I’m amazed by how much goodwill I feel towards every person who appeared in the Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. I have always respected Grace Jones, but I definitely became more aware of her from her bizarre appearance there. And you can’t have Jones in something without capitalizing on the weirdness she exudes.
1986’s Vamp puts her to good use as a vampire who strips at a sleazy LA joint. I completely believed her performance as a mute creature with an animal sexuality. The scene where she tears out a victim’s jugular is preceded by a suspenseful and sensuous round of her flicking her tongue up and down his torso. Both the moment of foreplay and the instance of horror are equally convincing. Her undergarments in the scene are some sort of metal spirals that look incredibly uncomfortable, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if these were her street clothes.
That victim is a college student played by Robert Rusler. He came to the club with his friend (Chris Makepeace) and a guy tagging along only because he owns a car (Gedde Watanabe). Rusler and Makepeace are trying to acquire a stripper for a party thrown by a fraternity, in trade for their admission to the house.
The picture opens with an amusing piece that suggests this will be some sort of religious horror film, as robed figures drag the two friends into a church and slip nooses over their heads. Then it is revealed this is a prank that is part of the frat’s hazing ritual. This sets the stage for a horror-comedy hybrid ala Fright Night, though it isn’t very funny or very scary.
If there’s one thing it most definitely is, it is very much a product of the 1980’s. The sets are incredibly overlit, such as a strip club bright enough to do surgery in—however lacking in hygiene such a place would be. Everywhere else is lit in weird combinations of green and magenta, making for at least one weird looking alleyway. In the climax, we’ll discover the world’s cleanest sewer system is lit the same way.
A more interesting touch is a headless mannequin on the stage for Jones’s stage show, which is painted in a style reminiscent of Keith Haring. According to a fascinating making-of that accompanies the film on the Arrow blu-ray, that likely is the work on Haring, as he was part of the entourage the actress brought with her to the shoot. I was a bit dismayed she also demonstrated some diva behavior, including the time the crew waited nine hours for her to show up on set.
One curious aspect of the film is Jones is barely in it, yet her time on screen is so memorable you’ll swear she was in it longer. Another element I found bizarre is most of the leads are rather disposable. I honestly couldn’t tell Makepeace and Rusler apart until we were well into the movie. Dedee Pfeiffer is the sweet girl-next-door type working at the club. She looked uncannily like Alison Lohman to me, and she’s shockingly oblivious to what is happening behind-the-scenes there. But even more baffling is the local gang (led by Billy Drago) that somehow has failed to notice the large number of vampires on their turf. Still, I believed that more than Rusler giving the beat-down to three of their members.
And this vampire strip club has apparently been operating out of that location for some time. As the club emcee (Sandy Baron) puts it, people go missing all the time and the club makes for the perfect cover: “Nobody tells anybody when they come to a joint like this”.
Which leads me to: this is a surprisingly talky movie, and that distinguishes it from similar fare of the time. After Rusler is turned into a vampire, there’s an interesting scene where he and Makepeace discuss what being undead is like and whether their friendship can continue after this development.
I seem to have nitpicked Vamp to death here, but it was quirky enough that I enjoyed it. At least, I definitely found more to appreciate here than From Dusk to Dawn, a film from roughly a decade later that superficially resembles it. Very little works here in a conventional way but, once I turned off my brain, I found myself having a good time.
Dir: Richard Wenk
Starring Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer, Grace Jones
Watched on Arrow blu-ray