Vampire Cop — Vampire Cop(DVD)

As its title suggests Vampire Cop attempts to bring together horror & action/ cop genres, and it does so to decidedly mixed results. The film originally appearing back in 1990 and was the first shot on film movie by infamous Kansas based lo-budget director, producer &  king of SOV horror Donald Farmer. Here we have a recent region free DVD reissue of the film- which takes in two cuts of the film, and a worthy commentary track from Farmer himself.

Farmer has been making films since the late 1980’s and is still turning out films now- with a few of his recently directorial additions been Shark Exorcist & Hooker With A Hacksaw. And really he’s an exploitation director in the classic sense- coming up with crazy attention grabbing titles, blending together genres, and doing blatant rip-offs of more popular films.  At present has twenty-nine directorial credits, twenty producer credits, and twenty-one writing credits- so when watching Vampire Cop you know what to expect, and really you get exactly what you expect.

The film centers around blonde haired & blue eyed cop Logan, who has a big secret- he’s a vampire. He teams up with leggy blond female reporter Melanie Roberts(low-budget scream queen Melissa Moore). To try & foil a rather cliché beach house based crime boss.  On the plus side we get some not bad acting from the supporting cast( including Mal Arnold from Blood Feast), a fair amount of blood & one or two effective effects set up, some fleeting bare female flesh,  and some amusing crime boss & henchmen interplay. On the negative side, we get fairly inept film-making through-out, some rather bland acting from the leads, serious pacing issues, and really very predictable plot.  On the whole, I can’t say it’s a good bad movie and really fits more into the bracket of ‘if-you-like- bad-movies’  you might enjoy elements of this.

I think one of the big saving graces of this release is Mr. Farmer commentary. As this was generally informative & rewarding- if you're interested in the issues & problems faced by the low-budget film maker. He talks about the film's funding, how distributors wanted to change the film,  getting use of filming locations, etc. He comes across very down-to-earth, passionate about filmmaking, and an all around interesting guy.

There are two versions of the film on the DVD- we get the originally cut from 1990, and new version put together by Farmer recently, adding back in a fair few scenes that the distributors asked to be removed or replaced. The new version is interesting enough, though it’s fairly rough around the edges with often over long scenes with no soundtrack and some haphazard cutting. The original cut is a little more together & finished- though it’s far from a great film.

Really it’s down to how much you enjoy super low-budget/ bad film making on to how much you’ll enjoy this releases. If like me you’re fascinated &  generally interested in B moives, then I think you’ll get something from the film & whole heartily enjoy the commentary.  But if you looking for a well put together & entertaining film that blends together horror & action/ cop film genres well- your best looking elsewhere.