Vampire Journals (1997)

“You don’t appreciate the smell of death, Dmitri? I find it intoxicating!”

With a lush Richard Kosinski score (although this isn’t his most important work. That honor belongs to Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue), baroque sets, and a gothic, mysterious atmosphere, Vampire Journals is an underrated entry in both the Subspecies and vampire film canon. 

What’s mostly set writer/director Ted Nicolaou’s blood-soaked saga apart from other tales about the children of the night is his fascination with the motivations and inner-workings of these undead bloodsuckers. He takes an intelligent, probing approach, fleshing out both his living and (kinda) dead characters in equal measure. Though Radu is sadly missing, Jonathon Morris as master vampire Ash is a welcome substitute and oddly enough, a most entrepreneurial ghoul at that. Runs his own night club and mini-casino and everything, even if his front is an opportunistic fledgling. 

It’s a bit talky and some characters don’t get the screen time and development they deserve, yet the tale is involving, if a tad unrealistic. David Gunn’s Zachary is a Blade-like vampire hunter who is essentially beaten by Ash early on, yet like a similar complaint in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, neither manages to best the other despite both having ample opportunities early on. It’s a short movie, so a suitable runtime needs to be reached, yet it could’ve used a bit more complexity in terms of their tug-of-war.