Well, on the positive side I learned two things about vampires that I never knew before. (1) Besides drinking blood vampires also chew and swallow flesh. Until now I'd thought that only zombies did. (2) when stabbed, fatally choked, or exposed to sufficient sunlight, vampires catch fire. My advice to young people is to make your first date with anyone in the sunlight. While not surprised by the amount of beatings that vampires can take, I was amazed by how much damage human martial arts men and women can sustain without being seriously hindered. Also, though this is also true in many crime and Western movies, how severe beatings leave them unbruised. On the negative side, the dozens of martial arts dances (or whatever one calls them) were boring from the start and remained so. Such movies as the Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer? series demonstrate that this need not be so. The camera work was extremely jerky. So was the music, and often it didn't seem to "fit" what was going on. I'm a bit puzzled why a policewoman would wear stiletto heels when sneaking through a window into a dangerous building, but at least her doing so made it easier to recognize her in the subsequent muddy photography. I was amazed by the number of bullets that ordinary-seeming hand guns can hold. As is also common in crime movies and Westerns, their users also tend to be amazingly poor shots. Mercifully, the actors used the f-word rarely, though (less mercifully) most often in connection with maternal incest.
11 Reviews
Don't eat the fighters
nogodnomasters15 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Fight club. Vampires. Cop with a childhood vendetta. Add some bad acting and uneven sound.
The 1977 flashback film is grainy and washed because in 1977 that was all you could buy from Kodak. Since it wasn't found footage, why make it so bad? There is also plenty of gore and a metal soundtrack which make the film near cult. The cop was able to locate the Vampire Fight Club, because the first rule of Vampire fight club is "we need new blood." Watched as part of a muti-pack DVD.
Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.
The 1977 flashback film is grainy and washed because in 1977 that was all you could buy from Kodak. Since it wasn't found footage, why make it so bad? There is also plenty of gore and a metal soundtrack which make the film near cult. The cop was able to locate the Vampire Fight Club, because the first rule of Vampire fight club is "we need new blood." Watched as part of a muti-pack DVD.
Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.
Pathetic...
jimbob921017 January 2009
Want my advice? Avoid this film at all costs. I, in all honesty, wanted to like this movie. It looked at first glance like a Fight Club/Blade crossover, and how wrong I was...
I've heard of low budgets, but this must have been REALLY LOW. I mean, they used special effects for most of the blood, when it would have been a lot better to use stage blood. Because the effects are officially the worst I have ever seen, and need I remind you that this was made in 2007? Muzzle flashes, are also poorly added, as is fire and smoke.
The acting is just terrible, especially in one scene. The fighting and action scenes (actually the reason I watched this movie) were slow and unengaging, and the (terrible) CGI was un-necassarily added and only served to degrade them further.
Nothing that happens can save this film from being one of the poorest decisions I have ever made. Action fans will be disappointed at the sheer awfulness of this movie. Vampire fans will be disappointed at the actors chosen to be the neck-biters. This film promises so much but delivers NOTHING! Just steer clear my friends. Well clear.
I've heard of low budgets, but this must have been REALLY LOW. I mean, they used special effects for most of the blood, when it would have been a lot better to use stage blood. Because the effects are officially the worst I have ever seen, and need I remind you that this was made in 2007? Muzzle flashes, are also poorly added, as is fire and smoke.
The acting is just terrible, especially in one scene. The fighting and action scenes (actually the reason I watched this movie) were slow and unengaging, and the (terrible) CGI was un-necassarily added and only served to degrade them further.
Nothing that happens can save this film from being one of the poorest decisions I have ever made. Action fans will be disappointed at the sheer awfulness of this movie. Vampire fans will be disappointed at the actors chosen to be the neck-biters. This film promises so much but delivers NOTHING! Just steer clear my friends. Well clear.
What is up with the ratings on this film?!
nuelow19 February 2008
I watched "Fist of the Vampire" last night, and it's not a 10 but it's certainly not a 1. So, I have to wonder about the ratings I'm seeing here. Were they made by people who need to watch more movies so they have something to measure against? Or were they made by users who were being disingenuous?
The screener I saw had some problems with sound mixing (much of the dialogue was muddled while the foley artist's "meaty thwacks" during the fight scenes came across with crystal clarity), the fight scenes were well filmed but under-rehearsed (they all screamed "choreographed" to me) and there were many places where just a few seconds trimmed here and would have the difference between a scene going on for too long and it being just right.
Oh, and they used that animated bullet waaaaay too much at the beginning of the film. It was a neat effect the first time, but it got less impressive as it was repeated.
