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Director: Wes Craven
Year: 1995
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
An ancient vampire from the Caribbean comes to Brooklyn searching for a half vampire/half human woman to make his mate.
"Vampire in Brooklyn" is directed by horror legend Wes Craven, who brought us films like "Last House on the Left," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and "Scream." It stars Eddie Murphy as Maximillian, the last living vampire on his Caribbean island. Murphy also plays two other minor roles as well because this is what he likes to do in his films, play multiple roles that often require massive amounts of makeup work to transform him. Joining Murphy is Angela Bassett, who plays Detective Rita Veter, the target of Maximillian as she is his whole purpose for coming to Brooklyn. Unbeknownst to her, Rita is actually half vampire, making her the perfect mate for Maximillian. Also in the cast are Alan Payne, who plays Rita's partner Detective Justice, and Kadeem Hardison, who plays Julius Jones, who is turned into a ghoul in order to service Maximillian in whatever task he may need. With such an acclaimed horror director and a solid cast, what could go wrong? Apparently a lot.
"Vampire in Brooklyn" is a horror comedy, but unfortunately, it's not very funny. There are a couple of running jokes involving blood and guts moments, which are continuously used for comedic effect to try and add humor to the plot. Julius has body parts that regularly fall off as he deteriorates through his ghoul transformation process. The makeup work and acting are a bit hit or miss, and sometimes, it seems like Craven used most of his budget on the ship crash from the beginning part of the film instead of using it elsewhere. Mostly, it's the story that suffers here. It never feels all that coherent, and it doesn't have a very clean narrative. It almost feels more like a random series of events made to appear as if they mean something or are meant to go somewhere, and as the story pushes forward, it's all too apparent the conclusion is reached inorganically. While the cast does a mediocre job with the content they have to work with, it's just not enough to polish a turd.
In the end, "Vampire In Brooklyn" is a basic movie on just about every level. We can tell Wes Craven's ideas and spirit are virtually absent here, and even with him and a decent cast in tow, there's not enough to make this mostly unfunny horror comedy rise above its mediocrity.
My Rating: 4/10
BigJ's Rating: 4/10
IMDB's Rating: 4.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 10%
Do we recommend this movie: No.
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One year ago, we were being scared by: "Alien"
Two years ago, we were being scared by: "Creatures from the Abyss"
Three years ago, we were being scared by: "The Devil's Backbone"
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