Le Clan des Vampires

The people producing this film fell for the same fallacy that one of the students in the class did. He insisted that a couple of the stories he wrote in the vein of, "I realized that such-and-such is a true because this happened." He insisted that the story didn't need modification simply because it was true. Problem was, he forgot about a few things like effective story telling and sticking with just the significant facts. And the need to embellish a little is always a good thing.

This film suffers from the same problems. The back of the DVD says that the plot is all the more chilling because it is real. Well, being real is not scary. Most good horror films are scary because they are real. And if based on real life, they are scary because they are well-written and directed to convey a mood where even if you know the real story, you are unsure what will happen next and fear for the characters.

The biggest problem with the story telling is that the story of the clan begins at the end of the journey--with the kids being arrested in New Orleans for the murder of a Eustis, FL couple. THEN they all sit down one-by-one and tell the tale of how they got to be in 'Nawlins. The problem is, at this point we already know what is going to happen: parents get killed and kids get arrested in New Orleans! End of plot! Somehow the actual traveling seemed to take up a big portion of the run time but we already know where they are headed before they even take the trip.

The film has some good, young talent in the supporting roles (there is no real lead except for the one daughter of the parents who are murdered who goes on the journey). For some reason, all the young actors seemed to out-shine the older ones (especially the laughably bad-acting police officers). The casting of these roles was right on cue. Most people look like they did in real life except for the Rod character, who if you look him up on the Florida Dept. of Corrections site does NOT look like a hearthrob like he was in this movie. The kid with the glasses was eerily doppleganger-like.

The very opening of the movie is very reminiscent of Scream 1's opening scene with a girl realizing she may not be alone while talking on the phone. The shot setups look alike too. The bad-acting cop who shows up and tries to be the scare-factor in the scene makes the film more of a comedy than a thriller.

There is some decent amount of blood in the film. The killing of the parents is on-camera but out of frame (not necessarily a bad thing). We do get to see some bloodied, bludgeoned bodies which is always good (I think). The music is pretty fitting as well but it is cranked up too high at parts and you can't hear parts of the dialogue. And that is not because it is diagetic music.

Like the whole arrest at the beginning of the movie, putting off the murders for as long as the creators did makes it far less dramatic. The kids actually flash back to the murder scene but skip showing it on camera until the end. Why?! There's no revelation. It's just pointless to add it at the point and not put it in chronologically.

In the end, the writing is the biggest thing keeping this film down. Some B-grade actors as cops and complete lack of suspense build-up in direction doesn't help either. 3/10

What a terrible movie!!!!!!!! The acting was bad! The story was so bizarre to begin with that to know it was real or "based on a true story" is so out there. This is one of those movies that you see and say "Man, I want my hour and a half back". Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vampire movies and the like, just not this one.

For approximately 5-7 years I frequented a club in Western Mass. on Tuesdays, when they held "Haven", a goth/industrial night. At first it was quite cool, yet we stopped going. Mostly because we had our first child last summer, yet a good part was because no one we'd known for those years was really going anymore. Why? Because the people that WERE going are the people who would think this movie is cool. People with made up names and online personalities named "gothyboy88" or "batboygothone312". People who would watch this movie and think the characters were cool. Little bat children and all such trite nonsense. The fact that this movie uses almost nothing but Genitorturers for the music says something. No Kidney Thieves? How about even Bauhaus? Or did they watch the movie and say "like hell we're using any of our songs in that."? I'd say so. The characters use the "I smoke" factor to make us think they're cool. Uh-huh. The scene where they kill the parents is about oh... 34 minutes too long. And tell me what you want, wearing white makeup all the time is just such a cheese factor. Those kids weren't vampires... they weren't even goth. Spending all your 'rents money in Hot Topic all day doesn't put you in a "goth category". Maybe a "hot topic goth" category, but that's worse than being a football jock or cheerleader. You paid too much for the vinyl and now you wanna take it out on some innocent folks by killing them and taking their car? Sorry buddy, that ain't destiny, that's just poor spending. Dorks. I wish I knew the real people, then I could go to them and tell 'em "Hey, guys... just saw your movie. Next time when you play some random role playing game why don't you take your human being pills? Idiots." Tell me what you want about their upbringing. They're stupid, plain and simple. Psychotic? Maybe. But that'd be giving them credit they'd like to flaunt.