However, the acting was better than what I've come to expect from films at this level, the use of CGI and blue-screen effects was also pretty decent (even if I still don't know what all those sparks during the final showdown between Reno and Lee were all about), and the story was pretty solid and flowed nicely. There were no surprises in it, but it chugged along at a good pace.
"Fist of the Vampire" is a low 5 on my scale, and I wish I could understand what inspires such love or hatred that would cause someone to rate it a 10 or a 1.
The screener I saw had some problems with sound mixing (much of the dialogue was muddled while the foley artist's "meaty thwacks" during the fight scenes came across with crystal clarity), the fight scenes were well filmed but under-rehearsed (they all screamed "choreographed" to me) and there were many places where just a few seconds trimmed here and would have the difference between a scene going on for too long and it being just right.
Oh, and they used that animated bullet waaaaay too much at the beginning of the film. It was a neat effect the first time, but it got less impressive as it was repeated.
However, the acting was better than what I've come to expect from films at this level, the use of CGI and blue-screen effects was also pretty decent (even if I still don't know what all those sparks during the final showdown between Reno and Lee were all about), and the story was pretty solid and flowed nicely. There were no surprises in it, but it chugged along at a good pace.
"Fist of the Vampire" is a low 5 on my scale, and I wish I could understand what inspires such love or hatred that would cause someone to rate it a 10 or a 1.
The worst film I have seen in ages, it's amateur hour filmmaking.
poolandrews22 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Fist of the Vampire is set in Pennsylvania & starts during 1977 late one night as a man named Reno (Len Kabasinski) witnesses two Vampires named Jade (Darian Caine) & Nicholas (Brian 'Blue Meanie' Heffron) killing a woman, shocked Reno heads straight home & calls the police but both Jade & Nicholas break into his house, attack Reno & kill his wife as the house burns to the ground around them. Decades later & the case remains unsolved as Jade, Nicholas & Reno who is now a Vampire run an illegal fighting tournament & gambling ring, anyone can enter & try to earn big money & be crown champion including undercover cops Stephen Lee (Brian Anthony Fabian) & Davidson (Cheyenne King) who take part in the tournament in order to get closer to the organisers. But the two cops soon realise that they are not dealing with ordinary criminals & are in fact up against undead Vampires...
Written, produced & directed by Len Kabasinski who also has an acting role in it Fist of the Vampire is maybe the worst film I seen since Kabasinski's previous martial arts horror abomination Swamp Zombies (2005). I suppose th title Fist of the Vampire is quite cool & conjures up images of an Asian martial arts horror filming involving Vampires (which it isn't, by the way) but everything else about it is utter crap. Where do you even start to try & critically evaluate such a poor piece of filmmaking? How can I possibly hope to get across just how unrelentingly bad Fist of the Vampire actually is? The script which one might say tries to mix Fight Club (1999) & Blade (1998) is an absolute mess with no identifiable structure to it all, the plot (if you can call it that) is wafer thin & amounts to nothing more than a jumbled collection of poor set-pieces that vary between martial arts fighting & horror although the film sorely lacks on both counts. I can't believe how bad the script & plot is, I can't believe how empty & devoid of character, incident & forward momentum it is. Nothing is explained or given any sort of background, from the character's who are paper thin to the shallowness of it all. I mean the Vampires are given no background (why was Nichols dressed as a Sheriff & talking to a news crew at the start & what happened to his career in law enforcement?) as to how they became Vampires, what can or can't kill them or even why they are operating a Mortal Kombat style fighting tournament. Was it for financial gain? Did they like the power? Did they just get a kick out of watching the fights? Was it to select strong, athletic, fit & healthy victims from whom to drink blood? What were they trying to get out of it exactly? What was with the pointless subplot about rival drug dealers? Neither of the two undercover cops are given any background either, neither are fleshed out & it's not even explained as to how they became unbeatable martial arts fighters. At an hour & a half Fist of the Vampire feels like it goes on forever, seriously I was considering turning the thing off & how made it through to the end I'll never know. I don't think even the filmmakers keep track of the character's, who they are & their relevance. A complete waste of time & surely one of the very worst films ever commercially released & an abysmal way to spend an hour & a half.
