| Rating: 7.5/10
From what I can figure, the subtitled translates to "The Dead", and
so, in all English, it's Vampires: The Dead (possibly in reference
to the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead that is minorly featured
late in the film & has nothing to do with the George A. Romero film
of the same name). Jon Bon Jovi stars in this one which is written
& directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch,
Fright Night II, Stephen King's IT). John Carpenter & his
wife, Sandy King, executive produce this direct-to-video feature (although,
it first premiered on the ENCORE cable network). We have a fresh
set of characters in this one. James Woods' Jack Crow isn't even
mentioned, but Father Adam is (along with the Black Cross which Valek needed
in the first film). Father Adam is mentioned at a monastery where
he spent the last few years after the events of the first film. Jon
Bon Jovi stars as Derek Bliss, a vampire hunter in Mexico who is more or
less a vampire bounty hunter as he gets paid by various, anonymous clients
needing his help hunting down these bloodsuckers.
The opening scene is worth a smirk as things aren't as they appear to
be. Anyway, Bliss gets hired for a job deep within Mexico, but needs
to reluctantly form a team of slayers. Things go awry when all of
his potential teammates are viciously murdered by the time he gets there.
He eventually meets up with a young woman, Zoey (Natasha Wagner), who appears
(via one of Bliss' James Bond-like tools) to be as cold as a corpse, yet
walks in the daylight. It's a mystery Derek is intrigued and cautious
about. From there, he's joined by a refreshingly NON-annoying teenage
Mexican boy, and the "big, tall black guy", fellow slayer from Memphis,
Ray Collins (Darius McCrary). From there they must track & hunt
down the female master vampire who wishes to walk in the sunlight, the
same as Valek did in the first, with the help of the Black Cross which
Father Adam hid inside the monastery when he came there a few years back.
The usual vampire madness and mayhem ensues as you'd expect.
Jon Bon Jovi is pretty much the only name you'd probably recognize in
the cast, maybe Darius McCrary as Ray Collins, but that doesn't hurt the
film. It's actually pretty good, not exceptional, and not better
than the first Vampires, but it is pretty good for direct-to-video.
The film is well-acted from action to humor to horror. Plus, we still
have the high gore factor that we saw in the first, but Wallace states
he wished he could've had more "goon" slayings if the budget had allowed
it. Carpenter doesn't do the musical score here, sadly, but it is
a good score for what director Wallace was looking for, as stated in audio
commentary on the DVD release. We still have those heavy blues guitars,
but in a more Spanish style because the film is set & filmed in Mexico
(even the local crew got sick on the shoot down there). Despite a
few added character elements, the plot is essentially the same. So,
in terms of the story, there is not a great deal of originality.
It's a well-shot and well-made follow-up to Carpenter's original film,
but certainly not superior (as is the case with the majority of sequels).
This one has the same DVD features of the first film: widescreen &
full-screen formats, director's commentary, & theatrical trailer.
The film's worth the cost of rental, but I don't think I'll add it to my
home video collection. Although, you big Bon Jovi fans may decide
otherwise as he truly does a fine job in this film. |