Central Park Drifter: Graveyard Shift

Starring:Ron Bacardi, Lawrence Bockner, Martin Bockner, Michael Bockner, Sugar Bouche, Arnie Buck, Kim Cayer, John Haslett Cuff, Courtland Elliot, Dorin Ferber, Michael Glabb, Don James, Lesley Kelly, Michael A. Miranda, Helen Papas, Frank Procopio, Dan Rose, Cliff Stoker, Jessie Taylor
Studio: Shriek Show
Product Type: DVD

Description

Night brings out the hunger in everyone, especially a mysterious New York cab driver (Johnny Mnemonic and Double Take's Silvio Oliviero). He is a vampire, and working the night shift brings a sultry array of passengers within his grasp. Embracing those ready to die, he controls a vampire underworld. Then, he unexpectedly discovers erotic human passion, and unleashes a terrifying evil. When a slew of innocents are grotesquely slaughtered, the police are faced with a 350-year-old mystery of unseated passion.

Customer Reviews:

Hitch A Ride..........2007-06-29

The 1980s saw a major resurgence in the vampire sub-genre with the middle part of that decade offering the triple whammy delights of "Fright Night", "Near Dark" and "The Lost Boys" - these high concept horrors ushered in polished production values, state of the art make-up fx and smarter characters. At the other end of that scale, the direct-to-video market was booming and here is where "Graveyard Shift" slipped in through the back door.

Written and directed by the talented director Gerard Ciccoritti (who at that point had given us "Psycho Girls" and would later go on to direct the excellent "Paris France"), this low budget gem combines vampire mythology with edgy erotic imagery. The story concerns a taxi cab driver working the `graveyard shift' picking up the usual assortment of freaks and weirdos. However, this cabbie is different - he is a vampire (I know. Bear with me). Played with intensity by Ciccoritti regular Silvio Oliviero, his character Stephen Tsepes is a major vampire leader - with his own underworld of vampire women, willing to do his bidding. This bidding involves them mostly walking around in a bra and pants and seducing men all over Manhatten and coming back to him for a little vampire suckage (not bad work if you can get it). However, one fateful night he picks up music video director Michele (Helen Papas) and his life is changed forever. Discovering she is terminally ill with cancer, Stephen unexpectedly comes across something totally alien to him - human love. From this point on, the movie becomes less a standard horror flick and more a dramatic thriller focusing on Micheles' marriage break down and her burgeoning romance with Stephen. Luckily, for gore fans - the blood quotient picks up in the last half hour leading to a vampire showdown with Michele's now miffed husband leading a `stake everything that moves' assault on Stephen's vampire lair.

The film is nicely shot in Canada (not New York, where it was set) and features some really cool cinematography. Obviously produced on a low budget, Ciccoritti writes and directs with style - the film reminds me of one of those 1980s Calvin Klein commercials with everbody talking in a fake montone style, but don't worry this works within the framework of the movie. Looking back, the film has dated in certain places - Nicholas Pikes' score is a little out of place today and the fashions are truly horrendous. Seeing Michele direct her music video is pretty cringe worthy when seen today, but as I remember seeing it when it was first released, you can look past these minor errors.

Re-titled "Central Park Drifter" for this release (obviously altered to avoid confusion with the Stephen King adaptation) - this movie is highly recommended. Sure, its dated and the production values are more dimestore than hollywood blockbuster - but, if you are in need of a vampire movie that is light years away from the recent slew of direct to video `girl on girl' vampire movies that clog up the video shelves of today - you could do worse than Graveyard Shift. Sure, its no Fright Night or Near Dark - but, its a pretty good addition to the ever increasing vampire genre. Ciccoritti followed this up with "The Understudy: Graveyard Shift II" a few years later, which featured Stephen turning up on the set of a horror movie about a vampire pool player(!). This offered more of the same in terms of style, but just plodded along aimlessly whereas the original just does its thing at a fair pace. Mind you, saying that - I would still like to see it on DVD. Anyone out there listening?

Average low-budget vampire flick.......2003-11-06

Graveyard Shift (now released under the title CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER) is just your average vampire flick. Nothing too spactacular, just a vampire cab driver taking his victems one by one. This movie is fairly well presented and has some artistic elements within its filming. Not one of my favorites, but I would recommend it to vampire film lovers. I've seen better vampire films, and I've seen a lot worse ones. There is also a sequel titled UNDERSTUDY: GRAVEYARD SHIFT II, but since GRAVEYARD SHIFT I has been released under CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER, I wonder if Understudy: Graveyard Shift II will ever be released on DVD. Maybe it also will be retitled to CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER II or manybe just UNDERSTUDY. I think Graveyard Shift was released under this alternate title maybe to avoid confusion with the Stephen King film of the same name? What do you think?

New Title for the 1987 movie "Graveyard Shift".......2002-08-02

This is the DVD release of the 1987 movie "Graveyard Shift". It is about a vampire that drives a cab in New York at night. This helps him find his victims, which must be a woman who is dying or wants to die. This movie embraces the theory that if you die by being bitten by a vampire you automatically become a vampire. This raises a question as to why the vampire appears to be so careful in the selection of his prey. He does not bother to make sure his victims do not return as vampires and his victims, when they return as vampires, turn around and start killing innocents. He nonetheless eventually falls in love with one of the women he meets. The idea of hooking up with women by driving a cab made the movie original but it makes no sense that a vampire that apparently had a certain set of morals in selecting his victims would then turn around and leave them to become vampires themselves. That little bit of illogical behavior is found in other vampire films however clear back to the original "Dracula" so it shouldn't put off diehard fans. The movie is fairly well presented and has a lot of artistic merit that earned it a lot of praise from viewers. While I would never call it one of my personal favorites I'd recommend it all the same to folks that enjoy these low budget ventures into the world of the undead.

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