Synopsis: After surviving the incidents in Barrow, Alaska, Stella Olemaun relocates to Los Angeles, where she intentionally attracts the attention of the local vampire population in order to avenge the death of her husband, Eben.A bit of good and bad I think with this (very) low-budget, straight-to-video sequel of a movie and graphic novel series that I'm a pretty big fan of.
The good? Well, there's tons and violence and gore and for a low-budget film I thought they did very well with it. The effects are better than your typical Saturday night SyFy channel fair but still below wide release quality films for the most part. Also, the dark mood stays in line with the first movie and the vampires aren't wimpified or toned down any, they're still brutal throat-chomping, blood slinging, body part chewing baddies (my exception is their teeth, they look pretty cheap). They stay in line with the vampire mythos introduced in the first movie pretty well.
The bad? Well, they're not in Alaska anymore, which is what I thought set the original story apart with the whole 30 straight dark days bit. Now they're in the LA underground and it's mostly been done before so it feels sort of deja vu plot wise. The story isn't enough to fill 90 minutes either so I thought the film just sort of drags quite a bit at times with bad pacing. Lastly, I'm not crazy about most of the cast and think better casting would have helped me.
Overall, it's not a horrible vampire movie by any means and is entertaining enough for a look if you like really violent vampire movies, not teenage garbage. I'd have liked more chomping and less gabbing though. It is a bit of a letdown as a big fan of the first one.
5/10
