The Forsaken

Starring Brenden Fehr, Kerr Smith, Isabella Miko, Johnathon Schaech
Screenplay and Directed by J.S. Cardone
website: www.spe.sony.com/movies/forsaken

IN SHORT: Not screened for the press. You know what that means. [Rated R for strong violence/gore, language and sexuality.]

If this were 1975 or so, before films like Scanners and John Carpenter's Halloween upped the ante on blood and gore special effects, The Forsaken may have found a decent home at the local drive-in. It's got an adequate story, adequately acted and it adds a new twist to the legend of where vampires came from. It would have been a fine, make out with your girlfriend until the explosions or effects happen movie, and that would have been that.

But it's not 1975 and The Forsaken is greatly in need of some heavy duty blood and violence. Lots of pretty young things in dangerous situations has been done to death. Even with familiar TV star faces from shows like Dawson's Creek, adequate doesn't cut it beyond the rental market.

For those who need the background, we quote from the studio notes: "Driving from L.A. to Florida to deliver a vintage Mercedes and attend his sister’s wedding, Sean (Kerr Smith) does the one thing he wasn't supposed to do - pick up a hitchhiker. And from that moment on, his cross country road trip is transformed into a surreal and blood-soaked nightmare. Sean's new companion Nick (Brenden Fehr) is not the laid back, aimless traveler he seems. He is a Hunter and his prey are the Bloodletters, a roving band of forsaken youths who viciously feed on the hapless victims they find in the dead of night along deserted highways. In a word, vampires. Little does Sean know that Nick is suffering from a deadly "blood disease" and has been tracking the motley crew for several months. As the miles pass by with his strange new co-pilot, Sean encounters one dark and mysterious delay after another. It seems he’s never going to make it to his sister’s wedding...

When Sean and Nick pick up the dazed and frightened Megan (Isabella Miko), whom the killers had left for dead, she becomes a human lure, unfinished business that must be attended to. Sean is instantly drawn to her vulnerability and beauty. The stakes are raised when Sean himself is infected with the deadly virus. Nick continues to dodge Sean’s questions but finally, after a heated argument, he is forced to tell Sean everything he knows about the legend of the forsaken. The only cure for them is to kill the host organism, Kit (Johnathon Schaech) the vicious leader of the vampire gang. It's a deadly race against time, and if they fail, they will suffer the fate as their enemies -- joining the ranks of the insatiable undead forever."

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The Forsaken, he would have paid . . .

$2.00

Rent.

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