Vampires (also known as John Carpenter's Vampires) is a 1998 American neo-Western action horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and starring James Woods. It was adapted from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley. Woods stars as Jack Crow, the leader of a team of vampire hunters. After his parents were murdered by vampires, Crow was raised by the Catholic Church to become their "master slayer". The plot is centered on Crow's efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Jan Valek (a reference to Valac, played by Thomas Ian Griffith), the first and most powerful of all vampires. The film also stars Daniel Baldwin as Tony Montoya, Crow's best friend and fellow hunter; Sheryl Lee as Katrina, a prostitute who has a psychic link to Valek after being bitten; Tim Guinee as Father Adam Guiteau; and Maximilian Schell as Cardinal Alba. The film was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Vampires: Los Muertos (2002) and Vampires: The Turning (2005). Plot Jack Crow leads his team of Vatican-sponsored vampire hunters in a daylight raid on an abandoned house in New Mexico. Finding a 'nest' of vampires, the team subdue the creatures with gunfire, pikes, and wooden stakes, using a modified crossbow attached to a mechanical winch to pull them outside, where they are incinerated by sunlight. Despite disposing of nine 'goons', Jack is concerned about not having found their older, more powerful 'master'. While the team drunkenly celebrates with prostitutes at a local motel, the master vampire Valek arrives and bites one of the prostitutes, Katrina, initiating her transformation into a vampire. He swiftly murders the hunters, with only Crow and his trusted lieutenant Tony Montoya escaping alive with Katrina. Disturbed that Valek recognized him by name, Crow orders Montoya to lay low with Katrina, hoping to use her growing psychic link with Valek to track him down. After burying his team and burning down the motel, Crow reports to his superior Cardinal Alba, who confirms that Valek was a disgraced priest who led a rebellion against the church, leading to his execution and transformation into the first vampire. Valek has already killed another group of slayers in Germany, and Alba instructs Crow to form a new team, accompanied by archivist Father Adam Guiteau. Suspecting that his team was betrayed, Crow interrogates Guiteau and dispels his heroic notions of vampire hunting, showing him a map of