Customer Reviews

Central Park Drifter: Graveyard Shift

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This is the DVD release of the 1987 movie "Graveyard Shift". It is about a vampire that drives a cab in New York at night. This helps him find his victims, which must be a woman who is dying or wants to die. This movie embraces the theory that if you die by being bitten by a vampire you automatically become a vampire. This raises a question as to why the vampire appears to be so careful in the selection of his prey. He does not bother to make sure his victims do not return as vampires and his victims, when they return as vampires, turn around and start killing innocents. He nonetheless eventually falls in love with one of the women he meets. The idea of hooking up with women by driving a cab made the movie original but it makes no sense that a vampire that apparently had a certain set of morals in selecting his victims would then turn around and leave them to become vampires themselves. That little bit of illogical behavior is found in other vampire films however clear back to the original "Dracula" so it shouldn't put off diehard fans. The movie is fairly well presented and has a lot of artistic merit that earned it a lot of praise from viewers. While I would never call it one of my personal favorites I'd recommend it all the same to folks that enjoy these low budget ventures into the world of the undead.

Graveyard Shift is a wonderful, interesting, vampire movie. A vampire is a taxi driver who works the night shift. As he picks up passengers he picks his victims from those who are at the end of their rope. People, in this case sexy women, who wish to kill themselves. He turns them into vampires. They become part of a vampire network which keeps him supplied with blood and gives the women a reason to live. In other words he turns almost suicides into vampires which is a nice link to folklore vampires. The problem is he falls in love and screws up what was a pretty nice setup and life style. The only problem I have is with the DVD. I have seen the movie before on tape and on the DVD many scenes were either too dark or just too unfocused to see. It looks like they got as bad copy, which is sad because otherwise it is a good film. Also, sorry to say, there are no extras outside of some trailers.

This was a very popular movie rental under the title "Graveyard Shift" back in the 80's. The movie has a combination disco/ Miami Vice feel to it. The Travolta looking lead as well as the sound track gives it that classic 80's feel. Steven is a vampire in NYC who, like all vampires works the Graveyard Shift. Steven senses when women are in their "death cycle" at which time he makes them his lover and gives them a nibble. They in turn become vampires, who Steven never calls. He is a cab driver.

There is a subplot involving a woman named Michelle, who directs vampire videos, but apparently not to well. She is also terminal. Steven eventually ends up at a Halloween party at her house. Michelle's husband, who plays the field, is jealous, but Michelle is in love. The women vampires kill their victims. The cops are trying to figure out where the bodies are coming from.

The film uses red and blue lighting to represent heat and cold, hot and cold bodies. Sometimes it is effective, other times it doesn't work and is annoying. The movie also had some erotic nudity, especially one blue-lit scene with Kim Cayer, which was perhaps the main reason for its popularity. They don't even show her scene on the back cover and they should have plastered it on the front. It sold the movie. I think they did themselves a disfavor by re-releasing it under a different title, especially a bad one.

Sex and nudity. Not much blood for a vampire film.

i really liked this dvd im a big fan of vampire movies ive been wanting this dvd for a long time im glad amazon had it

Graveyard Shift (now released under the title CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER) is just your average vampire flick. Nothing too spactacular, just a vampire cab driver taking his victems one by one. This movie is fairly well presented and has some artistic elements within its filming. Not one of my favorites, but I would recommend it to vampire film lovers. I've seen better vampire films, and I've seen a lot worse ones. There is also a sequel titled UNDERSTUDY: GRAVEYARD SHIFT II, but since GRAVEYARD SHIFT I has been released under CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER, I wonder if Understudy: Graveyard Shift II will ever be released on DVD. Maybe it also will be retitled to CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER II or manybe just UNDERSTUDY. I think Graveyard Shift was released under this alternate title maybe to avoid confusion with the Stephen King film of the same name? What do you think?

Central Park Drifter had potential, but lacked good acting abilities. DVD has a good cover, nudity, sex, and violence.