Vampire Week: Vampires: Los Muertos

Hola to all and welcome to Day 2 of the vampire week.  I thought I would see if we have any films out there of interest so I dipped into a few online via Netflix.   What would you say if I had a film involving vampires rampaging across Mexico, a priest and vampire hunter at odds with one another and a town in desperate need for hope?   Well I would point out that James Woods is not in this, so no wood jokes for you.  No, no don’t cry.  I promise there will be some gore gags, a few one liners and a decent cast.  So take a deep breath, sharpen your stakes and hope for the best.  This is Vampires: Los Muertos.

Oil of Olay or Undead refinishing?...she'll never tell.

Ok we got a spoiler.

Recapping after the last Vampires movie via director John Carpenter (The Thing, Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness) gave over the reins to writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Fright Night 2, It, The Spree and Final Justice) and I have to admit I was not expecting gold with this and more of the plutonium variety.    Solo vampire hunter Derek Bliss (Jon Bon Jovi of Moonlight and Valentino, Homegrown, Row Your Boat, Ally McBeal and Cry_Wolf) is tending to a stray vamp that fed on a college kid of a wealthy financier when he gets a call from his handler telling him of a big job in the same area.  He is one of the best hunters but he needs to put together a crew according to the client’s wishes and attack in force. 

Lousy table manners. No dessert for you.

Try as he might to acquire help the vampires seem to be one step ahead of him and removes any back up Bliss could have.  He drives through a town that apparently is being fed on and encounters a young boy Sancho (Diego Luna of Fidel, Dark Cities, Carambola, Open Range, Nicotina and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) who is willing to back Bliss up if he gets paid for the work.  After wiping out these young feeders Bliss moves on to a diner and finds one of the hunters on his list.  He idly chats with a girl Zoey (Natasha Gregson Wagner of Two Girls and a Guy, Glam, Modern Vampires, Urban Legend and High Fidelity) who seems off yet not a creature of the night given she is out in the daylight.  The diner is all wiped out but Zoey and himself who were in the bathroom and he moves on to yet another town. 

Getting one additional hunter Ray Collins (Darius McCrary of Family Matters, 15 Minutes, Freedom, Hostage and Kingpin)the crew make their way to the local Abby, the monks and priests are strewn about but one survived hidden in an alcove.  Father Rodrigo (Cristian de la Fuente of Driven, Family Law, Basic, CSI: Miami and In Plain Sight) takes Bliss and his slowly growing band as a sign from God as they will be able to defend against the vampires.

They don't like being called pretty boys.

I have just a quick few tidbits about this movie.  KNB EFX brings us the monster gore effects and prosthetics.  The cast was surprisingly a unique but decent combo.  I did have a hard time buying into Bon Jovi as a loner and disgruntled but gotta say the pretty boy did bring his “a” game badass to the flick.   The better chunk of Mexico City and its residing town were the main filming locations and overall an impressive movie.  Nothing original but I feel a bit better than John Carpenter’s Vampires.