My Best Friend is a Vampire: ’80s PG Forgotten Fun
Photo credit: Kings Road Entertainment
My Best Friend is a Vampire had the misfortune of coming out the same year as The Lost Boys and Near Dark. While those two vampire flicks are celebrated, this movie was forgotten. Pity, too. It has a sweetness those two films lack. While it is a comedy, this is also no What We Do in the Shadows, and you know what? That’s OK.
The Plot
Jeremy Capello(a very young Robert Sean Leonard, House, MD) has been having strange dreams about a strange, older woman. He also has dreams about his school’s version of every ’80s Molly Ringwald character, Darla Blake(Cheryl Pollak). Not to say she does a bad job; we all just acted like Molly Ringwald characters in the ’80s.
While on his job as a delivery boy, he encounters the literal woman of his dreams. They wind up in bed, and she bites him.
At first, Jeremy thinks he is just under the weather. He asks Darla for a date, and during the date, his vampire tendencies rise, and he abandons her. He isn’t sure about what he is. But then he meets Modoc, a nearly three hundred year old vampire. Modoc(Rene Auberjonois) has been watching him, and helps him come to grips with what he has become. When Modoc tells Jeremy how slowly he will age:
I’m going to be a teenager for another twenty years?
Are you going to sit around and sulk for the next hundred years?
No! But I deserve a few minutes.
Jeremy’s best friend Ralph(Evan Mirand) is having troubles all of his own. Renowned Crazed vampire hunter Professor Leopold McCarthy(David Warner, Hogfather) has mistaken Ralph as the vampire the he seeks. The Professor and his bumbling assistant Grimsdyke(Paul Willson) pursue him relentlessly in their white van.
Ralph finds out what Jeremy is, and is ultimately OK. When he finds out Jeremy’s powers, they go out, looking for a good time. What Ralph doesn’t realize is that Jeremy doesn’t quite have control just yet.
The Gay Allegory
In the ’80s, experts wanted to pigeonhole every vampire movie as an allegory to homosexuality and AIDS. So here is what happens in My Best Friend is a Vampire:
Jeremy’s parents(Fannie Flagg, Grease and Kenneth Kimmins) do think he is gay, and that is why he is communing with strange older men and acting differently. Instead of being upset, they try to understand him. There is no slapstick or anger. Just the parents reading books on the subject and reassuring Jeremy.
What Happens Next?
I love the end of this movie. There is a sweetness and lightness to it, especially with Modoc and his vampire group. That’s all I am giving away.
Does Jeremy get the girl? Does the Professor get Ralph? What’s with all the personalized license plates?
You’ll have to watch and see!
My Best Friend is a Vampire is rated PG and is available on DVD and some streaming services.
