Yeah, the book is definitely better. It's a straight-up 80s horror-action movie on paper.
When the movie came out, I remember thinking that I was getting awfully tired of vampires that looked like some pretentious doofus I'd run into at a nightclub.
I remember seeing the sequel "Vampires: Los Muertos" and thinking it was much much better than I expected. Not a cinematic masterpiece by any means, but quite solid as vampire films go. Bon Jovi did a great job as a poor man's Kevin Bacon.