Sammy Slick: Vampire Slayer

Taking on a new case, a private eye specializing in cases of vampiric activity gets wind of a suspicious set of disappearances lurking around a strip club in the area that's just taken on a new owner, and when he finds his target enlists his aide to help him in defeating the creatures.

Overall, this was a rather fun indie effort. Among the more likable elements here is the film's fun tone and atmosphere which comes about quite well throughout. The initial setup that gives us a hint of who he is, his skills and somewhat incompetence that allows him to save the day despite getting into trouble on occasion, serves well to establish him as the well-meaning-but-not-infallible conquering hero who does get outsmarted at times but still manages to use his skills to get the upper hand. This goes alongside the fine rapport he and his assistant have that makes for a solid and engaging relationship offering enough light-hearted banter and teasing to know they're not romantically linked but it's not aggressive or egregious to the point of being unlikable and not worth following. This all gets wrapped up in the solid setup that allows for them to build a relationship together based on this setup that also provides a nice bit of investigative work to uncover the truth about the strip club while also allowing for a solid series of action scenes throughout. These encounters are quite enjoyable, offering enough confrontations where the encroaching horde trying to get to him brings about some fine low-budget martial arts sequences with the creatures and the hunter either in the alleyways of the city, in his apartment, or trying to contain the creatures while infiltrating their base. This is all fun enough to keep this one going as he can demonstrate his skillset in hand-to-hand combat while her ability to save the day against his wishes with better weaponry or smarts helps to bring an extra layer to their relationship. This is all low-budget and can't hide it, from the production values, on-location shooting, and special effects work that help to hammer this point home, especially with the brief running time and lack of big action also bringing this about. The piece-to-camera conversations describing character relationships or world-building here don't help much, either, but it's not enough to lower this one overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Full Nudity, and Violence.

My biggest problem with this film is that it barely goes anywhere. If you think of a hypothetical list of ten things that any private eye or vampire hunter movie should do to be minimally successful, this does about five of them and gives up. First up, the main character, Klein Wong as Sammy Slick... yeah. The movie is named after him, so he should be interesting, but he's just not. It's not entirely the actor's fault, because he's written to be boring. You'd think the character should be a mysterious private dick, or a witty paranormal Fangbuster type, or a bad ass hunter, or even an intellectual who masterminds how to stop the supernatural threat. He's none of those things, not by a long shot. He also not once, not twice, but three times (or more, who can fault me if I gave up counting) fails to be capable of killing the vampires they meet and has to be saved by a tiny woman. Ariella Aegen as Ashley (or Ash, when she's kicking it) starts out as a secretary who's been working there for, what, months, and then just casually mentions that she used to do a bit of vampire hunting... and then proceeds to do nearly everything of any substance for the rest of the movie. Obviously, without a doubt, this character should have been the star of the movie (which means it would lose that cloying title). And if it would have just focused on her and removed the annoying trait that she has a schoolgirl crush on Sammy Slick that involves prancing around in her pajamas or lingerie most of the time (WHY?!!!) this movie would have easily been five times better. She's still kind of two-dimensional, don't get me wrong, but it's because she's in the role of the wish-fulfillment love interest side character instead of he main star. Other issues: All the sets look beyond cheap. Sammy's office is just a closet. He spends most of the time at home, where his bed is positioned in front of a door so the camera can see it through the doorway. The strip club that is supposed to be vampire HQ is just somebody's living room with the furniture removed and the dancers standing on a carpet in front of men (and a surprising number of women) not more than a few feet away. There's no attempt at a stage, a pole, a DJ or a bar area. Another major problem: Even for being short, too much of the running time is the main character just talking to the camera about everything that everyone already knows. He tells us vampires need to be invited in... One of them was, but all the rest just ignore that bit. He cautions that vampires can walk in the daylight... Yeah, Dracula did too, and we can see the movie, duh. He even smugly tries to lecture us that crosses don't work... Except the only time they are tried, it actually does work. Plus there's this whole long monologue explaining in detail how his wife was killed by vampires and that now he hates vampires (ya think?) and hunts them. Just, no, that's so bad. The writer clearly never heard of "Show, don't tell." And, to be honest, even as telling that kind of horribly handled. Another example of poor writing is that the whole running time I was guessing all the plot twists that could happen, but there isn't one. Every predictable thing you already knew was going to happen not 30 seconds into the movie happened. Well, no, I take that back. Only half of them happened. It's like I'm still waiting for the real movie to start.

I'm not going to lie and tell you that this is the next hollywood blockbuster. It ain't. But in TodayWorld, that is a GOOD thing. I would probably give this six stars, but I added the extra star to counteract the overly critical reviews.

The movie poster is a stylized, 80's flick representation of what this strives to be. The whole vibe of this movie is that of a 1980's video game live-action recreation. If you like "Evil Dead," you will probably like this. If your taste in what constitutes "good" includes anything made in the past twenty years.. you might be better of skipping this. It wasn't made for you.

There are some inconsistencies. The girl claims that she got up at 8:30 and went out and picked up coffee, yet she's still in her pajamas. Sammy gets to the office, sits down has his coffee and immediately him and Ash decide to go home to his place. He JUST got to work and now it's already night time? And oh my gosh, that "strip club." Granted my experience with strip clubs is zero, but I do know enough to know that this ain't it. This is a basement converted to a party scene. Sammy is all of, what? Thirty? Yet he tells Ash that his wife was killed 7 years ago and they were married for 4 years. That means that he was married 12 years ago. I don't know... the math just ain't mathin'.

Even with all of that, my wife and I still enjoyed this. Of course, we don't take everything too seriously, so...

Sammy is not really "hunter material." Ashley is the main hunter here. She's a little bit of a thing, so I'd call her "fun sized." She cute and plays her part well.

The lighting is amazing. Compared to ModernDayFaire... this was a cinematic masterpiece when it comes to lighting! The acting was pretty good for a sub-B movie. The plot was pretty much standard faire.

All in all, unless you take yourself too seriously, you'll enjoy this.

Straight out of Ybor City, Florida comes this ultra low budget, straight-to-TubiTV vampire flick.

Featuring Sammy Slick, a private investigator who moonlights as a vampire hunter.

In this story, he finds himself up against a legion of vampire strippers, who use their profession to lure in unsuspecting men as their victims.

To be honest...there's really not too much to this film.

Other than sub par acting; some really bad CGI effects; cheesy chase scene music; and a fair amount of boobs.

Sammy kills the vampires...the vampires try to kill Sammy.

And that's about the crux of it.

The best part of this film is definitely the poster.

So props to whoever designed it.

The rest, however, is really quite passable.

Though, it's only about 70 minutes long, if you do want to indulge.

Just keep in mind...that you certainly aren't missing much if you don't.

1.5 out of 10.