The Last Sect (2006) User Reviews

Boring Vampire Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 8 June 2008]

The journalist Sydney St. James (Natalie Brown) is writing an article for the magazine where she works about the on-line dating agency Artemis that is specialized in women. She schedules an interview with the owner of Artemis, Anna (Deborah Odell), and she visits the mysterious woman with her photographer Sam (Sebastien Roberts), who is fascinated by a site called Vampire Web. Sidney feels a great attraction for Anna, who is actually an ancient vampire called Anastasia. Meanwhile the vampire hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (David Carradine) is advised by his assistant Tone (Jordan Van Dyck) about the correlation between Artemis and the Vampire Web, and Van Helsing explains that in every turn of millennium, the vampire sect needs to regenerate, using a woman for this purpose. Van Helsing calls his partner Karpov (Julian Richings) and together they go to Artemis to fight against Anastasia and her sect.

I bought this DVD first because I love vampire movies; then the art of the cover of the DVD is extremely attractive; and last but not the least, the name of David Carradine in the credits is a plus. Yesterday night, my wife and I tried to watch this movie but we took many naps so boring it was, and in the end of about 45 minutes running time, we decided to stop "The Last Sect" and watch another one. Today in the end of the afternoon, I have decided to watch this movie again from the very beginning (my wife simply gave up), and I could prove that it is one of the worst vampire movies I have ever seen. The story has a terrible screenplay that develops the plot in a very low pace in three or four locations without the atmosphere of a vampire movie. David Carradine seems to be bored with his lines and the weird Jordan Van Dyck, whose character seems to be a gay living with Dr. Van Helsing but never his assistant. The story has no horror, no tension, no suspense, only some lesbian daydreams and Internet footages with the classic vampires. The lead actresses (Natalie Brown and Deborah Odell) are sexy and gorgeous, but even their sex scenes are boring. In the end, "The Last Sect" is recommended for insomniacs and more effective than sleeping pills. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Última Seita" ("The Last Sect")

Lesbian vampire flick without nudity? What the hell!

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 3/10 · 22 May 2007]

Sydney gets intrigued by a new online dating service and since she hasn't dated anyone for several years,she decides to sign up.Unbeknownst for her the dating service is run by a pack of female lesbian vampires."The Last Sect" bored me senseless.It is simply mind-numbingly dull.The plot is incredibly tedious and worst of all there is absolutely no nudity.As a fan of early 70's lesbian vampire flicks like "Vampyres","Twins of Evil" or "Vampyros Lesbos" I found the lack of nudity incredibly disappointing.Admittedly the film is well-made and the women are quite gorgeous to look at,however "The Last Sect" offers zero scares or gore and is simply worthless.Avoid it.3 out of 10.

Slow,dead slow semi-erotic vampire movie

[iipigbear · 2/10 · 4 October 2006]

This movie is one of the slowest movies I have ever seen. The plot ( that ain't that good ) unfolds in a very slow tempo. Also the director decided to include countless semi-erotic dream sequences that slows down the plot even more. This is a vampire movie, and the best part of The Last Sect is that the vampire "feeling" is there at least the sensual part of it. Vampires are sexy,blood drinking and apparently lesbian dangers that trick young men into being eaten. It feels a bit like if the manuscript was 4 pages long and written for a 30min TV-episode, but then along the way someone decided to make a full length movie out of it. If this was a 30 min Buffy the vampire slayer episode I might have enjoyed it, but now, it's just sad.

Bad, bad, bad

Terrible, nothing else needs to be said.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 8 June 2008]

The Last Sect starts as journalist Sydney St. James (Natalie Brown) & her photographer Sam Francis (Sebastien Roberts) visit the headquarters of an on-line dating agency called Artemis, they meet the mysterious female owner named Anna (Deborah Odell) who is in fact an ancient Vampire who uses the website to lure victims to her & her female Vampire sect. Meanwhile Vampire hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (David Carradine) has learned of the existence & activities of Artemis, he realises that Anna & her Vampire sect need to regenerate & in order to do so they need a willing female host body to store their soul's in & it seems Sydney is their choice. Can Van Helsing destroy the last sect of Vampires on Earth & save Sydney?

