Vampire Time Travelers (1998) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Les Sekely
STARRING: Lynne Baker, Ali Elk, Kat Facchino
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:33/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Visual Vengeance
There are movies that ask important questions about humanity, morality, and the nature of existence. And then there’s Vampire Time Travelers (1998), directed by Les Sekely, which asks the far more pressing question: “What if vampires could travel through time and everything looked like it was filmed during summer vacation with a camcorder held together by hope?”
Cinema is beautiful sometimes.
Released by Visual Vengeance, Vampire Time Travelers is pure late-90s shot-on-video madness — the kind of regional indie horror/sci-fi hybrid that feels less like a traditional movie and more like somebody’s extremely ambitious backyard passion project that accidentally escaped into the world. It’s awkward, chaotic, bizarrely earnest, and completely impossible to confuse with anything made by an actual studio.
Which is honestly part of the charm.
The plot involves vampires, time travel, murders, supernatural weirdness, and enough ambitious ideas to fill five separate movies, all squeezed into one gloriously rough DIY production. The movie operates on dream logic for long stretches, where scenes unfold with the energy of people figuring things out moments before the camera rolled. Dialogue arrives from another dimension. Editing choices occasionally feel like attacks. The soundtrack sounds like somebody discovered every synthesizer preset at once and decided restraint was for cowards.
And yet… I kind of loved the sheer audacity of it.
Movies like this live or die entirely on enthusiasm, and Vampire Time Travelers has enthusiasm pouring out of every frame. Nobody involved seems remotely embarrassed by the concept, which gives the movie an infectious sincerity modern “so-bad-it’s-good” cash grabs can never replicate. This wasn’t made to become ironic midnight movie fodder twenty years later — it was made because somebody genuinely thought combining vampires and time travel was the coolest thing imaginable.
And honestly? They weren’t wrong.
Now visually, let’s be fair here: this movie was shot on video in 1998, and no amount of restoration wizardry is turning it into Lawrence of Arabia. But Visual Vengeance does about as good a job as humanly possible with the source materials. The Blu-ray presentation preserves all the crunchy, tape-warped, homemade weirdness while still looking noticeably cleaner and more stable than the movie probably ever has before. This is absolutely one of those cases where the roughness becomes part of the atmosphere. A pristine digital restoration would almost feel wrong for something this gloriously handmade.
And as always with Visual Vengeance, the packaging rules.
At this point, I’m convinced this label could release a movie filmed entirely inside somebody’s garage using flashlights and still make the Blu-ray look like a collector’s item worthy of museum preservation. The artwork, slipcover, and presentation are fantastic, and the release is stacked with extras for the exact kind of beautiful weirdos who collect this stuff.
The bonus movie included here is I Know What You Did in English Class, which is already one of the greatest bargain-bin horror titles ever conceived by mankind. Even funnier, the reversible cover art for the Blu-ray is actually themed around that movie instead, just in case you decide the killer English-class movie is the real headliner. That level of commitment to niche regional shot-on-video insanity deserves genuine respect.
Honestly, I kind of love that Visual Vengeance treats these forgotten oddities like treasured cinematic artifacts instead of disposable junk.
Because while Vampire Time Travelers is undeniably messy, technically rough, and occasionally feels like it was assembled during a caffeine-fueled weekend with zero adult supervision, it’s also creative, memorable, and weirdly lovable. There’s a personality here you simply cannot fake. Every awkward performance, every cheap effect, every bizarre narrative turn just adds to the experience.
This isn’t polished cinema.
This is pure DIY video-store-rental-from-an-alternate-dimension energy.
And thanks to Visual Vengeance, it now exists in probably the best presentation it’s ever going to get — complete with bonus movie insanity and packaging far fancier than a shot-on-video vampire time travel movie has any logical right to receive.
Extras
- New director-approved SD master from original tape elements.
- Commentary with director Les Sekely
- Director Les Sekely interview
- Actress JJ Rodgers interview
- Actress Angelia Scott interview
- Director of Photography Dennis Devine and Assistant Director Steve Jarvis interview
- Short Film: Not So Grim Reaper
- Vampire Time Travelers – Visual Vengeance Trailer
- Bonus Movie: I Know What You Did In English Class (2000)
- ‘English Class’ Commentary with director Les Sekely
- Director Les Sekely ‘English Class’ interview
- ‘English Class’ Cinematographer Russ Lindsay Interview
- ‘English Class’ Director of Photography Dennis Devine and Production Assistant Steve Jarvis interview
- ‘English Class’ Actor Russell Towne interview
- I Know What You Did in English Class – Visual Vengeance Trailer
- Visual Vengeance trailers
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set
- Reversible sleeve featuring new ‘I Know What You Did In English Class’ art
- Folded mini-poster
- Optional English subtitles
