Vampyre (1990) Poster

(1990)

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3/10
Boring, Cheesy, and a few boobs
TeenVamp20 October 2020
This movie felt 3 hours long. 95% of the vampire scenes are shot in blazing DAYLIGHT. The acting is sooo bad but it's only amusing half of the time. The main vampire woman rides a horse with her boobs out (1 point there) and runs around with her boobs out (2 more points...literally) You've been warned.
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Not That Bad
LeonardMaltinsBalls8 September 2005
Anyone renting a movie called "vampyre" needs to keep in mind they're renting a movie called "vampyre." And if you're expecting a classic then rent a classic you've heard of.

That being said, Vampyre is pretty entertaining. It was produced with almost no budget at all, which is impressive as it is a period piece (and well-done, considering).

The acting is campy, and the story isn't that captivating, but I've watched it many times. The locations are beautiful. And, after all, there is a topless woman riding around on a horse seductively. Bruce Hallenbeck is the poor-man's Herschell Gordon Lewis, if you can imagine that.
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1/10
Kill this one quick!!
Mike-2639 July 2000
I have seen some bad films in my life...but this one takes the cake!

Doesn't even qualify as a "good" bad film - it's as if the producers went totally out of their way to find people who couldn't act in ANY way, shape or form... An insomniacs dream - if this film doesn't put you to sleep...then your only other choice is suicide!!
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5/10
Good bad horror, but people will differ in opinions.
bingcrosbyiscool4 May 2017
Good bad films like this are often hard to reach consensus around. It is a bad film in a lot of ways. It's shot on video (or it looks like it), the actors are amateur, and the writing is stilted. But then again, it has moments that made me laugh out loud. I pictured these people getting together to make the movie as a labor of love, hoping to capture a New England Gothic (for example, the shots around the graveyard outside the church were fun), but then mixing in goofy stuff (like the trio of locals whose costumes look like they stopped at a thrift store on the way to the set).

One question: Are the references to Dreiser's film serious?

Come for the vampyres, stay for Justin the Doctor's Mascot.
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7/10
For Fans Of Independent Cinema
Flixer195712 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Loosely based on Carl Dreyer's 1932 VAMPYR.

Traumatized by vampires as a youngster, David Gray grows into an adult dedicated to fighting the bloodthirsty forces of evil. He's called to the remote village of Cortempierre, in which innocent humans have become a minority. Witches and vampires hold sway over the countryside thanks to the demonic doings of an evil doctor (John Brent) and the seldom-seen but all-pervasive vampire Marguerite Chopin (Kathy Seyler.) Well before the showdown the audience wonders, along with Gray, if the vampire hunter has bitten off more than he can chew.

Filmed mainly in the restored Eastfield Village in Rensselaer County, NY, VAMPYRE is set in a nebulous time and place, the French sound of "Cortempierre" notwithstanding. This and the film's dreamlike (in some cases nightmarish) atmosphere give the director free reign to be as bizarre as he wants. The "no children–no dogs" dialogue is a deliberately strange carry-over from Dreyer's flick but there is plenty of new weirdness as well. Flouting Hollywood convention, vampires stalk their victims in broad daylight (which often frequently happens in traditional vampire lore.) A topless vampire woman rides around on horseback, for no other reason than the film's distributor demanded it (along with a change in the spelling of the title.) Hallenbeck's own set-pieces include a peasant woman being tied to a piece of farm machinery and murdered and the local Igor-type having his leg lopped off in loving close-up. Later, a character with a musket wound in his face rips off Igor's peg-leg and kills him with it. Non-gore stand-outs include a haunting dance sequence and some well-integrated sepia and black-and-white footage. Most of the players are competent but are dwarfed by the overall strange ambiance of the picture. However, Randy Scott Rozler is a real stand-out as David Gray. He may resemble a member of the Carradine family but his performance is fine taken on its own terms. John Brent as the bad doctor displays a real screen villainy unseen in recent horror flicks and his footage should be shown in acting classes everywhere.

Bloody in certain scenes, fleshy in others, VAMPYRE is and hour and a half of good solid entertainment for broad-minded fans of the ghastly and the weird.
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7/10
Great to See Saratoga's Elizabeth Carstens in Film,Bravo!!
friggi200228 September 2002
What a wonderful remake of the original. This release must be recent, as I have not seen this film anywhere else until recently. Hallenbeck has shown he is a master craftsman at making Hammeresque movies. The camera work is quite well done, and the location for shooting well thought out. And Saratoga Spring's own Elizabeth Carstens heads up the vampires. Although a non-speaking part, she spices up the movie with her topless bareback horse riding and her seduction of a local townsman is very scintillating in the buff. Great work!!!
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