John Carpenter’s Vampires doesn’t have a very complicated plot, but it doesn’t really need one. It was written and directed by John Carpenter and he knows what he’s doing.
The movie is about a group of vampire hunters just… hunting vampires. This is a “modern day” vampire movie though (where “modern day” is 1998) so the hunters use the tools available at the time. You can tell they thought a lot about how to effectively kill a vampire in today’s world without magical objects. There are nice little touches like the characters putting on chain-mail neck-guards before entering a vampire nest to prevent bites.
Of course, there is a plot here. A “master” vampire has a plan to perform some ritual which should give him the ability to walk in the daylight. And he needs the main character for that ritual. That leads me to my main complaint about this movie. James Woods is the main character and head vampire hunter and there’s just something about him in this movie that I don’t like. I don’t know what type of actor would’ve fit this role better but I don’t think James Woods was that type. I think they wanted more of a fast-talking arrogant type?
Also, James Woods and his sidekick Baldwin brother (Daniel Baldwin) are both… assholes. Like, that’s their character trait. And it’s weird. It seems forced, I guess. They act like normal, rational, cool-headed hunters but then will just slap a hooker and treat her like dirt for no real reason. The Baldwin brother does a better job of this where it’s more impulsive and a knee-jerk reaction he immediately regrets, but James Woods has his slow way of talking that makes his asshole outbursts seem out of character. I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t like the “treat women like dirt” aspect to their characters. It didn’t seem necessary. Even if they thought a hooker bit by a vampire is suddenly less than human (because they have no sympathy for vampires) they still don’t treat her like a vampire. They just treat her like dirt. Sorry, I don’t mean to belabor this point since it isn’t a major aspect to the movie (it only happens a couple times). I just didn’t see the reasoning for them to act that way.