Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

People are voting emotionally.

A Masterpiece!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In the desert town of Purgatory, the locals wear special UVA/B sunglasses, cover themselves in protective sunblock, and shade themselves from the sun with umbrellas: when you're a vampire living in the desert, you can't afford to take any chances.From Anthony Hickox, director of fun anthology-style horror Waxwork (1988), comes this equally enjoyable vampire/western hybrid which typifies the unique, quirky, and somewhat campy nature of many a late-'80s horror flick. As is immediately evident from the prologue—which tells of forward thinking vampires who are attempting to harmonise with humans, synthesising blood so they need not kill—this film takes a refreshingly original approach to the very old vampire sub-genre.David Carradine plays Count Mardulak, the town's leader, who is experiencing teething troubles with his synthetic blood processing plant. Trouble is also brewing in the form of elder vampire Ethan Jefferson (John Ireland), who has formed an army of followers who are willing to kill their own kind in order to return to the old ways. Caught in the middle of this uprising is the plant's human designer David Harrison (Jim Metzler), who has travelled to Purgatory with his family (sexy wife Sarah, played by Morgan Brittany, and two irritating brats) to try and solve the plant's problems, unaware of the true nature of the townsfolk. Meanwhile, vampire hunter Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell) is in town seeking to continue his ancestor's work.Director Hickox conducts this silliness with his tongue firmly in cheek, offering up cheesy gore, stop motion vampire bats, death by umbrella, guns that fire wooden bullets, and the awesome sight of delicious horror babe Deborah Foreman in over-the-knee socks and mini skirt, brandishing a machine gun. As if that wasn't enough, Hickox also finds time to deliver some stunning shots of the Utah landscape, an all-guns-blazing shootout between good and bad bloodsuckers, and a heart-warming finale in which a giant cross vanquishes the evil but spares the righteous, Mardulak and his followers having been forgiven by God.

(Credit IMDb) Reclusive vampires lounge in a lonely American town. They wear sun cream to protect themselves. A descendant of Van Helsing arrives with hilarious consequences.I wasn't ever bored with this movie, but I had difficulty getting into it. It does have scenes that are quite amusing and others where I found myself blinking at the screen, because it fell flat. It's that kind of movie. You'll either like it or you won't. I didn't dislike it by any means, but it's not something that was for me. I did think it was audacious for them to make a few of the vampires sympathetic, and refrain themselves from digging in on human blood. Yes. I realize this concept has been done before, but the way they did it in this movie was unique. It never takes itself very seriously, and that I did wind up liking. The desert setting was decent, but they didn't really take full advantage of it either. This movie isn't a gore fest, but it does have a few stand-out moments, including a decapitation, and my personal favorite, an impaling with an umbrella. David Carradine is fun as the Count, but he doesn't have as much screen time as you may think. Considering his stature at this juncture, I was a bit surprised. Bruce Campbell spoofs Van Helsing hilariously. His dimwitted character was the highlight of the film for me. You gotta love Bruce! Jim Meltzer & Morgan Brittany are decent as the hero & heroine. Maxewell Caufield grated my nerves with his hammy performance. He was clearly having a blast, but he was much too OTT for my liking. Deborah Foreman has good chemistry with Bruce Campbell, and played her part well. The rest of the cast are fine for the most partFinal Thoughts: Anthony Hickox tries valiantly to pull off this unorthodox horror/comedy, but can't quite pull it off. The cast is great, and it does have its moments, but it's not for me. Others may feel differently5/10

This is one of the movies that totally didn't move me. Actually, it didn't have a single aspect in it that interested me. I was hoping for an atmospheric vampire movie, and got a comedy movie that simply isn't funny. Not even Campbell was able to help in that aspect. This guy was amazingly funny in the evil dead 2, but here, he felt totally misplaced. I guess, there is no way that he could actually play clumsy and sappy at all. Even though I like the actor, for this movie he was pretty much the worst cast possible. All other actors did OK. But that just didn't help with an awful script like this one. I can't believe that the original has been a book. The whole movie felt completely like a trash movie. Sense was almost lacking completely.For me, either a movie has to move, that means, transport emotions. Or it has to teach something, that means, transport informations. This movie didn't do either. It didn't even make me smile a single time.

I'm sure I'm not the only horror fan who has had Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat at the top of their 'must see' list for some time, but now that I've finally seen it I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed. Sundown is a vampire film that takes in many of the common genre elements; but somehow manages to do it in such a way that isn't typical. The film also has strong western elements (leading it to be labelled as a 'vampire western') which help to make the whole thing more original (especially as the film predates From Dusk Till Dawn by six years). The film focuses primarily on a town called Purgatory somewhere out in the desert. The town is mostly inhabited by vampires; but these particular vampires are starting to realise that they cannot continue feeding on humans indefinitely; and thus begin wearing sun block and working on a synthesised blood serum to eliminate the need for sucking blood. However, not all the vampires in town are on board with this idea; and things are complicated further with the arrival of a descendant of Van Helsing...The main reason I saw this film was due to the fact that it stars Bruce Campbell; however, his role is pretty much the most disappointing thing about it. We get the usual Bruce Campbell entertainment; but he's really toned down and his character is basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. This isn't helped by the fact that the plot has far too many threads going on; and while this does serve in keeping the film interesting, it also means that it's far too complicated and there's not enough time for everything to play out properly. However, the film gets points back for the way that the vampire themes are handled. At its base, the story is not too far removed from the classic Dracula story and we get everything thrown in from wooden stakes and holy water, all the way to fangs and the vampires turning into bats. There's plenty of action in the film (although to be honest, I don't really want gun battles with my vampires) and the special effects are at least amusing. The film starts to lose it's way further towards the end; but for all it's problems, this is at least an entertaining watch...although I wouldn't recommend going too far out of your way to find it.