'Project Vampire' is a failed project

Project Vampire (1993)
Starring: Brian Knudson, Mary-Louise Gemmill, and Myron Natwick
Director: Peter Flynn
Rating: Two of Ten Stars

A mad scientist, Dr. Klaus (Natwick), is perfecting a longevity serum that turns those who use it into vampires. A brave intern from the univsersity hospital (Knudson), a kind-hearted nurse (Gemmill), and a Chinese genius (Cho) join forces to save themselves from the effects of the serum and to stop Klaus's convoluted schemes from coming to fruition.


At the center of "Project Vampire" is a neat idea--I like the notion of the vampire serum--but that idea is brutally strangled by a script so badly structured I doubt the writer/director has even heard the term "three-act structure", and then dumped in a shallow grave by a cast of actors who have almost certainly heard the phrase "don't quit your day job" many times. To make matters worse, the film is a mixture of a chase story and a race-against-time story, but both of these normally dramatic plot-types are made deadly dull by chase scenes that have all the excitement of my daily commute to work.

(In fairness, I may actually be being a bit harsh on the actors who star in this picture. Mary-Louise Gemmill and Myron Natwick both have extensive credits to their names, albeit as a voice actress and bit-player respectively--taking center stage may not be where their talent lies, or maybe they were let down by director Peter Flynn. Flynn has been a prop-maker for a host of high profile television series and movies but this was the one and only film he's directed.

In the end, "Project Vampire" is yet another badly executed low-budget film where a good idea falls victim to a shortage and/or misdirection of talent. (It's also the only film of recent vintage that features a Chinese character that brought to mind Lionel Twain's rant at Inspector Wang in "Murder By Death" about geniuses being unable to grasp the use of preposition, articles, and pronouns when speaking.)

'Beyond Evil' is worth going for

Beyond Evil (1980)
Starring: John Saxon, Lynda Day George, Michael Dante, and Janice Lynde
Director: Herb Freed
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When loving couple Larry and Barbara (Saxon and George) move into a house acquired for them by Larry's scheming friend Del (Dante), the man-hating spirit of a voodoo queen who was murdered there (Lynde) is awakened. The spirit first attempts to kill all the men in Barbara's life, and then it possesses Barbara and tries to kill even Larry. Will a force beyond death--and beyond evil--consume the inhabitants of the small South Sea island, or will Larry find a way to defeat the ghost?


This is a fabulous low-budget chiller that features a great collection of energetic and ethusiastic actors--there are literally no bad performances anywhere--and showcases steady, focused direction of the kind that movies with ten times the budget are often lacking.

On the downside, the film features some rather laughable visible effects. In most cases, the filmmakers seemed to be aware that their budget limited what they could do--and they got by quite effectively with creative lighting, fog machines, jump-cuts, and other inexpensive movie gimmicks--but then they also decided to do some animation effects. These were passable when all they were used for were to illustrate whenever the ghost was up to something evil, but when they started showing laser beams shooting from the eyes of the possessed Barbara, the animation went from cheap-looking to rediculous.


Despite the occassional special effects missteps, "Beyond Evil" is mostly a competently executed haunted house/possession flick. It sags a bit in the middle--where the voodoo queen flexes her supernatural muscle and things get a bit repetative as Larry tries to convince the increasingly strange Barbara to seek medical help--but for the most part it remains an engrossing little movie that's worth a look.

'Demon Under Glass' is an undeservedlyobscure vampire thriller

Demon Under Glass (2002)
Starring: Jason Carter, Garrett Maggart, Jack Donner, and Ray Proscia
Director: Jon Cunningham
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A team of government doctors are charged with studying a captured vampire (Carter), but, slowly, the amorality of the project and the evil of the subject starts to erode the ethics of the physicians and the line between healers and monsters becomes increasingly blurred.


Finding a gem like "Demon Under Glass" is what makes wading through the huge heaps of crap that make up the direct-to-video/DVD releases. With very little violence and lots and lots of talking, this is one of the best and creepiest vampire movies I've seen. The more I think about it, the better it gets.

With a cast made up actors whose credits seem to be mostly character roles on television (you'll recognize just about every lead actor, but you probably won't know where from), who are working with a great script featuring a captivating story that unfolds at a slow, steady, exactly dead-on pace, this is a great horror film that I highly recommend to fans of the genre. Even more remarkable, the film manages to deal intelligently with some weighty moral and philosophical issues admidst the vampire and mad doctor antics, but it does so without turning the film into a boring lecture.

The only complaint I have is that a couple of the character names are a bit cutesy, such as the vampire's surname being "Molinar" and the head of the military security detail being named "Captain Stuebings". These do not subtract that much from the film, though.

Track down a copy of "Demon Under Glass"; I came across it in the "Bite Night" 12-movie collection, but I'm sure it can be found elsewhere or as a rental. I'm sure you won't regret it, because this is a film that will stay with you awhile.