I got this movie on a 4-film "Vampire Collector's Set" DVD under the title "Vampire Wars: Battle for the Universe," though the opening credits of the actual film identify it as "Bloodsuckers," which quite frankly is a cooler (and less wordy) title. The movie itself was pretty much what I expected: a low budget B-film. Fortunately, I love stuff like this and "Vampire Wars"/"Bloodsuckers" turned out to be a surprisingly cool mish-mash of the horror, sci-fi and action genres, bolted together from parts of the "Blade" series, a little bit of "Firefly," and some "Aliens" as well.
The good news: it's the 23rd century and mankind has at last discovered humanoid life on other planets. The bad news: all of the humanoid life on those other planets is vampiric in nature and wants to eat us, prompting the creation of the "V-SAN" corporation (for "Vampire SANitation"), which sends out teams of bad-asses (think the Colonial Marines from "Aliens") from planet to planet weeding out vampire nests wherever they threaten humanity's interests. Damien Underwood is a newbie on a V-SAN crew who inherits the captain's chair after his commander becomes Vampire Chow early in the movie. He struggles to gain respect in his new role, despite his lack of command experience and the fact that most of his crew (including a redneck in a cowboy hat who predates Woody Harrelson's look in "Zombieland" by a few years, and a butch lesbo who recalls Cpl. Vazquez of "Aliens") blames him for the captain's demise. Fortunately, Underwood does have the support of one crew member -- Quintana, an amazingly hot vampire/human hybrid who reads minds, looks great in an "Underworld" style leather cat suit, and who can kick massive amounts of alien-vampire ass. This fearsome foursome travels to a space station in response to a distress signal, only to find the human population destroyed when they arrive. Turns out they've been lured there by a group of humans who have taken the vampires' side in the war, claiming that Earthlings are the real predatory creatures in the universe. Genre legend Michael Ironside makes a brief cameo, hamming it up in a quick-paycheck role as some sort of vampire overlord in cahoots with the turncoat humans, and eventually lots of big guns go off, and we get severed limbs and gore galore.
True "vampire" movie fans will probably hate this movie as this so-called "vamps" act more like zombies (i.e. they eat the flesh of their victims rather than drink their blood). They also tend to dress like biker-gang rejects from a "Mad Max" movie. It is interesting that there appear to be numerous types of vampire races in the Universe (one in-joke refers to two different races as "the Voorhees" and "the Leatherfaces") depending on what planet the V-SANS agents visit, causing me to wonder if this film was intended as the first in a series (or perhaps a TV series pilot -- I did notice that even though the film is quite violent and bloody, language is toned down and though I really hoped to see Quintana strip off that leather bodysuit, no such luck).
As with most of the movies on these "4 Film Collections" that I've seen, "Bloodsuckers/Vampire Wars" is worth viewing if you've got a taste for goofy, low-budget fare; those who prefer their horror on the more serious side can safely skip it.
The good news: it's the 23rd century and mankind has at last discovered humanoid life on other planets. The bad news: all of the humanoid life on those other planets is vampiric in nature and wants to eat us, prompting the creation of the "V-SAN" corporation (for "Vampire SANitation"), which sends out teams of bad-asses (think the Colonial Marines from "Aliens") from planet to planet weeding out vampire nests wherever they threaten humanity's interests. Damien Underwood is a newbie on a V-SAN crew who inherits the captain's chair after his commander becomes Vampire Chow early in the movie. He struggles to gain respect in his new role, despite his lack of command experience and the fact that most of his crew (including a redneck in a cowboy hat who predates Woody Harrelson's look in "Zombieland" by a few years, and a butch lesbo who recalls Cpl. Vazquez of "Aliens") blames him for the captain's demise. Fortunately, Underwood does have the support of one crew member -- Quintana, an amazingly hot vampire/human hybrid who reads minds, looks great in an "Underworld" style leather cat suit, and who can kick massive amounts of alien-vampire ass. This fearsome foursome travels to a space station in response to a distress signal, only to find the human population destroyed when they arrive. Turns out they've been lured there by a group of humans who have taken the vampires' side in the war, claiming that Earthlings are the real predatory creatures in the universe. Genre legend Michael Ironside makes a brief cameo, hamming it up in a quick-paycheck role as some sort of vampire overlord in cahoots with the turncoat humans, and eventually lots of big guns go off, and we get severed limbs and gore galore.
True "vampire" movie fans will probably hate this movie as this so-called "vamps" act more like zombies (i.e. they eat the flesh of their victims rather than drink their blood). They also tend to dress like biker-gang rejects from a "Mad Max" movie. It is interesting that there appear to be numerous types of vampire races in the Universe (one in-joke refers to two different races as "the Voorhees" and "the Leatherfaces") depending on what planet the V-SANS agents visit, causing me to wonder if this film was intended as the first in a series (or perhaps a TV series pilot -- I did notice that even though the film is quite violent and bloody, language is toned down and though I really hoped to see Quintana strip off that leather bodysuit, no such luck).
As with most of the movies on these "4 Film Collections" that I've seen, "Bloodsuckers/Vampire Wars" is worth viewing if you've got a taste for goofy, low-budget fare; those who prefer their horror on the more serious side can safely skip it.