The Forsaken (2001)
By: Craig Villinger.
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| Columbia Tristar (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1, German DD 5.1. English, Dutch, German, Polish, Bulgrian, Czech, and Romanian subtitles. 87 Minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: J.S Cardone
Starring: Kerr Smith, Brendon Fehr, Izabella Miko, Jonathan Schaech
Screenplay: J.S Cardone
Country: USA |
That "cheerful" character from Dawson's
Creek stars as Sean, a wannabe filmmaker on his
way to Florida to deliver a swank looking Mercedes
to its owner and attend his sisters wedding in
the process. The film begins to look as though
it will be yet another American teen road trip
movie, with "hip" music filling the speakers and
a female motorist giving Sean a flash of her top
shelf as she drives past. Not long after picking
up a scruffy looking hitchhiker (played
by Fehr) however the proceedings begin to head into a
more horror friendly territory, and we get a basic
idea of what we are in for. The pair run into
a suspicious looking group of individuals hanging
around a roadside dunny, and not long after leaving
them behind, Sean picks up another travelling
companion in the form of a sexy and almost unconscious
young girl, who we learn has been bitten by...shock
horror..a Vampire, and will soon be joining the
ranks of the undead herself as the vampirism begins
to take hold of her body. All is not lost however,
as our shaggy looking hitchhiker friend Nick just
happens to be a vampire hunter on the trail of
some ancient bloodsuckers and knows exactly how
to handle the situation.
This is obviously not the sort of road trip that
Sean had in mind, and after receiving a chomp
on the arm from the mysterious girl in one of
her brief moments of semi-consciousness, he discovers
that soon enough he too will grow pointy fangs
and be deprived of lazy days baking in the sun
unless he can kill the vamp from which the bloodline
was started. One problem though: Vampires can
only be killed on 'Hallowed ground", so Sean and
Nick are forced into a race against time to find
some holy type land in the middle of the desert,
with the dunny lurking vampires hot on their trail.
The Forsaken could best be described as
a mix between Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark and Robert Harmon's The Hitcher (both written
by the same screenwriter funnily enough), although
mentioning it in the same sentence as these two
fantastic horror thrillers could perhaps be considered
an insult. The story (written by director Cardone)
never threatens to be engrossing, and the characters
for the most part are an extremely un-interesting
bunch. Kerr Smith certainly doesn't do a bad job
in the leading role, although it never appears
as though he is making any real effort to entertain
us. Jonathan Schaech is an interesting casting
choice as the main vampire and could have done
a great job had he actually got some screen time
(the vampires in this film rarely make an appearance)
while Isabella Miko spends approximately ninety
six percent of the film's duration drugged out
of her brain on morphine, and it actually appears
as though the main purpose of her character is
to provide us with occasional glimpses of tit
and arse just to ensure that we don't completely
lose interest in the proceedings. Brendon Fehr
is the only one who actually manages to add any
real personality to his character and is perhaps
the only actor whose career will be furthered
by appearing in this movie.
There are a few nice touches to this film (the
back-story that re-invents the vampire mythos
is actually quite interesting) but they don't
amount to much in the end. While there is a lot
of blood on offer, the films killings are relatively
tame and some horror fans may feel cheated by
the way in which Cardone sets the stage for full
scale vampire carnage in more than one scene,
only to back out and show us virtually nothing.
A vampire film without interesting vampires is
bound to be ineffective, and this is perhaps something
that should have been mentioned to Mr Cardone
before the cameras started rolling. Hardcore horror
fans won't find much to keep them interested,
and everyone else will probably find nothing at
all. This isn't the worst horror film to emerge
since Scream reportedly re-invented the genre,
but it is a long way from being the best. |
| Video |
| The Forsaken is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio
which is enhanced for 16x9 television sets. Colours
look rich and vibrant and the image is generally
sharp throughout the film. As is to be expected
of such a recent production, there are certainly
no problems with the transfer. |
| Audio |
| The English Dolby digital 5.1
soundtrack is extremely impressive, and possibly
helps make this movie seem more enjoyable than it
actually is. Dialogue is easy to understand at all
times with no audio sync problems and the films
gunshots, explosions and hard rock tunes keep the
sub woofer busy. |
| Extra Features |
| The disc contains an audio
commentary from director J.S Cardone which, to be
brutally honest, I could not listen to for the purposes
of this review as it would have required me to sit
through the film a second time. Apart from the commentary
track, the rest of the extras are standard filler
material, with two incredibly brief yet extremely
boring promo segments (one about the cars used in
the film, the other a profile of actor Brendon Fehr),
3 deleted scenes and trailers for The Forsaken,
Hollow Man and Bram Stokers Dracula. |
| The Verdict |
| Nice transfer, excellent 5.1 soundtrack,
dull extras, crap film! You be the judge. I need
a beer, and fast! |
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