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A Cena col Vampiro
Dinner with a Vampire
Italy 1988
produced by Lamberto Bava, Massimo Manasse (executive), Marco Grillo Spina (executive) for Dania Film, Devon Film, Reteitalia
directed by Lamberto Bava
starring George Hilton, Patrizia Pellegrino, Riccardo Rossi, Isabel Russinova, Valeria Milillo, Yvonne Sciò, Daniele Aldrovandi, Igor Zaklewsky, Roberto Pedicini, Letizia Raco, Stefano Sabelli
story by Luciano Martino, screenplay by Lamberto Bava, Dardano Sacchetti, music by Simon Boswell, Mario Tagliaferri, special effects by Paolo Ricci
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Jurek (George Hilton) is a 4000 year-old vampire, has grown wary of his
existence and now he only wants to die ... problem is, his vampire
instincts won't let him be killed just like that much less commit suicide,
so he invites a singer, a dancer, an actor and an actress (who are by the
way all terrible) to his castle promising them a role in his next horror
film (he is also a movie director) - but actually he just wants them to
find out how to kill him (he's immune to the crucifix, garlic and even a
stake through the heart) and get it over with. Problem is, he will also be
trying to kill them. The other problem is, our youngsters have no idea how
to kill him, his only hints are that the secret has something to do with
one of his films and with Dorian Gray ... which is not much of a
hint at first, but after quite a number of shocks and chases, our
youngsters figure out that he's only alive and kicking as long as the
movie (a vampire movie by the way) exists - and just as Jurek mounts his
final attack, they burn the film, and quite drastically, the vampire burns
too and dies ...
As a horror movie, this film is a desaster: It's almost amazingly blunt
(without being drastic), the script is just plain silly, there are no
shocks as such, the whole thing is totally free of either suspense or
atmosphere, George Hilton hams up his role as the baddie way too much, the
other actors are just bad, and 80's hairdoes and fashion and the
occasional piece of 80's synthie Euro pop doesn't help one bit either. My
guess is though that this film was actually intended as a comedy ... as
which it isn't much better, despite the occasional attempt at fun the film
is almost joke-free, the timing is off and none of the actors seems to
have any talent for comedy. What remains is just a bad film that's not
even so bad it's good.
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