Film Review: The Forsaken (2001)

Being professional and following the rules set by your employer could spare you from serious trouble. This is something protagonist of The Forsaken, 2001 horror film written and directed by J. C. Cardone, fails to do. Sean (played by Kerr Smith) is a son of Hollywood film maker who dreams of following father’s footsteps. However, path to fame is hard and job in small film studio pays so little that he is forced to take extra jobs to make ends meet. One of those is driving luxury cars over America. This time, he is about to drive Mercedes to Miami just as his sister is to have her wedding there. Sean is in the good mood and, during the drive, despite car owner’s specific warnings not to do so, takes young hitch hiker named Nick (played by Brendan Fehr). It soon turns out that Nick is actually a vampire hunter and that he needs Sean’s vehicle in order to search for the gang of vicious desert vampires led by Kit (played by Jonathan Schaech). Nick has very good reasons to take this search, because he was bitten by Kit and the only way to prevent himself turning into vampire is to kill Kit beforehand. He uses young woman named Megan (played by Izabella Miko), who has been also bitten by Kit and whose turning is in advanced stage, as bait. When Sean gets bitten by Megan, he doesn’t have a choice either than help Nick in his quest.

Made with low budget, The Forsaken doesn’t look like a very original film. Desert setting and elements of the plot make it something of a derivative of much better 1980s films like The Hitcher and Near Dark. The only original thing seems to be Cardone’s attempt to give some sort of origin story to vampire phenomenon by tying it to Crusades. Lack of originality isn’t going to be compensated with the casting, because Kerr Smith and Brendan Feher, actors who have gained some fame by appearing in popular teen-related TV shows, are apparently cast more because of their looks than acting ability. Villains, led by experienced Jonathan Schaech, are much more interesting. Polish actress Izabella Miko, on the other hand, is supposed to provide fan service to male segments of the audience with scenes in which she appears semi-nude. Although some scenes work, series of cliches becomes irritating after a while and the ending is quite predictable. The Forsaken in the end can be recommended only to viewers that really don’t have anything better to watch.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo

Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7