Remember when vampires were monsters?
Not misunderstood heartthrobs. Not emotionally unavailable boyfriends with perfect hair. Not sparkling immortals who spent eternity staring longingly into each other's eyes. Actual fucking monsters.
The vampire genre has gone through more reinventions than just about anything else in horror. Twilight, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer—whether you love them or not, they turned vampires into romantic leads, tragic antiheroes, and metaphors for everything under the sun. Hell, I like more than a few of those stories myself. But after years of beautiful bloodsuckers, I found myself craving the ugly bastards again.
So thank God for John Carpenter's Vampires.
With Shout! Studios giving the film a gorgeous new SteelBook release, it's the perfect excuse to revisit one of the nastiest, loudest, most gloriously unapologetic vampire movies of the '90s.
Bram Stoker's Dracula remains my favorite novel because it understood something modern vampire fiction often forgets: immortality comes at the cost of your humanity. Dracula isn't seductive. He's repellent. He crawls down castle walls like an insect. He carries babies around for food. He's a predator wearing the skin of a man.
That's exactly the tradition Carpenter embraces.
These vampires don't sparkle.
They fucking explode.
Adapted from John Steakley's novel, Vampires follows Jack Crow (James Woods), the Catholic Church's official vampire hunter. Crow leads a roughneck crew of mercenaries who spend their days tracking nests, dragging vampires into the sunlight with mechanical winches, and watching them erupt into flames. Carpenter wastes absolutely no time throwing us into the carnage, and what an opening it is.
Bodies burn. Limbs snap. Blood sprays across the desert. Greg Nicotero's practical effects are still gloriously disgusting nearly thirty years later, delivering the kind of tactile gore that modern CGI simply can't fake.
Then everything goes completely to shit.
The nest they destroy has no master. That's impossible. Crow knows it, and before long the ancient vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) arrives to prove him right, slaughtering almost everyone Crow has left. Forced to regroup with the lone survivor of his crew (Daniel Baldwin), a rookie priest (Tim Guinee) he doesn't trust worth a damn, and a prostitute (Sheryl Lee) psychically linked to Valek after being bitten, Crow finds himself chasing a conspiracy that's every bit as dangerous as the monsters themselves.
At its core, Vampires is a western disguised as a horror film. Crow is the weathered gunslinger. Valek is the outlaw who simply refuses to die. The Church is as corrupt as any railroad baron, and Carpenter leans into every dusty, sunbaked frame like Sergio Leone decided to make a vampire picture.
James Woods absolutely sells the shit out of Jack Crow. He's loud, abrasive, profane, politically incorrect, and perpetually one bad decision away from murdering everyone in the room. Woods doesn't chew scenery; he devours the whole goddamn landscape. Somehow he's both insufferable and endlessly entertaining.
Thomas Ian Griffith deserves just as much praise. Valek barely needs dialogue. Carpenter lets Griffith's physical presence do the work, creating a villain who radiates menace every time he walks into frame. He doesn't seduce his victims. He hunts them.
That's what makes the vampires work so damn well. They're animals. They hiss. They claw. They tear people apart with savage enthusiasm. Carpenter strips away nearly every ounce of romanticism and replaces it with dirt, blood, fire, and pure predatory instinct. These creatures aren't cursed lovers. They're apex predators.
It's refreshing as hell.
The screenplay isn't flawless. Some twists are obvious long before the characters catch up, and a few supporting players exist solely to become vampire chow. Honestly, though... who gives a fuck? Carpenter knows exactly what movie he's making. He isn't chasing prestige horror. He's making a mean, bloody monster movie where James Woods screams obscenities while harpooning vampires into sunlight.
Mission accomplished.
Vampires was never one of Carpenter's biggest hits, but time has been incredibly kind to it. The practical effects still kick ass. Carpenter's blues-infused score remains fantastic. The action is relentless, the gore is wonderfully excessive, and the monsters are exactly what vampires should occasionally be: horrifying.
Shout! Studios' new SteelBook is a worthy excuse to revisit this underrated cult favorite.
Pour yourself a whiskey. Turn the volume up. Watch some vampires burst into flames. Sometimes monsters should just be fucking monsters.
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Steelbook Collector's Edition
Home Video Distributor: Shout! Studios
Available on Blu-ray - November 4, 2025
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Video: Native 4K; Dolby Vision; HDR10
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 4K Ultra HD; Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray locked to Region A
John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) unleashes one of the most ferocious vampire films ever made in this blood-soaked blend of horror and western action. James Woods stars as Jack Crow, a foul-mouthed vampire hunter employed by the Catholic Church to wipe out nests of the undead.
But when an ancient master vampire (Thomas Ian Griffith) massacres Crow's team and sets his sights on an unholy relic, the hunt becomes a desperate race to stop an evil that refuses to die.
Packed with explosive practical effects, unforgettable one-liners, and Carpenter's signature style, Vampires remains a brutal cult favorite that proves monsters are at their best when they're truly monstrous.
VIDEO
Shout! Studios presents Vampires in a handsome new 4K Dolby Vision transfer that beautifully captures Dean Cundey's sun-drenched cinematography.
Fine detail receives a noticeable boost, from weathered faces to the dusty New Mexico landscapes, while HDR brings added depth to both the blistering daylight and the fiery vampire deaths.
Colors remain natural, black levels are solid, and film grain is preserved throughout, resulting in an organic, cinematic presentation that respects the film's gritty aesthetic.
AUDIO
The included Dolby Atmos remix expands John Carpenter's blues-infused score while making excellent use of the overhead channels during the film's chaotic action sequences.
Gunfire, explosions, and the vampires' shrieks fill the soundstage with satisfying aggression, while dialogue remains clean and intelligible.
For purists, the original DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is also included and continues to deliver an excellent listening experience.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- See below for details
Special Features:
While the bonus features have been carried over from previous editions, they remain an outstanding collection of archival material. Interviews with cast and crew offer fascinating insight into Carpenter's approach to adapting John Steakley's novel, the creation of Greg Nicotero's outstanding practical effects, and James Woods' unforgettable performance as Jack Crow. Audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and promotional materials round out a package that remains the definitive home video release of Vampires.
- NEW 4K restoration from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision (HDR) presentation.
- Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter.
- "Time to Kill Some Vampires" – Interviews with John Carpenter, producer Sandy King Carpenter, and cinematographer Garry B. Kibbe.
- "Jack the Vampire Slayer" – Interview with James Woods.
- "The First Vampire" – Interview with Thomas Ian Griffith.
- "Raising the Stakes" – Interview with special makeup effects legend Greg Nicotero.
- "Padre" – Interview with Tim Guinee.
- Original Making-of Featurette.
- Theatrical Trailer.
- TV Spots.
- Still Gallery
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