Le crépuscule des vampires

I'm not sure why others would be down on this movie. Granted it isn't the best movie that delves into the vampire myth (it has a different take on the myth), but it was pretty good for the movie it was.

I remember watching this back in May 1991, and it was originally intended to be a pilot for a FOX-TV series that remained unsold. The two parts of this film that are slightly aggravating is that it takes maybe too long to set up the premise (that of a nest of vampires; excuse me if I rephrase that, vampire is an insulting term, these are "Carpathian-Americans") of a group of immigrants who have a predilection for the taste of blood (they don't need to drink blood, it just is a wonderful diversion and it comes out especially during times of great passion, be that sex, violence, etc and it puts them higher up on the food chain than most humans), they also are stronger, faster and live longer than other humans (although if you get bitten you don't become one of them, you just die.) But, that should be excused since it was intended to be a set-up for a television series and I always wondered what it would have been if it had been sold as a television series, especially considering most of the garbage that does get sold? The only other really distracting thing, is the ridiculous biker gang antics of the young Carpathians against the vampire hunters (I myself would have toned that down), it is as though Richard Shapiro had seen way too many times, "The Lost Boys."

The cast I feel was excellent, especially Harley Venton (Harry Martin or Harlevon Martinescu) who plays the putative hero as a crusading newspaper reporter who gets news reports about the killing of the father and mother of his cousin, Cody Puckett (played by Jason London), in Texas and takes the boy "under" his wings, as it were to clear up several myths and tries to warn the others in the nest that "it's happening again" (the killings) and asks one of my favorite lines, "Isn't it time we come out of the coffin?" And, Michelle Johnson (Celia) and Patrick Bauchau (Eli Chelarin, the head of the "Carpathian-Americans") are excellently cast and Eli is part of the older group who just wants to keep his family isolated in their new home of Long Beach, CA. Unfortunately, the vampire hunters don't want that and Eli won't get his wish. The only weak member of the cast was probably Kim Johnston-Ulrich (and that probably wasn't necessarily her fault), since her character of Amy Lorne, the blonde attorney (in the Ally McBeal since), that provides a mild distraction for Harry (Venton), has no clue who or what Harry's family is, and happens to deal with Eli paying of judges to get his other nephew, Butcherbird "Butch" Vlad off. Bo Hopkins (the main vampire hunter) does a good turn as an old fashioned religious zealot.

All-in-all I thought it was a fairly good movie, with great themes about warnings of religious prosecution and zealotry and early hints of what a dictator that has since been deposed would have called, "ethnic cleansing." But, also it has no good guys or bad guys, again even our putative hero, Harry (Venton) has major flaws, while he is dating Amy, he's also having "hot vampire sex" with his half-aunt (yes, there's mild incest going on in this movie, nothing graphic though), Celia. It also combined two of my favorite genres, monster (especially vampires) movies and comedy movies.

Blood Ties is, as a story, an interesting look at the possible historical origin of vampire mythos and how that might have manifested itself into modern times. The "carpathians" in the film are not technically classic vampires (i.e. they walk around in daylight, etc.), but it is a fresh take on vampires for any vampire film fan. The production is par for vampire films, and the performances are of good quality.

Yes, I know! That one-season wonder was officially adapted from the White Wolf RPG, "Vampire: The Masquerade." But, what if this movie was an experimental first stab at such an adaptation?

Patrick Bauchau (perhaps best known as Dr. Sidney from THE PRETENDER) played the same role in KTE's premiere episode, as he did here. Specifically, the patriarchal vamp. Also, Harry Martin's romance with a female District Attorney is just as much star-crossed angst as Frank Kohanek's romance with Julian Luna's ill-fated ex-girlfriend. And, of course, both this movie and KTE were produced by the Fox Network!

The only significant difference I can see between them is the geographic setting. KTE was set in San Francisco, while "Blood Ties" was set in Huntington Beach, CA. Who knows? Maybe KTE could have had a second season, despite the tragic death of the actor who played Julian Luna, if Fox had remembered this movie and updated some of the characters from it. They could have done stories like Harry Martin hiding out, in Frisco, from a bloodhunt ordered by Prince Cyrus of the L.A. Brujah Clan. Or, SCAV trying to set up shop in the City By The Bay.

But, hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? Oh, well! Maybe SCIFI Channel will show a re-run of it, some weekend. They certainly love re-running "Dusk 'Til Dawn 2" to death!!!

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this as it was both funny and put a modern twist on the vampire theme. It's got enough to keep it going although perhaps not for those who like the traditional depictions but fun. Best suited for a late night movie-fest.

As someone who is not a major fan of vampire films, this movie was somewhat interesting to watch, due to the interesting theme (and the fact that the vampires were the "good guys". But the acting wasn't good; several scenes were so bad they seemed funny!