09. John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)

Based on the novel Vampire$ by John Steakly, the production was hamstrung by budget cuts that left it with 2/3 of the budget originally proposed and massive rewrites were necessary. This left the movie feeling a bit barebones as far as production value was concerned and presumably forced them to allow Daniel Baldwin onto the cast. Lesser movies would have plunged into mediocrity at this point but Vampires had an ace in the hole: James Woods. The story, such as it is, follows a group of Catholic Church approved vampire slayers led by Jack Crow (James Woods) who come across a nest of vampires and clean it out. Everything is peaches and cream and hookers until Master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) wakes up that night and takes the killing of his ‘children’ personal. He wipes out Crow’s whole team except for Jack, a bitten hooker and Daniel Baldwin. The vampire knows Jack’s name which makes Jack think he is up to something and Jack goes for guidance and is assigned a new Priest as a helper to stop Valek from…you know what, it doesn’t matter. The plot is far less important than how hilarious Woods is as Crow. Apparently a decent amount of his dialogue was improvised and he makes the whole thing worth watching. There are cliches and less than stellar production values but the movie is very fun and well worth checking into as long as you know what to expect. It was followed up with a much less fun sequel starring Bon Jovi.

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