After 10 years of trying to hunt down a legit copy of this one, the wait was finally over in 2007. And to me, it was worth it. This is a sadly over-looked vampire-gem from the very early 90's (to my knowledge it never even made it over to our country on VHS or DVD; rather puzzling since pretty much everything has always been available over here on rental VHS until DVD started to change the videostore market)."Children Of The Night" certainly is an above average (crossbreeding) genre film and I for one got as much enjoyment out of it as I did with movies like "Vamp" and "Fright Night" (to name only 2). Above average, as far as production values, SFX and cool ideas go. Because the screenplay is a muddled mess, the pacing is off and the dialogues aren't exactly quality stuff either. The musical score had a bit of a "Hellraiser" (the original) vibe to it, which does raise the film to a higher, more sinister level at times. The scarce humorous aspects in it took some time to get used to (and seemed out of place first), but a drooling and horny vampire-version of Karen Black chained to a bed sure got me in the right mood. Very decent special-effects and vampire make-up too. And the most remarkable aspect of all: This film establishes a never-before-seen type of vampires. Or at least adds a new type of myth to these beings. You'll have to discover that for yourself, because I'm not going to tell what it is.All-in-all, even though I can understand people not really digging this kind of vampire-mixture, "Children Of The Night" turned out a very enjoyable watch for me. The first half has a fair amount of tension and manages to scare on some occasions, the second half is just plain good old vampire slaying fun. Other highlights in director Tony Randel's horror history are "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" and "Ticks" (AKA "Infested"), so you might have a better clue now of what to expect from this movie.

A vampire submerged underwater in an underground crypt, emerges having re-awakened thanks in part to two teenage girls swimming around. The small town of Allburg is soon invaded by the vampire curse as a teacher, 50 miles away, will reluctantly join forces with one of the girls who saw the leader, Czakyr, rise from his watery tomb, and the local drunken bum as they attempt to rid themselves of the evil which threatens their very lives.Okay high camp vampire tale, plenty of blood and wooden stakes penetrating chests. Karen Black gets top billing as Karen Thompson, but she's mostly confined to a room, chained to her bed by her character's priest lover, Father Alden(Evan MacKenzie)..the one who petitions best friend and confident, Mark(Peter DeLuise) to go to Allburg in search of Lucy Barrett(Ami Dolenz), the teenager who watched Czakyr bloodsuck Karen's daughter Cindy(Maya McLaughlin). Cindy is locked in the room with Karen, mostly feasting on the leeches which Father Aldin supplies..Cindy is Karen's "nutritional source". Karen, however, never ceases to lure Aldin into her clutches, eventually succeeding. Meanwhile, Mark, Lucy and wino Matty(Garrett Morris)must contend and fend off a community of vampire citizenry while also facing the difficult challenge of defeating Czakyr. Lucy will soon partner up with Cindy who wishes to get even with Czakyr for turning her into a vampire.Unlike other movies, we see that these vampires cocoon(..or, at least Karen does), some sleeping underwater breathing through their lungs which rest on the outside of their bodies! David Sawyer is unrecognizable as the grotesque Czakyr, his pointy ears, dank color, demonic facial features, and long fangs. Black plays her vampire to the hilt, really memorable under her make-up and fangs...quite a costume and she doesn't hold back, that's for sure. Dolenz is adorable as the virginal cutie Czakyr wishes to feast from. Deluise, her "what the hell have I gotten myself into" suitably frightened protector, way out of his league in the "killing vampires" department. Morris steals the film as the hobo who takes matters into his own hands, commandeering a "spread the word" van, blowtorching a light-bulbed cross to the bumper, prepared to impale any bloodsucker in his path.Some very unusual camera angles and effective use of color, but this vampire flick is nothing spectacular. You get the expected ultra-violence. Director Tony Randel tones the film in a light-hearted way.

Children of the night is the second in a string of 3 movies released by Fangoria films in the early 90's. I remember these movies were pretty heavily promoted to horror fans at the time. The best of these was mindwarp, and the worst one was severed ties. Children of the night falls squarely in the middle and it's kind of a middling movie in general (maybe a bit worse than middling depending on how you look at it).Early in the film there are a few scary scenes and that's why i don't give it a lower rating. It's sort of cheesy all the way through, but in the early going, there is some genuine darkness here and there... Unfortunately it deteriorates into a silly mess halfway through. It tries to be sort of a horror comedy, but it doesn't deliver any laughs. It feels like the director wants this to have a comic book quality and at times it does, but the material would have been better served with a darker treatment. The biggest problem with the film is it's lack of any sort of internal logic. It could have been a pretty entertaining movie, (even with it's undesirable cornball quality) if the plot didn't continually break down on a fundamental level. There are illogical horror films that work (like Lucio Fulci's "Seven Doors of Death") And they work because the whole film has a nightmarish, dreamlike quality... This film never pretends to have that kind of aesthetic. It's a more down to earth movie, and it needed to make sense.A good example of the flawed internal logic.... There is one vampire that seems immune to all the effects of vampirism. She retains her personality and is able to control her evil urges. Her remarkable ability is never explained and it seems that the only reason she was made that way was to allow for the films contrived and illogical ending sequence. All through the film you'll be asking yourself "why are they doing that?" the characters responses to the situations they face make no sense at all and it's so extreme that it's even over the line for a horror movie.so my recommendation would be... Watch this if your a vampire aficionado or a big horror fan, but if you start losing interest in the second half, just go ahead and turn it off... It doesn't get any better and you'll be pleased to see the credits roll

This is not a bad horror film, but it's nothing special, either. Very derivative and ordinary, it produces more yucks (thanks to gruesome special effects) than scares. As for Karen Black, she has come a long way since Hitchcock's "Family Plot", that's for sure! (*1/2)