Daughter of Darkness (1990 TV Movie) User Reviews

Real Vampires Suck with their Tongues!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 15 February 2008]

I vividly remember the harrowing news bulletins and devastating images of Romania during the late 80's/early 90's, when the controversial reign of Ceausescu slowly came to an end and the nation was consumed with relentless violence and economical recession. It was definitely not the best place to be around that time, especially not if you were a member of a foreign (and thus 'wealthier') film crew. All the time whilst watching "Daughter of Darkness" I was wondering how Stuart Gordon and his crew were able to film amidst the thoroughly dangerous political climate in Bucharest, until of course I realized – and double checked the filming location section on IMDb – the whole movie was shot in Hungary instead. This was probably the wisest, not to mention safest, thing to do and in all honesty Budapest looks and feels just as ominous as Bucharest. That needless bit of information being said, "Daughter of Darkness" is a fairly successful and worthwhile little made-for-TV chiller that offers an okay albeit predictable and cliché-ridden plot and a couple of admirable acting performances. Those who are familiar with director Stuart Gordon's awesome repertoire (and if you're not: move your butt towards the nearest video store and rent "Re-Animator", "From Beyond" and "Castle Freak"!!) will promptly notice this is a rather atypical effort coming from him. His usual work features Grand Guignol make up effects and utterly absurd situations whereas this modestly produced film maintains a serious, almost dramatic tone and very sober decors. Following the death of her mother, cherubic twenty-something Cathy Thatcher travels to Romania all by herself because the only thing she knows about her father is that he and her mother met in Bucharest. With little help from the American ambassador and only a creepy taxi driver to rely on, Cathy quickly gets entangled in a mysterious web hinting at vampirism and political murder. She meets a peculiar glassblower (Anthony "Norman Bates" Perkins) and falls in love with a local hunk, all the while completely unaware of how dangerously close she finds herself to the truth regarding of her family's bloodline. The plot is remotely involving, even though you're always several steps ahead of the script, and Mia Sara's natural charm & innocence make it pretty much impossible not to care for her. The actual vampires are stereotypical characters and behave as such, though with one notable exception, namely they suck the blood of their victims using fangs that only appear when their tongues split open. This is a bizarre little gimmick, and I have no idea where it origins from, but it's hardly special enough to make the film is must-see genre effort. Perkins tries his best, but he obviously struggles with the accent as wells as with the lack of motel rooms and shower kills. There's very little blood and spectacle to find here (TV-movie, remember?) but the atmosphere is moody and the old buildings look uncanny. Hardly priority viewing for horror fans, but worth a peek nonetheless.

A modest success for Stuart Gordon

[The_Void · 6/10 · 14 May 2006]

Stuart Gordon was a busy man back in 1990. Aside from his surprisingly good retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and something called Robojox, he also made this little known TV movie, which like the Poe film; is surprisingly good! Given that the film was made for television, it's not surprising that it doesn't feature the blood and gore of Re-Animator, and overall it feels like a cheaper, more rushed production. These things don't matter, however, as Gordon makes good use of what he has here, and rather than bombard the audience with special effects, he sticks to the more difficult method of storytelling to keep the film alive; and while this story takes obvious influence from a range of earlier films, Gordon's vampire flick is an involving and entertaining little flick for the duration of it's running time. The plot follows a young woman who travels to Romania in order to find her father. It's not long before she realises that he was killed, but the story doesn't end there as new evidence turns up that links her father to a mysterious cult of vampires...

Stuart Gordon is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror directors of modern times, and one of the reasons for that is that he isn't willing to stick to conventions. Gordon is happy to take filming outside of the USA and risk making a film with a largely foreign cast and, just like it would in the later 'Castle Freak' and 'Dagon' - the alien European setting does the film no end of favours where mystery is concerned. The lead role is taken by Mia Sara, who manages to do three things with it. Her acting isn't bad at all, and she's rather nice to look at too; but perhaps the best thing about her role in this film is that her looks and persona perfectly suit the style and tone of the movie. Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins (complete with silly accent), gives a memorable central performance also, and the pair are backed up nicely by Robert Reynolds and Jack Coleman. The plot plays out nicely, and Gordon keeps things very much on the level. There isn't a great deal of 'bite' in the script, but it really doesn't need it as this film is all about mystery. There's a lot of very good ideas in this movie, and it's fair to say that the sum of the parts falls a little short of what could have been; but I really enjoyed Daughter of Darkness and give it warm recommendations.

