Cheaply made, ridiculous,
and tacky, this comedy/horror hybrid contains a few entertainingly awful
sequences, and in fact the whole picture verges on so-bad-it’s-good splendor.
For instance, the title song, which is set to a zippy ’60s-rock groove,
features the outrageous lyric, “Vampire hookers—blood is not all they suck!” While
on shore leave in the Philippines, U.S. sailors meet prostitutes who lure the
sailors, one by one, to a crypt. Turns out the ladies are vampires in the thrall
of Richmond Reed (John Carradine), a centuries-old monster. Each time a sailor
disappears, his friends search for him, eventually leading to a showdown.
Instead of playing this scenario for thrills, screenwriter Howard R. Cohen and
director Cirio H. Santiago opt for campy jokes. The vampire brides bitch about
how their master never takes them anywhere. Carradine’s character whines that
his ladies are too high-maintenance. The vampires’ half-human henchman, a
dim-witted thug played by Filipino-cinema stalwart Vic Diaz, mopes because he
wants to become a vampire, punctuating most of his remarks with flatulence. (In
one scene, he stinks up his own coffin so badly that he gags.) Some of the actors
try to make the comedy elements work, including amiable Texas-born character
actor Trey Wilson, who later found a niche in the ensemble of Bull Durham (1987). Unfortunately, starlets
were cast for their looks and their willingness to disrobe rather than for
their talent, and Carradine was decades past his prime when he made this
picture. Still, the truly bizarre stuff in Vampire
Hookers makes an impression, like the running gag of debating whether
Shakespeare was a vampire, or the aforementioned title song. Vampire Hookers also includes one of the
most excessive sex scenes you’ll ever encounter outside of a porno, not because
it’s graphic but because it goes on forever,
with a particularly virile sailor servicing all three vampire brides for a good
10 minutes of screen time
Vampire Hookers: LAME
1 comment:
Carradine's real name was, in fact, Richmond Reed Carradine.
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