''Vamp'' is a 1986 American

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

comedy horror film Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

directed by

Richard Wenk Richard Wenk (born 1956) is an American film screenwriter and director best known for his work on ''The Expendables 2'' (2012), ''The Equalizer (film), The Equalizer'' (2014), and ''The Magnificent Seven (2016 film), The Magnificent Seven'' (20 ...

, co-written by Wenk and Donald P. Borchers, and starring

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...

and

Chris Makepeace Christopher Makepeace (born April 22, 1964) is a Canadian former actor, known for his starring roles in the coming-of-age film ''My Bodyguard'' (1980) and comedy horror ''Vamp'' (1986), and supporting roles in the screwball comedy '' Meatballs'' ...

Plot

Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper to buy their way into a campus fraternity. They borrow a Cadillac from lonely rich student Duncan, who insists on coming with them to scope out strip clubs in a nearby city. The three boys find themselves at a club in a shady part of town, and after being impressed by a surreally artistic stripper, Katrina, AJ visits her dressing room to try to convince her to come strip for their college party. Katrina seduces AJ, then pins him down – killing him with a fatal bite to the neck. Keith becomes concerned at his friend’s delay and gets help from a waitress named Amaretto, who keeps insisting (to his confusion) that she knows him. They search the neighborhood, and Keith is separated from her while trying to escape from both a psychotic albino street gang, as well as from vampires throughout the area. While hiding in a dumpster, he finds AJ's discarded body, but when he calls the cops and returns to the club to accuse the owners, the vampires have preempted him by bringing AJ back to the club as undead. AJ confesses to Keith that he's now a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

, and after realizing that Keith will not kill him and is willing to die for him, AJ stakes himself with a piece of broken furniture. Keith, Amaretto, and Duncan flee the club, but their car is rammed by vehicles driven by vampires. After escaping, they realize that Duncan has been turned to a vampire, and they abandon him in a burning car. The pair attempt to escape through the sewers, as Amaretto breaks down and tells Keith that her real name is Allison, and she knows AJ from a game of

spin the bottle Spin the bottle is a kissing party game commonly played by teenagers. The game was very popular among teenagers during the second half of the 20th century because it fostered "sexual" interactions between boys and girls. It has even been describe ...

when they were classmates in fifth grade. While they flee through the sewers, they discover and burn a nest of vampires, but Allison is grabbed and held hostage by Katrina. After an arrow to the face and being staked in the chest with a pipe fail to stop Katrina, Keith kills her by opening a grating, allowing the sunlight to destroy her. Before they can escape to the surface, they are trapped by Vlad, Katrina's vampire consort, until Vlad is staked from behind by a revived AJ, who sheepishly notes that the stake he tried to kill himself with turned out to be

formica ''Formica'' is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, thatching ants, and field ants. ''Formica'' is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae. The type species of genus ''For ...

. As Keith and Allison climb to the surface daylight, AJ remains in the sewers calling out to him his ideas to go to night school, or work a job on a Shift work#Graveyard shift, graveyard shift.

Cast

as Keith * Robert Rusler as AJ *

as Katrina * Dedee Pfeiffer as Allison/Amaretto * Gedde Watanabe as Duncan * Billy Drago as Snow * Sandy Baron as Vic * Lisa Lyon as Cimmaron

Reception

Reviews were mixed to negative. Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, writing that there were "some funny lines, and the relationship between the human kid and his best pal the vampire is handled with a lot of original twists. But the movie finally descends, as so many films do these days, to one of those assembly-line endings made up of fights and chases." D. J. R. Bruckner of ''The New York Times'' called the writing and direction "weak" and the story "so confused, that 'Vamp' often seems as silly as the films it tries to ridicule." A positive review in ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' praised the film as "extremely imaginative" with a "very good" cast, and referred to Grace Jones' dance number as "an outré showstopper." Patrick Goldstein of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "Despite a few delightfully grim comic touches, 'Vamp' never really captures the spirit of light-headed horror needed to propel this kind of macabre mayhem. Writer-director Richard Wenk has a real flair for offbeat humor ... but we find ourselves much more enchanted by the film's kooky peripheral characters than by its plodding storyline." Paul Attanasio of ''The Washington Post'' panned the film as "stupid and crude." Sid Smith of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, writing that "the laughs are strained, and many of the effects are ludicrous. The filmmakers couldn't come up with enough good plot and dialogue to fill in the gaps between their little satirical stabs." A review by Mark Finch in ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was generally positive, finding that although the concept of a club where the strippers possess authority could have been explored more, "the film remains confident and agreeably scary without becoming lost in a swamp of movie-buff jokes or out-and-out campiness."

Influences

Many viewers argue that ''Vamp'' heavily influenced Robert Rodriguez's ''From Dusk till Dawn'' (1996); from the setting of a strip club, to the sexy dance/performance put on by the lead female characters in each respective film. ''Vamp'' tells the story of two fraternity pledges looking to find a stripper at the "After Dark" club, which so happens to be home to a group of stripper vampires, whereas ''From Dusk till Dawn'' tells the story of two fugitive bank-robbing brothers who are fleeing the FBI as well as the Texas police and end up at the "Titty Twister", a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico which, in comparison to ''Vamp'', happens to be home to a group of Aztec stripper vampires.

Release

''Vamp'' was released theatrically in the United States on July 18, 1986 and grossed $4,941,117 at the box office. Arrow Video released ''Vamp'' on Blu-ray/DVD in the US on October 4, 2016 and the UK Blu-ray/DVD release on October 3, 2016. This version of the film features a high definition digital transfer along with special features.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vamp 1986 films 1986 horror films 1980s comedy horror films American comedy horror films Films directed by Richard Wenk Films shot in Los Angeles Films scored by Jonathan Elias Films with screenplays by Richard Wenk American vampire films Vampire comedy films New World Pictures films 1986 comedy films Films about striptease 1986 directorial debut films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films