Transylvania Twist

1989 "You'll Laugh All The Way To The Blood Bank!"
5.3| 1h30m| PG| en
Details

The nephew of a librarian must go collect a 200 year old book, "The Book of Ulthar." that should have never been checked out by the Evil Count Orlock cause one of the spells in it could bring about the end of the world. During his trip to the castle, he meets Marissa, a gorgeous rock star and heir to the castle's fortune. There they must confront the only other heir to the fortune and the book, Uncle Byron; and Uncle Byron and his 3 adopted nieces all have very, very, very broad smile.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Dartherer I really don't get the hype.
UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
ShootingShark Dexter Ward is charged with finding a rare tome, The Book Of Ulthar. Marissa Orlok receives a telegram informing her she must travel to a remote castle in Transylvania to attend her father's funeral. Both events seem connected, so Dexter and Marissa travel together, but a strange and terrifying destiny awaits them …If you've never heard of him, Wynorski is the talented auteur behind dozens of low-budget horror, comedy and sexploitation B-movies, and a genuinely fine filmmaker who sets out to entertain with everything he does. This is my favourite of his many films, a hilarious fast-moving pastiche of vampire movies in specific but horror cinema in general which affectionately spoofs everything from Night Of The Living Dead to Hellraiser. It also pokes fun at itself, with some wonderful moments like the Van Helsing dream sequence ("Holy Water - don't leave home without it !") and the mad plot is an amazingly clever hotch-potch of Son Of Frankenstein, Nosferatu, The Fall Of The House Of Usher and The Dunwich Horror, to name but a few. Wynorski ensures that things keep hopping along so that the next sight gag, funny line or creepy moment is never far away, and the cast all get into the spirit of it. Altman does some funny schtick, Barbie-doll Copley is great eye-candy and Vaughn is a good sport as the caped fiend, but it's really the support players who win the day. Mask is an absolute hoot as the vampire-slayer, Scrimm has lots of fun spoofing his Tall Man / Phantasm character as the ominous butler, Franken does a great spin on the Lionel Atwill / Kenneth Mars village constable, and Gabrielle (who is billed with a "?" for some reason) is a deliciously buxom vampire bride. There is also a fabulous thumping dumb-dumb piano score by Chuck Cirino, which sets the comic-spooky atmosphere perfectly and underscores all the best moments with little zingers. Brilliantly written by Wynorski and R.J. Robertson (who plays Hans Phull the barkeep) and cheesily produced by Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures, this is a must-see for all horror fans with a sense of humour and anyone else who just needs some cheering up. And remember if you're taking part in a lynch mob tonight, "I say we give up, forget everything and go home - no, wait a minute, I say we give up, forget everything, but not go home - no, we should forget everything, go home, but never give up !". Fabulous.
movieman_kev Jim Wynorski directed some extremely watchable B-movies in the beginning of his career. Deathstalker 2, Chopping Mall, Sorority House Massacre 2, to name a few. While all cheesy, they were all fun. This film, however, is not among his bests by a long shot. (it IS however writer R.J. Robertson's best, but compared to House 4, Munchie strikes back, or Beastmaster 2, that's not particularly a ringing endorsement) Dexter accompanies Marisa to Transylvania in order to get to her uncle's funeral and subsequent viewing of the video will. She stands to inherit the family mansion, but sinister Byron, her other uncle (played by Robert Vaughn, who must have needed money in a bad way). The jokes and so-called 'parodies' are lame, obvious, extremely unoriginal, and more likely to produce a groan than anything even remotely resembling a laugh. If you're a maschocist rent this along with the equally atrocious Transylvania 6-5000 for the completely laughing double feature from hell.My Grade: D-
Paul Andrews Transylvania Twist starts as Dexter Ward (Steve Altman) attends his uncle Ephram's (Jay Robinson) funeral, however mid ceremony Ephram jumps out of his coffin as good as new. Ephram confides in Dexter that he is the librarian to the world's biggest collection of books on the supernatural & the occult, he also says that someone named Marinas Orlock (Howard Morris) borrowed the 'Book of Ulthar' & never returned it. Ephram is worried as this book has the power to open doorways to other dimensions & let evil invade Earth, he ask's Dexter to visit Marinas's daughter Marissa (Teri Copley) & try to discover the whereabouts of the book & return it before it falls into evil hands. Before long Dexter has contacted Marissa who has, by coincidence, received a telegram from Victor Von Helsing (Ace Mask (!?)) informing her that her Father is dead & she needs to travel to Transylvania to claim her inheritance. Marissa & Dexter travel to a foreboding castle where they are greeted by Marissa's sinister uncle Lord Byron (Robert Vaughn) who seems very keen himself to get his hands on the Book of Ulthar...Directed by Jim Wynorski (whose very name sends shivers down my spine when I hear it in connection with a film I'm about to watch) before he started to hide under his usual 'Jay Andrews' pseudonym Transylvania Twist is definitely one of his better efforts & is in it's own silly way a decent film. The script by R.J. Robertson obviously doesn't take itself seriously & is a sort of Naked Gun style spoof of the horror genre. The gags & one-liners come thick & fast & to be fair to everyone involved a lot of it is actually quite amusing, I don't think there are many (if any) scenes which will have you rolling around on the floor in stitches but I must admit a fair amount of the film brought a smile to my face. It's a fun homage that doesn't try to be offencive like the Scary Movie films, it relies on visual gags & silliness but in a more playful vein. A lot of the films works, a TV advertisement in which a coffin salesman cracks lots of cheesy jokes for instance or the scene set in the local Transylvanian pub where everyone is called Hans, much hilarity ensues with puns & misunderstandings like 'Hans Up', 'Hans Down' & 'Hans Full', I know it's bad but it raised a chuckle & it's not that bad. The story itself is inconsequential & secondary to the comedy, there really isn't anything to it. Stick around until after the cast credits have gone at the end as you'll find out what happened to the angry village mob.Director Wynorski made this back in '90 when he actually cared & wasn't ashamed to use his own name on the credits, these days the guys a hack who churns out low budget crap of the worst kind & steals huge chunks of footage from other films (he only steals a few minutes here) & edits it into his own. The film is very well made & has a great atmosphere to it, the sets are actually pretty impressive. Loads of horror films are parodied, paid homage to & taken the mickey out of, The Exorcist (1973) complete with green puke, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dracula (1931), a Phantasm (1979) spoof which features Angus Scrimm (who starred in the Phantasm films) throwing his silver ball at our heroes who run off screen for a second only to come back on wearing baseball gear & have a quick game of baseball with the deadly sphere narrated by Stu Nahan (is he a big commentator in the Staes?), it has cameos from the likes of Leatherface, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead & it even features the cucumber alien monster from Roger Corman's (who was executive producer here) sci-fi film It Conquered the World (1956). Too many here to mention individually though & I'm sure many horror fans could have some fun recognising them all.Technically the film is pretty good, in fact it's rather impressive with nice production values throughout. The acting was OK & they even manage to include Boris Karloff as some footage of him is edited into a conversation with Dexter.Transylvania Twist is a surprisingly likable & amusing horror spoof, I doubt anyone would want to see it more than once & I also think to get the most out of the homages, references & the film as a whole you should have at least some sort of interest in the horror genre. Much better than expected & worth a watch.
pjhnice-1 I saw this because Angus Scrimm is in it he steals the film when he makes fun out of his most famous horror character The Tall Man from the Phantasm films. But the film is more like a spoof and should not be taken serious at all and keep a look out for Boris Karloff has he makes a special appearance.