La Secte des vampires

Out For Blood (The Sci-Fi Channel edit) turned out to be enjoyable, but not as original as I had hoped. The writing was one of the two weakest points in this film, and the writing wasn't bad.

The Good: The acting was more than I expected, most actors at least earned their paycheck, if not more. Kevin Dillon did a fine job and didn't over do it on the emotional side or during the vampire-ish scenes he had. Lance Henriksen actually put a bit more "emotional investment" than his role required, and it was nice to see him in a film that while "B Grade" was at least enjoyable, and also to him be cast with some dignity (Mangler 2, WTF?!!). The cinematography was fairly conservative but at the same time visually covered the visuals to adequately tell the story.

The Bad: The "Essential Fiction" of the movie (Vampires stalk the Night...) seemed a bit bland, especially if you the viewer even remotely indoctrinated into Vampire Myth. Most especially if you have any knowledge of the "World Of Darkness" line of products from White Wolf Game Studios. Also the primary female antagonist's brother was annoying beyond the script, which got on my nerves. The few gory scenes that are in this movie could have been shot with a bit more "Umph". The "messy" scenes I saw were shot sort of late 80's TV style. Mind you I saw the "Edited for Sci-Fi" version the DVD version may be more hardcore, but since the violence and damage it inflicted were not even remotely the focus of the film, I doubt I missed much.

The Ugly: The make up for the main antagonist was very on/off, it looked decent enough in the quality department but the execution was not all that gripping, in fact none of the full on "Vamp-Face" make up really did it for me. Also the "Big Bad's" voice is processed with quite a bit of "phlange", unfortunately said phlange is not a good thing. Think how the Cenobites sounded in the first Hellraiser film and deepen it, that is best description I give for the voice tweak they used.

With the gripes pointed out above I would still recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys 80's-90's horror, especially if they enjoy the Vampire sub-genus of horror. It's no "Bram Stokers" but it's much, much better than say "Jugular Wine".

This new wave of Vampire tales embrace in a new concept of sexploitation as main flashy style to catch the new generation, now they appear on punk-rock clothing, more palatable nowadays, also including their real deformed faces as never seen in old ones, this new breed acquired weird behaviors like drugs and sexual desire, the blood stays on second plan, a police officer Hank Holten (Kevin Dillon) was in a painful divorce process with Susan Hasting (Vanessa Angel) when was warned by his chief Captain John Billings (Lance Henriksen) to starts an investigation over a missing girl Layla Simmons (Jody Lyn O'Keefe) on a rave party, Hank went there and finds this girl, invited by her spend a night with her and his friends at an empty building , there has a sex party involved many people, later came up the vampire leader that tried bite Hank saved by the rising sun, aftermath he shooting all around, however in next days when has to report all happenings to your Boss, nothing make sense, removed of the case by Captain Billings, he starts making his own investigation now with his former wife Susan, just an average tale, let it see by gorgeous girls around!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 5

Easily the worst vampire-flick I've ever seen. Hammy-acting, a plot that just had to be written by an 8-year old -> or better yet -> his imaginary friend. They throw in tons of cliché-filled drivel that makes me think that the "decent vampire flick" genre is now a thing of the past.

Don't even get me started about blood-stains that mysteriously vanish (I wanted to poke myself with a pencil through my eyes during the final scene!)

What were they thinking when they made this? Even porno has more congruent story lines!!!

Sci-Fi!!! What has become of you lately?

In Los Angeles, Detective Hank Holten is obsessed by his ex-wife, the writer of vampire novels Susan Hastings, stalking her and having drinking problems. His chief and friend, Captain John Billings, makes him promise to forget her and stop drinking, and assigns Hank to find Layla Simmons, who is missing and without notice to her family. Hank goes to a rave party, finds Layla, they go to an orgy party in an old building, and while having sex with her, Hank finds that the place is a vampire nest. He is bitten by the vampire-leader, but nobody believes on him. He looks for Susan to help him.

It's not a horrible film, but then it's not a great film either. It's made almost like a TV movie. Some people think Hank is miscast, but I thought he was OK. I think they we're going for a hipper/youngish character. He's fine.

The movie was not bad. It wasn't great either. I enjoyed it, so it gets points for that. It was relatively predictable, the effects were kind of mediocre, but Lance Henrickson was good, the girls were cute, and it was about vampires, so hell, it couldn't be all bad. I think, had I paid 8.00 to see it in a theatre I would be a bit ragged off. But in that all I lost was a couple of hours on an early Saturday night... I am content. I would give it 6 fang marks out of 20 (remember there are two fang marks to each bite... smile) Watch it on Sci-Fi but I wouldn't spend more than a 4 dollar bargain bin price on the DVD if and when it comes out. As for me, I am going to pop open a pabst blue ribbon and watch House of 1000 Corpses again.