Customer Reviews

Vamp [VHS]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an example of a GREAT job by Anchor Bay in packaging a cult film, and loading it with extras as well as a very good transfer. The blooper reel offers some deleted scenes, the rehearsal footage is hilarious (Grace Jones attacking the director!), and the commentary on the DVD is funny and engaging.

The movie itself is an 80s horror-comedy modeled almost slavishly on AFTER HOURS. The premise is two college buddies end up trying to find a stripper for a frat party, but somehow end up in a weird alternate reality where vampires prey on the homeless and hapless. Grace Jones has no lines as the titular role and first-billed and maybe 8 minutes screen-time total! But what a great vampire, and she does make her scenes pop off the screen without saying a word. DeeDee Pfiefer (yes, sister of Michelle) plays Amaretto ("not my real name") with a wide eyed glee that counters perfectly the darkness around her. And Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler play chums caught in the TWILIGHT ZONE that is the world of VAMP. Add in a comedic turn by Geddy Watanabe (of 16 CANDLES FAME - Long Duck Dong), and you've got a game cast to do a dark comedy!

A good movie gets royal DVD treatment. Snap it up before it's gone!

VAMP is not meant to be serious, so don't even bother taking it there. It's meant to be exactly what it is, an insane vampire comedy. ...

Anyway, I've loved this film ever since I was a wee girl (about 4 years old). I had a very hard time finding a VHS copy of the film and never found one(all I had was a Beta copy). Then finally I got a DVD player and my very first DVD, Vamp! The DVD is SUPERB all around. The special features, the transfer, and the sound. The movie is just lovely. The actors are cute and funny and charming. Especially the late Sandy Baron, Dee Dee, Gedde, and Chris. The commentary track is hilarious. It's ALL good. It was also great to finally see it in widescreen for the first time (my eyes).

Last, but surely not least: Grace Jones... She is fabulous!!! Her seductive strip dance is to die for.... Grace Jones is a beautiful and wonderful Goddess! And maybe a bit scary, just a lil' bit (or always).

Seriously though, I assure you this movie will grow on you and you'll just adore it, if not... Grace Jones will lunge at you stiletto's first! BUY THIS MOVIE NOW!!! *HISSSSSSSSSS*

...

I will admit that this is not the best movie ever made, but it certainly is my favorite. Grace Jones always looks like she would rip your skin off with her teeth, bit by bit.

The first thing you notice is how surreal the background gets after dark. I love the humor in this movie. I think this movie should be rated as the best cult film ever. The lines are delivered with comic expertise. For anyone who loves vampire movies as much as I do, you will love this movie. Not a scary movie for the squeemish, but extremely entertaining. Once it gets dark, beware. Snow and his followers will get you, if the vampires in the club don't.

My favorite line in the movie (it was hard to choose) is the one that A. J. delivers when he says, "formica, go figure". If you see the movie, then you will understand the meaning of that line. Another great line was when the little rich friend asks one of the waitresses what time she gets off. She states in a very husky voice, "3:30". He then says, "can I watch?"

Lots of tongue in cheek, and even a bit of romance towards the end. This is a fun movie for people who don't take vampires seriously.

Visit the After Dark Club... and you won't want to leave. Grace Jones heads up the cast as an over-the-top vampire (though thankfully she never has to speak!).

This movie is about as tongue in cheek as you can get (have you ever seen a vampire staked through the heart using a six inch stiletto?) and thankfully never takes itself too seriously.

Even so, it manages to create it's own style of atmosphere that has you gripped from beginning to end with an attitude much akin to that of Big Trouble in Little China. The set design, though never big budget really makes you feel you are in the underworld, with some excellent lighting effects. And the cast work well together (Gede Watanabe as Duncan is hilarious).

In short, this is a cult classic that you will love if you enjoy 80's movies such as Big Trouble in Little China. Order it now and get yourself a little piece of cult 80's movie viewing.

There's a shocker huh? No offense to you strippers out there. Your "victims" get what they have coming to them; empty wallets! Strangely, the vampires/strippers in this film are much more selective. I can't say that was a big problem with this film. Oh, it had problems for sure, but none of them stopped me from actually liking this movie. Let's shimmy into it shall we...

