Sundown

First off I am little biased about this movie. Anything Bruce Campbell touches is immediately awesome. Second off, Anthony Hickox is one of the most underrated director's of eighties and early nineties horror. Waxwork I and II and Warlock II are great as well as his made-for-television Full Eclipse. I don't understand what happened to him. What's up with all the Dolph Lundgren movies? You are already an established horror director, so why change genres? I'm getting sidetracked. Sundown is for the light-hearted horror fan who enjoys a bit of comedy with their severed heads. And it is funny. Bruce Campbell is great, Maxwell Caulfield is always good, and David Carridine gives a good performance as the vampire leader. Also look for a beardless Buck Flower. The makeup and effects are pretty good. I don't think I've seen better fang effects in a movie. The western elements go great with the vampire theme. It's a nice mix of genres.

Anthony Hickox's second film and much in the same vein as his first in WAXWORK. A nice blending of horror and comedy. This time there is a third genre added in a western.

A group of vampires lead by Jozek Mardulak (David Carradine) are living in the desert in their own community of Purgatory. Here, they are working on creating a synthetic mixture that will act as human blood so they can stop taking human lives. The Harrison family lead by father David (Jim Metzler, who looks like he could be Eric Stolz's dad) and mother Sarah (Morgan Brittany) visit Purgatory so that David can assist in the creation of the mixture. Of course things are never easy in the movies and we are introduced to some good characters like a descendant of the Van Helsings (Bruce Campbell) and Ethan Jefferson (John Ireland) a fellow vampire who wants to start a revolt against this new way of life for the vampires.

A great and super capable cast that also includes Maxwell Caulfield, Deborah Foreman, M. Emmett Walsh and Dana Ashbrook to name a few. Also includes some new and interesting twists to the vampire legend with a great score from Richard Stone that really adds to the viewing of the film.

Anthony Hickox skilfully blends a vampire story with a Western set in contemporary times, and plays it for laughs (but not for camp) allowing for more serious aspects to come through. Among these more serious aspects, which are treated that way, are an extramarital affair that has created serious resentment, and the condition of being a vampire. When Robert Van Helsing (hysterically played by Bruce Campbell) arrives in Purgatory, Mort is already in jail for murder, and Jefferson is planning a revolt against living on synthesized blood. Dressed as a pilgrim, he insists Count Mardulak is a traitor to his kind, while Mardulak counters that feeding on humans is so special to be in common with "the tapeworm, the flea, the fungus, that's how special vampires are." The twist ending shows who the real traitor to his kind is. Inept Van Helsing spares beautiful diner waitress Sandy so that she'll lead him to Mardulak, and starts to fall in love with her. Mardulak allows Sandy to bite him, and he wakes up with his cross burning his neck and screamin' at his lack of reflection! The fact that Dave Harrison must work with the man who seduced his wife while they were married creates some serious tensions, and Shane develops wood-tipped bullets to fight against Mardulak's so-called traitors. Deftly written, and lacking in the sadism of films like _From Dusk Till Dawn_, this film presents well developed, humorous characters, and everything seems to work, without ever turning camp.

Once you see the vampires in sunscreen and sombreros, you will know exactly what kind of movie Anthony Hickox has made with his "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat". Not only is it totally silly, but it's also pretty unique.

The plot of this vampire western comedy goes something like this: the powerful Count Mardulak (a quietly comic David Carradine) has founded a colony for reformed vampires in an old ghost town called Purgatory. The denizens of Purgatory fight the urge to kill and drink a milky-looking blood substitute ("It isn't even the right color", huffs one vamp). But it turns out that reform doesn't suit all the vampires that well, and things only get more tense when a few humans come to town.

B-movie lovers will likely be charmed by "Sundown", stop-motion bats and all. It certainly strays from horror cliche. Adding to the lighthearted festivities is Bruce Campbell as the artless but well-meaning Van Helsing. Overall, it's a kooky good time for movie fans of a particular mindset.

Bruce (Evil Dead) Campbell and David (Kung Fu) Carradine headline this 1989 109 minute comedy horror which crosses over into the Western genre too. I found this film a nice surprise and entertaining to boot. A town of Vampires headed up by 'the Count' himself (played by Carradine) are looking to co-exist with humans in what feels like a retirement village set in a John Ford-esque Wild West town. Unfortunately Jefferson (John Ireland) has different ideas and feels that his species shouldn't have to co-exist in harmony, why wear factor 1000 sunblock and drink synthetic blood when living humans are a plentiful source of food. As it happens to synthetic supply is in danger and the only way to fix the situation is a living human scientist with the relevant skills so it's through his family's eyes that we tend to follow the action and story. Throw in Bruce Campbell as a bumbling idiotic modern Van Helsing and you have some great ingredients for making a film that it's stuck in the horror genre alone. Laughs a plenty with a cute story and some fun events make this a great if slightly camp way of enjoying 109 minutes, to me this is more entertaining than watching "True Blood" which also features vampires and synthetic blood because it really doesn't take itself too seriously :P 7 out of 10 from me on this.