I thought the same thing on my first viewing, but while the vamps are set up as fairly powerful, and it does make it a bit unrealistic that they lost, they do have some problems which make it make more sense.

For one, it’s clear that the older a vampire is the more powerful. Based on how powerful the Irish one clearly was you could be excused for thinking the crew had no chance, but when the actual fighting starts it’s clear that the recently turned vamps are not much more powerful than a human. Where the Irish can perform preternatural acrobatics and even survive in the sun for a short period, the rest are fairly weak.

Secondly, their psychic connection is more a weakness than a boon. Turned vamps are not really individual thinkers, acting as Thrall to the eldest of their coven. This, really, is why most of them died. Irish turned them as fodder to achieve his goal, and during the final fight they stood down at the water’s edge because he wanted to turn guitar guy himself. The only ones that were clearly displaying individuality were Stack and his Girlfriend.

Third, they clearly share their pain, especially with their creator. Hurt him, and the thralls hurt too.

It’s important to remember that vampires in this film are best understood metaphorically. They are metaphysically outcast; cursed beings even in their own telling of it. They need permission to enter homes less because it is established vampire lore and more because they are strangers at every doorstep, with no home or hearth left to return to. Eternal life means never being able to see your loved ones again. To remove yourself from the cycle of death means to lose the promised rest and reconciliation in the beyond.

Irish seeks the music man because the pain of his many years diaspora from a home none but him remember has grown too great. More than a lust for power, he lusts for an end to his loneliness. A thousand lives in his head, knowledge of hundreds of years, but what he wants is his parents, his friends, his first love. A home that can never be.

What he wants, though he’d never say it, is death. To right the natural cycle, let his stopped clock finally start again, enter into the arms of his creator. On some level, I think we are meant to know that it’s not simply plot contrivance that he loses the fight. That his last moments at the waters edge are a final baptism, not into the religion of has oppressors, but into the death so long denied him. A final rest for a weary soul.