(BOG REVIEW) "VAMP" (RELEASED 1986, HORROR/COMEDY)

Another quick-fire journey into comedy horror.
So two college frat pledges (Keith and AJ) and their friend (Duncan) head to a sketchy area of a city to hire an exotic dancer for a college party.
The three friends end up at a club called the After Dark Club, which has a host who is like an undead Tony Vegas/Sinatra lounge guy. With a name like After Dark in a dubious area, it screams comfort, doesn't it? Take a seat, guys, no vampires out in the back, we promise. Bog guesses it's an upgrade from the urine-stained alleyways with synth playing while Jerry Dandridge walks down them in Fright Night.
The club is a front, shock huh, for a weird coven of artistically inspired vampires and the aforementioned Vegas lounge guy. The leader is the silent surrealist Katrina (played by Grace Jones). When someone is using surrealism, you know they are scary.
The weird art undercurrents should be a sign that yeah, this is a place you maybe don't want to hang.
The Standout Moments:
Katrina's Avant-Garde Stripping Ritual:
In a moment of complete abject horror, Katrina is introduced doing some performance art on stage while wearing body paint and a massive red wig that was formerly used to guide astronauts back to earth with its bright, mesmerizing structure. It's an avant-garde, late-night club special and the three guys are staring with their mouths open. Probably due to the shock of the red wig and wondering if Katrina is indeed wearing a traffic signal on her head.
Grace Jones does not utter one word throughout the movie other than maybe a brief exhale of air before she fangs on one of the guys during a scene backstage where he has gone to ask her where she got the wig from. What transpires next is the quickest instance a male has had an erection, then for it to flatten when she reveals her dentures. A true case of oof both in positive and negative terms.
The Sonic Atmosphere:
The soundtrack is a premier artifact of mid-1980s underground club culture. Scored by Jonathan Elias, it features dark, throbbing minimal-synth lines, industrial electronic drums, and eerie saxophone layers to mimic the sleazy, late-night strip club vibe. It captures that exact grime-covered electronic grid style and does give the club a unique kind of darkness.
Bog's Thoughts:
At some point Bog can revisit and do a deeper dive for Vamp, but it is an entertaining movie that blends an exaggerated form of cabaret with a horror comedy.
Undead Tony, Bog's name for the club host, reminds us at every opportunity about Vegas and it is genuinely amusing. There are funny moments and the interaction with the gang outside near a diner is interesting.
Bog advises to wear military-grade strength sunglasses to protect yourself from the glare of Grace Jones' red wig.
https://www.arrowfilms.com/p/vamp-blu-ray/11355640/

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