Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent but underrated film

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The first must-see film of the year.

Sundown is pretty good for what it is. What is it? A low budget western/horror/action/comedy flick with plenty of original ideas, a great cast and its tongue is firmly planted in its cheek. David Carradine is Mardulak, he owns a town in the American southwest called Purgatory. Purgatory is a sanctuary of sorts for vampires that wish to live out eternity in peace. Mardulak is also funding a blood substitute so vampires will no longer feed on humans for blood. Of course there are some that are not on the same page and do not see humans as their equals, just lunch. John Ireland is great opposite of Carradine as villain in this. Plus M. Emmet Walsh, Bruce Campbell, George "Buck" Flower and Emmet from Road House appear. Sundown The Vampire In Retreat is fine campy entertainment that does not take itself so seriously. But, by doing so it succeeds on its own merits. It puts a nice and unique spin on the vampire mythos and is a hilarious and fun film. This film may be a little cheesy, but performances are good and this project is ripe with fresh ideas. Sundown The Vampire In Retreat certainly delivers the goods for campy entertainment.

(Credit IMDb) Reclusive vampires lounge in a lonely American town. They wear sun cream to protect themselves. A descendant of Van Helsing arrives with hilarious consequences.I wasn't ever bored with this movie, but I had difficulty getting into it. It does have scenes that are quite amusing and others where I found myself blinking at the screen, because it fell flat. It's that kind of movie. You'll either like it or you won't. I didn't dislike it by any means, but it's not something that was for me. I did think it was audacious for them to make a few of the vampires sympathetic, and refrain themselves from digging in on human blood. Yes. I realize this concept has been done before, but the way they did it in this movie was unique. It never takes itself very seriously, and that I did wind up liking. The desert setting was decent, but they didn't really take full advantage of it either. This movie isn't a gore fest, but it does have a few stand-out moments, including a decapitation, and my personal favorite, an impaling with an umbrella. David Carradine is fun as the Count, but he doesn't have as much screen time as you may think. Considering his stature at this juncture, I was a bit surprised. Bruce Campbell spoofs Van Helsing hilariously. His dimwitted character was the highlight of the film for me. You gotta love Bruce! Jim Meltzer & Morgan Brittany are decent as the hero & heroine. Maxewell Caufield grated my nerves with his hammy performance. He was clearly having a blast, but he was much too OTT for my liking. Deborah Foreman has good chemistry with Bruce Campbell, and played her part well. The rest of the cast are fine for the most partFinal Thoughts: Anthony Hickox tries valiantly to pull off this unorthodox horror/comedy, but can't quite pull it off. The cast is great, and it does have its moments, but it's not for me. Others may feel differently5/10

This is one of the movies that totally didn't move me. Actually, it didn't have a single aspect in it that interested me. I was hoping for an atmospheric vampire movie, and got a comedy movie that simply isn't funny. Not even Campbell was able to help in that aspect. This guy was amazingly funny in the evil dead 2, but here, he felt totally misplaced. I guess, there is no way that he could actually play clumsy and sappy at all. Even though I like the actor, for this movie he was pretty much the worst cast possible. All other actors did OK. But that just didn't help with an awful script like this one. I can't believe that the original has been a book. The whole movie felt completely like a trash movie. Sense was almost lacking completely.For me, either a movie has to move, that means, transport emotions. Or it has to teach something, that means, transport informations. This movie didn't do either. It didn't even make me smile a single time.

But then again--I LOVE Plan 9 From Outer Space, Rocky Horror, Mars Attacks, and any other number of "comic" horror movies. Even ones (like Plan 9) that weren't MEANT to be funny.David Carradine and John Ireland are great as the leaders of opposing factions within the vamp community. And E. Emmet just turns in a GREAT job as a grouchy old curmudgeonly vamp, who's excuse for "eating" a tourist was--he P***ed me off. (of course the tourist would have p.o.ed ANYONE off.) And the love story between the Van Helsing grandson (played to the hilt by Bruce Campbell) and a female vamp was just too funny for words.And, as a very fair skinned person who has NEVER had a sun tan--but lots and lots and lots of sunburns--I'd LOVE to know where to get that SPF 1000 sunscreen.