October Challenge – Day 4
For today’s movie I’m hitting up 1989’s western horror comedy Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. I didn’t even know this movie existed until fairly recently so I’m going in without preconceptions. This is directed by Anthony Hickox (Hellraiser III, Waxwork) and stars David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, John Ireland, Maxwell Caulfield, Morgan Brittany, Deborah Foreman and a good number of other recognisable actors.
What We Do In The Sunlight.
Out story is set in the town of Purgatory, not to be found on any modern map since the inhabitants don’t want to be found. This is a town of vampires, lead by the ancient Count Mardulak (Carradine), but these vampires on the whole are trying to adapt to the modern world and find a way to live side by side with humans. As such they have developed a machine that creates artificial blood, a problem with that machine has required them to call in it’s inventor a human called David Harrison. Harrison is visiting the town with his family as a working holiday hoping it will be a restful break.
Dead and Not Particularly Loving it.
While most of the town are trying to change their ways they are not completely beyond killing as an incident early on reveals where a rude motorist by has his head knocked off by a grumpy vampire manning the local gas station. Worse than this though a sub faction within the town lead by Ethan Jefferson (Played by John Ireland) and a young vampire named Shane (Maxwell Caulfield) is scheming to wipe out the others and return to the old ways.
The Clueless Vampire Killer
Thrown into the mix a Van Helsing descendent (Played by Campbell) has arrived at the town determined to wipe out each and every vampire. Unsurprisingly Campbell provides the comic relief and isn’t particularly effective. Fortunately for him Sandy, a young vampire woman has fallen for him and doesn’t want him to wind up dead. Well, fully dead, she’s okay with undead.
The Lost Ploys.
There’s actually a lot of additional sub plots in all this and it has a large ensemble cast of big personalities so I’m not going to cover it all. Things get more serious when the rebels make their move. Being mostly younger vampires they can’t fight the older vampires hand to hand so they develop wooden tipped bullets so they can use firearms to even the playing field. Eventually this leads to an epic shootout final battle.
Bite Night.
This is a pretty entertaining film, though it definitely lands very much in the middle of the various genres is straddles. It’s not especially funny, especially horrific or overly like a Western but it does just enough of each genre to justify the label. It is very 80’s though (Which I consider a positive). There is a lot going on, everything is frantic and the characters are as colourful as possible. It has a lot of charm to it and the story moves quickly enough that it maintains a sense of adventure the whole time. This is a vampire film though, so naturally it isn’t without a good amount of blood.
Fangs for the Memory.
Because of the cast size and pace none of the characters or actors really get enough screen time to fully shine. I felt Bruce Campbell was largely wasted and it would have been nice to see a bit more of David Carradine and John Ireland too. But this wasn’t a film with any particular focus. Those three performed their roles well (As you would expect) and the rest of the cast, featuring many familiar faces did a good job of supporting. There was no real weak links in that regard, even the children did a passable job. The music my Richard Stone was perhaps a bit too obvious in what it was going for (Generic Western soundtrack) but ultimately did what it needed to.
Conclusion
Overall, I had fun with this movie. It’s not anything astounding but if you want a comparatively light-hearted Halloween romp you won’t be disappointed with this. This is a strong 6/10 (Perhaps a fang short of a 6.5).
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