Fearless Vampire Hunters (Movie)

The 'Vampire Genre' has come a long way in developing the canon that would eventually become the classy blood-suckers of the night (or leather jacket toting bad-but-still-pretty boys) that we see them as today. 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' is a film developed in the late 60s featuring the "old school" vampire that many of us have forgotten. It has all the markings of a vampire movie; giant mansion, cloaked head vampire, low-key lighting and even the nerve to set itself in the middle of Translyvania!
However, what's different with this movie is it's obvious approach at creating a humor filled parody of vampire movies. With a charming yet oddly placed lead as Professor Abronsius, an old and at times loopy man, and his cowardly younger assistant Alfred the movie beckons us to join it on a journey that would surely draw a bag full of laughs out of us. It's unfortunate though that laughter wasn't the only thing I found coming out of my mouth while watching.
The run down or 60second attempt to get you on the same page as me will be surprisingly easy to write. Professor and weak-willed boy stroll through a blizzard on their life quest of locating a living vampire so that they could run it back up the asses of those snarky unbelievers that mocked his research at the university. As fate would have it, they wind up at an inn where they find refuge and Alfred finds the girl of his dream, Sharon, a beautiful red-head who seems to have an unquenchable fetish for taking a bath and anything bath related. Of course, after a day of weird behavior from the other guests, our lovely Sharon gets bitten in the bath (in plain view through a peep-hole little Alfred was watching her through) and then carried away by the count of the area, himself. Now with a motive, they venture to the castle and play dumb in front of the vampire in question trying to keep him from suspecting that they suspect him of being a blood-sucker and hopefully get the upper hand, or stake, on him.
'Fearless Vampire Hunters' though interesting with its silly cast that played their roles well, was full of plot holes and overall film problems. I was filled with questions that went unanswered like, 'Why didn't Alfred remember seeing his beloved being bitten?', 'Why was the count displaying such a hospitable act and why the hell did the duo seem to be falling for it?' I thought to myself of course that what must "really" be going on is a battle of ruses between the count and professors, both trying to make the other person believe that they don't have a clue why the other is here, but the movie was having trouble conveying that. At times the actors seemed to forget that they were having a sleep over in a vampire's house and then just as quickly they'd skip to the chest stabbing attempts.
The characters at the inn, besides them having thick and hard to understand accents, were unclear on the many relations they tried to portray (Like the husband, his wife and a woman as vacant minded as Sharon herself that he lusts over). Parts like these felt like they were just thrown in to fill up time and others didn't quite hit the mark. The overall personas that the professor and Alfred had however were interesting. Alpha male with a frail body and his beta male young introverted partner that repeatedly proved himself useless at the most important situations. Surrounding these two were a lot of funny moments and other characters even seemed to glow a little bit more when interacting with them.
Overall the story was decent, yet surrounded by annoying inconsistencies, and rather charming. It found itself in a peculiar place between comedy and horror and managed to keep the dark on-the-edge tone without being too shy to throw in some slapstick moments. I found it an enjoyable watch seeing how they'd get out of the many sticky situations that befell them, only finding myself scoffing at the various moments where the characters were left oblivious to things in plain sight to us.



I must say though, that Professor Abronsius has warranted a rewatch out of me in the future.