Review: Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat

Is it possible for a film with the incomparable Bruce Campbell and David Carradine to be truly bad? Yes, it certainly is and Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat is proof positive, well proof negative is more like it.

Its bad. Really really bad.

The plot, what there is of one, revolves around vampires who are trying to live without hunting humans in a small desert town called Purgatory. A family moves to town so that the father can put the finishing touches on synthetic blood. Some type of vampire preacher guy also comes to town and starts rounding up the local hoods (punks and goths mainly) to become vampires and destroy the "domesticated" vamps.

To call it campy is as vast an understatement one can make. The thing is movies generally described as campy are on some level enjoyable. Sundown is barely watchable. I mean it wasn't as if I was expecting it to be great or even good. I just wasn't expecting it to be this bad. It's not even bad enough to watch and make fun of. It's simply mediocre in every sense possible.

The acting is atrocious. The story is infantile. The directing is all over the place. It seems at times that the director was shooting some kind of sweeping epic with bright colors and romantic staging. Other times it seems like no one knew what year the movie was supposed to be set in. I'm still not sure if this was some kind of school project or something.

It's not funny, it's certainly not scary, and I've seen better effects in episodes of I Love Lucy. I won't mention the new vampires using wood-tipped bullets and riding around on horses like a wild west gang. Woops, I just did.

In truth, not even the epicness of Bruce Campbell (who seemed to be here for a check and the scenery) could save Sundown.

If you want to go back and watch a good fun monster movie than you should just pick up the best of them all: The Monster Squad.

Don't waste your time with Sundown. Although, if you want to see it for yourself (I can't imagine why) it is on DVD now.