Rating: B-
Dir: Michael Su
Star: Costas Mandylor, Robert LaSardo, Tara Reid, Bishop Stevens
This got off to a rocky start. By which I mean, within a minute Chris was pulling put the big guns of her derogatory criticism: “Is this… a Brain Damage movie?” I had to go get the aloe vera after that sick burn, though pretended not to hear her, and things improved sharply there after. Firstly, LaSardo appeared playing the master of a vampire clan, and compelling viewer interest despite being under heavy make-up and voice modification. Turns out two vampire factions have gone to war, and it’s not going well for us livestock. We’re into a post-apocalyptic landscape, with the dwindling band of humanity trying to survive the predations of the Master and his acolytes.
Fortunately… oh, something something hero will rise. In thus case, it’s John Shepard (Mandylor), a grizzled veteran who wants to take down the master. He needs help to do so, and to this end recruits a motley collection of talents, including rogue biker Rico, vampire-hunting sisters, and Torque (Stevens), the leader of a militia group. Except, Torque has his own agenda, with the goal of seizing and keeping power by any means necessary. If that involves betraying his own race to the Master, so be it. He also has the third-place finisher in this year’s Will Farrell look-alike competition among his crew, which is a little distracting. Meanwhile, there’s a vampire Mistress (Reid), and the Master’s rival, an uber-vamp who doesn’t do much here, but is set up to be the Big Bad for Bloodthirst 2.
I’d not mind. Mandylor is great, being the glue that holds this together, his world-weary attitude exactly what’s needed. Whenever he’s on screen, the film automatically gets a power-up. LaSardo makes for a worthy adversary, and Reid is well-cast: acting is less important than vamping for her role. However, some of the supporting performances are flat-out terrible – hence Chris’s knee-jerk early reaction – and there are scenes which seem to serve little or no purpose. For instance, Rico and one of the sisters go to retrieve his bike. They drive past three vampires on the way there, and then again on the way back. That’s it. These rob the film of momentum, and you’re left to contemplate a post-apocalypse where muscle cars are still operational.
All told though, it’s an entertaining enough B-movie, and squeezes good value out of its single location – this was filmed entirely in the ghost town of Nelson, Nevada. Rather than a limitation, it feels like you’re seeing just one corner of a larger universe. The story does keep swapping between the humans and vampires. The latter were less interesting to me than seeing the different factions of humanity, forced to come together to defeat a common foe. The enemy could just have been painted in broad strokes, with LaSardo’s quiet menace more effective than any back-story. That imbalance is likely a compliment to Mandylor, who deserves to be among the nominees for B-Movie Bad-Ass of the Year 2023.
The movie was released October 31st, 2023 on VOD/DVD through Lionsgate.