Vampire in Brooklyn - Movie Review

Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

Vampire in Brooklyn is a horror comedy film directed by the horror legend himself, Wes Craven (may he rest in peace) and stars Eddie Murphy as a vampire named Maximilian, who goes to Brooklyn to find a special woman, and will do anything necessary to get her. Released in 1995, this was the final film in Eddie Murphy's lengthy contract with Paramount Pictures, and much like the last film I reviewed, Phantom of the Paradise, this film bombed at the box office and received negative reviews from critics, but over the years it became a cult classic.

THE GOOD

In my opinion this film is criminally underrated. This film mixes horror and comedy pretty well. Eddie Murphy is fantastic in this movie, he's very menacing and gives a very different performance than usual. You find out he means business early on in the movie when he rips the heart out of a mob guy. He also plays a preacher who by the way is part of the funniest scene in the movie. The tone of the movie is very different than I expected, it's basically a comedy with a horror movie tone, the tone is surprisingly dark for an Eddie Murphy film. There's very little gore in this film but when there's corpses shown, or the ripped out heart scene, the makeup looks pretty good. The musical score is surprisingly good, it's gothic and feels kinda epic scale sometimes.

THE BAD

While most of the time the horror and comedy blend pretty well, sometimes the horror overpowers the comedy. There are pacing issues, sometimes scenes go on way too long and even not long enough the odd time. My last issue is that sometimes the comedy REALLY falls flat.

CONCLUSION

Vampire in Brooklyn is a flawed, but really fun. It's nowhere near as bad as critics say. It may not be Eddie Murphy's best work but I do think it's a pretty solid film in his filmography. It's funny for the most part, the horror is solid, even if it does overpower the comedy aspect at times, and Eddie Murphy himself really gives a damn good performance.

7.7/10

FILM INFO

MPA rating:  R (for strong language and vampire violence)

Release date:  October 25th, 1995 

Run time:  102 min

Studio:  Paramount Pictures