Forsaken, The

The lack of traditional fanged teeth on the part of its vampire characters can be used as a metaphor for everything that's wrong with "The Forsaken," one of the most toothless horror movies in recent memory.

It's also one of the most shameless ones as well, at least judging by its numerous appropriations from "The Lost Boys," "Fright Night" and "Near Dark" — all much better films that any self-respecting fan of the creatures of the night will soon wish they were watching instead.

And if that isn't bad enough, it tries to make up for its lack of originality by throwing in as many explosions as possible, along with gore and female nudity. But it would have needed a whole lot more to simply qualify as memorable shlock.

Equally as unmemorable as the film itself is its bland-as-vanilla cast, which includes TV actors Kerr Smith ("Dawson's Creek") and Brendan Fehr ("Roswell"). Smith stars as Sean, a film editor who's driving from California to Florida to deliver a vintage Mercedes car and attend his sister's wedding.

However, along the way he makes the mistake of picking up Nick (Fehr), a hitchhiker with a secret — he's trying to "cure" himself of a vampire affliction by finding and destroying the legendary creature he believes is responsible (Johnathan Schaech).

But they're running out of time, especially after Sean himself is bitten — by another apparent ghoul-to-be, the beautiful Megan (Izabella Miko), whom they use for bait to draw out the head vampire.

Helming this nonsensical and nearly unwatchable mess is writer/director J.S. Cardone, who is never able to generate even the slightest amount of suspense or terror — not that his unmotivated cast is any help in that regard.

Smith and Fehr give such emotionless performances they might as well be comatose, while Miko ("Coyote Ugly") spends most of the time either unconscious, in various states of undress, or both.

So perhaps it's forgivable that Schaech tries to overcompensate for their lack of presence by going so far over the top. But all that does is call attention to how humorless and dour the whole thing is.

"The Forsaken" is rated R for violence (vampire attacks, gunfire and beatings), graphic gore, frequent use of strong profanity, female nudity, drug use (an anti-vampire "cocktail"), simulated sex and use of crude sexual slang terms. Running time: 90 minutes.

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