Les vampires du désert

While most of the reviews were negative, this review is a positive one since I am a sucker (no pun intended) for vampire tales. THE FORSAKEN is a throwback to such 1980s classics as THE LOST BOYS, NEAR DARK, and THE HITCHER. While it's not nearly as good as those three flicks, it certainly is an interesting and occasionally intriguing picture. Unlike most teen horror films that have come out in the past five years, it is smart, original, and is actually scary at times. It's a fun horror movie that isn't perfect, yet still worth watching for its somewhat new take on the vampire tale. However, one can't help but get the feeling that THE FORSAKEN could have been so much more and it might have been had it not been heavily edited before its release due to the political climate at the time. Something tells me prior to being edited to death by the studio, THE FORSAKEN was something special. There are moments where one can see a better movie in the mix. Hopefully one day there will be a director's cut so audiences can see what J.S. Cardone originally intended the film to be like. I give it 5/10. It's not bad, though it's not great.

You know, sometimes you'll see a B-movie horror flick where the story really grabs you and you think, man, if they just had a better budget, cast, effects, this really could have been something. Then in turn you'll see a movie with a decent cast, director and money to spend, but its obvious the script was written two days before shooting began.

I'm sorry to say that the Forsaken is more of the latter and less of the former. For us boys, there's plenty of explosions, car chases, the odd bit of nudity, but the plot is so wafer thin it falls to pieces at the first breeze.

As a 'popcorn' 'no-brainer' of a movie it's pleasant enough, the cast perform well with what little they've been given, but for me personally the ending felt like it had been 'tacked on' in a rush. That and the fact the whole thing feels like a marketing ploy to earn a sequel spoiled it for me really. Still if you're at a loose end and you like your horror flicks might be worth a watch for Johnathon Schaech (Star turn in my opinion) as the head vampire. Just don't get your expectations up.

Had some cool Arizona Atmosphere which is hard to pull off when doing a vampire movie, since mostly aliens and skin walkers come from AZ lol, overall, a solid little horror film...some of the actors make it a better film as well ..."We are Amercian, MTV watching fast food freaks...you gonna finish that pie? " great dialogue for early 2000s lol!

The Forsaken opened here (the UK) yesterday with very little fanfare or publicity. Not being a big vampire movie fan, I went to see the film more out of curiosity than anything else. I was pleasantly surprised. The picture, written and directed by J S Cardone, attempts to drag the vampire film kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. Of course, this in itself is nothing new. Over the past few years we have endured a number of films that mix the standard bloodsucking fare with the more modern way of life, so much so the collective movies have spawned their own sub-genre. Cardone's film stands out, though. More subtle than 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and a hell of a lot more convincing than last year's 'Dracula 2000', The Forsaken unfolds with a po-faced seriousness often lacking in the modern horror film. So much so that Cardone's film emerges as a dirty, dark, grubby little feature which mercifully eschews ironic, post-modern banter and throw-away comedy lines in favor of a sustained and bleak atmosphere. The film has many strong points. Despite both leading men coming from successful teen-oriantated television shows (Kerr Smith from 'Dawson's Creek' and Brendan Fehr from 'Roswell'), The Forsaken never feels like a teen horror movie. It is rough and unpolished, dark and mean.The cast are solid. Smith makes for a sympathetic hero and Fehr convinces as a man with a mission. Schaech steals the picture, though, as the head honcho. Looking a lot older than I suspect he actually is, complete with a grey wisp in his hair, Schaech wanders through the film with an air of quiet menace that serves the picture well. His jagged, sculptured face tells a thousand stories and he restrains himself from overplaying. One interesting fact about the movie is that, as far as I am aware, there are no shots of glaring fangs in the movie, no sharp teeth. The only 'vampirism' I can recall seeing were Schaech's elongated finger nails. Fresh.

Of course the film is not perfect. It is littered with sudden outbursts of loud, obnoxious songs obviously placed to market the soundtrack album. Which is a shame, because the score, when heard, is really rather good. Schaech is under-used, and the gimmick editing employed to signify his murderous rampaging is confusing and redundant. The film will not be to everyone's taste. Too off-the-beaten-track for mainstream audiences and not enough splatter for the gore-hounds, the film is left stuck somewhere in between. The film also contains a number of misjudged scenes that border on being needlessly nasty and vile. The killing of a state trooper is particularly grim. But these are minor gripes.

The Forsaken is a good film that, I suspect, will be loved or loathed by anyone who takes the time to watch it. I loved it.

Gosh, I remember seeing this movie when it was released in the theaters, a friend from school and I both are just the biggest vampire movie fans you'll meet. You name the vampire movie, I've probably seen it or at least have heard of it. So we naturally saw the trailer for The Forsaken and didn't even hesitate to see this movie, it just looked so awesome. Ever since The Lost Boys, we haven't had a really good teenage vampire movie that could be a new classic for my generation… well, sadly this failed. Now honestly it's not a horrible movie, but it just didn't thrill me. The story isn't anything special and the cast is pretty forgettable, I'm not digging the "make up" effects they had considering these "vampires" didn't have any fangs at all, but I didn't feel like my time was totally wasted.

Sean is driving cross country to his sister's wedding when he picks up Nick, a hitchhiker who happens to be a vampire hunter hunting a group of vampires led by Kit, one of the Forsaken. The Forsaken are a group of French Knights that during the First Crusade made a pact with the demon Abbadon to live forever. Nick was bitten by a vampire but thanks to a drug cocktail the vampire virus is kept at bay. Nick is hunting this particular Forsaken: he believes him to be the one that his strain of the vampire virus is descended from and that if he kills him he will not eventually turn into a vampire. At first Sean is less than willing to indulge his new acquaintance, but then they find Megan, a girl Sean finds he is attracted to, bitten and left for dead by the vampires. Nick also proves he is telling the truth by killing a vampire, Teddy, by exposure to sunlight. When Sean is infected with the vampire virus, their only hope is to kill the vampire leader before it is too late.

The Forsaken is just alright movie, the reason I say that it didn't totally waste my time is because it did have a couple good scenes here and there. I thought that the scene where the guys and the girl go to the hotel room to find out if the girl was bitten by a vampire and get some sleep, then they see the vampires go into the room across from them was pretty intense. The vampires of the movie were pretty decent as villains, but Simon Rex as this sort of updated retarded Reinfield, it's like if Reinfield and Forrest Gump had a child, it'd be Simon Rex and he just didn't get enough character development for us to care at all about him. There are still things that need to be fixed with the script, but I wouldn't say this is a horrible movie, I would just say that you shouldn't go out of your way to see it.

5/10