User reviews

While "Vampire Journals" definitely is an enjoyable and watchable vampire movie, then it was just lacking that special ingredient that we had in the "Subspecies" movies. Yeah, while the movie is set within the same universe as the "Subspecies" movies, then the movie was suffering from not having Radu in it.

The storyline in "Vampire Journals" was straight forward, and actually interesting and fun enough to watch. Just a shame that it was so predictable and generic. There were no surprises thrown at us as an audience at any time throughout the course of the movie, which made the movie slip into a mediocre gutter, even with director and writer Ted Nicolaou at the helm.

The characters in the movie were adequate, but again very generic and unimaginative, which made me feel like they could just as easily be replaced with any other characters in other similar vampire movies. They just weren't as memorable or recognizable as Radu, and that was a suffering blow for the movie.

As for the acting in the movie, well I must admit that they had some good actors and actresses to fill out the various roles and portray the various characters, just a shame that the performers were hindered by generic and mundane characters and a monotonous script.

All in all, "Vampire Journals" is well worth a watch if you enjoyed the "Subspecies" movies, which I did. But as a stand alone movie, then it wasn't particularly memorable or outstanding. Watch if sort of if you want to expand upon your knowledge of the established world within the "Subspecies" movies, if for nothing else.

If you like gothic vampire movies, then Full Moon Entertainment's Vampire Journals (1997) is for you. This 92 minutes gem is actually for sale at video stores (many Full Moon Videos are not available) because they now distribute for themselves! This is another chapter of the Subspecies series and is directed by the same director, Ted Nicolaou. The story continues when Ash, an understudy of Radu, becomes more powerful and vicious as his master and the vampire-hunter must destroy him. The special effects are much more advanced in this chapter and you can actually see the vampire's "shadow morph" travel. This, like the other parts, was filmed in Romania and has a very ancient "feel" to it. The story is great, as is the filming. What else could we expect from our favorite company but another "must-have?" As always, a Video Zone is included.

Do you play Vampire the Masquerade? Play in lots of vampire/gothic Live-Roleplaying? The guy who wrote this probably did. Recycles every cliche of the genre; its incredibly, over-the-top gothic. Its also one of the slowest films I've ever seen. The hero constantly says things that amount to "I could do something, but I'm to gothic to bother...I'll just let that sweet young thing over there be turned into a vampire". This is a lot of fun to make fun of at first, but eventually it overwhelms you, making this difficult to even heckle. There are also far too many side characters, who aren't developed and just seem to get in the way of what little happens. An anemic (pardon the pun ;) film at best.

I gave this a 2 simply because I enjoyed looking at the sets in the movie, and that was pretty much it. There was about one joke in the film that made me laugh, and everything else I found funny because it was so ridiculous.

This is a cheap rip off of "Interview with the Vampire" as in: thriving in eternity, basking in immortality control freak and mean vamp teases the woe-is-me, I will never be human again pathetic vamp. The crucial differences here are that "Interview with the Vampire" is a very respectable film whilst "Journals" looks like something a bunch of high schoolers binded together for a school play.

Zachary (Gunn) is a self-pitying guiltaholic who is travelling the world on a quest of revenge. Killing humans depresses him but killing other vampires doesn't phase him, mind you, as he is self loathing and feels no loyalty to his kind anymore. In the beginning, you see another vampire named Ash (Morris) that looks like a drugged, washed up rock star old man, kill Zachary's female companion, setting Zachary off on his journey to find Ash and claim his vengeance by killing him and all of his offspring.

Predictability ensues. Zachary finds Ash, but a woman gets in the way, the woman both of the vampires want, a repetition of their last dilemma except this time Zachary is determined not to lose.

You can't take this movie seriously at all, but it's almost one of those "so bad it's almost good" movies that you can only bear to watch once. The acting is very cliché, the dialogue is corny, the plot isn't that interesting, and the characters you like are the schemers that have it in for the ones who are supposed to be the heroes of the movie. If you're a patient person I suggest watching it if you're intoxicated and you have absolutely nothing else to watch and it's a dire emergency.

But like I said, the sets are cool.

Underrated Director Ted Nicolau, a Full Moon entertainment veteran, made a step forward in his vampire universe with this movie that sadly has been overlooked as time goes by. "Vampire Journals" is probably the best movie produced by Full Moon, and easily ranks among the best vampire movies ever.

The movie tells the story of Zachary (played by David Gunn), a vampire who has vowed to exterminate as many of his specie as he can since his life as one of the undead has given him nothing but tragedies. In his hunting, he finds Ash (Jonathon Morris), a vampire master who controls a club and loves the music. Things get complicated when both of them fall in love with a beautiful pianist named Sofia (Kirsten Cerre).

