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john
carpenter's
vampires |
Horror/Thriller 1998
Regie: John Carpenter
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Trailer
Multimedia
Multimedia 2
Articles
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John Carpenter directed this
horror-western, adapted from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley,
illuminating the pivotal figure of fearless vampire killer Jack Crow (James
Woods), who lost his parents to the creatures. In a remote New Mexico
location, Crow and his team, protected with chain-mail fang shields on their
throats, blast away at a vampire nest, haul them out with the Jeep's winch,
and then celebrate by pulling on other wenches at the Sun God Motel. Their
revels are soon brought to an end by king vampire
Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), who became invulnerable after a
bungled "inverse exorcism" during the 14th Century. Amid the motel mayhem,
Jack escapes, along with his buddy Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and hooker
Katrina (Sheryl Lee). Since Katrina was already bitten by Valek, they use
her as a decoy to locate Valek. Cardinal Alba (Maximilian Schell) sends
padre Guiteau (Tim Guinee) to join Crow, who is unaware that Montoya has
been bitten by Katrina. The hunt begins. Director Carpenter composed the
film's music. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide.
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click on thumbnails to enlarge
 
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About The
Production
"I've always wanted to
do a vampire movie," states John Carpenter, director of John Carpenter's
Vampires. "This book, Vampires, came along and it really did some things
I'd never seen before. It's set in the American Southwest and has
certain western elements to it. I decided this would be the perfect
chance to do something different.
"Part of the theme is the dualistic irony of the good guys and the bad
guys. It has all the classic ideas that you've seen in a vampire
movie-the humans versus the vampires, the hidden sexuality, the idea of
blood. All that's at work in this film. But in essence, I've always
loved westerns, and one of the reasons I'm doing this movie is that this
is the closest I've come to being able to do a western." "It's been said
that all of John's movies are westerns," adds producer Sandy King. "If
you substitute the situations-urban or period or space or, in this case,
the southwest with vampires-and you instead think Howard Hawks' Rio
Bravo, what you see is that John very much follows in his idol's
footsteps." |
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"It's about hunting vampires instead of whomever the bad guys of the day
were in classic western cinema," offers James Woods. "We have set pieces
in this movie that are homages to the early works of Howard Hawks and
Sam Peckinpah, with the Henry Fondas and John Waynes and William Holdens
out braving the ultimate challenge. It's The Wild Bunch meets vampires."
"The vampire slayers
are gunslingers, and the vampires are gunslingers in their own way,"
says Thomas Ian Griffith, the actor who won the plum role of master
vampire Valek. "John's taken the western and added dark overtones we
haven't seen before." |
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It may be hard to envision vampires clashing with slayers in a western
setting, but under John Carpenter's direction, it becomes very natural
and real. James Woods' description of a scene helps bring the idea into
focus: "Daniel Baldwin and I come into the town of Santiago on a wide,
open street," explains Woods. "There's nobody around, but there are
signs that somebody was there. It's quiet. We take out our guns and look
around. I signal him. He signals back to cover me when I go into this
little bar. There's about a minute or so where the tension reads that
our characters are going to be slaughtered right there. All of a sudden,
we realized it was Rio Bravo."
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he moves like a predator....
..with John Carpenter and Marjean Holden (r.)
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