Dampyr

It's 1992 in the Balkans. Emil Kurjak (Stuart Martin) and his soldiers find a town ravaged by vampires led by Tesla Dubcek (Frida Gustavsson). Meanwhile, Harlan Draka (Wade Briggs) and his sidekick Yuri travel from town to town. He performs as the Dampyr, a vampire hunter. It seems to be a fake performance until Emil puts him to the test. He has to take down Gorka, Master of the Night (David Morrissey).

I like the first half. I like the premise of Harlan and Yuri as traveling snake oil salesmen although I would keep their act more as a fake scam in the beginning. I would cut out all the early reveals of vampires. I want Harlan to have a fun shocking reveal. I like all the characters stuck in that small town. I definitely do not want Harlan to be separated from Yuri. I don't buy Tesla's turn. I don't like expanding the movie out into the bigger world and I definitely don't like the setup to an interconnected cinematic franchise universe. Let's see how this movie does first before we pile on a whole new franchise series.

When i saw the trailer for this movie it got me intrigued. Its the kind of movies i enjoy in general. Vampire theme, fight scenes and such. But when these movies are made outside of the United States and release VOD, usually they are kinda cheap and it show.

But this one actually came out pretty decent. Yes the sets are mostly old eastern europe rural areas so nothing too fancy and the costumes, guns etc ain't exactly the best looking i ever saw, but the action is well filmed and the CGI effects are not overused. The french dub version gave some decent acting in general and the characters altough not particulary complex were fine.

The movie does not take too much time establishing itself and altough its set in some war set-up, i have no idea what actual war it is and even the movie use more as a pretext to have characters there rather than be important to the plot.

Overall for a saturday night movie with a few beers during Halloween season, it does the job pretty fine.

Dampyr is a B-movie that wears its B-movieness with pride. It is solidly in the category of "so bad it's good", with every possible cliche and Godzilla-sized plot holes.

At first, I had high hopes for the 1990s Yugoslavia war setting hoping to see a blend of history and fantasy, but 10 minutes later, it became clear that whoever wrote the script, had a very vague idea about history, Slavic names, how human beings talk, or how to write a script. Were the soldiers Serbs? Croats? Who knows, and none of them wore uniforms, nor indicated who they were fighting for nor the actual country they were in. The war is a vague event with a bunch of plainclothes fashion models drive around in Al Qaeda-style pickup trucks with big guns and kewl 1970s music, occasionally shooting a surviving civilian. What, you didn't know? War is hell.

But once you stop expecting any semblance of logic and assume it's a parody, it turns out to be a tolerable experience. Commander Dolce & Gabbana (background: requisite dead family) and a vampire slayer (background: Jesus with a drinking problem; never asked himself why he's been alive for hundreds of years without aging) are joined by a hot blonde vampire (background: hot; blonde; vampire) to take on a bad vampire. That's it. The rest is what you'd expect it to be, plus plot holes. Turn off your brain, watch, and enjoy, with an optional drinking game for cliches and plot holes.

For fans of the genre, it's pretty much a mishmash of other stories. Hints of Blade, Vampire Hunter D, so on with maybe a touch of Constantine. Definitely scripted to be the start of a series, but would be surprised if someone sprung for the desired sequels. Does meet Netflix criteria, however - Cheap to make. Production quality is fine for the Eastern European origins (on par with Blade 1). Worth the watch if nothing else catches your eye, but don't expect an Oscar quality script or performance. I'm sure any plot holes (big enough to drive a truck through) will be filled in its intended sequels or possibly filled in by its comic book origins.

Harlan's mother died giving birth to him. His Dad, Gorka, is a powerful vampire. Midwifes who assisted Harlan's mother refused to give the child to Gorka, and protected themselves against him with a spell.

Years later, Harlan - together with his 'manager' friend, Yuri - travel to villages as con artists, making villagers believe they can banish evil. When a group of soldiers lead by Commander Kurjak settle in a village, they are attacked by vampires. With their bullets useless against their enemy, they realize there is only one person who can help them: Harlan - or Dampyr as he came to be known.

Taking Dampyr into their custody, they use him as bait to lure the vampires. One of the vampires, Tesla, is captured, and she agrees to help them so she can be freed from Gorka. Kurjak doesn't trust her and there's constant tension between these two characters. I rather enjoyed this friction and also Tesla's unpredictability, as it was never clear whether her intentions were true.

Although an interesting enough watch, 'Dampyr' felt a bit generic - like I've seen everything here before. It offered nothing new to the genre - not story or character-wise. Another issue for me was Gorka, the film's antagonist. He appears briefly in the very beginning, and then only returns again for a showdown with Harlan during the finale. Throughout the film he is not really a force to be reckoned with, and from a villain point of view, he was absent for far too long during the movie. I also didn't find David Morrissey believable enough portraying this character. I didn't find him strong enough as Gorka.

Wade Briggs was ok as Harlan, but the best casting call by far was Stuart Martin as Kurjak, who - for me - was a stronger protagonist as Harlan. He reminded me of Sean Pertwee's character, Wells, from 'Dog Soldiers'.

Despite some flaws, sit back, relax and enjoy the movie for what it is. It surely was entertaining enough. And the film ends so ready for a sequel...