-WE GREATLY DESIRE TO HANG WITH YOU DORKS.
This is the set-up for the whole movie. It goes like this:
Two guys trying to join a fraternity of ritualistic dorks decide they are too cool to follow the rituals. Despite this, they are still willing to go to great lengths to gain entry into the dorky club. The Dorks agree to allow entry into the club if the "too cool" newbs throw a wild party for them, including strippers. So begins the quest that leads our "too cool" heroes into the depth of the inner city. If you don't have a problem with this set-up, then you actually have a chance to enjoy the movie because it doesn't get any better. I thought it was pretty darn funny in a stupid way.

-GRACE JONES SUCKS AND BITES ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
This is why she does not get any lines. In all honesty, I never got what the big attraction was with her anyway. She's pretty darn creepy without the makeup (and couldn't fill a training bra). Despite my shallow commentary I got along fine with grace in this film. Being pre-creepy, she makes an appropriate queen vamp stripper. Character actor Sandy Baron (a guy) carries the day for the bad guys as he does a fine job of playing the inexplicably dumb nightclub manager.
On the side of niceness are the young people. Robert Rusler has his charisma smeared all over us. You would never buy any of his lines, but everyone else does. His buddy is Chris Makepeace (John Makewar's stepbrother?) a wimpy, benign bundle of nerves who knuckles under to his pals every whim. Geddy Watanabe plays another dork that will pay for anything (just a little convenient). The pre-requisite nice girl is Dedee Pfeiffer (Michelle's flat-chested sister... ...WHAT!?!?). Her place in this film keeps you guessing because it defies reason. The entire cast is exactly what you would expect from a 80s teenage, semi-light, horror film; just better than adequate.

-REMOVING TONGUE FROM CHEEK AND GETTING SERIOUS
I think what kept me in this film was the whole feel of the thing. As dopey as the setup sounds, this is a very surreal and nightmarish experience. I really had a sense of weariness as the good guys languished in their sugar coated human flytrap. Time keeps passing and things just keep getting more and more messed up but nobody but our bundle of nerves seems to be in a hurry to get out. Have you ever had a nightmare where someone is chasing you, but you can't move? That's how this starts to feel. Well, eventually everything hits the fan and our hero starts to move. But even then, he ends up on a treadmill. You begin to doubt that there is actually an ending to this movie. Not surprisingly, a semi-cheap ending is devised and we get a fair conclusion. However, lot's of implausible but fun action occurs along the way.

-OH, PRETTY COLORS!
I especially liked the over-the-top production values of this film. The vampire makeup is monstrous and grotesque, not just a couple fangs. The lighting is like a Halloween stage show with purples and greens and oranges. The sets are limited but effective (how much do you expect to see when you're trapped in a nightmare?). I happen to like this somewhat campy look. Visually, this is a fun film.

-PUTTING TOUGUE BACK IN CHEEK TO TALK ABOUT THE STORY.
If you've made it this far still believing you will enjoy this movie then you are ready to face the final test; a story full of inexplicable stupidity and hyper-ridiculous caveats to make things work. This is a 1980s teenage horror film after all. It is in the same mood as "Fright Night" but not nearly as well thought out. If you don't laugh at and enjoy solutions to problems nearly falling into our heroes lap then you won't like this story. You might even suspect that some of the vampires in this film wanted to die; it's that bad. All that said, I fell on the side of enjoying the stupidity of it all. This film is not that serious that I couldn't let that kind of stuff slide.

-TONIGHTS FINAL ACT...
... is usually reserved for the one-legged chick with the eye-patch who does something nasty with a dollar bill. Well, even I'm not that bad. I liked this stupid movie for its fun production values, campy but effective acting and it's likeably dumb story caveats. The story does work if you allow the stupidity to pull it together. If you can't look past these glaring, goofy conveniences in the story you'd better look elsewhere. I got a kick out of it. The DVD is pretty standard fare; decent quality picture and sound. You get plenty for your money.

Story.......2.5 stars
Visuals.....4.7 stars
Acting......3.8 stars

Total.......3.67 stars

The biggest problem I've seen with reviews of this movie are from the people who see it as serious. It's intended to be a spoof of the Vampire / Horror genre, and in that it succeeds admirably. What can go wrong, does, and builds to a climax that is worthy of any slasher flick I've ever seen. Grace fans cannot miss this one, and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the supernatural and a sense of humor. If you liked Evil Dead but prefer vampires, this is one to have.

