This year I decided to start my Fright Fest out with a different kind of film. Imagine if someone had the idea to blend one of the straight to dvd american pie films with a vampire film? Well, the Frankenstein of a creation you would end up with is Transylmania.
Transylmania follows the comedic sex-ploits of a group of college students that decide to attend a semester or so at a Transylvanian college located inside a castle. When one of them inadvertently discovers an ancient music box containing the soul of a vampire, the whole group is placed in great danger.
That's pretty much it to the plot. The first half of the film is nothing but sex jokes and focuses on the students getting acclimated to their new school. This part is exceedingly dull and painfully unfunny (but what do you expect from the geniuses that brought us Dorm Daze 1 and 2). The sex jokes feel very forced and aren't funny in the slightest. During this portion I had to struggle with the urge to turn off this film, I'm glad I was able to resist because the 2nd half of the film is where Transylmania more or less begins to pick up.
The 2nd half of the film is where chaos begins to ensue, and the sex jokes begin to disappear. This is where everything starts to come together and where the build up to the climax begins. A female student opens the music box and is possessed with the spirit of the vampire, this wakes up the vampire's lover who commences a hunt to reunite with her, a vampire slayer mistakes one of the students for another vampire slayer and teams up with him to fight off the undead hordes, and another student bears a striking resemblence to the main vampire (I'm sure this won't come into play in any way....SARCASM). There are a few surprisingly funny bits in the 2nd half of the film, and it is here that Transylmania begins to actually resemble something FUN (I know, surprising, right?) The climax that everything is leading up to is incredibly zany to an insane degree, but I like that.
The acting seen in Transylmania is never anything noteworthy. The few college leads do a good enough job, fulfilling what is required of them (which is the bare minimum), and the script is seldomly clever enough to warrant attention. With that said though, I must say that I slowly found myself beginning to enjoy the film despite it's coffin sized flaws.
So if you enjoy the vampire genre or the straight to DVD American Pie sequels I suppose that there is a chance you could enjoy Transylmania. It's definitely NOT a film for everyone, it's filled with unfunny sex jokes and just about every character cliche in the book. Transylmania is really not a good film, but I enjoyed it for what it was: an attempt at mixing two very different genres, and while the result is less successful than either genre alone, Transylmania still manages to have fun with the proceedings. The only question is: Will most viewers find Transylmania fun too? I say give it a try, what's the worst that can happen?
1.5/5 STARS
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