As well as being a conceptual mess with no structure or flow or legible plot to speak of Fist of the Vampire feels & looks like it was made by a bunch of friends just fooling around a with a camcorder, that may sound harsh but Fist of the Vampire is an incompetent eyesore of a film. There are a few gun fights (why was Lee chasing & shooting at that woman at the start again? Oh yeah, it's never explained why) & all the bullets, nozzle flashes, sparks & damage are CGI computer effects & they look embarrassingly bad. There are also some awful CGI fire effects including a car blowing up which would look bad in a computer game. There's even some terrible looking CGI blood splatter, when a film can't even afford to or be bothered to use real fake blood for even a simple bullet wound then you know your in trouble. There's not much gore & the fight scenes are laughably bad with awful choreography, the fighters & their moves are horribly stiff, awkward, poorly edited, directed & lit in some really boring fights. The sound is also awful, the sound effects are just strange & often don't match the on screen action & the terrible heavy metal style music is inappropriate & is just another annoying reason to dislike Fist of the Vampire.
The production values are rock bottom, the opening sequence is supposed to feature rain but it's clearly not raining & the fake CGI rain looks awful, lighting conditions change between shots in the same scene, the sound is often terrible with ambient noise like passing cars drowning out the actor's & dialogue while the locations are ugly & look like basements most of the time. For some bizarre director Kabasinski insists on placing awful looking CGI smoke & sparks in lots of scenes for no apparent reason. The acting is atrocious too. WWF wrestler Brian Heffron makes an appearance with a silly looking beard.
Fist of the Vampire is a truly terrible film, there is not one redeeming aspect to it, from the dire script with no plot to the horrendous production values which offend both the eyes & ears. Trust the pathetically low IMDb User Rating score & avoid at all costs!
Written, produced & directed by Len Kabasinski who also has an acting role in it Fist of the Vampire is maybe the worst film I seen since Kabasinski's previous martial arts horror abomination Swamp Zombies (2005). I suppose th title Fist of the Vampire is quite cool & conjures up images of an Asian martial arts horror filming involving Vampires (which it isn't, by the way) but everything else about it is utter crap. Where do you even start to try & critically evaluate such a poor piece of filmmaking? How can I possibly hope to get across just how unrelentingly bad Fist of the Vampire actually is? The script which one might say tries to mix Fight Club (1999) & Blade (1998) is an absolute mess with no identifiable structure to it all, the plot (if you can call it that) is wafer thin & amounts to nothing more than a jumbled collection of poor set-pieces that vary between martial arts fighting & horror although the film sorely lacks on both counts. I can't believe how bad the script & plot is, I can't believe how empty & devoid of character, incident & forward momentum it is. Nothing is explained or given any sort of background, from the character's who are paper thin to the shallowness of it all. I mean the Vampires are given no background (why was Nichols dressed as a Sheriff & talking to a news crew at the start & what happened to his career in law enforcement?) as to how they became Vampires, what can or can't kill them or even why they are operating a Mortal Kombat style fighting tournament. Was it for financial gain? Did they like the power? Did they just get a kick out of watching the fights? Was it to select strong, athletic, fit & healthy victims from whom to drink blood? What were they trying to get out of it exactly? What was with the pointless subplot about rival drug dealers? Neither of the two undercover cops are given any background either, neither are fleshed out & it's not even explained as to how they became unbeatable martial arts fighters. At an hour & a half Fist of the Vampire feels like it goes on forever, seriously I was considering turning the thing off & how made it through to the end I'll never know. I don't think even the filmmakers keep track of the character's, who they are & their relevance. A complete waste of time & surely one of the very worst films ever commercially released & an abysmal way to spend an hour & a half.
As well as being a conceptual mess with no structure or flow or legible plot to speak of Fist of the Vampire feels & looks like it was made by a bunch of friends just fooling around a with a camcorder, that may sound harsh but Fist of the Vampire is an incompetent eyesore of a film. There are a few gun fights (why was Lee chasing & shooting at that woman at the start again? Oh yeah, it's never explained why) & all the bullets, nozzle flashes, sparks & damage are CGI computer effects & they look embarrassingly bad. There are also some awful CGI fire effects including a car blowing up which would look bad in a computer game. There's even some terrible looking CGI blood splatter, when a film can't even afford to or be bothered to use real fake blood for even a simple bullet wound then you know your in trouble. There's not much gore & the fight scenes are laughably bad with awful choreography, the fighters & their moves are horribly stiff, awkward, poorly edited, directed & lit in some really boring fights. The sound is also awful, the sound effects are just strange & often don't match the on screen action & the terrible heavy metal style music is inappropriate & is just another annoying reason to dislike Fist of the Vampire.
The production values are rock bottom, the opening sequence is supposed to feature rain but it's clearly not raining & the fake CGI rain looks awful, lighting conditions change between shots in the same scene, the sound is often terrible with ambient noise like passing cars drowning out the actor's & dialogue while the locations are ugly & look like basements most of the time. For some bizarre director Kabasinski insists on placing awful looking CGI smoke & sparks in lots of scenes for no apparent reason. The acting is atrocious too. WWF wrestler Brian Heffron makes an appearance with a silly looking beard.