I followed the "Vampire Clan" murder story through the years, mainly because I was the same age as the teens involved in the case and also played roleplaying games like Vampire: The Masquerade. I never believed I was a real vampire or got into actual bloodsucking, cutting or what have you, but still, the case struck close to home.

As a result I can attest that this movie has done a very good job of presenting the facts of the case in reasonable detail, right down to Jennifer Wendorf's red Saturn convertible. The most obvious changes were in the characterization, which someone probably thought would make the story flow better.

Missing was Rod Ferrell's massive mane of black hair, as well as Scott's somewhat less intrusive chin-length cut. They were given standard short haircuts, which kind of detracts from the weirdness of the original case. The characters of Charity Keesee and Dana Cooper should have been played by opposite actors. The actual Dana was overweight, which could have been pulled off more easily by the round-faced Alex Breckenridge. Marina Black looks absolutely nothing like Dana Cooper (who had short, curly hair at the time,) but wouldn't have been a far cry from Charity.

As far as the personalities go, there was no indication that Scott Anderson was a fidgety, shifty, nutball-type character. He had a hellish upbringing but was normally seen as calm and collected and was mostly a good student. Rod's characterization was reasonable, but I saw Charity as a less demonic force than the movie portrayed her as. She was a generally cheery girl who was grossly misled by her love of Rod, and she took the news of the deaths pretty hard. When it came down to it, she was one of the first to break down, and it was in fact Charity that made the call to her mother, not Dana.

I found it a bit ludicrous that they showed the Lake County Sherriff (who of course wasn't actually present at the questioning in Baton Rouge) just letting Heather go after hearing her story. In real life, Heather spent several months in jail waiting on the authorities to make up their minds before they finally decided to clear her of the charges. And Jennifer and Heather had bad blood between them in the interim due to some of Jennifer's comments to the media and Heather's responses. I highly doubt that they embraced like that when they reunited.

There was also a lot more dirt on Heather that never made it to the DVD. She just barely escaped charges, and there is still some question as to how much she actually had to do with the murders. Also, I wonder how long it took for somebody to come by and swipe the pearls she left on her mother's grave.

Another IMDB user had a good point in that they missed out on some interesting plot by not involving Rod's mother Sondra Gibson in the movie. There were aspects of that mother-son relationship that would have gone far to enhance Rod's insane image. They also ignored the entire role-playing issue, but it might have been better that they did. It's not that the game makes people insane, it's that Rod was already insane to begin with, but not everyone understands that.

All in all, though, the movie was well-done, although I think it's been grossly miscategorized. This is a True Crime story, and people looking for a good Horror flick are doubtlessly going to be disappointed. Yet, that's where you'll always find the movie, mainly because it has the word "Vampire" in the title.

In 1996, in Eustis, Florida, the parents of two girls are found brutally murdered at their home by the oldest daughter, Jeni Wendorf (Stacy Hogue), and the other one, Heather Ann Wendorf (Kelly Krueger), is missing. A further investigation discloses to the police that a group of Gothic deranged teenagers that worships vampires were responsible for the slaughter of the Wendorf family. The former boyfriend of Heather and also very evil and sick Roderick Justin Farrell (Drew Fuller), the leader, has killed Rick and Ruth Wendorf trying to open the gates of hell for him.

"Vampire Clan" is a violent and weird drama, based on a true story, having a well developed screenplay and characters and an excellent soundtrack. The low user rating of this movie is caused by the wrong idea of the genre that the title gives to the viewer. My family and I were expecting to see a horror movie, but it is indeed a drama. Even the genre in IMDb need to be corrected. Therefore, the target viewer is not reached, and persons that expect to see a horror movie becomes frustrated. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Clã dos Vampiros" ("The Vampire Clan")