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Vampires seemed to up the anticipation factor ten-fold over any prior JC release. The rumours flew thick and fast, arguments with the original writer (untrue), budget cuts (untrue), extremely gory (well ....), and the ultimate kicker, was this going to be JC's last film? Add all of this to an extremely long development time and the wierdest distribution wrangles that saw the movie released in France a good 6 months before anyone else saw it, and the JC fans and the usual knife-wielding critics were desperate for this one.

Vampires is a western. It doesn't have gay, self-centred bloodsuckers or aristocratic leeches. It's got good guys and bad guys, the bad guys just happen to have teeth and feed off the living. The story, significantly modified from the source novel to  make it leaner and meaner, follows a group of Vampire slayers hired by the Vatican to wipe out the scourge in the US. Enter the first set-piece as our Wild Bunch clean out a Vampire nest in spectacular, explosive fashion. Heading this Wild Bunch is Jack Crow, a mean bastard perfectly played by the king of mean actors, James Woods. Seeing Woods and JC team up is just perfection for this role.

During a post-kill celebration a master vampire all but wipes out the team, leaving Woods and his right hand man Montoya left with a half-turned hooker Katrina, played by Sheryl Lee who is now a telepathic link, and hence the bait, for Crow to catch up with the master vampire. It seems that the master vampire know's Crow's name, knew where he would be, it was all a setup. Various sub-plots develop, relationships between Montoya and Katrina, Crow's parents deaths, etc. that moves things along at a languid pace characteristic of all the best westerns.

Vampires is a clever, intelligent vampire film that uses some sort of justification for the vampire scourge in a similar way to quantum theory justifying the existence of pure evil in Prince of Darkness. This is a characteristic of JCs work, essentially normalising the evil, making it even scarier as it becomes more rational. The pacing and cinematography of the film are superb, the decision to shoot it in New Mexico was inspired as the washed out hues of the countryside are a perfect backdrop to violent flashes of bright red blood.

Woods, Baldwin, Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith (as head vampire Valek) are all great, driving what is essentially a piece centred around the magnetic presence of Woods. The inclusion of an initially ineffectual priest (Tim Guinnee) gives Wood's a great board for some extremely over the top improvisation. This is one of the key problems some critics had with the film, its dismissal of the Catholic church. Add allegations of misogyny (the only female characters are bloodsuckers and prostitutes) abnd JC suffered the usual problems with the PC crowd. A load of rubbish, Vampires is a great film. Not a classic in the sense of The Thing and The Fog, but a true return to form for JC compared with his last few films.

Vampires 2 was setup to be the first production at JC and his wife Sandy King's new production company, Storm King Productions, that was not directed by JC. In numerous interviews JC had voiced his desire to try and develop his projects a bit further, such as trying to start a Vampires franchise with this sequel. Early anticipation for the film took a hit on two fronts - it would star Jon Bon Jovi (lovely hair, awful music) and be directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (lovely man, awful director). So the fans were worried that not only would this be a rock star movie vehicle but it was also being directed by the man who gave us the stillborn Halloween III : Season of Witch. This seemed a strange choice, as although he is a good mate of JCs, Halloween III effectively killed off JCs attempt at turning the Halloween series into something other than a bunch of increasingly ludicrous "Micheal Myers returns ... again!" spin-offs.

Confidence took another hit when it was revealed that none of the original cast would be returning, so no James Woods magic in this movie. The story was revealed as a sort of parallel to Vampires in that Woods' team are not the only hunter team out there, there are others, and if this franchise is successful we can get loads of stories of different teams. The team in Vampires II was headed up by Jon Bon Jovi, who has to go after a master vampire who wants to be able to walk in daylight with the help of a special cross.... wait up! Isn't this the same as the first one? Yep, sure is, with the amazingly clever spin that this time the master vampire is female.

The film is a dissapointing retread of a lot of the first films ideas - especially the presence of a female in the team who is half vampire, which gives a telepathic link to the master and the chance for Jovi to reneact the Alec Baldwin role of falling in love with a near Vampire. I mean, why couldn't they at least try and come up with something original? So, the story is a retread is the film any good? Again, initial word was bad, especially when it was revealed the film was not going to get a cinema release but go straight to vid.

The movie has some redeeming features, notably that which made the first film so interesting, that this is just a western with bloodsuckers. There are some nice riffs on vampire lore (one character uses a shotgun with bullets made of oak to "stake" vampires) and pretty scenery. Overall its not a bad movie and an enjoyable enough pizza and beer late night watch. However, it does suffer from the Tommy Lee Wallace direction (as do all his films) of it all feeling stagey and lit in such a way that even locations look like sets. The score is one highlight, elaborating on JCs original mexicano tinged rocker. Worth watching ... once.

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