Fist of the Vampire is a truly terrible film, there is not one redeeming aspect to it, from the dire script with no plot to the horrendous production values which offend both the eyes & ears. Trust the pathetically low IMDb User Rating score & avoid at all costs!
Finally Uwe Boll has a challenger
rhianw20 January 2010
I am genuinely astounded at how bad this film is: The script, if you can call it that, is just awful.
The furniture in my house would have been more convincing than the 'actors' in this film; I honestly have seen better acting at a pre-school nativity play! The (not so) special effects would have been more convincing if they had drawn on the actors with a crayon.
The fight scenes are just plain dull, which is a shame as it looks to have some fairly talented martial artists in the cast.
Len Kabasinski needs to understand the concept of "take two" I have thought long and hard to try and find at least one redeeming quality of this film and the best that I can come up with is that it makes the work of Uwe Boll look good...
If only there was a mark lower that 1 star I could award. Just please don't waste your time or money on this film, you have been warned.
The furniture in my house would have been more convincing than the 'actors' in this film; I honestly have seen better acting at a pre-school nativity play! The (not so) special effects would have been more convincing if they had drawn on the actors with a crayon.
The fight scenes are just plain dull, which is a shame as it looks to have some fairly talented martial artists in the cast.
Len Kabasinski needs to understand the concept of "take two" I have thought long and hard to try and find at least one redeeming quality of this film and the best that I can come up with is that it makes the work of Uwe Boll look good...
If only there was a mark lower that 1 star I could award. Just please don't waste your time or money on this film, you have been warned.
Really?!?!?!?!
jcromwell6676214 May 2014
OK, I try to see artistic merit in the films I see, but I'm just not seeing it here. I mean, really?!?!? I usually prefer to have crackers with this much cheese.
The "fight" scenes were just, well, awful. I freely admit, I am not into the whole martial arts and vampires thing, but I do enjoy a good movie, providing its good. I understand that this is, primarily, a "booby and blood" film, but even that was left wanting at best. Poorly written, poorly filmed, poorly acted, and a cast of ugly, ugly people.
If you are really just hard up for some back ground noise, and have nothing better to do, I suggest you stick a roll of quarters in a blender for 96 minutes. It will still be less painful than sitting through this disaster of a "movie".
If I had paid more than $.99 for this movie out of the bargain bin at (i wont name the retailer, i am sure they would be ashamed) I would be beyond mad. As it stands, could someone PLEASE tell the producers of this movie I would like the 96 minutes of my life back that I wasted on this abomination.
On the upside, if you take a DVD, drill a hole in the edge, and suspend it over your garden, it helps keep the birds away.
With this said, I bid you all, good day!!
The "fight" scenes were just, well, awful. I freely admit, I am not into the whole martial arts and vampires thing, but I do enjoy a good movie, providing its good. I understand that this is, primarily, a "booby and blood" film, but even that was left wanting at best. Poorly written, poorly filmed, poorly acted, and a cast of ugly, ugly people.
If you are really just hard up for some back ground noise, and have nothing better to do, I suggest you stick a roll of quarters in a blender for 96 minutes. It will still be less painful than sitting through this disaster of a "movie".
If I had paid more than $.99 for this movie out of the bargain bin at (i wont name the retailer, i am sure they would be ashamed) I would be beyond mad. As it stands, could someone PLEASE tell the producers of this movie I would like the 96 minutes of my life back that I wasted on this abomination.
On the upside, if you take a DVD, drill a hole in the edge, and suspend it over your garden, it helps keep the birds away.
With this said, I bid you all, good day!!
Not a Vampire Movie
aesgaard4117 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
"Fist of the Vampire" is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Not sure why it's in a DVD set of horror movies when the fight club/gangsters/street gang dominates the flick. Despite some of the characters being vampires, there is not much horror to it. Despite coming out in 2007, the film has that hazy low production look of the 70s independent movies. Most of the time, I don't know what the characters were saying because of the bad sound (the film really needs close-captioning), and I never really picked up on what the movie is about because I couldn't figure out what was going on. It seems there were new characters being introduced every five to six minutes so there's no way to follow a plot (if there is one). I mean, if you have to go to the IMDB to figure out the plot and what's going on, it's likely not the kind of movie you'll be watching again.
Cracking Watch
UK_Zombie16 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Killerwolf films get better and better.
