| From what I can figure, the subtitled translates
to "The Deads", and so, in all English, it's Vampires: The Deads
(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, who appears (via one of Bliss' James
Bond-like tools) to be as cold as a corpse, yet walks in the daylight.
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.
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. 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). It's a well-shot & 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. |
