How many times must I tell you vampires ... you cannot have your blood, and drink it, too!!! Sigh ... freakin' bloodsuckers are damned determined to run around in the daylight like mere mortals. Can't they be satisfied with the bliss of eternal darkness??? ok ... enough of my bloodstained soapbox ...

Vampires: Los Muertos is the second installment in the hunt for greedy vampires. John Carpenter passes the director's torch once more to protégé Tommy Lee Wallace, who also wrote and directed the non-Michael Myers installment of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. Mr. Wallace also wrote and directed the mini-series, Stephen King's IT,and another sequel, Fright Night Part 2. He hasn't quite got the one-two-punch of success John Carpenter has for film making, but give him a few more bucks to work with and he might nail it one of these days.

The sequel to John Carpenter's 1998 Vampires, features rocker Jon Bon Jovi plays the lead vampire hunter, Derek Bliss, tracking a greedy vampire lusting to feed in the daylight. Una is a naughty seductive vamp, who is desperately trying to find a way to become the perfect arterial snapper. Typically, the way this is achieved is by a rather tedious ritual involving the sacrifice of a priest/hunter. But there might be another way ...

Derek begins to gather his new crew for the hunt: a beefy Latin priest, an anxious teen, a hip hop thug, and of course - a recently bitten lil hottie with her own secret for keeping the other vamps, at bay.

This is one of a host of films recently being filmed entirely in Mexico. I guess NAFTA is still kicking about, as Canadians and Mexicans try to outbid Hollywood for the U.S. dollar. While most of the locations are nicely set for this film, others like the diner and bar scenes are muy el cheapo. I don't know what budget these guys had for this sequel, but it sure wasn't the 20 million the first Vampires film received ... unless it was in Pesos.

However, I have seen far worse sequels and this one, at the very least, has an interesting cast for ultra-low budget horror:

• Derek Bliss, Head Headhunter of Vampires, sporting a loaded surf board -Jon Bon Jovi (lead singer for Bon Jovi)
• Father Rodrigo, priest and hunter - Cristian de la Fuente (the tv series, Family Law, and big name films, Driven and Basic)
• Sancho, young local tryin' to earn an extra buck for his poor mama by killing vampires - Diego Luna (Up and coming film/tv star in Mexico now attempting to make his mark in Hollywood)
• Ray Collins, the only "hired" gun of the hunters - Darius McCrary (played Truck Thomas in the recent mini series bloodbath, Kingpin)
• Zoey, the once bitten but not twice shy tag-along vamp - Natasha Gregson Wagner (yes, Natalie Wood's spunky daughter, working twice as hard with a ton of films to her credit already, including - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wes Craven's Mind Ripper, David Lynch's Lost Highway, Modern Vampires, and Urban Legend)

 

• Una, the hunted Vampire - Arly Jover (Blade and Impostor)