snakepaws
This film is actually surprisingly good considering the ratings and some of the reviews. The setting and atmosphere, while nice in itself, lends to the film not feeling dated. The story is competent, if not somewhat predictable. The only real complaint would be Bokeem Woodbine's performance in this; it feels off and even forced at times (overacting) - which wouldn't honestly be much of a problem if he wasn't such a main and central character. Adrian Paul, however, is fantastic. This isn't a rip-off film by any means (no more than any other film, anyway), and is definitely an underrated vampire flick that I'd have no problem recommending to people looking for something more than what's on every "must see" vampire movie list. It's no masterpiece, but it's good for what it is.
Uriah43
Set in a future police state environment, vampires have decided to reveal themselves to the government. The government, however, has decided to keep this information top secret and not to release it to the public. Bokeem Woodbine plays a police detective named "Steve Grant" who is unaware of vampires until his partner is killed by one of them. Since Bokeem has witnessed a vampire in action, the top secret agency decides to reveal this information to him so that he can catch the killer. One of the vampires entrusted by his community to keep the peace named "Aaron Gray" (Adrian Paul), volunteers to work with Steve to help him catch the killer. Being few in number and quite peaceful, the vampire community doesn't want a rogue vampire to ruin their reputation and invite panic among the humans which might cause the humans to seek retribution. Since one of the vampires is causing all of the problems, Adrian takes Steve to one of their hidden villages to gather clues and compare notes. Since this is where the film gets interesting and not wanting to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, I won't divulge the rest of the story. I will say though that this was an intriguing movie which deviates from the usual vampire storyline. It has a good plot and some interesting twists along the way. On the other hand, the acting was barely satisfactory. While both Adrian Paul and Bai Ling (as the vampire "Lucy Westenra") performed adequately, I cannot say the same for Bokeem Woodbine as he seemed terribly miscast in this film. In fact, his performance was so bad that he almost ruined this film entirely. Fortunately, the plot and the two actors mentioned previously helped negate the damage somewhat. Even so, what should have been a very good movie in spite of the low budget ends up like so many films with few financial resources available. Slightly below average.
Angel-Ireul
It's a great movie. Bai Ling and Adrian Paul deserve huge amounts of credit for maintaining their roles and carrying the miasma of authoritarian Gothic goodness while that idiot Bokeem Woodbine savages every line he has, fails to even swear in an appropriate or at least believable manner and basically attempts to single-handedly ruin the movie. His performance is atrocious.That said, the movie is quite good. It has a cold war/Eastern Bloc/orwellian vibe with hints of art deco and the 40s thrown in as well. the plot is interesting and fairly innovative.Anyone who is a fan of films like blade runner, citizen X, etc would do well to check this out as well as any mainstream horror fans. Don't let Bokeem get in the way its definitely worth a view. For an extra treat rent or buy the DVD and check out the audio commentaries.
thatpalechick
This was one of the greatest cheaply made vampire movies I've ever seen! And there are A LOT of cheaply made vampire movies. It was great to see Adrian Paul again, too. I miss Highlander... Bai-Ling gets to show a little skin, something she would NEVER do in real life. Yeah, right. Bokeem Whassisface plays a good cop, and one look at the special effects shows you were the rest of the budget went. Paul is a wonderfully believable vampire, and the way the vampires are portrayed in this movie is original and thought-provoking: new species of human trying to live peacefully in a world that fears them. Anyone else thinking X-men? Undoubtedly, this movie is a great bargain buy.
AD
