Sundown – The Vampire in Retreat — Sundown – The Vampire in Retreat (Blu Ray)

Filmed in 1989, Sundown is a horror comedy directed by Anthony Hickox (Hellraiser III, Waxwork and Prince Valiant) with a decidedly impressive cast list bursting at the seams with talent, featuring David Carradine (Kung Fu, Death Race 200 and Kill Bill vol.2) Morgan Brittany (Gable and Lombard, Gypsy and Dallas), everyone’s favourite horror-comedy star Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead series, Bubba Ho-Tep and My Name is Bruce), Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2, Empire Records and The Colbys), Jim Metzler (LA Confidential, River’s Edge and Mad Men), David Lynch favourite Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks, Return of the Living Dead II and Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me) and John Ireland (Red River, Spartacus and All the King’s Men). 

Set in Purgatory, a small desert town populated entirely by vampires! Sundown is a rather enjoyable romp. Count Mardulak (Carradine) is the head of the vampire clan, an ancient and intelligent vampire who has decided he would rather live in harmony with the humans and has decided to develop a synthetic alternative to human blood that will mean the vampires no longer need the former to live off. His assistant, Shane (Caulfield) has been developing a machine to manufacture the synthetic blood but is struggling to get it to function properly. He recommends a human, David Harrison, to help them get the machine producing large quantities of the synthetic blood, but he has an ulterior motive. Shane wants to get David and his family into the town so he can turn his wife Sarah (Brittany) and his daughter, Juliet (Erin Gourlay) into vampires. Shane believes that Juliet is his daughter after he and Sarah had a one-night stand while he was still human, and he remains besotted with Sarah. 

Whilst Shane works for Mardulak, he is also in collusion with Ethan Jefferson (Ireland), a man who would rather see the vampire community continue along its path of feasting on humans and the pair plan to overthrow Mardulak and return to the old ways of hunting humans. Shane has developed a wood-tipped bullet that he plans to use on those who oppose Jefferson, which splinters when it impacts the heart, thus killing the vampire outright. Along the way, Bruce Campbell arrives to provide some comic relief as the latest in a long line of vampire hunters, Robert Van Helsing. Campbell’s vampire hunter is a bungling fool who falls head over heels in love with newly turned vampire, Sandy White (Foreman).  The big question is can our ragtag band of heroes defeat Jefferson, and can David protect his family from the grasp of Shane?

Hickox has created a wonderful blend of horror, comedy and western elements that work seamlessly together. The performances are excellent across the board, Carradine and Ireland are the standout performers as the two elder statesmen of the vampire community facing off against each other, whilst Caulfield is superb as the villainous Shane, he comes across as thoroughly reprehensible, a real scum bag. However, it is worth noting that the whole cast seem to be relishing their roles.

This new Blu Ray release on Lionsgate's  Vestron Collector’s Series features a digitally restored print of this vastly underappreciated horror comedy, that was originally released just a few years after The Lost Boys. It is fair to say that it perhaps got lost in the massive hysteria that grew up around that movie in the aftermath of its release, and was largely ignored in favour of the younger, cooler vampires of Santa Carla. The disc comes with a modest but interesting selection of bonus materials including an audio commentary with Hickox and director of photography Levie Isaacks, and a series of interviews with Hickox, SFX artist Tony Gardner and stars Carradine and Campbell. Overall, Sundown is a great vampire comedy, one that deserves to have a far better reputation than the one it has, it’s funny, smart and well-acted, and deserves to be seen by all fans of the horror-comedy format.