Vamp, o Filme

After an unsettling start, this roars off in exciting manner through night streets, bathed as if by Mario Bava in streaks of green, pink and mauve. This could even be Planet of the Vampires, did we but know it. Inside a strip club we have a whole delirious section, fantastically designed and choreographed, the centre piece of which is the turn of Grace Jones. It is as good as anything she has ever done as she prances and dances and more to one of her own songs. Things get more vampiric and the delirium continues. Some time after halfway through, however, we suddenly notice the absence of the wondrous lady and realise just how flat and juvenile things have become. Things pick up towards the end and all in all, even including the music (very decent, especially for an 80s film) this is well worth a watch and much underrated.

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.

Vamp (1986) was another one of those teenage sex/horror film that was widely popular during the eighties. This is one of the better ones. Not a great movie mind you but it's entertaining and it does the job. Vamp stars Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler (whats an 80's movie without him?) Gedee Wantanabe, Dee Dee Phiffer , Billy Drago and Grace Jones.

A group of late teens decide to go to the big city and look for some kicks. They find a seedy strip club, inside are a bunch of wigged out patrons, sleazy strippers and a Reinfried like bartender. Robert is fascinated with one of the strippers whilst Chris falls fro one of the waitresses. Grace Jones co-stars as the main attraction. Billy Drago makes a guest spot as a crazy vampire who likes to slum it up in a kiddie corner. It doesn't take Chris too long to find out that the club has a dark secret and he tries to find a way out without drawing the attention of the owners. Can Chris and his buddies make it to safety or will they become part of the staff?

An entertaining film that was heavily borrowed in the nineties cult favorite From Dusk 'til Dawn. The similarities are too obvious. Q.T. must have had this movie in mind (along with about six others) when he wrote the script. I would have to recommend this movie for horror fans and lovers of eighties movies. Fun stuff with a lot of tongue in cheek humor!

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).

Deliciously bad vampire film with strong Freudian overtones! This is the quintessential buddy film and "day gone really really wrong" film. Vamp is worth watching just to see Grace Jones as the tallest, meanest leanest blonde vampire ever! There is no missing the film's satirical message that female sexuality is a threat to sweet innocent young men and their bonding. The plot is thin (Well, no thinner than a Lethal Weapon story): Two young college kids want to impress their mates by providing the stripper for a college party. This leads them to the "bad" side of town, a scuzzy bar and a thoroughly evil vampire nest (in pure Hollywood style) and of course hilarious consequences. Watanabe is a hoot and the film plays on and with all the traditional stereotypes while maintaining a stiff upper lip over plastic vampire fangs and fake blood. Well worth the time to watch if taken with a sense of humor.