College Vampires

Yeah, sure...horror comedies are nothing new but usually they tend to have at least some elements from both genres. Transylmania is obviously not trying to be a horror movie, but it's not really a comedy, either. Sure, it tries, but it probably won't get more than a few chuckles out of you. That's what I don't get here. If you're making a horror themed comedy then you've got a ton of things to work with. This film just kind of falls on it's face at almost every opportunity. It feels like a bad mash up of all the worst aspects of a National Lampoon movie mixed with the eye-rolling stupidity of some of the more unsuccessful modern teen sex comedies. Simply put, it's just stupid...and not in a good way.

Not the worst thing I've seen, it has some good set design and the production quality is there. The color grading is fine but they did the cardinal sin of day-to-night, but it's fine. The dialogue and jokes are straight out of a bad American Pie or National Lampoon franchise. They definitely don't understand that less is more, but they're trying to rapid fire jokes so when twenty don't land, one just might. This could have been a fun 80s comedy horror throw back if it wasn't filled with awful 2000s jokes. I really enjoy late night comedies, I just feel this one falls flat, or in the case of nearly every joke in the movie, falls flatulent. 10/10 Perfect movie.

Transylmania can be considered the third movie in the National Lampoon's Dorm Daze series. Though it's loosely based off of them, it can be pretty much defined as a third sequel, and doesn't need much knowledge of the first two movies for this one to be seen. Seems like no one in this movie has any knowledge at all. I was lucky enough to speak to directors David and Scott Hillenbrand via the Transylmania fan-page on Facebook. As well as seeing exclusive interviews from the cast.

The movie seems like another goofy spin off of the neverending American Pie Presents franchise. Though this accomplishes more than any of those movies have. But when compared to the original three American Pies, it doesn't stand much of a chance. It attempts to be an 80s throwback, which it does feel like a little bit, but not a perfect one.

Rusty (Oren Skoog) has been dating an online overseas girl for a while and feels he needs to see her in person. When asked to fly over to Romania to get in touch. He feels that maybe he could get accepted to The Razvan University where she goes to school. They embark on a cross country journey to see her. The Razvan University has a bad history to it. A music box, when opened, posses your soul into a demon vampire. When open, the demon takes over your body. When ceased, or closed, your normal.

Little does the gang know, duplicates of themselves, usually with deeper voices, are being produced as well. So the gang must find the fake impersonators, and banish them. Sounds like an uncut episode of Scooby Doo.

Though the thing that caught me surprised me was that this is intended to be a spoof movie. And it's actually decent. This one doesn't have random pop culture references popping here and there and at random times. It doesn't have convoluted performances and bad acting. This didn't try to fit every God-forsaking blockbuster into their movie. I thought this might be the "new age" parody film that would start a revolution of the same kind of parody flicks in the style of The Naked Gun, and Airplane, or the absolute classic 70s and 80s style parodies we were waiting for for years.

We would finally cease from all the mindless crap Hollywood puts out. No more Jason Friedberg or Aaron Seltzer. No more brain dead first timers forcing us to laugh at corny one liners. The world will finally be at rest from the likes of pointless parodies. That is...until I saw the trailer for The 41-Year-Old Virgin who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.

Yea. Yea. Yea. This is not everyone's cup of Joe but there is redeeming quality here. The actors are committed to the far-out gags, characters and the well laid out storyline. No one is winning awards and I don't care.

I wanted to laugh at some silliness in the vampire genre and that's what this is -- that's all. A splash of ta-tas, nice sword fighting, babe in leather (who should have her own TV show) and the look-a-like mistaken identify angle which is always worth a laugh or two.

The mad scientist/Dean sub-plot fit perfectly into a main story that went balls-out for comic bits, some worked, some didn't. So what? Pop some corn, kick back and laugh at the broad but consistent spoof before you.

Cheers!

Even though the reviews may have been not so good. I thought this movie was really funny and I enjoyed it. There was actually a plot which a lot of comedy spoof movies don't have. Although you haven't seen the actors in much, i thought they all did a really good job. I think the story was cute and i most surely did laugh!! I recommend it to all. It is a shame to see reviewers writing bad reviews. Who believes them anyway. I know that more then half the time I read what they say I don't agree. Its not fair for them to spoil a movie for others, especially a funny one. I think that if people would just give some things a chance, or an independent production company, they would not be mad they spent their money on the movie. Just because there isn't a huge distributors name attached doesn't mean the movie isn't good for what it is. I heard that it isn't going to be in theaters much after the first week and thats really sad because if people would see it they would really enjoy it I think.