Horrorthon 2018 Day 4 - Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

  This one is kind of a ringer because I've seen it before, but I haven't reviewed it so it doesn't technically violate any of the rules.

I love this movie.  Vampires have always been my favorite monsters and this is such a great take on the Dracula tale.

Maximillian (Eddie Murphy) is the last of his breed of vampire and he has traveled from the Caribbean to Brooklyn to search for his destined mate, Rita (Angela Bassett), a woman born from a union of a human and a vampire.  He must seduce her before the next full moon or his line will end.  Unfortunately, Rita is a cop and not as susceptible to Max's charms as he would like. 

This has held up surprisingly well.  Eddie Murphy was in peak form and restrained himself to only playing three characters in the movie.  Angela Bassett is so often cast as the badass, it was a fun turn to see her play a character so vulnerable (but still badass).  Kadeem Hardison was almost too much comic relief for me as the motor-mouth ghoul/Renfield but he was Tyler's favorite character.  He did have kind of a manic charm.

And even though Eddie Murphy did his whole Eddie-Murphy thing, this isn't just a spoof.  It was directed by horror maestro Wes Craven and never skimps on the sense of menace or danger.  It's just menace and danger with witty one-liners thrown in. 

I thought it was also great that Rita is the instrument of her own salvation and freedom.  Part of the vampire's "seduction" is to systematically eliminate Rita's support system of friends, spiritual leaders, and especially the potential romantic rival of her NYPD partner, Justice (Allen Payne).  Max repeats through the movie that he needs to have Rita go to him willingly, and then he does everything possible to manipulate her.  That's not romance, that's abuse.  Sure, Justice (ugh, such a terrible name for a cop) figures out that Max is a vampire and tries to rescue Rita, but ultimately, she's the one who decides her own fate.

I also really love how traditional Max's vampire is.  He can shapeshift into a bat or wolf, control mist, mesmerize, sleeps in a coffin of graveyard dirt (sand, in his case because Caribbean), and levitate, if not outright fly.  After all the daywalkers, sparklers, and mutated virus survivors, it's nice to see a return to the classics.

Pumpkin rating:  4.5/5