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Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

If you are a cheesy vampire comedies or a fan of Bruce Campbell, then you most definitely have to watch “Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat”, if you haven’t seen it already.

Why? Well, simply because it is a hilarious vampire comedy with a rather good story actually. A town of vampires have settled in a small town far out in the desert, keeping themselves off the map and rarely getting people passing through town. The vampires are making synthetic bottled blood to satisfy their taste for human blood. But of course some vampires are not content with this, wanting to sink their fangs into the flesh of the living and drink real, warm blood. But who is the mysterious Count Mardulak who runs the town. And who is the clumsy stranger with glasses who stumble into town?

“Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat” have a rather good list of actors and actresses on the cast list. David Carradine plays Count Mardulak, Bruce Campbell plays Van Helsing, M. Emmet Walsh plays Mort, and John Ireland plays Jefferson. These are but a few of the great people in the movie.

There is a wonderful mix of comedy and traditional vampire flick in this movie to make it all interesting, and the cheesy combination actually works out well enough, making the movie all the more enjoyable. And of course, Bruce Campbell brings along with him his usual lovable way of portraying semi-clumsy hero-like characters.

“Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat” doesn’t rely heavily on special effects and CGI, though whatever effects were used worked out well and came of as believable.

I hadn’t heard about this little gem before I ran across it on Amazon while searching for Bruce Campbell, and I am glad I added it to my DVD collection because it is sort of a weird mix between “The Evil Dead” and classic Western movies, though thrown in with a good amount of vampire fun.