This was clearly the work of someone fresh out of film school making their first commerical production. It's easy to write this movie off as typical 80's throw-away horror/comedy fare, but if you look at the film critically, you will notice a number of nuanced touches to the acting and directing that make the film almost surreal. The director was certainly influenced by German expressionism, and there appears to have been very careful attention paid to the color schemes and cinematography. Grace Jones is FANTASTIC as an erotically fascinating vampire (she has no lines, but her mere presence dominates the film and leaves the film viewer spellbound). Her costumes alone make the movie worth watching. There's also a kind of strange, muffled existentialist undercurrent to the film; young students lost in an abadoned, zombie-filled nocturnal city-scape; a newly made vampire who despairs because he fears his thirst for blood will eclipse his love for his best friend (a kind of implicit homoerotic strain enters their relationship at that point, with the vampire declaring, "I love you," to his former college roommate and 'buddy.') Disregard the puerile fratboy humor and don't be afraid to analyze this greasy morsel of 80's film in a penetrating manner.

Second in a trio of "toothy comedies" which spawned the 80s vampire revival, Vamp was released a few months after Fright Night and preceded The Lost Boys by a year. Of the three, I actually liked Vamp the best. The unique look and feel, offbeat characterisations and solid acting of the film fleshes out and over shadows the admittedly silly premise.

Rather than using old horror (like Fright Night) or fairytales (Lost Boys) as its main influence, Wenk's influences were more the black comedy of Scorsese's After Hours and Landis' Into the Night -- this enabled him to populate the film with amusingly offbeat eccentrics. The leads studied coolness and wit also differed from the hysteria and paranoia of film characters that populated the "Teen Horror Comedy" subgenre of the 80s.

Then there is Grace Jones - 'nuff said.

Besides his eye for style, his choice of soundtrack was equally inspired, using old pop standards was another smart/ironic stylistic choice.

Besides the director and the cast, this is also the begining of SFX artist Greg Cannom's long association with movie vampires. He would move onto The Lost Boys and ultimately, Coppola's Dracula.

As for the Anchor Bay DVD,

Another job well done! The image transfer is impeccable, esp. for what is a low budget "throaway" fare. The sound is not state of the art but not distractingly so. But the best part of the dvd has to be one of the most entertaining commentary i have heard in a long time, not exactly the most imformative but Wenk and the cast was clearly having a ball, it was almost like watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000!

Everyone seems to put more into the film than it was expected of them and their enthusiasm made the film and dvd a fun and nostalgic experience.

I have to say that I am VERY happy that I decided to purchase this dvd. This movie brings back soo many memories. It's been awhile since I had viewed it last.......and I have to say I am pleased that I did. I really enjoyed the commentary by Chris Makepeace, DeDee Pfeiffer, and Gedde Wantanabe. It was funny. They sounded like they had soo much fun making this movie. I also appreciate that fact that a lot of nice little extras have been added to this dvd. This is one piece of my 80's childhood that I couldn't forget.

The cheesy dialog, red and green lighting and quirky characters make this movie fun for all. Although the focus of the movie is on 2 university students trying to find a stripper, the true core of the movie lies in the character of Snow and the goth/french/Japanese head vampire Katrina. Snow and his gang, which is composed of albinos and black hookers, has a slough of side splitingly funny lines and an awesome soundtrack to back them up. You have to hear Snow's Flute theme to believe it! These characters provide hours of amusment even after the movie is done. The strangest Character in the movie is Katrina the Head Vamp stripper. Her strip act encorperates new age music, a gravity defying chair, and goth makeup. In her act she uses rather peculiur dance steps and at the climax has spasem on top of her bizzar chair, and then fianlly ends by giving oral sex to her chair. Once again you must witness it to believe it. Her performance is enhanced further by her metallic sexually armour that she wears. Other notable parts of the movie are the incredible spinning car scene, the killer elevator, the dominatrix stripper, the rich Chinese guy, the main characters uncanny archery skills and the fabulous green and red lighting. Whatever you do don't try to take this film seriously, the special effects and acting are horrible, but that adds to the fun of the movie. Besides the Snow character is worth it. Don't let the chance to see this comic masterpiece pass you by, you'll regret it!