JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES (REVIEW)

Dir. John Carpenter

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

John Carpenter is well known as the king of horror however many people often ignore his brilliance at action thrillers that are the top of the list for the genre. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK/LA, THEY LIVE and ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 are all action greats that put macho action leaps ahead of any remote sense of horror.

VAMPIRES blends both of Carpenters expertise and gives us James Woods as a vampire turned slayer for the Catholic church who comes face to face with corruption and evil.

The 1998 film is very of its time boasting a dual header film with Daniel Baldwin and giving us enough electric guitar to keep the neighbours up but at the same time brings the charm and fun that better films (namely THE LOST BOYS and NEAR DARK) bring to the table.

Yet, despite it's predictability, mediocre levels of gore and lack of any suspense that Carpenter is familiar with, it's still a great trip down nostalgic vampire action films and while not Carpenter's best, still is a lot better than a whole load of other vamp films.