THE FORSAKEN
US, 2001, 86 minutes, Colour.
Kerr Smith, Brendan Fehr, Izabella Miko, Simon Rex, Carrie Snodgress, Johnathon Schaech.
Directed by J.S. Cardoni.
The Forsaken is yet another vampire film. However, the screenplay puts down the legend of Vlad the Impaler and Dracula and gives us another spin on vampire history. This takes us back to the Second Crusade and the Siege of Antioch, some French soldiers who drank the blood of their fellow soldiers and then were exiled into the night to wander the earth. Only six of them are left, two in the United States. One of the central characters in this film is a vampire hunter trying to get rid of those two in the United States. He meets up with a young man who is on his way to his sister's wedding, taking a contract to drive a rich woman's car from California to Miami.
Inevitably, he experiences a great number of difficulties and picks up a hitchhiker even when contracted not to do so. He also encounters a clutch of vampires on the highway in Arizona. In this way, the film resembles in theme Kathryn Bigelow's film of 1987 about vampires, Near Dark.
The two young men also pick up a woman traumatised by an attack of the vampires. They experience crashes on the road, chases, confrontations in an old woman's house. Johnathon Schaech is the leader of the vampires and Carrie Snodgress is the old woman.
The film is geared towards the young audience and is made with a bit more finesse than might have been expected from this kind of film.
1. The popularity of vampire films? The updating? The focus on young people, on vampires in the United States? Its use of the conventions of the vampire, being out only at night, being able to be destroyed by the sunlight, on holy ground? The need for blood? The cruelty - but, as the central character says, they are vampires, not rocket scientists or brain surgeons.
2. California and desert locations, the open road, the desert, the old houses? The road, speed? The vampires, special effects? Killings and gore? Musical score?
3. Nick and his giving the history of these vampires, the Middle Ages, the vampires wandering the earth? Their name of The Forsaken?
4. The focus on Sean, his work as a film editor, going away for the week, the contract to take the car? No insurance if he damages it, no hitchhikers? His driving off, his happiness with the car? Audiences knowing little about him, though discovering that his father left when his mother was pregnant? His ambitions to be a film editor? The encounter with Nick, refusing him, allowing him to come? Nick taking his wallet? Their discussions, the meeting with the vampire group? The young girl wandering and her delirium? Nick revealing that he was a vampire hunter? His own experience, his cures? The travel, the pursuit by the vampire car, the damage to the car, the threats? Sean and his skilful driving, outwitting them with the truck, going through the parked cars? Running out of petrol, searching, going back for the girl? Nick punching her and keeping her quiet? Their finding the house, the welcome from the old lady? The siege, the remaining two vampires and the threats? The shootings, Sean and his being wounded, the vampire wanting him to be the chauffeur? His coming into the house with the car, the rising sun? The destruction of the vampire? In hospital, Megan saying farewell? His searching for Nick on the roads and joining him to hunt vampires?
5. Nick, wandering, no plans for the future, surviving on the road, his own experience, hitchhiking, taking Sean's wallet? The shared adventures? Advice? In the house, the shooting? His discovering that this was not the main vampire?
6. Megan, the later flashbacks to what happened to her, wandering, infected, being helped by Nick and Sean? Taking the car, wandering? In the house, resting, telling her story? Her being saved?
7. The other victims on the road, the party out on the rocks, their taunting the vampires with the beer, their deaths? The two young men in the car, stopping to help, their deaths? Being taunted by the vampire?
8. The vampires, the leader and his hold, the women, the driver not being infected? The noise, the need for blood, resting at night, confronting the partygoers and destroying them? The two young men? Their feeding off each other? The driver and his being held up by the police, racing, his final crash and death? The two vampires coming into the house, the confrontation and their deaths?
9. The old woman, her kindness, helping them, the siege, her house being destroyed?
10. Popular vampire ingredients updated and transferred to the American west and the desert?
