Dampyr

It's evidently based on an Italian comic of the same name (I'd never heard of it.) Fans of the comic will probably get more out of it than casual viewers. Dampyr is essentially a superhero origin story: developing the protagonist and defining his powers, introducing his allies; and giving him a dopey mid-tier villain as an initial test while more formidable antagonists wait in the wings.

The movie makes good use of an apparently small budget. The 1992 Yugoslav war is a perfect setting for a modern vampire movie. The two main supporting performances are quite good. Everything else about the production is hit-or-miss. The dialogue goes from snappy to banal and back in a single conversation; the character development and world-building are sometimes sharply economical and other times either bloated or non-existent; and the main actor's performance is wobbly - he has some snarky charisma but he doesn't have the gravitas to carry big moments.

Overall it's an enjoyable mid-tier popcorn flick. Turn your brain off and have fun with it.

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.

This movie is yet another tedious cover of all the vpure movies of the past, the most obvious being John Csrpenter's Vampires. This movie follows that plot almost scene for scene.

That would be fine if there was some meat to chew on, so to speak, but this movie is all bare bones. The acting is - as do many of these entries into the vampire world - dead. The action is just plain dumb. For example, the protagonist charges towards the villain (a vampire) 3 or 4 times, only to be hurled back 50 feet. And what does he do when he gets on his feet again? Yup. He charges at the vampire AGAIN. No matter it didn't work the previous 4 times. And you have the usual humans-encountering-vampires fight. Humans fire their machine guns, the vampires laugh. Well, you can figure out what happens next.

And one can easily predict the dialogue, or the following scene. It drones on and on. The trajectory resembles the recently launched rocket that flew 500 feet towards space - and promptly exploded. If it was an ekg, it would be a flatline. My husband watched, while I just listened. I asked four times how it was, and his response was "bad." There is no genuine tension or climax in the movie. How anyone could get this at 10 is beyond me. I can understand being entertained (and even that is questionable), but objectively? A poorly done film with little plot, bad acting, endlessly derivative. This is a 5 at best. A 3 is a fair rating. Keep in mind, I'm not the demographic for this, whom I would imagine to be 18 year olds who like to watch things explode, or guns firing endlessly. For the rest, this will not cut the mustard.

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.

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...