Thralls (2005)

Why so much hype?

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Thralls starts as five sexy half Vampire ladies manage to escape Mr. Jones (Lorenzo Lamas) their Vampire master, not wanting to be subservient half Vampires the girls also steal an ancient book called the Necronomicon which contains powerful spells including one to turn them into full vampires. One Vampire chick Leslie (Leah Cairns) decides to invite her younger sister Ashley (Siri Baruc) to the main event due to take place during a rave on the solstice but the evil Mr. Jones has no intention of letting them go & manages tot rack them all down to their club where he intends to reclaim them & use the Necronomicon himself to summon a powerful demon that will destroy the world, that is unless he can be stopped...More commonly known under the title Blood Angels this Canadian production was directed by Ron Oliver & isn't too bad a Vampire flick, the Vampire film has been done to death & there's not too many places you can go with the concept but Thralls makes a good fist of things & it passes 90 odd minutes. The majority of the film is set inside a nightclub so in that respect it's not original as Vamp (1986) was also set inside one & the more recent From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) was set in a bar, at night so Thralls is nothing new but it moves along at a decent pace, the lead character's are appealing & thankfully not annoying, the plot is forgettable but there's a reasonable twist & it entertains while it lasts with just about enough incident to keep one amused. I was actually quite surprised at how much I liked this although that's more of a damnation of todays low budget horror than Thralls being particularly good in itself.One thing that Thralls does have going for it is that the leading Vampire chicks are very hot & are certainly easy on the eye, apparently being a Vampire in Thralls also means that you know martial arts & are pretty damned good at it as there are several fight scenes that feel a bit out of place but are welcome none the less. There's not that much gore here, there's a ripped out spine, a ripped-off head (didn't anyone in that que call the police?) & a bit of blood splatter. The CGI computer effects are kept to a minimum with a decent CGI Vampire bat but an equally awful scene where two snake like creatures burst from a girls nipples. There's not much style here but it's well made & the girls do look sexy. Stick around for the end credits as a music video plays which feature two guy's rapping & some more very sexy ladies.Filmed in Vancouver in Canada for a budget of about $1,000,000 this has good production values & looks decent with an attractive cast. The women are all lookers & generally look good throughout but their acting isn't quite as good while Lorenzo Lamas plays the villain.Thralls is a pretty decent Vampire film with lots of sexy chicks, some fights & a bit of gore, you could do better for sure but you could also do a hell of a lot worse too. Worth a watch if your bored.

...about being any good. Because "Thralls" does actually give a damn about being enjoyable and giving B-movie fanatics a fun time. Really, this might very well be the definition of modern day camp. A bunch of gorgeous, hot-looking half-vampire babes open up a nightclub in which unsuspecting, trouble-making ravers end-up as a midnight snack. The plan is to free themselves from slavery by vampire-lord Johnny (played by Lorenzo Lamas who strikes an intentional ridiculous note here) and hereby upgrade themselves from 'thralls' to full-blooded vampires. Johnny-boy has a plan for himself, though: summoning an evil demon to make himself an über-vampire. It's all good and enjoyable campy fun. The CGI demon-head near the end is so crappy that it doesn't even live up to Playstation 1 graphics. But that's all part of the game. And if you don't have any sense of humor at all, then don't even consider giving "Thralls" aka "Blood Angels" a watch.On a side-note: I always have to laugh with Lorenzo Lamas. Can't help it, when I hear his name pop up, because I've always considered him to be a not-so-very-good actor (and I'm being polite here). But in "Thralls" he's actually quite a bit of fun to watch. And to my surprise, he even managed to entertain me a second time very recently, when I popped in this Z-grade CGI-infested rubbish called "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus" (proudly produced by The Asylum company). Good old Lorenzo really is a hoot and a whole barrel of fun in this one. Virtually all of his lines had me laughing out loud. And he seems very well aware of how to deliver his pun-filled nonsense. Seems like he does have some talent for something after all... Go, Lamas, go! A few more of these flicks, and you'll hit a strike! Anyway, I think I'm straying off topic here... But do support Lorenzo Lamas, and go watch "Shark Thralls vs. Blood Octopus" or... something... Which movie was I talking about again?

