Central Park Driver

What a very unique little obscure oddity this thing is. What really helps Graveyard Shift (aka Central Park Drifter or Central Park Driver) is its heavy use of style, using a variety of neon's, reds, blues, and ultimately coming off very neo-noirish, not to mention its soundtrack which relies on a variety of synths and other types of 80s style music. While the acting isn't the greatest, the film gives us a lot nudity and stylish sex scenes. The overall product really reminds me a lot of Tony Scott's The Hunger. Defiantly recommended.

...but just didn't follow through.

Ever wonder what Dracula would be like mashed up with Taxi Driver? Me neither, but I found this when I was cleaning out my stepson's room after he moved out, so I figured why not. Silvio Oliviero stars as an East European vampire working as a cab driver in NYC. He chooses his victims from the helpless and despondent fares that he picks up. He's grown world-weary, though, and is about ready to hang up his cape when he meets Michelle, a melancholy film director who has just learned she has an incurable fatal illness. They fall in love and mope together. Her former boyfriend doesn't approve, so he enlists a vampire-lore expert buddy to help put a stop to things.

There's also a subplot about all of Silvio's prior victims coming back as vampires themselves and causing a murder spree across the city, much to the concern of two NYPD detectives. This is a very low budget affair, and almost resembles a student film for much of the running. The acting runs the gamut from poor to passable, while the use of colored lighting and moving cameras has some flash, even if the picture quality itself is bottom of the barrel. There are long scenes of vampiric erotica, akin to a toothier version of Red Shoe Diaries. This isn't worth seeking out, but I've seen much worse. There's a sequel - "The Understudy: Graveyard Shift II". I'm giving it 5/10 on the novelty coupled with the nostalgia since I do love those 80's.

For some reason the DVD only seems available in full screen although it was originally shot in widescreen.

This was an interesting vampire flick for the premise at least. The 1980's style is great and the film is very noirish, but the pacing is a bit slow and the actual editing is too fast paced, cutting from scene to scene too quickly and leaving you wondering how people got where they were or how things ended up like they did. The score is sorta typical of the mid-late 1980's, which isn't a bad thing as most people would have you believe. The setting and style of the film reminds me of Miami Vice or even Fright Night, which was a better film in my opinion. Still, all things considered, I've seen way worse movies. All in all, worth one watch at least and not the horrible dreck that some folks on here make it out to be. Certainly not the worst movie ever done.

Jerry Ciccoritti's darkly erotic, appealingly stylised Canadian shocker has brooding swarthy-sexy vampire, Stephen Tsepes, (Michael A. Miranda) moonlighting as a taciturn NY cabbie, tirelessly working the gloomy night shift. This ancient predator hides in plain night; as some of, Stephen's more physically enticing female passengers only belatedly discover that their journey is about to take a terminal turn onto roads FAR less travelled!

This weirdly romantic, deliciously eccentric, unfairly neglected Canadian creature feature is engagingly performed by a talented cast of unknowns, with a number of splendidly grisly kills, plus an appreciably sensual, frequently skewed atmosphere that is heightened by ace composer, Nicholas Pike's spare, fabulously evocative synth score. An imaginative, creatively photographed, smartly directed horror film, and I think it's reasonable to say that in an era of conspicuously recycled mediocrity, it's more than just to single out the delirious hidden delights of uncommonly strange 80s horror fare like sleeper cult classic, 'Graveyard Shift' aka 'Central Park Drifter'. Jerry Ciccoritti's pervy, plasma-packed nightmare remains a toothsome terror treat well worth sinking your hungry, horror-loving fangs into! - In a blackened city infamous for its nefarious nocturnal denizens, sinisterly stalking Vampire cabbie, Stephen Tsepes, is a fare to remember!'

Silvio Oliviero has got to be one of the sexiest actors every to portray a vampire. His John Travolta SNF hair, muscular hairy chest, and ascent all add tremendously to the sex quotient of this film. So much hotter and more humane than any portrayal of Lestat could possibly be.