Highly Overrated But Still Good

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

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Traveling through the desert, a man picks up a friendly hitcher who reveals that he's a vampire hunter where they find an infected vampire who hasn't turned yet and after a series of encounters with one of the original vampires and team up to take him down.This one wasn't that bad when it really mattered. One of the film's greatest pluses here is the strong and somewhat fleshed-out story which is rather nice in not only allowing for a slightly original take on a clichéd vampire story but also making for a natural excuse to feature a lot of action. The idea of having to hunt down a vampire of this one's scale and importance is pretty clever, especially when it could've been a Dracula clone. The fact that it doesn't is a testament that they wanted to go in a fresh new territory. As well, when it comes down to it, the action in here is pretty good as we get a complete out-of-the-norm in several car chases on the highway, and the brevity the first couple are among the more involved ones. The final one is perhaps the best, as it's two-part structure is pretty exciting to watch as the house shoot- out leading into it by itself is quite fun while letting the other action get featured quite nicely. There's also the strong storyline about the connection to the main vampire here with the telepathic victim and the flashes of their activities that causes them to track the group here which is a pretty nice and logical touch. Along with the bloody kills and nice nudity, these here are what works nicely for this one. There's a few problems here with this one that does hold it back, which starts with the rather disjointed pacing, Even though it picks up considerably in the later half, the initial introduction of everything comes pretty slowly since it takes a while before any vampires actually show up. Too much time is taken up with the exploration of the desert and getting to believe the story that the film takes a while to get going. The action scenes at the beginning of the film are pretty lackluster, and are quite a letdown when compared to what they could've been. That right there sums up the film pretty good as well: it looks good and has potential to be better if they went all out for it, but instead, they play it safe and it doesn't hold up to what it could've been. Even without all that, the film's biggest mistake is it doesn't really give the vampires anything to do. Sometimes, it seems as if they aren't really vampires at all, as they aren't bloodsuckers or anything like that. About the only reason we know they are is because it tells us they are vampires and because they die by sunlight, but otherwise we don't really know as they don't engage in any vampiric activities. Had they been given more screen-time, this might've been resolved. As it stands, there's some decent parts here though the flaws do stand out.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a brief Rape scene and mild drug use.

Prolific director JS Cardone(Alien Hunter;Shadowzone;Outside Ozona)brings us this profane Midwestern vampire tale with attitude starring Kerr Smith as, Sean, a young editor of trailers for a low-budget movie company who takes a car delivery job from Cali to Florida, but his journey is disrupted when he unfortunately picks up a hitchhiker, Nick(Brendan Fehr)who just so happens to hunt bloodsuckers. The head vampire, Kit(Johnathon Schaech)he's looking for is of a specific number called "The Forsaken", a clan who accepted an offering from a demon and hence were cursed to only walk the earth at night. Sean and Nick come across a young woman, Megan(Izabella Miko)who has been bitten by Kit and is slowly going through the process of "turning" as the vampire who left the virus in her continues to live. While trying to cool her body(..Nick, who has been bitten and must also find a member of "The Forsaken" before he himself becomes one of the undead, notifies Sean that Megan's blood is "burning" so her body temperature must be cooled)Megan bites Sean's hand leaving Kit's virus in him. So now Kit's death is of major importance because not only does Megan suffer as long as he remains alive, but Sean also is threatened to become a vampire. Nick, appropriately enough, encountered a doctor who had been bitten and was given knowledge of certain drugs which can slow down the process of turning into a vampire. But, the drugs can only last so long so finding Kit and exterminating the source of the blood disease is of utmost importance. But, Kit as his own brood, two female bloodsuckers and a dim-witted subservient day-driver(Simon Rex), who travel with him so Sean and Nick, with Megan used as bait, will need to find holy ground for a legitimate stand-off. Ina Hamm(Carrie Snodgress, rather wasted)just so happens to live in the middle of nowhere with her house stands on top of a Spanish graveyard..perhaps this is indeed the refuge they need as a base to fight Kit.The film doesn't pretend to be anything else but a horror tale of innocents plunged into a battle against a predator who holds the keys to their salvation. It's too bad this was made in 2001 because Cardone's trashy little vampire film would make perfect drive-in fodder. Schaech's presence as a charismatic and sexy male vampire really adds a great deal to this particular film as does Phina Oruche as his black sex slave Cym who attacks bloody throats with ferocity. Rex will earn chuckles as a rather simple-minded human watcher often saying "Okeydokey" when ordered by his boss to commit murderous deeds to those who threaten them. Particularly memorable is the murder of a cop who pulls Rex's Pen over for speeding, insists on seeing what was in their truck, receiving a shot-gun blast to the chest, and subsequently is burned alive on top of the hood of his police car. The attractive cast is headlined by Smith as the young hot-shot stud with a big bright future in the movie industry whose life is changed by a fateful drive into a most dangerous situation, and Izabella Miko as the doe-eyed innocent whose family was obliterated by the evil clan and bitten by Kit who must settle "unfinished business" when one of his vampire chicks didn't follow his command of killing her. Fehr was a bit too young, I felt, for the part of vampire hunter who knows an awful lot about the history of this breed of bloodsuckers..I often wondered just how he received all this information. But, I guess Cardone was perhaps motivated by the studio to fill his cast with beautiful people so Fehr was selected. The opening of Cardone's film sure sets the tone of this flick, a zombie-like Miko showering the blood from her gorgeous naked body. She's later undressed by Nick attempting to find the vampire bite as Megan lies comatose from the virus raging inside her. Miko is either asleep or mute for a good portion of the film but Cardone utilizes her vulnerability, youth, and beauty quite well..very photogenic. There's a very nifty image of Miko's Megan with her hands pressed up against the back window of Sean's car as they drive away from a scene which nearly killed them. This film isn't all that original and seems to evoke the spirit of "Near Dark", but I thought Cardone uses the setting at night really well and there's a nasty streak this film has that worked for me. There are some unnecessary images propelled into the action from past scenarios which distracted me a bit, but certain gory bits are effective like how vampire bodies explode when in contact with sunlight too long, and a shot-gun blast to the face which does some serious damage. "The Forsaken" would probably make an appropriate double feature with John Carpenter's "Vampires."

