingly, especially as regards the church he works for.

Valek is a scary presence, supremely powerful, ruthless and swift in his killings. In fact, he is much like an evil Crow. Griffith's presence resonates whenever he is onscreen, monstrously tall with faint veins running along his pale cheeks. However, after his initial attack upon the slayers, there is very little for him to do other than be chased down by Crow. What we do see is through his eyes as Katrina's psychic link develops, and while the attempt to focus on the slayer may be deliberate, it is somewhat self-defeating with such an impressive central vampire character.

Baldwin's Montoya seems to be lacking something, although perhaps it is just Woods' charisma as Crow, but Lee's Katrina is played well, evoking sympathy for the treatment she received from the cold slayers. Her fear is also clear as she feels herself slowly slipping away as Valek's bite seems to be taking hold.

There are some unusual methods of vampire slaying deployed in the early sequence: staking them, then winching them out with a truck into the sunlight where they burst into flame, writhing and screaming. These slayers are far more professional, and far less eccentric than the stereotypical breed, however. In short, they are more human. Carpenter's pacing is also careful after the opening sequence. Short bursts of violence serve to build up the tension towards the final confrontation that the audience knows must happen.

Vampires is quite simply stunningly beautiful. It is a visual feast, where rusted trucks and ramshackle buildings become abstract art. There is a great use of deep red lens filters, making the dusk scenes look much richer. The scene in which the vampires rise from their graves is truly amazing. This is all combined with a superb accompanying soundtrack by Carpenter himself.

Ladies & gentlemen & vampires, Let's get ready to rumble!!!
John Carpenter proves he hasn't lost his mojo with this darkly intriguing film featuring two of the most frightful creatures on Earth: vampires and one of the Baldwin brothers. I love traditional vampire stories with suave and debonair Dracula types, but sometimes you just want to get down and dirty with the creatures of darkness and bring an edgier type of horror to the banquet. Jack Crow (James Woods) and his crew of modern-day vampire slayers don't mess around, a fact which is made clear in the most vivid of ways in the opening scenes of the film. We join the fun at an old abandoned house somewhere in the Southwest U.S., a location that has been identified as a probable nest of bloodsuckers. The guys load up, move in, and find themselves in a personal war as these vampires tend to subscribe to the old "the best defense is a good offense" strategy. While the gore is not excessive by any means, there's blood enough to somewhat sate the avaricious desires of the horror-loving viewer, and I could have watched vampires being hauled out into the sun to spontaneously combust all day long. Crow is a little bothered by the fact that the "master" he expected to find in the nest was a no-show, but he doesn't let that stop the party the boys throw back at the hotel. Cheap booze and cheap women are the main attractions, and even the team's priest (none other than Julio from Sanford and Son) ties one on. Crow himself is on the verge of a little excitement with a hot little number named Katrina (Sheryl Lee) when the master he was looking for earlier decides to crash the party.

Crow escapes with his right-hand man Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and Katrina, a vampire in the making. Crow hopes to use the psychic link that will develop between Katrina and her creator in order to pinpoint the powerful vampire's location. A consultation with the Catholic priests overseeing the whole secretive vampire-slaying business provides him with an unwanted new helper in the form of Father Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee) and the knowledge that he is not dealing with just any old vampire - he is dealing with the legendary Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), a renegade priest who became the first recorded vampire in history back in the 1300s. Throw the rules out of the window because this thing is personal now, and Crow will stop at nothing to destroy this most powerful of enemies. An interesting subplot involving Montoya and Katrina makes for a more human link between audience and film, but the deadly battle between the forces of good and evil and the mayhem and destruction it brings remain the real focus of John Carpenter's Vampires throughout. Maximilian Schell makes a wonderful contribution to the film, Sheryl Lee is outstanding in my opinion, and even Daniel Baldwin pulls off an impressive performance. In the end, though, it is Woods and Griffith who steal the show.

John Carpenter's Vampires is a bold and refreshing vision of vampirism in an age when good vampire movies are quite rare. Woods really seems to relish his role as vampire slayer, evoking the type of obsession that was required of his character. How often are you going to see a priest roughed up and slapped around in the interest of good vs. evil? The opening twenty minutes of this movie are just fantastic, yet Carpenter manages to carry most of that same passion and energy throughout the remainder of the film, closing out with an ending that truly satisfies and takes nothing away from what has come before. Frankly, I had only recently heard of this movie, but in my opinion it deserves a lot of attention. It numbers among the best vampire movies I have ever seen.

A fun take on the vampire legend.
Hee Hee! I really liked this film. I've always loved John Carpenter's stuff anyway ("The Thing" - ooh!) but found a lot of his more recent stuff just a little too sick/gory. This film is a welcome return to his tamer work which has that tongue in cheek feel to it without distracting from a superb horror element.
James Woods is superbly cast as the head vampire hunter and really makes the film his own. Daniel Baldwin is an endearing sidekick, but it is the vampire-butt-kicking priest that often steals the scene.
It's one of those films (which is common right now in the vampire arena) that offers yet another explanation for the creation of The Vampire and alternatives to the common myths of crucifixes and garlic etc. It's not your typical "stake 'em and we all live happily ever after" vampire film, but instead ends rather sadly with one of Wood's character's good friends being "turned" and many vampires left un-defeated.
Woods and his team have a rather odd technique to killing their vampires which is indicitive of Carpenter's style. It's a kind of quirky film with it's serious moments as well. The head vampire is rather more realistic that the traditional sexy vampires you'll find in films like Fright Night, Dracula 2001 etc. (altho they too are fab films). Instead, this vampire is rather pale, veiny and cold and pretty brutal. That said,
the vampires aren't scary as such and this is not a particularly scary movie. It is however fun, intreging and a must for Carpenter and vampire fans.
If you don't take it too seriously (which I don't think you're meant to), you'll not be disappointed.