The Forsaken film review

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THE FORSAKEN

I don't like to speak ill of the (un)dead, but The Forsaken is a feeble excuse for a vampire flick. If the film had fangs, they'd be plastic. Sadly, the special effects budget can't even stretch that far.

Sean (Smith) is driving from LA to Florida to attend his sister's wedding when he foolishly picks up a hitchhiker, Nick (Fehr). The stranger appears to be a laid back and likeable fellow but is actually a vampire hunter tracking a band of bloodsucking youths.

Nick also happens to be suffering from a rare blood disease for which the only cure is to kill the host organism, namely vicious gang leader, Kit (Schaech). The stakes are raised when Sean stops to help evidently distraught Megan (Miko), who then bites him in a fit of rage.

Consequently, Sean and Nick join forces in a race against time to exterminate the creatures of the night before they too join the ranks of the insatiable night crawlers.

The Forsaken turns out to be rather an apt title for JS Cardone's late-night romp. The writer-director appears to have forsaken plot, logic and characterisation in favour of lashings of gore. He fails to produce one genuine shock, and the Aids allegory is both tired and heavy-handed.

Smith, Fehr and the rest of the good-looking cast forsake decent performances, bringing little emotion or sympathy to their teens in peril. The only cast member who has fun with his role is Schaech, sporting the clothes and make-up of a wannabe punk rocker.

The lid is gradually closing on the coffin of teen horror movies. Let's hope The Forsaken nails it shut once and for all.