Other Titles • The Forsaken (2001) • The Forsaken: Desert Vampires
Synopses for The Forsaken (2001)
1.
The Night… Has An Appetite.
Sean (Kerr Smith) is in a race against time that will determine his fate for the rest of his life as he becomes infected with a virus that will eventually turn him into a blood-sucking, flesh eating vampire.
A cross-country road trip takes a dangerous detour when driver-for-hire Sean (Kerr Smith) picks up Nick, a hitchhiker (Brendan Fehr) who is on the trail of a band of vampires. At a roadside diner, they encounter a crazed and helpless woman, a recent victim of a vampire feeding, and Sean becomes infected. Now, the three must race against time to track down and kill the source of the virus, a centuries-old vampire with superhuman strength and an appetite for blood. A hard-driving, adrenaline-pumping thriller in the infectious tradition of The Lost Boys and John Carpenter's Vampires, The Forsaken will scare the daylights out of you!
(23 votes)
2.
Inviting comparison to Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 cult hit Near Dark, and derivative of The Hitcher and a half-dozen other films, The Forsaken is nevertheless a gritty little B movie that succeeds on its own modest terms. There's nothing new here, and the film's vampire folklore is only marginally intriguing, but if you're attracted to nihilistic tales that unfold in the middle of nowhere, you'll appreciate this bloody dose of low-budget horror. It all starts when Sean (Kerr Smith) agrees to drive a vintage Mercedes from Los Angeles to Florida, where he'll deliver the car and attend his sister's wedding. His troubles begin when he picks up Nick (Brendan Fehr), a nomadic "hunter" on the trail of a small cadre of vampires (a.k.a. "the Forsaken") who've been spreading their blood-sucking virus since medieval times. Nick's mission: Stop the virus by killing the vampires on sacred ground, using a rescued victim (Izabella Miko) as telepathic bait (telepathy being one of the movie's vampiric innovations).
It's basically a road movie with car chases, nudity, and plenty of grisly violence. It's not as stylish or witty as Near Dark, but after two decades in the B-movie biz, writer-director J.S. Cardone knows what he's doing, and while the movie's never really fresh, it's also never stupid. The young cast plays it straight (which is good), and Jonathan Schaech is a standout as the lead vampire. It's anybody's guess why the vampires manifest themselves as desert-dwelling punks in a rusty Dodge Charger, but hey, sometimes you just gotta go with the (blood) flow. --Jeff Shannon
(20 votes)
3.
Driving cross-country to deliver a vintage Mercedes, Sean (Kerr Smith) does the one thing he wasn't supposed to do -- pick up a hitchhiker. From that moment on, his road trip is transformed into a surreal and terrifying nightmare.
Sean's new companion, Nick (Brendan Fehr), is not the laid back, aimless traveler he seems to be. He is a hunter. And his prey are a roving band of forsaken youths who feed upon hapless victims found in the dead of night—in a word, vampires.
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