The Forsaken

Stealing its set-up from The Hitcher and its itinerant bloodsuckers from Near Dark, this tawdry exploitation pic establishes its credentials with an opening shot of a naked woman lubriciously washing her blood-smeared breasts. Filmed cheaply, mostly on desert locations, it relies heavily on nudity, gore and violence - often all at once. When LA-based schlock-movie editor Sean (Smith) picks up the drive-away Mercedes in which he plans to cruise across country to his sister's wedding in Miami, he's expressly told, 'No hitchers'. But after losing his wallet, he picks up the seemingly drug-addicted Nick (Fehr), who turns out to be a bitten but not yet turned vampire hunter with a soft spot for other strung-out victims, such as Megan (Miko). For Nick and Megan it's a case of 'Once bitten, forever smitten.' Unless they can kill the source of the virus coursing through their veins - vampire gang leader Kit (Schaech) - they are doomed to join the blood-craving undead. This starts promisingly, with an unusual variation on vampire mythology. The writer/director then squanders his wayward energies on repetitive, ham-fisted action and boring violence. Pretty boy actors Smith and Fehr fared better in Final Destination; the mostly mute Miko lets her body do the talking; the sharp cheek-boned Schaech and his striking black sidekick, Phina Oruche, exude the louche, sexless appeal of slumming fashion models.