6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.7 |
A group of fraternity pledges head for the seedy side of the city in search of strippers and discover a sinister spot called The After Dark Club. But when the bar's luscious dancers turn out to be bloodthirsty vampires led by the kinky Katrina (Grace Jones), the evening takes on a freaky new twist. Can these guys survive a bizarre onslaught of vixens and vamps, or will the armies of the undead take the ultimate bite out of their night?
Starring: Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, Grace Jones, Sandy Baron, Gedde WatanabeHorror | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
“Vamp” is a difficult movie to explain, falling under the jurisdiction of various genres and cult fandom. It’s a horndog teen comedy laced with horror and suspense, yet spends a large portion of its running time working out dramatic encounters between characters undeserving of the attention. What the effort does have is a few successful scenes of oddity, one charming supporting performance, and the sheer spectacle of performance artist/singer/actress Grace Jones, who provides the film with infinite weirdness, stirring up the feature without a single line of dialogue. Despite a premise loaded with potential for some delightfully unsavory business, “Vamp” has no bite, too encumbered by its limited budget and woefully misguided when it comes to imagining utter sexual supremacy. I’m all for Grace Jones pawing at herself in a metal bikini and kabuki make-up, but “Vamp” lacks stimulating screen energy, looking to get by with the bare minimum in terms of horror, comedy, and pole-twirling sin.
Keith (Chris Makepeace, “Meatballs”) and A.J. (Robert Rustler, “Weird Science”) are a pair of college students hoping to break out of their suffocating dorm room living situation, looking to join a local frat to improve their surroundings. Trying to impress the men in charge, the duo decide to plan a party, hoping to secure all the basics to properly woo impressionable young men, including hiring a formidable stripper. Spying an ad for an exotic club on the wrong side of town, Keith and A.J., along with pal Duncan (Gedde Wantanabe, “Sixteen Candles”), head into the unknown, entering the secluded establishment, run by manager and Las Vegas dreamer, Vic (Sandy Baron, “Straight Time”). Inside, the boys spy the dancer of a lifetime in Katrina (Grace Jones), a spooky character who hypnotizes all those who witness her routine. While A.J. runs off to secure Katrina’s services, Keith encounters waitress Amaretto (Dedee Pfeiffer, “Moving Violations”), a former fling who can’t believe the bewildered young man doesn’t remember her. Unfortunately, the reunion is cut short when Keith learns the club is merely a front for a crew of vampires looking to leader Katrina to secure their feast of human blood.
The AVC encoded image (1.77:1 aspect ratio) presentation is fairly solid for low-impact cult effort from the 1980s. The image gives off a nice, full sense of the palette, presenting a range of stable hues that communicate the seedy/graphic novel look of the picture. Greens and pinks are especially pronounced, stable and effective, while lighting is provided a pleasing glow, with neon sources looking impressive. Clarity is somewhat soft, though close-ups look satisfactory, permitting a study of make-up work (including fangs and wounds) and panicked reactions, with reasonable textures to explore, including the stretch marks and scars on Jones's body. Skintones are natural and appealing. There is an intermittent issue with crush, which solidifies blacks during evening sequences, also having difficulty with dense hairstyles. Print damage is detected, including a brief issue at the 11:49 mark, where a smattering of blotches is visible for a few frames. Blink and you'll miss it.
The 2.0 Linear PCM mix contains the low-budget audio effort well, providing a blunted but capable sonic experience that fits the feature's original presentation. Dialogue exchanges offer a suitable sense of clarity without much heft, keeping exposition in place with a frontal hold. Voices retain their natural characteristics, separated satisfactorily from the elements, which never intrude. Scoring cues are on the shrill side, maintaining a piercing synth sting -- aggressive but passable. Soundtrack cuts bring a little more muscle to the mix, but there's not much dimensionality to grasp, while low-end is rarely engaged. Subterranean encounters carry some evocative atmospherics with steam and water, while club encounters spread around some crowd energy to fill out the scene. Violence is jarring and amplified, but never distorted, offering pronounced vampire sound effects.
Despite a salacious opening act, "Vamp" is ultimately a chase picture, following Keith as he sprints around backrooms and sewers, pursuing any possible escape. Wenk does his best to open up the scope of the film with comic book lighting, Dutch angles, and smoke machines, but there's only so many times one can watch Keith work his way around the dark before boredom begins to set in. "Vamp" tries extraordinarily hard to cover the fact that it's a rather empty genre exercise, lacking the proper amount of money and scripted imagination to thrill and chill. The ingredients are there to do something interesting, but Wenk doesn't have the vision to make it come to life. Not even Grace Jones in a metal bikini and kabuki make-up can liven up a project that's barely breathing.
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