The most remarkable feature of the movie, is the perfect combination of camera-work, edition and music to create a Gothic feeling that remains through the movie, making it look as a beautiful canvas despite its low budget. Every visual aspect of the movie is of a supernatural beauty, as if the locations were a character too.

Ted Nicolau creates a superb movie that improves in all aspects what he had already accomplished with his other vampire movies, the "Subspecies" series. The SFX are great for the budget and never seem out of place, the movie retains that Gothic surreal feeling without sacrificing anything.

The acting is really good, although nothing special. David Gunn carries the film with grace but is Jonathon Morris who steals the show as the vampire Ash. Worth to mention is the performance of the beautiful Ilinca Goia, who in her limited screen time captures the attention of the viewer not only with her looks, but her performance as well.

Of course, nothing is perfect, the movie keeps that "low-budget" feeling that most of the 90s Full Moon movies carried, but is admirable the effort of Nicolau to make the most of what he got. Also, the script feels too short, leaving the audience wanting to see more of this marvelous Gothic universe. Indeed, the movie demands a prequel and a sequel in order to have the story fully developed.

To summarize, this movie was a pleasant surprise, as it is a worthy addition to every fan of the vampire sub-genre. An outstanding effort by director Ted Nicolau. Best Full Moon picture ever. 8.5/10

I love vampire movies, so I have to watch them all. That means good ones and not so good ones. Vampire Journals has a good story to tell, but fails to tell it. The best part of the whole movie is...well I can't think of one.

Well, I am a big fan of Full Moon Videos..after all, that's where some of the Lovecraft films came from, and I'm a big fan of them. Alright then. This is a somewhat artsy-fartsy vampire movie, kind of continuing the line of the subspecies films. Unlike the Subspecies films, there were no cheesy clay-mation gargoyles, and the budget seemed to be relatively decent. Thank God for Romania, eh? At any rate, the plot was pretty good, the cast not bad. The atmosphere great, and the whole movie flowed pretty well.

This would make a nice addition to any vampire fan's movie collection.

Also, if you like it and want to get more depth into the story, get the rest of the Subspecies movies. They're more cult-classic, like the rest of the Full Moon horror movies, but worth a watch.

Believe me. I've seen thousands of horror movies, and would make the best horror critic in the world, if it paid........and I got to use my usual potty-mouth to get my point across.

...and I've seen some pretty bad ones !

Bad acting, annoying music, ridiculous dialogues, boring plot, awfully slow, really laughable when it's supposed to be scary and the list could go on and on.

I don't know which character I disliked the most: Zachary is so whiny he makes "Interview With The Vampire"'s Louis look like a happy-go-lucky guy and Ash must be the cheesiest movie vampire ever.

I'm a big fan of vampire movies and this is the only one I truly disliked from beginning to end. I kept watching it just to see how bad it could get.

This is my most favorite movie! I am in love with David Gunn as well. He is an exceptional actor. I only wish that he would do more movies. Plus, Ted Nicolaou is a genius. His writing is profound. You must overlook the fact that this movie was made by a low budget company. It is filmed in Romania and provides great visuals of their architecture and landscape. Plus, a lot of the people in it are from Romania, which gives this film a tremendous amount of credit. Zachary is perhaps the best vampire character ever written. His humanity and unending torture draw you in and make you love him. This story is classic and beautiful. It had me fascinated from beginning to end. It is a must see for any vampire fan.

OMG how anyone could waste time or money even putting this on a DVD is beyond me. There's time I won't be getting back. I cannot describe how bad this movie is, thats how bad it is. OMG how anyone could waste time or money even putting this on a DVD is beyond me. There's time I won't be getting back. I cannot describe how bad this movie is, thats how bad it is. OMG how anyone could waste time or money even putting this on a DVD is beyond me. There's time I won't be getting back. I cannot describe how bad this movie is, thats how bad it is. OMG how anyone could waste time or money even putting this on a DVD is beyond me. There's time I won't be getting back. I cannot describe how bad this movie is, thats how bad it is.

You've got to give credit to Ted Nicolau for creating a somewhat separate vampire world from the Subspecies world he had previously mastered, and still manage to be original and engaging.

Here we have a movie that was actually filmed in Romania (as Subspecies were) and has that gothic renaissance quality about it. A beautiful low-budget film that puts to shame such mainstream atrocities as Interview With A Shampooer.

Jonathon Morris who plays Ash is such a great actor beyond description. He really should be in more films, but i guess he prefers the classical stage acting field of work. We did get to see him again in Subspecies 4 reprising his signature role of Ash, so that was a welcome addition to the franchise. David Gunn also does a marvelous job as Zachery, the vampire (and vampire slayer) torn between the two worlds.

