How sad is this?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I got this in a 2 disc set with 'Hercules in New York', and it spent 4 years gathering dust before I finally sat and watched this. I should have guessed that the B movie to Hercules wouldn't be worth the time. To be fair, the production and acting aren't bad. It's on par with a made-for-TV movie, the main characters played their parts well and I understood what was going on, so I went into this movie open-minded. The main problem with the film is there's not enough story to last the length of a feature length movie. The murder and apprehension are covered in the first ten minutes, then the rest of it is boring retread as we go over a lot of unnecessary detail. We start off with Rod confessing to the murder, then going over the details of what led up to the murder in a police interview. A lot of other minor details are revealed over the course of the movie, but it's boring because we already know the ending. I repeatedly checked the run time during this to see how much longer this was going to go. I think the movie would have held my interest if it hadn't been told in flashback. It robs the movie of all immediacy and basically tells you 'Here's the story in ten minutes, now sit on your hands while we drag this out'. Obviously because this based on a true story you weren't going to get a twist ending, so it's just dull. I'm not giving this lower than a 3 because it was competently shot, well acted and well produced. But the nothing of a plot and tedious pacing drag this down from being an okay movie to a bad one for me.

This film is based on an actual incident which occurred in 1996. Cocky and charismatic Roderick "Rod" Justin Farrell (an excellent and compelling performance by Drew Fuller) is the leader of a gang of oddball outcast teenagers who think they are vampires. Rod brutally murders the parents of the reluctant Heather Ann Wendorf (well played by Kelly Kruger) and steals their car so the gang can go on the lam. Director John Webb, working from a grim and absorbing script by Aaron Pope, nicely captures the mixed-up Goth kids' warped fantasy world and alienated nihilistic mindset without ever passing judgment on the characters or resorting to lurid sensationalism. Moreover, Webb and Pope firmly ground the morbidly engrossing story in a completely plausible everyday reality. Better still, Webb and Pope admirably refuse to explain the kids' actions; instead they merely present these crazed youths as they are. This film further benefits from bang-up acting from an able cast, with especially praiseworthy work by Alex Breckenridge as sullen Charity Lynn Keesee, Timoty Derriest as the loopy, nerdy Howard Scott Anderson, Marina Black as the willful Dana Lynn Cooper, Larry Dirk as the folksy Sheriff Mike Dane, Mimi Craven as Heather's concerned mother Ruth, and David Wells as Heather's weary dad Rick. The outbursts of violence are genuinely startling in their abruptness and brutality. Kristian Bernier's slick cinematography, Guy Harrington's moody, shivery score, and the cool rock soundtrack are all up to speed. Worth a look.

I remember hearing about this case at the time.The case generated a lot of publicity because of its bizarre nature.It also reignited the debate about whether certain types of movies, games and music inspire real life crimes.This was because the teenagers had apparently been playing a fantasy role playing game called Vampire:The Masquerade and they took the fantasy too far.They started to actually believe that they really were vampires with special powers and they would drink each others blood.I really enjoyed the movie although their were some inaccuracies and they left out some things that I thought they shouldn't have.Like in his confession Rod Ferrell said that he beat both of Heathers parents to death with a crowbar.He beat the father to death with a crowbar but the mother was stabbed to death.I also thought they should have mentioned the role playing game.It was not mentioned once which was surprising seeing as how it was one of the main features of the case. Also I thought they should have had more about Rods relationship with his mother which was only mentioned very briefly.I thought that the acting from the main characters was excellent especially Drew Fuller who played the part of the groups psychotic leader Rod Ferrell.I love movies based on true crimes and this one is well worth checking out.

I just rented this movie last night,And In my opinion Monkeys on typewriters could have done a MUCH better job. I am from Eustis Florida the place the murders took place, I actually knew Rod Ferrel very well before he moved to Kentucky. My first problem with the movie is, it wasn't even filmed anywhere near Eustis. Also Rod Ferrel was not a handsome short haired guy, he had long hair and in my opinion is very ugly, also he was like 10 times crazier than they made him seem on the movie, i mean the guy actually thought he was a Vampire how crazy is that. None of the actors in the movie where any good, and the story left out a lot of details, it seemed to me that they didn't do very good research about the crimes and rushed making it, I think the movie could have been much better and I'm VERY disappointed and would like my money back.