A small town is besieged by… well… Vampire Zombies… From Space! in Michael Stasko’s hilarious throwback to 50s/60s sci-fi horror, on physical media by Cleopatra Entertainment.
The title sells the movie. Like Snakes on a Plane or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, a title like Vampire Zombies… From Space! directly and succinctly tells the story and tone of the flick. Vampire Zombies (I’ll shorten the title to this for the review for ease of typing, reading, and the horrors of spell/grammar check) delivers on the promise of the types of characters: alien vampires that sometimes also zombies; but most of the zombies are not from space, but I digress. Director Michael Stasko creates a fun film that will earn laughs and smiles from its audiences, the sort of flick one “finds,” laughs hard with one group, and then passes on to a new group. You know, a cult flick. Heck, I’ve been talking its praises since seeing it at the Bone Bat Comedy of Horrors Film Festivals. Seattle’s own 11-hour butt-numb-a-thon of 4 dozen shorts, two features, musical guests, prizes, and all around fun, featured Vampire Zombies as the afternoon feature, where is garnered huge laughs, cheers, and chatter (Btw, if you’re in PNW make it a point to come to SIFF Uptown to join us April 11th. That’s my birthday. So make a present in coming out). I was a bit worried while popping the disc in that it wouldn’t play as well on second viewing alone in my living room instead of a Cinerama screen, but I’m glad to say it does.
Point is: Vampire Zombies is a hell of a lot of fun, riffing on a long-gone style of filmmaking updated with a loving cast and crew (often the same people), with a fun edge of ribald humor capping the top for additional laughs. The sort that casts Troma’s own Uncle Lloyd Kaufman as a chronic public masturbator. Unlike many modern films that use on-the-nose titles and the nature of filmmaking, Vampire Zombies is not a cynical cash grab. It hits the same sort of vibe as Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and its sequel. Lost Skeleton and Vampire Zombies both take the piss out of the 50s and early 60s sci-fi horror of the Ed Wood and ilk variety, but in a loving, not derisive method. 
The script by Stasko with Jakob Skrzpa and Alex Forman is smartly put together, creating interesting characters and giving them a ton of great lines and snappy moments. The plot is similar to Plan Nine: aliens are resurrecting people to create a world-conquering army. The aliens are all vampires, of course! Led by Dracula, in the pop-culture Legosi look (remember Universal’s Dracula Bela Legosi was in Plan Nine, filming when he died). There are a few other types for the fun, including Night of the Living Dead’s Judith O’Dea as the Elvira-looking Vampira (to again reference Plan Nine actors), a 1991 Coppola style, and Tim and Eric’s David Leibe Hart as a Nosferatu in cameos as a Council of Vampires. It moves quickly, bringing so many jokes of character and action. It might be a little long in the sharpened vampire tooth, but I can pass since this is the sort where you toss all the jokes at the wall, every idea you have.
I’m impressed by how well this is all put together. There’s a whole lot of love and care to the details of the world, sell it as a full-on feature, deliver the gore, and replicate the style. So much care, it’s winky but not lazy. Everyone is playing the style of Ed Wood, Them, the various Jack Arnold features, and more, purposely a little forceful and stylized. Particular love to Craig Gloster as Dracula, Shane Nelson as the Greaser Hero, Military leader Simon Reynolds really relishing his role, and Jessica Anovski as Mary, the ingenue. I love all the little touches of Plan Nine. Not just the basics of the plot, but the UFOs and bats on strings, with human-made sound effects, but the way folks are cavalier about where they point the guns. Little moments like that show the love and knowledge. It looks fantastic with the black-and-white, helping to mask the plenty of greenscreen, but also harkening to the method and style it’s replicating.
But in modern times, things can be pushed up further. As noted above, it’s far more raucous than Wood could have ever asked for. Continual sex jokes, plenty of masturbation talk, wonderful strings of swearing, jokes of pedophilia (a running joke with the Mayor), and more. And blood. Far gorier than this sort. So many explosions, body-ripping, stabbings, and just gallons of gore. Also, to use the meme: if I had a nickel for each time a 2025 film had the legs and torso of a split person have a fight sequence, I’d have two nickels, etc., with this and Predator: Badlands.
Overall, a hilarious and crowd-pleasing parody that may be a little long. But it’s incredibly sincere among the crudity in humor and methods. For fans of goofy B-movies of the ’50s, creature features, and just all-around fun flicks, Vampire Zombies… From Space! lands.
PS – From the similarity in titles, I’ve had The Dickies’ title song for Killer Klowns from Outer Space during my whole time with the disc.
The Package
Vampire Zombies from Space! arrives on Blu-ray and DVD (separately). It comes in a standard case with a single disc. The sleeve has the poster on the front, info on the back.
The Presentation
With the black-and-white cinematography, Vampire Zombies looks fantastic, with the sharpness of digital monochrome. I loved the way the caked-on vampire make-up looked, which highlights the grading across the grey. Subtitles are in English.
The Features
Commentary
A whole slew of cast and crew (hey, that rhymes), many of whom work both sides of the camera, give an energetic discussion of all the nuts and bolts of making something like this with little cash but a lot of ideas. It’s awesome hearing the stories of how things were pulled off.
Cast and Crew Interview Documentary
A nice collection of interviews and behind-the-scenes of film from the ground up. As I noted on Evil Dead Rise, I love digging into the hows of making something like this work, with a love for preproduction and cleverness. (16m)
Judith O’Dea
The Night of the Living Dead actress talks about how she got involved and the fun she had on set (3m)
Troma head Kaufman has an extended cameo as a known masturbator, and he heaps love of the indie spirit, of course. In typical Lloyd fashion, he gets the title wrong. 3m
Deleted Scenes
Five scenes, about six minutes in total, have some solid jokes.
Slideshow
Color photos of the shoot, cool to see the different point of view and the can-do attitude.
Windsor International Film Festival Highlights
Footage and interviews from the screening at the listed festival. Seeing the wide amount of happiness made me smile, reminding me of how it worked at BoneBat (7m)
Trailer
It also features seven trailers for other Cleopatra Entertainment features.
Final Notes
Vampire Zombies… From Space! is a loving, fun, hilarious, over-the-top ’50s throwback with more than enough additional gore and crudity. It’ll be a blast for your next pizza and movie night with like-minded pals. The commentary and behind-the-scenes are solid as well. Give love to indie filmmaking and check out the disc!