Modern Vampires 1998

Dallas Casper Van Dien roams the night with a ferocious appetite, biting without The Count’s permission, a habit that keeps the vampire hierarchy tense and the humans around him unaware of the peril lurking in the shadows. His reckless streak reaches Nico Natasha Gregson Wagner, a young woman who is unexpectedly turned into a vampire after a brutal encounter. Twenty years after his exile, Dallas returns to Los Angeles to reconnect with a tight circle of nocturnal friends — Ulrike Kim Cattrall, Vincent Udo Kier, Richard Craig Ferguson and Richard’s wife Panthia Natalya Andreychenko — for a night of clubbing at one of The Count’s bars. The Count himself is there, and his stern warning to Dallas makes it clear that deserting the code could cost him everything. In this world of velvet darkness, loyalty is fragile, and every bite could expose the hidden society beneath the city’s glittering surface.

Dr. Van Helsing Rod Steiger, aging but relentless, hatches a plan to wipe out the vampire threat, realizing he can’t do it alone. He posts a newspaper ad that brings Time Bomb Gabriel Casseus, a Crip who doesn’t believe in vampires but will kill for the right price, into the fold. The duo eliminates Vincent, shattering the night’s fragile balance and reopening old wounds. Decades earlier, Helsing’s son Hans had been a close friend of Dallas; Dallas turned Hans into a vampire to save him from a crippling genetic disorder, a choice that doomed both families to a brutal reckoning when Helsing discovered the truth. Helsing’s grief—and the loss of his wife—drives a deep, now dangerous fixation on eradicating Dallas and his kind.

Dallas grows protective of Nico, and after sharing some of each other’s blood, he reveals his true nature and the broader danger she faces: the vampire world fears exposure, and Nico’s mere existence could unravel their carefully constructed secrecy. When Helsing and Time Bomb strike again, Dallas shepherds Nico to safety with Richard and Panthia, who attempt to clothe her wounds and help her acclimate to this new, perilous life. Nico befriends Rachel Natasha Lyonne, a human who becomes a beacon of the ordinary amidst the chaos. The group mourns Vincent, and Ulrike’s chilling revelation about the death underscores that the hunters are closing in. In response, Helsing and Time Bomb recruit three more Crips — Soda Pop [Victor Togunde], L’il Monster [Cedrick Terrell], and Trigger [Flex Alexander] — expanding the hunt with cold, calculated efficiency.

With Dallas determined to shield Nico, he escorts her to the human ties of her past, including a visit to her mother. Nico confronts her neglectful parent and, in a raw moment, tells her that she never truly loved her, a confession that intensifies the night’s emotional toll. As they push forward, the Count’s henchmen ambush them, and a brutal skirmish ensues in which Dallas and Nico fight for their lives. The Count banishes Dallas for failing to fulfill an order to kill Helsing, reinforcing the brutal consequences of stepping outside the vampire code and leaving Dallas to navigate a path that may someday redefine his loyalties.

That night, Nico gets a call from Rachel inviting her to celebrate, while Dallas confronts The Count, pleading to spare Nico’s life. Helsing and his Crips storm the house, killing Richard and Panthia in a flurry of violence, and Ulrike is taunted into a deadly trap that ends with her own death, revealing the peril of intimate ties with vampires. Nico returns, horrified by the carnage, and fights Trigger as Rachel is accidentally shot. Time Bomb stops Nico from spiraling further as Dallas resurfaces, offering to guide Helsing to The Count if he will release Nico. The chase culminates at The Count’s lair, where Nico is strapped to a blood-draining machine and Helsing is placed inside a box with only his head sticking out, a grim reminder of the cruel length both sides will go to in this war between predators.

Dallas drives a van through the club’s wall, emerging with the Crips now vampires and devastating The Count and his henchmen. Nico is freed, and Rachel, in a final twist of fate, has herself been turned into a vampire to survive the night. With the city’s shadows still humming with danger, Dallas and Nico decide to start anew in New York, seeking a precarious semblance of normal life amid the extraordinary. In the final beat, a pajama-clad Helsing runs down an alley, crying for forgiveness from Hans and from God, before revealing his fangs to two police officers — a haunting image that seals the moral ambiguity of a world where redemption and damnation wear the same pale face.