Vampire Time Travelers (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Les SekelyRelease Date(s)
1998 (April 21, 2026)Studio(s)
Scarborough Films/Secret’s Out Productions (Visual Vengeance/Wild Eye Releasing)- Film/Program Grade: C+
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Vampires and time travelling—two great tastes that go together like mac & cheese with hot dog chunks; delicious but only adventurous people with little money will try it. Originally planned to be an official sequel to 1998’s Sorority House Vampires, Vampire Time Travelers focuses on Loreli, the sister of Natalia the vampire from Sorority House Vampires, going on a mission of revenge at the urging of a mysterious vampire. She is raised from her coffin in a weakened state and her mission is to kill SAM (JJ Rodgers), the sister of Buffy, the vampire hunter who killed her sister. Being in a weakened state, Loreli must feed on SAM’s fellow sorority pledges before she can take on someone from a strong vampire hunter bloodline. Time travel comes into play here and there and is key for the kinda sorta twist ending, but mostly it’s an excuse for lovely ladies to bite each other. The cast is full of colorful characters played by able thespians with strong comedy provided by writer/director Les Sekely and able filmmaking from an enthusiastic crew. It’s an enjoyable straight-to-video gem that doesn’t take itself serious in any way and its worth the watch if you like straight-to-video B-movies.
Along for the ride is a bonus film, I Know What You Did in English Class (2003), a second film from filmmaker Les Sekely. This one is much more comedy forward and works as a comedic set-up for a light reworking of the Nightmare on Elm Street formula with a group of adults being stalked by a teacher, they were especially mean to, back in high school. Through some sort of demonic magic, the teacher is attacking these terrible guys through English lessons turned on their head and made evil. It’s a lot, and somewhat annoying in that try hard funny friend way. Sekely is a very funny writer (he has a regional Emmy for an Ohioan sketch comedy show to prove it) but less comedy and more horror would have made this a better film. It’s fine, but not great.
Video and audio quality are in that Visual Vengeance quality—great Blu-ray 1080p but with flawed masters and an overall VHS look and sound—1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subs on Vampire but not on I Know. Extras include autoplay trailers for Visual Vengeance releases Fungicide, Re-Animator Academy and Saurians, commentary and a video interview (Interview With a Guy Who Directed a Vampire Movie) with Sekely talking about the film, how it came to be and the production. There’s also a video interview with actress JJ Rodgers who played SAM, and an interview with actress and Sekely’s daughter) Angelia Scott, a joint interview with the director of photography Dennis Devine and assistant director Steve Jarvis (who were also the film’s original distributors), a fun short film from Sekely titled Not So Grim Reaper and the Visual Vengeance trailer. Extras on the bonus feature include commentary with Sekely, The Story Behind I Know What You Did in English Class: a video interview with Sekely, an interview with Russ Lindsay, who was Sekely’s comedy partner in Ohio and served as cinematographer on a sequence shot in Ohio for this film, an interview with Russell Towne who plays one of the bad “kids” and another video interview with director of photography Dennis Devine and production assistant Steve Jarvis interview. Cherry topping that grand pile of extras is a Visual Vengeance trailer for I Know What You Did in English Class, the classic VHS stickers, reversible sleeve art with Vampire on one side and I Know What You Did In English Class on the other, a folded mini-poster for the main film and a limited-edition sleeve/o-card. It’s a good deep dive on a little-known filmmaker who you can tell loves to entertain. If you love your horror funny, track this set down and have fun with it.
- Todd Doogan