This Canadian production was directed by Jonathan Dueck & is truly one of the worst films I have seen this year so far & believe me when I say it's up against some pretty dire competition, The Last Sect is quite simply a film in which I see no redeeming qualities at all apart from the fact that the female lead Natalie Brown is very attractive. The script by David Robbeson is really bad, on paper the idea about female Vampires luring victims to themselves through an on-line dating agency is a little daft but had potential for lots of blood, boobs & action. Unfortunately the script takes itself 110% seriously & ends up being one of the most boring & anaemic Vampire films of recent times, it feels more like a tedious drama than a horror flick about Vampires. If The Last Sect was any slower it would be going backwards! I am not even sure why the makers decided to use traditional Hollywood Vampire film lore like having a Abraham Van Helsing & calling it's monsters Vampires when there isn't any proper Vampire action in it, sure these things have fangs but otherwise there's little to indicate they are Vampires. Most of the film is made up of annoyingly slow dreams & hallucinations as Anna & her Vampires try to convince Sydney to be their host body which has nothing to do with Vampirism at all. There's a really awful ending as well, with Van Helsing & his assistant sitting in their home there's a knock on the door & then that's it it finishes! A knock on the door? Wow, now that's a dramatic & scary ending, right?

Besides hating the slow moving story I also hated the way The Last Sect was filmed, director Dueck films everything with all the colours muted & at times it looks like it's black and white. I hate it, why do director's feel the need to bleach all the colour out of a picture? It's annoying, as a concession to style the only colour that stands out is red & since that this is a film about blood drinking Vampires & blood is obviously red I don't think that's a coincidence. There's a very fake looking decapitated head, a slit throat that doesn't bleed & that's it for gore. There's no horror here either, there's no suspense, no tension, no atmosphere & the story is just so boring.

According to the IMDb The Last Sect had a budget of about $3,000,000 which amazes me, nothing & I mean nothing happens & I just can't see where all the money went. There are no special effects to speak of, no big stars, no action set-pieces & a very small cast & set of locations so where did all that money go? Personally I think it had a much lower budget than that. Apparently filmed in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada during December 2005. The acting is adequate, as already mentioned Natalie Brown helps since she's nice & easy on the eyes. David Carradine phones in his performance.

The Last Sect is a truly dire Vampire film that barely feels like a horror film let alone one about Vampires, easily one of the worst films I have seen this year & believe me I have seen some serious turkey's.

Oh my awful

[Yippee_ki_yay_Mr_Falcon · 1/10 · 30 September 2006]

If you think that a movie with lesbian vampires appeals i agree. However this lesbian vampire movie does not agree with me at all. The plot makes no sense and neither does the acting or action scenes. The best part of this movie is that the casting of the females was awesome you really get the feeling that they are lesbians if not vampires. However the entire Sect is killed except for the lead lady who becomes a vampire in an unexplained twist at the end. David Carradine should be ashamed he attached his name to this piece of .........!!! If you watch this movie after reading this you are either stupid or ignorant and may luck be with you before you expire to save the human race.

This film is watchable but not sure why.

[Hussydog · 4/10 · 12 February 2010]

The plot is a bit shallow in comparasion to some big blockbuster vampire films, but the group of actors involved make the best of the dull characters they are playing. I found the film to be a bit surreal and random with very little lasting impressions but I couldn't actually turn it off so it had something which kept me interested. I wasn't expecting too much from this film even though the thought of lesbian vampires would be enough to keep most males intent on watching for something, but this wasn't it for me. The set-up of the film was a little grey combined with the weak story a lot of people with short attention span will switch off within 30 minutes and I can not give anyone a reason to watch this film to the end other than it kept me glued but not in a good way.

Give it 30 minutes of your time and make your own mind up.

Disappointing Effort

[mooseroo · 3/10 · 5 March 2010]

The Last Sect looked to have potential and features some good acting, but ultimately it doesn't deliver. As others have pointed out, it doesn't have the overt sexuality or gore of a 70's B-Movie, but neither does it achieve the stylistic, indie feel of cult classics like the Hunger. It seems to be trying for a blend of both, but fails to manage either successfully.

It's expected that plot and dialogue are going to be weak in a vampire flick, but this needs to made up for with either exciting action or style. What action there is gets bogged down by excruciatingly slow pacing, and an overload of talking. I believe they were trying to go for indie clever with the dialogue but it just comes across as dull. The visuals and imagery are nice, but not memorable. The mistake they make here is not adding the contrasting element of horrific to the dreamlike, erotic sequences so we end up with a lot of bland pretty.

I give it a 3 for the acting and for potential, but as lenient as I am when it comes to bad vampire movies, I can't give The Last Sect a good grade. The movie ends up stuck in a no man's land, neither intellectual nor gratuitous and instead, much I hate to say it, only manages to be boring.

