FREDERICK	FREDA	ANNA	RUDOLPH	GREGORY

The Sackville-Baggs clan have been roaming around Earth for the past 300 years, a family of vampires with a "conscience"; that is, they don't drink human blood to sustain themselves, but treat themselves to cow's blood. They're in search of a magical pendant, an amulet, which will give them their greatest gift of all - to become humans. But they're also being relentlessly pursued by a vampire hunter who's put together a home-made crucifix with two flourescent light beams and hunts them all night long, however long it takes. Their quest for humanity and the search for the missing half of an amulet, the critical half which contains a magical jewel, is almost an impossible journey as time is running out for them. Then one of the Sackville sons, Rudolph, brings along a mortal stranger to help them. His name is Tony Thompson, an eight-year old visitor to Scotland, whose father is here and hired on to design an elaborate golf course for the stuffy Lord McAshton.

Tony is a precocious eight year old who's fascinated with the world of vampires. After being bullied by his schoolmates who think of him as an American freak, Tony has sought refuge in his own bedroom, complete with vampire fangs and cape, and playthings as he emerges himself into a make-believe world of vampires. One night he had a nightmare. He saw in his dream, a family who loses a fabled jewel. It turns out, that family was the Sackvile-Baggs. Strangely enough, Rudolph flew into Tony's room one night and quickly became "friends". Tony offers to help Rudolph's family seek the missing jewel. It turns out the missing jewel is buried underneath his bedroom floorboards with a female corpse. She had hid it and died underneath the house. Tony manages to dodge the vampire hunter as he seeks to return the jewel to the Sackvile-Baggs and the story ends with the vampire family achieving their greatest wish. Post vampire days for the new family include an outing at the local market during DAYLIGHT hours.

       

The film has had both positive and negative reviews from critics. On the positive side, most have credited this project with excellent costumes and makeup as well as the special effects, including the children's flying scenes and the hilarious scenes with the red-eyed vampire cows hiding in the barn. There is also a nice magical sequence of flying cows late the film. The entire spooky atmosphere is well achieved, complete with flapping bats, gothic tombs, as well as plenty of scares and chase scenes.

But on the negative side, critics have slammed the film for its spooky content for children. Although it is rated as "PG", some viewers feel that select scenes may be a bit too scary for children under 12. The films do show stakes and wanna-be vampire Tony with a bloody mouth. Although a bottle of ketchup is seen in the background, this scene is still considered unacceptable for young viewers.

The DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 and letterboxed, but also a full screen version is available on the same side. Colours are strong with black levels deep with excellent shadow details as most scenes are taken at night. The audio is a Dolby Digital 5.1. Lots of goodies are available as extras on this disc:

(1)   Three (3) interative menus
(2)   Easy-To-Make "Spooky Snacks"
(3)   Vampire and Monster Jokes
(4)   A theatrical trailer in 5.1 and widescreen
(5)   Cast and Crew filmographies
(6)   Vampire Cow Screensaves (on DVD-ROM) ... and
(7)   While watching a scene in the movie, viewers can also activate their computer DVDs and read the screenplay at the same time as well as accessing the film website.