Daughter of Darkness (1990)

As stated it started watchable enough with decent cinematography and music. Some decent dream like effects. Then another. Then another. The dialogue was a joke. Not a funny joke. A joke of a film. The beginning music and camera work was about a 5, then the nonsense dialogue, the comic taxi driver, the joke of a consulate worker character, 4 stars, more nonsense dialogue, 3 stars, then I gave up, this is a 1 star film. To watch this movie just to get a glimpse of some decent film making is too much work.The packing is slow. The dialogue is boring and long. Everything is spelled out. Perkins' accent is the biggest joke. At one point our heroin and her taxi driver pass a police officer while they are carrying gas cans! Nice job. Maybe they should have made this a full on comedy. The makeup on Perkins face was a mess.There were at least 2 scenes of tourist buses with tourists touring. Maybe this could have been promoted as a tourist film.The acting was OK at best, more mediocre. As mentioned the dialogue was a horror, not in a good way.The only way I can recommend this is if your getting drunk and laughing at the movie.1 star, for effort.

After the recent passing of her mother, Katherine (Mia Sara) decides to travel to Romania to find the father she never knew. Guided by dreams she is lead to Anthony Perkins with a Dracula accent. 35 minutes into the film, the "V" word is used and things are not hard to figure out from the plot spoiler title. Katherine plays "Mrs. Columbo" to locate her father who may or may not be dead.IMDb lists it as a TV movie which accounts for the lame sound track and mediocre plot.This movie about Romania is part of a multi-pack called "15 American Horror." Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Brief sex and nudity.

"Daughter of Darkness" is an actually pretty good film with a few small flaws to it.**SPOILERS**Arriving in Romania, American Katherine Thatcher, (Mia Sara) determined to find herself a new life. While searching through the city with Max, (Dezso Garas) keeps seeing a strange dragon symbol that resembles a design on her medallion she wears which helps her along with the search for her missing father. Meeting with local Grigore Protoescu, (Robert Reynolds) who helps her along, and she manages to do a little more digging into the past, eventually coming across Anton, (Anthony Perkins) who has a terrible secret for her. Eventually cornered with the realization that her father is a member of a secret society of vampires that needs their blood to stay alive, and that everyone else she trusts is either a member or are a willful helper, she tries to escape from their clutches before she becomes one of them.The Good News: There's some good stuff to this one. One of the best is that there's a habit of including really neat scenes in random order throughout the film. Some of them are pretty creepy, including a rather intense chase of a black-robed figure through the streets at night, which leads into the incredibly explosive finale that really ends it the right way. The foot chase to the taxi later on is also pretty good, and it even manages to get in some pretty good stuff later on. There's the whole finale to this, which is where most of the fun in the film comes from. From the creepy torture dungeon to the stable hideout, there's some good locations for the all-out action assaults. Those are great, as there's the torture segment in the dungeon which is actually really cool, as the sight of the vampire being strapped to a machine that lets in daylight to scar and torch the hands, arms and face, and the impressive visual of that happening, is a great site and manages to make them feel a lot more threatening when it occurs. Then there's the confrontation in the stable, which is just great. From the introduction of the fire to set everything ablaze to the brawling with the vampires and the destruction of the location and the thrilling escape, it's really fun and enjoyable. It's also got the fact that the vampires are all knocked off by being set on-fire is really great, as there's plenty of great scenes that show them running around on fire. It's a great site, and mixed in with the really great setting and fun action make the ending fun. What makes these work is the really entertaining storyline for this one. There's a really great mystery angle at work, with the reason for the journey to Romania a logical one that allows for some creepy goings-on that it manages to incorporate because of what's going on, and they're all done really nicely in here because the story allows them to. These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: This one here had a few flaws to it that do hold it down. The main one here does have one of the worst problems with it's vampires in here. This one here does have the new bloodsucking angle, but beyond that and the can't-stand-sunlight angle, there's almost no need for them to even be vampires. This one would've worked fine with a cult of vampire wannabe's who think they're vampires or had something else done with what's been given so far, because this one really doesn't feel like a vampire film at all. This would still be entertaining with the cult angle rather than the vampire coven, and a little more with this would've been fine. The other flaw to this is that there should've been a little more action to this in the beginning. Since it focuses on the mystery more than anything else during that part, it manages to be a little boring for these scenes, as it's in the beginning and it takes a while to get into. These here are the film's few problems.The Final Verdict: With some very good points to this and only a few really noticeable flaws that hold it down, this one ends up as being one of the better entries available. Give this one a chance if it sounds interesting or find these kinds of films themselves quite fun, otherwise the flaws here will be quite worthwhile.Rated R: Violence, Language and Nudity

It's been many years since I've seen this movie. I would love to watch it again. It's good for anyone who likes the Vampire lore. The acting is pretty good, and Mia Sara and Anthony Perkins are great! This movie shows another side to vampires.