There are quite a few John Carpenter movies that have gone on to be seen as classics of the horror genre. The Thing and Halloween are, quite rightly, deemed to be top tier examples of just how great horror can be. Then there are the cult classics, like They Live, Prince of Darkness, even Ghosts of Mars has its fans. But like how Wes Craven directed Music of the Heart, Carpenter didn’t exactly relegate himself solely to the world of the spooky and the slimy. Every now and then he embraced the action genre, most notably with Escape from New York which, like the aforementioned shapeshifting alien movie and Michael Myers debut, has since been called a true classic of its genre.
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Then there’s the best example of his merging the two genres. Ghosts of Mars may have been a little too silly a merger, but not long before that he helmed a much more balanced tightrope walk between horror and action: Vampires.
What Makes Vampires the Best Entry in Carpenter’s Late-Stage Filmography?
Carpenter’s horror-action movie (with a heavy splash of Western in there, too), follows James Woods’ Jack Crow and his team of vampire hunters. Their arsenal includes not just guns, but things that actually do vampires harm, like stakes and, courtesy of a winch, sunlight.
Things are going well for them, as they’ve just found a nest of the creatures in an abandoned New Mexico house, but Crow is skeptical that their victory is really a victory. In all his time he has never seen a nest without a master and before long he and his men learn just who that master is. Specifically, Jan Valek, a brutal and powerful ancient vampire who is the greatest threat Crow has ever faced.
But if Crow and his surviving teammates, including a replacement priest, want to take on Valek, they need to learn his identity. And, as it turns out, his origins are both complex and a little close to home.
The scenes of Crow and his team (which sees its manpower greatly diminished not too long in the runtime) hunting vampires are a great deal of fun. Admittedly, as was typical of Carpenter’s latter stage filmography, the film loses some steam as it goes on, but it’s never anything short of boring thanks to the fairly compelling mystery surrounding Valek, not to mention a nice, surprising twist in the third act.
But what really keeps this movie afloat is the energetic lead performance by Woods, who often has stolen movies but has never been more fun than he was here. It’s clear he was having a good time with this particular role, and that is more than a little infectious. Not to mention, it’s hard to imagine an actor who could have better played a massively powerful, ancient vampire than Thomas Ian Griffith, who had both the look and charisma to make his villain feel truly dangerous.
What is your favorite John Carpenter movie? Let us know in the comments.
Stream Vampires on The Criterion Channel.
