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Andrew Stevens (longtime B-movie king and one-time star of such legit movies as…OK, he’s always been a B-movie actor) plays a brilliant chemist - named (get this) Owen Augustus Urban III - who claims to have invented the drug Ecstasy. Owen must know his stuff, because Dr. John Allcore (Christopher Plummer in not one of his best roles) is itchin’ to get the lone-wolf scientist on his team. Seems that Allcore has been doing a lot of impressive work with human blood these days.

OK, Allcore is a vampire; as is his right-hand man Dennis (Kim Coates) and just about everyone employed at Allcore’s Life Reach Foundation. But these aren’t the gothic old-fashioned vampires; these are bloodsuckers created in a science lab, and all their plasma cravings are (repeatedly) explained through a haze of sci-fi chemical jargon and post-modern psychobabble. Owen becomes smitten with Allcore’s latest ‘experiment’, a lovely young lady named Paula (Heather Thomas) who has no idea she’s about to become one of the post-modern undead.

The flick deserves some praise for trying to breathe some contemporary shadings into a tired old tale, but director David Blyth (The Horror Show) and screenwriter Allan Moyle (Empire Records) dash the film against a ponderous tone and collection of uninspiring performances.

Aside from a few sloppy gore scenes, I was pretty bored with this one...but if you find yourself attracted to all movies Vampiric in nature, you could do a lot worse.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=6024&reviewer=128
originally posted: 07/24/02 14:18:52
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