Really good flick and somewhat dark in character. All well filmed and acted with no obvious production issues. Lots of CGI in this case. Not really my scene, but not overdone and appropriate to the setting. And lots and lots of martial stuff which I do enjoy and these scenes were very well done and choreographed. The fight scene on the beach was very realistic and violent at the same time. Thought the scene with the coffin in the shop was very well done with a real air of creepiness. A few zombies here and there (of course) would have made it perfect for me but can't complain about the amount of action in this film. Perhaps the gore could have been a bit more realistic in some cases. Production values again continue to improve and surely no one can complain about the technical aspects of the film. The cast also were good and convincing in their roles so good value given by all. Best wishes to all on this film from British fan. Cheers D.
Really good flick and somewhat dark in character. All well filmed and acted with no obvious production issues. Lots of CGI in this case. Not really my scene, but not overdone and appropriate to the setting. And lots and lots of martial stuff which I do enjoy and these scenes were very well done and choreographed. The fight scene on the beach was very realistic and violent at the same time. Thought the scene with the coffin in the shop was very well done with a real air of creepiness. A few zombies here and there (of course) would have made it perfect for me but can't complain about the amount of action in this film. Perhaps the gore could have been a bit more realistic in some cases. Production values again continue to improve and surely no one can complain about the technical aspects of the film. The cast also were good and convincing in their roles so good value given by all. Best wishes to all on this film from British fan. Cheers D.
Great Film Again from Killer Wolf
tcoll3213 July 2008
Killer Wolf gain has hit a home run with their latest film "Fist of the Vampire" Those who have read my blogs or reviews know that I personally love the films they put out in Killer Wolf Films and this one was no exception. Once again this is what I love about independent horror films and what I loathe about most Hollywood ones. Len and his crew put together films for one purpose only.....to entertain you. It's not about making a art house flick or getting on Sundance Channel but in making sure the audience had a good time watching their movie. Fist combines really scary vampires with a dash of Fight Club mixed in for good measure. Being an exceptional martial artist Len populates his films with many other exceptional fighters. Brian Anthony plays a DEA agent who infiltrates the illegal underworld fighting den run by Brian "Blue Meanie" Heffron, Len (credited as Leon South ) and Darian Caine. Unfortunately for him it isn't just about illegal gambling and drugs but the folks who run the ring are in fact vampires. The film was shot with great cinematography and really good acting to boot. Killer Wolf fans will get a kick out of seeing Rene Porada in her first bad girl role as well as Brenna Lee Roth. If you are fan of Killer Wolf this movie will exceed you expectations and if you have never seen one check it out. You won't be disappointed.
A very cool and enjoyable change of pace horror/action vampire hybrid
Woodyanders20 October 2010
Warning: Spoilers
It's always nice to see a low-budget effort that's not only done with a great deal of passion and enthusiasm, but also offers a funky and energetic handy-dandy combo of elements from both the action and horror genres. 1977: A man witnesses a vampire attack in a back alley. The vampires kill the man and his wife. However, the couple's son survives the attack. Thirty years later the man grows up to be Lee Southward (neatly played with rugged conviction by the brawny Brian Anthony), a tough and fearless undercover detective who infiltrates an illegal underground fighting ring that's run by the same trio of vampires who killed Lee's parents. Writer/director Len Kabasinski tackles the mean'n'lean material with a pleasingly fierce'n'frantic adrenalized style: the brisk pace, ferocious fisticuffs, a thrashin' hard rock soundtrack, the suitably rough'n'gritty cinematography, a pulsating score by Figblots and Chylum, the hyper-kinetic editing, and the copious graphic gore (blood squirts and spurts all over the place from severed jugular veins) all add up to one immensely entertaining movie. Better still, the actors portraying the vampires have a ball with their supremely evil parts: Brian Heffron makes for a fearsome head villain as ruthless leader Nicholas, gorgeous soft-core feature regular Darian Caine burns up the screen with her steamy portrayal of the wicked and predatory vampiress Jade (yes, fans, the delectable Ms. Caine also shows her delicious goods in a tasty lesbian love scene as well), and Leon South does well as the vicious and insatiable Reno. Moreover, there are nifty supporting contributions by Cheyenne King as formidable lady brawler Davidson and Victor Kuehn as Lee's pragmatic superior Agent Williams. The action set pieces are staged with real rip-roaring go-for-broke flair, with a drug deal that degenerates into a total bloodbath and the exciting climactic to-the-death confrontation between Lee and Nicholas rating as the definite stirring highlights. Granted, the dodgy CGI effects ain't too impressive or convincing, but overall this lively and frenetic item sizes up as good trashy Grade B fun just the same.
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