I love the vampire movies, even the fun low-budget ones. Unfortunately this is just trashy and dull, trying to be "cool" and managing sadly well - Forsaken fights with the garbage like From Dusk Till Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires to be the worst (non-porno)vampire movie ever made. There is a group of sadistic vampires, led by so irritatingly lazy-eyed and slimy rapist that I wanted to pull his nose, gratuitous violence, no style or fun... Admittedly there's no James Woods or Quentin Tarantino making their my-character-is-a-sleazoid-routines, but very pretty Alexis Thorpe is wasted in her blink-and-you-miss-it-role as a female vampire.

The Forsaken starts with Sean (Kerr Smith) getting a job where he has to deliver a car across country to Miami within five days with the added bonus that he can attend his sisters wedding on the cheap. While on his journey a guy named Nick (Brendan Fehr) ask's him for a ride & he'll pay for the gas, being a tight little git Sean accepts. Unfortunately for Sean this decision turns out to be a bad one as Nick is in fact hunting Vampires that roam the desert in an attempt to kill the Forsaken, a head Vampire named Kit (Johnathon Schaech) who spreads the Vampire virus. Along the way they encounter Megan (Izabella Miko) who has been bitten & is close to turning into a Vampire herself, she bites Sean so he also becomes infected with the virus which means he too will become a vampire unless they destroy the source of the virus. Nick uses Megan as bait to lure Kit & his gang into the open where he can put an end to their evil blood-sucking ways...Written & directed by J. S. Cardone I thought The Forsaken was a decent way to pass 90 odd minutes but wasn't anything special or spectacular. The script takes a lot of modern cinematic Vampire themes & ideas, it's a sort of mix of the likes of The Lost Boys (1987), Near Dark (1987), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Blade (1998) & Vampires (1998) all of which are better than The Forsaken together with the standard isolated desert road trip type setting of The Hitcher (1986) & Thelma & Louise (1991), there's nothing original or nothing we haven't seen before in The Forsaken that's for sure. The character's are your typical teens, the dialogue tries to be hip & modern as it refers to the likes of MTV. To it's credit the film moves along at a fair pace & isn't boring although I'd hardly call it exciting. There is also a criminal lack of Vampire action & lets face it that's the only reason we're watching it, isn't it? The Forsaken is one of those films which is perfectly watchable & entertaining enough in it's own right but within five minutes of it finishing you'll have forgotten all about it.Director Cardone, who directed one time British 'Video Nasty' The Slayer (1982), does an OK job but it's hardly the most exciting film to watch. There are a lot of dull sandy yellow desert shots which give the film a bland look. There are a couple of OK car chases & a few decent explosions but again it's all rather average & middle of the road, it certainly doesn't get the blood pumping that's for sure. Gore wise The Forsaken is a disappointment, there is one scene where someone has their heart ripped out, someone has their throat slit, someone has their head blown off with a shotgun & there is some blood drinking but that's it & Cardone directs with fast editing cuts so you see the absolute minimum he can get away with. On the IMDb's main page for The Forsaken there are some still photo's from the film including one where Sean is holding what looks like a jar of eyeballs, well I only saw it a few hours ago & I'm positive this scene never appears in the version I watched so maybe the film was cut for an 'R' rating or something.With a very reasonable sounding $5,000,000 budget The Forsaken doesn't look like it, sure there are a few action scenes & explosions but other than that it's rather dull & unadventurous. The acting is quite good here actually, I liked Schaech as the main villain & the two young leads were likable enough. Despite being in the film for most of it's duration Miko doesn't say a single word until the final 10 minutes or so.The Forsaken is an OK time-waster, it's perfectly watchable but there are many better Vampire films out there so why would you bother with this? If your a horror nut like me then yeah give it a go but more casual viewers would be advised to think carefully first. Just about worth a watch but don't bust a gut doing so.