Change is inevitable.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 23 August 2008]

Cathy Stevens has been suffering dark dreams, and believes they have something do with her father. After the death of her mother she travels to political-torn Romania to find her father. However her investigating gets the local police questioning her motives and gaining the interest of a mysterious cult that might be able to share her information about he father.

Director Stuart Gordon brings it home again. If there's a consistent director in the horror genre, Gordon's right up there. Even with the boundaries of a low-budget TV enterprise. Gordon's 'Daughter of Darkness' is an interestingly slow grinding story-driven outing that evokes sensual titillation, dreamy flickering and makes excellent use of the decoratively alienating European locations. The film authentically looks the part and is perfectly shot too. Action is limited and sees little daylight, so does any real sort of make-up FX and special effects. When the latter comes into play, there's quite an inventive inclusion to how these vampires feed on their victims. Nice touch. On the down side the story feels minor, and the developments are traditionally dry and foreseeable. However even if this the case, it's broodingly melancholy styling of such superstitious folklore manages to hold you there and lead actress Mia Sara's sensitive performance helps shape that moody allurement. Alongside her is a modest Anthony Perkins. Even with that wobbly accent, he injects some glassy intensity. Jack Coleman, Robert Reynolds and a scene-stealing Dezso Garas offered good support. Pacing can hit a few bumps, but Gordon's infectious imagery (some piercingly eerie dream scenes) and positional work is efficiently implemented. Colin Towns' music score was nothing you would expect, as I found it to be majestically layered.

"If your old man's a Vampire what does that make you?" OK Vampire film.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 3 May 2006]

Daughter of Darkness tells the tale of a Chicago high school teacher named Katherine Thatcher (Mia Sara) whose Mother has recently died, Katherine decides to travel to Romania to track down the Father she never knew with only a photograph & an address to go on. Once in Bucharest she contacts the American consulate Jack Devlin (Jack Coleman) who warns Katherine to be careful in her investigations as Romania is not the safest of places. Ever since she was a young child Katherine has suffered from vivid dreams which have turned into nightmares & have become even more real, while searching for her Father Katherine notices a few familiar looking things, places & landmarks that she recognises from her dreams. Katherine ends up at a glass works where she meets Anton (Anthony Perkins) who turns out to be her Father, unfortunately for Katherine she has attracted the attention of the Romanian secret police & her Father just happens to be the ruler of a group of modern day blood sucking Vampires, Katherine learns she has Vampire blood running through her veins...

Directed by Stuart Gordon Daughter of Darkness is an OK horror film that passes the time but didn't exactly amaze me. The script by co-producer Andrew Laskos takes itself extremely seriously & starts off a bit slowly but the pace eventually picks up & it turns into a reasonably effective film. Much of what happens in Daughter of Darkness is very low key, it's not a particularly exciting film, I wasn't glued to my seat, it's not scary & there's nothing original about it but there was just enough to it to maintain my interest & stop me from going to sleep. As in a lot of Vampire films Daughter of Darkness cherry picks the aspects of Vampire film-lore that it wants to use, these Vampires are killed by sunlight & sleep in coffins but they don't use fangs to drink blood & crosses don't do anything either. The whole thing is rather predictable & you can see the so-called twist coming a mile off, the character's are pretty good, the plotting is OK & everything works reasonably well in context. Daughter of Darkness is one of those films that is uniformly average in almost all departments, I can't say it's a bad film but at the same time I'm not going to say that it's brilliant because it clearly isn't.