It coulda been a contender!

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 12 November 2007]

It's not the worst vampire flick, but it could have been so much better.

First, it was slow. I mean really slow. All that yakking in Van Helsing's (David Carradine) house just really didn't add much. They could have cut half of it to add more vampette action.

They had some gorgeous vampettes and two really hot leads - Natalie Brown (Dawn of the Dead) and Deborah Odell. The dream sequences were hot, but they could have been really hot and given us a reason to love this movie.

And, please, Julian Richings (X-Men: The Last Stand , Saw IV, The Red Violin) was so obnoxious that you cheered for the vampires. Nobody kills vampires without breaking a sweat. Make it real folks.

Anybody for a remake?

It was a major, major disappointment.

[DavidBirke · 1/10 · 5 September 2006]

In order to make a completely unsatisfying, one hundred percent boring dud of a movie out of the premise of an innocent girl being lured into a cult of lesbian vampires, you have to willfully, perversely (and not in a good way) put in extra effort to sabotage yourself.

The film actually has surprisingly good production values, cinematography, etc but it just goes to show how sometimes those things can be a detriment. It's like the makers started shooting without a script hoping the lame, cliché MTVesque little flourishes would make the end product resemble a real movie.

I have no problem with bad movies. I have enjoyed many truly terrible movies. The only thing that really infuriates me enough to slam a film maker is when I sense they let a desire to seem tasteful or stylish take precedence over delivering the goods. Or worse were just completely unimaginative and uninspired and hope a veneer of superficial, depressingly Canadian, bland professionalism will cover up the fact that there is no there there. If ya know what I mean.

It's just-- Jesus, it was about lesbian vampires for chrissake's and it's endless banal dialogue about... yikes, forget it. God.

Eleven Minutes

[murphmeister75 · 2/10 · 18 March 2010]

Eleven minutes of this was eleven minutes too much. I wish I had a time machine, so I could go back in time and find the script for this movie. I would lock it in a lead box and throw it in the sea. The really deep part of the sea. Apparently I have to write ten lines for this to count as a review. This already means that I have now wasted fourteen minutes of my life on this excrement. If anyone reading this enjoys quality cheap Canadian horror, look no further than the classic Ginger Snaps - a cracking werewolf movie from the nineties. Now that is how you make a cheap, sexy horror film. The Last Sect? More like The Last Sh*t. No wonder David Carradine decided to kill himself. I feel like heading for the cupboard myself, and I only had to watch part of this muck.

Genuinely enjoyable vamp flick

[Muffin_snarf · 8/10 · 26 August 2008]

I can't understand why people have been so critical of this film. Mostly it seems to be dangerous porn addicts who were longing for a seedy B-movie lesbian vampire romp (and don't get me wrong, who isn't?) or those more dedicated to the gore and fast pace of more aggressive movies along these lines.

For a start, the cast is as competent as any I've ever seen on Zone Horror (Where I've just seen the film) and I daresay more accomplished than those boasted by half the Hollywood "blockbusters" you'll find in cinema's today. David Carradine (of kill bill fame) plays an ageing Van Helsing with all the world-weariness and academia of a vampire hunter past his best still clinging to the golden olden days of vamp-bashing. Julian Richings deserves special mention as well for probably the finest representation of a vampire hunter I've seen; icy cold, refined and single-minded with the skill of an artisan he is far more believable, and slightly creepy and unsettling, than your buffy or angel.

Another mention has to go to the production value of the film, it just looks great. The sets are punching above their weight and the budget is spent so that not only is the cast more than adequate, the setting, camera-work and film quality are also quality. The storyline is what possibly puts some people off the film, and while the script is robust and well-acted, it is a marathon runner of a film rather than a sprinter, the action sequences that do occur are very well organised and executed without top-end million-dollar special effects. If you really enjoy the characters, it's a tremendously involving film.

