"The Last Sect" is a mildly entertaining vampire entry that isn't truly spectacular.
**SPOILERS**
Conducting an interview, reporter Sydney St. James, (Natalie Brown) investigates Anna, (Deborah Odell) the head of Internet dating service Artemis. As the site caters to women, she feels a little uneasy about doing the article. When her friend Sam, (Sebastien Roberts) shows her a secret website showing a sect of vampires torturing victims, she is even more hesitant but decides to check it out. When this starts off a cycle of weird dreams and visions of those in the video, she is drawn in deeper and deeper. Soon, vampire hunter Van Helsing, (David Carradine) discovers that there's a connection between them and rushes to stop it from happening.
The Good News: This one doesn't have a whole lot right to it. The fact that this one does have a rather unique and novel idea for the plot is one of them. This one is rather timely, since there's a recurrence of these types of sites and programs and it makes the film feel rather timely. The addition of the vampires using it gives them a new twist to their credit, and makes them seem all the smarter and more dangerous and deadly. The fact that the film does get a little creepy when it plays the online torture video is something to applaud. The setting, the interaction between the individuals partaking in it and the different angles and camera tricks make this really creepy. The film's biggest plus, though, is the fact that this has a really erotic vibe to it without it being really sleazy. The different seduction scenes in the film are done well, with the later ones being really nice and erotic, yet the fact that this one has almost nudity or sleaze during these are the great facts of the film. Along with this, this does offer up a really nice build-up to the ending, as the seduction and hunting scenes are meshed together to make it seem important as to what happens, which is always nice to see. These here are what make the film work.
The Bad News: This one wasn't all that great and did have a few problems with it. The almost extreme lack of action in the beginning of the film is something to get through, as nothing at all happens during these scenes. From the very beginning, this one isn't really that eventful and never feels like much of anything is going on. The fact that almost everything is dialog doesn't help matters, and makes them seem all the more boring. As it isn't until the hour mark that the connection is made and the vampire stalking begin, that leaves a lot of time to occur in between the action, and when the film is stuck on the endless talking scenes, most of the talking done is based around two viewpoints, the investigation into the cult and the hunting of the cult. These are really hard to get through since they go back and forth without much of anything else happening and anything else doesn't make for anything interesting. The fact that this one really has a terrible habit of quick-cutting during the big action scenes is a big problem. This really neuters the effectiveness of these scenes which is hard to take. The hard-hitting action during the end and the confrontation in the basement should've been action highlights, but they're so hard to see what's going on that they aren't that spectacular at all. The last real problem is that this one decides to have the annoying feat of either flashing back to earlier in the film or calling out on-screen what's going on. The flashbacks are the bigger of the two, since there's a habit of flashing to a scene earlier, sometimes a few minutes back, to illustrate a point that it makes in the scene. There isn't a time when this happens that it doesn't aggravate, and there's a couple times when that happens which aren't even called for. The call-outs are little better, since they state the obvious. It's really hard to believe, and these here are the film's real flaws.
The Final Verdict: This would've been fine if it only fixed a few problems, but as is there isn't a whole lot to this one. Really only for the die-hard vampire enthusiast or those who have a hankering for some low-budget fare, but the more discerning ones would better advised to avoid this one.
Rated R: Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity
**SPOILERS**
Conducting an interview, reporter Sydney St. James, (Natalie Brown) investigates Anna, (Deborah Odell) the head of Internet dating service Artemis. As the site caters to women, she feels a little uneasy about doing the article. When her friend Sam, (Sebastien Roberts) shows her a secret website showing a sect of vampires torturing victims, she is even more hesitant but decides to check it out. When this starts off a cycle of weird dreams and visions of those in the video, she is drawn in deeper and deeper. Soon, vampire hunter Van Helsing, (David Carradine) discovers that there's a connection between them and rushes to stop it from happening.
The Good News: This one doesn't have a whole lot right to it. The fact that this one does have a rather unique and novel idea for the plot is one of them. This one is rather timely, since there's a recurrence of these types of sites and programs and it makes the film feel rather timely. The addition of the vampires using it gives them a new twist to their credit, and makes them seem all the smarter and more dangerous and deadly. The fact that the film does get a little creepy when it plays the online torture video is something to applaud. The setting, the interaction between the individuals partaking in it and the different angles and camera tricks make this really creepy. The film's biggest plus, though, is the fact that this has a really erotic vibe to it without it being really sleazy. The different seduction scenes in the film are done well, with the later ones being really nice and erotic, yet the fact that this one has almost nudity or sleaze during these are the great facts of the film. Along with this, this does offer up a really nice build-up to the ending, as the seduction and hunting scenes are meshed together to make it seem important as to what happens, which is always nice to see. These here are what make the film work.
The Bad News: This one wasn't all that great and did have a few problems with it. The almost extreme lack of action in the beginning of the film is something to get through, as nothing at all happens during these scenes. From the very beginning, this one isn't really that eventful and never feels like much of anything is going on. The fact that almost everything is dialog doesn't help matters, and makes them seem all the more boring. As it isn't until the hour mark that the connection is made and the vampire stalking begin, that leaves a lot of time to occur in between the action, and when the film is stuck on the endless talking scenes, most of the talking done is based around two viewpoints, the investigation into the cult and the hunting of the cult. These are really hard to get through since they go back and forth without much of anything else happening and anything else doesn't make for anything interesting. The fact that this one really has a terrible habit of quick-cutting during the big action scenes is a big problem. This really neuters the effectiveness of these scenes which is hard to take. The hard-hitting action during the end and the confrontation in the basement should've been action highlights, but they're so hard to see what's going on that they aren't that spectacular at all. The last real problem is that this one decides to have the annoying feat of either flashing back to earlier in the film or calling out on-screen what's going on. The flashbacks are the bigger of the two, since there's a habit of flashing to a scene earlier, sometimes a few minutes back, to illustrate a point that it makes in the scene. There isn't a time when this happens that it doesn't aggravate, and there's a couple times when that happens which aren't even called for. The call-outs are little better, since they state the obvious. It's really hard to believe, and these here are the film's real flaws.
The Final Verdict: This would've been fine if it only fixed a few problems, but as is there isn't a whole lot to this one. Really only for the die-hard vampire enthusiast or those who have a hankering for some low-budget fare, but the more discerning ones would better advised to avoid this one.
Rated R: Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity