Evil vampire and art gallery owner Morgan Bane (Leonardo Milan) has lived for centuries and is suffering from a nasty case of ennui.  He has grown so powerful that there simply are no more worthy opponents!

However, Morgan makes the mistake of kidnapping Heather O’Ryan (Erin Leigh).  What Morgan doesn’t know is that Heather’s husband, John O’Ryan (Sean Gallimore, who also directed this film), is not just a talented animator.  He’s also a super cool martial artist!  John is going to get his wife back and he’s going to kick a lot of vampire ass to do it!

Helping Morgan is veteran vampire hunter, Ramone (Frank Suarez).  Along with carrying a few dozen stakes, Ramone is also armed with a squirt gun full of holy water.  Ramone’s religious faith is so strong that he can repel vampires just by showing them the cross that he’s tattooed on his palm.  (That’s actually a pretty clever touch.  Why don’t all vampire hunters do that?)  John, meanwhile, is an atheist but he’s about to discover that you can’t defeat a vampire without a little faith…

Vampire Hunter was made for about $5,000 in the mid-90s but, for whatever reason, it didn’t get released until 2004.  The low-budget is obvious in every frame and so is the fact that first time director Gallimore was learning how to direct as he went along.  The film itself can be found in a few box sets (I found my copy in the Decrepit Crypt of Nightmares box set) and it’s obvious that the DVD was transferred over from a VHS tape.

But you know what?

I don’t care about the technical limitations.  I don’t care about the low-budget.  I don’t care about the less than professional acting (though I do think that Gallimore actually showed a lot of screen presence and gave a decent enough performance).  I liked Vampire Hunter.  It’s a fun movie, one that was made with a lot more sincerity than skill but, quite frankly, I think sincerity is underrated nowadays.  Watching this movie, you get the feeling that it was a labor of love on the part of Gallimore and I’m glad that — even if it took nearly ten years — he eventually got his movie released!

And really, whatever issues you may have with the film, you cannot deny that the fight scenes are handled surprisingly well for a film with a $5,000 budget.  Gallimore obviously knew what he was doing as far as the fights were concerned and, quite honestly, the fights are probably the main reason why somebody would watch a movie like Vampire Hunter in the first place.

Seriously, check out Sean Gallimore training for some vampire hunting!

Say what you will about Vampire Hunter, I hope that Sean Gallimore had fun making it and I’m happy that it was eventually released!