"A teenaged dropout from junior high school? A girl, no, a woman who could turn
on me at any given moment? A man of the cloth who's maybe hunted once in his life?
Shit... And me, a dumb son-of-a-bitch who'd rather be surfing!" - Derek Bliss
John Carpenter Presents
Vampires: Los Muertos
Year of Release - 2002
DVD Release - Colombia Tristar - 2003
Region 4 - PAL - MA15+
Running Time - 89:44
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Starring: Jon Bon Jovi, Cristián de la Fuente, Arly Jover, Darius McCrary, Diego Luna and Natasha Wagner
Music: Brian Tyler
This low budget sequel-of-sorts to 1998's John Carpenter's Vampires was written and directed by John Carpenter's good friend, Tommy Lee Wallace. Wallace was an Art Director, Production Designer and Editor on Carpenter films such as Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and The Fog. He also wrote and directed Halloween III: Season of the Witch and Fright Night II.
SYNOPSIS
Derek Bliss (Bon Jovi) is a Vampire hunter. He's not the best, but he gets the job done. He is in Mexico, finishing up a small job when he is offered a very lucrative job from an anonymous source. He is given a list of names of other Hunters he must recruit for his team. He first goes to a Mission to find and recruit Father Adam Guiteau. The head priest tells Bliss that Guitau died a month previously. Bliss moves on and tries to recruit the other people on the list, but discovers them all to be dead.
On his return to the Mission, Bliss recruits (sometimes reluctantly) some unlikely hunters. Sancho (Luna), a 16-year old boy who got permission from his mother to hunt vampires and Zoey (Wagner), a young woman who has been bitten by a Vampire and has been managing her "condition" with experimental drugs. They get back to the Mission and find out that everyone has been slaughtered by vampires. Only Father Rodrigo (de la Fuente) has survived. He joins Bliss' team. And finally, Bliss hires Ray Collins (McCrary), an experienced Vampire Hunter from New Orleans.
The Master Vampire (Jover) is a beautiful but deadly female vampire and is after the Black Cross from the first Vampires film. What Derek Bliss doesn't know is that She is never far away from him and his team. She lead the attack that butchered the Mission and she's also after the experimental drugs that Zoey has been taking.
Will Derek and his team figure out what the hell is going on and even if they do, can they stop it? Or will they be "Bliss-fully" unaware of the machinations and succumb to the charms of the Master Vampire?
VIDEO
Presented in 2.35:1 (and 16:9 enhanced) the transfer is practically flawless. With good cinematography and very good special effects, it certainly doesn't look like a "cheap", "B-Grade", direct-to-video movie.
AUDIO
There are 5 audio tracks. The English, Italian, French and Russian tracks are in Dolby Digital 5.1, while the fifth track is the Audio Commentary (in Dolby Surround 2.0).
Brian Tyler's music is composed to have a similar sound to John Carpenter's music for Vampires and is very good.
EXTRAS
Audio Commentary - Tommy Lee Wallace (Director)
Wallace provides and insightful commentary. It isn't the most exciting, but he does have some interesting things to say. It's a pity that they didn't (or couldn't) have Jon Bon Jovi with him to liven things up, because after a while it does get a little boring.
Trailer - 02:02
This trailer is in 2.35:1 and is of superb audio and video quality.
Trailer - Bram Stoker's Dracula - 02:32
This trailer is in 1.33:1 and suffers from a touch of grain and artefacts.
OVERALL
I'm not going to pretend that Vampires: Los Muertos is a brilliant film, because it isn't. But it isn't as bad a film as others would have you believe.
Wallace is a more than competent Director and does a great job in this film. It has been said that John Carpenter can make $1 million look like $10 million and Wallace has learnt well, because this movie looks great. He directs a "no-name" cast and with the exception of Bon Jovi, they are fantastic. That's not to say that Bon Jovi was terrible, but his inexperience as an actor does show up in some scenes, of which Wallace admits to in his Commentary.
In most vampire movies, the female vampire is nothing more than a lackey and it's good to finally see the main protagonist a female vampire. Arly Jover is sexy as hell and her character can seduce people with ease, but is as quick and as deadly as a snake. The scene where she tears apart the people in the Diner is fantastic.
This DVD is really good. There's not a great deal of extras, but the picture is clean, the sound is in 5.1 and is supurb and there is an Audio Commentary. To my knowledge, this Region 4 DVD is identical to the Region 1 DVD, with the only difference being the PAL and NTSC tranfers.
If you like vampire flicks and enjoyed John Carpenter's Vampires you will get a good one-and-a-half hours of entertainment in Vampires: Los Muertos.
The Film: 
The Disk:
"Dark Lord" Paul Lenkic
"Accept the Lord of Darkness as your saviour!" - The Undertaker
© 2002