Rockula (1990) Review: Why Did This Get Made
“Rock’n’roll comedy with a bite!”Synopsis: A young vampire cannot lose his virginity because of a curse imposed upon him centuries ago. | ![]() Watch now on Amazon |
Calamity Brains:
Rockula is the most ’80s movie I’ve seen in a long time. And we watch a LOT of ’80s movies.
In fact, you might call Rockula painfully ’80s. That’s both its saving grace and its downfall. The movie is just so damn bizarre, as though someone had a good idea for a character but no real plot to go with it. For a musical, the first half has very little music – but the second half has so much it gets in the way of what little story there is. And while the music is very ’80s, it’s completely overshadowed by the sheer ridiculousness of the stage clothes Ralph (Dean Cameron) wears during his various performances.
I told you.
As hilarious as both the premise and music often are, Rockula is a rough watch, even with an appearance by Tony Cox. It’s hard to forget while watching it that someone, somewhere thought all of this was a good idea – and harder still not to cringe. For the most part, it’s uncomfortably bad rather than amusingly bad, which is a shame.
If you want semi-modern vampires with current-day problems (and some choreographed dancing), I’d recommend Once Bitten instead – it has a somewhat similar premise and lands the joke in a much better way.
Calamity Brains’ Rating: C
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