Although called “Vampires”, the film was also published under the name of “John Carpenter’s Vampires”, which transmitted a vision of hyperspecific director of a genre that has been drained and revived several times. The expectations attached to the film were mainly positive, given the history of Carpenter to make powerful and moving stories equipped with a brilliant social comment.
However, “vampires” of 1998 is quite apathetic in terms of depth, which transformed its infested action of Gore in the only No discussion at the time of his release. I must emphasize that there is nothing wrong with that at all, because Carpenter was more than happy to emphasize how far he had to go to increase the meter of violence (via the San Diego Union-Tribune):
“I pushed things to the limit because that’s what this film calls. I pushed violence into each scene, I pushed it over it.”
This is true, because the advent of the very first vampire, Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), immediately increases the issues (literally), which prompted Crow and his crew to kill mass of vampires to arrive. Like Crow is the Hunter Apex, Valek is the predator Apex who tears his victims in tatters without remorse, now impatiently in search of a Christian relic that will transform him in a day of day. Crow cannot let this happen, of course, so it engages in impulsive fights which take place as a Western, the only difference between the abundant quantity of blood and guts left in the process.
Unfortunately, some of these scenes were a little too much for the motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which prompted Carpenter to cut part of the blood effusion in order to avoid an NC-17 note. According to producer Sandy King (also the woman of Carpenter), a few scenes have been shortened to avoid the stricter note, because they “did not want to spoil the film and spoil his rhythm”.
Consequently, the “vampires” are a perfectly violent coherent film which frames its blood creatures as terrifying, without resorting to any kind of complexity or romantization. While the film is definitively pale compared to the best that Carpenter has to offer, it always promises a good time.
