Revenge Of The Vampire (1987)

Directed by: Joe Livingstone
Written by: William Palmer
Producer: Tomas Tang
Starring: Mick Stuart, Walter Bond, Richard Phillips, Ted Wald, Eddie Leo, Mark Coston, Angela Mao, Suen Yuet, Elsa Yeung, Suen Kwok-Ming & Wong Goon-Hung

While it on the surface looks like Filmark extends their Robo Warrior character from Robo Vampire and The Vampire Is Alive with Revenge Of The Vampire (more commonly known as Devil's Dynamite), just like the second example is only related to the first by said character design, our third "example" at hand merely extends the tradition of Filmark not being very apt at designing a science fiction style metal warrior. The Future Warrior of Revenge Of The Vampire may get a costume that looks like it holds together at least but it's still silver cloth and an oversized helmet we're dealing with here. Still, it holds its own as envisioned by the staff at Filmark because editing hopping vampire, kung fu-shenanigans together with Taiwan gangster fodder of the stale kind still makes its flimsy creation come through with flying colours.

Barely interacting with the source movie The Giant Of Casino (1981, Chan Jun-Leung, director of The 3-D Army), Tomas Tang spins thread to attach to it the plot of Ronald hiring a Taoist priest to create hopping vampire killers. Working on the orders of Mary (Elsa Yeung), this is a measure to take out Steve Cox (Wong Goon-Hung) who's about to be let out of prison and himself is after revenge on Mary. The counter measure by Filmark against their villain: The Future Warrior (Suen Kwok-Ming)...

While it doesn't feature the delight of Robo Vampire and The Vampire Is Alive where the majority of the footage was Filmark's own, Revenge Of The Vampire does confirm that even for a product destined mostly for Western eyes, they could deliver Mr. Vampire esque energy on their tight budget. The ceremonies to let loose the hopping vampires are energetic, the pyrotechnics to convey techniques up to standard and a sense of fun is firmly established whenever Filmark's own celluloid takes center stage. Because clearly someone is having fun mixing the preposterous look of Future Warrior vs very kung-fu able hopping vampires and the action choreography is executed competently as well by the Hong Kong crew.

The original source movie The Giant Of Casino isn't of course given a full context as obviously through dialogue this now has a plot involving vampire killers. But generally working on its own and not interacting with Filmark's footage, some qualities can be obtained and it is that it seems like a rather pale gangster action-drama. Generally well designed as it is a period piece and some of the action is energetic here as well, director Chan Jun-Leung doesn't make the drama and revenge plotting jump out at us and its only main enjoyment is the fact that the original vision now shares Tomas Tang's Western market vision when combined with hopping vampires.

Compared to Tang's ninja cut and paste movies and action movies in general, in general there's a problem with these particular genre mash up's involving the re-animated corpses popularized by Mr. Vampire. Because aside from a Western face or two, Revenge Of The Vampire is very Asian centered so it's either poor business decision, a chance taken by a business man or he could afford to make something that would amuse him. It's more infectious in Robo Vampire and The Vampire Is Alive but Revenge Of The Vampire has quoteable elements galore and it's through Filmark's own efforts this happens.

 

reviewed by Kenneth Brorsson