VAMP (1986)

EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS?

AJ and Keith, fraternity pledges for Dipsa Phi, avoid a fake initiation hanging by promising to supply a stripper to the fraternity’s party that evening. When AJ is unable to convince various girl friends to strip, the friends decide to hire a professional. They negotiate to borrow oddball frat brother Duncan’s car in exchange for their temporary friendship. They drive to the nearest city and wait at a nearby bar for The After Dark Club to open. Soon, three menacing customers demand several cups of coffee from the bartender. Keith flirts with the one named Maven until she smiles and bares grotesque teeth. Keith is startled and asks AJ for help as the strangers approach their table. Albino gang leader Snow tells Keith that Maven might just cut off one of his testicles. Maven uses a switchblade to pop off some buttons from Keith’s shirt, while Snow spills coffee on AJ’s shirt. AJ chuckles, takes another coffee, and spills it on Maven, who drops her knife. AJ grabs Snow by the crotch, ending the conflict. 

The friends go to The After Dark Club, and soon, a stripper named Katrina appears in a long red dress, white pancake makeup, blue contact lenses, bright red lips and a matching wig. After removing her dress, Katrina’s body is covered in a white striped pattern, and she wears a bikini made from metal coils. AJ is impressed and decides to hire her. In her dressing room, he offers her top dollar to do an encore performance for the fraternity later that evening. Without a word, Katrina swiftly strips again to her metal bikini, and pushes him down on a sofa. She moves along his body licking and biting him. When she reaches his mouth, her eyes roll back, and her fangs protrude. AJ tries to fight off her attack, but she is too strong and sucks his blood until he is dead.

Meanwhile, Keith wonders when AJ will return. He questions the hostess who took AJ backstage, but she denies ever seeing him. Then, Keith explains his dilemma to Amaretto, a new, blonde cocktail waitress, who claims to recognize the friends from a past party and agrees to help. As they look for AJ, the hostess tells them she remembers that AJ left the club. Amaretto believes AJ is holding auditions offsite. She tells Keith that they can look for him at the nearby hotel, where many of the girls stay. Meanwhile, Duncan is oblivious to the drama going on. The hostess informs Katrina she thought AJ was alone, but that he has friends in the club and apologizes for her mistake. Vic, the club host, assures Katrina that AJ’s friends will be eliminated. Katrina kills the hostess by ripping her heart out with her bare claws. The hotel elevator operator lets Keith off on the wrong floor before Amaretto joins him. He walks toward the stairwell but runs back as the elevator door opens. Keith walks into the empty elevator, but the closing door traps him. When the elevator moves upward, he wedges a fire extinguisher in the door, narrowly escaping certain death.

On the street, Keith finds Amaretto, and asks where else they might look for AJ, but Amaretto misunderstands him and believes he is insulting her lifestyle choices. As she stalks off, she wonders why he does not remember meeting her when she remembers their encounter perfectly. At the club, Duncan is drunk and propositioning the cocktail waitresses. Through the mist on the street, Keith encounters a parked hearse. Snow emerges carrying a large hunting knife and tells Keith he has been looking for him. When Snow’s three associates appear, Keith runs away. Snow follows in the hearse. The gang find Keith hiding down a manhole, remove the ladder and replace the manhole cover. Trapped below, Keith wanders through the sewer system. He watches through a sewer drain as a child vampire kills one of Snow’s associates. He finds a ladder and climbs onto the street. When the gang chases after him, Keith runs into an alley and hides in a dumpster. Upon leaving, he pushes aside some trash and discovers AJ’s dead body but does not see the hostess’s corpse nearby. Soon, Keith finds payphone and contacts the police. 

At the club, the host, Vic, assures Katrina that he will make their problem go away, and suggests it might be a good time to relocate the club to Las Vegas, Nevada. Keith returns to the club and asks Duncan if the police have arrived. When Duncan does not know, Keith tells him that AJ is dead, but Duncan is too drunk to react. Keith tells Duncan to stay put and sits in a men’s room stall to collect his thoughts. Someone bangs on the stall door and breaks it down. Keith finds himself staring at AJ, who is very much alive, and claims that he was “rolled” for his money. 

