Vamp (1986)
Distributor: Arrow Video
UK Release Date: 21st February 2011
Directed by: Richard Wenk
Starring: Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer, Gedde Watanabe, Grace Jones
Review by: Ben Bussey
“I’m in the mood for love, simply because they’re naked!”
It all starts out like any other 80s college comedy. Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler) are anxious to get into an exclusive fraternity and thereby significantly improve their standard of living. Exhausted with the usual pledge initiation bullcrap, AJ boldly suggests an alternative; that he and Keith provide whatever the frat boys want for their party that evening. And frankly, they get off light; they’re not asked to abduct underage girls, score crystal meth or put on a donkey show, just procure the services of an exotic dancer. To this end, they ask the wealthy but socially awkward Duncan (Watanabe) to loan them his car so they can hit the big city strip clubs and find a suitable lady there. Duncan agrees on the condition that he be allowed to tag along. A few misadventures later, the boys find themselves in After Dark, a seedy joint on the wrong side of the tracks. They soon think they’ve found what they’re looking for in the shape of a somewhat unconventional exotic dancer named Katrina (Jones); but, wouldn’t you know it, neither she nor the club are quite what they seem.
How time can change things. This is one of those movies I vividly recall watching on late night TV as a fledgling horror fan, and at the time regarding it the most amazing movie ever. And at age 12 how could I not feel that way? It’s a vampire strippers movie. It’s got loads of ladies getting their kit off, and loads of people getting killed horribly. And quite apart from the titilation factor, at the time I also found it genuinely quite frightening.
But yes, time can take its toll. Seeing the movie again now, it’s nowhere near as raunchy or gory or scary as the Vamp that exists in my imagination. But that’s not to say it isn’t still a fun time, and a pleasant trip down Nostalgia Lane for those of us who remember the 80s.
And yes, by gosh, this is an 80s movie through and through. Everything from the the soundtrack to the cinematography to the plot, dialogue and characterisations inescapably bind the movie to the era. As the images here in this article demonstrate, the night time scenes which make up the bulk of the film seem to be perpetually lit by green and pink neon. Then there’s the fashions on display, in particular the zebra-striped jacket and tiger-striped leggings sported by Dedee Pfeiffer’s bubblehead waitress Amaretto. And then, of course, there’s the titular Vamp herself, Grace Jones, a statuesque embodiment of 80s high fashion androgyny. Her distant, mute turn as the vampire queen – particularly her utterly bizarre body-painted performance art piece masquerading as a striptease – always seemed a rather odd fit in what is otherwise a pretty straight (in all senses) youth-oriented horror comedy, yet at the same time it’s hard to imagine the film being anywhere near as memorable without it. Mention Vamp, and you don’t picture Chris Makepeace and Dedee Pfeiffer doing battle with the undead; you picture Grace Jones in that crazy red wig, body paint and swirly metal bikini, writhing around on an equally unusual looking chair.
Still, for the most part it is indeed Chris Makepeace and Dedee Pfeiffer on screen. And that’s not a bad thing, so long as you don’t mind your male lead being a wisecracking John Hughes era sensitive young man, and your female lead being a Willie Scott-ish useless bimbo stereotype. Okay, perhaps that’s a little harsh, but you get the drift. In any case, you’d better enjoy the company of these characters as a surprising amount of screentime is taken up by them doing little more than talking. One of the key problems with Vamp is that it’s actually pretty low on action, and doesn’t really deliver on all that it promises. Most of the strippers don’t actually get naked, most of the deaths are pretty light on gore, and there extended stretches wherein very little happens at all. All this considered, Vamp really doesn’t hold up too well when compared to certain other oh-so-80s vampire classics like Fright Night and Near Dark. (Or, for that matter, From Dusk Till Dawn; the influence of Vamp on that later, greater vampire stripper flick is addressed in the extras.)
Still, this is not to say that Vamp doesn’t remain an enjoyable movie. And one of the distinct benefits of a DVD release some twenty five years after the film was made is that those involved with the production tend to be a lot less guarded about what they say. So it is with the special features here; and this being another DVD from perhaps our favourite distributor Arrow, they don’t skimp on the detail. We have extended interviews with writer/director Richard Wenk, producer Donald P Borchers, and Dedee Pfeiffer, all of whom speak at length about the behind the scenes antics that surely contributed to the uneven, chaotic feel of the movie: stabbings, car theft, food poisoning, a star with a tendency to disappear to Europe when she’s meant to be on set, not to mention said star being found in bed with one of the actors, his brother, and a model who happened to be on the FBI’s most wanted list; and more besides. Pfeiffer (who comes off as – how to put it delicately – every bit as eccentric as Amaretto) declares the making of Vamp to be the real movie, and I daresay she may be right; as such, I personally wouldn’t have minded a feature length retrospective documentary rather than three seperate talking head interviews. But that’s nit-picking, as there’s plenty here to add a sense of context and perspective to the film, including some eye-opening footage of Grace Jones rehearsing her key scene of vampirism with director Wenk (being British, I can’t help but smirk at that name), Wenk and Borchers talking us through a scrapbook of promo material, and most enjoyably the short film that landed Wenk the job: entitled Dracula Bites The Big Apple, it’s an off-the-wall spoof in the Airplane! mould, which gives some indication of the kind of feature film Wenk and Borchers had in mind before opting for a more straightfoward horror comedy.
It’s a flawed film for sure, but if you’ve got a taste for the 80s you’ll lap it all up in a suitably vampiric fashion. And once again, Arrow prove that nobody brings old favourites to DVD better than they do. Diehard fans of the movie will definitely want to track this edition down; and everyone else should still find something to enjoy. It is about vampire strippers, after all.