BloodTheTelepathicDog
This is essentially a campy horror flick with some one-liners, some blood and Ami Dolenz. The film concerns a small country town overrun by vampires and only an out-of-town teacher (Peter DeLuise) and the town drunk (Garrett Morris) are able to fight the legion of the undead. Our unlikely heroes have to protect virginal Ami Dolenz whose blood is intoxicating to head vampire David Sawyer.STORY: $$ (The story is bare bones. Too many campy horror flicks poke fun at small country communities. A little originality wouldn't hurt. The camp works at times but more often it is absurd. The vampires aren't menacing but more along the lines of comedy. This is clearly one of those turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy flicks).ACTING: $$ (Nothing special here either. Cult actress Karen Black has a cameo as the town maneater and young Lloyd Kalicki is quite good as the perverted pre-teen peeping tom. Shirley Jacobs as Ami Dolenz's grandmother may give the best performance. Ami Dolenz, as always, is fine as the object of intrigue but some of the other main actors were poorly cast. Josette DiCarlo is beyond annoying as the town sheriff and Garrett Morris hiccups his way through his role as a drunkard. Peter DeLuise was a horrible selection as the leading man. He lacks a strong screen presence and in a film like this, you really need a Bruce Campbell, Bruce Abbott type as the leading man and not some no-name like Peter DeLuise).NUDITY: None. But a soaking wet Ami Dolenz is alright.
Undead_Master
Children of the night is the second in a string of 3 movies released by Fangoria films in the early 90's. I remember these movies were pretty heavily promoted to horror fans at the time. The best of these was mindwarp, and the worst one was severed ties. Children of the night falls squarely in the middle and it's kind of a middling movie in general (maybe a bit worse than middling depending on how you look at it).Early in the film there are a few scary scenes and that's why i don't give it a lower rating. It's sort of cheesy all the way through, but in the early going, there is some genuine darkness here and there... Unfortunately it deteriorates into a silly mess halfway through. It tries to be sort of a horror comedy, but it doesn't deliver any laughs. It feels like the director wants this to have a comic book quality and at times it does, but the material would have been better served with a darker treatment. The biggest problem with the film is it's lack of any sort of internal logic. It could have been a pretty entertaining movie, (even with it's undesirable cornball quality) if the plot didn't continually break down on a fundamental level. There are illogical horror films that work (like Lucio Fulci's "Seven Doors of Death") And they work because the whole film has a nightmarish, dreamlike quality... This film never pretends to have that kind of aesthetic. It's a more down to earth movie, and it needed to make sense.A good example of the flawed internal logic.... There is one vampire that seems immune to all the effects of vampirism. She retains her personality and is able to control her evil urges. Her remarkable ability is never explained and it seems that the only reason she was made that way was to allow for the films contrived and illogical ending sequence. All through the film you'll be asking yourself "why are they doing that?" the characters responses to the situations they face make no sense at all and it's so extreme that it's even over the line for a horror movie.so my recommendation would be... Watch this if your a vampire aficionado or a big horror fan, but if you start losing interest in the second half, just go ahead and turn it off... It doesn't get any better and you'll be pleased to see the credits roll
slayrrr666
'Children of the Night' is a really entertaining modern vampire movie.**SPOILERS**Out-of-town criminals, upsetting the many people who grew up in the town are overrunning the small town of Allburg. Two young girls, Lucy (Ami Dolenz) and Cindy (Maya McLaughlin) go joy-riding and wander into an abandoned church. There is a town myth about swimming in the crypt below the church's grounds, and they both go for a swim. Cindy is attacked in the water by a strange creature, sending Lucy into a panic. Another small town nearby, River Junction, is starting to loose ground to non-religious people, which is fine with Mark Gardner, (Peter DeLuise) a former priest who now teaches young children. His friend, Father Frank (Ewan MacKenzie) is harboring Karen Thompson (Karen Black) and her daughter Cindy in the attic of his house during the day because they are vampires. Mark doesn't believe it, until Frank tells him a story about vampirism in both Allburg and River Junction, so Frank heads to town to investigate his friends' claims. While there, he runs into Lucy, who is running away from a vampire. Now convinced that Frank was right about the vampires in town, Mark, Lucy and the town drunk (Garrett Morris) have to find a way to stop the head vampire was spreading his disease from turning the town and eventually the while world into his vampire minions.The Good News: The film had some pretty creative vampire effects. Rather than have the actor turn his face white and suddenly sprout fangs, here they actually turn into a sort of demonic figure with the fangs. I was getting tired of that old pasty-white vampire face that all the movies have portrayed. For some reason, the abandoned church's ruins really impressed me. The whole scene was a great example of Gothic-influenced film-making, something that I haven't seen since the late Mario Bava's earliest movies. It was a great scenery prop and created a rather spooky atmosphere. That was the best part of the movie because the not-lit interior, bright candles, and cobwebbed appearance of the pews in the church are important in creating the vibrant atmosphere created. The entrance into the crypt is also pretty good, as it follows the same Gothic darkness type of scare that the church scenes had used. The playing in the water, and what is in it, is rather well thought out, and jolting for the first few viewings. Pretty scary and creepy. I won't reveal what it is, as it is detrimental to the ending as well, but the beginning of this is a modern Gothic-inspired masterpiece. While not having a large amount of gore, the few scenes where there is gore is very believable and realistically done. The skin melting was the goriest scene, and for that alone, I recommend this movie, if just to see that wonderful FX job.The Bad News: There film suffers from the major crime that most modern movies suffer from: an uneventful middle act. After the discovery of the crypt, nothing happens until a good thirty minutes later, an eternity in any film. It's so short that it hurts even more, since the film is barely an hour and a half long. It also isn't a film for fans of high-gore vampire films like 'Queen of the Damned' or 'Dracula 2000.' The only gore is provided in the ending of the movie. It also has very little jumps or actual suspense, another damaging factor for the film. There was only two times where I jumped in the film, which was the exact same thing, a vampire jumping through something unexpectedly. Not exactly a creative move, especially considering the fact that so much went into the Gothic beginning of the film. The Final Verdict: While not terribly flawed, it has enough good points, especially the melting scene, to at least warrant this film a look. Not all vampire film fans will like the film, but it is one of the better vampire films around. Rated R: Graphic Violence, Adult Language, Brief Nudity, and strong, violent religious imagery
puggmick
I really do love vampire movies. I think I have seen most of all the vampire movies. Karen Black is an excellent actor. However, you can only do so much for a movie with cheesy make-up. Karen Black's was the cheesiest make-up job I have ever seen. To sum up the movie, I have to say this was one of the worst vampire movies I have ever witnessed. Under the circumstances of bad writing, the acting job this cast turned in was actually pretty good. I could not figure out how one of the girls gets vamped, takes it home to her mother, then her mother proceeds to feed off of her. Shouldn't that be the other way around? A bit confusing, but Garrett Morris did a superb job in trying to explain stuff. Amy Dolenz was enjoyable as the token virgin. Cannot recommend the movie unless you only get one station on your television and you have no other choice.
