Prolific director JS Cardone(Alien Hunter;Shadowzone;Outside Ozona)brings us this profane Midwestern vampire tale with attitude starring Kerr Smith as, Sean, a young editor of trailers for a low-budget movie company who takes a car delivery job from Cali to Florida, but his journey is disrupted when he unfortunately picks up a hitchhiker, Nick(Brendan Fehr)who just so happens to hunt bloodsuckers. The head vampire, Kit(Johnathon Schaech)he's looking for is of a specific number called "The Forsaken", a clan who accepted an offering from a demon and hence were cursed to only walk the earth at night. Sean and Nick come across a young woman, Megan(Izabella Miko)who has been bitten by Kit and is slowly going through the process of "turning" as the vampire who left the virus in her continues to live. While trying to cool her body(..Nick, who has been bitten and must also find a member of "The Forsaken" before he himself becomes one of the undead, notifies Sean that Megan's blood is "burning" so her body temperature must be cooled)Megan bites Sean's hand leaving Kit's virus in him. So now Kit's death is of major importance because not only does Megan suffer as long as he remains alive, but Sean also is threatened to become a vampire. Nick, appropriately enough, encountered a doctor who had been bitten and was given knowledge of certain drugs which can slow down the process of turning into a vampire. But, the drugs can only last so long so finding Kit and exterminating the source of the blood disease is of utmost importance. But, Kit as his own brood, two female bloodsuckers and a dim-witted subservient day-driver(Simon Rex), who travel with him so Sean and Nick, with Megan used as bait, will need to find holy ground for a legitimate stand-off. Ina Hamm(Carrie Snodgress, rather wasted)just so happens to live in the middle of nowhere with her house stands on top of a Spanish graveyard..perhaps this is indeed the refuge they need as a base to fight Kit.
The film doesn't pretend to be anything else but a horror tale of innocents plunged into a battle against a predator who holds the keys to their salvation. It's too bad this was made in 2001 because Cardone's trashy little vampire film would make perfect drive-in fodder. Schaech's presence as a charismatic and sexy male vampire really adds a great deal to this particular film as does Phina Oruche as his black sex slave Cym who attacks bloody throats with ferocity. Rex will earn chuckles as a rather simple-minded human watcher often saying "Okeydokey" when ordered by his boss to commit murderous deeds to those who threaten them. Particularly memorable is the murder of a cop who pulls Rex's Pen over for speeding, insists on seeing what was in their truck, receiving a shot-gun blast to the chest, and subsequently is burned alive on top of the hood of his police car. The attractive cast is headlined by Smith as the young hot-shot stud with a big bright future in the movie industry whose life is changed by a fateful drive into a most dangerous situation, and Izabella Miko as the doe-eyed innocent whose family was obliterated by the evil clan and bitten by Kit who must settle "unfinished business" when one of his vampire chicks didn't follow his command of killing her. Fehr was a bit too young, I felt, for the part of vampire hunter who knows an awful lot about the history of this breed of bloodsuckers..I often wondered just how he received all this information. But, I guess Cardone was perhaps motivated by the studio to fill his cast with beautiful people so Fehr was selected. The opening of Cardone's film sure sets the tone of this flick, a zombie-like Miko showering the blood from her gorgeous naked body. She's later undressed by Nick attempting to find the vampire bite as Megan lies comatose from the virus raging inside her. Miko is either asleep or mute for a good portion of the film but Cardone utilizes her vulnerability, youth, and beauty quite well..very photogenic. There's a very nifty image of Miko's Megan with her hands pressed up against the back window of Sean's car as they drive away from a scene which nearly killed them. This film isn't all that original and seems to evoke the spirit of "Near Dark", but I thought Cardone uses the setting at night really well and there's a nasty streak this film has that worked for me. There are some unnecessary images propelled into the action from past scenarios which distracted me a bit, but certain gory bits are effective like how vampire bodies explode when in contact with sunlight too long, and a shot-gun blast to the face which does some serious damage. "The Forsaken" would probably make an appropriate double feature with John Carpenter's "Vampires."
The film doesn't pretend to be anything else but a horror tale of innocents plunged into a battle against a predator who holds the keys to their salvation. It's too bad this was made in 2001 because Cardone's trashy little vampire film would make perfect drive-in fodder. Schaech's presence as a charismatic and sexy male vampire really adds a great deal to this particular film as does Phina Oruche as his black sex slave Cym who attacks bloody throats with ferocity. Rex will earn chuckles as a rather simple-minded human watcher often saying "Okeydokey" when ordered by his boss to commit murderous deeds to those who threaten them. Particularly memorable is the murder of a cop who pulls Rex's Pen over for speeding, insists on seeing what was in their truck, receiving a shot-gun blast to the chest, and subsequently is burned alive on top of the hood of his police car. The attractive cast is headlined by Smith as the young hot-shot stud with a big bright future in the movie industry whose life is changed by a fateful drive into a most dangerous situation, and Izabella Miko as the doe-eyed innocent whose family was obliterated by the evil clan and bitten by Kit who must settle "unfinished business" when one of his vampire chicks didn't follow his command of killing her. Fehr was a bit too young, I felt, for the part of vampire hunter who knows an awful lot about the history of this breed of bloodsuckers..I often wondered just how he received all this information. But, I guess Cardone was perhaps motivated by the studio to fill his cast with beautiful people so Fehr was selected. The opening of Cardone's film sure sets the tone of this flick, a zombie-like Miko showering the blood from her gorgeous naked body. She's later undressed by Nick attempting to find the vampire bite as Megan lies comatose from the virus raging inside her. Miko is either asleep or mute for a good portion of the film but Cardone utilizes her vulnerability, youth, and beauty quite well..very photogenic. There's a very nifty image of Miko's Megan with her hands pressed up against the back window of Sean's car as they drive away from a scene which nearly killed them. This film isn't all that original and seems to evoke the spirit of "Near Dark", but I thought Cardone uses the setting at night really well and there's a nasty streak this film has that worked for me. There are some unnecessary images propelled into the action from past scenarios which distracted me a bit, but certain gory bits are effective like how vampire bodies explode when in contact with sunlight too long, and a shot-gun blast to the face which does some serious damage. "The Forsaken" would probably make an appropriate double feature with John Carpenter's "Vampires."