★ 3 / 10
No budget vampire flick with nothing new... and only half of the old stuff
dannorder
My biggest problem with this film is that it barely goes anywhere. If you think of a hypothetical list of ten things that any private eye or vampire hunter…
My biggest problem with this film is that it barely goes anywhere. If you think of a hypothetical list of ten things that any private eye or vampire hunter movie should do to be minimally successful, this does about five of them and gives up. First up, the main character, Klein Wong as Sammy Slick... yeah. The movie is named after him, so he should be interesting, but he's just not. It's not entirely the actor's fault, because he's written to be boring. You'd think the character should be a mysterious private dick, or a witty paranormal Fangbuster type, or a bad ass hunter, or even an intellectual who masterminds how to stop the supernatural threat. He's none of those things, not by a long shot. He also not once, not twice, but three times (or more, who can fault me if I gave up counting) fails to be capable of killing the vampires they meet and has to be saved by a tiny woman. Ariella Aegen as Ashley (or Ash, when she's kicking it) starts out as a secretary who's been working there for, what, months, and then just casually mentions that she used to do a bit of vampire hunting... and then proceeds to do nearly everything of any substance for the rest of the movie. Obviously, without a doubt, this character should have been the star of the movie (which means it would lose that cloying title). And if it would have just focused on her and removed the annoying trait that she has a schoolgirl crush on Sammy Slick that involves prancing around in her pajamas or lingerie most of the time (WHY?!!!) this movie would have easily been five times better. She's still kind of two-dimensional, don't get me wrong, but it's because she's in the role of the wish-fulfillment love interest side character instead of he main star. Other issues: All the sets look beyond cheap. Sammy's office is just a closet. He spends most of the time at home, where his bed is positioned in front of a door so the camera can see it through the doorway. The strip club that is supposed to be vampire HQ is just somebody's living room with the furniture removed and the dancers standing on a carpet in front of men (and a surprising number of women) not more than a few feet away. There's no attempt at a stage, a pole, a DJ or a bar area. Another major problem: Even for being short, too much of the running time is the main character just talking to the camera about everything that everyone already knows. He tells us vampires need to be invited in... One of them was, but all the rest just ignore that bit. He cautions that vampires can walk in the daylight... Yeah, Dracula did too, and we can see the movie, duh. He even smugly tries to lecture us that crosses don't work... Except the only time they are tried, it actually does work. Plus there's this whole long monologue explaining in detail how his wife was killed by vampires and that now he hates vampires (ya think?) and hunts them. Just, no, that's so bad. The writer clearly never heard of "Show, don't tell." And, to be honest, even as telling that kind of horribly handled. Another example of poor writing is that the whole running time I was guessing all the plot twists that could happen, but there isn't one. Every predictable thing you already knew was going to happen not 30 seconds into the movie happened. Well, no, I take that back. Only half of them happened. It's like I'm still waiting for the real movie to start.
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★ 8 / 10
A really fun and rather likable indie effort
kannibalcorpsegrinder
Taking on a new case, a private eye specializing in cases of vampiric activity gets wind of a suspicious set of disappearances lurking around a strip club in…
Taking on a new case, a private eye specializing in cases of vampiric activity gets wind of a suspicious set of disappearances lurking around a strip club in the area that's just taken on a new owner, and when he finds his target enlists his aide to help him in defeating the creatures.
Overall, this was a rather fun indie effort. Among the more likable elements here is the film's fun tone and atmosphere which comes about quite well throughout. The initial setup that gives us a hint of who he is, his skills and somewhat incompetence that allows him to save the day despite getting into trouble on occasion, serves well to establish him as the well-meaning-but-not-infallible conquering hero who does get outsmarted at times but still manages to use his skills to get the upper hand. This goes alongside the fine rapport he and his assistant have that makes for a solid and engaging relationship offering enough light-hearted banter and teasing to know they're not romantically linked but it's not aggressive or egregious to the point of being unlikable and not worth following. This all gets wrapped up in the solid setup that allows for them to build a relationship together based on this setup that also provides a nice bit of investigative work to uncover the truth about the strip club while also allowing for a solid series of action scenes throughout. These encounters are quite enjoyable, offering enough confrontations where the encroaching horde trying to get to him brings about some fine low-budget martial arts sequences with the creatures and the hunter either in the alleyways of the city, in his apartment, or trying to contain the creatures while infiltrating their base. This is all fun enough to keep this one going as he can demonstrate his skillset in hand-to-hand combat while her ability to save the day against his wishes with better weaponry or smarts helps to bring an extra layer to their relationship. This is all low-budget and can't hide it, from the production values, on-location shooting, and special effects work that help to hammer this point home, especially with the brief running time and lack of big action also bringing this about. The piece-to-camera conversations describing character relationships or world-building here don't help much, either, but it's not enough to lower this one overall.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Full Nudity, and Violence.
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★ 1 / 10
Unwatchable
harshaddd-26273
This thing seem to be shot by a group of teenager during a free weekend. They probably used a phone' s camera. The acting is average. The plot ridiculous and…
This thing seem
to be shot by a group of teenager during a free weekend.
They probably used a phone' s camera.
The acting is average.
The plot ridiculous and God, the special effect straight out of a commodore 64 (for the one of u who doesn't know what that is, it's an old video game console,very old.)
Save your time. But if you don't believe me you will realize how bad it is at minute 1.45.
They want me to add more words to publish this review but really,I don't know what else I can add.
Oh there are lot of boobs on display. Because most of the movie is shot into a leaving room that they have adapted to a strip club.
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80%
AUDIENCE
2.8/10
171
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Talking about low budget!