Vampires: The Turning (2005)

User Rating:

2.8/10   

Director:

Marty Weiss

Writers (WGA):

D.B. Farmer (written by) and
Andy Hurst (written by)

Release Date:

2 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror

Tagline:

For 100 years a war has raged between good and evil. It will end tonight.

Plot:

An American muay-thai fighter in Thailand must join forces with a group of vampire hunters to track down and kill a vampire lord who has kidnapped his gilfriend.

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Thailand | Muay Thai | Vampire Hunter | Female Nudity

Cast

Colin Egglesfield	...	Connor
Stephanie Chao	...	Sang
Roger Yuan	...	Kiko
Patrick Bauchau	...	Raines
Dom Hetrakul	...	Niran
Meredith Monroe	...	Amanda
Nophand Boonyai	...	Suwan
Jarun Petchjaren	...	Moo
Chakapan Ponyong	...	Slayer #1
Panu Niamchompoo	...	Slayer #2
Sira Kuankaew	...	Slayer #3
Arucchaporn Satesh	...	Old Woman
Kamonmarn Chuachai	...	Receptionist
Kasama Nissaipan	...	Thai Policeman
Sakon Palvanichakul	...	Tuk tuk driver

Also Known As:

Vampires 3 (USA) (working title)
Vampires III: Temple of Blood (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #41310) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Singapore:M18 | UK:15 | USA:R | Germany:16

Company:

Living Films

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Amanda is bitten in the alleyway you can see the end of the tube where the fake blood is pumped from and the line of blood from it as the Vampire pulls back, it is then visible again when he goes to take another bite.

Movie Connections:

Follows Vampires (1998)

You take the good, you take the bad...

...and you kill an hour and a half. Despite the low score on IMDb, this movie is not a 4-out-of-10 vampire movie. Anyone who thinks it is does not know the depths to which vampire flicks can sink. This was a (mostly) competently acted movie with good production value and fun martial arts. Rather than lots of bad SFX, we get a few okay SFX (mostly freaky contacts, fangs and dead-vampire-melting) a net gain in my book. It's predictable, but most vampire movies are, and there are no gaping plot holes, or at least not larger than in most movies.

That said, it's not Hamlet, at least not well-acted Hamlet. The main actor isn't particularly charismatic, and seems to have one basic expression throughout the movie, which I read as "fierce determination," but at least he *has* a facial expression (try van Helsing in "Way of the Vampire" for the alternative), and it fits with his mental state for most of the stuff. Stephanie Chao is no great shakes either, but she's pretty, and has a natural sincerity to her voice that makes up for some of her lack of emotion. They should have given Meredith Monroe more to do.

This is, too, only a bastard step-child (yes, that's what I meant) of John Carpenter's Vampires. It has a new origin of vampires that is not really compatible at all with the original. It does keep the winch, but it looks like they put it in just to prove some kind of family resemblance. If the producers actually paid anything to get in on this franchise, it was a waste of money, since they didn't bother to put in any element (other than the winch) from the original.

Overall, It's far from the worst such movie, but not nearly among the best. If you like vampires and kung fu, and movies with a photogenic cast, this is a good way to waste 84 minutes, especially if you've got some kind of unlimited rentals. Just don't go out of your way unless you're a genre fan.