Director Gordon does a good job here at making at lot of Daughter of Darkness effective. This isn't the sort of horror Gordon is known for & I was surprised to see his name on the credits as he is probably best known for splatter films such as Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), Dolls (1987), Castle Freak (1995), Dagon (2001) & King of the Ants (2003) amongst other's. Shot on location in Romania it certainly has a unique feel to it, there's some atmosphere but little in the way of blood or gore present in some of Gordon's other genre films, in fact I can't think of any.

While I was watching Daughter of Darkness I kept saying to myself that it looked very flat & bland like a made-for-TV film & then what do I discover when I check the IMDb? Yep it was indeed made-for-TV & frankly you can tell right from the off which isn't a compliment. It's generally well made although it obviously had both a low budget & low production values. What on Earth is that accent supposed to be Anthony? Mr. Psycho (1960) himself Anthony Perkins has one of the most ridiculous accent's ever captured on film, I really think this guy has made a career out of one film & he is definitely living on past glories or rather glory as in singular.

Daughter of Darkness is a somewhat unremarkable film, it's OK & it's watchable but I'd probably have forgotten all about it by the end of the week. Worth a watch if your bored but there are better films out there.

And the raven cries never more, never more...

[voleprobe · 15 May 2003]

One does not ask a lot of this kind of film, but this film failed to provide even a little for me...

The characters felt (to put it kindly) unreal even for a horror film! I never felt scared at all during the entire movie, and the choice of music made me want to sue for emotional suffering...

Disappointingly tame vampire TV movie

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 4 June 2016]

A disappointing addition to the vampire film which definitely lacks bite when dealing with its subject - now, this may not be surprising considering the TV-movie format, but it is a bit of a surprise when the director is none other than Stuart Gordon, the gentleman renowned for his two on-the-edge additions to 1980s horror cinema, RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND. Gordon here displays little of the vitality or skill he brought to his most famous movies and instead acts like more of a journeyman director, happy to pick up his paycheque with minimal effort. Not that the film is entirely bad - sure, the Romanian setting is nice and there are some arty tracking shots and good cinematography to give the movie a Euro feel. But the script is mundane and the story, which starts off so well, soon falls by the wayside.

The first hour of the film consists of the plot set-up, with nothing being explained too fully. Thus, we have a sense of mystery and a fairly close realism building up a little tension here and there. Unfortunately once the major plot twist is revealed and the vampires come to light (as it were), the film falls to pieces and becomes yet another clichéd bad guys vs. good guys fight to the finish, displaying little in the way of logic or surprises. The effects are minimal and the vampires largely lacking in interest, a typically boring group of Gothic types. The only difference is that they suck blood through their tongues rather than with fangs, although why exactly the lore was rewritten is unexplained as it isn't used for anything other than novelty value. The violence is mostly offscreen and the only thing to recommend in the film are some fairly good makeups used for the finale.

Acting wise, there are no great surprises here and nothing to make you sit up in your seat. Mia Sara (LEGEND) portrays yet another young, fragile heroine in a matter-of-fact way and her acting is neither particularly good or particularly bad, just so-so. It is good to see Anthony Perkins (EDGE OF SANITY) employing another of his sinister characters - complete with black eyeliner - but he seems mostly wasted in an ambivalent part. Robert Reynolds is forgettable and uninteresting as the evil vampire villain, although Dezso Garas is surprisingly good as the kind-hearted taxi driver with a dark secret. DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS is only worth watching if it's a quiet night and you're looking for some easy viewing before you go to bed.

Directed by Stuart Gordon??

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 4 June 2017]

You'd expect something more than this bland, obvious, bloodless vampire thriller from a collaboration between Stuart Gordon (of "Re-Animator" infamy) and Anthony Perkins. The stunning Mia Sara stars as a young American girl who travels to Romania to find out what happened to her father; she has a photograph of her father, and it looks like Perkins, but when she meets him she doesn't recognize him (!), and apparently the audience is meant to gasp when Perkins is finally revealed as her father. The film is a big disappointment, though it's fun to see Noah Bennett from "Heroes" looking so young. *1/2 out of 4.

