VampireHunter

Vampire Hunter (Pendulum Pictures / Mill Creek "Brutal Blood Suckers" DVD)

The 'Martial Arts Zombie Slayer' theme has been done to death and back since the release of “Blade” in 1998. There hasn't been a single film of the type yet that hasn't at least one been compared to it, because it took the theme and did a damn good job at it. So a review about yet another movie where some guy kicks the crap out of some vampires... yeah... we've seen it.

Except this was filmed in 1995.

On a budget of only $5000.

And doesn't suck...

Sean Gallimore, a fantasy pin-up artist and martial artist, wrote, storyboarded, and shot an ultra-low budget flick about... well... killing vampires. After a vampire hunter is defeated trying to kill a powerful vampire hiding in an art gallery. Gallimore's character, trying to sell his own art to the gallery, gets wrapped up in a plot where he has to kill a whole bunch of vampires after the master takes an interest in his wife. Thankfully, the part-time artist also has a side job as a special forces trained vampire-slayer with a black belt in ass kicking.

The pacing is generally OK. There is some “stretch this for time...” here and there, but this seems to mostly be filled with extended scenes of Gallimore performing weapons demonstrations in a basement filled with an arsenal that could keep a small force of ninja equipped and happy.

I'm not giving the story enough credit- really it's not that bad. For an amateur film put together on almost no budget over ten years ago, it's impressive what was accomplished. There are some creative scene transitions, good cuts across multiple takes, and multiple angles used to hide effects work. (Like people getting hit with crossbow bolts.) Vampires appearing and disappearing, and what looked like some cable work top off some effects that are, overall, exceptional for the budget. It's well thought out, and it shows the effort. While they're (of course) nowhere near Hollywood quality, some of the traditional effects that are still inspiringly well-done compared to some of the horrific “I'm holding a chopstick against my chest- oww...I are dead...” stake-jobs that have been done even in far more recent low-budget vampire-slaying films.

The film does show its age, though. Filmed on Hi-8 the video quality leaves a lot to be desired, but it can be forgiven. The audio, unfortunately, is dreadful. Which is also common from Hi-8. Entire chunks of dialog are so quiet or distorted they are barely audible at all. Which is a real shame, because some of the dialog was actually worth listening to.

Gallimore did what any amateur filmmaker on a tight budget should do- work around your sets and your characters. Don't write for scenes you can't film. In this case, when you've got access to a couple of trained fighters, you have them try to kill each other and film it. It's not horribly original, but it looks good.

Overall... it's old. It's a bit campy. It's a bit crummy in places. But for a low-budget film it's still pretty damn awesome, and definitely one of the star films (that I've seen so far) on these big Mill Creek collections. For more information check them out at http://www.millcreekent.com

2 out of 4

reviewed by Jeremy Gaggins