The Vampire Conspiracy - A Marc Morgenstern Film

"Macedonian Bloodline… Jaret Sacrey Star of Screen & Stage
By Jewel Stoyan

"Entertaining", “...an interesting concept with moments of terror interspersed and your promotional materials are outstanding.”

Valerie Lee
Film Artists Network

“A lot a work went into this...”

Tom Savini
Horror Film Icon

"...an interesting project..."
Jelena Tadic
PUSH Worldwide

“There were several aspects of the film that I did enjoy and that I did find ambitious and I think they worked to a large degree. The telling of the story and the interrelationships of the characters unknown to them and the audience worked… and that made the end of the film very satisfying. Without a doubt the camp humour was very good and I love the audience interaction with the characters on the screen. We could certainly use more of that in the cinemas these days. The script had to be good otherwise the limited sets and locations would have never sustained the film’s content… (This aspect of the film alone makes it noteworthy)

And finally we needed a ditzy Anita Egberg, Marilyn Munroe type in the pic to give the screen some sizzle which would have complemented the Ed Wood look with a touch of Russ Meyers… had this had happened I think you would have covered off all the bases. While the pic had some weaknesses, it was a good film, and certainly played better than many I have seen for far greater budget.”

Tasso Lakas
Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) 2. Nov. 2005

"...we enjoyed the film..."
Doug Schwab
Maverick Entertainment

Five strangers are abducted by an ancient vampire and are placed in a deadly game where intelligence and endurance is the key. Should they get out of this labyrinth alive they have been promised to inherit the vampire’s entire fortune - wealth beyond their wildest imagination. But if they fail they will become the victims of his hunger. The only clues to their escape are the indecipherable words scrawled in various rooms and the seemingly insane man they found roaming the halls.

“The Vampire Conspiracy” was originally written as a stage play in 1992, but it’s author wanted to make it into a movie and in 2005 he took it upon himself to make it reality. As most independent movies it was made with a small budget, a simple studio set, a group of actors and very short shooting time (only nine days).

Not surprisingly the movie shows many of the signs we often expect from a low budget independent flick. The limitation in the budget makes itself appearent in parts of the studio set and amongst some of the actor’s performances. But the story and the dialogue turn out to be the productions strong cards and thanks to these the movie works its way ahead pretty impressively. Initially my thought wanders towards likeness to “Cube” but soon it gets it’s own twist and goes original all in itself. And in such settings as this it is imperative for the story to be stabile and captivating. The feel of the more classical stage dialogue is present and the slow introduction of the various characters and the relations between them all together does just that.

Nonetheless, the limited budget leaves many things to wish for. A bigger production and more time might have been in favor of the movie as a whole. The fact remains though, many of the more innovative and interesting stories are born in the independent market and even though the performance of it sometimes comes short it is still many times more entertaining than the boring mass produced movies coming from Hollywood nowadays. In this case “The Vampire Conspiracy” gets a well-deserved 3 (out 6 possible on the Moviemix grade scale) and this is mainly due to the script and story.

I would like to express many thanks to Marc Morgenstern and Five Strangers Films for sending me this DVD screener.

Thomas Lundmark
Reviewer - Moviemix.