Vampire Journals

Ted Nicolaou has garnered quite the cult following with his work on sequels and spin-offs of Leprechaun, Puppet Master, Subspecies and others and I can understand why. The man has been doing horror since THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE where he was working location sound and from this he worked his way all the way into the director's chair. With VAMPIRE JOURNALS we have one seriously faulted product and this is a terrible shame. Beautifully lit and shot the visuals here are way above par. The actors look fine and no doubt could have turned in far better performances with a tad more coaching. No, the problem here is the script and this is where Nicolaou should have know better. He's worked the writing depatment enough times that with all the other pieces in place he should have stepped up to the plate with some stronger words in his bat. This being said, VAMPIRE JOURNALS is still worth a damn close look for those who are fans of the genre. Sure, it's a rip-off of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE...who cares...what isn't these days....but with VAMPIRE JOURNALS you have a love of the subject matter and this boils over and infuses the project with, dare I say, more energy than is to be found in most films of this sort. Once again I have to mention the lighting. It's almost as if they are using rock show lighting techs rather than film and it works in spades. If nothing else, I have to say I admire Nicolaou for his neverending ability to find beautiful women, get them to take there clothes off and throw fake blood all over them.