Reasonably enjoyable, if with definite shortcomings

[I_Ailurophile · 7/10 · 15 September 2022]

Ah, TV movies. There are some surprisingly great ones in the world amid many lackluster brethren, but either way they earned a definite reputation over time thanks to a long, predominant history of mixed bags, to say nothing of regular fare from the likes of the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy) and Lifetime. The production values in 'Daughter of darkness' show its roots and its age, and the film also comes off as astoundingly direct, even more than we usually expect of television features. This isn't to say it can't be worthwhile, but the company it keeps is as notable as its primary stars. Recognizing no small measure of ham-handedness accompanying the straightforward slant, I'm still think this is pretty fun - only, perhaps less than essential.

It needs to be said that plot development is almost painfully swift, and constructed with a logic that is pure Movie Magic. Every Romanian that protagonist Katherine meets happens to speak English; the U. S. ambassador is unbelievably accessible; every person Katherine speaks to, even random passers-by, are bewilderingly willing to listen and help. Some of this has meaningful (and predictable) basis in the narrative, and none of it is out of the ordinary for the medium, yet the incidence is never not striking. Given the nature of 'Daughter of darkness' as suggested, the cast have certain limits on what they're able to accomplish, not least as enthusiastic editing joins with the forthright angle of the TV-approved writing and direction to maintain a brisk pace and chop scenes up into relatively minute snippets. Alongside that momentum, the movie oscillates all too quickly between tones as the plot progresses. And to that point, while the flavor of filmmaker Stuart Gordon and his collaborators is seen in the swell effects, dream sequences, the most gnarly character designs, and other active genre elements, it's safe to say this is a far cry from the likes of 'Re-animator' and 'From beyond,' and one wonders how Gordon became involved with the production.

There are plentiful reasonable hang-ups one should have about this picture, to be sure - including the fact that to achieve their goals, all the antagonists would have had to do was bide their time and play nice, and a major aspect of the protagonist's character doesn't come into play until the climax. Just because it's flawed doesn't mean it's not entertaining, though, or (modestly) deserving. While overly curt, and overcooked, on paper the narrative is engaging, and compelling; would that it had more opportunity to manifest, breathe, and resolve of its own accord. The ensemble make the most of what they have to work with: Mia Sara is a fine leading lady, for example, and Dezso Garas is an unlikely highlight as he realizes cab driver Max with delightful personality. Just as Hungary is a fine stand-in for Romania with choice filming locations, the production design and art direction are commendable. The costume design is maybe a little curious, but excellent on the face of it, as well as hair and makeup work. Even though I disagree with some of the choices made, or think they don't come off entirely well, at large 'Daughter of darkness' is well made from a technical standpoint.

This isn't outright bad, not by any means. It is, however, defined by those same problems that we see as common to made-for-TV movies. Plain-faced, gauche, and rushed, 'Daughter of darkness' sometimes rides a line of testing suspension of disbelief just on account of those faults. Even so, it wants only to tell a tale of supernatural horror, and is solid enough as it does so. More mindful care outside the restrictions of small screen production would have gone a long way to change the end result of what this represents, but it's nevertheless enjoyable in its own right. This 1990 feature may not be especially remarkable, and there's no need to go out of your way for it - but if you happen to come across 'Daughter of darkness,' it's not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Awful or really good

[axel335 · 1/10 · 25 June 2019]

This is extremely bad or extremely good depending in which perspective you have. If you have the perspective of a horror movie it's awful, but if you see it as a comedy, it's brilliant.

This "film" has all you can expect from a really bad movie: Stupid plot, ridiculous acting, bad music and bad photo. Many scenes are so bad that I keep thinking if they were meant to be bad. Were they?

The plot makes no sense: the girl's father is dead. She has not care for him at all when he was living why should she care when he's dead? And it gets really stupid when they go to Romania and of course her father is an undead. Can it be sillier?

Antony Perkins use to be cool but I guess not even him can keep up in this mess. Mia Sara looks good but is totally hopeless. The scenes from Romania (shot in Bulgaria) are descent though but the rest of the movie is plain stupid.

