Title: Vamperifica
Director: Bruce Ornstein
Starring: Martin Yurkovic, Dreama Walker and Creighton James
Running time: 95 minutes, Unrated
The soul of Raven, the king of all vampires is reborn into the body of a flamboyantly gay college student / aspiring actor named Carmen. Two of Raven’s progeny have been desperately searching for over 200 years to find him, and want to turn him back into a vampire in order to save their dying race. Carmen’s two best friends Tracy and Peter only want to protect him, but are constantly being thwarted by the jealous vampire duo Emily and Campbell. Carmen soon must make a choice, to protect his friends or become the King he was meant to be.
It’s a quirky little comedy to say the least. The jokes were funny, the violence was a tad disturbing and the special effects were decent. It was kind of refreshing that the hero was a flamboyantly gay vampire, instead of the redundantly forlorn, brooding vampires we’re all so used to. The musical number was unexpected, but fitting to the story. The interaction between Carmen and Tracy (Martin Yurkovic and Dreama Walker) was so casual yet animated, and believable as lifelong friends. Peter (Jeff Ward) was not as interesting a character until the end, although by then I wanted to see more of him. At first I didn’t like where the ending was going, but a last minute twist rectified my opinion. I don’t know if I was reading too much into it, but the nasty-natured characters (that weren’t vampires) tended to be overweight; so I don’t know if it was a bias against the plus-sized, or it was just a coincidence.
Vamperifica was surprisingly entertaining. Vampire movies have been on a downward slide and I’m always hesitant with each one I see, but this one was silly and fun.
Total Rating: B
Reviewed by: JM Willis
