Thanks to the success of Tom Holland’s Fright Night (1985),
suddenly vampires were hot again in Hollywood and so during the mid 80’s; we suddenly
had a barrage of vampire movies in theaters. An interesting bunch of films came
out of that sudden burst of vampire cinema, some of these films have gone on to
become true cult classics, or better yet, real horror classics, period. An eclectic
brew of vampire films was concocted, some were great, some not so great. Some
were just downright offbeat like for example, Nicholas Cage’s Vampire’s Kiss
(1989) which was sold as a comedy to the masses, but was really the furthest
thing from it. Vampire’s Kiss is actually a dark film, a story about a man who
thinks he’s a vampire…or maybe he really is one? It’s that kind of a movie that
manages an ambiguity with its character, kind of like what George Romero did in
Martin (1976), another vampire film in which were not sure if the protagonist
is delusional, or if he really is a vampire. I’d recommend watching it if you
enjoy Cage’s wacky side.
Nicholas Cage in Vampires Kiss (1989)
Some vampire movies from the 80’s were weirder still!
When talking about Ken Russell films, weird is a relative term and so Russell’s
Lair of the White Worm (1988) is without a doubt one of the strangest vampire films
you’ll ever see. On this one we meet a vampire vixen who worships a giant white
worm who lives inside of a cave! Add to that premise Ken Russell’s trippy
visuals and you’ve got yourselves an acid trip of a vampire movie!
Lair of the White Worm (1988)
The 80’s
also brought us lesbian vampires in the form of Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983),
a film in which David Bowie plays a half vampire who doesn’t like the fact that
he’s starting to age and about to die. You see, up to this point his vampire
life had been made up of going out to night clubs and feeding on the blood of
Goth fans! But age is catching up with him, and so, since he is not a full
vampire, he starts to decay. It’s a sultry tale that explores sexuality and the
minds reluctance to accept the vestiges of age. It asks the question: why must
the party end? Why must we get old and die? These three offbeat films are not
as renowned as the next couple of films I will be talking about.
Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in The Hunger (1983)
Out of the 80’s, four vampire films stand out as the cream
of the crop for me. You can’t talk about 80’s vampire films without mentioning
these. They stand out as the best vampire films of the decade because not only
where they the ones that made the most impact in terms of sheer entertainment,
they were also made by great directors, Tobe Hooper, Tom Holland, Joel
Schumacher and Kathryn Bigelow. I mean, all great filmmakers, some have disappeared,
some have gone on to win Oscars and some are still actively working in the world
of horror, but no matter where their respective careers ended up, what matters
is they all left these great vampire films behind! The films I speak of are Fright
Night (1985), Lifeforce (1985), The Lost Boys (1987) and Near Dark (1987), all great,
but for very different reasons.
The first of the bunch to be released was Tom Holland’s
Fright Night, a very successful film because it only cost 9.5 million dollars
to make, yet went on to make more than 24 million, which is a lot for a small
budget horror film like this one. It was the most successful horror film of
1985, with Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) coming in a close
second. From looking at Fright Night, you would never guess it cost only 9
million dollars! It just blows my mind how good this movie ended up looking for
so little. Tom Holland and his crew made a good job of making the film look
more expensive then it is. But many things make Fright Night one of the best
vampire films of the 80’s. First and foremost is the cast, which I think had
great chemistry on screen. William Ragsdale plays Charlie Brewster, the
nerdiest teenager in class, the a-typical goody little two shoes, the
quintessential “ guy next door”. He’s also the boy who would cry wolf! I always
liked the friendship that Charlie develops with Peter Vincent (Roddy MCDowall) “the
great vampire killer”, a fading actor who’s always reminiscing about his younger
days, when he used to star in horror films. Now he’s just a horror show host,
showcasing movies on local television. This unlikely duo form an alliance, a
friendship that will transcend even towards the sequel, Fright Night II (1989),
which I might add is not a bad sequel at all, not as great as its predecessor,
but also not a bad effort. To seal the deal, we get Chris Sarandon in one of
the most memorable vampires to ever grace the silver screen, Jerry Dandrige. Sarandon
truly delivers an outstanding performance; he steals the show so to speak. But
then again, the whole film is populated with good performances, who can forget
Stephen Geoffreys demonic ‘Evil Ed’? Or Amanda Bearse as the virginal and then
suddenly extremely sensual Amy? I don’t think the film would have been the same
without this fine group of actors. And yet another great asset to this film are
the incredible make up effects, they just don’t make them like this anymore,
the make-up effects on Fright Night were partially concocted by the great Steve
Johnson, and I gotta tell ya, they still look great by today’s standards; in
fact, the vampires on Fright Night look better than a lot of the crap that
passes for a vampire film these days.
