Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Vampire Journals Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 3, 2015

Vampire Journals is a spiritual entry into the fan-favorite Subspecies canon, a spinoff, essentially, taking place in the same world but serving as neither a direct sequel nor prequel to any of the other films. It's a tangent film that retains the series' appeal of dark, eerie, and stylish Vampire dealings and strongly performed characters but that struggles to fill its space with a meaningful story. Written and Directed by series mainstay Ted Nicolaou, Vampire Journals tells a simple story of revenge set against a shadowy neo-Gothic European backdrop in which the worlds of day and night, of life and death, of blood and spirit collide.

The Vampire Zachary (David Gunn), wielding a powerful, ancient blade of some import and great power, travels to Bucharest to hunt down the vampiric bloodline responsible for turning his beloved Rebecca (Rodica Lupu) and forcing him to kill her. His primary target is Ash (Jonathon Morris), a sophisticated vampire with an ear for fine music and a lust for beautiful women. He's drawn to a talented musician named Sofia (Kirsten Cerre) whom he pays to perform a private concert at his club in hopes of earning her trust and, eventually, turning her. Soon, she finds herself in the middle of a battle between ancient spirits and disparate motivations from which she cannot escape.

For better or for worse -- or maybe better said for better and worse -- story plays second in Vampire Journals to the film's exacting cinematography. While the film makes use of fairly standard Vampire film visual cues -- dark, shadowy backdrops and fog galore help make a moody environment so thick with genre goodness one can practically sink a pair of fangs into it -- it does so to an extent that it simply overpowers the story. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the story is about as routine as they come, even considering a fairly unique avenue of entry that pits one vampire against another. Still, the film's A-plus ambience dominates, making it a visually resplendent thing, arguably one of the finest examples of brooding aura and lurking evil ever captured, at least in a lower-budget movie. The movie builds a greater sense of fear, doubt, and impending bloodshed by way of its finely tuned environment than it does through its story specifics or character dealings, making it perhaps one of the few quintessential, and rare, examples of mood carrying a movie much farther than plot.

Yet even with the rather trite ebbs and flows of the core story, the cast proves surprisingly strong and more than capable of carrying the movie well beyond the limitations of its script. Both Jonathon Morris and David Gunn are superb as the film's lead vampires, both finding a natural balance between hopelessly gothic and contemporary. Nicolaou's polished script -- at least as it concerns dialogue; the general action and drama are a bit stale -- gives them plenty of juicy material to make their own, which they do with aplomb. They play off one another and their environment remarkably well, sinking into their respective parts not simply by way of wardrobe, makeup, and that aforementioned environment but grasping finer details and channeling their motivations and constructed histories beautifully. Kirsten Cerre is quite good as the human caught in the middle. Her character plays a bit more simply and, beyond a couple of off-the-cuff comments to her friends, seems not particularly taken aback by the fact that she's drawn the attention of the two palest, longest fanged, and most strangely dressed men she's likely ever met. But like the audience, she need only go along for the ride, really, and enjoy the pluses the movie has to offer, pluses that manage to overwhelm the minuses by sheer force of cinematic beauty.

Vampire Journals Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Vampire Journals' Blu-ray release impresses. Full Moon's video transfers are generally of a high quality, the older titles in particular often presented with an attractive film-quality image. This release is no different. Grain, moderate throughout with spikes to heavy, remains intact, providing an attractive surface and emphasizing the transfer's many finely ornate and intricate details, whether fine interior appointments, rougher yet no less beautiful city streets, clothing textures, or skin, both natural human skin and paler, smoother vampire skin. Details are routinely precise and attractive with little give to softness. The film's color palette is deliberately held back, favoring grays and blues and blacks and mostly dim and warmer interiors. Red blood is robust but not standing so far apart as to break the moody ambient illusion. Black levels are often pure and deep but waver to a brighter, washed out appearance on occasion. Skin tones are a little warm but obviously very pale on vampire characters. A few minor bits of debris and stray vertical lines appear from time to time, but most are unobtrusive. Very minor blocking is also evident in a few places. On the whole, however, this is a good quality and commendable effort from Full Moon.

Vampire Journals Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Full Moon's video transfers generally impress, the same cannot be said of the studio's soundtracks. Vampire Journals offers another passable, but disappointing, Full Moon lossy 5.1 soundtrack. While the track satisfies basic requirements, including a healthy, wide front end spacing, it can present various details and broader elements like with several problems, chief amongst them an imbalance that pushes sound to one dominant side of the stage (11:30 mark at a gambling establishment) or plays music or effects with a noticeable hollowness (a sword swipe that decapitates a character early on). Surrounds aren't incessantly active or even mildly important in terms of shaping the atmosphere or carrying some of the music. Dialogue is at least healthy, clear and center focused with minimal trouble in general presentation.

Vampire Journals Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Vampire Journals contains a commentary, a vintage "Videozone" featurette, and trailers.

• Audio Commentary: Charles Band and Writer/Director Ted Nicolaou discuss a broad range of topics, including the snowy opening title sequence, casting, the differences in budget and filmmaking then and today, shooting locations, stories from the shoot, technical details of the shoot, and more. This is a good, well-rounded track that fans should find to be of value.
• Videozone (480i, 20:04): The classic Full Moon supplement begins with a plot overview with Writer/Director Ted Nicolaou and continues with a glimpse into casting, the cast discussing their participation in the film, cinematography, and special effects. The piece ends with about six minutes of previews.
• Trailers (1080p): Vampire Journals, Trophy Heads, Ooga Booga, Reel Evil, Subspecies, Subspecies 2, Subspecies 3, and Subspecies 4.

Vampire Journals Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Vampire Journals is more character and atmosphere than it is story. That's not a bad thing. It's a rare example of the superficialities taking command of a movie, and it works because Nicolaou carefully constructs it that way, pointing every last bit of budget in that direction and, like most vintage Full Moon titles, getting a huge amount of mileage out of a relatively small pool of resources. This is a good movie, not a bastion of dramatic creativity by any stretch of the imagination but a beautifully moody and precisely performed picture that will reward patient viewers. Full Moon's Blu-ray release of Vampire Journals delivers rock-solid video, passable lossy audio, and a couple of good supplements. Recommended.