- A vampire scientist psychically charges the "longevity serum" he sells across the world, making all who use it into vampires loyal to him.
- Three interns in white lab coats run frantically along the sidewalks of Los Angeles. They take cover next to some pallets behind a building. Vic Hunter [Brian Knudson] shows Eddie [Oliver Leymarie] and Tom [Chris Wolf] that he has taken a syringeful of prototype 19h from Project Alpha. "Not the "real thing," he admits, but it will at least protect them from ultraviolet rays and make their reflections visible. Suddenly, the three are set upon by an eye-patched renfield named Louis [Ray Essler] and his vampire strongman Hopper [Kelvin Tsao]. Tom and Eddie run and, after a short battle with Hopper, Vic plunges a stake through his chest and runs away, too. Louis pulls out the stake.
Project Alpha is the brainchild of Dr Frederick Klaus [Myron Natwick], the last survivor of an old world vampire family from Austria. Klaus, in his position as professor of pathology at the University, claims to be doing research into longevity but actually is developing a Super Serum that turns humans into vampires and an antidote that protects vampires from UV rays. He plans to ship the stuff around the world and create a vampire following. Angry that his interns have betrayed him, Frederick snaps Eddie's neck when he is brought back, but Tom and Victor remain at large.
Wounded from his encounter with Hopper, Vic lies slumped in the street. He is picked up by Nurse Sandra Jensen [Mary Louise Demmil], who becomes concerned when she finds that Vic's body temp is 10 degrees below normal and his pulse is 58. When Vic says that he needs a blood transfusion, Sandra takes him to the emergency room at University Hospital so that ER physician Dr Paul Hold [John-Scott Taylor] can help, but Vic skips out when Sandra leaves him in her car. When Vic realizes that he left the syringe with the antidote in the car, he is forced to take refuge in a dark warehouse where he is able to feast on the blood of a rat and hide out from the daylight.
The next day, Frederick happens upon Sandra as she walks past him and his assistant Heidi [Paula Randol-Smith]. Able to smell Victor's scent on Sandra, Frederick offers her a position on Project Alpha and arranges an interview for tomorrow at 4 pm. "She will lead us to Victor," Frederick tells Heidi smugly and arranges for Louis and Hopper to pay Sandra a visit. As night approaches, Vic comes out of hiding and makes his way to Sandra's apartment, having seen her address on one of her nursing books. He awakens her and asks if she found a syringe in her car. Sandra goes to get the syringe. While waiting, Vic notices Frederick's card on the counter. Vic warns Sandra not to keep that appointment, kisses her, and opens the front door to leave.
Suddenly, Louis and another of his henchmen burst into the room. Louis chloroforms Sandra while his henchman beats up on Vic, but Vic stabs him with a scissors, grabs Sandra, and carries her out to her car. Just as Vic is about to drive away, Louis injects Super Serum into Sandra's arm. While trying to outrun Louis and Hopper's car, Vic explains the Super Serum and its antidote to Sandra. Taking shelter outside of a church, someplace that Hopper cannot go, Vic wishes aloud that he knew a superchemist who could help him develop his own antidote. Sandra suggests her chemist friend, Dr Lee Fong [Christopher Cho], who agrees to talk to them. While Sandra, who is in the early stages of transforming into the vampire, rests on Lee's bed, Vic explains the Super Serum and antidote to Lee and asks if he can run a chemical analysis on it. Lee agrees and heads down to the lab.
Meanwhile, Tom has surfaced at a party at the house of a friend. He follows a girl into the bathroom and drinks her blood, then climbs out the bathroom window and thinks he is home free. Unfortunately, he is apprehended by Louis and Hopper, who take him to Frederick. Frederick forces Tom to get a message to Vic in order to set up a trap. Checking his voicemail, Vic receives a message to meet Tom in Room 7 at the Seaway Motel. When Lee returns, he loans Vic his car so that he and Sandra can go to Tom. First, however, they stop at the hospital where Sandra steals a pint of blood so they can eat.
Back at Lee's apartment, ER doctor Paul shows up looking for Sandra, who failed to show up at a dinner date they had arranged the night before. The police are at her apartment, he explains, because a man got stabbed there, and they want to talk to Sandra. When Lee refuses to tell Paul where she's at, Paul pulls a syringe of Super Serum out of his pocket and shoots it into Lee's shoulder.
When Vic and Sandra finally get to the Seaway Motel, Vic finds only two bloodless girls and a note from Tom telling Vic to meet him at West Beach. There, they find Tom and Hopper attacking a couple who were strolling along the water. Hopper is set upon by a cross-carrying Jesus freak and Vic takes on Tom. Suddenly, Paul appears and forces Sandra to go with him. Vic manages to kill Tom, but not before the police see him running away from the bodies. The police nab Vic just as Paul drives away with both Sandra and Lee in the back seat.
Using his vampire strength, Vic breaks out of the handcuffs, steals a bicycle, and heads back to Lee's apartment. He attempts to access Lee's computer only to find that Lee has preprogrammed it to direct Vic to look in the cookie jar. There, Vic finds the formula for 19h, and the computer gives him the correct dosage. One dose will be good for 2.13 hours. Using Lee's home chemistry setup, Vic brews up several syringefuls of something he labels "poison." Then he injects himself with 19h and packs the remaining syringes, along with some garlic and crosses, in his backpack. Just as Vic is about to leave the apartment, Hopper bursts in. After a few well-placed punches, Vic injects a syringeful of poison into Hopper's neck and takes off. He steals a motorcycle and heads for Frederick's downtown urban castle. Gaining entrance through the back door, Vic sneaks around in the corridors. He finds and releases Lee, then they search for and find Sandra. When Paul comes in the room to check on Sandra, Lee injects him with poison. He then provides Sandra and Lee with syringes of 19h.
Although he was just preparing to inject himself with today's dose of the antidote, Frederick suddenly smells Vic and hurries off to find him, forgetting to take the antidote. Frederick corners Vic and lectures him about how he could have become second-in-command, but Vic tears the curtain off the window, causing the sunlight to burn Frederick's face. Frederick runs from the room. Vic, Sandra, and Lee follow, running into Heidi in the hall. Vic stabs Heidi in the abdomen, and Sandra injects her with poison. They catch up with Frederick just as he's about to inject himself with the antidote. Before Frederick can do so, they drag him out the back door. Frederick burns up in the sun. As Vic, Sandra, and Lee head home, Louis can be seen escaping with two boxes, one filled with syringes of Super Serum and the other with antidote. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]
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