Strange Things Happen at Sundown

Forgive me all that read this review. It won't be long, I assure you. BRAIN DAMAGE films.what can be said about them. Besides bringing out interesting, possibly trend-setting films, I think that the movie makers really need to invest in some better filming equipment. I knew when I saw the opening shot that it was going to be an uninteresting movie, and I was right. Was there blood in it? Yes. Was there vampires? If you want to call them that. Constant screaming from the victims, the cheesy blood that covered the bodies, frustration over a loss of $3.50 is all I felt. The cover to all of their movies is great, but then again, it's suckers like me that rent it and realize after the movie starts that we've been swindled. Oh, and please don't get me started on these Soprano-like vampires.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, even on fast forward it was boring. Having got that off my chest it is only fair to admit that these guys were ambitious. They had an (not uninteresting) idea about a story of vampires in 'real life' and ran with it. Unfortunately they ran with it far too long and this ends up being a non-stop onslaught of gory kills with lots of accompanying screaming and because this is mixed up with a mafia storyline very dumb and very tedious yelling of the same words all the time in place of dialogue. Also, just a personal thing, but there is no sex at all, just blood and guts and crass posturing from all concerned. Amazingly all this is taken very seriously and we are constantly reminded how difficult it would be to be one of these boring vampires. There are attempts at humour but I have been rude enough so I'll say no more, other than that this would have been better if it were two hours shorter!

Interesting take on the vampire tale, but this film has one major problem...it is 2 hours and 15 minutes in length! Normally that isn't a problem with certain films. However, when scenes become so long that they begin to bore you to death you've got a real problem. This movie could have been easily cut by about 45 minutes and been much, much better. It's almost as if the director had never heard of deleted scenes or good pacing in a film. The editing job should not have been handled by the director in this movie. There is no way that this movie should have been as long as it is in it's finished product. I'd hate to even think that there was a longer Director's Cut edition out there. There is also a brand of comedy peppered in the plot that I really just didn't get or find all that humorous in the least.

One final thing that was annoying about the film, the "F" word and every other profanity is used in practically every line of dialogue in the entire movie. Again, normally this isn't a bad thing, but when you hear the same exact words in a movie over and over again it becomes really repetitive and downright annoying. I know I've seen literally thousands upon thousands of films in my life so far, and this easily ranks in the top 10 as far as that goes. There's also a lot of "moaning" in the sound mix if you get my drift, but curiously not very much nudity or sexual situations.

The film does have a few good points such as good characters and some memorable lines of dialogue spotted in here and there. But I'll wait for a heavily butchered TV edit version before I waste 135 minutes again.

I gave this movie a 1 out of 10 rating.

Storyline: Mildly interesting, though predictable and not too original.

Acting: Awful? Horrible? Pathetic? Take your pick.

Cinematography: Decent for a shot-on-video movie, but low quality audio and bad lighting really drag it down.

Special effects are non-existent, but not entirely cheesy due to clever use of camera positioning, etc.

Pacing: It's way too long (135 minutes)

Pros: Good insight into the psyche of someone who is forced to kill in order to survive. Comic relief provided by "The Reaper" who dresses in a Grim Reaper caul, but with psychadelic socks that change every scene.

Cons: Bad acting, poor cinematography.

As movies go, the only people who will find it interesting are the very VERY small group of people who are 1) really into vampires and 2) delve into the psychological aspects of reluctant killing. If this doesn't describe you, stay far far away from this film.

I'd ordered this movie for a friend, who wanted it for a customer who had a friend who appeared in this...if you can follow that. As it turned out, I had worked with someone with a very small role in this too. I'd read some good things about this online when I tried looking for a copy.

However, I didn't much care for it. I think you would really, really have to love vampires to watch this movie. I got an hour and twenty minutes into it and gave up and hit my fast-forward button to scan through the rest. Nothing I saw made me hit play again. At 135 minutes...two hours and fifteen minutes...this is just far, far too long.