suckD&E Entertainment
2009
R

“Hey, ya know, I know how you’re feeling though. You’re getting old. Hmm? I’m getting old. Rock and roll is getting old. Have you considered, uh…Japanese hip hop?”

For the past decade or so, I’ve found myself rather hesitant in checking out newer vampire movies. For the most part, a lot of the glut of these fang-fests, entries into the so-called Post Modern Vampire genre fall under either the pretentious romantic type, thanks to Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer, or some kind of action flick with the pretentious vamps knowing mad Kung Fu. Most of these make me want to pull out my eyeballs and stick pointy things in my ears.

But, once in a while, I come across something that isn’t some boring, run-of-the-mill vamp flick, and I end up having fun. Suck, I’m happy to say, is one of these movies.

Billed as a “rock n’ roll vampire musical”, at first I thought Suck was going to be another one of those lame spoofs that I might get a couple of chuckles out of. Fortunately, since this is one of the ones on Netflix streaming, I didn’t have to spend much for the watching, in case it did turn out to be that.

Also fortunately, this movie didn’t, ahem, suck at all. There was no way around that pun, intentional or not. But, really what we got is a very stylistic and entertaining vampire movie based around a Canadian indie rock group that’s struggling to make it into the big time, playing clubs and dives and hoping to get a spot in a prestigious music showcase festival in New York and not getting screwed by their smarmy manager. Then, their bass player gets turned into a vampire by a 300-year-old musician vampire, and their popularity begins to soar, as high as the body count.

Suck is an enjoyable surprise. Sure, the band’s music isn’t in my personal taste, but that’s a very minor quibble, as the soundtrack does feature some good cuts from artists like Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Alice Cooper, the Velvet Underground interspersed within. The story is great, the cast is enjoyable, and the cameos and parts from the likes of Alice Cooper and his daughter Calico, Iggy Pop, Moby, Henry Rollins and Malcolm McDowell works to the film’s strengths, really. The way it’s edited and shot keeps things at a brisk pace, with some quirky stop-motion and nice visuals.

Overall, yeah…Suck does the vampire genre proud. I urge everyone to check this movie out for something different. Two METAL horns up…