La fiesta de los vampiros

In Kansas, the friends Keith (Chris Makepeace) and AJ (Robert Rusler) are trying to join the best fraternity in the university. Their pledge is conditioned to the presence of a stripper to entertain the veteran's members of the fraternity. They need transportation to go to the city to hire a stripper, so they invite the boring Duncan (Gedde Watanabe) to go with them in his car. They arrive in a bar called "After Dark Club" and soon they realize that the place is a nest of vampires, leaded by the evil Katrina (Grace Jones).

"Vamp" is a delightful, funny and very underrated vampire cult-movie. I do not know how many times I have watched this movie, but I loved it and it is one of my favorite vampire movies ever. It is funny to see in 2005, a common pre-AIDS gesture of affection between boy-friends and girl-friends: when Keith cuts his finger, Allison (Dedee Pfeiffer) sucks his blood. I found the IMDb User Rating extremely unfair and I really do not agree with such low rating. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Vamp: A Noite dos Vampiros" ("Vamp: The Night of the Vampires")

Note: On 11 November 2013, I saw this movie again.

This is a decent vampire flick that, unlike some of its 80's counterparts (Fright Night, Near Dark, The Lost Boys) has been long forgotten. It features the exceptional concept of a group of ancient, once-powerful vampires now reduced to a bunch of losers who get their victims by operating a strip club in a desolate part of town (and believe they're performing a public service by getting rid of the bottom-rung members of society). Much more could have been done with this idea, but the focus is on the teenage leads as they stumble into the club and can't seem to stumble out. Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler are okay, not too memorable, but Deedee Pfeiffer stands out for her incredible cuteness. Gedde Watanabe seems annoying at first but turns out to be a funny sidekick--his dying word is hilarious (seriously, watch the movie just for that). Sandy Baron also has a standout role as the pathetic club owner, and Grace Jones is, uh, quite freaky. For some reason the director has gone completely overboard with a neon pink and green color scheme, but it gives the movie a distinctive universe. The only irritating thing, if you like tradition with your vampire movies, is that the vampires turn into distinctly non-vampiric monsters when they attack, but this can be tolerated. 7/10.

To get into a highly regarded fraternity, Keith and AJ agree to come up with the goods. That is finding a stripper to perform at a party. They need wheels and they turn to the dweeb Duncan for a favour. The three head off, and they come across a rather sordidly dark neighbourhood, which the After Dark club catches their attention. After this the night turns into a very surreal nightmare, as the place happens to be run by vampires. The trouble begins when AJ gets a personal encounter with the fetching dancer Katrina to hopefully perform at their party.

What starts off like your ordinary teen comedy, turns into a spontaneously imaginative and tantalizing vampire feature. The horror/comedy element more often comes off, despite some awkward moments and bad timing. The wry humour is blackly broad and weird, while the ominous thrills are jarringly explicit. Director / writer Richard Wenk gives the oddball concept unpredictable twists with a wide range of sub-plots that work in a lot of tact on climaxes, and the highly witty and clever script is a saucy treat with its banter. The script had a rapid touch about it, but the pacing of the story and direction can get scratchy. Wenk stylishly floods the seedy locations with neon pink and green lighting for ample effect, and Elliot Davis' singular angle photography gaudily displays a sinisterly lingering and nocturnal atmosphere. The make-up FX by Greg Cannom is pretty top-rate with many wicked and grisly images. The direction can feel loose, but it's visually enticing and at times suspenseful. It does look cheap, but this only enhances the mischievously neurotic air and helping out that tenor is Jonathan Elias' spiralling, steamy music score. The cast are on a real high. Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler are ably good as the two central characters. Gedde Watanabe admirably pulls the strings in his obnoxiously weedy comic part. Grace Jones gets top billing, despite saying nothing and having little screen time. However she's naturally imposing and her dominance comes from her luridly effective physical actions and appearance. Especially those eyes! A bubbly and sincere Dedee Pfeiffer steals the film for me, and you got a memorably eerie Billy Drago as an albino thug of a street gang. Sandy Baron was also good fun. The comparisons with "After Hours (1985)" are justified, as both follow a path of triggered events during one bad night in an unrecognisable part of town for the unlucky foe/s. Also I wouldn't be surprised if "From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)" was influenced by 'Vamp'.

A neat, showy and off-kilter little horror/comedy romp of the 80's.

This has to be the most underrated vamp flick that i have come across, most could be put off by bottom shelf, fading icon Chris Makepiece gurning his way through frat-cliche after another, but sit tight and you will become witness to invention in a low budget movie not seen since the likes of The Black Gestapo and You can't buy love. Grace Jones makes compelling viewing as the said vamp and the soundtrack is a lesson in the tried and tested sublime to the ridiculous pitch. All in all this is a quality movie and very creepy i might add, could have toned down the pink and green lighting though (maybe Jerry Bruckheimer got a job onset as exec producer)

If you like campy 80s flicks, don't even bother reading this review. Just go watch the movie. Now.

What more can be said? "Vamp" is totally 80s to the max. Let's begin with the actors... We've got Chris Makepeace ("Meatballs", "My Bodyguard") sporting tight jeans and a oh-so-fashionable blue football jacket. We've got Robert Rusler ("Weird Science", "The Facts of Life") sporting a lovely pastel shirt and wool blazer with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Then we've got Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong in "16 Candles") reprising his classic nerdy role, only this time without the horribly contrived Asian accent so you can safely laugh at him without feeling racist. And of course we've got Grace Jones, 80s icon extraordinaire ("Conan the Destroyer", "A View to a Kill") sporting a wire bikini that makes Princess Leia's brass swimsuit look like a nun's habit.

But for my money, the actor who steals the show is the late, great Sandy Baron as Vic the seedy nightclub owner. You've definitely seen his mug all over TV in minor roles that always stole the show (on Seinfeld he was the cranky retiree who gave Jerry the "astronaut pen"). He definitely steals the show in "Vamp" as the lovably sinister old timer who just wants to get to Vegas, even if it means selling his soul to a clan of bloodthirsty vampires. Sandy even has a few dramatic monologues which add depth to this otherwise silly romp. When he proselytizes about his "service" of ridding society of the dregs, the wanderers and the losers, and he punctuates it with a toothy Cheshire-cat grin, it sends a chill right up your spine.

Plot-wise, it's your basic creatures-of-the-night-run-amok-in-a-bar story. You know, the one Tarantino recycled in "From Dusk Til Dawn" 10 years later. Yes, "Vamp" was the original and don't you forget it.

There's some great comedy in this movie, and for that reason it's hard to approach it as a horror film. The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek which takes away the terror and replaces it with laughs. It's a crying shame that director/writer Richard Wenk didn't do more films because he had a great approach to filmmaking: a cross between John Hughes ("16 Candles") and the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team ("Airplane!").

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you buy the DVD, which you must, be sure to get the 2001 Starz/Anchor Bay release, NOT the 2011 Image Entertainment release. Why? Because the 2001 release includes the hilarious Richard Wenk short film "Dracula Bites the Big Apple". His first film short, this is what got him the "Vamp" gig, and you don't want to miss it. Why they didn't include it in the 2011 release (dvd OR blu-ray) is beyond me.

So there you have it. See this film for the 80s nostalgia, see it for Sandy Baron, just see it. Other campy 80s gems I recommend are "The Alien from L.A." (1986) which was Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kathy Ireland's big break, "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" (1988) which is so bad it's ...well... BAD. And although you've probably seen it you gotta see it again: "Beetlejuice" (1988).