Only for die-hard fans of really bad movies. For the rest of you: watch another movie!

Slightly wooden but very atmospheric

[damocaz · 7/10 · 5 October 2005]

I recently bought this film for my girlfriend who had fond memories of watching it as a teenager. Being a made for TV film it does have some rather low production values, and some of the scripting is a little wooden.

However, there is no denying that it has a certain atmosphere that you don't find in many films. Perhaps it had something to do with the location (the bulk of the film is set within Bucharest in Romania) or perhaps it is the combination of the set and the subject matter.

Whatever the cause, the dreamy, sinister atmosphere of the film does make it worth watching...so long as you don't expect too much from it.

If you like vampire films and haven't watched this yet then I can recommend it, a good film also for anyone wanting to catch a flavour of Eastern Europe and some of Romania's seedy little area's.

Started mediocre (5 stars) with Decent cinematography and music, by halfway the stars were dropping like flies. 1 Star. Garbage!

[Bababooe · 1/10 · 10 October 2017]

As stated it started watchable enough with decent cinematography and music. Some decent dream like effects. Then another. Then another. The dialogue was a joke. Not a funny joke. A joke of a film. The beginning music and camera work was about a 5, then the nonsense dialogue, the comic taxi driver, the joke of a consulate worker character, 4 stars, more nonsense dialogue, 3 stars, then I gave up, this is a 1 star film. To watch this movie just to get a glimpse of some decent film making is too much work.

The packing is slow. The dialogue is boring and long. Everything is spelled out. Perkins' accent is the biggest joke. At one point our heroin and her taxi driver pass a police officer while they are carrying gas cans! Nice job. Maybe they should have made this a full on comedy. The makeup on Perkins face was a mess.

There were at least 2 scenes of tourist buses with tourists touring. Maybe this could have been promoted as a tourist film.

The acting was OK at best, more mediocre. As mentioned the dialogue was a horror, not in a good way.

The only way I can recommend this is if your getting drunk and laughing at the movie.

1 star, for effort.

I would LOVE to watch this movie again!

[Cinema_Lover · 10/10 · 3 January 2005]

I remember Daughter of Darkness from 1990, I was 14 at the time (hard to believe that part of the 90s is 15 years ago!) and I found to be a very compelling film. This was a great little flick by made for TV standards, and they had a unique take on vampire lore. From what I remember, the vampire's tongue had some sort of fangs or pricks on it. I remember this film being VERY sexy too. It turned me on at age 14 back then. I would probably think it's stupid today, but I would still love to watch this again. I wish I could say more about this movie, but I just don't remember enough. It aired on CBS from what I remember. What I was doing watching CBS at age 14 back in 1990 I can't tell you. In 1990 CBS was still the 45+ year old peoples channel.

Daughter of Darkness

[ryan-10075 · 6/10 · 31 May 2018]

I remember when I first came across this TV movie I thought Anthony Perkins is in it, so it might be good, but beyond him there may not be anything redeeming. Just on the fact that I had never heard of it. Then I saw Stuart Gordon was the director and have really enjoyed RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND so I was kind of excited. It is worth a look, but do remember this is a TV movie, so it will not be as gory as the two movies mentioned before.

After the mother of Katherine Thatcher (well played by Mia Sara) dies Katherine is then on a quest to find her father. She is shown mysterious dreams and is being followed. She unearths information about her father and learns he is a vampire. Her father is Anthony Perkins and he does quite a fine job in the role. A thing that is different about the vampires in this movie and I admit I am not 100% sure why they did this is they do not have fangs, their tongues have fangs. Kind of weird, but it doesn't seem to really take away from the movie.

It is the acting of the two main characters Mia Sara and Anthony Perkins that do bring this movie up. As well as the more than capable direction from Stuart Gordon. Worth a look if you can find it.

