Vampire Comedy Countdown #29 ‘Rockula’

ComedyMoviesVampires
Written By Chris Well

Determined to break the cycle of reincarnation and death, a vampire tries to win his true love’s heart…by starting a rock band.

Counting down the funniest vampire comedy movies!

Vampires are scary monsters a lot of the time (setting aside romantic stories for the moment). But vampires can also turn up in some uproarious comedies, from the 1948 classic Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and 1987’s Lost Boys to more modern gems like What We Do in the Shadows and Hotel Transylvania.

Each entry includes some behind-the-scenes details for the movie, plus several videos that offer even more info. Click over to the other pages to continue the countdown.

See our whole list on these pages…

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#29 Rockula

A sexually frustrated vampire is condemned for eternity to watch his one true love be murdered. Determined to break the cycle of reincarnation and death, he tries to win her heart by starting a rock band. Centering on the vampire’s cursed existence, the film’s tagline was, “He’s a vampire that hasn’t scored in 400 years—tonight’s the night!”

The 1990 comedy horror film Rockula starred Dean Cameron as the rocker, Toni Basil as his mom, and Thomas Dolby as the villain. The film was directed by Luca Bercovici, and written by Bercovici, Jefery Levy, and Chris Ver Weil.

“There are now dozens of podcasts and reviews online singing its praises. But why? Few movies can claim to have captured the spirit of a generation; fewer still have withstood the test of time, remaining watchable long after their initial release. ROCKULA is just such a film. It’s also part of a tiny subgenre known as the ‘horror movie musical’ which you can nearly count on two hands.” (Morbidly Beautiful)

Dolby, by the way, was a famous pop star in the 1980s with the megahit “She Blinded Me with Science.” He has also worked as a producer and a session musician. He’s now on the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, leading Peabody’s Music for New Media program.

Buy Rockula from Amazon

The playlist below includes the official Rockula movie trailer and a clip from an interview with Dean Cameron.

Rockula (Vampire Comedies)

Chris Well

Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.

https://chriswell.substack.com/
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