The director of "Halloween" sinks his teeth into the bloodsucker genre with this horrific gem. James Woods stars as the leader of a Vatican-backed band of vampire hunters battling the minions of a six-centuries-old nosferatu, who's seeking an ...
 |  Format : Full Screen, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby Publisher : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Company : Sony List Price: Our Price: $3.97 You Save: $11.02 (74%) Used Price : $0.88 |
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The director of "Halloween" sinks his teeth into the bloodsucker genre with this horrific gem. James Woods stars as the leader of a Vatican-backed band of vampire hunters battling the minions of a six-centuries-old nosferatu, who's seeking an ancient artifact that will allow them to stalk in the daytime. Daniel Baldwin, Thomas Ian Griffith, Sheryl Lee and Maximilian Schell also star. 108 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: English, French; audio commentary by Carpenter; photo gallery; theatrical trailer.Amazon.com
Talk about an opening. The first few minutes of John Carpenter's Vampires--in which James Woods's vampire killer leads a dawn raid on a New Mexico "goon nest" of bloodsuckers--not only suggests a horror movie that will not pull any punches, it even evokes some of the more disturbing dream-memories of American Westerns. Muscular and uncompromised, the sequence suggests a new Carpenter classic unraveling before one's eyes. Well, dream on. Things don't quite work out that way, but this is still a film to reckon with. There are a few serious (and surprising) misjudgments on the director's part, particularly a mishandling of Sheryl Lee's role as a prostitute poisoned by the bite of a "master vampire" (who pretty much wiped out Woods's team of goon terminators). But aside from some weaknesses, the action is jolting, the suggested complicity of the Catholic Church in destroying monsters is provocative, and the traces of Howard Hawks's continuing influence on Carpenter's storytelling are in evidence. --Tom KeoghSimilarProduct