Red Spring

At first I was confused thinking I was watching the wrong movie, with the flies buzzing like in "Amityville Horror". Then the blood trail led to something entirely different... Ray almost vomiting, actually. The rest of the movie, effects aside is alright for a watch or two.

Trying to look for his missing family, a man and a group of hunters trying to control the group of ravenous vampires in the area find a woman's bomb shelter to be a worthwhile hideout and stay there, eventually being forced into a deadly battle with the creatures to carry on the human race.

This was a pretty decent vampire effort. One of its stronger elements is the intriguing storyline where it offers up the prototypical post-apocalyptic zombie scenario for vampires. The idea of taking over the world and holding people for breeding in special farms while the rest are out hunting outlying groups including the group who are constantly on the run due to this as they keep encountering the creatures hunting throughout the countryside. As this would be more of a zombie setup than a vampire setup, especially with the look and tone of this one overall, these get the film going on a nice note. Those confrontations lead to the film's enjoyable amount of action. The high-energy nature of these scenes become quite fun, with the city sequences that contain chase scenes both to escape alive or get out of the city alive give this a great starting point. Likewise, ground-based confrontations are filled with gunfights or foot-chases which are quite fun as they try to fight off the advancing swarms coming after them, giving off some exciting and thrilling scenes as this one mixes together some varied setups rather well. That carries over nicely into the enjoyable finale which has a lot to like. With everyone off doing their own tasks, the infiltration by the vampires and subsequent elimination of the group leaving the few survivors to battle the creatures has quite a lot to like. Featuring the action involving their own counterattack and the big battle at the end which ends this on a high note, there's a lot to really like here. Combined with the fine vampire effects and gore, there's quite a lot of enjoyable aspects here. There are a few flaws to be had here. Among it's biggest issues is the rather overlong running time due to several overlong and redundant scenes that offer a wholly familiar type of sequence. There are several of these from the tactical discussions to the supply gathering and general upkeep around the shelter which pads out the running time here which goes on way too long and repeated too much for impact. The other flaw here is the obvious low-budget on display, from the technical gaffes, lack of real gore or the CGI at times which isn't detrimental but does hold it back somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

The zombie apocalypse has come; but they're vampires. The people go somewhere, but there are zombies. They run away, and go somewhere else, until the zombies come. They fight them off; but lose one or two of the crew. They go somewhere else which appears to be safe. There is internal conflict; and maybe a romance. And right when things appear to be ready to come to a head, the zombies return. The bad guy tries to stop the lovers from leaving; but the zombies get him. The lovers find a sunshiny horizon, where safety is promised. The End. I didn't really see more than eight minutes of this move. I just know what happens, that's all.

If you're going to do a no budget horror film, at least have some kind of catch, gimmick, gore, camp, quirk, or something interesting to it. This movie has none. It's a straight acted soap opera level movie, with banal, uninteresting, and awful dialogue. The lead actor is more of an AI robot than a person, but it's explained how such an emotionless, void of charisma actor was chosen for the role, because he is also the writer, director, producer, editor, and visual effects person. The lead actress tries, but she's saddled as being the sassy, sarcastic, bullheaded girl. It has an awfully forced romantic angle that has zero credibility, while the story has crater like plot holes. The antagonists are vampires, but they behave more like zombies, and they're explained as if they should be deaf and blind, which they're not. The context of everything is nonsensical and changing. And the amateurish goofs are a bucket full. From driving vans in the parking position, to locks that don't connect to anything, disappearing corpses and objects, weird green screen and bad CGI, it's all an attempt that should have not seen the light of day, and keep it where the vampires are.

Very good for a low budget movie. As said many times those movies (with few characters or villains) are what you do if you don't have money, so get over it.

But I found it to be a rather interesting view and interpretation of the vampire genre. Ok acting is not always on top but very decent. Characters are interesting. The whole scenario not too bad, and even quite thrilling for the day/night atmosphere, and preparation. I liked it.

You just have to know what you will get here: a good low budget vampire movie. Not a big action movie.