Vamp

Vamp is a great movie! The comedy mixes with the horror to form an entertaining time! Grace Jones gives a great performance of Katrina! Very recommended. The rest of the cast is funny, and it's really worth it

Vamp is a curious lost little lamb from the 1980's, all lit in bizarre green and purple tones and featuring all manner of Grace Jones wiggling around like a monster. It's a fun ride, cleverly done and not entirely unoriginal, with terrific acting talent and a loopy sense of humor pitched somewhere between After Hours and a sideways college comedy. Another aspect I appreciated was how each vampire had a personality, and they weren't always one hundred percent proud to be vampires. They're very aware that in a lot of ways they're perfectly lame. Fairly cool stuff, especially in the confrontation between a character who "turns" and the protagonist.

On the other hand, the last half lacks the zip and zap of the first and some characters seemed a little undernourished. The geek who owns the car seemed a little extraneous towards the end, and the albino gang, while sort of awesome, didn't really belong.

But either way. If you're interested in an offbeat 80's vampire movie or just seeing Grace Jones scare the s**t out of you with her face, by all means rent Vamp. You will become a much wiser person as a result and your parents will no longer hate you.

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.

Want to know where Quentin Tarantino got his idea for the script for Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn? Well, replace that film's bank robbers with a group of hormonal teens, swop gorgeous Salma Hayek for scary disco-diva Grace Jones, and turn Mexican biker-bar The Titty Twister into a skid-row strip club, and what you've got is Vamp, an under-rated teen horror from the 80s that was undoubtedly the inspiration for Rodriguez's horror hit.

Vamp follows three frat boys, Keith, AJ, and Duncan (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler and Gedde Watanabe), as they venture to the wrong side of town in the hope of hiring a stripper for a college party. After a run in with a nasty street gang, led by albino thug Snow (Billy Drago), the lads pay a visit to The After Dark Club, a sleazy joint that, unbeknownst to them, is home to a nest of vampires that feed on the lonely patrons.

When AJ is fed to Katrina (Jones), the queen of the bloodsuckers, Keith and Duncan attempt to flee the city, along with cute waitress Amaretto (Dedee Pfeiffer), but find their escape hampered not only by countless members of the undead, but also by Snow and his fellow gang members.

Featuring a witty script, excellent art direction, great make-up effects from Greg Cannom, and lively, fun performances from all involved, Vamp proves to be one of the better 'cheesy' horrors of the 80s, and is my third favourite teen vampire film of the decade (after The Lost Boys and Fright Night). The film makes stunning use of garish, coloured lighting (perhaps inspired by Dario Argento's Suspiria, which uses similar strong colours), giving the whole affair a freakish and rather unsettling look; this disturbing atmosphere is further compounded by a feeling of complete helplessness that is reminiscent of Scorsese's similarly surreal After Hours.

Admittedly, Vamp does occasionally veer a little too close to dumb teen comedy territory, and one or two scenes are rather convoluted or silly (what kind of vampire keeps metal drums full of flammable liquid in their crypt? And that Formica quip.... weak!), but on the whole, this is a refreshingly offbeat and stylish effort that deserves more recognition.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

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.