It can't be escaped that the lesbian theme bubbles along under the surface (all the more fun) but the film has difficulty settling into a genre which demands more of either extreme. The soundtrack courtesy of the Duke Spirit is well suited and there are very few moments where it shows signs of reverting back to Zone Horror type. All in all, when you consider what went into this movie and what they managed to get out of it, it's something I'd much rather go see than the cardboard cutout that is jessica alba or the latest flog of the dead Star Wars horse. To those who'll give it a try, bear in mind it will never be a mind-blower, but as far as enjoyment and entertainment goes (along with some surrealist cutaways and occasional lesbian kissing scenes) it is a film I would definitely recommend! Remember what it is and you will definitely NOT be disappointed!!

vamps on camera

[wrlang · 6/10 · 16 September 2006]

The Last Sect is about a group of female vampires that have been roaming the earth for some time, the last vampire sect in existence. Sydney is an artist that gets drawn into the sect by Anastasia, the head vampire, who sees in Sydney the future of the sect. Carradine plays the vampire hunter Van Helsing who tries to stop the sect before it can indoctrinate Sydney. The vampires have a website that transmits live feeds of the vamps biting a helpless male trussed up on a table. People pay to get extras and give their name, address, and blood type of course. Some lesbian soft porn and some soft bondage. Slow moving most of the way through, but some pretty good surrealistic scenes.

So Very Slow

[michaelanash · 5/10 · 6 November 2021]

Interesting plot, competent writing and acting. One of David Cariradine's better performances in recent years. Julian Richings was also very good. Natalie Brown really stands out.

The main problem was the first 3/4 of the movie had almost no action and was painfully slow.

Unfathomably tedious, and little else

[I_Ailurophile · 2/10 · 10 October 2021]

Sometimes you know what you're getting into - and you know you're going to regret it - but something compels you to proceed nonetheless. So it was with 'The last sect.' It's not just that this is bad - it's not even perfunctorily entertaining.

It's difficult to tell whether director Jonathan Dueck or screenwriter David Robbeson is more responsible for the tawdry pablum on display here. Highly stylized, slightly animated text appears on screen to establish the setting for each scene, and other computer-rendered effects are just as unsightly. Dialogue is at turns annoyingly crass, mundanely banal, simply dull, and or excessive to the point of being superfluous. Scenes in general are mostly either pointlessly ham-fisted and over the top, or direly soporific in their dearth of eventfulness. Characters are presumably supposed to demonstrate poise or emotional conflict with their careful, calculated delivery and body language, but instead what comes across is that that the scenes are so bereft of substance that the cast were instructed to draw out their acting at any given moment so as to give the pretense, and fill time.

Star David Carradine is reduced to a mere shell of what presence or strength of character he has previously demonstrated elsewhere. This version of Van Helsing is an educated, experienced, yet somewhat addle-minded and tiresomely verbose old man who for almost the full movie is given nothing more to do than to speak loquaciously, providing lore and exposition. In fact, the entire first two-thirds of the film are characterized by almost nothing but dialogue, with meager, piecemeal plot progression in that time. Even as we do get small bursts of stimulation in the last interminable length, the feature remains devoted to listless dialogue above all.

To be clear - it's not just Carradine. The whole cast are forced into lacking, sluggish, drowsy performances that make one wonder if everyone took sedatives before the cameras started rolling on any given day. Julian Richings provides a more dynamic display of acting (and action) than Carradine as hunter ally Karpov, but still with the impossible constraints of utmost sloth. Most of the vampires are given nothing to do but look pretty and occasionally bare very plainly artificial fangs. Natalie Brown, as protagonist Sydney, is at least provided a character experiencing a complex range of emotions, and she does the best she can to inhabit that role - but then she's hamstrung as the camera inelegantly cuts elsewhere. Deborah Odell, as sect leader Anna, theoretically should be imposing and impressive - but again, the issue of being coerced into drawing out each scene to inflate the film's sense of drama.

I appreciate the work of those attending to wardrobe and costume design, hair, and makeup, and set decoration. I think the basic concept of the story has potential, and there are bare-bones sketches of a scant few good ideas. But the chemistry between Brown and Odell as scene partners, the import of Sydney's inner conflict, the climax, the slyly winking ending - 'The last sect' is so heavy-handed in the advancement of its lethargic tedium that scenes and interactions are stripped of their potential impact. I genuinely feel bad for everyone in front of the camera.

Incredibly, this isn't the worst movie I've ever seen. But it surely seems to me like the filmmakers were trying to make it so. I had low expectations, and they were squarely met, but I'm still disappointed because there was just enough possibility with this cast that even just a small measure of tweaking to the screenplay, and a bit more careful consideration overall, would have gone a long way toward making the feature worthwhile. As it is, what we get is just a laborious, drab slog. Even if you're a diehard fan of vampires, or someone in the cast, I can't imagine recommending 'The last sect' to anyone at all.

Car a dine(or is it dime?)

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 17 August 2022]

Carradine - no pun intended to his name. I just thought the wordplay was funny. And to a degree I hope you can find the humor in this too. Not that it is a comedy - it is rather a drama (if it qualifies as such) .. but quite low budget and really only for fans of horror movies too. And those who are able to suspend their disbelief and all that.

