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.

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...

I wanted to like this, I really did. The movies starts off interesting, giving the viewer a nice backdrop of the story.....then it happened....the other 80 minutes of the movie.

First thing noticed is the action scenes where you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys. There are people shooting and other people falling down and you do not know who is who...or care.

Secondly, the dialogue is on the level of a high school play...junior high.

Third, not many good decisions, actually there was only one good decision(actually great) and everything else is a bed decision to push the story forward.

Last...when you see your enemy that you have ben trying to kill all movie...just kill them. Do not do some STUPID monologue that does little to propel the story and only makes it easier for your enemy to get you. This happened multiple times on both sides, the good and the bad. Just stupid.

I rarely watch Subtitled movies, as I tend to multi task and miss bits. But this was a bit special, and had my attention all the way through. For me it had echoes of John Carpenters Vampires, 30 Days of Night and another Russian movie, Night Watch. The acting is top notch, and I liked the way the story developed. A few people have commented it is a bit slow, and lacks bite. But for me, the character and story development helps build the atmosphere. I have watched a lot of Vampire movies, and this is definitely up there. The cinematography was superb, with lots of atmospheric scenes, dark woods and swirling fog. All in all a very enjoyable watch.