Doctor Vampire (1990) – Film Review

Director: Jamie Luk
Cast: Bowie Lam, Ellen Chan, Sheila Chan
Certificate: Unrated

By Roger Crow

I love a good horror comedy, but most are neither scary or funny, so for every An American Werewolf in London or Shaun of the Dead, there are hundreds of pale imitators.

Though Doctor Vampire will never live up to John Landis or Edgar Wright’s beloved offerings, this culture clash offering wins brownie points for being a little different.

The plot: while on vacation in Britain, surgeon Dr Chiang Ta-Tsung wanders into a quaint rural pub (aka brothel) in the grounds of a castle. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that beautiful women are snacking on yuppies, he quickly falls for hostess Alice. Despite several warning signs, the doctor fails to realise that the establishment is staffed entirely by vampires – even after Alice bites him during a late-night tryst.

“Crave blood”

As a side note, all the Brits are dubbed with American accents, which is not that bizarre if you look back at Clive Barker’s Blighty-based debut, Hellraiser.

Anyway, upon his return to Hong Kong and his long-standing love interest May Chan, our hero (a Jonathan Harker-style character) attempts to return to his normal life. But soon he develops an aversion to sunlight and begins to crave blood. Things get more complicated when Alice and her eurotrash undead master – The Count – come looking for him (because his blood is like catnip for vampires apparently).

Naturally as this is a Eureka/Hong Kong cult movie, Frank Djeng offers his expert commentary – along with many plugs for his own work. (I’d be seriously worried if Frank didn’t feature on one of these discs; he’s as synonymous with the brand as Paddington is with marmalade).

The extras are rather good, including ‘A British Vampire in Hong Kong’ – a 20-minute interview with expert Stacey Sutton, who analyses the horror comedy genre in the east.

“Fascinating confection”

There’s also ‘Vampire Slaying 101’, Mary Going’s 22-minute essay which breaks down bloodsucker termination for anyone who’s never seen or read a vampire-centric tale. And even for a hardcore fan of the genre, there’s plenty of fresh takes, including loving throwbacks to 40-year-old horror comedy classic Fright Night. (Not the David Tennant version).

Back to the movie, and a shame Bowie Lam hs such limited range as the hero, but while the performances are far from gripping, the mix of east and west culture, and some great stunt scenes make up for the bad acting. If you’ve seen the countless vampire-centric horror comedies from the west, then this curious farce is a breath of fresh-ish air. And obviously if you absorb all the extras, it becomes a far more fascinating confection instead of just a badly acted knockabout horror comedy.

The picture and sound quality is pretty good for a 35-year-old movie, especially as it was made in the days before everything was shot on hi-def cameras.