john-carpenters-vampires-uk-blu-rayLimited Blu-ray & DVD dual format release

Indicator, out now

John Carpenter’s 1998 hybrid horror western gets a UK Blu-ray premiere release courtesy of cult film label Indicator in a limited package that also includes a vanilla copy of the film on DVD.

Vampires (let’s drop the John Carpenter’s) is the very definition of a guilty pleasure. Your critical faculties remind you that you’ve seen this before, done much better, but there’s so much to enjoy in this New Mexico-set vampire flick that you forgive it its shortcomings. It probably helps that it followed the crushing 1996 disappointment that was Escape From LA and reintroduced the Howard Hawks tropes that Carpenter used to great effect in Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing.

The greatest strength of the movie is James Woods as the improbably named Jack Crow, a world-weary vampire hunter leading his team in a hunt to catch the undead. He’s under the auspices of the Vatican, but unbeknownst to him, the vampire master is rallying his trips to secure a holy relic that will allow him to walk in daylight, The effects are gory, the action is relentless and the 1080 transfer ensures that you can navigate every crag on Woods’ contoured face.

Twin Peaks’ Sheryl Lee fulfils the obligatory (for this sort of movie) ‘tart with a heart’ victim and Maximilian Schell is earnest as a Cardinal. In addition to to the crisp transfer which showcases the rich palette of the Southern setting – all dusty sunsets and sunrises – there’s an audio choice of 7.1 Surround or standard 2.0 channels. There’s also the option to listen to Carpenter’s score in 2.0, a bluesy synth composition not dissimilar to his They Live.

vampires-1Carpenter also provides a commentary track which appears to have been ported across from the previous DVD releases. He’s on his own for this track, which is a shame, as he is more insightful when bouncing off his lead actors as he did with The Thing and Christine. But there’s the occasional new nugget of info in the yack track – did you know that it’s Frank Darabont who gets his car jacked and that the opening scene was filmed on a set previously used to film an Italian western series? Carpenter also gamely reveals some of his movie mistakes where lighting was wrong and he had to rely on the editor to fix things.

All of these extras that I’ve mentioned were also on the 2015 Twilight Times release, as well as the theatrical trailer and the briefest ‘making of’ feature (6 minutes). What’s new are a B-Roll reel and interviews with Carpenter, Woods, Lee and Daniel Baldwin, as well as Part 1 of a frank Guardian interview between director and film journalist Nigel Floyd. You’ll have to pick up the Blu-ray of Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars if you want Part 2. And finally, the inlay booklet contains an essay on the movie by vampire movie aficionado Kim Newman.

Sadly there’s no deleted scenes or alternate takes to add to the experience, though one gets the feeling that this economic shoot used every available foot of film on screen, with little fat to be trimmed. By no means a top tier Carpenter classic, this is a worthy stable-mate thematically to 1996’s From Dusk till Dawn and even spawned a Carpenter-less sequel Vampires: Los Muertos in 2002.

Verdict: A high-definition wise-cracking James Woods in sunglasses, brandishing crossbow. It’s The Wild Bunch meets Vlad the Impaler. Seriously people, what more does a film need to offer? 7/10

Nick Joy