The Story: When I was a kid the only vampires you ever heard about were either Count Dracula, Count Chocola or the Count on Sesame Street. How times have changed, huh? Now instead of turning into bats and sleeping in coffins during the day and running around dark abandoned European castles, modern vampires enjoy driving around in cars, sleeping in sleazy motels and traipsing around the American west. Makes some sense, I guess. Doesn’t look like too many people are there to notice if movies like this are to be believed.

Sean, a young film editor is driving to Miami to go to his sisters wedding. He’s not driving his car, but a sweet Mercedes convertible that he’s to deliver to a woman there. Along the way on a dark desert highway, cool wind in his hair, the warm smell of…oh never mind…he just gets a flat in a pretty strange way. Suffice it to say, that he has to spend the night in a crappy motel while the tire is repaired by the local goober. When he prepares to leave the next morning he’s confronted by Nick. A young slacker drifter. Nick wants a ride to Houston and even though Sean is reluctant to pick him up, he agrees to give him a ride when Nick offers to pay for gas.

Its obvious that Nick is hiding something, even to Sean, but running low on money, Sean doesn’t pry too hard. Nick's secret comes to light when they meet Megan. She’s delirious and broke wandering about some honky tonk town but Nick insists he can help her. Sean is reluctant to do this but listens to Nick anyway. Waking up in their motel room, Megan becomes hysterical and bites Sean. That’s when Nick drops the bomb on him. She’s infected and now Sean is too. Infected with Vampirism. Nick has some medicine that will stave off the eventual ‘turning’, but not prevent it. The only way to stop the vampiric virus is to kill the original vampire. In this case, its Banta, a creepy guy with a creepy vampire chick and a human flunky. Though the story Nick tells Sean is fantastic Sean witnesses a vampire dying in sunlight and becomes convinced.

I don’t want to give too much away, or anything. But I did enjoy this movie even though its pretty much another Near Dark. Its not going to win an award or anything, but if you liked Near Dark, or John Carpenters Vampires, you’ll probably like this one. Its at least got the novel approach of having two young twenty somethings as vampire hunters instead of some old guys.

Well, I apologize for the abruptness of this review. But to be honest, I’ve only been in the US for four or five days now (at the time of this writing), I’m jet lagged out and I just found out its daylight saving time. And the sun is coming up. I can’t sleep when its bright out. This is going to be a rough day because I’m really tired.

Best Lines: “So was that lady really pissed about her Mercedes?” - Nick asks Sean about the car he was supposed to deliver intact.

Are you kidding me?

1.) Sean must get paid a lot but he must live in an area that’s really expensive. He edits trailers for films, right? But he can’t afford a plane ticket to Miami and he either doesn’t have a car or he’s got a car that’s such a piece of [unwrite] he doesn’t think it’ll make it to Miami and back. Add to that his coworkers let us know that “he rocks”, so he must be really good at his job….yet his boss almost refuses to give him a week off (that he’s owed, by the way) for his sisters wedding and pretty much talks to him like he was garbage. So Sean must get paid well…because not many people would put up with that unless they were making some mean green.

2.) Sean is also a pretty compliant fellow. He doesn’t know Nick at all really and has no reason to trust him when they first find Megan on the street. Now at this point Megan appears to be stoned out of her mind and doesn’t speak at all. Yet when Nick insists that they take her with them to their motel Sean does it. Then he doesn’t really argue when Nick says he knows what’s wrong with her…even when he comes into the room and finds Nick undressing the helpless girl. Look, I don’t know about you, but me? If I just happen to be sharing a motel with a total stranger hitchhiker and I find him undressing a helpless and unconscious chick from the street someone is either getting an ass kicking or leaving at best. Sean just does what Nick says.

3.) Ugh. Nick eats his steak rare. That’s more disgusting than any other scene in the movie. I tried a rare steak once. I swear that [unwrite]in’ thing must have still had a pulse. How can anyone eat meat like that in real life is a mystery. There’s a reason cavemen discovered fire, people.

4.) For a vampire Banta’s not real smart. His vampire chick was right. They should have killed Nick when they first met him. He also should have put some money into his car. If other vampires are that dim, Nick should be able to rid the world of ‘em in a year or so.

Nudity and Sex: With the exception of Carrie Snodgress and a few extras almost every woman in the movie is seen topless at some point. Banta and his chick have sex in a car.

Huh?:

What happened to the car with the girls in it at the beginning of the movie? Sean saw it pretty much vanish in broad daylight just before his tire blew out. No explanation was given on this unsolved mystery.

So Sean decides to quit his job and help Nick travel around vampire hunting? Guess he really didn’t like his job after all. But then, maybe that’s what people do when they experience things like Sean. Personally, I wouldn’t do it, but then I couldn’t quit anyway. Desertion during war time is still punishable by death.

I don’t get the day driver thing. The guy must like working for Banta because I don’t see why else he would do it. Is he afraid of Banta? Probably. But he could kill him easily. Just wait until Banta and his sidekick are hiding in the trunk of the car during the day, drive into a cemetery or any other hallowed ground, get a few cops to show up and open the trunk. Banta had pistols in there with them, but he could probably only shoot one cop before the others unloaded on him and pulled his tarp off…then the sun would incinerate him…end of vampire. Simple.

The Final Judgment: I enjoyed this movie. Its not completely original. It borrows a lot from Vampires and Near Dark, but I ended up liking Nick a lot….as a young, slacker vampire hunter. Maybe there’ll be a sequel. I’d rent it.