I need to do some more research into David Fincher’s career. How does someone who up until 1995 made music videos for the likes of Madonna, Paula Abdul and George Michael (I’m ignoring Alien 3, because Fincher does too), turn around and suddenly whip an absolute black hole of darkness out of nowhere?
The first half of this film is cooler than it has any right to be. The soundtrack is pure 60s vibe. The cinematography is kinetic and inventive at times, and it’s like they purposefully said why does a vampire film have to be set at night? The sun-soaked Turkish locations look gorgeous. But boy does this go off the rails in the back half. The pacing slows right down, the story loses all sense of logic and the focus shifts away from the titular vampires somewhat, and the locations all move indoors.
It’s still an entertaining film, and it looks great lighting, animation and design wise. But it lives in the shadow of its perfect predecessor (it feels like a case of Furiosa: would we like this film more if the one before it didn’t exist?), and the supposedly secret villain is gratingly obvious. But bonus points for casting Barry Bostwick as the mayor: I hadn’t noticed this until this viewing, so that’s a nice throwback to Spin City.
