Mr_Ectoplasma "The Forsaken" follows a young film editor who takes a cross-country trip from Los Angeles to Florida for his sister's wedding. Along the way, he picks up a hitchhiker on his way to Texas for unknown reasons—but he gets more than he bargained for when the two come across a disoriented woman at a truckstop. Turns out the hitchhiker is a vampire hunter, the girl is infected, and there's a cult of desert vamps seeking them out.I saw this film years ago back in 2001 when it was released, and recently revisited it almost fifteen years later. Often ranked among film buffs as one of the worst post-millennial vampire movies ever, "The Forsaken" is a hodgepodge of traditional vampire elements with revisionist intentions that don't quite work. The film's greatest idiosyncrasy is that the vampires here are fangless—instead, they were more of a cult of blood drinkers who carry a virus that "turns" those who come into contact with it. The fact that the vampires in the film are not really "vampires" in the traditional sense seemed to have elicited extreme reactions from genre fans. I'm not what I'd consider a hardcore vampire film lover, so I was able to accept this on its own merits, as unusual as it is.While the script is a bit clunky and the character relationships seem arbitrary and at times underdeveloped (this is most apparent in the film's denouement), it does evoke a dusty, creepy desert atmosphere. As beautiful as the desert is, let's be honest: deserts are creepy. They are no man's land—desolate, expansive, and dangerous—and that is something this film gets right. The vast landscapes, long two-lane highways, and dingy desert truckstops are captured fantastically. It largely cribs this atmosphere in co-opting the tradition of road movies, and many have compared it to "The Hitcher," although I think it aesthetically looks more like John Carpenter's "Vampires" (also set in the desert), from which it borrows liberally.The film is nicely shot, with direction from J.S. Cardone, who began his career with the bizarro '80s slasher film "The Slayer," and would go on to script and direct the atrocious remakes of "Prom Night" and "The Stepfather" after "The Forsaken." For all intents and purposes, the direction here is decent, and there are some great images and scenes interspersed throughout. Kerr Smith and Brendan Fehr ground the film as the two male leads, while Izabella Miko is fantastically weird as the mute, traumatized victim of the vampire gang. Jonathan Schaech seems miscast here in my opinion—the role of the vampire leader seems to call for someone who is legitimately intimidating on screen, and he's just not—he's ridiculously sexy in this, but he isn't scary. China Oruche plays his mad sidekick nicely, and Carrie Snodgress probably turns in the most notable performance as a gun-toting desert redneck.Overall, "The Forsaken" is probably not as bad as you've heard it is. It's an entertaining and atmospheric road flick that is legitimately fun. The truth is that it's an average revision of traditional vampire territory, and the amount of flack it's gotten over the years is largely due to the disgruntled vampire fans who want their vampires served a certain way. All in all, it's a decent, bloody desert romp from the early 2000s. 6/10.

SnoopyStyle Sean (Kerr Smith) is taking a week off to go to his sister's wedding. To help pay, he gets a job delivering a vintage Mercedes. In the desert, he reluctantly pick up hitchhiker Nick (Brendan Fehr) who turns out to be hunting vampire Kit (Johnathon Schaech).As a vampire story, this is perfectly fine. Schaech is certainly a very creepy guy. Izabella Miko is super hot. Smith and Fehr are good TV stars. It's a functional horror movie. There are good number of explosions, but not excitingly shot. There is a good amount of blood, but it's not scary.If there is a problem, it's that it's not big enough to be outstanding. It's not gory enough for the gross out fans. It's not exciting enough for the action fans. And it's not scary for any horror fans. It's a bit of all of them and excel in none of them.

p-stepien Best write a review before this movie escapes my memory and dissolves with the passing time. Sean (Kerr Smith) works in Hollywood as film editor (mainly preparing trailers) and as such isn't exactly overflowing with cash. Hence when he lacks funds to attend his sister's wedding in Florida he decides to take up an offer by a repo office to drive a classic Mercedes to Miami. Main two rules - no hitchhikers and no reckless driving. In movie logic - those are the two rules that will definitely be broken during the course of the movie. Even more so that along the way he picks up a bum vampire killer called Nick (Brendan Fehr) and a catatonic chick Megan (Izabella Miko). Which only puts him high on the feeding list of a gang of bloodthirsty vampires led by Kit (Johnathon Schaech)...The scriptwriter tried to input some new life into the whole vampire genre by introducing a new myth concerning their creation (connected with the crusades) as well as giving it a great backdrop for prospective sequels (with three more 'original' vampires waiting to be vanquished. Trouble is that the movie itself is so cliché ridden that the freshness just isn't there. Actingwise all the people in this movie do a decent job and have a cool enough feel to them that it makes the flick enjoyable. But the dialogue and direction of "The Forsaken" is very traditional horror filmmaking (with no real atmosphere behind it) and that in itself makes it a competently done, but forgettable experience. Additionally they are no real action or horror scenes which really stand out and in general you feel more like you are being served a pilot of a television series than a movie itself.The biggest fault I can find in this movie is the character of Megan, who gets involved in the plot for no real purpose, sits around catatonic for most of the movie and doesn't even have a romance with the hero. After all this she just walks away in the penultimate scene never to be heard of again. Totally pointless character played by a passable Izabella Miko (not too pretty and does nothing with her character to make her memorable - given she was supposed to lie around motionless for the majority of this movie). Much more eye-catching was the vampire Cym (Phina Oruche) who must have one of the most sensual lips I have ever seen in cinema...

rose-294 I love the vampire movies, even the fun low-budget ones. Unfortunately this is just trashy and dull, trying to be "cool" and managing sadly well - Forsaken fights with the garbage like From Dusk Till Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires to be the worst (non-porno)vampire movie ever made. There is a group of sadistic vampires, led by so irritatingly lazy-eyed and slimy rapist that I wanted to pull his nose, gratuitous violence, no style or fun... Admittedly there's no James Woods or Quentin Tarantino making their my-character-is-a-sleazoid-routines, but very pretty Alexis Thorpe is wasted in her blink-and-you-miss-it-role as a female vampire.