While vacationing in Thailand, a young woman is kidnapped by a gang of dirt bike riding vampires. Her boyfriend Connor (Colin Egglesfield), a Muay Thai boxer, sets out to rescue her by joining a rival band of benevolent vampires known as Song Neng who are committed to ending the vampire bloodline once and for all. But when they side with mercenary vampire slayers with their own agenda, the outcome of this conflict becomes even more tenuous.

Simple, straightforward and predictable. Such is the plot to this B-movie, which isn’t such a bad thing. Unlike some flicks that try to sell something they can’t offer, Marty Weiss’ movie gives us exactly what one would expect from a martial arts infused vampire actioner. It falls comfortably in line with the likes of similar genre pictures like Dracula 3: Legacy starring Jason Scott Lee or Twins Effect, although it remains largely unknown, no doubt as a result of its mostly no-name cast.

But despite a potentially intriguing backstory involving an 800-year old Thai curse and a fair amount of martial arts action and horrific violence, there isn’t much to get excited about. Pacing is hindered by an overlong dream sequence and exploratory searches by Egglesfield that generally add up to nothing but dull filler. In this way, clocking in at under 90 minutes proves to be an advantage since the filmmakers are seemingly scavenging for content.

Starring is handsome television actor Colin Egglesfield, who displays limited acting ability with a particularly wooden performance. However, he’s reasonably credible as a martial arts fighting action hero, thanks in part to the stunt doubling of Britain’s Dean Alexandrou and a fair amount of wirework and editing.

Roger Yuan should be quite familiar to genre fans, most notably for his villainous role in Shanghai Noon opposite Jackie Chan. His performance is just as wooden as Egglesfield’s and suggests that first-time director Marty Weiss has yet to learn how to content his cast with their characters or the audience. Then again, the lean script doesn’t exactly sparkle with great opportunities for engaging drama to begin with.

The rest of the cast are mostly filled out by Thai actors most Westerners will be unfamiliar with.

As B-movies go, The Turning looks pretty good. The crew make good use of locations in Thailand and limited special effects work is well done for the most part. For showing the inevitable slaying of vampires, a mix of CGI and live make up effects make for some satisfying undead kills. It’s too bad a lack of imagination or budget keeps the effects work from getting more opportunities to shine. But this is really an action movie first and a horror movie second.

Some viewers may find the editing and camera work to be mildly annoying during action sequences. Standard quick editing is used with very few or very fast set up and reaction shots. This all gives the fighting a hurried and generic look. Actual martial arts sequences are limited and although Muay Thai is emphasized initially, this style gives way to typical movie martial arts with an added mix of acrobatics and wushu moves that increasingly rely on wirework to accentuate the supernatural fighting abilities of vampires. But it all stays far more grounded than the comic book excesses of Blade 2.

There are a couple action scenes involving dirt bikes and some painful looking stunt work on them. There are also just some great falls or throws performed by the stunt crew that hint at the kind of bone-crushing realism Hong Kong’s 1980s action films excelled at. But since there really are no showstopper scenes or memorable fight work, much of this stunt work is hard to appreciate within the context of this movie.

Vampires: the Turning isn’t going to change anybody’s life. Yet it’s a harmlessly fun and frivolous direct-to-video flick that serves it’s intended audience well enough with a solid mix of vampire slayings, attractive and scantily-clad gals, and uncomplicated action heroics from Egglesfield that would likely get a thumbs up from Michael Dudikoff or Casper Van Dien.

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