One of the things I have come to look forward to is Keith's weekly cinema history class. But, going into last Thursday's class, it had been more than a month and a half since I had attended. Between Keith's late summer hiatus, my vacation and a charity event at Andrews Air Force Base, that was just the way the halvah crumbled.
Thursday was the third session of the current sequence on horror comedies. The first two sessions were devoted to The Comedy or Terrors and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. For this session we saw The Fearless Vampire Killers, a Roman Polanski film about two buffoons trying to hunt vampires in the snowy mountains of Transylvania.
There's actually a lot in this movie to like. For starters, the cinematography is beautiful, In some ways it transforms what should be a claustrophobic little film into one with impressive scope. Even with the main characters hanging around in front of blue screens and matte paintings, you can practically feel the openness of the alps. The opening reminded me strongly of Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. Great use is made of color. For one example, in the grand dance scene, the red of Sara's hair and dress contrast sharply with the muted pastels of the vampires. The music was fitting, though a couple of us thought it sounded more like spaghetti western music. And the denouement is perfect. As Joe pointed out, it was worthy of The Twilight Zone. And, along with the opening, serves as a perfect bookend.
Polanski is oddly boyish, given that he was in his 30s when this was made. And Jack MacGowran is convincing, made up as the old man. This movie also solves a pseudo-mystery from my childhood. Long ago I'd heard reference to a movie scene where a girl holds a crucifix up to a vampire, only to have him respond (in a thick Eastern European Jewish accent) that she's got the wrong vampire. I never knew what film it was in, and had long forgotten the joke. Suffice to say the mystery is solved. That, of course, speaks to another interesting thing about the film. I kept waiting for Tevye to enter. Or, during the scenes at the inn, for them to burst into a chorus of "L'chaim."
And yet I just couldn't warm up this film. The humor element was evident enough to get in the way of the storytelling, by not enough to make this legitimately a comedy. Also, I just couldn't really find myself caring about the characters. I guess it's that they were never really fleshed out. Based on the aftercomments, the rest of the guys felt the same way. But Joe did give it extra bonus points for the ending.
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