Customer Reviews

Vampires: The Turning

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's too bad they picked such poor actors for this film. It could've been way better than it was. The movie starts out promising. Great lighting and atmosphere. Then we meet the buffoon that plays the hero. What a dolt. All he can think about is finding his girlfriend. His fake sincerity and one-track-mindedness are unconvincing. It's like those Chuck Norris movies you used to love to watch---they were alright as long as Chuck kept his mouth shut. When he opened his mouth you had to wince at the bad acting. That's how you feel watching this guy run around looking for his girlfriend. The plot seems thrown together to make the story move along. Almost zero character development. The fighting isn't too bad, but even that needs some help. I thought the villain was ok, but lacked the qualities to make you fear what he's going to do next. I liked the setting, but the execution of this movie is why it ended up direct-to-DVD. Avoid this one unless you like seeing Thailand, Thai fighting or are an avid vampire movie fan.

If you like your vampires mixed with martial arts, you may enjoy VAMPIRES: THE TURNING. But it's derivative script, sloppy effects and lame acting result in a genre mix that doesn't quite gel. Colin Egglesfield plays the studly hero whose girlfriend is kidnapped by a band of vampires while vacationing in Thailand. Egglesfield encounters another group of "good" vampires who he solicits to help him find his woman. Patrick Bauchau is around as some kind of vampire bounty hunter who helps kill the vampires with crossbows. The movie's pace is not kinetic enough to generate any suspense; we've seen the fight sequences done much better in the Blade trilogy, and its climax is anti-climactic, and the ending muddled. Only for die hard vampire or martial arts fans.

Previously saw this movie on sbs. Very good quality on the dvd. Basic story line of man losing girl and then guilt as she is snatched on road by motorbike gang. Of course, the gang are vampires. Some of the acting is very corny but enjoyable if you are looking for a vampire story with a difference..

Hey I actually saw this movie (i think i rented it). Anyway this was actually a good movie once you got past the beginning (kind of slow). After that it starts to pick up and when the movie ends you're wishing there was more. It seems like it should have been longer and better produced (Duh, its really a foreign film). Either way... it is on my list of really good vampire be movies...plus it had martial arts.

I'm not saying its the best its not Subspecies but if your into watching the good B flicks that have the vampire genre, then give it a shot if its cheap.

In this third installment of the series we find ourselves following some American tourists in Thailand. One is kidnaped by some biker vampires while her boyfriend is unable to save her. But he does meet a mysterious character who kills one of the vampires and disappears. The boyfriend follows the stranger to a forbidding old house. He then tries to enlist the aid of the local police but gets no help. The mysterious stranger seems to be his only hope. He tracks him down and we find out what is going on.

The city has two types of vampires. The oldest do not drink human blood. They keep to animals. They do not like the second type although they accidentally created them. The second type revels in human blood and killing. They fully embrace their power. The first group is led by a woman who was the first vampire. There is a chance that she can break the curse that turned her into a vampire. If the curse is broken, all the vampires who sprang from her will become human again. The second type vampires do not want to be human again. The whole concept leads to some very interesting situations.

Other than the idea of bounty hunters going after vampires (and the use of a winch) there is no resemblance to the earlier films. This is based on a completely different mythology. Vampires are killed in different ways and turning into a vampire after being bitten is an act of will. So don't expect this to really be part of a series. By itself it is a very interesting take on the vampire legend and very stylistically handled. Sets, lighting, and atmosphere are really some of the stars of this film. In my opinion this is the second best of the three Vampires films (I preferred the edginess to the serenity). Check it out.

I got to say I really liked this movie because it has a mixture of martial arts and horror together.

This movie is practically about a Kickboxer and his girlfriend travel to Thailand to attend Kick Boxing tournaments, then afterwards the girl gets kidnapped by the head vampire Niran in hoping he would turn her into his blood slave!

This movie has lots of action when the American Kickboxer dedperately tries to rescue his girlfriend and teams up with other Thai vampires in order to rescue her.

In order for him to beat the head vampire, he gets bitten by a vampire in order to gain super human strength. He then eventually fights Niran the head vampire and kills him and rescues his girlfriend.

I really liked this movie beacause, I liked the feature of the vampires with bright glooming eyes and monstrous fangs. I really liked the action as well as the horror part of it in kombat and fighting!!

Vampires: The Turning (Marty Weiss, 2005)

What's ultimately so awful about John Carpenter's 1998 snoozefest Vampires is not the movie itself, but the way Hollywood has raped the stinking corpse, first with 2002's moronic Jon Bon Jovi vehicle Los Muertos, and now with 2005's kickboxing-vampire flick The Turning. Yes, you heard me right. Kickboxing vampires. It's like The Twins Effect, but without the cute Cantonese pop singers, the comedy, or the relatively decent names that starred in that one. In fact, this one has... nothing of worth. At all.

Connor (All My Children's Colin Egglesfield--yes, the lead actor is a soap opera star) is a kickboxer who's visiting Thailand with his girlfriend Amanda (mmmmm mmmmm mmmmMeredith Monroe from Dawson's Creek). At least, that's the way it's supposed to go, except that Meredith breaks up with him after one too many kickboxing matches and stalks off into the crowd. She is picked up by Niran (Dom Hetrakul form the recent Bangkok Dangerous remake), a slick vampire who happens to lead a gang of vampire bikers. (Yes, vampire bikers. Think Cyclo without any talent. And with vampires.) Connor goes head to head with one of Niran's flunkies, and things look nasty until help comes in the form of Kiko (Bulletproof Monk's Roger Yuan), who's got a very big sword. Connor, desperate to get Amanda back, pesters Kiko's group, headed by mysterious and beautiful Sang (ZigZag's Stephanie Chao), for information about Niran and his band. And then, well, on the off chance you actually want to see this, I'll stop before we get into spoiler-land. I'm sure you know exactly where this is going, however.

My wife came home about ten minutes before the end of this last night, watched a bit, and asked me, "and you thought Twilight was bad?" While my response was exactly what was expected ("these vampires don't sparkle"), yeah, I thought Twilight was bad. Awful, in fact. But it was Oscar material compared to this dreck. Rumor has it that John Carpenter was originally attached as an executive producer, but dropped out at some point in the process to be replaced by J. S. Cardone, who's made a habit of bankrolling crap recently (8MM 2, The Covenant, and the Prom Night remake were all partially financed by Cardone). No idea how true that is, but were I Carpenter, my response to seeing what they'd done with my legacy would have been a lot more violent. I mean, jeez, this is even worse than the remake of The Fog that came out the same year. Avoid like the plague. *

Every now and again you get to see something old and new mixed together, with the "new" being strong enough to counteract the "old" which has been seen a number of times before. "Vampires: The Turning" is a case in point.

It's a familiar story: boy loses girl to a gang of vampires, and he's determined to get her back. The new turns to this story are an exotic setting (Thailand) and the guy turns himself into a vampire to get the extra boost needed to go toe-to-toe with the vampire bikers.

Film quality is surprisingly good. Cimeaphotography is top-notch, light work and camera angels add a real sense to the experience. Acting is also surprisingly good.

If you're a fan of John Carpenter's Vampire series, you'll enjoy this movie, though I'll stop short of saying it's a part of that series, like some have said.

An American in Thailand watches his girlfriend get kidnapped by a gang of bad vampires, so he joins a gang of good vampires to get her back. Nothing great, but it isn't bad. There are some cool fight scenes, but the movie is kind of short. Still, if you dig vampires you'll dig this dvd.

Got this movie as part of a box set. Best thing about the movie is that it is less than 90 minutes long.