May 15, 2001 -- Vampire movies are almost by definition cheesy, but "The Forsaken" is a lot cheesier than most. It has overt sexuality and a very overt tie between sexuality and violence, then there's that homoerotic subtext, but none of it really goes anywhere. It is a classic, cheesy drive-in movie. I felt kind of greasy after watching it.

In one scene, a vampire named Cym (Phina Oruche of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back") makes a very big deal of loudly slobbering and sucking up the blood from a slit in a man's throat cut by another vampire. Cym's hunger and voracious blood consumption are pretty convincing. There's not much difference between plain old lust and blood lust in this film. In another scene, Kit (the names seem to be kept short to further cut down on the already minimal dialogue), the head vampire (Johnathon Schaech of "How to Make an American Quilt") is shown sucking blood from a place very near the crotch of Megan (Izabella Miko of "Coyote Ugly"). Later, Megan is nearly stripped naked by vampire killer Nick (Brendan Fehr of "Final Destination"), because he is looking for bite marks (yeah, right). I don't know what Billy Bob's boob count is in this film, but there are several bare-chested women on display. They should have gone straight to video with this film. It isn't really an adult film. It is aimed at juvenile boys, and that's where it should find its greatest market.

The movie gives us yet another explanation for the existence of vampires. It all started, so the story goes, at the siege of Antioch during the Crusades. After the first day of battle, only nine of 200 French knights survived. It was cold and the survivors faced certain death. "In the dead of night Abaddon, an angel of hell, appeared in their midst ... Abaddon made the nine knights an offer for eternal life. Eight of the men accepted and sealed the pact by murdering the one knight who refused and drinking his blood. But when morning came and the sun rose in the heavens, they felt a terrible shame and ran from each other's sight, hiding in caves until night had fallen. From then on they were doomed to roam the earth alone, after dark, plagued by an unquenchable thirst for blood. In claiming their victims, their curse spread like a plague to everyone they bled. They became known as The Forsaken," according to the movie's production notes.

The story also includes a medical treatment to delay the onset of vampirism. It turns out that Nick, the vampire killer, is one of those "infected" by a vampire. His only hope of avoiding the curse of the vampire is to kill the initial host of his "infection," one of the surviving original vampires of Antioch. He teams up with Sean (Kerr Smith of "Final Destination"), a man driving cross-country. Sean becomes drawn into the battle between Nick and a band of roving vampires led by Kit. This dark movie, set in a desert, is poorly lit, but features a very loud rock music soundtrack. It is almost painful to watch at times. It is sort of a punk, gothic road horror film. The actors are O.K. and it does sustain a dark atmosphere. The main problem with it is the lack of character development. There is no suspense. It doesn't generate fear, either. It is a cheesy, loud obnoxious dud of a movie. It rates a D.

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