Graveyard Shift (1987)

I've known this movie for years after being mentioned in many websites and specially in the IMDb Horror Board (my second home). While it's not a cult classic it has generated a solid fan database and I'm one of those who enjoyed it big time.I watched this movie by mistake... It aired on Mexican late local t.v. (it started at 5:00 a.m.) and I decided to give it a chance BUT I didn't know it was the so much talked about "Graveyard Shift".I was immediately caught by the movie's vibe, I mean, I thought it was a 1990 effort and nothing more because of the soundtrack, the clothes, the cinematography, and most of all, the atmosphere.The plot is really interesting. I mean, a taxicab vampire driver who converts "troubled" women into creatures of the night and suddenly falls in love with a married but unhappy woman will always be a great idea in my mind.The love story evolves as death, lust, and the risk of losing immortality happens. I dug the relationship between Michelle and Stephen because it deals with sensuality, resurrection, but most important of all, attraction in all the sense of the word.But let me state that I really liked the movie because of the mixture of late 80's unique elements such as the soundtrack that I really enjoyed even that it only consists of a guitar-solo taken out from any Sega Genesis or Arcade game. It's just a unique sound that has a nostalgia feeling mixed with loneliness and the empty streets of a big city. The cinematography and art direction are a great combo most of all when it comes with dark settings such as when Michelle gets out of the cab and walks in front of a large, dying tree while in the background we see the sinister moon, adequate lightning, fog, and shadows. A great scene. Also, when Stephen makes his appearance near the ending , the music works perfect with the creepy and shadowy atmosphere.The gore is really good! Specially when we get bites, be headings, bitten necks, and stabbing. Oh, and pay attention to the "Day OF The Dead" reference (when the bald guy with the crucifix gets chopped and eaten by female vampires!).The sex scenes are very well done and add an extra spice for the movie. I really dug the "conversion" scene when Michelle decides that she's ready for eternal life at the cost of a vampire. The red cinematography works pretty well when mixed with the violence and sensuality.The Cop/Detective sub-plot also works perfectly and reminds us of 80's Giallo but American style! And I mean a ridiculous female cop who becomes crazy and even slaughters a black male cop, and a gray haired Cop who kills the husband near the ending.The love story mixed with death and dramatic situations (like the jealous husband!) is something to notice because we don't see it regularly in modern Horror Cinema.Pappas is extremely sexy, provocative; I love her lips and her sensual face. Oliveria is simply great and delivers a "suave" vampire performance.The Direction is stylish and dark at the same time. I dug anytime the creepy fake cemetery appears and most of the death sequences are well done. The make-up is really good, specially when applied to Stephen. He truly looks like a dead man walking! I can't understand the hate, this is an original vampire movie with a powerful 80's feeling; that is creepiness mixed with glam.I can't understand what's going on with the uncertainty feeling in the film. I know it was about time to change to the 90's style but for 1987, I can feel the generational change very rushed. It's like the movie tried to cover what was about to come but without shaking the 80's glam.Anyways, I like these kind of movies; in the style of "The First Power", "Satan's Princess", "The Horror Show", and "Exorcist III".On it's way to become a cult classic, believe me. Time will make justice to it.We need more movies like this...but with a better execution.

Visually and dramatically, this movie heralds the Alliance Shift in Canadian film-making: the move from unpredictable, chaotic incompetence to shiny, meaningless competence. It brings to mind Stephen King's description of Prophecy: "Slick but also somehow cheesy, like a dead rat in a lucite block". And I use the word competence loosely; maybe 'professionalism' would be a better term. It's a vampire flick, so let's have a blue light going this way, a red light going that way, and instead of atmosphere you get a neon shop after hours: how 90s. (That's not even to mention the shots that didn't quite work out but got left in anyway: some of the indoor connecting stuff is Ug-Ly!) The funny thing, for a movie that is trying to channel Anne Rice, is how frumpy everyone is: the vampires have like wisdom fangs or something, they're way out at the side so they look all jowly and have to open verrry wide to display them. In full fetter the vampire cabbie looks like Gilbert Gottfried playing Al Lewis at a costume party. And Helen Papas comes off more like a line producer than a romantic lead; it's like she wandered in front of the camera by mistake. Or perhaps she was coerced by her pal the aspiring director.

So, I went into this movie thinking: Okay, a hairy Italian vampire who walks around without clothes on a lot of the time, how could it be that bad? Well, as it turns out, they found a way to do it. I was only uh.. 5 when this movie came out but, I still can't figure for the life of me what was going on during the script production. There was just a lot of things that didn't make sense. For example, why was Stephen going to die? How could he make himself die? By not drinking blood? The dialogue lead me to believe he had initiated something that would cause him to die, besides just not feeding. Also, why did the women seem to go insane after becoming 'lovers' with Stephen?

So the taxi driver, on the night shift, is a vampire. Powerful, mystical, spiritual, all the usual vampiry stuff... but hey, he's gotta earn a living, get some o' them dollars, right?? Wrong. The whole point of vampires is that they live a separate existence, feeding off of our race as they need. Their structured and mysterious society goes far beyond money, far beyond the need for the day to day, 9pm to 5am, shift work that the rest of us have to put up with. Taxi driver indeed! And it gets worse.Our vampire hero, the love, lust, and blood full monty only becomes a vampire when someone has tipped a bag of flour over him, and turned on some blue scenery lights. Yep, the make-up and lighting budget was a bit strained. Made in the late 80's, this film also seemed more linked to the "Fame!" series than anything else. These aren't actors, they're dancers! The story is set around an 80's dance production, and yes, they definitely did stick with hiring dancers... even the vampire hero midget, with what looks like an astounding physique, will not doubt turn out to be a dancer when put under the microscope.So, 80's dancing, leg warmers, shocking 80's music, awful 80's characters and situations... oh yes, the 80's was the decade when nothing really happened anywhere, unless there was an over choreographed modern dance show going on! And yes a ridiculous 80's script. There is nothing here for vampire or horror fans... nothing at all. A budget film, with budget cast and when the budget ran out they ended it with a sub-budget ending... it really is terrible. Sure, they "Wanna live for ever", and after a quick nibble in the park, they probably will! I voted a "2"