Could have been a winner

[peter_okelly · 5/10 · 29 March 2007]

I like Stuart Gordon and never knew about this little TV movie. I was really getting into this movie when watching it on The Horror Channel last week in a popcorn kind of a way. Had a good yarn type of vibe to it, Perkins was hilarious. But the ending... How remarkably stupid and disappointing. If she had pursued her father's footsteps and joined the darkside this would have been a good film and that's not cliché to suggest so, it could have then become a pilot for what I believe could have been a neat little TV series, taking her new-found vampire skills and lusts back to the States with her. Winding up with that four-eyed schmuck from the Embassy? What a pair of losers...I hope they rot in Heaven!

Really good for a TV movie. You come to care about the characters.

[Sara S. · 25 October 1998]

It's been many years since I've seen this movie. I would love to watch it again. It's good for anyone who likes the Vampire lore. The acting is pretty good, and Mia Sara and Anthony Perkins are great! This movie shows another side to vampires.

We can change

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 8 October 2017]

After the recent passing of her mother, Katherine (Mia Sara) decides to travel to Romania to find the father she never knew. Guided by dreams she is lead to Anthony Perkins with a Dracula accent. 35 minutes into the film, the "V" word is used and things are not hard to figure out from the plot spoiler title. Katherine plays "Mrs. Columbo" to locate her father who may or may not be dead.

IMDb lists it as a TV movie which accounts for the lame sound track and mediocre plot.

This movie about Romania is part of a multi-pack called "15 American Horror." Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Brief sex and nudity.

Interesting Start, No Plot

[aesgaard41 · 3/10 · 21 December 2023]

First time I saw this flick, it aired on TV (without the naked scenes), and in recent history, I was lucky enough to find it on a DVD set of horror movies, so I could watch it again. Actress Mia Sarah (Legend) plays a woman who loses her mother and travels to Romania in search of her lost father. Along the way, she has terrifying dreams of a faceless man and while led by images in dreams, she meets Anthony Perkins (Psycho), who tells her father is dead, having been killed during the political turnover in Romania. There's some great political intrigue, but the plot instead descends into a vampire lore (not so much, they're actually vampire knock-offs). The vampires in this movie do not follow the traditional vampire lore and instead drink blood through a tiny mouth in their tongue. (I kid you not.) To make this plot even more insulting to the memory of Bram Stoker, the vampire wanna-bees want to use Mia to allow them to live during the day. By this point, what little appeal the movie had is gone. The last half of the movie just plods along, slowly, No shocks, no thrills. It's not scary. It's barely a vampire movie. Worse part, it ends anticlimactically. The only appealing part is the fact the film was filmed in Hungary so there's a lot of great scenery to appreciate, but beyond that,it's just not that great a movie.

A Solid "One-Watch" for Midweek

[theredhairedcrow · 6/10 · 3 February 2022]

A common storyline: young adult searches for their father in the "Old Country", who is elusive and given to certain noctural habits. Pacing for this made for TV "light" horror film wasn't terrible. Often there was something passably interesting and relevant happening, even if the individual acting skills by support cast were often stilted...honestly, that wasn't unexpected of this US/Hungary production. Creature make-up and effects was light, it was for TV after all, and maybe 6 star is a bit of a stretch but I thought Mia Sara and Anthony Perkins were good enough, though Mia often gives her known wrinkled brow agonized terror look. It's a solid one-watch, and I'm glad I found it for a mid-week time-passer.

Passable, but still could use work

[slayrrr666 · 8/10 · 8 July 2008]

"Daughter of Darkness" is an actually pretty good film with a few small flaws to it.

**SPOILERS**

Arriving in Romania, American Katherine Thatcher, (Mia Sara) determined to find herself a new life. While searching through the city with Max, (Dezso Garas) keeps seeing a strange dragon symbol that resembles a design on her medallion she wears which helps her along with the search for her missing father. Meeting with local Grigore Protoescu, (Robert Reynolds) who helps her along, and she manages to do a little more digging into the past, eventually coming across Anton, (Anthony Perkins) who has a terrible secret for her. Eventually cornered with the realization that her father is a member of a secret society of vampires that needs their blood to stay alive, and that everyone else she trusts is either a member or are a willful helper, she tries to escape from their clutches before she becomes one of them.

