John Carpenter is known for many groundbreaking films, his catchy and awesome original soundtracks, and atmosphere. So, this movie had a lot of build going into it for me. Needless to say I am a giant fan of Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, etc. His movies often display a kooky weird society, or a slight twist on something normal, and that's always fun to see. His horror movies broke rules, established new genres, helped define special effects, and are legendary. So, once again, a lot of build.
I saw this for the first time when I was in my mid teenage years, and I remember thinking how disappointing it was. I think I only saw it once, and then I just ignored it and didn't see a single movie of his since then. Luckily, I didn't miss much since his next film was Ghosts of Mars, but let's not even get near that flick yet.
More build leading into Vampires? Sure, pile it on! Starring James Woods, who I love, also starring Daniel Baldwin, Maximilian Schell, and Sheryl Lee from Twin Peaks. AHHHG! Dream cast! Except Daniel Baldwin, but you know, whatever. I'll prepare a noose in case the Daniel Baldwin fans track me down and want to hang me.
I dunno, why didn't this movie "do it" for me? 1) the characters were not especially developed, likable, or even memorable. 2) the villain, while cool, didn't have a real story, wasn't shown much, and his vampire powers weren't front and center enough. 3) the weapons and the destruction of the vampires came off as very undeveloped, the humans didn't seem like a realistic defense against the vampires. 4) the action was very repetitive....I could go on. The movie was very hollow. It would dawdle along, something would happen, it would dawdle along, repeat.
I dunno.
You know, I've been all over the place with movies. I was just researching the life of Weng Weng, the midget Filipino from such films as "For Y'ur Height Only". I remember seeing that with my wife (girlfriend at the time) years ago and wondering just what in the world it was. Now there's a documentary about him. I remember seeing Troll 2 not because it was the "Best Worst Movie" but because it was the sequel to Troll, and supposedly had a sequel to it, Contamination .7
I guess my point is, movies are something which to me are something entirely "part of life". There is no "life" without movies involved. I fucking love movies. I'm just saying.
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