It's the 21th century and you want to make a high concept, low budget movie. In other words, you aim to play in the same league of Spider-Man and Jurassic World, but spending one tenth of the money. It may look like a mission impossible - yeah, pun intended - but you still can do it, if you balance your lack of means with fine writing and a cascade of explosive ideas.
Dampyr, well, doesn't.
I'm not a SFX fanatic and I don't care about the visual effects looking cheap, as long as the script is surprising and the characters are well crafted and the dialogues are brilliant. Unfortunately, in Dampyr there's none of this. In fact there's nothing at all: think of one of those action-horror flicks which were a trend a couple of decades ago - Blade, Hellboy, Underworld - then strip it of anything that makes it interesting and you'll have Dampyr.
Dishonorable mention for the villain: we end up knowing nothing about his plans or his background or his personality, he's a funhouse prop which pops up now and then just to show how much he's scary.
I'm giving two stars instead of one just for the Balkanic setup, which at least is quite unusual for this kind of film.
Dampyr, well, doesn't.
I'm not a SFX fanatic and I don't care about the visual effects looking cheap, as long as the script is surprising and the characters are well crafted and the dialogues are brilliant. Unfortunately, in Dampyr there's none of this. In fact there's nothing at all: think of one of those action-horror flicks which were a trend a couple of decades ago - Blade, Hellboy, Underworld - then strip it of anything that makes it interesting and you'll have Dampyr.
Dishonorable mention for the villain: we end up knowing nothing about his plans or his background or his personality, he's a funhouse prop which pops up now and then just to show how much he's scary.
I'm giving two stars instead of one just for the Balkanic setup, which at least is quite unusual for this kind of film.