Some sexy young grad students go to Romania to study Romanian history (or something), but end up drawn into a conflict between two vampire brothers, one good and one evil, fighting over their father's legacy.
I actually tried watching this one for last year's marathon, but I couldn't get past the first scene. It's a Full Moon release, pretty much a guarantee that it was going to be an unwatchable, microbudget mess. But then I kept reading more about it, how it spawned an entire series and seems to have a genuine fanbase behind it, so I thought I'd give it one more shot.
And even though I wouldn't say I liked it, I'm glad I saw it. Turns out that the first scene of the movie is probably the most overtly awful, and the rest of the film is surprisingly not unwatchable. In fact, it's kinda ambitious and even has some cool ideas. Despite its (many, obvious) limitations, it aspires to be a classic-style, classy vampire movie with just a slight "modern" (it was made in the 90's) twist to it.
The problem, of course, is that the budget (and maybe the overall talent of the filmmakers) can't really sustain this. The makeup, the sets, the costumes, and especially the special effects, are all just a shade on the cheesy side, as are the actors and the screenplay, so it never fully cultivates the serious tone it's going for. But, and I mean this sincerely, it's kinda fun watching them try. The effects are almost laughably bad in places, but there's also sort of an earnest charm to them as well.
The title refers to the evil brother's henchmen, these tiny little monsters that he creates from his own body. They look like this:
Yeah, not the most intimidating monsters in the world, but they are kinda cute!
So, again, not a good movie, but not without it's charms. I'm still trying to decide if I want to watch any more of the series for this month's festivities. We'll see.
Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment