How This 1998 Vampire Flick Convinced John Carpenter to Keep Making Movies

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If you’re a skilled actor, are you more interested in earning Academy Awards or experiencing the enjoyment that James Woods and the talented cast seemed to have while filming John Carpenter‘s “Vampires”? This classic director’s entertaining supernatural horror flick, filled with gory charm, initially captivated audiences in 1998 and continues to be a beloved scream today. You can catch it on SYFY or through the SYFY app.

John Carpenter’s films, starting from his indie beginnings in the 1970s and continuing throughout his career, have consistently carried a distinctive feel that is unmistakably John Carpenter. However, it was an unexpected turn of events that led to the creation of “Vampires” during a time when creative exhaustion following “Escape from L.A.” almost convinced Carpenter to abandon filmmaking entirely. In a late-’90s interview with Dreamwatch magazine, the renowned horror director admitted, “I was seriously considering leaving the industry for a while and I couldn’t decide if I should.” The reason? Because it had stopped being enjoyable.

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Fully grown and fearsome: Even the good guys get rowdy in John Carpenter’s Vampires

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Subsequently, a proposal for an action-horror movie emerged, drawing inspiration from John Steakley’s 1990 novel “Vampire$“. Carpenter took valuable aspects from two contrasting screenplay drafts (including an idea left on the shelf featuring vampires in a sci-fi setting), and picked his favorite parts from each to use. As he put it to “Dreamwatch“, “I decided it would be set in the American Southwest, with a Western vibe inspired by Howard Hawks. I wrote it, merging elements from one script and another, incorporating some of the book, a lot of my own ideas, and that’s how it came together.

Absolutely, it did! As John “Jack” Crow, the vampire hunter, Woods (who had been nominated for an Oscar in 1996 for his role in Ghosts of Mississippi) came prepared to the desert southwest with a team that detested fangs. Arriving in rugged SUVs and heavily armed with an impressive arsenal designed to annihilate vampires, they approached their mission with a fierce, mature, and dominantly aggressive attitude towards sending the undead to eternal rest – displaying a refreshingly irreverent bias.

Accompanied by Deputy Tony Montoya (portrayed by Daniel Baldwin from “Homicide: Life on the Street”) and a hostage with bite wounds named Katrina (Sheryl Lee, famed from “Twin Peaks”), Woods and his team navigated past a line of strategically placed Vatican-linked landmines to confront the movie’s main antagonist, master vampire Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith from “Cobra Kai”). Director Carpenter opted for an unadorned approach in depicting vampire malevolence; Valek exudes a campy, R-rated blend of Trent Reznor, Severus Snape, Brandon Lee from “The Crow”… and perhaps a hint of Tom Hiddleston in that remarkable Jim Jarmusch vampire film.

In the realm of Carpenter’s action films, such as Halloween, They Live, and Escape, there’s a consistent, non-ironic tone that sets them apart. The music (composed by Carpenter) is typically robust, and the protagonists are undeniably tough-as-nails. Woods perfectly embodies this rugged persona in Vampires, biting a cigar, carrying a gun at his waist, sporting cool sunglasses, and, of course, exuding an imposing air in his worn-out black leather jacket. The atmosphere in Vampires is not limited to the leading character; instead, it permeates throughout the entire film, with everyone – whether good or evil – exuding a distinctly adult, 1980s-inspired swagger.

Soaring above the raw, macho atmosphere drenched in liquor and seedy vibes, the film Vampires offers a thrilling ride. It’s also gruesome – filled with unsettling body horror reminiscent of Grand Guignol (as any good John Carpenter horror movie should be). Although the vampires in this film aren’t particularly terrifying, they are formidable adversaries, making them fitting villains to characters like Crow, Montoya, and even the rigidly moral Father Adam “Padre” Guiteau, portrayed by actor Tim Guinee from Stargate SG-1.

Is there a hidden social critique lurking within this movie? You can search for it if you wish, but unlike many of Carpenter’s films, it’s not crucial to fully appreciate Vampires as the exhilarating action-horror rollercoaster ride that it provides. While there may be messages hidden beneath the surface in his movies, Carpenter’s films are almost always entertaining – and Vampires is no exception to this rule. The film’s tone is immediately apparent from the very first scene: people didn’t come here for a good time, they came prepared to engage in a deadly dance – a battle for the right to walk in daylight… and only one side can ultimately prevail.

It’s fortunate that the Vampires films didn’t mark the end of John Carpenter’s career, but instead served as a stepping stone. Following the release of two more films after Vampires (Ghosts of Mars in 2001 and The Ward in 2010), he has continued to compose music for movies, such as custom scores for David Gordon Green’s updated Halloween horror trilogy and the upcoming 2025 horror-comedy Death of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. Carpenter also recently returned to horror direction as an executive producer for the 2023 streaming project John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams, where he created the overall theme and directed his own episode (“Phone Stalker”).

If you’re drawn to New Mexico’s unique blend of windswept desert landscapes and ghostly cinematographic allure, then the movie “Vampires” is a must-watch for you. John Carpenter skillfully incorporated an abundance of New Mexican southwest scenery within the film’s short runtime, featuring expansive views of chaparral, well-composed on-location shots (such as the old-world setting of small-town Las Vegas), and numerous close-ups of interior spaces that echo the region’s early Spanish Mission era. Compared to most of Carpenter’s films, “Vampires” radiates a sense of desolation and historically haunting ambiance… which is quite remarkable when you reflect upon it.

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2025-02-27 22:02