Vampires (film)

This article is about the 1998 film. For the 1986 film, see Vampires (1986 film).

Vampires
File:Vampires.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Carpenter
Produced by	Sandy King
Screenplay by	Don Jakoby
Based on	Vampire$ by John Steakley
Starring	James Woods Daniel Baldwin Sheryl Lee Thomas Ian Griffith Maximilian Schell
Music by	John Carpenter
Cinematography	Gary B. Kibbe
Edited by	Edward A. Warschilka
Production company	Film Office JVC Entertainment Networks Largo Entertainment Spooky Tooth Productions Storm King Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	October 30, 1998 (1998-10-30)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million (estimated)
Box office	$51.3 million

Vampires, also known as John Carpenter's Vampires, is a 1998 American western-horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter. Adapted from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley, the film stars James Woods as Jack Crow, leader of a Catholic Church-sanctioned team of vampire hunters. The plot is centered on Crow's efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Valek, the first and most powerful vampire. Vampires also stars Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Tim Guinee and Maximilian Schell. Two sequels followed: Vampires: Los Muertos in 2002 and Vampires: The Turning in 2005.

Plot

A team of Vatican sponsored vampire hunters led by Jack Crow (Woods) rids an abandoned house of vampires in the middle of New Mexico, only to be wiped out by a master vampire called Valek. Only two members of the team survive, Jack Crow and Tony Montoya as well as a prostitute Katrina who was bitten by Valek. Crow later meets his boss Cardinal Alba (Schell) who introduces him to Father Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee).

After Crow reluctantly allows Guiteau to come along with him, he tells the priest some of his past, about how his father was bitten by a vampire, killed his mother, came after Jack and that he killed his own father. He then asks what it is Valek is after and Guiteau tells him that Valek is seeking an ancient relic called the Black Cross of Berziers and that Valek was once a fallen priest who was thought to have been possessed by demons. The Bérziers Cross was used in an exorcism that was cut short but the result was that Valek was forever changed into the first vampire. Using the changing Katrina's mind Jack, Montoya and Giteau find out that Valek has seized the cross and they arrive at an old church to kill more vampires but they are soon set up as Cardinal Alba sides with Valek and kidnaps Crow. Katrina turns into a vampire and allies herself with Valek but not before biting Montoya. Cardinal Alba agrees to perform a ritual using the cross which will allow vampires to walk in sunlight and be invulnerable but Giteau kills him before he can finish the ritual. Montoya and Giteau then rescue Crow as the sun rises and Crow heads off to confront Valek whom he kills by ramming the Berziers cross into him and exposing him to sunlight which causes him to explode

Giteau realizes that Montoya is about to turn into a vampire now that he has been bitten by Katrina but Crow decides to put Montoya's fate in his hands, telling him that that after two days he will hunt down and kill both Montoya and Katrina. After Montoya and Katrina leave, the film ends with Jack and Guiteau heading off once again to kill the rest of the vampires that made it to shelter.

Cast

File:Vampirestill.jpg

Daniel Baldwin as Montoya and James Woods as Jack Crow.

• James Woods as Jack Crow
• Daniel Baldwin as Anthony Montoya
• Sheryl Lee as Katrina
• Thomas Ian Griffith as Jan Valek
• Maximilian Schell as Cardinal Alba
• Tim Guinee as Father Adam Guiteau
• Mark Boone Junior as Catlin
• Gregory Sierra as Father Giovanni
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as David Deyo
• Thomas Rosales, Jr. as Ortega
• Henry Kingi as Anthony
• David Rowden as Bambi
• Clarke Coleman as Davis
• Marjean Holden as Female Master

Production

Shortly after finishing work on Escape from L.A., John Carpenter was thinking about quitting filmmaking because "it stopped being fun". Largo Entertainment approached him with a project called Vampires, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Steakley. They gave him two screenplays – one by Don Jakoby and the other by Dan Mazur. Carpenter read them both and the novel and saw the potential for a film he'd been interested in making. "I went into my office and thought, 'It's going to be set in the American southwest and it's a western – Howard Hawks.'" Vampires gave Carpenter the chance to do a western disguised as a horror film," he said. "The story is set up like a western. It's about killers for hire. They're a western cliché. In this movie they’re paid to kill vampires." In terms of tone and look, Carpenter felt that his film was "a little more like The Wild Bunch than Hawks in its style, but the feelings and the whole ending scene is a kind of replay on Red River."

He wrote his own screenplay taking elements from the Jakoby and Mazur scripts, the book and some of his own ideas. For this film, Carpenter wanted to get away from the stereotype of gothic vampires as he said in an interview, "My vampires are savage creatures. There isn't a second of brooding loneliness in their existence. They're too busy ripping and tearing humans apart."

Carpenter cast James Woods as Jack Crow because he wanted "the vampire slayer to be as savage as the prey he’s after. James Woods is the kind of guy you'd believe could and would chew off the leg of a vampire." Woods was interested in doing the film because it was something different for him. Contrary to his reputation, Carpenter didn't find the actor difficult to work with because "we had a deal. He would give me one take as it's written and I would let him improvise...Many of his improvisations were brilliant. When I needed him to be more focused and disciplined, I had the take from the script that was straighter."

Carpenter had not seen any of Daniel Baldwin's work and had the actor read for him. He had seen Sheryl Lee on Twin Peaks and cast her based on her work on the show. Carpenter's wife and the film's producer Sandy King cast Thomas Ian Griffith because she and the director wanted "someone who looks formidable, but is also alluring. There always has to be something alluring about the evil nature of the vampire."

The MPAA took issue with the film's over-the-top violence, threatening to give it an NC-17 rating unless some of the gore was cut. King said, "We satisfied the ratings board by just cutting short of a few things that went into really gruesome stuff."

Critical reception

The film was #1 in its opening weekend and grossed a total of $20,308,772 in its domestic release making it a United States box office disappointment. However it was an adequate box office success worldwide.

The film was originally released to mixed critical reviews. Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail called it "crude, rude, nasty fun". However, The New York Times' Lawrence Van Gelder said it was "ridiculous without being awful enough to be hilarious". Roger Ebert noted that it "has a certain mordant humor" but was "not scary, and the plot is just one gory showdown after another." Vampires currently holds a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews.

According to the original book's author John Steakley, the film contained much of his dialogue and none of his plot.

Awards

Award	Category	Subject	Result
25th Saturn Awards	Best Actor	James Woods	Won
	Best Make-Up		Won
	Best Music	John Carpenter	Won
	Best Horror Film		Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Sheryl Lee	Nominated
Bram Stoker Award	Other Media	John Carpenter	Nominated
International Horror Guild Award	Best Movie		Nominated

See also

• Vampire film

External links

• Vampires
• Vampires at IMDb
• Vampires at AllMovie
• Vampires at Rotten Tomatoes
• Vampires at Metacritic