Following a bizarre crime-wave, a police inspector working the case of missing girls stumbles onto a plot by an Asian vampire and his followers to get his hands on a secret formula pursued by another criminal leader and sets out to stop them before it's completed.
This here was quite the fun and cheesy effort. This here gets right down to business with the fact that there's a good start here giving away the strong opening in the caves where the ceremony takes place as well as the vampires' encounter at his followers house which is a great cheese-filled sequence by itself that is all the more fun for being the opening of the film. As well, other fun cheesy scenes featuring the henchmen's attack on the professor in his bedroom, the later vampire-bat sequence in their hideout which is truly one of the most hilariously cheesy and goofy scenes in the genre and the scenes of the zombified slaves resting in their garish.Gothic tombs underground full of the bright light illuminating the space in brighter colors than what should be expected in such a situation. Even with this cheese, there's some rather fine moments that really undermine the cheesiness aspect of this one which occur at a few places here, from the somewhat chilling attack at the house where the guard finds the source of a disturbance while out on patrol to be one of the zombie henchwomen and begins retreating as she backs him up to the opposite side of the yard in a really well-done sequence that's quite suspenseful than expected, while the two big action scenes here in the second half come off rather nicely here with the first ambush in their cave hide-out makes for a rather enjoyable series of action set-pieces spread throughout the base before the villains make their getaway leading into the big finale in the high-rise building that's quite fun and enjoyable ending this with a nice bang. Coupled with a stellar pace that never really lets the film drag on despite the several subplots running along at the same time it's quite a fun and wholly enjoyable time here with these providing enough to like against the few flaws on display. The film's biggest issue here is the fact that there's never any real solid information given about why these particular groups are after each other, for there's a big rivalry between these two that's brought up out of the blue as they begin fighting over the invention no real reason. This really could've made mention of a past duel between them that's carried over here over the specific formula, but there's nothing given here which really causes this to feel very shortsighted and quite rushed. As well, the fact this one seems to go to great lengths at incorporating the police's investigation into the two in the second half by showcasing their efforts to recapture the stolen formula but they still seem like such afterthoughts at that point it's hard to wonder why they were even included at that stage as they visually don't do anything to warrant them being present. Otherwise it's still quite a fun and enjoyable effort.
Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence.
