| Reviews & Columns |
|
Reviews DVD TV on DVD Blu-ray 4K UHD International DVDs In Theaters Reviews by Studio Video Games Features Collector Series DVDs Easter Egg Database Interviews DVD Talk Radio Feature Articles Columns Anime Talk DVD Savant Horror DVDs The M.O.D. Squad Art House HD Talk Silent DVD
|
 DVD Talk Forum |
|
|
| Resources |
|
DVD Price Search Customer Service #'s RCE Info Links |
|
Columns
  
 
|
|
|
Children of the Night
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // August 12, 2003
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
THE MOVIE
If Children of the Night were made today, I'm guessing Sean Astin and Sarah Michelle Gellar would be cast in the leads. But this is a 1991 movie, so we get Peter DeLuise and Ami Dolenz playing a teacher and a teenager who must fight the forces of darkness when the citizens of a small town are turned into a bunch of flesh-eating vampires.
Although the box advertises this as an intense horror movie, this is more of a comedy, with some not so effective horror effects thrown in. At least, I hope it was intended to be a comedy, as some of the performances and dialogue here are laughably bad. If ever there was a film destined to be on MST3K (if the show still existed, that is), it would be Children of the Night.
The movie opens with Dolenz (whose character's name is Lucy Barrett) meeting up with a friend who lives out of town. The two girls decide to do what all teenage girls do during an evening of fun – go down to the local abandoned church and swim around in the flooded crypt area! Lucy's cross necklace sinks down into the water and revives a vampire…and here I thought crosses had a negative effect on them (not to worry, the cross also plays a role in destroying the vamp at the end of the picture…so I guess it's one of those "dual purpose" crosses!).
The movie then jumps 50 miles away to a nearby town (where Lucy's friend is from), as teacher Mark Gardner (DeLuise) gets a visit from the local priest…or as I preferred to call him, "Mr. Exposition", since he basically only exists to explain to the viewers just what the hell is going on with these vampires. For some reason, the priest wants Mark to go to Lucy's town and find out what's going on there – and even after seeing two vamps (one of them Lucy's friend, who was bitten down in the crypt) boarded up in the priest's home, he still agrees to get involved – even when most normal, sane people would be heading for the hills!
And so Mark goes to Lucy's home where he rescues her from her vampire grandmother (I kid you not) a couple times before taking on the entire town, most of whom have been transformed. A lot of cheesy-looking blood and gore follows, but all's well that ends well, as Mark, Lucy and yes – even the town drunk – team up to save the town from this blood-sucking curse.
THE EXTRAS
Video:
The movie is presented in the full frame format, and the video isn't very good at all. There seems to be a lot of color drained from the print, there are many instances of "dirt" and grain on the picture, and the whole movie has a somewhat "soft" look to it, almost as if this were a VHS copy and not something you were watching on the digital format.
Audio:
The audio doesn't fare much better than the video, as the 2.0 Dolby track doesn't sound much better than a good Mono track, and there are places in the movie where the dialogue seems lower than in other places.
Extras:
Not much to talk about here, as the only extras are three Trailers for other vampire-themed movies - Bram Stoker's Dracula, Vampires: Los Muertos and The Forsaken.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I enjoy "cheese" as much as the next viewer, but it's really hard to like Children of the Night, even if you are a fan of horribly bad films. Be afraid…be very afraid of this one. Don't just skip it, drive a stake through it and dispose of it properly.
If Children of the Night were made today, I'm guessing Sean Astin and Sarah Michelle Gellar would be cast in the leads. But this is a 1991 movie, so we get Peter DeLuise and Ami Dolenz playing a teacher and a teenager who must fight the forces of darkness when the citizens of a small town are turned into a bunch of flesh-eating vampires.
Although the box advertises this as an intense horror movie, this is more of a comedy, with some not so effective horror effects thrown in. At least, I hope it was intended to be a comedy, as some of the performances and dialogue here are laughably bad. If ever there was a film destined to be on MST3K (if the show still existed, that is), it would be Children of the Night.
The movie opens with Dolenz (whose character's name is Lucy Barrett) meeting up with a friend who lives out of town. The two girls decide to do what all teenage girls do during an evening of fun – go down to the local abandoned church and swim around in the flooded crypt area! Lucy's cross necklace sinks down into the water and revives a vampire…and here I thought crosses had a negative effect on them (not to worry, the cross also plays a role in destroying the vamp at the end of the picture…so I guess it's one of those "dual purpose" crosses!).
The movie then jumps 50 miles away to a nearby town (where Lucy's friend is from), as teacher Mark Gardner (DeLuise) gets a visit from the local priest…or as I preferred to call him, "Mr. Exposition", since he basically only exists to explain to the viewers just what the hell is going on with these vampires. For some reason, the priest wants Mark to go to Lucy's town and find out what's going on there – and even after seeing two vamps (one of them Lucy's friend, who was bitten down in the crypt) boarded up in the priest's home, he still agrees to get involved – even when most normal, sane people would be heading for the hills!
And so Mark goes to Lucy's home where he rescues her from her vampire grandmother (I kid you not) a couple times before taking on the entire town, most of whom have been transformed. A lot of cheesy-looking blood and gore follows, but all's well that ends well, as Mark, Lucy and yes – even the town drunk – team up to save the town from this blood-sucking curse.
THE EXTRAS
Video:
The movie is presented in the full frame format, and the video isn't very good at all. There seems to be a lot of color drained from the print, there are many instances of "dirt" and grain on the picture, and the whole movie has a somewhat "soft" look to it, almost as if this were a VHS copy and not something you were watching on the digital format.
Audio:
The audio doesn't fare much better than the video, as the 2.0 Dolby track doesn't sound much better than a good Mono track, and there are places in the movie where the dialogue seems lower than in other places.
Extras:
Not much to talk about here, as the only extras are three Trailers for other vampire-themed movies - Bram Stoker's Dracula, Vampires: Los Muertos and The Forsaken.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I enjoy "cheese" as much as the next viewer, but it's really hard to like Children of the Night, even if you are a fan of horribly bad films. Be afraid…be very afraid of this one. Don't just skip it, drive a stake through it and dispose of it properly.
|
| Popular Reviews |
| Sponsored Links |
|
|
| Sponsored Links |
|
|
| Release List | Reviews | Shop | Newsletter | Forum | DVD Giveaways | Blu-Ray | Advertise |
|
Copyright 2024 DVDTalk.com All Rights Reserved. Legal Info, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use,
Manage Preferences,
Your Privacy Choices 
| |||||||