Vampires: The Turning

While I have indeed watched the 2004 movie "Vampires: The Turning" once before, I have to admit that I have entirely forgotten about the story in the movie. The only thing I do remember about it is the title. And since I have just watched "Vampires: Los Muertos", I opted to carry on with this third movie in the franchise.

But honestly, I wasn't harboring much of any grand expectations, as I have forgotten about the movie entirely, even after having watched it once before. And with a staggering 3.6 rating on IMDb, in this very moment of me reviewing it, I can't claim that my expectations were yanked up.

Writers D. B. Farmer and Andy Hurst put together a fair enough script and storyline, though it somewhat paled up against the 1998 original "Vampires" movie.

The only actor I was familiar with in the movie was Roger Yuan. Luckily, I do enjoy watching movies with a fully and wholly unfamiliar cast ensemble, so that at least counted for something here. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

Whereas the previous two movies in the franchise were set in USA, this third movie took place in Thailand. Personally, I found that a nice change of pace, as I enjoy Asian cinema in general.

Visually, then the movie was adequate. It wasn't the most impressive of special effects, for sure, but I will say that the special effects in the movie served their purpose well enough.

My rating of "Vampires: The Turning" lands on an four out of ten stars.

I first saw bits n pieces of this movie in the mid 2k on Sony Pix channel.

Revisited it recently.

This is the third installment of the Vampires film series although John Carpenter who directed the first film and produced the second film had no involvement with this film.

So now viewers can do their math.

There is one single decapitation scene, an unnecessary bike chase sequence n few unnecessary kung fu or for that matter wi fu scenes.

It has a hot babe, Stephanie Chao but her sex n nudity scene is one of the worst shot ever.

This movie has lots of vampires but no good action or gory stuff.

My husband and I enjoyed this movie. We had watched a lousy rental the previous evening and were afraid this would be bad also. However, we were pleasantly surprised. The main characters were believable and quite sexy and romantic in their trip to Thailand. We always enjoy a vampire movie with a different "twist" on things and this surprised us. There was Ong-Bak (Muay Thai) type of fighting, beautiful costumes (both men and women), original female Thai vampires and the cinematography was top rate! The beautiful and exotic surroundings added to the mystery of the movie. I would tell others who enjoy a variation on the vampire theme to watch this one.

This was a movie with a soul. It does not rely only on gore and shock. It had an interesting love triangle, a strong point of view, a stylized look from an exotic city in Thailand, and amazing action. It took the vampire lore and molded it into far Eastern mythology -- An American couple's troubled relationship tied into the vampire mythology as a metaphor was really interesting. The actors were really great. There was really good chemistry between the actors who played Connor and Sang and I love how the ending played out. Fantastic visuals for a lower budget film. Overall, a very fun film that elevated the genre. There hasn't been an interesting vampire film like this since "The Hunger." Give it a 9.

"Vampires: The Turning" is a fun, well-filmed martial arts thriller with a horror pedigree. It's a sequel to the John Carpenter film series in name only, and carries forward the Slayer concept from the first two. But the main story is a pretty cool bit of Eastern mysticism with a Thai backdrop, involving two warring sects of vampires that were both spawned in the wake of a solar eclipse. The female leader of one sect wants to wipe her kind out, as she unwittingly loosed all sorts of mayhem. The upcoming solar eclipse is her only chance of doing so, and she enlists an American kickboxer to help her. The movie looks great, moves swiftly and sports some solid martial arts (muay thai) action, as well as some effectively creepy moments. Doesn't hurt that the female vampire is quite the hottie. A solid, fun entry into the genre. Definitely check it out!