Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

Director(s): Wes Craven

Writer(s): Charles Q. Murphy, Michael Lucker, Chris Parker

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Angela Basset

I recently enjoyed Being Eddie, the documentary that chronicled Eddie Murphy’s amazing career from teen stand up comic to sketch comedy star to stand up icon to one of the most beloved movie stars of our generation. I honestly forgot how much of an impact the guy had in the entertainment industry in general, like how the guy basically SAVED Saturday Night Live since he joined right when Lorne Michaels, its creator, decided to leave the show and the show itself was hanging on by a thread; or how he is considered to be one of the greatest stand up comedians of all time with comparisons to Richard Pryor and how he lead the way for icons like Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle. Then you get into the movies; this was the person who laid the foundation for the idea that black-led movies can be mainstream and make the money that any other movie can make and therefore, should be normalized in the industry. With hits like Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places and Coming to America, Eddie made it clear that money is green no matter who is on screen and the industry opened up…at least a bit more than before. 

Eddie would go on to make movies of all kinds of different genres, from comedies, to action and even found immense fame in voice acting with his role as Donkey in the Shrek series! Now I think you know at this point where this is going, but yes, there was a time where the legend did dip his toe into the world of the macabre and most people have already forgotten about this gem of a flick but that’s where yours truly comes in so let me be your sherpa in guiding you to the long lost treasure of the Eddie Murphy horror-comedy flick, Vampire in Brooklyn. 

First off, something already fun about this flick is that WES muthaf*ckin’ CRAVEN himself directed this thing! I forgot about that until I was gave this movie a re-watch and saw the name flicker onto the screen! Another fun factoid is that his beloved brother, Charlie Murphy (RIP King), was one of the writers of this flick which I also didn’t know until recently (see why giving movies a re-watch is a good thing folks?). The movie itself from a plot standpoint is very straightforward and probably not the most original setup with Eddie playing an old and powerful vampire, Maximillian who lands in Brooklyn via ship and gets into all sorts of comedic shenanigans when dealing with what you think 90s urban Brooklyn has to offer (e.g., gangs, drugs, etc.). You find out that Max is the last of his kind and in order to ensure the survival of his species, he must turn a specific woman who unknowingly is half-vampire before the next full moon. 

Needless to say, a decent chunk of the humor stems from the idea of a vampire dealing with thugs and gangsters with the whole “ghetto” fish out of water angle but most of the humor for me was the magic of Eddie Murphy playing to his strengths of playing multiple characters! This has been evident in his breakout movies and continues that tradition with this flick with Eddie playing a criminal, a priest, etc. with hilarious results. The horror part of this movie is surprisingly on point, well, perhaps I shouldn’t say surprisingly because we do have Craven directing the darn thing but I guess when you have Murphy yukkin’ it up as a priest, you forget you’re also in a horror flick but by the time you get to the kills and the practical effects, you snap RIGHT back into horror world and yeah, it holds up to other 90s horror flicks as far as solid practical effects, creature feature makeup, etc. but you get the added bonus of having Eddie Murphy give some sort of witty quip after every kill which then sprinkles back the comedy aspect of the movie. 

One of the most interesting parts of the Murphy documentary was the transparency on his movie career, especially the period where perhaps he was taking on too many roles to the point where he was questioning whether the people were getting tired of his brand of humor. Basically, let’s be honest; like all movie stars, they all can’t be hits, right? Even someone as legendary as Eddie Murphy had a string of stinkers and the point making is that it would be very easy to lump this flick into that pile but I’d defend this movie because the story is solid, acting was fine and for a horror movie, it stands up to other horror flicks that were released at the time, basically it’s a SOLID movie. Now, compared to other Eddie Murphy bangers? Yeah, probably not in the top 10, but in THIS vault, we accept this flick as a solid horror-comedy flick, so we welcome this gem with open arms. 

Give this movie a watch and then check out the Eddie Murphy Doc (waiting for DAT CHECK Netflix). 

Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.