Sean, (Kerr Smith) an editor of B-movie trailers, takes a road trip to Florida for his sister's wedding when he picks up a hitchhiker named Nick ( Brendan Fehr). Nick is hunting down the vampire gang responsible for infecting him with their deadly blood virus. On the flip side of the coin, the gang led by Kit (Johnathon Schaech) are on the hunt for fresh meat. Joining Sean and Nick for the ride is Megan (Izabella Miko) a pawn in this vampire game.
I remember seeing the trailer for this movie a while back and thinking this might be a good movie. Trailers can be deceiving. The movie starts with Megan in a great shower scene that is very eerie. This is the general tenor of horror films in that we get this girl in trouble from the get go and we're suppose to feel for her until she is ok. The movie didn't short change us on this element. You wonder what happened to her that she is covered with blood and babbling. From there, we are swept into the world of Sean as he takes off on the road and meets Nick and later Megan again. The writing and directing is the main problem with this movie. For example, when we meet Sean we get the feeling he had a well organized life. He takes off on a trip and now he's in the company of girl on the edge, a group of blood suckers, and one vampire hunter. Yet I never got the feeling that his life had turned upside down. True, he said it had, but it happened so quickly that it felt as though he was driving to it intentionally. The rest of the movie is filled with stagnant dialogue and cinematography that goes nowhere. Another thing that bothered me with this film is the way Megan is handled in the script. This girl is given morphine and is basically out of it for a major portion of the movie, then all of a sudden she is competent enough to drive away in a car. There is also another weird discrepancy in that when they get to a house, Megan is out of it again, so the lady that owns the house takes her in and put her to bed. The sick deranged Megan, after being of no help to the story and walking around in daze wakes up and does some very good, clear, competent story telling for a girl that just woke up from a drug induced daze. J.S. Cardone attempted to make an intelligent vampire movie free throw but missed the hoop entirely. You won't find any demonic faced vampires in this film. You get nothing more than the knowledge that they are vampires. I will give him credit on the history of the vampires and I will give him credit on casting a young hunter. It would have been very easy for him to cast an older hunter to give credibility but he didn't.
As for the acting, I think the script got in the way of the actors. Kerr Smith has done some very good acting in the past (especially on Dawson's Creek) and he doesn't suck in this, but I don't feel like he was given the room to go anywhere in this film partly because the film didn't go anywhere. Brendan Fehr (Roswell) told us why he was there and that was it. I didn't believe a word he said past that. Johnathon Schaech has to be the most boring vampire leader in the history of vampire movies. In the trailers, we are led to think that Cym (Phina Oruche) is the leader and you have no idea how much I wish she was. I actually found her to be alluring even though she had little dialogue. Miko proves that it doesn't take that much talent to make it in the biz these days. You must be thoroughly learned in the fields of yelling, crying, convulsing, screaming, and having a great bod.
In my film criticism class, we learned that you have to look at a few things when you review a film. The first being what genre is the movie in and does the end product justify it's placement. You also have to look at what the movie is trying to do and say and ask yourself if it is doing that. "The Forsaken" has one major problem. It plays itself as a horror film, yet it's not scary or suspenseful. You can't call it an action picture because there isn't any. As for what it was trying to do?....Well as I stated earlier, Cardone tried to make an intelligent vampire film and didn't reach his goal at all. This movie has nothing to say or a theme. The Forsaken leaves it's audience feeling intellectually drained and financially shortchanged. I hope the actors can redeem themselves in other projects.
I remember seeing the trailer for this movie a while back and thinking this might be a good movie. Trailers can be deceiving. The movie starts with Megan in a great shower scene that is very eerie. This is the general tenor of horror films in that we get this girl in trouble from the get go and we're suppose to feel for her until she is ok. The movie didn't short change us on this element. You wonder what happened to her that she is covered with blood and babbling. From there, we are swept into the world of Sean as he takes off on the road and meets Nick and later Megan again. The writing and directing is the main problem with this movie. For example, when we meet Sean we get the feeling he had a well organized life. He takes off on a trip and now he's in the company of girl on the edge, a group of blood suckers, and one vampire hunter. Yet I never got the feeling that his life had turned upside down. True, he said it had, but it happened so quickly that it felt as though he was driving to it intentionally. The rest of the movie is filled with stagnant dialogue and cinematography that goes nowhere. Another thing that bothered me with this film is the way Megan is handled in the script. This girl is given morphine and is basically out of it for a major portion of the movie, then all of a sudden she is competent enough to drive away in a car. There is also another weird discrepancy in that when they get to a house, Megan is out of it again, so the lady that owns the house takes her in and put her to bed. The sick deranged Megan, after being of no help to the story and walking around in daze wakes up and does some very good, clear, competent story telling for a girl that just woke up from a drug induced daze. J.S. Cardone attempted to make an intelligent vampire movie free throw but missed the hoop entirely. You won't find any demonic faced vampires in this film. You get nothing more than the knowledge that they are vampires. I will give him credit on the history of the vampires and I will give him credit on casting a young hunter. It would have been very easy for him to cast an older hunter to give credibility but he didn't.
As for the acting, I think the script got in the way of the actors. Kerr Smith has done some very good acting in the past (especially on Dawson's Creek) and he doesn't suck in this, but I don't feel like he was given the room to go anywhere in this film partly because the film didn't go anywhere. Brendan Fehr (Roswell) told us why he was there and that was it. I didn't believe a word he said past that. Johnathon Schaech has to be the most boring vampire leader in the history of vampire movies. In the trailers, we are led to think that Cym (Phina Oruche) is the leader and you have no idea how much I wish she was. I actually found her to be alluring even though she had little dialogue. Miko proves that it doesn't take that much talent to make it in the biz these days. You must be thoroughly learned in the fields of yelling, crying, convulsing, screaming, and having a great bod.
In my film criticism class, we learned that you have to look at a few things when you review a film. The first being what genre is the movie in and does the end product justify it's placement. You also have to look at what the movie is trying to do and say and ask yourself if it is doing that. "The Forsaken" has one major problem. It plays itself as a horror film, yet it's not scary or suspenseful. You can't call it an action picture because there isn't any. As for what it was trying to do?....Well as I stated earlier, Cardone tried to make an intelligent vampire film and didn't reach his goal at all. This movie has nothing to say or a theme. The Forsaken leaves it's audience feeling intellectually drained and financially shortchanged. I hope the actors can redeem themselves in other projects.