Review - Lesbian Vampire Killers
Originally Published in Cult Friction Blog - March 2009
Lesbian Vampire Killers is the new Brit Comedy/Horror flick and first feature outing for comedy duo James Corden and Matthew Horne stars of Gavin and Stacy.
Plot Summary: Fletch (Corden) and Jimmy (Horne) are two blokes looking for an escape from their urban surroundings. Taking off to an unfeasbly large woodland area (supposedly in Wales) they unfortunatly stumble upon a hoard of lesbian vampires. Their only hope lies with a manic priest (Paul McGann) and the revelation of an ancient propecy that Jimmy might be the chosen vampire slayer.
Lesbian Vampire Killers is the 21st century homage to the Hammer horror film. Unofrtunaly this comedy doesn’t quite cut corpses along with the likes of The Evil Dead Trilogy and Bad Taste.
LVK is a fallen into the rut of the already exhausted genre of the Britcom/Horror film that arguably began and frankly ended with Sean of the Dead. Unlike similar films produced by our esteemed American counterparts this film tries to take on each fantastical situation with a whim of fool hardy English one liners which frankly become tiresome towards the end of the film. Corden is ultimately the most watchable person but even his one off quips and gratuitous swearing become predicable and a bit boring. Hornes character just seems to react bug eyed to every event that takes place around him and comes across as dull as opposed to his comedic partner. Paul McGann on the other hand does credit to his craft in the role of the Shakespearean exorcist however its a shame that his talents are to be seen wasted in such a project.
Our titular stars won’t fail to disappoint the “red blooded” male audience that this film is being unabashedly marketed at with plenty of attractive semi naked women making out in lengthy shots that after a while become a bit much to look at after the sixth of seventh time. And given the entire premise of the film it does very little for the womens lib movement with our typical blonde heroine (MyAnna Buring) ,fulfilling her role as eye candy for our protagonists, doing very little apart from the odd outburst of heroism here and there.
Visually the film doesn’t dissapoint. The special effects are far from the shoe string budgeted premise and various head splitting and limb slicing moments are sure to delight any gorno/splatter fan alike. It is however the overuse of FX that detaches the silly story from the desired impression that the box office punters were expecting. Perhaps a low budget look might have hieghend the campness and made the film better but in overall it probably would have added a mere half a star to this already starless review.
Overall LSK aint trying to be Dr Zhivago but it won’t rank alongside some of the great so bad they’re good classics which is something this film is trying really hard to be. We are sure to join Corden and Horne, already beeing touted as the new Morcambe and Wise, in more on screen high jinx in the future however it remains to be seen if they can transfer the comdey success they have enjoyed from the plasma to silver screen.
Lesbian Vampire Killers opens nationwide on the 20th of March 2009.