John Carpenter's Vampires provides a unique take on the traditional vampire story. Scream Factory has gone above and beyond in providing some great features on this set, which is a nice addition to their Collector's Edition Series!
“Forget everything you’ve ever heard about vampires,” warns Jack Crow (James Woods), the leader of Team Crow, a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When Master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack’s entire team, Crow and the sole team survivor, Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules, Crow and Montoya take one of Valek’s victims hostage – a beautiful but unlucky prostitute (Sheryl Lee). She is the sole psychic link to Valek and they use her to track down the leader of the undead. As Valek nears the climax of his 600-year search for the Berziers Cross, Jack and the new Team Crow do everything possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all the vampires the omnipotent power to walk the world in daylight.”
John Carpenter’s Vampires is one of the more unique vampire films out there, the main aspect being the Western quality the film exudes, possibly it’s best feature. This is quite the stylistic departure from the typical horror/gothic type vampire film, touting some breathtaking locations in the desert and old Western-style towns, as well as many other qualities that lend themselves to make a pretty fun film.
The vampire mythos in this film is a bit different than what you might be familiar with. These creatures are viscous and animal-like. The team, lead by Jack Crow and an extension of the Catholic Church, equip themselves with some pretty heavy-duty firepower, all which only serve to slow down the vampires as they leap around in a fury, barely affected by the barrage of bullets. With the traditional crosses, garlic and other usual methods of warding off vampires useless in this instance, close combat with these creatures is extremely difficult, leading to one of the more unique methods of dispatching them: an iron crossbow with a cable attached, tethered to a winch outside that drags the vampires out into the sunlight, causing their bodies to burst into flames. The religious aspect to this team of vampire slayers is pretty interesting, focusing on ancient religious texts and artifacts, including a religious ceremony that ended up creating the first vampire.
John Carpenter does indeed create a more stylized version of the vampire mythos, complete with a loner main character which is very much Snake Plissken-like, but definitely not as cool. James Woods was an interesting choice as lead, as he’s never really played a hero-type, but fits in perfectly as a guy who’s suffered extreme loss at the hands of these creatures and will do anything to stop them, not caring who gets hurt in the process. His reputation for being difficult to work with is mentioned in the special features, not only by Carpenter but by Woods himself. They both admit, however, they had a great working relationship and Carpenter’s style allowed Woods to stick to both stick to the script and try out his own thing. I’m not sure if I’ve seen Daniel Baldwin in anything honestly before this, but was surprised at just how well he did in this film. His character was all over the place in the first act, but eases into the character as he becomes involved with Sheryl Lee’s character Katrina, who also does a fantastic job in this film. There are quite a few other character actors you’ll recognize from countless other things. John Carpenter has put together a nice cast of people you might least expect, which somehow seems to work well.
Another thing Carpenter excels at in his films is making sure the practical effects are superb, and Vampires is no different. From the impaled vampires, decapitations, and especially the unique way the vampires burst into violent flames, these all look fantastic and elevate the film in my eyes. I’ve always been a fan of practical effects, especially in horror films, and these are done quite well.
Video
Vampires is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1. Unfortunately there is no new transfer from the negative on this that Scream Factory normally does for their Collector’s Editions, but this transfer still looks quite good for a film over twenty years old. Color balance looks good, with some very breathtaking visuals of the desert landscape in New Mexico. Grain is fairly noticeable in some of the darker sequences but seems to be kept at a manageable level.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The track sounds great, with a nice balance between the surrounds and center channel. There are some nice action sequences that demonstrate the range the surrounds will utilize. I’ve always enjoyed John Carpenter’s work on his soundtracks, but unfortunately, he doesn’t provide the soundtrack in this film. Instead, there is a very Western-style theme that plays quite frequently, a nice guitar rift that is very fitting to the sequences.
Special Features
As usual, Scream Factory provides some amazing extras that all fans of the film will want to check out. These include:
- NEWTime To Kill Some Vampires – An Interview With Composer/Director John Carpenter, Producer Sandy King Carpenter, And Cinematographer Garry B. Kibbe
- NEW Jack The Slayer– An Interview With Actor James Woods
- NEW The First Vampire– An Interview With Actor Thomas Ian Griffith
- NEW Raising The Stakes– An Interview With Special Effects Artist Greg Nicotero
- NEW Padre– An Interview With Actor Tim Guinee
- Audio Commentary By Composer/Director John Carpenter
- Isolated Score
- Vintage Making Of Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spots
- Still Gallery
John Carpenter’s Vampires was strangely his most successful at the box office, but is by far his best overall. Still, it’s a unique take on the vampire genre that only Carpenter could provide, and Scream Factory does an excellent job in providing a load of supplemental material to make this Collector’s Edition worth picking up.