Priest (2011)

Elevator Pitch: After generations of war between humans and vampires, which are fanged but faceless monsters, assisted by weird but human familiars, the population has retreated into walled cities, and the few remaining vampires confined to “reservations”. The blood suckers have been subdued by warrior priests  who are in retirement. But when the vampires come out again, a situation denied by the Church, and an important young woman is kidnapped, a priest has to disobey the Church to take on the vampires again.

Content: There is no nudity or sex or drinking. There is a sort of prologue as priests are ambushed by vampires. Then a family in the boondocks are attacked. The priest appears before the church leaders more than once. He and others ride about on their unusual motor cycles. There is a lot of time spent in the dark as the priests search out the monsters. Then there is the train steaming acoss the wasteland – I thought this was interesting – and then some explosions, gunfire and hand to hand combat.

A View: Well, I thought, with that cast it should be pretty watchable, and once past the animation, showing us how the wars with the vampires took place it was pretty shiny, and the city (or cities) all looked expensive. And then the priest and his help storm out into the desert – It looks like the Bolivian salt flats – and from there it went down hill. The vampires were difficult for me apparently faceless monsters with fangs, briefly frightening, but not a long term threat. So they needed a modified human – breaking the film’s own rules. But I’m giving it more time than it is worth. This is a dire outing, so best give it a miss.

Additional info: This film bombed at the box office achieving 16% on Rotten Tomatoes – so someone liked it! Why?