In the world of independent movies, there seems to be a habit for first time filmmakers to use the horror genre as their launching pad to success. Whether it's because horror lends itself to a basic simple structure - make 'em scream, or the relative ease of special effects these days, the latest film in this 'new' tradition is SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. Revisiting the vampire mythos, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS attempts to put its own unique spin on the bloodthirsty undead.

The film begins at dusk, of course. Two men - Chris and Jacob - are vampire hunters, searching for the elusive vampire lord Malgaard. After a fruitless night of hunting, Chris returns to his home only to find Malgaard has been there, and has turned his beloved wife Allison into one of his undead creatures! Unable to stake his woman, Chris is bitten by the enthralled Allison. Ten years later, the head of a Scientology-like church, Dr. Hogarth, arrives at a derelict warehouse to make a deal with Malgaard. It seems the good doctor's minions have found an ancient amulet that will protect vampires against the deadly sun. In exchange for the amulet, Hogarth wishes to have immortality given to him by Malgaard's bite. Not wanting any rivals, Malgaard decapitates Hogarth, takes over the doctor's church (good feeding grounds for a vampire) and simply waits for the amulet's delivery.

Meanwhile, Jacob has founded the Necromorph Control Agency, a federal institution aimed at wiping out the vampire menace. After failing to kill Malgaard at the warehouse, NCA agent Jeff plans an "inside" job to infiltrate Malgaard's church. Jeff's girlfriend Kate also works as an analyst at the NCA, and she discovers an anomaly about one of the vampires codenamed N5 - this one only feeds on the blood of his victims and doesn't actually kill them. Jacob tells her it doesn't matter - all vampires must die! Kate has other ideas. She finds N5's hiding place - the vampire is Chris, of course. Kate offers a deal to him; in exchange for information on Malgaard (whom Chris wants to kill naturally), she is to be made a vampire. Kate has an inoperable tumor, and will die the true death. After trying to convince the girl the life of a vampire is not exactly glamorous, Chris realizes Kate's conviction and agrees to her terms. Malgaard learns about Chris and makes plans to finally knock him off. He discovers the NCA agent as well, and "converts" her. Jeff's raid on N5's place fails, because Chris is now at Kate's place. With both the NCA and Chris closing in rapidly, Malgaard calmly ascends to the roof of his church building to receive the amulet. Can Malgaard be stopped once the amulet in his possession? Will the NCA take out Chris before he can gain revenge on the vampire lord? And how is Jeff going to handle Kate's professional and personal betrayals? For these answers and more, you've got to watch SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

In its defense, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS does try to add it's own nuances to the standard vampire mythos with the NCA and Hogarth church elements. However, the characters are still clichéd - can you say "Angel" whenever we see Chris? Every character falls into a typical stereotype role, and despite some decent acting, you're never surprised by any "plot twists." The storyline becomes obvious very quickly and takes forever to get to its resolution. Ironically, it moves so slow I almost fell asleep watching SLEEPLESS NIGHTS! Technically, the film itself is very shoddy - there is a woeful inconsistency of film quality (the night shots are especially grainy) and the audio editing is atrocious - at least try to synch the looping. It feels like they did everything in one take and spliced together whatever they had - another case of "saving it in editing." The result, as usual, is a mess. I hope the producers learn that you can have the greatest story or special effects, but if the picture and sound are inferior, no one cares.

According to the promotional packaging, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS will include a number of extras on its DVD release. There will be a "behind the scenes" feature (which I'd be curious to see), chapter options, Spanish subtitle option, cast bios and trailers. Audio specs are unknown at this time.

Creating a truly original vampire film is nearly impossible, and making a memorable one within the vampire lore seems to be just as hard. SLEEPLESS NIGHTS tries its' best to be noteworthy, but is sunk by typecast characters and a weak storyline. Not to mention the horrendous production values... I've always held the opinion horror is an easy genre to film, but a difficult one to film well. With the plethora of vampire film, there are much better choices out there than having SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.