Night Hunter

This is one of those films which (like most straight to video/DVD fodder!) sadly, unfortunately DOES NOT live up to its poster! I remember years ago in the late 1990s, seeing a VHS (yes that long ago!) copy of it in my local video rental store, picking it up, reading the cover and thinking (as other reviewers have already mentioned) that in this film Don Wilson had a similar look to that of Brandon Lee in The Crow. And that it sounded like quite a fun film and also a bit of a change for Don Wilson, I believe it's the only slightly Horror themed film he has appeared in. However I didn't bother renting it at the time (1998/99) and it wasn't until many years later (2013) that I actually saw the film when someone kindly uploaded it for free on Youtube (In fact most crappy straight to DVD/video films should be uploaded on Youtube, because they certainly aren't worth paying to see!). And when I eventually did see it I thought to myself "That was crap and it didn't live up to its poster" and furthermore "I'm glad I didn't pay to see that all those years ago in the video rental shop". Like most low budget, straight to DVD films, the film is hampered by budget limitations, poor acting and a lame script. And as everyone else has mentioned, I really do not understand that earthquake camera effect?! William C Martell, the man responsible for the poor script usually blames the failure of films he wrote on the cast and crew involved and never seems to take his fair share of the blame! He often claim that the cast and crew changed almost every word he wrote! Martell said that Don Wilson did not actually want to do a horror/vampire themed film and when he eventually agreed to it, he wanted to control every damn part of the film? Well that may be true but from the looks of things Martell probably wrote the script in a couple of weeks, if that? He really needed to spend more time on it and made sure he sold it to a better production company as well! Don Wilson claims that ALL of the films that he "starred" in "made money" by that I assume he means that they broke even? But I find that hard to believe, because more expensive Wilson films such as the Cybertracker films had a few million spent on them (from the look of them) and how does a film that did not get a cinema release make a few million to break even? They couldn't have made that much on video, because it's the films that were previously at the cinema that make the most on video, not a film that's been released straight to DVD/video and "stars" a cast of nobodies.

As far as video fodder goes, this movie is okay, with its mix of modern-days-vampires action and fights ; in a way, it can be viewed as a forerunner to Wesley Snipes' "Blade". In fact, with his long hair, black clothes and somber look (well, as far as a non-actor can convey), Don Wilson, looks very much loke Brandon Lee in "The Crow" ! From Crow to Dragon, there's only one

I usually enjoy a good "Slay the vampire" movie, but this was not one of them. Don the "Dragon" Wilson brings his dark brooding image to the sceen, but the writers forgot to bring an original idea to the script. Also someone had the idea to shake the camera during each fight to give the scene a earthquake effect. I fell asleep three times during the first half hour of the film. It would have been better if I had just kept on sleeping.

In a change of pace, Roger Corman just distributed "Night Hunter", and didn't have anything to do with its making. That may explain why the production values of this Don Wilson movie a little better than usual, with some well-chosen locations that don't make this effort look as cheap as usual. Despite this, I knew I would still be in for a rough time, since the movie was made by schlock producer Ashok Amritraj. The script is pretty bad, with plot points that are never explained (like the healing elixir) or don't make up their mind (the movie at one point says vampires can be killed by breaking their necks... then later says they can be killed by breaking their backs!) Most people who watch this movie won't care about the script, and will just be interested in seeing the action. But be warned, the action isn't very good. The action is extremely tightly filmed, with rapid editing and unspectacular choreography. With most of his movies being as badly made as this, I think I know why Wilson retired from making movies several years ago.

Every single fight scene (and there was a ton of them - this is a Don Wilson film) was ruined by shaking the camera. What's the point? Not only that, but most fight scenes included flickering the light intensity. And to insure complete dizziness a few scenes put the camera on a carousel to spin the action in a circle. It's crude, unpleasant and kills the film.

Otherwise this would have been a decent non traditional, vampire, time wasting film for people who may like hand to hand combat.