Odessa Filmworks released Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter on 15 January 2002 in Canada. It made the film festival rounds the previous year. So technically, they released it in 2001.
Lee Demarbre produced and directed it. It was his first feature film. Ian Driscoll wrote it as he did many of Demarbre’s films. They seem to be a good team. The ideas, story, dialogue, and production are all equally bizarre.
Graham Collins provides an eclectic and compelling score. He also wrote the music for the big song.
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter tells a fairly simple story. Ottawa is experiencing a critical lesbian shortage. It is so bad that even the clerics have noticed. The vampires, it seems, are attacking lesbians, thinking no one will care. So they go get Jesus, who has been baptizing people in the river. He jumps into action. He gets a haircut and new clothes. Then he starts smiting some vampire ass!
A few things worth noting:
- Most of the fights are classic martial arts parodies — including the great “smack” sound.
- Jesus defeats about 30 atheists before he really gets going with the vampires.
- The film includes one musical number.
- A mad scientist gives vampires skin transplants so that they can go out during the day.
- Jesus seems to fall in love with a female vampire hunter, but it turns out that she’s into girls — one girl in particular.
- He talks to his dad via a cherries jubilee puppet.
- God tells Jesus to hook up with El Santo.
- He talks to his mom via a little Virgin Mary lamp.
Some kinds of Christians would love this film. It presents a very liberal Jesus who wants people to think for themselves. You might say he is more like Brian. Or the Jesus of Godspell. But I do understand that many Christians here in the USA are more into the Revelation Jesus who kicks ass and takes names.
Regardless, all psychotronic fans should watch Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. It’s fun from beginning to end!
The DVD comes with a 14-minute video of a get-together with cast and crew and an audio commentary. Normally, I’d buy it but I’ve already gotten rid of the vast majority of my disc collection in preparation for a major move. But I probably will get it eventually. A Blu-ray was released in Germany. You can also watch it on Tubi and Plex.
If you like this, check out Monster from Bikini Beach.
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
There was a book/movie some years later called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (neither are any good; they’re not funny). I wonder if the title was swiped from this. Of course you can’t copyright the words “vampire hunter,” not yet.
I figure these people were playing on Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. I know a guy who used to do freelance work coming up with titles and tag lines for new movies. So the studios throw a lot of cash at this kind of thing. I could well imagine someone ripping off a title idea. But in this case, it’s based on a novel of the same name. BTW: I started watching it. Very much like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I turned it off after about 15 minutes. They start with an absurd but potentially fun premise and then drain all the fun out of it. Perhaps the biggest problem in Hollywood is that the people in charge don’t actually like films. This may also explain why they act like they are curing cancer. They don’t know what films are for!
The author of Pride/Zombies and Lincoln/Vampire (it’s the same guy; I skimmed both books) reminds me of me; clever, but not creative. So his agent or whomever steered him towards some projects where he could bank some serious cash being mildly clever and not creative at all. I don’t object; it’s hard for writers to make any money. Still, it’s so clearly an “I’m connected to the right people in publishing, so I can make bank” gimmick. I’m not jealous for me; I wouldn’t want to put that time/effort into having the right connections. But I am annoyed that much more creative people don’t have that opportunity.
Those books seem very much “I had one good idea!” I tried reading Pride. I got a couple of pages in and left it. I’m not sure the film was any worse. I think I got 5 minutes in that. But sure: I don’t begrudge the gay!