Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the long awaited sequel to the original Vampire Hunter D that was released in 1985. It continues the adventures of the half-human, half-vampire, erm, vampire hunter D. D is called upon to save the day by the father of a girl who was kidnapped by a vampire nobleman. This time, though, he has some worthy competition that can be found in the bounty hunter troupe known as the Marcus Brothers and some considerably powerful new enemies in a mutant tribe who call themselves the Barbarois. D must race against the Marcus Brothers to retrieve the girl before she is ‘changed’ into a vampire so he may collect a sizable reward and rid the world of yet another vampire menace.
As sequels go, this film is much, much better than the original. The art direction has vastly improved: visually, the post-apocalyptic Victorian landscape is stark and detailed. The voice-acting is also top notch with heavy hitters like John DiMaggio and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (two of my faves). Also, D actually looks and sounds every part the badass hero! He’s so cool, calm, and collected; one of the many thorough improvements to every aspect of this series.
The better production values really shine through in this movie. Better facial animations enable D to show broader emotions and rare moments of weakness that resonate in ways the first movie could barely scrape together. Additionally, by giving him a supporting cast of the Marcus Brothers, this crapsack world actually has some depth and resonance along with being amazing visually. Overall, the enormous strides in plot fluidity and character dynamics help keep everything on the rails; the end result is that we know what the fuck is happening and they didn’t even have to spell anything out for us this time.
So a question you might have is this: “Do I need to watch the first movie to enjoy the second?” The answer is simply “No.” Very little continuity is addressed here and what questions may have popped up in the first movie are actually asked again in this one. The writers understood that nearly 20 years of time between films can do a lot of damage to one’s memories of a franchise, but they resolve everything simply and subtly. This is how sequels should be done.
ThomFiles 