cross-country drive turns into a nightmare for Sean (Smith) the moment his car--a classic Mercedes he has agreed to deliver--suffers a blowout on a deserted highway. Down on his luck and strapped for cash, he agrees to give a ride to a caustic hitchhiker named Nick (Fehr) in exchange for gas money. Little does Sean know that his troubles are only beginning.
On the road at night, Sean and Nick are stopped by a gang of intimidating figures, led by the mysterious, dark-eyed Kit (Schaech). The four strangers toy with them a while before ultimately letting them go. After Sean and Nick are gone, Kit's companion Cym (Oruche) notes that Nick is a "hunter."
Later that night, Sean spots a pretty young girl (Miko) in a dingy watering hole. She acts frightened and disoriented, but he is drawn to her. Nick says he knows what's wrong with her and he can help. They take her back to a motel, strip her bare and put her into an ice bath. During the struggle she bites Sean's hand.
Now that Sean has been bitten, Nick must tell him the whole truth. He explains that she has a blood disease brought on by a vampire bite, and now Sean is infected too. A cocktail of drugs can be used to control the virus, but only for so long. Nick himself was bitten about a year ago and has tracked the source of the infection to Kit.
Their only chance of survival now is to kill Kit--the origin of the virus. Once he is destroyed, all those infected by him will return to normal. Thus begins a deadly game of cat and mouse as the three ailing youths fight for their lives against demons both outside and within.
Not just the vampires suck
While it's obvious that writer-director J.S. Carbone set out to make a new kind of vampire film with The Forsaken, there's very little that feels fresh or original about it. It is more of an amalgam of vampire lore that has all been done before, and better. We've seen bloodsuckers in desert settings in films like John Carpenter's Vampires and From Dusk Till Dawn. We've seen beautiful, hip twenty-somethings wreak havoc in Blade, The Lost Boys and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though the film may depart from the gothic elements of the genre, it still employs too many familiar horror movie cliches to be considered truly innovative or unique.
The one fertile idea here is the parallel made between the vampire virus and modern blood diseases like AIDS. This idea isn't all that original either--Richard Matheson used the concept of a virus in his classic novel I Am Legend--but it is the most interesting one in the film. The choice not to use traditional conventions like fangs, garlic and wooden stakes further marks a break from the past and an attempt to create a world where vampires seem not only plausible, but frighteningly real. This
works up to a point, but loses authenticity when the story delves into the fantasy-based myth of the vampires' origins.
The film has more than its share of disturbing images. The first five minutes feature a nude Miko bathing in a shower of blood. Fast-paced editing and quick montages speed up the action and add a feeling of hyper-reality during key moments. This adds an interesting visual element to the film, but not enough to overcome the highly implausible plot twists and stilted dialogue. Under the circumstances, the cast does the best they can.
