Sundown (1990)

Starring: David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, Morgan Brittany, John Ireland, M. Emmet Walsh, Jim Metzler, Deborah Foreman

Director: Anthony Hickox

This movie ended up on my doorstep quite literally by accident. It somehow got added to my Blockbuster Video queue by mistake, but it turned out to be one of my better mistakes.

Although the producers claim this to have been a low-budget movie, you wouldn’t know it from watching the final product. Whatever the budget was on this movie, it managed to pay for a fine cast of both seasoned actors (David Carradine, M. Emmet Walsh, John Ireland) as well as some yet unknown up-and-coming ones (Bruce Campbell). This is one of Bruce Campbell’s earlier performances, made back when he would accept practically anything for an acting gig. The role of Van Helsing isn’t very big in this picture, but he certainly makes the best of it.

Both Bruce Campbell and David Carradine have a knack for starring in “cult classics”. Having them both in a single film that hardly anyone has seen makes this movie quite a gem. As Campbell stated in one of the DVD interview segments, this movie wasn’t so much released as it “escaped” from the studio. Lionsgate obviously did not put much effort into promoting the film, and as a result it has become almost lost to time.

There are a lot of things to like about this movie. One of the most striking is its very effective use of widescreen in what is in many respects a western film. The entire movie was shot on location in Moab, Utah, and some of the panoramic shots are just brilliant. It gives what is supposedly a low-budget movie a very high-budget feel to it, which is complemented brilliantly by the film’s vibrant, old west musical score. The music score was apparently something that did have a decent budget in this film, and stands out in stark contrast to the very visibly low-budget “special” effects.

The screenplay was above average, although there were a few points in the film where it was quite obvious it was written in the late 1980′s. That, and the 80′s hair, is really the only thing that dates this film at all. The print conversion to DVD was as fresh as any new release I have ever seen. I hadn’t read when the film was originally released prior to viewing it and was certainly surprised to see that it was over 20 years old. It stands up quite well after that much time, and definitely doesn’t fall into the category of being a period piece.

The story? It’s a combination of horror, western and comedy. The only real tie-in to horror is the fact that the entire fictional town of Purgatory, Utah is occupied by vampires. The owner of the town is a character named Mardulak (David Carradine), which seems to be an anagram of “Drakula” with the letter “M” in front of it. Whatever. That’s about all that this movie has in the way of horror though. There was only one scene I can recall with any blood in it, and the gore was pretty much comical. There are no “scary” scenes in this movie. It’s mainly a comedy that uses vampire elements which is set against a western backdrop. It’s like the movie “Oklahoma”, just replace the singing with vampire bats.

Most of the humor is fairly tongue-in-cheek, so don’t expect it to be along the lines of “Scary Movie”. It’s a very low-key parody with a handful of serious moments and more than a little bit of over-the-top, cheesy acting. For anyone who likes horror movies, it’s one of those films that stays respectful to the genre without taking it too seriously.

There are a couple of extras on the DVD worth watching. One is an interview with David Carradine and the other is an interview with Bruce Campbell. Carradine seems to have taken the film rather seriously and lamented that it didn’t get a wider release. Campbell, on the other hand, didn’t seem to take it too seriously, and had a few good laughs at David Carradine’s expense. Both interviews look as though they were likely shot sometime during the 21st century, so provide plenty of perspective, as opposed to a lot of “on the set” interviews where everyone acts like the movie is going to be a smash hit. This movie went nowhere, and everyone involved knows it by now. Over 20 years later, it could still end-up becoming a cult classic in its own someday though.

Shoot or Be Shot! (2002)
Starring: William Shatner, Harry Hamlin
Director: J. Randall Argue

I’m a big Shatner fan, but even Captain Kirk couldn’t save this movie. The formulated plot was completely predictable and the acting way too cheezy, even by Shatner standards. I wasn’t laughing with, or even at, this film. It was just a plain waste of time to watch.

The ONLY thing in this movie worth watching is Shatner’s brief, kooky performance. He doesn’t really get enough time on camera to make sitting through the film’s sappy script a salvagable movie watching experience though. Shatner quite simply can’t carry the entire film, given the time alloted to him. If you could edit this movie down to just the enjoyable parts with Shatner, it would be about 15 minutes long. The rest of the movie is simply filler material, at best. I would have rather just watched 90 minutes of Shatner ad-libbing.

If you want to watch a good indy flick with lots of Shatner in it, I’d recommend the movie Free Enterprise instead. Better acting. Better script. Much more Shatner.

If you HAVE to watch every single film Shatner has ever been in, go ahead and watch this. If you just want to watch a good movie, don’t bother.

Dark Town (2004)
Starring: Janet Martin (II), Delpano Wills
Director: Desi Scarpone

Not too much worse. That is no excuse for this film though. My first impression of this flick was that it was made by some student filmmaker, who used some poor sap’s money to finance a horrible B-Movie.

Some of the acting wasn’t so bad. It was the sleazy and illogical plot that stunk the thing up. First, forget all of the usual “rules” of vampires and vampire movies. None of them apply here. Rules are made up as they go along.

The people who produced this thing seem to have taken every opportunity possible to inject sordid sexual inuendo into the movie. You’ve got multiple lesbian scenes, multiple intimations of incest, and I believe every single actress in the movie had at least one nude or sex scene. Oddly, the nudity was ALL in girl-girl sex scenes. I’d call this a soft-core porn movie, but I think that most porn movie writers would be rightfully offended.

If you’re a lesbian who loves BAD horror movies, this may be just the ticket for you. If not, you’ll probably want to pass on this one. I’m guessing that even Cinemax wouldn’t even air this direct to video release in a 3 a.m. time slot of the producers actually paid them to.

Alien 51 (2004)
Starring: Heidi Fleiss, Phoebe Falconer
Director: Brennon Jones, Paul Wynne

Obviously, the producers of this movie could not get a “real” star, so they decided to hire a “celebrity” who has long outlived her 15 minutes of fame to draw attention to this flick instead. Enter ex prostitution ringleader Heidi Fleiss. Her role in this film is (fortunately) very limited. To put it nicely, she simply can’t act. She looks like she is about a hundred years old and spaced out on who knows what kinds of drugs. The film even features her “shooting up” with some kind of mystery drug, and her circus-freak assistant smoking crack while on a break.

The leading actress in this movie is decent looking, but nothing to get excited about. I’m guessing that it took a truckload of hydrogen peroxide in order to keep her hair that color throughout the movie, not to mention a truckload of bright red lipstick. She can barely act, as is true of most of the cast.

The bad acting, cheezy special effects and lousy editing are bad enough, but its the script that doomed this film from the very beginning. At best, the plot simply makes no sense. Supposedly, the government’s most top-secret, lethal biological killing machine has just escaped from Area 51. So, who do they send to take care of the problem? A 100 lb blond bimbo with a Rambo knife. Yeah, sure. I wish I could say that the plot was confusing, but that’s not the case. It’s just plain stupid and unbelievable.

I have to concur with other reviewers that the person writing this screenplay may very well have been under the influence of some mind-altering chemical. I suspect that may have been the case with a lot of the people connected to this movie. Exactly why you would throw-in someone smoking crack in the middle of the film for no apparent reason, describing how great it felt, pretty much speaks for itself. You pretty much would have to be using crack in order to think that this movie was any good.

If making bad movies was a crime, the makers of this film deserve a life sentence. “Just say NO” to Alien 51.