The Forsaken

It's hard to believe that a film with this much blood and nudity could be so unfulfilling. In J.S. Cardone's The Forsaken, Sean (Kerr Smith), a selfish and ambitious young editor, works for Troma, the horror-spoof film company. On a cross-country road trip in a borrowed Mercedes, he picks up hitchhiker Nick (Brendan Fehr). When they spot a sick-looking girl by a restaurant, Nick claims he knows how to treat her illness. They take her to a motel room, and while he packs ice around her in the bathtub, Nick explains to a skeptical Sean that vampires are responsible for her virus, which he suffers from as well. This initiates a movie-long game of tag between our good trio and an evil vampire threesome; Nick, an expert on the subject, fills in gaps in vampire history for Sean and the uninformed viewer. Sweeping photography of the Arizona countryside and fast editing cuts make the movie enjoyable to watch, at least until one vampire is "electrocuted" by the sun. But there's a big oversight in the character department: none of the major players is likable. It's hard for a film be scary or even suspenseful when you don't care whether the cast winds up dead or undead. At the Hoyts Providence 16 and Showcase cinemas.
-- April Greene