Blu-ray Review – Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter

While Blu-ray packaging lists “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter” as a 2025 release, there’s a bit more to this film’s history. The endeavor began life as “Live Evil,” a 2009 release written and directed by Jay Woelfel, who wanted to explore the well-tread terrain of exploitation cinema, looking to make his own drive-in offering in a tale of a “warrior priest” questing to destroy vampire colonies in the American southwest. The feature didn’t attract much attention, fading into obscurity after being pulled from distribution, but it didn’t fully go away. Years later, producer Mark Terry wanted a crack at reworking “Live Evil,” recruiting editor Michael Hoffman Jr. to return to the original footage to create a new tale from an old story, emerging with “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter.” Fans of the original offering are treated to a fresh take on the central premise, and those new to the endeavor are probably going to be left scratching their heads. As hard as Terry (who takes over as the credited director, eliminating Woelfel) and Hoffman Jr. try to manufacture something fresh out of the work, they come up short when it comes to excitement and narrative clarity in “Samurai Priest: Vampire Hunter,” which plays too messy at times, fighting for its own identity without having enough footage to work with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com