Vampires (1998 film)

Plot

Jack Crow leads his Vatican-sponsored vampire hunters in a daylight raid on a New Mexico nest, subduing nine basic vampires with gunfire, pikes, and wooden stakes before incinerating them in sunlight. Crow worries about not finding the nest's master vampire. That night, while the team celebrates with prostitutes at the Sun God Motel, the master vampire Jan Valek arrives, bites prostitute Katrina, and murders most of the hunters; only Crow and his lieutenant Tony Montoya escape with Katrina.

Crow orders Montoya to hide with Katrina, hoping her growing psychic link with Valek will help track him. Reporting to Cardinal Alba, Crow learns Valek was a disgraced priest executed and transformed into the first vampire, and that Valek has already killed another slayer group in Germany. Alba assigns archivist Father Adam Guiteau to Crow. Suspecting betrayal, Crow interrogates Guiteau and shows him a map indicating vampires are searching the Southwest for an unknown object.

At a hotel, Montoya explains Katrina's changes; she attempts suicide and bites Montoya, which he hides. Crow decides to pursue Valek without a new team. Guiteau reveals Valek seeks the Black Cross of Béziers, and Crow welcomes him as a new slayer.

Production

Largo Entertainment bought the rights to John Steakley's novel in 1992 and planned it as the studio's next big project. Russell Mulcahy was the first attached director, with Dolph Lundgren cast as Jack Crow and Willem Dafoe reportedly eyed for a secondary role, likely the antagonist Valek. Proposed drafts included one set entirely at the Vatican with a vampirized Pope as villain, and another in a high-tech future where vampires were common. The film was slated for a summer 1996 release with a $50–60 million budget, but conflicts between Mulcahy and the studio forced him to leave before filming, taking Lundgren with him.

After finishing Escape from L.A., John Carpenter considered quitting filmmaking because it stopped being fun. Largo approached him with the Vampires project, giving him two screenplays—one by Don Jakoby and one by Dan Mazur. Carpenter read both and the novel, seeing potential for a film he had wanted to make: set in the American Southwest as a western in the style of Howard Hawks. He described the story as being about killers for hire, a western cliché, and felt the tone and look were closer to The Wild Bunch than Hawks, with the ending replaying Red River.

Reception

Vampires opened at number one, grossing $9.4 million in its opening weekend, then dropped to number eight in its second weekend with $4 million. It grossed $20,308,772 in the United States on a $20 million budget. Carpenter stated the film was a massive success overseas, particularly in Japan, and pulled in well over its budget, later adding $42 million from home video rental and purchase sales. Critical reviews were varied, appearing on both best-of-year and worst-of-year lists.

Positive reviews praised the acting, direction, and visual style; negative reviews found the plot incoherent and characters unlikable. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 44% rating based on 54 reviews, with the consensus: 'Nothing but one showdown after another.' Metacritic gives a score of 42% from 19 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. CinemaScore audiences gave an average grade of D+.

Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail called it 'crude, rude, nasty fun.' Robert Gonsalves of efilmcritic.com gave four out of five stars, calling it 'grungy, disreputable fun.' Sean Axmaker of Stream On Demand gave 3.5 out of four stars, calling it 'Carpenter in his prime form.' Negative reviews included Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times calling it 'ridiculous without being awful enough to be hilarious,' and Michael Dequina of The Movie Report giving 1.5 out of five stars, saying there was no real plot and the characters were unlikable. Paul Tatara of CNN gave a hostile review, arguing the film might stunt emotional and creative development.