Sleepless Nights

This is one of the more unusual entries I've seen in the low budget horror DTV market. Instead of going the usual route of near pornographic violence,the writer/director takes the virtually untrammeled path of character driven drama. What a concept!

A good way to describe it would be- Dark Shadows meets Dracula AD 1972: The Necromorph Control Agency (sort of an anti-vampire Swat team) wages war against the urban undead, their principle target being the followers of the evil Malgard -an ancient vampire set on ruling the world. Christian is a vampire hunter tragically turned vampire, who wrestles with his blood hunger, and walks the night world alone, an outcast from both the living and the undead. Kaitlin is the NCA cop who accidentally discovers Cristian during her investigative work . One day Kaitlin gets some information that compels her out into the night, on her own, with the dangerous intent of finding this lone vampire...

The principal leads are attractive, and by and large good to adequate in their roles. There are plenty of places where it would be easy for an inexperienced actor to fall flat on his or her face, and the actors playing Christian and Kaitlin come through in convincing form. Other secondary characters are also well handled.The film is also nicely paced and moves quickly.

The scene I was most impressed with was the NCA team's raid on a Malgard compound. Despite a 2 dollar budget, this scene is convincingly handled, and tersely edited. It reminds me of a bit of George Romero, and also, some of the fight action scenes in Peter Jackson's earlier efforts (such as Bad Taste) that showed the promise of that director, in spite of budget limitations.

If you're a horror/vampire film buff, do yourself a favor, and check this film out.

This film has a really low budget look that might hurt its chances of reaching a big audience which is too bad because this is mostly a pretty good job.Especially good is the storyline which works in some variations on vampire themes while still staying pretty faithful to the spirit of classic vampire movies.I would say the script for this one is the best of any of the low budget vampire films I've seen lately. And most of the actors here are much better than the actors you usually see in these types of low budget movies.This is a film which if you're in the right mood can be very enjoyable for its eerie atmosphere and the underlying romantic quality.I don't know how well a movie like this will stand the test of time but I think that, with its focus on interesting characters and plot, it'll probably hold up better in the long run than most of the recent special effects-filled Hollywood vampire movies, which look good now but don't offer much for the head or heart.So I give Sleepless Nights *** out of ****, mostly for its script, actors and good intentions.

If you are into "Buffy" or "Angel" or any of the bad guy vs. good guy vampire type shows, you are sure to get a kick out of this movie. The theme we seem to have going in this movie is the guy turned vampire but wants to do good instead of bad. Eventually, Kaitlin Moore (Played by: Jacqueline Anderson) from the "good team" gets a soft spot for Christian Grey; the good Vampire (played by: Matthew Thomas) always keeping him one step ahead of the NCA and ends up wanting to become a vampire after finding out about her health situation.

The Special effects are kind of fun, and the setting is mostly dark, dim lit, or just plain night, for obvious reasons. There are things that will make you cringe, laugh, and roll your eyes. However there is not much in the way of dead silence, there is always "effect music" in the background which always helps.

If you like Vampire type things, you should probably look for this and rent it before you buy. 4 out of 5 stars from Igor.

SN uses kind of a low key, subtle approach to the vampire/horror thing. More talk than actions. Its pretty well written though so it's not dumb and annoying like so many cheap horror movies. Has an Anne Rice feel to it, like what she might come up with if she was making a pilot for a tv show. If you watch alot of these things like I do, you appreciate a good story and this one has one. Even though its pretty obviously a cheap flick, it has a pretty "pro" look to it. Could have been a "made for TV" thing. Its sort of on that level. Not sure why there hasnt been any publicity about this movie. I'm into horror and vampire stuff but I heard zero about this until I saw it at the video store. Maybe the budget was so low they couldnt afford a publicity department :) It would probably do well if the vampire movie fans knew it was out there though. I enjoyed it.

Recently, I've seen a lot of film that range from excellent to just plain awful. This low-low-low-budget effort (Don't deny it) about vampires falls squarely between these two stools. There are times, especially during the first half, that the non-stop jibber jabber gets so boring you want to turn it off. Plus, the miniature bows that the good guys carry around look like they were assembled from a Kinder Surprise egg. However, at least it has an understandable plot, some mildly tense scenes and a climax which is actually quite satisfying. It's also quaint too, to see the size of mobile phones only 11 years ago compared to today. How far we've come..