It would have been nice if there would have been a sequel or two to Vampire Journals, i suppose that died in the monetary problems at Full Moon in recent years. Alas, we still have this excellent movie for posterity through the years....in blood.

VAMPIRE JOURNALS (1997) is an odd little-spin off from Ted Nicolaou's SUBSPECIES trilogy, directed by Nicolaou himself but with an all-new cast separate from the SUBSPECIES films. This doesn't really feel like a Full Moon Pictures movie at all, although it was shot in Romania with a mostly local cast, as was the norm in the 1990s. It's essentially their version of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: gone is the feral Radu and his corpselike mother to be replaced by brooding, goth-dressed romantics looking for love. Bizarrely, this features UK TV star Jonathan Morris as Ash, the chief antagonist, and he's about as good as the rest of the cast, which isn't saying much. The film is notably slow-paced and light on both sex and gore, making it forgettable for the horror lover.

I'm not sure what movie all those 7-10 star reviewers were watching, I just can't align any of the rave reviews with what I watched the other night.

Terrible make-up and effects (even for the time it was filmed in), a soppy narrative and theatrical language that would make Shakespeare turn in his grave. Laughable fight-scenes that could have come straight out of a school play, ...

The only good thing about the whole movie was Sophie's piano play and her feminist notions towards Zachary in one of their brief dialogues. Sophie was also (in the beginning, at least) the only likable character in this vampire soap opera.

It was bearable enough to while away a gloomy afternoon without having to turn it off, hence the 3 star rating.

First the good news: Vampire journals is a surprisingly beautiful and elegant-looking movie. I say "surprisingly" because nowadays even big budget movies tend to look trash. Blade begins in a butcher's shop and a trashy club, features trashy vampires and has horribly, pretentiously cooler-than-thou-posing. Vampire Journals opens with the poetic shot of a wintery graveyard, with the Gothic letters and lovely music. All scenes are lit with rich, golden hue, and even though writer/director Ted Nicolaou clearly copies the flourishes of Interview with the Vampire and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992, they at least he has some talent. AND taste to copy the classy, gorgeous-looking movies. Steal from the best! Bad news: Thick accents, at least to non-English watcher who had no subtitles available. Sometimes I had problems to find out what these people were saying! And sometimes I hope I would not have heard. Don't understand me wrong, I HATE Tarantino-like "cool" crap which pollutes the modern cinema. But these attempts from grandeur and poetry from bad actors with thick "exotic vampire" accents are surprisingly embarrassing. In the end: Surprisingly good, when you but use MUTE or FF button in the most ridiculous scenes.

Vampire Journals (1997) is a Romanian Full Moon Studios picture that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a vampire, vampire hunter out for revenge that is hunting down a Master Vampire. He falls in love in the process with a lady that the Master Vampire covets creating a weird love triangle in the middle of the hunt.

This movie is written and directed by Ted Nicolaou (Subspecies) and stars Jonathon Morris (The Fantasticks), Kirsten Cerre (The Red Shoes), Ilinca Goia (Lurking Fear), Dan Condurache (Fortuna in Pacific) and Mihai Niculescu (Epicenter).

This movie is a made for television version of Interview with a Vampire - essentially with worse acting, writing, dialogue and kill scenes. The atmosphere, attire and settings were very good. The narration was just okay and the hairstyles and makeup were crazy and over the top. The ending was kind of blah..like the rest of the movie.

Overall, the best part of the movie is the poster. I would score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

"Vampire Journals" pulls off a neat trick - it's elegant and trashy at the same time. The opening credits set the scene nicely with images of snow-covered tombs and statues, accompanied by a lovely Gothic theme. Then we get the first scene, which features an in-your-face exposed breast and a gory beheading. That's what I mean by elegance and trash going hand-in-hand.

Thankfully, the film's tacky excesses don't detract too much from what is, on the whole, a superior example of horror. It's a low-budget enterprise, of course, but I'm impressed by how lavish it is. The Romanian locations are beautiful, and perfectly lit - the film's "look," as director Ted Nicolau puts it in the making-of special, is like that of an old painting. The special effects are sparse but effective; I admire the nifty "shadow" trick used for the vampires' teleportation, and they decay into dust by means of decent CGI.

The cast is another pretty strong point. Jonathon Morris is a standout as Ash, the decadent vampire master. On a first viewing, I thought David Gunn's Zachery a bit weak, but now I don't mind him; he's almost laughably sincere, but that's pretty much what the part demands.

