Review of Children of the Night (1985) by Rafael C — 17 Sep 2009

In the early 90's, Fangoria magazines branched out into the film industry and developed a production company that managed to do three low-budget films before jumping ship, and they started with Children of the Night.

Directed by Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), Children of the Night is about two girlfriends (Ami Dolenz and Maya McLaughlin) who set out to swim the water-infested Crypt of an old church as a ritual when leaving the town of Allburg for good, but they unwittingly awake a super-vampire that starts converting the town.

A couple of days later in a nearby town, a priest shows his best friend (Peter DeLuise) the upstairs bedroom where he has McLaughlin (now a vampire slave that sleeps underwater with lungs exposed and eats bugs) whose forced to have her mother (longtime horror genre actor Karen Black, whose given a lead credit for some reason even though she's not in the movie much) feed off of her.

While the priest stays to watch over Black, he convinces DeLuise to go to Allburg to see what's going on, where he uncovers a town full of vampires trying to pray on Dolenz's virgin blood. It's up to him, Dolenz, and homeless man Garrett Morris (film's comic relief, and my favorite person in this film) to fight off the vamps and escape town.

For a low-budget, early 90's film, Children of the Night really isn't all that bad, especially since the vampire genre of films has gotten SO DAMN BAD!! The cast does a decent job, including Black in her small role and Morris whose always a delight to see.

To top it off, the gore effects are a step above as well, leading to several fun moments throughout the film. The story could have used some better fleshing out, but overall, this gets the job done for me.

I liked it.