1/10
Appalling!
25 April 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Spoilers for most of the film ahead (or they would be spoilers if it were possible to make this film worse). If you plan on watching the movie - something I highly recommend against - don't read on.

It was a toss up between this and `Ticker', and I went by the IMDb voting for this. I can only assume that the cast and crew of the movie have voted.

Opening with some ominous music and lots of fast cutting, and an exhortation to `Get Frost - he's the only one who will know what to do', the film starts quite well. Then we flashback to the Afghan war, and the rot sets in.

Jack Frost and his band of mainly out of shape mercenaries are behind enemy lines. After we get to see how cool they all are - Frost never removes his shades (some nonsense about a phosphor grenade making his eyes sensitive to bright light), they make pop culture jokes, and they manage to take out a huge Hind CGI chopper with an RPG - the locals present them with a man they think is a demon, and ask them to kill the man. Frost's best friend, Nat, does the job because he looks into the man's eyes and sees evil, but gets bitten in the process. Nat later tries to cauterise the wound, and it seems that all is well.

A year (or two or three) later (I had already realised that this movie was a stinker of the first order so wasn't paying close attention to the subtitles), Frost is out of the Soldier of Fortune business and is painting, writing art books and (it seems) doing a bit of burglary on the side (judging by his tubby size - though it's probably supposed to be `all muscle' - he must have to get especially strong rope when he lowers himself into a museum in one scene). Nat and the rest of the guys are south of the border, involved in a revolution. In the intervening time, Nat's hair has grown ridiculously long, and he seems to have developed Vamp speed and senses (though none of his friends think that it is odd when he blurs across the room at great speed). His vamp senses save him when the generalissimo orders the squad's execution, and he wanders through the desert, collapsing in a deserted town. Even though the town's well is sealed and there appear to be no inhabitants, there is still a sheriff and a jail with three or four prisoners, who Nat quickly dispatches - it seems that you only become a vampire after your body dies.

Nat's wife back in the States is worried, and asks Frost to investigate. It seems that the generalissimo never hires the same team twice.Frost heads South, and confirms that Nat's team was executed. He avenges his friend by blowing up everyone in the generalissimo's compound.

Nat, meanwhile, has made it to the States. We get a few scenes that show he is fully vamped out and evil before his distraught wife asks Frost for his help again. It seems that Nat has tried to pick up the pieces of his old life, but the bloodlust is too strong. After pussyfooting around for a while, aided by the most open-minded and forgiving cop in movie history (`You're girlfriend's dead in a pool of blood? You think it's Nat and he's a Vampire? Well, get out there and kill him' - a slight bit of paraphrasing, but you get the gist), Frost tools up and goes after Nat, having a special gun made.

At first, this seems to be a small one-shot crossbow, but it turns out that he has had wooden-tipped bullets cast. At last, someone in a vampire film using a bit of brain-power! It will come as no surprise to learn that Frost survives, though it is a surprise that he then goes back to the crossbow as his main weapon - one slow, one-shot weapon against a fast, repeat-action one - come on! There is a slight twist at the end (in the vain hope of a sequel I guess).

Direction and especially acting are well under par - my girlfriend commented that some of the actors seem to have come from the `adult movie' school of acting, and checking IMDb shows that at least one of them literally has - but the saddest thing is that, judging from what seems to be a lot of families involved in the cast and crew, this must have been a real labour of love for some of those involved, but they turned out the worst film I have seen for years.
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