VAMP

Directed & Written by Richard Wenk
Produced by Donald P. Borchers
Music by Jonathan Elias
Cast: Chris Makepeace, Sandy Baron, Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer, Gedde Watanabe & Grace Jones

1986/94 mins/Color/2.0 DD
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Anchor Bay DVD

Keith and A.J. (Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler) are on a mission, a mission to find a stipper for a fraternity party so they can get in. Since they don't have a car they go to Duncan (Gedde Watanabe), a rich and spoiled Asian fellow student. Much to their dismay, Keith and A.J. are taking the hyper active and annoying Duncan with them. The next stop is the big city, the city that never sleeps.

What starts out as an average John Hughes teen movie of the 80's suddenly becomes a frightening vampire comedy. After running into a weird looking albino and his girls, the trio finally make their way into the "After Dark" strip bar where they get a rather unique welcome from the late Sandy Baron. It is there that Keith meets what looks to be an old flame of him, Amaretto, played by Dedee Pfeiffer (yes she's Michelle's sister). As for A.J., he's looking around to see which of the strippers would be better. Then suddenly on stage comes Katrina, superbly played by Grace Jones. After a extended strip tease in a outrageous and bizarre costume (thanks to artist Keith Haring), A.J. decides that Katrina is the one they want, she would sure make a terrific impression at the frat party. But what follows is more then they could handle. You see, Katrina is in fact a 2000 years old vampire, and like vampire always are, she's hungry. When Keith realizes that A.J. is missing he tries to find him but keeps on running into troubles. It seems like almost everyone in this part of the city is either an albino or a vampire. From there we get the usual seek and destroy, run and hide, wooden stake and sunlight.

Unlike most of the horror comedies of the 80's, VAMP is actually fun and entertaining, even 15 years later! Richard Wenk who made his directorial debut with VAMP also wrote the screenplay in only a weekend! The film was made for only $1.9 millions and took 25 days to shoot. Wenk got the gig for VAMP after that Donald P. Borchers saw his short film called DRACULA BITES THE BIG APPLE and asked Wenk if he would like to direct a film about stippers, vampires and kids, the rest is history.

Anchor Bay did another superb job with this transfer. The film looks simply amazing. VAMP is presented in it's original 1.85:1 ratio and features anamorphic enhancement. The colors are rich and vibrant, there is no signs of compression or artifacts. The transfer rightfully recreates the nice photography of the film and the superb lighting in some scenes. As for the audio department, the box says that the film is in mono but much to my surprise the audio is actually in 2.0 Dolby Surround. The audio is crisp and clear in which the very good musical score benefit a lot from it.

Let's not forget the extras, this DVD is full of them! First of all there's the very informative and funny commentary track with the director Richard Wenk and cast members, Chris Makepeace, Dedee Pfeiffer and Gedde Watanabe. After listening to this commentary track it sure sounds like they had a blast doing this film and remembering about it. We also get the rather unique and sometime funny DRACULA BITES THE BIG APPLE short film where Dracula visits New York to find new blood and to sing a song or two! There is also a 7 minutes behind the scenes rehearsal of the scene where Katrina kills A.J. but since Robert Rusler wasn't cast yet as A.J., director Richard Wenk replaces him, much to his pleasure i'm sure. We also get 6 minutes of bloopers, 2 theatrical trailers, 7 tv spots (some of them actually really well done) and a great 60 plus still gallery where we see rare photos and artwork for the film. The film is separated in 27 chapters, a 4 pages booklet and comes in the usual Anchor Bay keep case. As for the menus, they have some music and animation. This is another great DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Thanks to Anchor Bay

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2003. ©