Vamp (1986)

 This is a film I've been wanting to revisit for years but I don't currently own a copy and should eventually rectify that. It's right now available on Tubi and really late Saturday night here so I saw no reason to deny myself the chance rewatch. This was a film recorded by my uncle on one of his many VHS tapes once occupying his wall shelves designed for them, seemingly a treasure of my past as lost to time as visits to rental stores. I recall my eyes just scaling the tapes and searching for the potential gem. "Vamp" (1986) was such a film. 80s horror hadn't quite yet been too sanitized or deprived of its edge before the next decade seemed to practically doom the genre into an absolute black hole.

I think I watched this maybe 1990 or '91 but I remember seeing it on rental store shelves, taken by a cover of the film with Grace Jones in makeup and wig and lipstick kiss. I was perhaps eleven when I saw it printed in pencil on my uncle's VHS tapes front sticker but a bit older when I finally watched it. Fast forward to the early 2000s when I got a chance to revisit it after a decade absence.

I'm as bad as anyone in applying the midnight movie label to plenty of horror and cult titles. It's a habit I need to break. But considering this is a vampire film with a club called After Dark, set in the sinister alley of a major city with college fraternity hopefuls far away from campus, I think midnight movie is safe to use for "Vamp".

One aspect of the film that certainly reaches out is the color scheme. Pinks and greens are especially vibrant and articulated. Makepeace running down subterranean tunnels with light beaming through wall breaches, manholes, and structural damage, the lighting is clearly a necessity to the director and cinematographer. I think the approach is to definitely bring a stylistic personality, noticeable and captivating. Today's audience will perhaps just find this approach dates it specific to the decade. Some like me won't mind it but, in fact, embrace it. Others might be a bit more critical, believing the style keeps it from being ageless, further reaching. To each his or her own, I guess.

The Katrina dance number designed and performed by Jones remains a showstopper. I recall reacting as those at the strip club do. Stunned silence. She's like an animal, and the finger nails, body movement, painted face and body, red lips, penetrating eyes, spirals for naughty bits covering, all heighten the performance art. The song, too, that's over it fits her perfectly.

Cannom was in high demand and the monstrous vampire designs echo many of the favorites of the time; in particular, "Fright Night" comes to mind. I love the design of Jones at the end, how her entire face grows into this ferocious nocturnal literal creature of the night. And when Makepeace sees the chance to take advantage of the sun, the physical reaction I prefer to how Sarandon went in "Fright Night" a year earlier, not exploding into fire but deteriorating into skeletal remains...even giving Makepeace the finger!

Russler as Makepeace's chatty stud bud had quite a run for a few films at this time, with my favorite of the film, Deedee, is just so sexy without having to put forth any effort, and she has a moment where my personal fetish regarding a dress strap slipping down off a woman's shoulder and down her arm is playfully included. Her cheerful ditz, somehow employed at After Dark of all places, is like a bright meadow surrounded by encroaching night. Makepeace is the bow and arrow marksman kid who looks totally boy next door innocuous; the film specifically identifies this skill quite early. And, sure enough, this skill comes in handy by the end.