The Forsaken
by J.S. Cardone
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DVD details
Actor: Brendan Fehr, Izabella Miko, Johnathon Schaech, Kerr Smith, Phina OrucheDirector: J.S. Cardone
Brand: SCHAECH,JOHNATHON
Cinematographer: Steven Bernstein
Writer: J.S. Cardone
Editor: Norman Buckley
Producer: Carol Kottenbrook
Producer: Connie Dolph
Producer: Scott Einbinder
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-25
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Forsaken
DVD Review: "We kill the source of origin, and we kill the strain."
Summary: 3 Stars
Written and directed by J.S. Cardone (Shadowzone, A Climate for Killing), The Forsaken (2001) stars Kerr Smith (Final Destination, "Dawson's Creek", "Charmed"), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination, "Roswell"), and Johnathon Schaech (Sol Goode, Road House 2: Last Call). Also appearing is Izabella Miko (Coyote Ugly), Phina Oruche ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Simon Rex (Scary Movie 3), Alexis Thorpe ("Days of Our Lives"), and the late Carrie Snodgress (Pale Rider, Wild Things), in one of her last, feature films.
Kerr Smith plays Sean, a California resident in need of funds so that he may travel to Miami to witness his sister's wedding. Lucky for Sean he's landed a gig driving a cherry $50,000 Mercedes to Florida, providing him not only with transportation, but a little dough to boot. After a desert driving montage, Sean has some car trouble, is forced to stop off at a podunk town, and eventually ends up picking up a greasy hitch-hiker named Nick (Fehr), who looks like he's trying to grow a beard, but not very successfully as it's coming in all uneven and such...anyway, after a slight run in with some yahoos in a Dodge Charger, Sean and Nick end up picking up a spooky, strung out blonde named Megan (Miko), who doesn't actually say anything until like an hour and ten minutes into the film. Turns out Megan's stony stupor is caused not by drugs, but by the fact she's been bitten by a vampire...and not just any vampire but an original vampire (played by Schaech), one being hunted by Nick, who's also been bitten and is using drugs to counteract the effects until he can track and eventually kill the source of the infection, freeing himself of the curse. By the way, in the process of helping the girl, Sean also gets bit, so now he gets wrapped up in all the rigmarole. Got all that? Good...from here there's lots of scenes of Sean, Nick, and Megan in the car being chased by the vampire goons, and various flashbacks, including one detailing how Megan ended up the way she did. Um, okay, so why do the vampires travel around in a late model Dodge Charger? The car looks cool, I've give you that, but the vampires are forced into the trunk during the day (that is if they happen to be on the road) as their human sycophant drives them around. Why not get an RV and black out the various windows? Maybe vampires enjoy being stuffed into the trunk of a muscle car and being driven around in the Arizona sun, but I sure wouldn't. Anyway, Sean and Nick are now forced to use Megan to lure the vampires into a trap, one where they hope to kill the main bloodsucker in an effort to free themselves of the sickness...
While The Forsaken, filmed in Arizona, wasn't necessarily a bad movie, it wasn't all that great, either. I guess the main issue I had with the film was that it seemed to borrow too liberally from other films within the genre, specifically Blade (1998), with the whole taking drugs to counteract the effects of the vampire's bite, and Near Dark (1987), and it's southwestern theme (then again, if you haven't seen those two movies, most everything here will probably seem original). Now it's not unusual for films to take from other films, but here it seemed so obvious, resulting in The Forsaken not really offering up anything new within the vampire mythos. By the end of the film I didn't really take anything away from the experience of having seen it, so I began thinking of how the hour an a half watching the film could have been better spent. The film is put together fairly well as the action, along with the gore, is spread evenly throughout, but there were times when the pacing dragged a bit. Female fans, particularly those who watch shows on the WB, will probably enjoy the fact the film spends a lot of time with the two hunky male leads. Male fans are thrown a bone as Izabella Miko does appear in various states of undress, including a few topless scenes. I did find it odd the fact she appears early on in the film but then doesn't speak one line of dialog until about forty-five minutes later. Johnathon Schaech made a pretty good vampire, but I had a hard time buying off on the hokum he was originally a knight of the crusades as he really didn't project the sense he was some 800 year old undead dude wandering the Earth all these years, surviving solely on his own intelligence (at some point in the movie we're fed a load about how the vampire strain originated during the crusades, and eight knights were initially infected with the disease). Something else, given what I've seen in movies, I'd advise strongly against ever letting anyone drive your car across the country as chances are, it's going to be seriously trashed in the process. As far as the performances, they weren't all that strong. None of the female characters had much in the way of roles, and the male leads seemed hardly capable in carrying the film. Schaech makes a good showing, hamming it up at times, providing at least something of interest. The story felt kind of limp and predictable, something director Cardone was probably aware of given how he tried to spice things up with flashy visuals and lots and lots of quick cut sequences. As far as the gore there was a decent amount of blood, along with a couple of entertaining effects including one where someone gets their melon popped with a shotgun...woo wee! Thet head shore `nuff exploded good! All in all there's really nothing new here, but if you really feel the need to see this film, you'd probably be better off renting it, as it's not one that lends itself to repeated viewings. There are some good tunes included, if you're a fan of bands like Eve 6, Nickelback, Coal Chamber, Soulfly, and Uncle Kracker...
The picture, available in both widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) and fullscreen (1.33:1), comes across well, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio comes through clearly. As far as extras, there are subtitles in English, French, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, a director's commentary track, three deleted scenes, two featurettes, a theatrical trailer, and trailers for other films including Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), John Carpenter's Vampires (1998), Hollow Man (2000), and John Carpenter's Ghost of Mars (2001).
Cookieman108
Description of The Forsaken
A driver-for-hire picks up a hitchhiker who is a vampire hunter.Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Release Date: 31-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD
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