SOURCE: Nesselson, Lisa. Review of Vampires, by John Carpenter. Variety 370, no. 12 (4 May 1998): 83–84.

In the following review, Nesselson offers a positive assessment of Vampires, praising the film as suspenseful and humorous.

The pleasures are modest but consistent in John Carpenter's Vampires, a part-Western, part-horror flick that doesn't aim too high but nails the range it occupies. A tale of parallel quests in the photogenic American Southwest, pic centers on a vampire slayer on the Vatican payroll who's intent on destroying a 600-year-old master vampire before the already superhuman creature gets his hands on a secret weapon that will afford 24-hour mobility. Few of the f/x on display will greatly impress youngsters who equate vampires with the over-the-top goons in From Dusk Till Dawn, but there's a mild brainy streak running through Carpenter's movie that could tickle slightly older, better-versed horror fans.

Pic world-premiered to decent numbers in mid-April...