This film was surprisingly decent, especially considering it's from the Full Moon film production company. I'm not too crazy about many of the films they release (except for "Doctor Mordrid", and the "Subspecies" films), but I really enjoyed this film more than I expected to. The first thing that drew me into this film was the eerie yet beautifully ambient music played during the opening portion of the film. This sense ambiance was rightfully (and thankfully) carried throughout the film, which added to the scenes a more atmospheric quality (which were accompanied perfectly by large gothic, grandiose sets). Not only did these sets accompany the music well, they accented it to give the overall film a greater sense of atmospheric wholeness. Also, most of the characters are extremely engaging and fascinating (notably Ash and Zachary, the two vampires that are rivaling for Sofia). This film (along with the "Subspecies" series), was shot on location in Romania, and I'm happy to report that this film isn't a disgrace to the vampire horror film genre like ones such as the "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (by Francis Ford Coppola). I find it ironic that the most hailed vampire films are the ones most worthy of scorn (I hated the way they gave the vampires an Americanized quality in the 1991 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula", even though they kept reinforcing that the story is taking place in Romania). That was a disgrace to the British author Bram Stoker, and a disgrace to the Romania Dracula myth of which Stoker's book was based on. Why Americanize something that has its origins in Romania? I have no problems with American vampire films (obviously, because I really liked "The Vampire Journals"), but Americanizing them is another case altogether. American vampire films don't need to have that stereotypical 'let's make this like an MTV music video and have lots of sexy American stars in it like Tom Cruise' in order to make it stylish. Sure, "The Vampire Journals" was shot by an American film company, but at least they had the decency to make it stylish on a low budget with unknown (yet extremely talented) actors. Hell, David Gunn (the man who played Zachary in "The Vampire Journals") has more charisma than that pretentious Tom Cruise will ever have. But I digress...a lot... Anyway, I really enjoyed "The Vampire Journals", and I think that people that enjoy non-mainstream vampire films will as well. Plus, if you like "The Vampire Journals", you might want to check out the very original British vampire film, "Tale of a Vampire" starring Julian Sands.
My Rating: 8 stars out of ten.
*Note to Francis Ford Coppola: don't give a Romanian vampire myth an American twist; if you want to make a vampire movie, then great. But don't base it on a Romanian myth, and then change it all around to suit your generally sheepish American audiences. If you want to make an ORIGINAL vampire movie, I don't care; go right ahead, but don't butcher a Romanian myth and retell it and claim it's "the real thing", because it's NOT.
