Leofwine_draca I thought cheesy films went out of date in the early '80s, but this one was a surprise. The truth is, the film is totally atrocious, failing as a comedy. The PG rating eliminates any hint of gore or violence - nobody even gets bitten! Actually, the film is devoid of any horror moments, instead presenting the lead vampire of the title as a cool dude (with bushy eyebrows and pointed teeth).The film is interspersed with rock and pop scores, and even ropes in the "legendary" Bo Diddley for some of the 'hits'. The funniest of these pieces of music is 'Rapula', where the fanged dude wears a hat and shell suit and sings "He's the DJ, I'm the vam-pire." Unfortunately the rest of the film is full of lame jokes and stereotypical characters (e.g. a British bad guy) It's sad that a film which tries so hard fails so miserably. Why on earth does Rockula have a separate reflection with a life of its own? The funniest thing about this film is the video cover, a gem of cheesy delight.

Wizard-8 After producer Menahem Golan left Cannon Films, his cousin and former partner Yoram Globus struggled to keep the company alive, but awful efforts like "Rockula" doomed the company to eventually close its doors. It's a pretty cheap-looking affair, for starters, though I guess its look could have been more tacky by other filmmakers. A bigger problem with the movie is the script. There is not a lot of story here, in part due to the movie having important stuff happen offscreen or explained by characters in awkward exposition. Things are instead padded out by many musical numbers, but even if you have a love for popular music that came out around the time this movie was released (like myself), more likely than not you'll find the music in this movie to be absolutely terrible. The final stake to the heart is the fact that the vampire protagonist isn't sympathetic enough - you won't really care if he manages to lift the curse on himself or not. And his various acts in order to lift the curse, while supposed to be amusing, aren't the least bit funny. This is one of those movies where you can't help but wonder why nobody involved realized they were making a turkey.

ThrownMuse Eh, I'll go with Rockula, though Rapula clearly knows good times when he sees it. Dean Cameron plays a young vampire trying to woo a local pop star so that he can break a 400 year old curse about a peg-legged pirate who wants to beat her with a hambone. Or something. What really matters here is that Toni Basil plays Rockula's vampy mom, Susan Tyrrell and Bo Diddly play his bandmates, and the music is highly amusing. Even though this was released in 1990, it has an 80s vibe through and through, complete with bad song and dance sequences and even a faux music video. Recommended to all fans of rock/horror hybrids, 80s schlock, and inimitable Dean Cameron.

deadbees This movie made my face hurt. I don't understand it...things just happened, inexplicably, and they usually resulted in someone bursting into a song and dance number. I don't understand how people can laud this film with praise. There are B-movies, and then there are B-musicals, and then there is Rockula.The songs made me want to run headlong into a wall. The only saving grace is that one of the musical explosions turns out to be a musical video, which eases the pain, yet still fails to justify why it needed to exist. The most frightening section of the film is Toni Basil's creep-dance that accompanies her weird song. But on the bright side, she can manages to find the notes that she is looking for, unlike pop music sensations Rockula (aka Rapula) and Mona...wow, can we say tone deaf. So if you want to question life for about 90 minutes, see this film. If you hate your life, then buy it.