Then we have Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce (1985), which in my
book is a fantastic melding of science fiction and horror. This film tells the
tale of a group of British astronauts who stumble upon an alien craft that is riding
on the tail of Haley’s Comet. Soon, the craft starts hovering above earth! Upon
closer inspection they learn that the strange ship has a crew of three naked
people, two dudes and one smoking hot lady. The astronauts seem to have made
the find of the century, so they take the bodies with them. What they don’t
know is that these three seemingly comatose individuals they are bringing with
them are really space vampires! It isn’t long before the vamps wake up and
start wrecking havoc on earth. I love many things about Lifeforce, but one of
the things I love the most is how it mixes vampires with zombies! These space vampires
suck your life away and then leave you walking the earth as a zombie! I also
like how chaotic the film gets; the last half of the film is pure chaos, with
the streets of London overrun by vampire zombies looking to suck your life
away! Re-watching Lifeforce last night I realized just how original it is, there’s
literally nothing like it anywhere! Maybe the closest thing to it might be
Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires (1965), but that’s stretching it a little.
Thematically, Lifeforce is all about lust and love and the powers of sexual
attraction over our lives. It speaks of how sex can drive us to do all sorts of
crazy things, like falling in love with an alien vampire from outer space! The reigning
theme on Lifeforce is the kind of sexual attraction that gets out of control and
what better representation of a females sensual powers than the beyond beautiful
bombshell Mathilda May? Gotta give her props, as an actress you gotta have
balls of steel to appear naked throughout the whole freaking movie! Not that I’m
complaining! Sure there’s cheesy dialog and the plot can be a bit overtly convoluted
at times, but we also get giant vampire bats, a sci-fi angle mixed in with the
horror, tons of visual effects by John Dykstra and epic levels of zombie mayhem?!
What’s not to like on this one?
On the other hand, Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987)
isn’t cheesy at all, it concerns itself with simply being cool, in fact,
everything about The Lost Boys is pure genius. Here’s what I dig about The Lost
Boys, every element on this film was chosen to create the perfect atmosphere,
the perfect ambiance for a horror movie to unfold in. First up, filming in
Santa Carla, in a community by the beach, next to a beach side carnival?
Freaking genius! This whole amusement park next to the beach thing was an awesome
choice. I love the opening segments of the film where we get to really absorb
the Santa Carla atmosphere and we get to see all these eccentric people walking
about to the tune of Echo and the Bunnymen’s cover of The Doors ‘People are
Strange’. It’s such a colorful way to open the film, and it really lets us sink
into the world that these characters exist in. Then there’s the cast which is
composed of a bunch of popular young actors from the 80’s. I mean, the list
goes on with this one: Jason Patrick, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim, Jami
Gertz, Corey Feldman, hell even Alex Winters (also known as Bill from Bill and
Ted’s Excellent Adventure) is here. Then you take all those cool actors and put
them in a story about biker vampires who dress like heavy metal dudes from the
80’s and you put them in the middle of this cool setting and it’s just pure
magic. The film is actually kind of subtle with its vampire element, the film leaves
a lot to your imagination, which is something I appreciated. For a huge portion
of the film, the director doesn’t want you to see the vampires; he wants you to
imagine them and this works like magic. But make no mistake, when these blood
suckers vamp out, you will get a glimpse of true evil! It’s like Schumacher
really wanted to wait as long as possible before blowing your brains out with
awesomeness, the beasties do not disappoint! Top that off with an amazing
soundtrack…and wowzers, you’ve got yourselves a bonafide horror classic that
has lasted through the years. I hear the songs ‘Cry Little Sister’ and ‘Lost in
the Shadows’ and I’m immediately transported to the world of The Lost Boys a world filled with sweaty body builders who play the saxophone with a vengeance and a grandpa who grows weed and dates old ladies! Im also magically transported to the 80’s. Pay no mind to the lesser straight to dvd sequels that have followed, this one is the real deal, this is the one to remember.
Now if you want to take a more “poetic” detour into 80’s
vampire films, then you can’t do better than Near Dark (1987), directed by
Kathryn Bigelow. This one is a bit more romantic in nature, because it’s about
this cowboy who stumbles upon a female hitchhiker who ends up being a vampire. Lucky
for him the vampire vixen gets the hots for him, so she ends up turning him into a vampire instead of killing him. The
rest of the film is him having to learn how to be a vampire, and accepting his
new fate. But does he have to accept it? Or can he change things? So again, we
have a great cast on this one, Bill Paxton is the stand out for me, he plays the
wild one in the bunch, the dark side, the crazy one, he really has a few
moments to shine on this movie including this amazing sequence in which the
vampires invade this bar in the middle of nowhere and start messing around with
the customers, kind of like playing with their food? Cool scene. These vamps
don’t have fangs, don’t run away from crosses or hate garlic, these are more
the kind that will slit their victims’ wrists and suck their blood, but no big
fangs or anything like that, just like every other vampire movie, this one also
plays with the rules a little. Director James Cameron, who was married to Kathryn
Bigelow when this film got made, suggested to Bigelow the use the cast from his
film Aliens (1986) and so this is why we get Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and
Jenny Wright all of whom appeared on James Cameron’s Aliens, but hey, that was
a sweet deal if you ask me, it’s a great cast! Near Dark wasn’t as successful
as the other films on this list, but it’s gone on to be discovered by many fans
and has become a true cult classic.
