Horrorfest 2013: The Fearless Vampire Killers

Roman Polanski's horror comedy, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, is interesting in that it's positioned within his filmography right after the super dark REPULSION (a Horrorfest alum) and right before the equally stark ROSEMARY'S BABY, but it doesn't seem to match either of those.

THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS seems more like a first film than a stop-gap between two horror classics. Granted, it's well loved among audiences and critics, alike, but I didn't get it.

Thing is, it's not funny enough to work as a real comedy and not horrific enough to work as real horror. It just sits kind of in the middle, too flabby the skip along like the early works of Mel Brooks or Woody Allen, and not sinister enough to join the ranks of... er, early Polanski.

The film takes place in 19th century Transylvania and stars Polanski himself as a nebbish assistant to a Van Helsing by-way-of-Van Winkle vampire hunter (Jack MacGowran) who enter a vampire's (Ferdy Mayne) castle on a rescue mission when the pneumatic daughter (Sharon Tate) of an inn-keeper is kidnapped.

The cast is great, the movie looks beautiful, and it's not boring, but for whatever reason it just never took off for me. Maybe on the right day I'd see what others see in it, but not today, I'm afraid.