Lesbian Vampire Killers
| Lesbian Vampire Killers | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Release Poster | |
| Directed by | Phil Claydon |
| Written by | Paul Hupfield Stewart Williams |
| Produced by | Steve Clark-Hall |
| Starring | James Corden Mathew Horne Paul McGann Emer Kenny Lucy Gaskell Louise Dylan Ashley Mulheron Tiffany Mulheron Vera Filatova Silvia Colloca MyAnna Buring |
| Edited by | James Herbert |
| Music by | Debbie Wiseman |
| Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
Release date | 20 March 2009 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £1,673,391 |
Lesbian Vampire Killers is a 2009 British comedy horror film which stars James Corden and Mathew Horne. It is written by Stewart Williams and Paul Hupfield, produced by Steve Clark-Hall and is directed by Phil Claydon.
Plot
After Jimmy (Matthew Horne) is dumped by his girlfriend and Fletch (James Corden) is fired from his job as a clown, they decide to escape their woes and hike to a remote village they find on an old map. As they arrive at a pub in the village, with Jimmy upset about Fletch destroying his phone, they see a number of attractive foreign female history students leaving. Hoping to find more beautiful women inside, they are greeted by a morose crowd of men and approached by a seemingly crazed vicar (Paul McGann) who believes Jimmy is a long lost descendant of a local vampire slayer. As the barman offers the two men free ale as an apology for the vicar, they learn the students they saw earlier are going to a cottage - where they are to stay the night. Jimmy and Fletch pursue the students' bus, catching up to it as the engine has broken down, and are introduced to four girls (Heidi, Lotte, Anke and Trudi). They are invited to join a party on the bus.
The group arrives at their destination, only to learn that a curse rests over the village and that every female child turns into a lesbian vampire on her eighteenth birthday. There is an old legend stating that the Vampire Queen, Carmilla, descended on the village, killed its menfolk and seduced its women to her evil. When the ruler of the land, Baron Wolfgang Mclaren (Jimmy's great ancestor) returned from the Crusades, he discovered one of the women corrupted by Carmilla was his wife, Eva. The baron forged a sacred sword, then defeated Carmilla, but before dying Carmilla cursed the village, adding that when the blood of the last of Mclaren's bloodline mixed with a virgin girl's blood, Carmilla would be resurrected.
Fletch and Jimmy spend the night with the women. Heidi, Anke and Trudi are turned into vampires. After Lotte insists that the others try to find her missing friends, they witness Trudi being turned. Eva, Carmilla's mistress, tries to draw Lotte to her growing clan of lesbian vampires. The trio runs back into the cottage after killing Heidi and Anke, and barricade themselves in after the vampires destroy the bus. Judi arrives at the door and Jimmy, not ready to give up on the relationship, takes her into the bedroom. Lotte reveals to Fletch that she is a virgin and wants to sleep with Jimmy.
At the church, the Vicar researches the vampire slayer who killed Carmilla, before arming himself and setting off to find Jimmy. Judi reveals herself to be a vampire, and after a struggle Fletch and Jimmy kill her. The vampires approach the cottage and Jimmy inadvertently invites them in. Eva discovers that Jimmy is the descendant of the baron who killed Carmilla and that Lotte is a virgin and kidnaps them.
The Vicar saves Fletch from Trudi and tells Fletch the truth about the village and Jimmy's identity. They go after Jimmy and Lotte in the Vicar's crucifix-covered car. As the vampires prepare to sacrifice Lotte and Jimmy, Fletch and the Vicar try to recover the sword of Daeldo, the sword that killed Carmilla, from the baron's tomb. While Fletch works to open the tomb, the Vicar checks on his daughter Rebecca, but does not notice that she has been turned. Rebecca attempts to seduce Fletch, who does not know what she is. When she attacks him, she is inadvertently impaled on the sword. Fletch decides not to tell the Vicar of his daughter's death.
At Carmilla's tomb, Lotte reveals her love for Jimmy. The vampires begin draining the two of their blood to resurrect Carmilla. With the sword, Fletch and the Vicar drive to Carmilla's tomb. When they enter the woods they bring various weapons, but forget the sword. Despite not having the sword, the pair reach Jimmy and Lotte. The Vicar releases them, but not before enough blood gathers to resurrect Carmilla. He sacrifices himself so the others can get back to the car and the sword. Eva separates Lotte from the men, attacking and seducing her. Lotte fights back while Fletch and Jimmy fetch weapons. Lotte kills Eva with her cross necklace, infuriating Carmilla. Fletch tries to kill Carmilla before Lotte is turned, but is captured himself. Jimmy saves them by hurling the sword at Carmilla, piercing her heart and destroying her for good. With the curse lifted, the three survivors decide to continue ridding the world of evil.
The film ends with the shot of a "Gay Werewolf" howling before the full moon, suggesting a sequel.