Now those are what I like to call the “Fab Four” of 80’s
vampire films; but there's always another film that I like to talk about when talking about 80's vampire movies and that’s Vamp (1986), which is a fun vampire film that
has a real 80’s feel to it. It stars Grace Jones as an ancient Egyptian vampire
queen who’s decided to take residence in this real shithole of a strip club.
Once the doors close, it’s feeding time! And she’s got a hunger for dumb
college students! I’ve always said that Vamp was the film that Tarantino saw
when he decided to write From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Both films play with extremely
similar premises, but Tarantino filled his film with far cooler characters and
of course, way better dialog. But all that aside, Vamp manages to muster up a
very unnerving atmosphere. Sure it can get silly, and sure it has these ultra
dumb college students as its protagonists, but there’s no denying that the film
conjures up a really strange, surreal vibe with its town full of albino
vampires and its streets bathed in neon colors, it’s no wonder one of the main
characters says “we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto” once they reach the spooky
town in which the strip club is located. This movie is worth it because of that
surreal vibe, but also because Grace Jones makes one hell of a vampire! So
there you have it my friends, the cream of the crop of 80’s vampire movies!
Hope you find this post useful when the time comes to decide what to watch on
Halloween night! So cheers my dear readers and don’t forget to keep your
crucifixes handy and your holy water stored in your water guns, because on The
Film Connoisseur Halloween 2013 means vampire movies all the time! So don’t
miss it!
A space vampire sucking the life out of one of his victims in Lifeforce (1985)
4 comments:
Great list. I have to say, I'm a bit ashamed because I thought I had solid 80s movie street cred... and yet I haven't seen more than half these films! I need to get on that.
"Lost Boys" is and always will be a favorite of mine. You're right on with the soundtrack, it fits the film so well and really creates that ultra-cool world of the film.
Glad you gave a shout out to "The Hunger". That movie is beautifully shot, creepy and hot all at the same time. It's a bit on the slow side, but I think that works to its advantage, pulling you into the world before sinking its teeth in.
"The Lair of the White Worm", wow I haven't thought about that film in years. I always saw the cover at the video store I worked at, and the art looked so crazy and cool - but I just never got around to watching it. But the title itself was something that just made my mind go - what kind of story could fit that title? Kinda kicking myself that I never saw it.
I had a friend who loved "Vamp". I'm not sure what I was expecting when I watched it, but that movie wasn't it. I need to check it out again, because it was not the perfect follow up to "Creepshow", as my friend declared all those years ago. :)
Yeah, The Hunger is a good one, it was Tony Scott's first film, so it's interesting because of that as well. For a first full length feature film, it's got a really polished look and great performances. Agree, it's a slow burner, but as you mentioned, it does slowly creep up on ya.
The Lair of the White Worm, it's a strange vampire film, but it's worth it, Ken Russell just can't help himself with the hallucinogenic imagery!
Yeah, Vamp has it's flaws. It tries to mix silly funny with horror, and well, the product is certainly offbeat and sometimes uneven. Still, I love the whole thing with the vampire town...cool weird vibes there. Next time you watch it, try listing all the similarities it has with From Dusk Till Dawn! They are many, right down to having the head vampire vixen doing a showstopping sexy dance!
Thanks for the comments Roman!
Great list. Lifeforce is one of my all-time favorite films. It's just so odd, in a very cool way. Naked space vampires brought back to earth where it then turns into a "end of the world" scenario. Very, very cool and extremely well done by Tobe Hooper. It also helps that Mathilda May is hot as hell.
I'm one of the few people I know that loves Fright Night Part II just as much as the original. Yes, two completely different types of films, but so great on their own. Even though Part II was made in the 80's, it doesn't have the same look or feel to it as the first one. It looks more like it came out of the 90's.
I recently saw Near Dark, and I just did not dig it. I like the concept, and I am a big fan of Bigelow's 80's and 90's stuff, but Near Dark just missed its' mark by a longshot for me. Cool look, vibe, story and cast, but wasn't the badass vampire flick I was hoping it'd be.
robotGEEK: Just saw Fright Night II last night and I will be posting my review for it in the next couple of days. My only true gripe with it is that it is too similar to the original, still, I enjoyed it.
Yeah, Near Dark is cool, but it certainly is different, I personally dig the strange vibe...it kind of purposely attempts to be different and plays a lot with vampire lore. You gotta admit though, it does have it's moments! Love those scenes with Bill Paxton on ripping that truck to shreds! Or the scenes in the bar...
Post a Comment