Vampire Hunter D (1985) |
 | Summary:Original vampire/blaxploitation/horror anime follows an arcane and lethal vampire hunter in an attempt to bring down an antediluvian lord. Despite the dilute plot/characters/animation, still remains a cult-classic for it's campy values, brooding atmosphere; abundant fan following. |
| Title Aka: | N/A |
| Company/Distributors: | Urban Vision |
| Year: | 1985 |
| Length: | 90 Minutes |
| Rating: |  |
| Genres: | Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Classic |
| Format: | Feature Film |
| Content Level: |
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| Comments: | N/A |
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Synopsis:
10,000 years in the future is extremely different from what you may have imagined. For in "D's" world, mankind has lost his relationship with various technilogical achievments which thrive modern societies. The Earth has become a desolate and primitive land, returned to it's once familiar and beast driven environment. A world where evil beasts lurk and where humans no longer contain a perpose. Those who fear the beasts remain amidst "once-useful" technology. Technology such as advanced weapontry and mechanical horses. Yet, very few humans remain on the scorched planet; powerful beings whom remain among the shadows in small numbers. Such are the powerful beings known as "vampires", those who survive by endless desire for the blood of these remaining humans amidst the gothic, dark and bitter world. One of these human survivors is a young woman by the name of "Doris". One endlessly haunted by the memory of when she was attacked by "Count Magnus Lee", the most sinister of all vampires. Now he rules over a legion of evil vampires, which will stop at nothing to wipe out what is left of the human race. Despite these dark times, there is still hope for Doris. Beings who wander around the Earth, ones powerful enough to stand up to evil like Magnus. They are known only as "vampire hunters", warriors (Often vampires themselves) who believe in similar virtues as that of the humans. One day Doris seeks the help of an infamous vampire hunter only known as "D", who will aid her during her troubles. Along with her younger brother, "Doris" offers only her hospitality in return for "D's" efforts. Despite his humane eagerness to fight, "D's" skills reflect only that of a vampire spirit, meaning he himself contains a complicated and dark past which reflects only those of vampires of "Magnus". But will both find it in themselves to put away the darkness which lies within them, in enough time to halt the "Count's" evil intent. It's up to "D" to accomplish this, unless he can't calm down his "talking" hand first.
Review:
While at first glance, "Vampire Hunter D" is merely a sci-fi horror film containing a premise involving vampires; it's a story pertaining to several key aspects both good and bad. Despite the fact that it's been regarded as a genre/horror-classic, can't sustain the apparent First off, the film contains some extremely crude and unimpressive animation; even for the initial release of the movie. The character designs though interesting, appear extremely dated; and action sequences are poorly rendered and executed. Amidst some choppy-artwork, low-frame rates are appear highly noticable durring some of the film's key action sequences; which hardly does justice to the movie's sometimes unique attention to promising characters and storyline. Some of which are poorly written and composed. Every single character in Vampire Hunter D, from Doris to Magnus are extremely uninteresting and highly reminiscent of 2-Dimentional nature. Often times it seems that the plot is not well estamblished throughout, and alas aparent plot holes and several scenes end up serving no perpose. However, out of all the film's faults which contain poor developed storyline, script and characters; probably most disappointing of all these is "D" himself. A vampire hunter who contains a haunting and dark past. Doris is a disoriented and 'lost' woman who seeks "D's" sympathy, in order to resolve her haunting feelings and emotions. This is a storyline we have all seen before in so many animes, but what makes "Vampire Hunter D" different from all the rest is the poorly written dialouge and (Almost) laughable character development. All made toward executing flat-dialouge all throughout the entire plot. I was able to see the dubbed version of "Vampire Hunter D" and was disappointed to find out, what is even more disappointing than the films' lacking story was the dubbing job (Is it just me, or does Doris' little brother sound like a girl?). The soundtrack is extremely moody, dark and far from a memorable one. A cross between something found in midnight sci-fi serials at 2:00 A.M. on the sci-fi channel, or something reminiscent of "Mystery Science Theatre". The final product of this obvious build-up for some pretty stupid (Delicately put) characters, is not a clever anime film, but instead a poorly executed, rather gory and ridiculous sci-fi/horror "B" movie. Vampire Hunter D is an interesting premise which could have been a good film. Instead this is just another example of a premise gone haywire. For this reason alone, this title may not be up your alley. There are several great anime horror and sci-fi films out there. For your sake and mine, I highly suggest waiting for the re-make. |
underlyings which cause this film to fall short of disaster. As I said before, there are many good aspects about this film, mainly involving it's often interesting premise and production style. "Vampire Hunter D" is in fact very old, and one would carefully assume the animation is being far from anything reminiscent of technilogical masterwork. "Vampire Hunter D" was actually one of the very first anime films to make it over to the U.S. It was also one of the many films which introduced this genre of film making to many potential fans. Among several others were legendary science fiction movies such as "Katsuhiro Otomo's" "Akira". The film's animation style (Reminiscent of early sci-fi styles) was on the verdge of introducing a new wave of character designs in anime motion pictures; introducting some unique methods such as 'larger-eyes' as well as new methods for producing action sequences. Vampire Hunter D is often considered to be an anime cornerstone pertaining to these factors. In spite of it all however, this brooding sci-fi/horror flick is far from becomming a masterpiece.