This is one of those weird little films that has the power to grow on you. Ostensibly, it should not be all that much as it details the story of three college boys in search of a great stripper as appeasement for joining a fraternity. How quickly we derail from that story(in fact it just about disappears and never resurfaces again) and go to the dark, twisted, removed world of the After Dark Club. This is where the guys are to find their stripper - in this case a very bizarre, strangely erotic, wholly creepy Grace Jones! There we find a sub-culture, apparently unbeknown-st to the police - who either look the other way or fear this bad part of town, of vampirism hidden behind the facade of a decaying strip show. Now, we do get some girls showing us their wares, though this really is not the major point of this film. We do get some genuinely eerie and scary moments as well. We do get those God-awful special effects that are so common in the 80s. We do get Grace Jones and all that that entails. But the primary purpose of this film is to interlace humor with all of that. It succeeds. I laughed quite a bit actually. The guys running the club are hilarious, particularly Sandy Baron who is the emcee and wearing some pink/red lounge blazer like a comedian might from yesteryear in the Catskills. He keeps ranting about he wants to take the act/show/everything to Vegas...his great dream. He of course works for Katrina, Grace Jones, the Egyptian vampire who owns the place. Anyway, we soon get one boy meeting Katrina and the other boy trying to find him and the story runs pretty strongly just from that. Comedy abounds from moments with a strange albino non-vampire group after the boys being assaulted from vampires in the community(the little girl flying and biting the neck of Billy Drago had me in stitches!) to the bizarre ending where we get this great rendition of Domenico Modugno singing "Volare!." Of course that means "to fly" in Italian, and it is that tongue planted firmly in cheek that made this film enjoyable for me. As I said before, there are some truly scary moments as well. The atmosphere is very well-done by director Richard Wenk sans those atrocious special effects. One can definitely see how this was an inspiration possibly for From Dusk till Dawn.

Here are some non-negative points of this movie: 1. Proficient use of colored smoke-filled lighting. Very reminiscent of early MTV. 2. Fabulously cheesy last second gesture by dying vampire. 3. I'm kind of glad to Chris makepeace made more than one movie. Although this one probably put an end to his career. 4. Great 80s fashion and hair. 5. Grace Jones wore some pretty cool body paint. 6. I liked Grace's vampire makeup. Not one of those 'sexy' vampires. Almost as good as Kinski in Nosferatu.7. Can someone explain to me why anyone would leave 3 50 gallon drums of flammable liquid in the lair where you sleep? Was it for their kerosene heaters during the winter? 8. Nice use of wacky 80s Asian stereotype. 9. The performance by the'renfield' type club owner was pretty good. Other than that it just stunk.

There are only two films that I can remember Grace Jones starring in. One is the James Bond vehicle A View to A Kill, and the other is Vamp.An 80's comedy horror about a couple of college students Keith (Chris Makepeace) and AJ (Richard Rusler) looking at getting into a fraternity to make use of their accommodation. The only condition for them getting in is that they have to get a stripper to their party. With no car, they make a deal with the Duncan (Gedde Watanabe) who is the only guy on campus to take them to find a stripper.Unbeknown to them they head into a city after dark, to a club run by vampires (clearly an idea nicked by "From Dusk till Dawn"). Having travelled hundreds of miles it's a fight for survival to find a way back to campus against Grace Jones' head vampire and her many minions.An incredibly cheesy but thoroughly entertaining movie, littered with equally cheesy dialogue where the characters are goofy but likable and the use of Grace Jones as the head vampire is a stroke of genius. Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger gave The Terminator a great robotic performance, Grace Jones has the creepiness and down right weirdness which makes her perfectly believable as a vampire.Similar to Scorsese's "After Hours", the film is mainly set at night in a strange environment where the locals are vampires instead of oddballs. It shares the same energy and enthusiasm, it's hard not to like this throwaway 80's film. The effects are above average and the acting is good. Sure it's dated with the haircuts, fashion and style, but there's no denying it, it is a fun and easy watch and there aren't many of those around these days.

Two college students, Keith (Chris Makepeace) and A.J. (Robert Rusler) are given the daunting task of finding a stripper for a frat party by a demanding fraternity that they are both eager to join. So desperate, that they embark on a road trip with friendless, desperate uber-nerd Duncan (Gedde Watanabe), whose car they are forced to borrow. Upon arriving at a mysterious night club where the customers are strange, and the employees stranger still, they are entranced by the bizarrely enticing dance of Queen Katrina (Grace Jones). When A.J. propositions her for the party, she proceeds to rip his throat out, revealing herself to be a pretty nasty vampire. Before he knows it, Keith must survive the night along with cute waitress/stripper Amaretto (Dedee Pfeiffer) and make it to sunrise.This very 80's horror (complete with rolled-up sleeves, dodgy pop-rock music, and crap sunglasses) combines the two most popular mainstream genres of the decade - teen comedy and horror. The problem is that it's not entirely successful at either. Yet without exactly pushing the boundaries, it's a nice way to make 90 minutes fly by without having to focus your brain on anything in particular. The horror is just silly and gruesome enough, and the surprising charm of the two leads helps raise a smile or two - though they do seem to be channelling popular 80's icons like Ferris Bueller.I was actually rather taken by the cinematography, with the rainy, smoky streets illuminated by alluring greens and reds giving the film an almost seedy quality, and it's just over-the-top enough to give it an other-worldly feel. I was captivated, as ever, by the larger-than-life Grace Jones, who while not be the most attractive woman in the world, there is something about her that is just fascinating and I couldn't take my eyes of this strange being. Her introductory striptease (if you can call it that - more like an avant-garde performance piece) is just as weird and unconventional as you would hope. Throw in the adorable Dedee Pfeiffer and you have a breezy film that knows exactly what its potential is, and never strives to be anything more.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com