Wilmington, North Carolina, doesn't look like vampire country, at least at first glance. It's the kind of quiet, mildly pretty town that you want to invite in for a glass of lemonade and then dry hump on the sofa until your parents get home. But the land of ONE TREE HILL and DAWSON'S CREEK is also home to the slam-bang horror/action flick, THE BLEEDING, starring beefy newcomer Michael Matthias as Shawn Black, a vampire hunter with guns and muscles and shit, out to kill the Vampire King responsible for the death of his parents.

After an experience with my local airport security that was strongly reminiscent of the booking scene in FIRST BLOOD, I'm anticipating my visit to the Wilmington set of THE BLEEDING with a sort of queasy excitement. Although the leads, Matthias and the uber-stunning Rachelle Leah, are relatively unknown, the movie is jam-packed with cult figures like Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Armand Assante, DMX, and Kat Von D; everybody involved oozes infectious passion for the project.

"Basically this whole movie is about this chase," says hirsute screenwriter Lance Lane, who (thankfully) cites NEAR DARK as his favorite vampire film, "and somehow it evolved from that chase into almost Cain and Abel. I love action, so we combined that with horror and came up with, well, basically I just saw what I saw in my head and it evolved from there."

When asked if the emphasis was on the gore or the action, Lance replies, "It's action-horror. Like with the chase, there's a semi being chased by a bunch of motorcycles, and then there's three or four big Suburbans and then a Lamborghini and it's like 20 minutes of the movie and then we start flipping cars. And then we put the semi through a couple of bad acts, you know what I mean? And then the gore stuff, I really pushed that, telling them we gotta have gore. I love gore. So we have the killing room, and body parts, and putting them through grinders and that kind of stuff."

Star Michael Matthias adds, "There's a lot of gore. I chop a guy's head off," he continues. "And that's after I put an axe in the back of his head. There's a lot of gore, yeah. There's a killing room. I come out of a chute. And then I land on a pile of bodies. And you gotta see this place."

On the day I arrive on set, the production has taken over a downtown nightclub, "On The Rox", packing the joint with wires, cameras, lights, and dozens of sweaty extras in various stages of undress. The extras are herded around like sheep, flailing light sticks over their heads, flopping maniacally to Rammstein's "Du Hast" as the cameras roll. Vinnie Jones, the Vampire King—clad in a wig, wide-brimmed hat, and enormous overcoat—steps to the center of the stage as the camera swoops over the dancing extras, slowly closing in on Vinnie's somber visage.

The shot is repeated several times—a couple of the girls on stage are topless for some takes, clothed for others—and although the club is hotter than hell, the extras are encouraged to dance with increasing energy, to wave the light sticks even more frantically.

A few stunts follow, as costumed stuntmen are jerked around by cables, flying over the stage railing, hands contorted into vampiric claws. At one point, I walk onto the balcony above the set right after a stunt double had swung across the nightclub, landed on the stage, wheeled around, and spit a line of garbled dialogue through a mouthful of fangs.

"Did he just say, ‘Viva la France'?" asks one of my fellow journalists.

"I think that was, ‘We've arrived'," counters another.

With such a physical shoot, you'd think that injuries would run rampant, but other than a few nicks and scratches, there aren't any compound fractures or on-set decapitations worth mentioning, although the highly engaging Tony Schiena (playing the almost certainly heavily researched role of "Johnny the Perv") has a humorous story: "Rachelle Leah [Lena] takes my hair and thrusts my head through a glass counter. We were going to do it 3 times, we did it twice, and there was only one piece of fake movie glass left. She put me through, SNAP, and I was all ‘Ohhhhhh' [grimaces in pain], because it was the last one we've got, and she steps back and said, ‘Oh my God, I'm so sorry!', and I just stood back, and I said, ‘I'm ACTING.'"

Jean-Claude Van Damme got his debut role in BLOODSPORT by confronting Cannon Films co-owner Manahem Golen outside a restaurant and throwing an awe-inspiring high-kick in his direction (Playboy, Jan., 1995). Newcomer Michael Matthias' success story is similarly endearing. A former All-American wrestler and subsequent nightclub bouncer, Matthias was discovered when he had a fortuitous encounter with producer Michael Tadross, Jr.

"One night, Mike got in some trouble in my restaurant," says Tadross, Jr. "He jumped over the bar and did the whole thing. Me and my father (producer Michael Tadross; I AM LEGEND; THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE) saw him and said, you know, we got this movie coming up, and you might be interested. And he was incredible. He's THE next action star."

It's a lot of pressure, to be certain, but Matthias is a brooding, muscle-bound presence eager to make an enormous impact in his first starring role. Screenwriter Lance Lane hints that THE BLEEDING is the first film in a planned trilogy, but he won't divulge who might be returning for future installments.

Even Vinnie Jones, the Vampire King himself, won't discuss his possible involvement in future sequels: "Well, I don't know. I can't say because I don't know."

When asked about his legacy as a horror icon, based on his recent roles in TOOTH AND NAIL, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, and now THE BLEEDING, Jones responds, "You know, when you're a soccer star, you have one set of fans, but when you go to the movies, you have a whole new ball game... to me it's all about the fans. I think that when you become a fan favorite, the critics turn against you a little bit."

When asked to cite a standout scene from THE BLEEDING, Jones mentions the production's future plans for the nightclub: "I don't know if we'll get to it today, or if we're doing it tomorrow, but when the frenzy starts, you know, it's like a coyote in a chicken barn, they're just chomping at everything, you know? Just ripping into people."

Jones and I chat for a few minutes about SURVIVE STYLE 5, and then I go grab something to eat. Earlier I had seen Kat Von D, the tattoo artist from TLC's L.A. INK, wandering around craft service with a laptop, desperately trying to seek out a wireless connection. But she's nowhere to be found today. I'm hoping to drag an Argento anecdote out of William McNamara (OPERA) but unfortunately, he's not on set during the two days I'm in Wilmington. Michael Madsen is similarly absent.

Tadross, Jr., and Company state that they plan to release THE BLEEDING theatrically this October, to directly compete with SAW 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT. A brave move, considering the inexperience of the lead performers and first-time director/former stuntman Charles Picerni. Even more courageous is the plan to immediately shoot two sequels, before the profits from the first film have had a chance to be collected and tallied. But producer Tadross, Jr., is highly confident, a man dedicated to his vision, and if THE BLEEDING suffers at the box office, it certainly won't be due to a lack of enthusiasm.

-May 2008