Although Keith is livid and wants to leave, they sheepishly tell police their story. The officer warns the friends to stay away from The After Dark Club, but Vic invites the officer to catch the rest of the show, and Duncan joins them. Keith pleads with AJ, but AJ is not in any rush to leave. Suddenly, the stripper massaging AJ’s shoulders bares her fangs and attacks Keith. He grabs a stiletto on the floor and drives it into her heart, killing her. AJ reveals that everyone in the club is a vampire. Keith thinks that is even more reason to leave, but AJ is now one of them, and although he loves Keith, he is ravenously hungry and is eyeing his friend as food. Keith invites AJ to snack on his body, but AJ confesses that will not work. Then, Keith suggests AJ kill him. AJ’s response is to throw a stake at his friend, and he orders Keith to kill him instead. When Keith cannot bring himself to stab his friend, AJ attacks, grabbing Keith's hand he drives the stake through his own chest. As AJ dies, again, he tosses the car keys to Keith, warns him to escape, and offers last minute vampire killing tips. Amaretto appears in the dressing room and is shocked to see AJ dead on the floor.

As they leave, stripper vampires stop Amaretto and Duncan, while Vic detains Keith at the bar. When Vic claims there is no way out, Keith asks for complimentary drinks as a last request like they do in Las Vegas. Being a big Las Vegas fan, Vic agrees. Keith orders three double brandies and asks the bartender to leave the bottle out. As Keith hands the drinks to Amaretto, he spills liquor on the floor and asks Amaretto to do the same. As he toasts Vic, he spills brandy all over the front of his shirt. When Vic laughs and leaves to clean up, Keith sets several fires, using the alcohol as fuel. He fends off Vic with a cigarette lighter. Keith, Amaretto, and Duncan escape into the cellar and onto the street using the service elevator. Keith drives away with Amaretto and Duncan, as a tow truck and sanitation truck pursue them. However, Keith swerves out of the way at the last minute, causing a collision between the two trucks. Vic and club bouncer Vlad reminisce about the good old days, before the club is ravaged by flames.

Soon, Duncan complains that he is ravenously hungry. Amaretto screams as Duncan transforms into a vampire. Keith fishtails the car to keep Duncan from attacking Amaretto and punctures the tires on anti-backup devices at a parking lot exit. The car crashes into a parked car and catches fire. As Keith and Amaretto escape, the car explodes, trapping Duncan inside. They break into a pawnshop, where Keith steals a bow and silver tipped arrows. They return to the street, but everywhere they turn they see vampires. Keith and Amaretto escape an attack when Snow appears in his hearse. As Snow asks the vampires on the street what gang they are from, the child vampire attacks him. Soon, Amaretto reveals that her real name is Alison Hicks and she met Keith playing spin the bottle in Sue Leonard’s basement one summer vacation. 

Down in the sewers, they discover a secret passageway, and find the resting place for the vampires. They hide and watch several vampires return to their coffins. As Keith and Alison sneak off, she screams, and the vampires wake up. Keith tips over several barrels filled with gasoline and sets them on fire. Keith and Alison become separated, but he runs toward her screams and discovers Katrina using Alison as a human shield. He shoots Katrina in the mouth and she lets go of Alison. As Katrina pulls out the arrow and approaches Keith, he pushes aside a vent cover in the ceiling and sunlight pours in. They watch Katrina wail as the sunlight eats away her body. 

Climbing through a manhole, the club bouncer, Vlad, pulls Alison back into the sewer, and she screams. However, AJ impales Vlad with a stake and saves Alison. He explains that he is still alive because the stake Keith used to kill him was made of Formica. As AJ claims that he can get around his problem by attending night school, Keith and Alison make their way onto the street and kiss.