"Blood Angels" is a much better film than it has every right to be.**SPOILERS**Leslie, (Leah Cairns) who has been away from town for a while, returns home and helps her sister Ashley, (Siri Baruc) get introduced to the rave nightlife she shares with her friends Lean, (Sonya Salomaa) Roxie, (Fiona Scott) Brigitte, (Moneca Delain) and Buzz, (Lisa Marie Caruk) who themselves are vampires and have escapes from the home of Mr. Jones, (Lorenzo Lamas) who turned them into vampires. Ashley soon finds out the truth, but no one will believe her. When Leslie officially tells her about her and her friends' change into a form of vampire called Thralls, she decides to help them in their fight against Jones.The Good News: This one actually isn't that bad. The film is just too cheesy to be taken seriously. The fact that five vampires can open a nightclub and not get caught is just one example, as is the fact that all the vampires know kung-fu once bitten. This just works in a "throw your brain at the door and relax" sort of manner. The film has a great sense of humor, and is surprisingly funny. The moments with a transvestite wanting to get into the club are some great one-liners, and some choice moments spread throughout contain some intended for laughs. There's three main comedians in the film, though, and generally get a laugh every time. Lorenzo Lamas' character in particular gets off some great lines, and is perfectly suited for the tone of the film. His assistant is also quite funny, especially what keeps happening to him. Lastly, one of the characters in the club continually gets out plenty of laughs. It's quite nice to see someone different keep the humor coming rather than just a main character. It's bloody when it needs to be, and gets the red stuff going at times. A highlight is a marvelous decapitation that isn't performed with a usual instrument, and comes off as totally unexpected.The Bad News: There's only a few problems I had with the film. The first one is that, as usual, the special effects look incredibly fake and cheesy. There's no way any of them could be taken seriously, and by being done with CGI, it ruins what it had before. It's a common problem with these kinds of movies, and hasn't really gotten any better. Also, the first hour of the film is pretty slow. There's a lot of moments where it's hard to tell why it was not included, as they don't make you feel anymore for the character than had it not been in there, and simply makes you want to get on with the main storyline. It plays pretty fast and loose with the vampire rules in here. Nothing too controversial, but the ranking and powers in it is tweaked slightly to allow for the ending. It can be something to get over. There's also some scattered moments in the film that doesn't seem to add up together, and it makes it hard to imagine why it would be so. If you can let yourself get into the film or don't let moments like this get you down, though, then those would be the only complaints.The Final Verdict: I wasn't expecting such a good time with this one, but it actually does manage to impress. It bends the rules, but has fun while doing it. At least worthy of a look-see for vampire fans or for anyone else into these kinds of films. Just don't think about them too hard.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity

One of the common complaints in this country is that we tend to make oblique films, weird films, deliberately shocking films and boring drawing room pieces. I have often felt that Canadians should make more accessible films in addition to our trademark films sensitively or insensitively tackling subjects about necrophilia, auto-erotica, sexual abuse, magical lesbians, suicidal gay males and the assorted, at times inexplicably disturbing subject matter of David Cronenberg. Unfortunately, when Canadians try to make films that reach a broader audience what we often get are films like "Men with Brooms" that try too hard to be an accessible, popular 'Canadian' film. We also get films like "Thralls" that try hard to be American, but fail horrifically. A film like "Thralls" always feels like a low grade Canadian film. Low grade American films feel different, less amateurish even. If you are tempted to watch this for some of the babes listed in the cast (like Leah Cairns, who I hope becomes part of the regular Battlestar Galactica cast as Racetrack)take a chance on something else they have been in, chances are it will be more worth your while.