John Carpenter horror movie that almost received an NC-17 score

Although referred to as “vampires,” The film was also released as “Vampires John Carpenter,” which conveyed a hyperspecific instructional vision of a genre that has been drained and revitalized several times. The expectations involved in the film were mostly positive, given the history of carpenter of powerful, mobile stories that brought great social commentary.

However, the 1998 “vampires” are quite unrivaled in depth, which transformed its best-in -ities action into the only Talking point about the time of release. I must stress that there is nothing wrong with that at all, as The carpenter was more than happy to point out how far he had to go up the violence-meter (through San Diego-Tribune Union):

“I pushed things to the full because that’s what this film calls for. I pushed the violence in every scene, pushed it over the top.”

This is the case, as the arrival of the very first vampire, Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), increases the poles immediately (quite literally), stimulating Crow and his crew to kill a host of vampires to get to it. Just like Crow is the Apex Hunter, Valek is the Apex predator who tears his victims to tear without repentance, now eagerly looking for a Christian relic that will turn him into a day walker. Crow can’t let this happen, of course, so it’s committed to a distinctive fight that develops as one would be in west, the only difference between the vast amount of blood and gut left behind in the process.

Unfortunately, some of these scenes were a bit too much for the American Offer Society (MPAA), which pushed Carpenter to trim some of the bloodshed to avoid an NC-17 score. Per producer Sandy King (also Carpenter wife), only a few scenes were shortened to avoid the tougher score, as they did not “want to ruin the film and spoil her rhythm.”

As a result, “vampires” is a completely violent, coherent flic that frames its bloody creatures as terribly inhuman, without turning to any form of complexity or romance. While the film is definitely pleasing to compare with the best Carpenter has to offer, it still promises a bloody good time.