The Good News: There's some good stuff to this one. One of the best is that there's a habit of including really neat scenes in random order throughout the film. Some of them are pretty creepy, including a rather intense chase of a black-robed figure through the streets at night, which leads into the incredibly explosive finale that really ends it the right way. The foot chase to the taxi later on is also pretty good, and it even manages to get in some pretty good stuff later on. There's the whole finale to this, which is where most of the fun in the film comes from. From the creepy torture dungeon to the stable hideout, there's some good locations for the all-out action assaults. Those are great, as there's the torture segment in the dungeon which is actually really cool, as the sight of the vampire being strapped to a machine that lets in daylight to scar and torch the hands, arms and face, and the impressive visual of that happening, is a great site and manages to make them feel a lot more threatening when it occurs. Then there's the confrontation in the stable, which is just great. From the introduction of the fire to set everything ablaze to the brawling with the vampires and the destruction of the location and the thrilling escape, it's really fun and enjoyable. It's also got the fact that the vampires are all knocked off by being set on-fire is really great, as there's plenty of great scenes that show them running around on fire. It's a great site, and mixed in with the really great setting and fun action make the ending fun. What makes these work is the really entertaining storyline for this one. There's a really great mystery angle at work, with the reason for the journey to Romania a logical one that allows for some creepy goings-on that it manages to incorporate because of what's going on, and they're all done really nicely in here because the story allows them to. These here are the film's good points.

The Bad News: This one here had a few flaws to it that do hold it down. The main one here does have one of the worst problems with it's vampires in here. This one here does have the new bloodsucking angle, but beyond that and the can't-stand-sunlight angle, there's almost no need for them to even be vampires. This one would've worked fine with a cult of vampire wannabe's who think they're vampires or had something else done with what's been given so far, because this one really doesn't feel like a vampire film at all. This would still be entertaining with the cult angle rather than the vampire coven, and a little more with this would've been fine. The other flaw to this is that there should've been a little more action to this in the beginning. Since it focuses on the mystery more than anything else during that part, it manages to be a little boring for these scenes, as it's in the beginning and it takes a while to get into. These here are the film's few problems.

The Final Verdict: With some very good points to this and only a few really noticeable flaws that hold it down, this one ends up as being one of the better entries available. Give this one a chance if it sounds interesting or find these kinds of films themselves quite fun, otherwise the flaws here will be quite worthwhile.

Rated R: Violence, Language and Nudity

Bloodline...

[azathothpwiggins · 29 July 2021]

Katherine Thatcher (Mia Sara) travels to Romania in search of her father. During her quest, Katherine is haunted by nightmares of a hooded, faceless man. Adding to her problems is the fact that she has arrived in Romania during the reign of Ceausescu, meaning that the country is a police state.

Katherine meets Anton (Anthony Perkins), who appears to have known her father. Running afoul of the government, Katherine attracts the attention of the secret police. At every turn, she finds her search thwarted by forces both earthly and otherwise.

Director Stuart Gordon has created a devilish supernatural thriller, complete with vampirism and other ghoulish goings-on. Ms. Sara is convincing in her harried role, and Perkins is as oddly twitchy as ever.

Though it suffers from a few dead spots and a bit of meandering, there's enough chilly atmosphere to make up for it...

Great For A TV Movie

[ladymidath · 10/10 · 8 March 2022]

I bought this on a DVD along with Blind Terror. I am a fan of Anthony Perkins, who couldn't love his acting after seeing Psycho and Foolkiller? The story is engaging enough and the acting is competent. It's a nice little mystery wrapped up in a vampire flick. The movie was filmed in Hungary, in Budapest and it makes the most of the gorgeous scenery. Mia. Sara is likable enough as. Katherine and Dezsö Garas plays the fun character Max.

This is a solid vampire movie that is light on the gore and horror, but still interesting enough to hold your attention.