Star-Studded Vampire Horror Comedy Hidden Gem, Stream Without Netflix

Besides the fact that it obviously features our favorite blood-sucking monsters, what is Vamps about? We follow the adventures of two New York City vampire gals who are more interested in partying and having fun than feasting on humans. However, everything from a sudden romance with a human to a government crackdown on vampires threatens to put a permanent end to their nonstop party.

Before streaming it on Tubi, I had never heard of Vamps, and that surprised me because the cast is stacked with some very big names. Our two leads are Clueless icon Alicia Silverstone and Jessica Jones rock star Krysten Ritter, and that alone was a reason for me to tune in. But to my surprise and delight, the movie was filled with other major genre icons, including Wallace Shawn, Malcolm McDowell, and Sigourney Weaver.

While all of the actors do an excellent job, one of the weirder charms of Vamps is seeing Ritter act so much against type. While she has had awesomely vulnerable performances in shows like Breaking Bad, it was roles in series like Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and Jessica Jones that solidified her Hollywood reputation as someone who kicks butts, takes names, and takes absolutely no crap. Seeing her play a boy-crazy party girl who just happens to be undead was a real surprise, but as with all her performances, Ritter knocks this role out of the park.

Most audiences have never witnessed her awesome performance, and there’s a reason for that: Vamps only had a limited theatrical release and earned a paltry $2,361 at the box office. It wasn’t exactly a critical darling, either, earning a 58 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes (albeit from only 19 reviews). Critics who disliked this movie generally complained about the it leaning a bit too hard into nostalgia and occasionally coming across more like a sketch comedy than a proper film.

Time to address the vampire bat in the room: why the Van Helsing am I encouraging you to watch Vamps, a movie which critics were lukewarm about and whose entire box office would barely cover a month’s rent in many places?

For one thing, the film was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, the same Hollywood legend who made Alicia Silverstone a household name in Clueless (which she also wrote and directed).

These are very different movies, but Heckerling manages to bring out the best in Silverstone, all while creating a movie whose nostalgia is (sorry if you missed this, fellow critics!) an integral part of the theme.

You see, a big part of Vamps’ plot is that Silverstone’s character doesn’t want to reveal her real age to her youthful vampire bestie for fear of being labeled too old.

Silverstone, of course, rocketed to fame thanks to the 1995 film Clueless; 17 years later, she is playing a vampire who is trying to lead a similarly vapid party-girl lifestyle but is starting to feel her age.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I found the meta-theme of an aging screen queen playing an ageless monster while grappling with her own mortality quite affecting, thanks in no small part to Silverstone’s performance.

GFR SCORE

Speaking of performances, all of Vamps’ killer cast does a great job, and there is something fun and joyful to discover about almost every scene. The humor doesn’t always make a perfect landing, and some scenes do feel a tad disconnected, but this is a film full of big swings, most of which satisfying connect. If you spent your formative years alternating between watching Clueless and Buffy (it wasn’t just me, right?), you’ll find plenty to love in this quirky vampire comedy.

That’s a pretty big “if,” and you won’t truly know whether you’ll dig Vamps until you stream it on Tubi. Will this film sink its teeth into you or will you want to see it turn to dust? Either way, this is a bloody good time at the movies and a comedy quite unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.