Film Review: Transylmania (2009)

SYNOPSIS:

Spoof horror in which a group of college kids do a semester abroad in Romania and realize that if the partying doesn’t kill them, the vampires just might!

REVIEW: 

Directed by David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand, the creators of “Dorm Daze” and National Lampoon’s “Dorm Daze 2” is a spanking new horror comedy right out of the vampire craze box. This spoof takes a traditional college humor approach and applies it directly to vampire lore and legend as a group of co-eds head out to Transylvania. Oren Skoog takes the lead as the goofball Rusty who also manages to hook up with a local per online video chat before he gets there.

The group is all about sex, partying and participating in the festivities as they haphazardly come upon a situation filled with all sorts of distractions. For one Rusty is an exact twin to the local vampire count Radu who has been searching for centuries for his long lost love Draguta Floca. Draguta was imprisoned long ago in a gift box after she was tricked by a vampire hunter who imprisoned her upon opening.

Radu is out to find the box and release his long time partner. Though he is not without help as his concubine of beautiful vampire girls assist him and toy with the co-eds. Rusty upon arrival meets his overseas acquaintance who turns out to be a beautiful girl with a deformed hump on her back. Add to that the fact that her father …..a midget, has a strange fascination with torture devices and the protecting of his daughter.

The alluring Jennifer Lyons plays the role of Lynne who happens to get caught in a possession of body when Draguat takes her over in spouts. Jennifer is the film’s hottie, but plays her role like a high pitched bimbo straight out of “Porky’s”. Of course, there’s plenty of the Brady Bunch gag of the 2 twins getting mistaken for each other. That is…… the powerful Radu and the meathead Rusty. Reviews on this one call it “laugh out loud” and a riot, but that moment is really condensed to 1 when Rusty mistakenly closes a laptop on his penis.

The whole gang mixes it up while attending costume parties, learning to kill vampires and just looking for ways to get laid in the meantime. There is plenty of old school horror association tied into this spoof on the whole campus madness theme, but is it enough?

I will admit there were moments I busted out laughing, but on the most part.. much of this is boring and just not that funny. The clever parts worked when they followed paths such as “American Pie” might…however there just wasn’t enough of those in the film to hold my attention. I’m surprised this made it to theatres as is really qualifies under those straight to DVD rentals you see National Lampoon churning out in numbers. The vampire lore kind of just made the film more campier than it needed to be which was a basic co-eds trying to score type film. I’m gonna have to pass on this as a sure fire bet as these films only work for me when they have a decent (and funny) script.

Though this isn’t the first horror comedy this year that didn’t really cut for me, as “Stan Helsing” was another that came, went, and disappointed fans. I’m ok with vampire films coming out, but not to the tune of trend following with weak scripts. I’d say if your looking for campy comedy then maybe just stick with the “Scary Movies” pack. There was alot that felt like the 80’s humor in this film that made it “feel” dated. I think if you want a low key film with some sex jokes added along the way then you’ll find satisfaction here. I’m sticking by the “lame” call out on this one that probably out me to sleep more often than laugh. 12 years will have a blast though!