In the desert town of Purgatory, the locals wear special UVA/B sunglasses, cover themselves in protective sunblock, and shade themselves from the sun with umbrellas: when you're a vampire living in the desert, you can't afford to take any chances.From Anthony Hickox, director of fun anthology-style horror Waxwork (1988), comes this equally enjoyable vampire/western hybrid which typifies the unique, quirky, and somewhat campy nature of many a late-'80s horror flick. As is immediately evident from the prologue—which tells of forward thinking vampires who are attempting to harmonise with humans, synthesising blood so they need not kill—this film takes a refreshingly original approach to the very old vampire sub-genre.David Carradine plays Count Mardulak, the town's leader, who is experiencing teething troubles with his synthetic blood processing plant. Trouble is also brewing in the form of elder vampire Ethan Jefferson (John Ireland), who has formed an army of followers who are willing to kill their own kind in order to return to the old ways. Caught in the middle of this uprising is the plant's human designer David Harrison (Jim Metzler), who has travelled to Purgatory with his family (sexy wife Sarah, played by Morgan Brittany, and two irritating brats) to try and solve the plant's problems, unaware of the true nature of the townsfolk. Meanwhile, vampire hunter Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell) is in town seeking to continue his ancestor's work.Director Hickox conducts this silliness with his tongue firmly in cheek, offering up cheesy gore, stop motion vampire bats, death by umbrella, guns that fire wooden bullets, and the awesome sight of delicious horror babe Deborah Foreman in over-the-knee socks and mini skirt, brandishing a machine gun. As if that wasn't enough, Hickox also finds time to deliver some stunning shots of the Utah landscape, an all-guns-blazing shootout between good and bad bloodsuckers, and a heart-warming finale in which a giant cross vanquishes the evil but spares the righteous, Mardulak and his followers having been forgiven by God.

Bruce (Evil Dead) Campbell and David (Kung Fu) Carradine headline this 1989 109 minute comedy horror which crosses over into the Western genre too. I found this film a nice surprise and entertaining to boot. A town of Vampires headed up by 'the Count' himself (played by Carradine) are looking to co-exist with humans in what feels like a retirement village set in a John Ford-esque Wild West town. Unfortunately Jefferson (John Ireland) has different ideas and feels that his species shouldn't have to co-exist in harmony, why wear factor 1000 sunblock and drink synthetic blood when living humans are a plentiful source of food. As it happens to synthetic supply is in danger and the only way to fix the situation is a living human scientist with the relevant skills so it's through his family's eyes that we tend to follow the action and story. Throw in Bruce Campbell as a bumbling idiotic modern Van Helsing and you have some great ingredients for making a film that it's stuck in the horror genre alone. Laughs a plenty with a cute story and some fun events make this a great if slightly camp way of enjoying 109 minutes, to me this is more entertaining than watching "True Blood" which also features vampires and synthetic blood because it really doesn't take itself too seriously :P 7 out of 10 from me on this.

Sundown - featuring the weakest, dorkiest vampires ever seen, accompanied by one of the most unfitting, pretentious scores ever written - and with Shane the vampire, who's every move and spoken word was so ridiculous that I burst out laughing half the times and rolled my eyes the rest.The vampires don't seem to have any special powers at all - except for strength (sometimes), being able to switch off a lamp with their mind (one time) and... that's it, really. Ever imagine count Dracula worriedly recoiling from a fight 'cause he ran out of bullets? Neither did I. Practically any other movie-Dracula would eat this one for breakfast, skin his followers and use their bones as toothpicks.The main plot of the movie is that a human family of four gets caught up in a vampire gang fight - Dracula's vs. some old geezer's. It could have been some good old B-flick fun, but the overly dramatic music was clearly written by someone who took this movie a bit too seriously, and ends up ruining the remaining part of the movie not already ruined by clay bats, mediocre acting and the laughable screenplay.In the end it's just too silly to be funny. Sure, it has some amusing moments, but they're few, and far apart.

I can still fondly recall the first time I ever watched 'Sundown - The Vampire In Retreat' on VHS.There was a certain air of easy going charm about the movie that welcomed into it's overwhelming charms and as such I pretty much had a VHS copy within my collection ever since.Since I first heard through the grapevine about the Liongsgate release, I carefully bided my time, that is until my wife secretly ordered me a copy that arrived much to my surprise on Christmas Eve 2008.Now having watched the movie countless times down throughout the years, I decided, when time was on my side, ie, my wife was out of the house, I created space for myself, gathered myself a few beers and sat down to watch the movie with the audio commentary switched on.Since the arrival of DVD, the notion of having a director's commentary has always been the ultimate selling point in buying any of my personal favourites, I like to know the in's and out's of how the movie came to be.Of course the major problem that some of the classics have when it comes to the audio commentaries for the vast majority of films always depends on how old the movie is and generally how good the memory of the participants can be.Specific movies that come to mind that let the side down when it came to the audio aspect were 'Hell Night' & 'The Prowler' of course the makers of such classics would go on to make many other classics within and outwith the genre, but more often than not, their collective memory would often more sketchy than fulfilling.Such is the case with Sundown, too many gaps exist within the commentary, I guess it's too bad that the movie languished in distributor hell for so long.To be honest whilst watching the movie complete with the commentary I found myself quoting the dialogue the movie.However rather than dwell on such a small thing as that, the vast majority of the extras still rock, especially the memories of both Bruce Campbell & M. Emmet Walsh.The movie itself has stood the test of time, the overall casting of the movie added to the joy of the movie, watching the likes of Jim Metzler, so good 'Circuitry Man' & Deborah Foreman oozing such sex appeal as Sandy are timeless examples.It's too bad Vestron Pictures no longer exist, but as long as companies like Lionsgate have the belief to resurrect such great examples of straight to video classics and breath new life into them by releasing them onto DVD is both reassuring and exciting.This movie as well as the first 'Waxwork were both fine examples of what Anthony Hickox could do with limited funds and snappy scripts.This special Edition rules in every way possible and that's why my rating is 10/10