Forsaken, The MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 Content: -4

Targeted specifically for older teenage audiences, THE FORSAKEN delves into the vampire genre with teen/young adult stars. Sean (Kerr Smith) works in Hollywood cutting trailers for movies but has to get to Miami for his sister’s wedding. He offers to deliver someone’s car across the country, so not only does he get to drive to Miami, he gets paid as well. On the road though, he breaks down in a small Texas town and meets up with a young drifter named Nick (Brendan Fehr). Nick convinces Sean to give him a ride but, while on the road, the two meet Megan (Izabella Miko), a recently-bitten victim who, according to lore, will soon change into a vampire. Nick turns out to be a vampire hunter, so he and Sean join together to save Megan and kill off some vampires. A teen version of 1998’s JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES, this film has little new to offer and shouldn’t make a much of a dent at the box office.

One positive note in this mess of a movie is the world perspective of Nick, the vampire hunter. He believes that the world is a scarred and mean place, which could be considered consistent with the Christian perspective that sin taints the world we live in. Beyond this minor thought, the movie is filled with gratuitous nudity, graphic violence, and excessive foul language including over 100 obscenities. The violence is also often gory, such as a man’s bloody spine being pulled from his neck and another disturbing scene of a policeman graphically wounded and burned alive. Add several instances of breast nudity and explicit sexual content to make The Forsaken just that – forsaken.

Preview Reviewer: John Adair
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment, 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232