Cold Hearts

I was bought this film for only £4 and even then I feel robbed. I have watched some poor films but this was quite one of the worst. I have never watched a film about depressed vampires before in my life was this some kind of spin to the old horror movie genre. It only goes to show that for every interview with the vampire there must be at least ten or so of these movies in creation. The best bit of this film was quite probably the end credits.

Indie filmmaker, Robert A. Masciantonio engaging emo-vampire feature is appealingly set within a lively New Jersey seaside suburb, where the garish lure of sandy beaches and noisome amusement parks attracts a constant flow of transient, thrill-seeking tourists, and the handsome predatory vampire master, Charles (Christopher Wiehl) hungrily haunts this briny locale with his subservient, but no less malign entourage of plasma lusting, voluminously-panted goons!

'Cold Hearts' is an earnest, romantically-inclined Gen-X drama wherein benign vampire besties, Viktoria, Alicia (Marisa Ryan) (Amy Joe Johnson) and their fiesty gay chum, Darius (Jon Huertas) endeavour to cope with the ceaseless existential malaise of living, fitfully loving, and reluctantly feeding as angsty, navel-gazing vampires. Their precarious existence constantly threatened by the violent oppression of malevolent master vampire, Charles's arbitrarily murderous peccadilloes. When tough cookie, Vicki fatefully falls for studly hero, Seth (Robert Floyd) the simmering internecine tensions erupt climactically in a bestial beach front beatdown! While the preponderance of heartfelt 'chat' may alienate gorehounds, less bloodthirsty viewers may still appreciate that the seemingly forgotten 'Cold Hearts' remains an entertaining, strongly acted, dramatically full-bloodied romp that sweetly suggests some vampires are not quite so cold hearted as the legends would have us believe! The soundtrack rocks, with an especially poignant use of Temple of The Dog's evocative 'Say Hello 2 Heaven'.

Maybe I like WB-style shows. This film holds up very well, particularly for the dramatic storyline (which I thought rang very true) and the dynamite performances by Ryan, Johnson, and Floyd. Jon Huertas was brilliant as the gay nonvampire friend--too bad that they had to delete some of his scenes. Beautiful music. A real gem which I have seen many, many times and never tire of.

At a time where vampires seem to be fairly popular in the public eye, it's a shame you still have to work to find the good movies. Well, this is one movie that is definitely worth the search.

Basically, it's one of those movies that treat vampires as a "race" where every vampire has their own personality. It's not one of those no brainer action/horror movies where the sole purpose for having vampires is to give the hero something to kill. So if you enjoyed movies such as The Lost Boys, Near Dark, and maybe even Interview with the Vampire, you should definitely check this out.

This low-budget indie film about grungy, vampire youths haunting the beachfront (sound familiar?) could have been smart and amusing, but instead comes off like a fanged version of some WB-style TV show. It misses some clever opportunities to be both stylishly violent and sexy, and instead relies on long conversations between a brooding female vampire (who consistently delivers monotonous sad stories to everyone she meets), and a frat boy with a dufus persona and a dubious moral code. Technically competent but utterly adolescent.