I recently watched Priest. Despite my chosen field, I don’t watch all that many vampire films. The true horror ones I tend to avoid so I can sleep at night. I don’t mind the monsters I create in my head but the combination of special effects, eerie music and strategic camera angles often gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I will however watch the lighter ones that are more along the lines of super-hero movies. Evolution is probably a favourite, Lost Boys was ok, Twilight…well, I only saw one. So you can see, I don’t watch a lot of vampire films.

However, I did watch Priest. I had seen the preview for it at the cinema and thought it had promise. There was the basis of an interesting world, the Church against the Vampire. Ok, it’s not an original theme but at least it wasn’t medieval Church, it was post-apocalyptic. So far, so good.

The previews said coming in December or something like that then time passed – not all that much time mind – and apparently it was on in the cinemas and suddenly I was renting it. Bad sign. In cinemas for barely a week and on DVD within a month? Worrying.

I watched and of course there were the usual super-hero movie plot devices. There’s the damaged hero, the shady past with unresolved guilt, a pseudo-love interest tacked on, and a hot man and hot woman to keep the 15 year olds interested.

The special twist was a bit too obvious and laboured, easily seen from a way off, much like the speeding train carrying a horde of sunlight-hating vampires. Maybe I’ve just seen too many movies to be surprised by unsubtle plot twists. My partner gets annoyed when I shout out what’s going to happen next.

The plus sides of the film were the reasonably good special effects, a structure of a world similar yet unlike our own and plenty of action. Story line was bearable though there was plenty of unbelievable violence that even super strength and abilities couldn’t quite explain (but disengage the mind and it’s a bit of a romp).

All in all, I’d probably give it a two and half out of five.

I shouldn’t have had high expectations for this kind of film. It’s obvious who the market is and I shouldn’t feel cheated that there was no deep and twisted narrative. But where are the supernatural movies that really do what supernatural creatures are meant to do? What was the most recent film you saw where you were blown away by the alienness yet humanity of a supernatural character? And how did you reflect on it?

I’m sure they’re out there. Then again, would anyone watch them? Interview with a Vampire has a fair amount of navel gazing. Though Queen of the Damned was just bizarre. (I’ve read all the books and even I found that movie hard to follow.) Have you seen an art house vampire film? There must be some. I’ll commit to a search.

And is Evolution 4 worth seeing at all?