If nothing else, films like 'Eaten Alive' and 'Vamp' with their overriding influences to Tarantino represent important springboards. Regardless of the 'From Dusk Til Dawn' connection, 'Vamp' begins as a sublime hybrid of frat boy chemistry (the hanging hazing opening is a good misdirection) and vampire seduction, but
it soon meanders aimlessly. One can accurately indicate when the film derails, it's after Robert Rusler departs midway through the film and the pink-neon lighting of a Joel Schumacher 'Batman' film becomes more incandescent. The androgynous Grace Jones is a rapturous creature in her Kabuki theater makeup and slender body, but she is hardly present until the deus ex machina finale. Additionally the puerile one-liners of a freshly vampiric Rusler is pure shtick ("I can work on this. Ever heard of night class?").
October 16, 2011
