I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Which is a shame, because this almost parody of Near Dark had a lot going for it with the wonderful cast, and Hickox is notorious for making some very exciting B-movie fodder..Under the leadership of their ancient and powerful leader Mardulak, a colony of vampires seek a peaceful life in the desolate town of Purgatory. Imperative to the transition is the town's bloodmaking facility and it is just not working. Mardulak summons the designer of the plant, who brings his family along for what he thinks will be a busmans holiday, but he and his family are caught up in a war as another vampire, who detests the idea of vampires being anything other than predators.Like Ché, he starts a revolution, and a descendant of the Van Helsing family arrives intent on destroying all vampires........It sounds wonderful, two warring groups of Vampires fighting over synthetic/real blood, they should have waited until 2008 and made a seven season TV show about it all, it may have explained it all a little better...............From the creator of the Waxwork movies, I wasn't expecting something so mundane and trudging through the narrative about as fast as M. Emmett Walsh walks through his scenes, when we have the added bonus of Campbell as a Helsing relative, and Carradine doing what he does best, make bad material seem quite good.It's not terrible though. The scenes at the petrol station are genuinely funny, and the sets, although looking very cheap, are authentic and intimidating.But what you have Miles O' Keefe being in a totally different film, and the humour falling flat at almost every turn, it's quite difficult to enjoy what otherwise could have been a throwaway B-movie.No wonder it's almost vanished without a trace.

A small town located in the American West is improbably inhabited entirely by vampires who exist on artificial blood produced by a plasma-manufacturing plant. In this way they can live without having to kill people and co-exist peacefully. But one faction decides that it is time to resort to their true nature, this results in a civil war of sorts between the good and bad vampires.This one was directed by Anthony Hickox who is probably most well remembered for the comedy horror Waxwork (1998). I personally found that film to be something of a disappointment and in contrast found Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat to be quite a bit better than I expected and a lot more enjoyable than Waxwork. It's one of those films from the late 80's / early 90's that could be described as a hybrid-western, in this case a combo of western, horror and comedy. I only really heard of it this year and thought it slightly surprising that I hadn't been aware of it back in the day, as I couldn't see how me and my teenage buddies would have not wanted to see a Bruce Campbell horror comedy back then. But it seems that maybe it wasn't due to our own lack of awareness and more to do with this one kind of going under the radar a bit. I can't really understand why to be honest as it covers quite a lot of ground pretty effectively and was definitely good fun, if not exactly essential stuff. Whatever the case, it definitely benefits quite a bit in having such a good cast. Campbell is in more restrained form that usual as a dopey vampire hunter, B-Movie king David Carradine is the chief vampire leader, Maxwell Caulfield of Dynasty and Colbys TV fame puts in a pretty spirited performance as one of the main evil vampires, renowned character actor M. Emmet Walsh is as reliable as ever as a slightly world weary older vampire and future Twin Peaks actor Dana Ashbrook appears as one of the victims. All-in-all, a pretty fun time is to be had with this one, a film that deserves a little more love.

In the desert town of Purgatory, the locals wear special UVA/B sunglasses, cover themselves in protective sunblock, and shade themselves from the sun with umbrellas: when you're a vampire living in the desert, you can't afford to take any chances.From Anthony Hickox, director of fun anthology-style horror Waxwork (1988), comes this equally enjoyable vampire/western hybrid which typifies the unique, quirky, and somewhat campy nature of many a late-'80s horror flick. As is immediately evident from the prologue—which tells of forward thinking vampires who are attempting to harmonise with humans, synthesising blood so they need not kill—this film takes a refreshingly original approach to the very old vampire sub-genre.David Carradine plays Count Mardulak, the town's leader, who is experiencing teething troubles with his synthetic blood processing plant. Trouble is also brewing in the form of elder vampire Ethan Jefferson (John Ireland), who has formed an army of followers who are willing to kill their own kind in order to return to the old ways. Caught in the middle of this uprising is the plant's human designer David Harrison (Jim Metzler), who has travelled to Purgatory with his family (sexy wife Sarah, played by Morgan Brittany, and two irritating brats) to try and solve the plant's problems, unaware of the true nature of the townsfolk. Meanwhile, vampire hunter Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell) is in town seeking to continue his ancestor's work.Director Hickox conducts this silliness with his tongue firmly in cheek, offering up cheesy gore, stop motion vampire bats, death by umbrella, guns that fire wooden bullets, and the awesome sight of delicious horror babe Deborah Foreman in over-the-knee socks and mini skirt, brandishing a machine gun. As if that wasn't enough, Hickox also finds time to deliver some stunning shots of the Utah landscape, an all-guns-blazing shootout between good and bad bloodsuckers, and a heart-warming finale in which a giant cross vanquishes the evil but spares the righteous, Mardulak and his followers having been forgiven by God.

i recently rediscovered this movie first in my memory and then in real life. i think my disappointment was partly caused by the fact that children (i was maybe 9 or ten when i first saw it) are so much more impressionable than the grown-ups (im 28 now), but maaaan, there was a lot of annoying stuff in this movie besides the acting (ever tried to make a movie with older people when you were a child? if anyone did, they might know wat im getting at).through the course of the movie the impression that the film makers just ran out of time or money and quikkly wanted to finish everything up became increasingly apparent. the choices and general behaviour of everybody involved seemed kind of illogical and irrational at times, which could, of course, be related to the bad acting. the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that the vampires just kinda became normal human beings by the invention of the wooden bullets. superior strength was implied when the one guy threw the other vampire through the diner window, but wat about other vampire qualities like heightened senses (besides the one smelling incident involving shane), overly fast movements or similar things that are generally known for vampires? i find it disappointingly bothering that all the super-human aspects were being dropped by the people responsible. during the last third of the movie it panned out to be more like some cheap western than a vampire movie. also, the progressive fact that vampire apparently explode when they see crosses.. what was that about? ever thought about how much danger a vampire will encounter in everyday situations?! just imagine they wanted to clean out the attic or the basement. if they haven't done that in, like, 300 years, i bet one or two things get crossed... and so they explode while vacuuming? man, that almost makes me p*s*ed.one could argue that it was the 80s and standards for acting, directing and special effects weren't as evolved as they are today, but i have seen older and much better movies, even by anthony hickox. interesting idea, not well executed. one thing i liked was deborah foreman. i haven't seen her before, but she was hot AND beautiful and was next to David carradine one of the tolerably decent actors.as already mentioned before me, this movie had potential to be a classic, but no. just no.