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Directed by Jon Cunningham. Starring Jason Carter, Garett maggart, Kira Reed. Horror, English language, 110 min. Cert 15.

DVD release date 5th July 2010 RRP £9.99

I remember not that long ago saying “I haven’t seen a good vampire flick for ages” then BANG! – is there anything without a Vampire in it?

Twilight is without a doubt the biggest thing to happen to the Vampire franchise for years, bizarrely setting itself outside of the horror genre and playing into the teen romance market. For me, of the many recent movies playing into the fang tooth genre, the best one- since the famous sun haters came back into fashion- is the completely brilliant ‘Thirst’ by Park Chan Wook.

The trouble is when you try to tell a story about a popular monster, whether it is a zombie, werewolf or our blood lusting friends - How do you come up with something new and not seen before?

‘Vampire’ is a strange film – it’s actually not very good. It feels like a cheap TV movie from one of those appalling channels that show films such as ‘Not without my daughter’. The cast are low budget TV actors and the script has some very questionable/cheesy dialog. But did I turn it off? No – I watched it to the end as I had to know how the story finished.

It has an original tale about Vampires and to my knowledge, has never been done before. For all the films faults the storyline is brilliant. Why oh why hasn’t someone seen this film and made a good version of it??

Vampire starts with the LAPD investigating a string of bloody murders targeting prostitutes. With a plan to capture the killer red handed, Police Detective Chloe Martin (Kira Reed - Cheerleaders Ninjas, The final Victim) goes undercover as a lady of the night to capture the killer.

After various failed attempts to meet the real killer, she finally finds herself alone with a client interested in more than just sex for money. As the situation intensifies in the small hotel room, the endangered officer’s back up team storm in only to have their chief suspect very quickly taken away by the feds, without any explanation by the FBI as to why they are stepping in. Left powerless, the LAPD have no choice but to stop investigating the case, leaving Detective Martin frustrated.

The film quickly moves to a hospital backdrop, where Dr. Joseph McKay (Garrett Maggart – CSI: Miami, Days of our lives) is asked to complete the research of a recently diseased specialist. On agreeing to the top secret terms, Dr McKay soon discovers the highly sensitive subject is a real life Vampire.

Every possible attempt to create a safe environment for the medical team has been provided and before the huge metal casket is opened the Vampire is briefed on all possible ways of extermination it will face if any harm comes to the doctors. The most effective being a large removable skylight designed to fill the room with sunlight at the touch of a button.

The Vampire, Simon Molinar (Jason Carter – Blood Ties, Revamped) agrees to the doctor’s terms and the process of examination begins.

As the months past, Simon - even faced with highly painful forms of testing begins to trust Dr McKay and his team. He starts to believe that the research is good for mankind and will help to create a better understanding of why Vampires exist.

All is going smoothly until Detective Martin starts snooping around the hospital and explains to Dr McKay that she believes he is working with a savage murderer. Forced to deny that he is involved in a Top secret research project, Dr McKay returns to his laboratory. At this point Dr McKay becomes troubled by the verbal images of Simon’s victims. The debate on whether Simon is an animal hunting to survive or a cold blooded killer starts to create an atmosphere within the medical team and McKay begins doubting the morality of his research.

Written and directed by Jon Cunningham, (Who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, since this is his last project filmed in 2002) and originally titled ‘Demon Under Glass’ , a title- let’s face it – which would have always struggled.

I really want to say I like this film, but I can’t. I just loved the story. It explores an interesting idea- that Vampires are not Monsters. I have been intrigued by this concept since reading the extraordinarily good Anne Rice novels. This film, despite its faults, captures Rice’s Vampire mythology perfectly. I just can’t believe that this movie/story has been around for over 8 years and still nobody has stolen the story and done it better. Until that day, I would say grab this DVD, watch it with an open mind and maybe, just maybe, we’ll see it done properly one day. My reviews for the story not the film – the story deserves 3 stars. The film would probably only be a two star at best.

Special Features – Not confirmed

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