Macabre…ish Horror Review: Vampire Journals

Vampire Journals, 1997/ 1 hr 32 min

A vampire, Zachary (David Gunn) seeking revenge stalks the king of vampires, Ash (Johnathan Morris), a master who’s powers evolved over countless centuries. While Ash stalked his prey from the stage, a pianist, Sophia (Kirsten Cerre). Zachary had his chance but instead opted to save her. He feels empathy for humans, even when he feeds, it is while they slumber.

Zachary decides to try again at Club Muse, Ash’s sanctuary, managed by Iris (Starr Andreeff), a human. There convenes other vampires, including Anton (Dan Condurache) who Ash insists has robbed him. Ash is owed half of Anton’s wealth for gifting him an extra century of life. This among other things point to unrest in this house.

Meanwhile, Zachary gets to know Sophia as he walks her home and warns her to be extra careful. Ash will be back.

Ash sends another invitation to Sophia, this time to play a private gig at the club for $1000. And Zachary does not intervene. Ash makes Sophia spend the night after biting her, he sleeps in his dusty, crusty corpse state until he wakes, when his body reconstitutes it’s self. And when he does he wants her devotion for eternity or he will punish her until she begs for mercy.

The unrest in this house that lives just under the surface of nobility, spirals into chaos. Underlings are running amok…Dimitri (Mihai Dinvale) accidentally kills his consort, Cassandra (Ilinca Goia) is jealous and restless. Anton stalls paying what he owes with his begrudging attorney. Even Iris has a secret. The remedy seems to be slaughter.

And while all this is happening, Ash begs Sophia for love and devotion and in return he will not destroy the source of her artistry. The tenants of the house are so out of control that few will be left by dawn.

This is directed by Ted Nicolaou and is the precurser to Subspecies, a series created by Full Moon Studios and Castel Film Studios. This vampire film is very of the time (90s) and there’s a lot of blood with some gore, mostly physical effects except for the CGI when vampires die by via Sun, not a fan of that. The pacing was pretty good and the only thing that really annoyed me is that Ash was a whiner, constantly begging for and by and large, failing to get everyone’s devotion. It did feel a little bit like Interview With a Vampire. This is another Full Moon classic! Watch out for the Full Moon appreciation episode on Macabre…ish Cults, Classics & Horrors Podcast!