The 80s Vampire Comedy With A James Bond Star, Stream Now Without Netflix
“Bond Girls,” as the women 007 lustfully pursued in each film were known, typically went on to have lucrative careers after their co-starring duties with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, et. al. were over. Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die) enjoyed a successful run with her series Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, Denise Richards (The World is Not Enough) went on to have a prolific film career, and Halle Berry (Die Another Day) added “Bond Girl” to her already impressive film resume. However, to date, Grace Jones has been the only “Bond Girl” (A View to a Kill) to play a bloodsucking vampire after being cast in the 1986 horror-comedy Vamp.
College Kids Never Make Smart Choices
Vamp follows two college lads, A.J. (Robert Rusler) and Keith (Chris Makepeace), who hate their cramped apartment. In a bid to join a fraternity so that they can move into the frat house, the co-eds decide to secure a stripper for an upcoming frat party. They enlist fellow student Duncan (Gedde Watanabe) to drive them in his car to a shady part of town to find a strip club.
Grace Jones Sizzles On Screen
The young men find their prospect, a beautiful stripper named Katrina (Grace Jones). A.J. makes his way back to her dressing room to proposition her about the frat party and finds himself trapped in a room with a bonafide vampire. Katarina transforms into a grotesque bloodsucker and attacks and kills A.J., setting off a comedic set of events that have an equal sheen of bloody jump scares and realistic onscreen vampire effects.
Fun But Predictable
Vamp combines the college antics of a buddy comedy film and coats it with spatterings of light gore and some mild terror. It’s a fun but predictable film, following numerous tropes established in horror films: skeptical police, friends who unknowingly become monsters, and a forced love story rob the film of what could have been a much more creative production. The film could have been chopped apart and made into a great episode of a horror anthology series, as the full running time really did nothing more than overextend a plotline to its near-breaking point.
Grace Jones Steals The Show
Vamp isn’t on par with Fright Night or The Lost Boys, but its dark comedy works to elevate it above other bloodsucker films of the era. Chris Makepeace has great screen presence and the comedic relief provided by Gedde Watanabe mark Vamp as one of his best performances. The real attraction of the film is Grace Jones, whose high level of sexualization is balanced by her scary transformations.
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REVIEW SCORE
The former “Bond Girl” truly makes Vamp grow beyond a watchable film to one that would be recommended for vampire fans. While Robert Rodriguez and Quinten Tarantino take the stripper/vampire idea to a much greater level of success, Grace Jones is scarier, sexier, and a lot more fun to watch than Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn.
Vamp gets 2.5/5.0 stars largely for Grace Jones’ performance.
You can stream Vamp for free with Tubi and Pluto, or rent it On Demand with AppleTV, Vudu, and Prime.
