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Transylvania Twist
USA 1989
produced by
Alida Camp, Roger Corman (executive) for Concorde
directed by Jim Wynorski
starring Robert Vaughn, Teri Copley, Steve Altman, Ace Mask, Angus Scrimm, Steve Franken, Vinette Cecelia, Monique Gabrielle, Toni Naples, Howard Morris, Jay Robinson, Lenny Juliano, Joe Lerer, R.J. Robertson, Artur Roberts, Becky LeBeau, Stu Nahan, Brinke Stevens, Forrest J. Ackerman, Lisa Fedi, Valerie Fedi, Dean Jones, Boris Karloff (archive footage)
written by R.J. Robertson, Jim Wynorski, music by Chuck Cirino
Van Helsing, Freddy Krueger (cameo), Jason Voorhees (cameo), Leatherface (cameo), Pinhead (cameo), Elvis (cameo)
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Since Marinas Morlock (Howard Morris) has died in his Transylvanian
family castle, his daughter Marissa (Teri Copley) travels back to the old
world to collect her inheritance, while young Dexter Ward (Steve Altman)
has to go there because he has to retrieve the Book of Ulthar, that
if fallen into the wrong hands, could throw the earth into chaos. And
finally, there's vampire hunter Van Helsing (Ace Mask), who goes there
because Morlock's brother Byron (Robert Vaughn) ... well, is a vampire. Of
course, Byron plays the typical generous vampire host who only waits for
his time to strike, and of course he has three sexy young(-looking)
daughters (Monique Gabrielle, Vinette Cecelia, Toni Naples) who cause a
bit of chaos, and there's even the obligatory séance - during which the
spirit of Elvis is summoned. During the reading of the will though it's
revealed that Marissa inherits everything from her father, and the Book
of Ulthar, which Byron needs to reach the next level of evilness or
something, is hidden deep within the castle - and from now on it's human
vs vampires, not at all helped by the fact that Van Helsing is turned into
a vampire. Then Dexter finds the book though, but is almost instantly
knocked out by Byron's daughters ... and when he comes to, he's to be
sacrificed to a (allegedly Lovecraftian) monster looking remarkably like
the monster from It Conquered
the World. He is saved by Van Helsing though, who against all
expectations has not turned evil just because he has been turned into a
vampire. But in the end, it's Marissa, possessed by her own mother, who
saves the day. Genre fave Angus Scrimm plays Byron's butler, and popular
horror series characters Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and
Pinhead all have guest appearances, but while Freddy, Jason and
Leatherface are pretty funny when they get butchered by the exact vampire
girl they wanted to butcher, Pinhead is wasted in a lousy punchline that
has nothing to do with the film. A horror comedy that has its
high points but also its lows: What's great are Robert Vaughn as one of
the campiest vampires in quite some time, the film's totally respectless
approach to the genre, the likeable Corman formula of re-using old props
(the monster from It
Conquered the World) and footage (plenty of exteriors and even a
scene with Boris Karloff from The Terror
are thrown into here), and quite a few jokes are actually funny. What's
not so great is that the movie quite simply goes after every punchline, to
an exhausting degree, steals not necessarily great jokes from other movies
even, and the lead good guys (Teri Bopley, Steve Altman, Ace Mask) are
just not funny enough to carry all of this. Still, accompanied by a few
beers, this is quite a watchable movie, and horror fans will be delighted
at least to find reference after reference in this one ... one just can't
shake the feeling this could have been much greater if the script went
through a rewrite or two that reduced the obvious sightgags to a minimum.
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