Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

Am I Missing Something?

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I remember seeing images of this film, specifically the leading actor, a few times in the past, in books and things, then I found out is was directed by the late great Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream), I always wanted to see it. Basically an abandoned ship crashes into a dockyard in Brooklyn, New York, ship inspector Silas Green (John Witherspoon) finds it full of corpses, there is also an intricately carved coffin, which contained suave, mysterious vampire Maximillian (Eddie Murphy). Elsewhere Julius Jones (Kadeem Hardison), Silas's nephew, is saved from being killed by two goons by Maximillian, who intervenes and kills them, Maximillian infects Julius with his vampiric blood, turning Julius into a decaying ghoul. Maximillian explains he is in Brooklyn in search of the Dhampir daughter of a vampire from his native Caribbean island in order to live beyond the night of the next full moon, this turns out to be NYPD Detective Rita Veder (Boyz n the Hood's Angela Bassett). Rita and her partner Detective Justice (Allen Payne) are in the middle of investigating the murders on the ship, Rita starts having strange visions of a woman that looks like her, and questions the past of her mentally ill mother, a paranormal researcher, who died some months ago, Rita has a "strange feeling", and is completely unaware of her heritage, she believes, similar to her mother before, she is losing her mind. To find out more about her and further pull her into his thrall, Maximillian uses sinister methods, including seducing and murdering her roommate Nikki (Simbi Khali), and disguising himself as respected Preacher Pauly and lowlife crook Guido, in these disguises Max also misleads Rita into thinking Justice slept with Nikki, making her jealous and angry with him. After saving her from being hit by a taxicab, Maximillian takes Rita to dinner, she is taken by his suave charm, and begins to fall in love with him, while dancing with her, he bites her. Later the next day Justice finds Rita in her darkened apartment asleep, he informs her that Nikki has been found dead, and wants to help her understand her strange visions, one of them was about Nikki's murder, Rita tearfully forgives Justice and is happy he is starting to understand her. Rita and Justice embrace and passionately kiss, these long-repressed emotions begin Rita's transformation into a vampire, but she stops herself biting Justice when she is horrified to see her reflection fading from a mirror, a sign of becoming one of the "undead". Max explains himself, but she already blames him for her "turning", and deduces he is responsible for the murders, Rita also finds out that Max was sent to her by her father, a vampire, Rita's mother was driven insane due to his death at the hands of vampire hunters. Rita is hysterical, Maximillian tries to convince her life as a vampire is better than that of the human world, and that she will be out of place and misunderstood by society. Justice plans to rescue Rita, he seeks help and advice from vampire expert Dr. Zeko (Zakes Mokae), who they visited earlier, he explains that he knew Rita's mother when she was researching vampires of the Caribbean islands, and that she surrendered to evil by falling in love with Rita's vampire father. Rita must avoid becoming a vampire by refraining from drinking innocent human blood, and Maximillian must die before the next full moon, Zeko gives Justice an ancient dagger to kill Maximillian, or risk Rita killing him. By the time Justice reaches Rita, she is almost completely changed into a vampire, and threatens to bite him, Justice and Max engage in a battle, Justice loses the dagger and Max encourages Rita to finish him and complete the transformation, she rejects life as a vampire, and drives the dagger through Maximillian's heart, causing him to disintegrate. Rita as her heartbroken self is heartbroken, but with Maximillian dead she changes back into a normal human, Rita and Justice then embrace in a passionate kiss, meanwhile Julius has completely decayed, enter his master's limousine and happens upon Maximillian's ring, which he puts on, this instantly transforms him into a fully intact member of the undead, overjoyed he tells his uncle Silas he is the new vampire in Brooklyn. Also starring Joanna Cassidy as Captain Dewey, Scream's W. Earl Brown as Thrasher and Jerry Hall as Woman in Park. Murphy is both suave and sinister as the Caribbean vampire, also a master of disguise, he gets his laughs from being the alcoholic preacher and the Italian gangster, Bassett and the other co-stars do their parts fine as well, the intended jokes are lost in the scary element of the film, because of the amount of gore and grizzly makeup and special effects you are frightened more often than laughing, but overall it is an interesting, funny enough and dark comedy horror. Good!

Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Zakes Mokae, Kadeem Hardison, John Witherspoon and Joanna Cassidy star in Wes Craven's 1995 horror comedy. Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop) plays Caribbean vampire, Maximillian who arrives in Brooklyn searching for a woman who is half vampire. Bassett (Waiting to Exhale) plays his interest, Rita who is a cop and he tries to seduce her, Payne (House of Payne) plays her partner, Justice who she finds romance with, the late, Mokae (The Serpent and the Rainbow) plays Zeko, an expert on vampires, Hardison (A Different World) plays Julius, a loser who becomes Max's ghoul, Witherspoon (Friday) plays boat watchman/landlord, Silas and Cassidy (Blade Runner) plays police captain, Dewey. This basically pays tribute and pokes fun at vampire flicks like "Blacula." It's not bad, Murphy is great in it, he and Bassett have good chemistry, Rick Baker's make-up effects are terrific as usual and J. Peter Robinson's score is also great. I recommend this.

A Vampire in Brooklyn suffers primarily due to four main factors: 1. / It is directed by Wes Craven, a successful horror director who truth be told has a track record that is extremely hit and miss.2. / It stars Eddie Murphy, already on the downslope after a scintillating run of success in the 80s and early 90s.3. / It sucks… 4. / Apparently Wes and Ed wrestled for control of the film, arguing over whether it should be a horror with comedic elements, or a comedy with horror elements.Neither man won – or more accurately – both lost.The end result is a half-hearted (excuse the pun) effort with smatterings of everything and lots of nothing. A film that has no idea what it wants to be and how it might go about getting there. A film bereft of laughs, scares, and ultimately viewer interest.Murphy plays Maximillian, a smooth undead vampire from the West Indies who must come to Brooklyn for one reason, some vampire poontang that legend has it will help prolong his lifespan.Upon arriving in the city Maximillian enlists Julian (Kadeem Hardison) as his zombified yet still yappy go-fer ghoul. Their repartee is supposed to provide much of what passes as humour in the film, in truth it is merely a series of lamentable puns ("Put a little heart into it") and gross out sight gags that often seem out of place.Max's romantical target is an already half-vampire (due to some ancestral shenanigans) named Rita (Angela Bassett), a cop with a jealous partner named Justice (Allen Payne).Despite her instincts Rita finds herself drawn to this pimp looking pointy toothed sleaze merchant due to some unknown connection, but as the legend states that she must give herself to Max via dance the usual "Holla at ya' Boi" tactics aren't destined to work for Max.Cue the clumsy mix of bad horror, bad comedy and still more bad puns.The film uses the usual vampire rulebook of mirrors, sunlight, mist, crosses and garlic but awkwardly shoehorns jokes on the back of gore and vice versa.An overrated director and a fading comedian in a relationship doomed to failure, thankfully this genre confusing flop was their only offspring. A sequel was set up that thankfully never came, and Murphy fled back to more familiar territory of cop comedies (Metro) and fart gags (The Nutty Professor). Craven on the other hand started churning out Scream movies one after the other.Final Rating – 4 / 10. Too little of one thing or the other ends up culminating in not much of anything. A big budget smear on Murphy's resume.

Maximillian is the only survivor from a race of vampires on a Caribbean Island, and as a vampire, he must find a mate to keep the line from ending.He knows that a child had been born to a woman who had a vampire father, and he searches for her in Brooklyn.Rita's mother, who has died in an asylum, was that woman, and Rita has nightmares that she does not understand.Not knowing that she is part vampire, Max woos her and attempts to bring her to her blood sucking destiny....The ironic thing about his dirge is that in the same year Craven and Murphy had the career resurgences that they both desperately needed.The big problem with this movie is that it cannot decide to be a horror,comedy or dark romance. And it fails on all three accounts. Murphy looks bored in his role, a cross between Blacula, Prince Akeem of Zamunda and a cachexic Barry White.The rest of the cast look wholly confused and put in risible performances. Hardison s the worse culprit, putting in a performance so hammy, you want to switch off wherever he appears (think Chris Tucker n anything, and your there).The first tn minutes, especially the boat heading toward the dock, is pure Craven and quite tense, but when Maximillian starts biting people, the whole movie fails on every account.It's a pity, because this movie had potential and it's aching to get out, but it's a dog of a movie, with only the beginning worth anything.Avoid.