Children of the Night (1991)

Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Children of the Night" has some interesting ideas to update/revamp the vampire mythology, but unfortunately none of it really goes anywhere. The special effects are good and some scenes where the vampires go to sleep in their "cocoon" stage is pretty impressive, but in the grand scheme of things, the cocoon stage has no relevance to the plot and it turns into a routine vampire movie. Several plot points come out of nowhere and the film often feels like it's based on a book that it assumes the audience has read so it skips over important details. You never really get to understand why some people turn into vampires and other don't (do you have to die to a vampire bite? does it take a certain number of drainings?) and other than just stopping the vampires, it doesn't really have anything else going on story-wise. These factors make the plot forgettable and while the special effects are pretty good, some of the acting is bad and plants this firmly as "just another vampire movie". If you're a die-hard vampire fan you might be entertained but it's nothing special at all. Other films have taken just one of the multiple ideas in the film (such as a town being overrun by vampires or a wacky group of misfit characters being forced to combat the undead with rag-tag equipment) and made much more satisfying movie experiences and the ideas that haven't been used in other later films don't pay off so there's not much here to recommend. (On VHS, September 14, 2012)

Children of the night is the second in a string of 3 movies released by Fangoria films in the early 90's. I remember these movies were pretty heavily promoted to horror fans at the time. The best of these was mindwarp, and the worst one was severed ties. Children of the night falls squarely in the middle and it's kind of a middling movie in general (maybe a bit worse than middling depending on how you look at it).Early in the film there are a few scary scenes and that's why i don't give it a lower rating. It's sort of cheesy all the way through, but in the early going, there is some genuine darkness here and there... Unfortunately it deteriorates into a silly mess halfway through. It tries to be sort of a horror comedy, but it doesn't deliver any laughs. It feels like the director wants this to have a comic book quality and at times it does, but the material would have been better served with a darker treatment. The biggest problem with the film is it's lack of any sort of internal logic. It could have been a pretty entertaining movie, (even with it's undesirable cornball quality) if the plot didn't continually break down on a fundamental level. There are illogical horror films that work (like Lucio Fulci's "Seven Doors of Death") And they work because the whole film has a nightmarish, dreamlike quality... This film never pretends to have that kind of aesthetic. It's a more down to earth movie, and it needed to make sense.A good example of the flawed internal logic.... There is one vampire that seems immune to all the effects of vampirism. She retains her personality and is able to control her evil urges. Her remarkable ability is never explained and it seems that the only reason she was made that way was to allow for the films contrived and illogical ending sequence. All through the film you'll be asking yourself "why are they doing that?" the characters responses to the situations they face make no sense at all and it's so extreme that it's even over the line for a horror movie.so my recommendation would be... Watch this if your a vampire aficionado or a big horror fan, but if you start losing interest in the second half, just go ahead and turn it off... It doesn't get any better and you'll be pleased to see the credits roll

'Children of the Night' is a really entertaining modern vampire movie.**SPOILERS**Out-of-town criminals, upsetting the many people who grew up in the town are overrunning the small town of Allburg. Two young girls, Lucy (Ami Dolenz) and Cindy (Maya McLaughlin) go joy-riding and wander into an abandoned church. There is a town myth about swimming in the crypt below the church's grounds, and they both go for a swim. Cindy is attacked in the water by a strange creature, sending Lucy into a panic. Another small town nearby, River Junction, is starting to loose ground to non-religious people, which is fine with Mark Gardner, (Peter DeLuise) a former priest who now teaches young children. His friend, Father Frank (Ewan MacKenzie) is harboring Karen Thompson (Karen Black) and her daughter Cindy in the attic of his house during the day because they are vampires. Mark doesn't believe it, until Frank tells him a story about vampirism in both Allburg and River Junction, so Frank heads to town to investigate his friends' claims. While there, he runs into Lucy, who is running away from a vampire. Now convinced that Frank was right about the vampires in town, Mark, Lucy and the town drunk (Garrett Morris) have to find a way to stop the head vampire was spreading his disease from turning the town and eventually the while world into his vampire minions.The Good News: The film had some pretty creative vampire effects. Rather than have the actor turn his face white and suddenly sprout fangs, here they actually turn into a sort of demonic figure with the fangs. I was getting tired of that old pasty-white vampire face that all the movies have portrayed. For some reason, the abandoned church's ruins really impressed me. The whole scene was a great example of Gothic-influenced film-making, something that I haven't seen since the late Mario Bava's earliest movies. It was a great scenery prop and created a rather spooky atmosphere. That was the best part of the movie because the not-lit interior, bright candles, and cobwebbed appearance of the pews in the church are important in creating the vibrant atmosphere created. The entrance into the crypt is also pretty good, as it follows the same Gothic darkness type of scare that the church scenes had used. The playing in the water, and what is in it, is rather well thought out, and jolting for the first few viewings. Pretty scary and creepy. I won't reveal what it is, as it is detrimental to the ending as well, but the beginning of this is a modern Gothic-inspired masterpiece. While not having a large amount of gore, the few scenes where there is gore is very believable and realistically done. The skin melting was the goriest scene, and for that alone, I recommend this movie, if just to see that wonderful FX job.The Bad News: There film suffers from the major crime that most modern movies suffer from: an uneventful middle act. After the discovery of the crypt, nothing happens until a good thirty minutes later, an eternity in any film. It's so short that it hurts even more, since the film is barely an hour and a half long. It also isn't a film for fans of high-gore vampire films like 'Queen of the Damned' or 'Dracula 2000.' The only gore is provided in the ending of the movie. It also has very little jumps or actual suspense, another damaging factor for the film. There was only two times where I jumped in the film, which was the exact same thing, a vampire jumping through something unexpectedly. Not exactly a creative move, especially considering the fact that so much went into the Gothic beginning of the film. The Final Verdict: While not terribly flawed, it has enough good points, especially the melting scene, to at least warrant this film a look. Not all vampire film fans will like the film, but it is one of the better vampire films around. Rated R: Graphic Violence, Adult Language, Brief Nudity, and strong, violent religious imagery

This is not a bad horror film, but it's nothing special, either. Very derivative and ordinary, it produces more yucks (thanks to gruesome special effects) than scares. As for Karen Black, she has come a long way since Hitchcock's "Family Plot", that's for sure! (*1/2)