Carradine may help along with that. There is also some sensuality and the female main characters are also quite beautiful. Just stating the facts - well or my subjective opinion on their looks. Though I tend to believe that most will agree. There is not much to see here though and the movie is quite subpar (no pun intended) ...

Decent enough, if for only a few reasons

[slayrrr666 · 5/10 · 27 November 2007]

"The Last Sect" is a mildly entertaining vampire entry that isn't truly spectacular.

**SPOILERS**

Conducting an interview, reporter Sydney St. James, (Natalie Brown) investigates Anna, (Deborah Odell) the head of Internet dating service Artemis. As the site caters to women, she feels a little uneasy about doing the article. When her friend Sam, (Sebastien Roberts) shows her a secret website showing a sect of vampires torturing victims, she is even more hesitant but decides to check it out. When this starts off a cycle of weird dreams and visions of those in the video, she is drawn in deeper and deeper. Soon, vampire hunter Van Helsing, (David Carradine) discovers that there's a connection between them and rushes to stop it from happening.

The Good News: This one doesn't have a whole lot right to it. The fact that this one does have a rather unique and novel idea for the plot is one of them. This one is rather timely, since there's a recurrence of these types of sites and programs and it makes the film feel rather timely. The addition of the vampires using it gives them a new twist to their credit, and makes them seem all the smarter and more dangerous and deadly. The fact that the film does get a little creepy when it plays the online torture video is something to applaud. The setting, the interaction between the individuals partaking in it and the different angles and camera tricks make this really creepy. The film's biggest plus, though, is the fact that this has a really erotic vibe to it without it being really sleazy. The different seduction scenes in the film are done well, with the later ones being really nice and erotic, yet the fact that this one has almost nudity or sleaze during these are the great facts of the film. Along with this, this does offer up a really nice build-up to the ending, as the seduction and hunting scenes are meshed together to make it seem important as to what happens, which is always nice to see. These here are what make the film work.

The Bad News: This one wasn't all that great and did have a few problems with it. The almost extreme lack of action in the beginning of the film is something to get through, as nothing at all happens during these scenes. From the very beginning, this one isn't really that eventful and never feels like much of anything is going on. The fact that almost everything is dialog doesn't help matters, and makes them seem all the more boring. As it isn't until the hour mark that the connection is made and the vampire stalking begin, that leaves a lot of time to occur in between the action, and when the film is stuck on the endless talking scenes, most of the talking done is based around two viewpoints, the investigation into the cult and the hunting of the cult. These are really hard to get through since they go back and forth without much of anything else happening and anything else doesn't make for anything interesting. The fact that this one really has a terrible habit of quick-cutting during the big action scenes is a big problem. This really neuters the effectiveness of these scenes which is hard to take. The hard-hitting action during the end and the confrontation in the basement should've been action highlights, but they're so hard to see what's going on that they aren't that spectacular at all. The last real problem is that this one decides to have the annoying feat of either flashing back to earlier in the film or calling out on-screen what's going on. The flashbacks are the bigger of the two, since there's a habit of flashing to a scene earlier, sometimes a few minutes back, to illustrate a point that it makes in the scene. There isn't a time when this happens that it doesn't aggravate, and there's a couple times when that happens which aren't even called for. The call-outs are little better, since they state the obvious. It's really hard to believe, and these here are the film's real flaws.

The Final Verdict: This would've been fine if it only fixed a few problems, but as is there isn't a whole lot to this one. Really only for the die-hard vampire enthusiast or those who have a hankering for some low-budget fare, but the more discerning ones would better advised to avoid this one.

Rated R: Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity

Another great Dracula sequel and underrated has usually.it is no 3.9

[jacobjohntaylor1 · 9/10 · 22 September 2016]

This is not a 3.9. This is one of the best horror films of all time. 9 out of 10 is want I give it. It is Dracula sequel. There are a lot of Dracula sequels. And most of then are underrated. Even the few that are not very good are not as bad as they are rated to be. I can think one that are only 3.9. Nosferatu (1979). And that one got really good rating. This movie has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. It is very scary. Dracula (March 1931) is better. But still this a good movie. It is better then Dracula (April 1931). Dracula (1992) is better. Nosferatu (1922) is better. But this is one of the scariest movie you will ever see. It is scarier then The Shinning. And that is not easy to do. It not even that easy to be scarier then Dracula (April 1931). This is a great movie. See it.