Cryptz

Right, well given the title of the movie and the movie's cover, then I hadn't any much of any particular hopes or expectations for the movie. But still, I believe in giving all movies a fair chance, so I sat down to watch the 2002 movie "Cryptz" (aka "Vampz in the Hood") as I hadn't seen it before. Actually, I didn't even know about its existence before now, late in 2019.

Well, with "Cryptz" you might want to think "From Dusk to Dawn", except change the cast with an all African-American cast, remove the budget, cut away the big names from the cast list, and throw in B-movie production, then you have "Cryptz". Yup, as simple as that.

The storyline was very much a copy-paste job off of "From Dusk to Dawn", just with less entertainment value and laughable acting performances. Now, personally I can't take people serious when they act and talk all 'ghetto' or whatever the term is. And that was, unfortunately, the way most people portrayed the characters in this movie.

The vampires in the movie were actually quite good, and that alone made it durable to sit through this ordeal of a vampire movie. Sexy ladies? Check. Pointy fangs? Check. Scantily dressed? Check. So what is not to like about that, and it is no secret that writer Scott Phillips and director Danny Draven knew this as well, and were playing on that to make the movie more interesting.

As for the characters in the movie. Well, that can be summarized with one single word: nah. The character gallery in "Vampz" was just laughable and ridiculous. I couldn't take any of the main cast seriously, with the way they talked, acted and dressed. The vampires, now that was another matter, and they made the movie watchable at least.

"Vampz" is a low budget and poor-man's rendering of "From Dusk to Dawn", pure and simple. Was it worth sitting through to the end? Hardly so, but still I managed to endure.

I am rating "Vampz" a mere three out of ten stars. There are far better vampire movies readily available out there.

This movie was really bad. The acting was horrible. The special effects were bad. The vampires did not seem threatening at all. Apparently in this movie vampires are simply abnormally strong people with sharp teeth who like to drink blood. If you have a karate fighting muscle man on your side than the average vampire is no contest. The vampire hunter doesn't even use weapons. So silly. This movie is on the same level as a bunch of teenagers trying to make a vampire movie with a hand recording camera.. and I'm not exaggerating. I thought this movie was a sequel to the very popular and entertaining TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Instead I ended up watching one of the worst stripper vampire movies since Bordello of Blood. Putting a bunch of attractive girls in a movie with some fight scenes aren't going to satisfy most people. Avoid this movie unless you and your friends want a good mystery science theatre film to make fun off. The only bonus is the DVD comes with another movie. I don't recall it being advertised so I was surprised to find it. The second movie is RAGDOLL, which is actually worse than Cryptz, so the surprise bonus was a real let down. At least with 2 movies I got half my rentals worth. Overall it's not worth your time.

I appreciate what is being done here. We are at a point where Black cinema is trying to diversify genuinely, and this movie is a fine example of what we've always been trying to do. It would have been great if they could have had a larger budget, but they did spectacularly with what they had. I saw the genius, a true rose growing from the concrete. I see the mountaintop. Too much? Hey man! After Blade's success, someone should have said, "We'll give you a little more money to try to be more like Blade." Instead, Hollywood still did not think that the numbers were good enough. We're close, and I want to thank those who brought us one step further to the top of the mountain.

Cryptz (2002) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows some aspiring rappers who have a curse put on them by a stripper. They follow the stripper to the strip club to be released of the curse and discover the strip club is full of vampires. The rappers will need to hack their way out if they hope to survive.

This movie is directed by Danny Draven (Patient Seven) and stars Choice Skinner (Black Lightening), Rick Irvin (Heavenly Deposit), Lunden De'Leon (We're the Millers) and Olimpia Fernandez (Killjoy 2).

The acting, dialogue and storyline in this are all as awful as it sounds. There was a Chris Tucker wannabe that was a bit corny. The girls in this are even inconsistent, which is sad based on the setting. There should have been more nudity based on the storyline. The kills are uneven with a couple good ones with solid gore and blood splatter.

Overall this movie is a disaster that I'd recommend skipping. I'd score this a 1/10.

Kind of a black version of From Dusk Till Dawn only without all the excess of the latter. Anyway, this is a direct to video film from Full Moon. It is better then a lot of the films they have been putting out lately (much, much better then Dead and Rotting), but because these films budgets have been so extremely limited right now, there really isn't anything the makers of this film could really do. I will give them credit, they certainly tried. Budget limits pretty much kill an interesting idea.