I heard of this 1990 vampire musical comedy called Rockula through Todd in the Shadows’ video on Thomas Dolby. He described the movie as “bugshit” about a “loser nerd vampire” who forms a rock band to court a girl who is a reincarnated spirit of his lost love and is trying to prevent her from being killed due to a prophecy that has happened 14 times over the course of 400 years. Dolby played the villain, a snidely music producer/owner of a coffin company, and is a decent actor in a campy, fun kind of way. Dean Cameron of Ski School was the dork vampire, and his love interest, as a pop star, had a real Sheena Easton vibe going on. I did honestly like how fun and Halloween-y this movie was in an 80’s way, complete with a lot of musical numbers with some glorious cheese, like the vampire calling himself “Rapula” and rapping in a very “white rapper” way.
The highlights of this movie to me, besides Dolby, was Toni Basil, as the vampire’s mother. Basil just dove heavily into the campy vibe of the film, and I loved her playfulness and sensuality. She was in her late forties at the time, and had a killer look to her as a dancer, particularly in a dance number where she’s trying to ward off the girl, who she sees as a potential threat to take her son away from her. I really dug her choreography mix of ballet, jazz, and locking with the witchy costumes. That was just one of my favorite moments of the film, and highlighted what a particularly unique and interesting talent that Toni Basil is.
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