Cast
- James Corden as Fletch
- Mathew Horne as Jimmy
- Paul McGann as The Vicar
- Emer Kenny as Rebecca (The Vicar's Daughter)
- Lucy Gaskell as Judy
- Louise Dylan as Anke
- Ashley Mulheron as Trudi
- Tiffany Mulheron as Heidi
- Vera Filatova as Eva (Carmilla's mistress and the Baron's wife)
- Silvia Colloca as Carmilla the Vampire Queen
- MyAnna Buring as Lotte
- Emma Clifford as Ms. Rossi
Production
Background
The writers, who at the time were both working in the comedy development team at MTV,[citation needed] were challenged to come up with the most commercial film project and title ever to pitch as a £50k direct-to-DVD project, starring Williams and to be directed by Hupfield.[citation needed]
After several years in development hell, the project was picked up by director Phil Claydon. Claydon describes the film as influenced by Ghostbusters with a mix of Hammer Horror and Universal's monster movies. Referring to the special effects used in the film he said "I covered James in vampire gunk at every opportunity because that made me laugh", since the Vampires turn into slime rather than dust or bursting into flames like other Vampire stories.[1]
Location
It is set in Norfolk, based around the village of Cranwich which is portrayed in the film as Cragwich, but was filmed outside London on location at Luton Hoo and in Three Mills film studios in Bromley-by-Bow.
The film is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the classic Hammer Horror films and was originally slated to be the first "new" Hammer film. This did not come to pass and it was ultimately Alliance and Momentum Pictures along with AV Films who finally greenlit the project.
Critical reception
Reviews of the film were largely negative.[2] It holds a 29% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 4/10.[3] James Christopher of The Times described Lesbian Vampire Killers as "profoundly awful" stating it's an "instantly forgettable lads' mag farce" and claimed the film was an "appalling waste of a perfectly decent title".[4] Allan Hunter of the Daily Express called it "badly written and hastily executed" and "takes all the easy options of bad taste, bosoms and body fluids".[5] Anthony Quin writing in The Independent gave the film 1 star out of 5, describing it as woeful and stating that Horne and Corden had "overstretched their appeal" and looked "in danger" of becoming today's Hale and Pace.[6] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as "mostly pretty awful, but there are one or two crass laughs."[7]
The Sun, however, gave it a positive review; Sun reviewer The Sneak gave Lesbian Vampire Killers (LVK) a rating of 3 out of 5 saying "other reviewers will undoubtedly say that LVK is another British comic flop but The Sneak won’t be driving that stake into its heart."[8] Similarly, Nicholas Yanes of Scifipulse.net found Lesbian Vampire Killers to be a great "B Movie" worth becoming a cult classic.[9]
One online lesbian group calling itself "Angry Lesbians" criticised the film, describing it as stereotypical and derogatory.[10]
Whilst on the comedy panel show "The King is Dead" in September 2010, star James Cordon commented that the watching the film would be too harsh a punishment for prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay and that it was "a pile of s***."[11]
Release
Lesbian Vampire Killers was released on DVD and Bluray 3 August 2009. Momentum pictures claim retailers - including supermarket chain Tesco - demanded warning stickers be placed over the word "Lesbian". A spokesperson from Tesco said that although they did ask for a cover with less cleavage they "did not suggest that they [Momentum] amend the wording".[12]
In the USA the movie was released as Vampire Killers on 29 December 2009.[13]
As part of its 12 Days Of Christmas free giveaway, iTunes made the film available to download for 24 hours on New Year's Eve 2009.[14]
References
- ^ Tilly, Chris. "Best of British". IGN. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
- ^ "Critics maul lesbian vampire film". BBC. 2009-03-20. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
- ^ "Lesbian Vampire Killers Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ Christopher, James. "Lesbian Vampire Killers review", The Times, 2009-03-19. Retrieved on 2009-03-20.
- ^ Hunter, Allan. "Lesbian Vampire Killers", Daily Express, 2009-03-20. Retrieved on 2009-03-20.
- ^ Quinn, Anthony. "Lesbian Vampire Killers (15)", The Independent, 2009-03-20. Retrieved on 2009-03-20
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter. Lesbian Vampire Killers, The Guardian, 2009-03-20. Retrieved on 2009-03-21
- ^ "Vamps a bite of alright", The Sun, 2009-03-19. Retrieved on 2009-03-20
- ^ "In Review: Lesbian Vampire Killers"
- ^ Geen, Jessica. "Critics slate Lesbian Vampire Killers film", Pink News, 2009-03-20. Retrieved on 2009-03-20.
- ^ [1]]
- ^ "Supermarket sweep under carpet for L word". The Irish Times. 2009-08-21. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Live! and Vampire Killers Coming to DVD from Vivendi and the Weinstein Co.
- ^ Spence, Nick (2009-12-31). "Day 6: iTunes 12 Days Of Christmas - free Lesbian Vampire Killers comedy film". Macworld. Retrieved 2009-12-31.