Wes Craven’s Vampire In Brooklyn

• 1st Apr 2011

So Wes Craven decided to try his comedic hand by investing time and energy into this Eddie Murphy fronted horror. Murphy plays the fish out of water vampire –hardly someone to root for as he’s an evil vampire. Seeking a bride as well as some blood, he moseys on into town and starts to spread his influence around, all the while talking in a funny voice.  I think he was going for foreign accent, but it just comes off as funny voice (much like when Myers did Dr Evil, or Ferrell did Megamind).

After a while you suspect this is a retread of Coming to America, but the horror version where the Prince is nasty.  And considering the large black supporting cast, the setting and the goals at hand, it isn’t too far removed; except that Coming to America had all the laughs and this one has hardly any. Hell, even the scares are pathetic.

Beyond that I’m left stumped with what else to tell you! Angela Bassett plays the cop with a vampiric past that threatens her life – Murphy’s Maximillian does his best seduction and betrayal routine until the heroine gets her shit together and sends him off to the grave once and for all.

Comedy is mainly supplied by Murphy’s sidekick who he enslaves on his arrival in New York. Kadeem Hardison probably gets the best out of the film’s screenplay. His decaying ghoul is left in a right old state throughout the film until the end when he finds himself inheriting his master’s mantle. A shame no-one else seemed to inherit Murphy’s foul mouthed comedy routine until Chris Rock made it big, as Murphy has since been unashamedly wallowing in terrible kids’ flicks.

Craven was clever with his “look at horror from the outside of the box” with New Nightmare. This though was clearly just taking the piss. It was enough of a jolt to send him back to the drawing board, take those clever ideas from New Nightmare and then begin a complete dissection of the genre with the Scream franchise.

Steven Hurst