Friday, January 01, 2010

This is a Public Service Movie Review

To all my American friends out there, I want to post a review of a movie called "Vampire Killers" as my latest attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the US and the UK.

Please note that the title of ths movie in Britain was "Lesbian Vampire Killers". That says something right there.

Oh dear. This is simply Lad Culture translated into a movie.

And it is very bad.

If you are unaware of the whole Lad phenomenon, it is a marketing culture from the UK aimed directly at 15-year old lager drinking, Ibiza vacation taking, footie fans. It's "literature" is magazines like "Stuff", "Nuts" and "Loaded" full of stories about drinking, football and with lots of color pictures of topless girls.

It is a culture that is manifestly afraid of women. Or to be the most charitable I can be, it knows nothing about women. But it wants to because it feels a "funny" attraction to them.

It might use the word "pornography" in its mags, but that is really a foreign land to the Lad - he is quite happy that topless girls are chopped off at the waist in his favorite Page 3 photos. He feels that below the female waist is little like Antarctica - something is probably going on down there, but he himself really doesn't want to visit at this time.

All that is reflected in this film - the "heroes" are true lads. They use the F-word all the time, they want to just drink beer and pick up "hot birds". If they were ever successful, they wouldn't have clue what to do with one. The vampires are completely asexual; actually making the title change for the movie in the US a more accurate case of truth-in-advertizing. There is suprisingly little pulchritude on display. There is really hardly any blood. There is definitely no out and out gore a la "The Descent".

If you were looking for female vampires like those in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" movie, you are going to be very, very disappointed.

And Paul McGann plays a vicar who uses the F-word a lot? I could hardly contain my water.