[yasr_overall_rating]
Two fraternity pledges travel to a sleazy bar in search of a stripper for their college friends, unknown it is occupied by vampires.
“Vamp” is a comedy horror film that is full of false turns. Unsure of its own tone, the film aborts several ideas halfway through the portrayal so that the viewer is never really sure what to make of the picture. The first act of the film follows in the vein of an ’80s teen comedy like “The Sure Thing” or “Bachelor Party” but this tone changes when the first of the vampires appears. But soon after, the film stops being a vampire film and becomes one of those films where the good guys have to fight their way because they are surrounded by bad guys and maybe a potential traitor.
The film suitably stars actress, singer, and model Grace Jones. In much the same way, the film is never sure of what to do with the cultural oddity that is Grace Jones. The film bills Grace Jones as the star but she only serves a tantalizing supporting role while a bunch of frat boys clog the film’s main story.
It’s my sense that a lot of people will hate the comedy part of the film and like the vampire bit. Or vice versa. Those who liked films like “Weird Science” will like the first half of the film. Those who like run of the mill zombie fare will likely find the second half of the film acceptable but not engaging. Die-hard fans of Scorsese’s “After Hours,” as I am, will think the idea of escape in the film is intriguing.
“Vamp” tells the story of college students Keith (Chris Makepeace) and AJ (Robert Rusler), who borrow the Cadillac of a lonely rich student Duncan (Gedde Watanabe), in order to hire a stripper to buy their way into a campus fraternity. One of the strippers, who looks a lot like a “Blade Runner” character, who is known as Queen Katrina (Grace Jones), seduces AJ and then pins him down and kills him with a bite to the neck.
Trying to escape from a psychotic albino street gang and vampires in the area, Keith discovers that AJ is undead. Although AJ requests it, Keith refuses to kill AJ so AJ ends up piercing his heart with a piece of broken furniture. There is a nice little love story B-plot between Keith and a dancer named Amaretto (Dedee Pfeiffer).
All I can really say about the last thirty minutes of the film is that I was mesmerized. It wasn’t the plot, or the characters, or the dialogue that were enticing but rather the film’s eerie lighting and nice color composition which its use of neon colors and dark shades reminded me a good bit of the preceding year’s “Brazil.”
“Vamp” is a generic vampire comedy flick that has some neat touches that should have been better emphasized, including the performance by Grace Jones and the weird Kafkaesque nature of Keith’s story. The good parts of “Vamp” are so much better than the bad parts of the film that you wish someone would have paid the film a little more love and attention so that the picture could have become a forgotten gem, rather than something that would not be terrible to play in the background of a party. “Vamp” is the debut of the writer/director, Richard Wenk, who would go on to write the scripts for some other better known films with forgettable plots but neat flourishes including “The Expendables 2” and this year’s remake of “The Magnificent Seven.”
Now available in a 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Films
