After the recent passing of her mother, Katherine (Mia Sara) decides to travel to Romania to find the father she never knew. Guided by dreams she is lead to Anthony Perkins with a Dracula accent. 35 minutes into the film, the "V" word is used and things are not hard to figure out from the plot spoiler title. Katherine plays "Mrs. Columbo" to locate her father who may or may not be dead.IMDb lists it as a TV movie which accounts for the lame sound track and mediocre plot.This movie about Romania is part of a multi-pack called "15 American Horror." Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Brief sex and nudity.

You'd expect something more than this bland, obvious, bloodless vampire thriller from a collaboration between Stuart Gordon (of "Re-Animator" infamy) and Anthony Perkins. The stunning Mia Sara stars as a young American girl who travels to Romania to find out what happened to her father; she has a photograph of her father, and it looks like Perkins, but when she meets him she doesn't recognize him (!), and apparently the audience is meant to gasp when Perkins is finally revealed as her father. The film is a big disappointment, though it's fun to see Noah Bennett from "Heroes" looking so young. *1/2 out of 4.

Cathy Stevens has been suffering dark dreams, and believes they have something do with her father. After the death of her mother she travels to political-torn Romania to find her father. However her investigating gets the local police questioning her motives and gaining the interest of a mysterious cult that might be able to share her information about he father.Director Stuart Gordon brings it home again. If there's a consistent director in the horror genre, Gordon's right up there. Even with the boundaries of a low-budget TV enterprise. Gordon's 'Daughter of Darkness' is an interestingly slow grinding story-driven outing that evokes sensual titillation, dreamy flickering and makes excellent use of the decoratively alienating European locations. The film authentically looks the part and is perfectly shot too. Action is limited and sees little daylight, so does any real sort of make-up FX and special effects. When the latter comes into play, there's quite an inventive inclusion to how these vampires feed on their victims. Nice touch. On the down side the story feels minor, and the developments are traditionally dry and foreseeable. However even if this the case, it's broodingly melancholy styling of such superstitious folklore manages to hold you there and lead actress Mia Sara's sensitive performance helps shape that moody allurement. Alongside her is a modest Anthony Perkins. Even with that wobbly accent, he injects some glassy intensity. Jack Coleman, Robert Reynolds and a scene-stealing Dezso Garas offered good support. Pacing can hit a few bumps, but Gordon's infectious imagery (some piercingly eerie dream scenes) and positional work is efficiently implemented. Colin Towns' music score was nothing you would expect, as I found it to be majestically layered.

"Daughter of Darkness" is an actually pretty good film with a few small flaws to it.**SPOILERS**Arriving in Romania, American Katherine Thatcher, (Mia Sara) determined to find herself a new life. While searching through the city with Max, (Dezso Garas) keeps seeing a strange dragon symbol that resembles a design on her medallion she wears which helps her along with the search for her missing father. Meeting with local Grigore Protoescu, (Robert Reynolds) who helps her along, and she manages to do a little more digging into the past, eventually coming across Anton, (Anthony Perkins) who has a terrible secret for her. Eventually cornered with the realization that her father is a member of a secret society of vampires that needs their blood to stay alive, and that everyone else she trusts is either a member or are a willful helper, she tries to escape from their clutches before she becomes one of them.The Good News: There's some good stuff to this one. One of the best is that there's a habit of including really neat scenes in random order throughout the film. Some of them are pretty creepy, including a rather intense chase of a black-robed figure through the streets at night, which leads into the incredibly explosive finale that really ends it the right way. The foot chase to the taxi later on is also pretty good, and it even manages to get in some pretty good stuff later on. There's the whole finale to this, which is where most of the fun in the film comes from. From the creepy torture dungeon to the stable hideout, there's some good locations for the all-out action assaults. Those are great, as there's the torture segment in the dungeon which is actually really cool, as the sight of the vampire being strapped to a machine that lets in daylight to scar and torch the hands, arms and face, and the impressive visual of that happening, is a great site and manages to make them feel a lot more threatening when it occurs. Then there's the confrontation in the stable, which is just great. From the introduction of the fire to set everything ablaze to the brawling with the vampires and the destruction of the location and the thrilling escape, it's really fun and enjoyable. It's also got the fact that the vampires are all knocked off by being set on-fire is really great, as there's plenty of great scenes that show them running around on fire. It's a great site, and mixed in with the really great setting and fun action make the ending fun. What makes these work is the really entertaining storyline for this one. There's a really great mystery angle at work, with the reason for the journey to Romania a logical one that allows for some creepy goings-on that it manages to incorporate because of what's going on, and they're all done really nicely in here because the story allows them to. These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: This one here had a few flaws to it that do hold it down. The main one here does have one of the worst problems with it's vampires in here. This one here does have the new bloodsucking angle, but beyond that and the can't-stand-sunlight angle, there's almost no need for them to even be vampires. This one would've worked fine with a cult of vampire wannabe's who think they're vampires or had something else done with what's been given so far, because this one really doesn't feel like a vampire film at all. This would still be entertaining with the cult angle rather than the vampire coven, and a little more with this would've been fine. The other flaw to this is that there should've been a little more action to this in the beginning. Since it focuses on the mystery more than anything else during that part, it manages to be a little boring for these scenes, as it's in the beginning and it takes a while to get into. These here are the film's few problems.The Final Verdict: With some very good points to this and only a few really noticeable flaws that hold it down, this one ends up as being one of the better entries available. Give this one a chance if it sounds interesting or find these kinds of films themselves quite fun, otherwise the flaws here will be quite worthwhile.Rated R: Violence, Language and Nudity