There is an interesting and entertaining vampire movie buried deep deep down in the Canadian effort "Graveyard Shift", and occasionally it comes out and bares its fangs. For one thing, while the movie had a painfully low budget, it actually looks very decent. The photography and lighting is very eye-catching, and it also manages to generate a little atmosphere - you really feel the cold and creepiness of this setting. If only the screenplay had been given as much care as the movie's look and feel. For starters, you never get a real sense of what is going on in the characters' heads, particularly the taxi driving vampire. What was his past? What are his motivations? We never get the answers to questions like those. And the subplot with the estranged couple also has some vague touches and is not resolved in a satisfactory manner. The unanswered questions really pick up in the second half of the movie, with the plot really starting to become muddled. If you don't care about the plot and characters and are just looking for basic horror thrills, you'll likely be disappointed - there is not much blood and gore, though to compensate there are several instances where the characters take off their clothes. I don't think the movie works in the end, but apparently it did work for enough people during its initial release on home video, because there was a sequel the following year. But I'm in no rush to track down a copy.
Review of Graveyard Shift