The film hits a lull in the second act, when the action is confined to Ash's lair. There's also a bit too much sadism on display for my liking; in scene after scene, attractive semi-nude girls get their various limbs chomped on by Ash and his minions. It's repetitive and somewhat gross. Frankly, I enjoy Ted Nicolau's "Subspecies" films more, even if they aren't as well made. Radu and Mummy camping it up like loons is closer to my idea of entertainment than watching a nice character like Sophia suffer at length in a vampire brothel.

That said, this is very well done. The sad piano music alone puts "Vampire Journals" above par for the genre. But, if you're looking for so-bad-it's-funny horror, steer clear; this is a most serious effort. Probably too serious for its own good, but I do appreciate any film that treats vampires with respect.

Still pining for the love of his life, a vampire tries to protect her from the evil vampire king holding her captive amongst his usual flock of vampires to try to ensure she remains his next bride, forcing him into a battle against the powerful vampire and his coven to free her.

This was a decent enough if an overall flawed effort in the franchise. The biggest factor with this one is the main setup that brings together the various participants in the story. Utilizing their romantic encounters as a basis for trying to hang around her to catch the main vampire that he's looking to stop, the society that we see at play with the evil vampires once they hold it captive under his whims and the sidestories involving the other relationships at play as a setup for the competition to play out between the two of them. While lacking in the way of traditional combat sequences or full-on battles, there are still enough scenes of them hunting their victims or snapping and unleashing plenty of bloodshed along the way that keeps this one interesting enough. This one does have several detrimental factors to it. The main issue which manages to cause it to come undone is by the wholly lacking pace on display that makes everything feel like a melodramatic Gothic romance than a flat-out genre effort. With the only genre qualities coming from the concept of vampirism that everyone seems to be, there's not much here that makes it feel like a genre effort with the constant lustful notions towards the performer as well as the duplicitous means through which they keep trying to woo her. The back-and-forth banter amounts more to intense brooding which plays into the Gothic overtones of the whole thing while the incessant narration that tries to impart a sense of understanding into the mission just ends up being aggravating since it adds nothing new, all of which lower this one.

Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Violence, Language, and Sex Scenes.

In this eerie and gothic thriller, Zachary, (David Gunn) a vampire tormented by his nightly existence, seeks to destroy all the undead in his bloodline. In the city of Bucharest, he tracks down the master vampire known as "Ash" (Jonathan Morris) and plots to penetrate Ash's heavily defended fortress. Ash becomes enamoured with Sofia, (Kirsten Cerre) a beautiful young pianist, lures her to his decadent "Club Muse" and kidnaps her. Zachary must find a way to rescue her and destroy Ash and his disciples at the same time.

Vampire Journals takes a slight detour from the excellent Full Moon "Subspecies" series which features the master vampire Radu, and his stubborn and defiant disciple, Michelle. This film has better production values and a far larger cast than any of the 4 subspecies movies, and rivals them in quality. All of these films are highly under-rated, and are far superior to most of the vampire movies that have been made in the states in the past 20 years. This would include the Eddie Murphy stinker, Carpenter's "Vampires", and even rivals "Interview With a Vampire".

Vampire Journals is moody and gothic. Just watching Ash walking thru the night with his deadly mistress, Cassandra, (Ilinka Goya) is a treat. Cassandra'a seduction and ravishing of a young man near a cemetery gate is erotic and chilling. Kirsten Cerre is beautiful and perfect as the chaste and strong-willed Sofia who fights Ash to the last in an effort to save her soul. David Gunn's performance, full of brooding, loneliness, and submerged fury toward Ash and his disciples, sets the tone that drives the film forward.

Ted Nicolai, the director, can't resist being tacky and excessive with the blood and gore from time to time, which is even more of a problem with him in the Subspecies films, but he doesn't do too much damage here. Nicolai is better at characterization and developing vampire culture than he is at plot development, but there's enough of a story here to keep us interested.

This is a good vampire film, and a little bit like Hammer in some respects, though much better than anything Christopher Lee did after Horror of Dracula. And this film crushes most of the vampire trash that's been made in the states in recent years.

Actually calling it hot garbage is disrespectful to garbage on a hot summer day. This was probably the worst acted and written movie I have ever seen. Absolutely boring more melodramatic than something on the Hallmark channel. I've seen better acting in fourth grade plays.

There's no redeeming qualities in this movie at all. There were some boobs I guess that was nice. Everything from the story, pacing, effects were just terrible. But that wooden acting, wow it was just horrid The scariest thing in thale movie. The effects were comical, I'm guessing aside from the sets & costumes, the budget was about 50 bucks. I don't even know how this was a spin-off of subspecies there's vampires in it, that's about it. Unless you hate yourself don't watch this horrible movie. Definitely one of the worst I've seen. Ed Wood wouldn't even like it.