While not John Carpenter’s best work, Vampires is still a good horror film that is big on gore and contains a lot of funny dialogue.

James Woods stars as Jack Crow, the leader of a pack of vampire slayers, commissioned by the Vatican to rid the world of the undead.

After a successful mission, a master vampire named Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), kills Jacks crew, leaving only two survivors; Jacks best friend Tony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), and Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a hooker who has a telepathic link to Valek, after being bitten by the powerful vampire.

As Jack investigates what went wrong, he finds out that Valek is after a mysterious black cross, that will give all vampires power that will spell certain doom for all mankind. It is up to Jack and what is left of his crew to stop him.

James Woods - who is at his best when unhinged - is great as the bad ass vampire slayer, while Daniel Baldwin is surprisingly good as well. Yet Thomas Ian Griffith is rather bad as Valek. He does not seem all that menacing and the majority of the time he just poses with blood dripping down his mouth.

Carpenter’s direction is (to no one’s surprise) good, but his score comes across as cheap and amateurish.

But that being said Vampires was still an entertaining watch thanks to Woods’ great performance.