Wednesday, October 23, 2019

13 Days of Hallowe'en 2019 Day 5

Day 5

movie: Rockabilly Vampire
starring: Paul Stevenson, Margaret Lancaster
genre: Comedy,
year: 1996
format: TV Edit

plot: When an Elvis obsessed fan meets the man of her dreams, a dead ringer for Elvis, she finds out he's actually a vampire. The two have one shot at happiness, if they can break away from the vampire clan that owns him.

This is actually not a bad storyline going on here. It's a classic Troma film from a decade when independent films were truly that. Which in this case means, the sound pops in and out, but otherwise, it's got grit. It does feel more like it was meant to be a stage play than an actual film, but that might have more to do with the actors themselves as everyone to me, seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera.

So the main characters, Iris and Eddie, are both trapped in what they at first perceive to be their own version of dull lifeless hell. Iris is looking for that one chance to make her life more exciting, be it through her job, her novel, or a new relationship. Eddie, is just trying to keep his vampire nature locked away. Eddie was turned against his will by his brother, and is constantly trying to stay one step ahead of him. It's only when he meets Iris and stops running for awhile, that his brother finds him and starts to torment the people in their lives, going so far as to kill Iris's landlord.

From a vampire storyline, there really isn't anything new going on here, even given it was made over 20 years ago. You have the unwilling sensitive vampire character who just wants to be free of his sire, and fights his need to feed as much as possible. There is a scene where the two leads try to rob a blood bank but it goes horribly wrong. The fact the human character is the one who comes up with the plan is never brought into question. You would think a 65 year old vampire would already know how to successfully do this.  From a romance storyline, again it's not really anything we haven't seen a million times over. It's got a very Romeo and Juliet vibe to it. Vampire falls in love with a human, and family/friends on both sides are against it.  What I did find to be a bit of a fresh take on things, was that it brought in a subgenre/subculture that at the time (1996) was still finding it's foothold in the mainstream minds. That of the return to 50's music/style.

I was a little disappointed though with the fact they introduced the idea of a vodoun priest, but made his character nothing more than a con-artist. I would have liked to have seen more connection to that element in the film, as the set up for it was dropped really early on in the film.

Okay, I'm going to put a stake in this now, and I'll be back tomorrow with another treat for your Hallowe'en displeasure.

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