The Thompsons

After 6 years, The Butcher Brothers (Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores) return to the dysfunctional vampire family last seen in their low budget chiller The Hamiltons, who, as per that film's finale, now go by the name of The Thompsons. When a stop at a roadside diner puts them in the middle of a robbery, youngest member Lenny (Ryan Hartwig) is seriously wounded. After slaughtering robber and patron alike, the fiendish family flees to Europe to find help from others like themselves and escape the police manhunt. In the small town of Ludlow, England they find their British equivalent, The Stuarts and it seems they have found help for Lenny in this kindred family. But, The Stuarts unveil their own sinister agenda and as Francis (Cory Knauf) falls in love with their beautiful daughter, Riley (Elizabeth Henstridge), a war of the vampire clans erupts and a blood soaked battle for supremacy begins. Where the first film was a creepy and twisted family drama, the sequel shows us what a Twilight movie would be like if they had any real fangs… and gallons of blood. And The Butcher's version of that neutered vampire saga is a lot more gory fun. Where the first movie kept their vampiric nature a secret till the end, this is a full blown vampire flick that explains a lot of about the character's condition that wasn't fully explored in The Hamiltons. There are barely any humans in the cast either and those that are, don't last long. It's all red eyes, bared fangs and spurting blood. The film moves quickly too, at barely over 80 minutes, so there is little time wasted on melodrama and what I really liked was how the Butchers turned the sick and blood thirsty Hamiltons/Thompsons into the victims this time round and thus the heroes. We find ourselves rooting for characters that creep-ed us out in the first movie and that was part of what made this sequel entertaining. If you are a fan of The Hamiltons you probably will enjoy this sequel especially as the original cast are all back, except for Hartwig as Lenny, and they are taken in a different direction. The budget is slightly larger but, not by a lot as the Butcher's style seems to be a good fit for low budget indie horrors. It's not perfect, there are some flaws, it's not as atmospheric or creepy like the first film, not that it lacks it's share of shocking moments, but, overall an enjoyably different follow-up to the disturbing original.

If a sequel tries to tell you a new story instead of rehashing/repeating what part 1 did, that is a good thing. Unfortunately this sequel is not only predictable (almost from start to finish), but also just above mediocre in general. That means it's not really bad, but it won't get your blood pumping either (no pun intended).

Since the main characters are established in the quirkier and better Thompsons, you'd expect this to go different places. And in a way it does, but that only is true in geographic terms. There's not a real story behind it all, it's a simple "match", that you will either like or you might find it too simple. Whatever the case, if you can bare with the characters (because you saw the previous film or just simply because you like the actors), than this is indeed watchable. Otherwise ... don't bother.

First of all I must say that it is nice to have a vampire movie that is not tailor-made for a teenage girl audience with sparkly vampires and big hair. However, that being said, then I will flip the sword around and say that this vampire movie is far from being amongst the more interesting or appealing of vampire movies that I have seen.

The story is about a family of vampires who flee from USA after having made it to the news with a video of them killing humans. The vampires find themselves in England where they seek the help of another vampire family, but is blood thicker than water?

Having sat through "The Thompsons" now, I must say that I am filled with an overwhelming sensation of that this storyline was utterly and completely unnecessary. The story left no lasting impression on me, nor did it manage to rise above mediocrity in its concept and execution.

It should be said that the people in the movie were actually doing a great enough job with their given roles, though it is not award-worthy material here, far from it.

For a vampire movie, then there were surprisingly few effects in the movie. One good thing, and an interesting thing, about the movie, was that the vampires here were not immortal nor undead. So that was an interesting approach to the mythical vampire creature.

"The Thompsons" is the type of movie that you watch once, then shrug your shoulders and forget about the movie. It failed to make a lasting mark, despite having enough fangs to bite deeply with.

I haven't seen The Hamiltons so I can't comment on its relationship to this movie. The story of The Thompsons isn't told linearly but it starts more or less in the middle and then backtracks. I'll summarize the story linearly.

An American family of vampires (one girl, 2 guys, 1 kid) try to mind their own business and are driving around the desert when the kid gets shot accidentally when a bunch of thugs hold up a diner. Now the family is seeking help. Someone tells them to go to Europe and also gives them a name. One of the guys, Francis, travels to the English country side to look for this person who can help them. The twins (guy and girl) end up in Paris having fun. While the other guy watches over the kid.

Francis drives around, his car breaks down but he makes it on foot to some family pub where he draws the attention of the locals. The daughter who works there is attracted to him. But it turns out the owner and their two sons are vampires. They take him to the main vampire who offers to help if Francis calls his entire family to meet him in England. They make the trip but things turn ugly. The main vampire and his family don't have the Thompsons best intentions in mind.

A lot of the movie is told in Francis' voice overs. The filmmakers know how to put the creepy small town English country side to good use. I really enjoyed most of the movie, but when things become physical near the end, the movie loses steam. The main problem is that Cory Knauf who plays Francis (and co-wrote the script) is just too laid back. Even when he's being attacked and his life is at stake, he never loses his cool. He does a good job with the voice overs, but acting in dramatic situations is entirely beyond him. A huge plus is the attractive girls, and there are many here- all of them actually. Elizabeth Henstridge is particularly lovely, attractive and hot. What a gorgeous girl. She basically steals the show. There's some nudity too. The special effects despite being CGI are pretty good and the fangs for once look convincing. There's a lot to like here, the creepiness, the English locations, the story overall, the women. There are some plot holes and details that make no sense. I look forward to the third one and will have to check out The Hamiltons. This movie is a good effort and a very good entry into the vampire genre which has been so mercilessly abused.

Forced on the run, a vampire clan arrives in London looking for help and recuperation only to find their hosts have far more diabolical plans in mind when they're captured and forced into a breeding program to ensure survival, putting the two families against each other.

Surprisingly, this turned out to be quite a decent enough vampire effort that does have some pretty enjoyable features about it. One of them is perhaps the most controversial of the film's changes, in how it deals with the vampires in here. Rather than being remorseless nocturnal bloodsuckers unsympathetic with humanity in the slightest, this one portrays two distinct differences that are rather unique: being a condition received at birth and thus being able to walk about in sunlight with no ill effects, and the second issue of having no real interest in humanity other than feeding time and being out and about without getting into the strange, rabid intensity around fresh meat. Here, they're given a little more of an ability to blend in with the rest of humanity and that's quite a fun option here as it goes against so much of what's known and given about the creatures in the folklore. While this change may not be for everyone, the fact that it's no excuse for how slow and uneventful the first half of this is really hard to take into account, which has the ever-familiar stamp of British class and restraint that makes nothing seem important to get worked up over and really drains this of its energy. That said, there's still some good parts here with some fine gore scenes from the multiple kills, a couple of outstanding action scenes coming from a multitude of brawls and gunfights, and a twisting, convoluted storyline that stays on-track throughout these twists and turns that keep this quite enjoyable though not entirely perfect.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Full Nudity and several sex scenes.