God of Vampires (2010) – New DVD Movie Reviews

By The Vocabulariast on Sunday, 11th July 2010

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After watching the trailer, I wasn’t expecting much from God of Vampires. The film looked grainy, sort of cheap, and decidedly hokey. But then I actually sat down with the film, and what I discovered is perhaps the coolest indie action horror movie in film history. Filmed over a series of years, mostly on weekends, with an almost non-existent budget, God of Vampires is a gloriously brutal vampire flick that is dripping with atmosphere, cool colors, and creative and enjoyable fight sequences.

Rarely does the blending of so many different genres work so fluidly. God of Vampires is equal parts Big Trouble in Little China, John Woo action flick, and Takashi Miike weirdness all rolled into one. In the film, an assassin named Frank Ng is hired for a million bucks to kill some dude. Frank, being the badass that he is, heads off to slaughter a bunch of people, and then he meets up with a vampire lord. Instead of killing him, the vampire lord curses him… by making sure that everyone who even comes into contact with Frank is brutally murdered. This includes random strangers and even Frank’s good-for-nothing brother. After Frank’s favorite seedy hangout is assaulted by the vampire lord, which leads to some sweet gory death, Frank seeks out help in the form of a wise old man named Uncle Ping at a local Chinese Food Restaurant. Together, Frank, Uncle Ping, and the rest of the people in the restaurant figure out a way to combat the vampire lord and his horde of shuffling, eyeless, tongue-less goons.

God of Vampires is a rare treat from director Rob Fitz. Fitz, who apparently moonlighted as a janitor during the filming of the movie, puts together a stunning piece of indie blood and tears. Visually, the film is dark, at times to a detriment, but always done with an eye to style. There are oodles of iconic and cool moments within the film, and Fitz does a nice job of injecting some humor into the script. The film alternates between being cheesily hilarious, utterly brutal, and simply wonderful to look at. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a low-budget indie effort quite as much as I did God of Vampires. The film is off the wall, loaded with violence, and generally entertaining for its entirety.

The one thing that may prevent someone from loving it as much as I do is the sound mix, which is atrocious at best. The film is blanketed in obtrusive synth music which oftentimes drowns out the dialogue of the characters. The dialogue is amusing hard-boiled fare, which you’ll actually want to hear, but the ever-present and ultimately pointless score requires you to turn the TV up to dangerously loud levels simply to try and pick out what the characters are saying.

God of Vampires features a rarity in the indie movie world, a mostly Asian-American cast. Even better, these Asian-American characters aren’t stock stereotypes, but interesting unique characters that are more realistic than anything else. Dharma Lim does an excellent job as Frank Ng, the killer assassin. He lacks the presence of a typical action star, but he is more than capable of pulling off this role. Ben Wang is solid as Uncle Ping, the wise holder of ancient Chinese lore and the spiritual guide for the other characters.

Of course, God of Vampires wouldn’t have worked were it not for one thing… the buckets of revolting gore that are shot, poured, and draped throughout the film. The violence in this film is awesome, and it’s all fashioned from practical effects. The amount of blood sprays and severed limbs in this film puts most films to shame. It’s badass through and through, and everything special effects-wise works in the film.

Normally, when I’m done talking about an indie flick, I make all sorts of qualitative statements meant to warn people that it’s a low-budget film with low-budget flaws which need to be overlooked. With God of Vampires, I don’t have to do that. The film is simply one of the best of the year, and easily worth the buy from anyone who likes horror movies and vampires.

Final Synopsis: I was surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It’s pretty awesome. I say buy it.

Points Lost: -1 for some excessive darkness in a few areas, -1 for a miserable sound mix

Bonus Points: +1 for piles of cool scenes and tons of gore

Lesson Learned: Chinese vampires are a hell of a lot harder to kill than regular vampires.

Burning Question: When do we get the sequel?

God of Vampires
9/10