Central Park Driver

...but just didn't follow through.

Ever wonder what Dracula would be like mashed up with Taxi Driver? Me neither, but I found this when I was cleaning out my stepson's room after he moved out, so I figured why not. Silvio Oliviero stars as an East European vampire working as a cab driver in NYC. He chooses his victims from the helpless and despondent fares that he picks up. He's grown world-weary, though, and is about ready to hang up his cape when he meets Michelle, a melancholy film director who has just learned she has an incurable fatal illness. They fall in love and mope together. Her former boyfriend doesn't approve, so he enlists a vampire-lore expert buddy to help put a stop to things.

There's also a subplot about all of Silvio's prior victims coming back as vampires themselves and causing a murder spree across the city, much to the concern of two NYPD detectives. This is a very low budget affair, and almost resembles a student film for much of the running. The acting runs the gamut from poor to passable, while the use of colored lighting and moving cameras has some flash, even if the picture quality itself is bottom of the barrel. There are long scenes of vampiric erotica, akin to a toothier version of Red Shoe Diaries. This isn't worth seeking out, but I've seen much worse. There's a sequel - "The Understudy: Graveyard Shift II". I'm giving it 5/10 on the novelty coupled with the nostalgia since I do love those 80's.

For some reason the DVD only seems available in full screen although it was originally shot in widescreen.

Jerry Ciccoritti's darkly erotic, appealingly stylised Canadian shocker has brooding swarthy-sexy vampire, Stephen Tsepes, (Michael A. Miranda) moonlighting as a taciturn NY cabbie, tirelessly working the gloomy night shift. This ancient predator hides in plain night; as some of, Stephen's more physically enticing female passengers only belatedly discover that their journey is about to take a terminal turn onto roads FAR less travelled!

This weirdly romantic, deliciously eccentric, unfairly neglected Canadian creature feature is engagingly performed by a talented cast of unknowns, with a number of splendidly grisly kills, plus an appreciably sensual, frequently skewed atmosphere that is heightened by ace composer, Nicholas Pike's spare, fabulously evocative synth score. An imaginative, creatively photographed, smartly directed horror film, and I think it's reasonable to say that in an era of conspicuously recycled mediocrity, it's more than just to single out the delirious hidden delights of uncommonly strange 80s horror fare like sleeper cult classic, 'Graveyard Shift' aka 'Central Park Drifter'. Jerry Ciccoritti's pervy, plasma-packed nightmare remains a toothsome terror treat well worth sinking your hungry, horror-loving fangs into! - In a blackened city infamous for its nefarious nocturnal denizens, sinisterly stalking Vampire cabbie, Stephen Tsepes, is a fare to remember!'

350 year old vampire works as an all night cab driver and only kills females that are about to or willing to die. His newest target is a TV producer who is dying from terimanal cancer, but he falls in love with her. Also, seems he didn't finish off all his victims cause female vampires walking the streets are slaughtering off innocent people.

Smart, stylish horror flick is well directed and features a good premise. Fast editing, snappy pacing, some seriously sexy moments, and a good finale make this very low budgeted film much better then expected. The special effects could have used a bit more work though.

Rated R; Strong Sexual Content, Extreme Violence, Graphic Nudity, and Profanity.

This was an interesting vampire flick for the premise at least. The 1980's style is great and the film is very noirish, but the pacing is a bit slow and the actual editing is too fast paced, cutting from scene to scene too quickly and leaving you wondering how people got where they were or how things ended up like they did. The score is sorta typical of the mid-late 1980's, which isn't a bad thing as most people would have you believe. The setting and style of the film reminds me of Miami Vice or even Fright Night, which was a better film in my opinion. Still, all things considered, I've seen way worse movies. All in all, worth one watch at least and not the horrible dreck that some folks on here make it out to be. Certainly not the worst movie ever done.

This is a real find, a sharp, noir tale of isolation and loneliness on both sides of the mortal divide. Stylish compositions and lighting, made more effective by a storyline set entirely at night, shape the story of Stephen, a world-weary, centuries-old vampire drawing closer to his longed-for death by feeding only on already-dying women. The victims remain alive but develop an intense bloodlust which soon wraps the city in an epidemic of slasher murders, each needing blood at the same time as all the others (in a striking scene, one woman, trapped in prison at the moment that her sisters are killing, desperately tears open her vampire wound and drinks her own blood). Only the latest victim, Michelle, a terminal cancer patient with whom Stephen has fallen in love, is spared the craving. Michelle tries to save Stephen, but soon both the police and her jealous husband are closing in... The frequently half-naked female hunters add a fetishistic touch (but there's plenty of male nudity as well), and scene after scene takes place in red-walled rooms or tiny pools of light surrounded by pitch-black, neon-studded darkness and wet gleaming streets, lending an overall stark and haunting vibe. If you're a vampire fan but plush Gothic romances and big-budget killfests both leave you yawning, seek this one out.