Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) on Netflix
R19951h 40mComedyFantasyHorror
Maximillian, the last vampire of a Caribbean bloodline, comes to Brooklyn to find a half-vampire mate. Detective Rita Veder, troubled by visions she cannot explain, does not know what she is.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb4.7/1027,122 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes11%
Trailer
Plot summary
A ravaged ship drifts into a Brooklyn dockyard, and inspector Silas Green finds its hold full of corpses and a wolf that slips away into the city. The wolf is Maximillian, an ancient vampire and seemingly the last of his race, who steps in when his co-worker Julius Jones runs into the gangsters he owes money to. Max is shot and heals at once, then forces Julius to drink his blood. A vampire on his own is doomed, so Max has come to Brooklyn hunting a woman of mixed vampire and human blood, the only one he knows of, to bring her over before the next full moon. She is NYPD Detective Rita Veder, mourning her mother and haunted by visions her colleagues mock. With her partner Detective Justice she works the ship murders.
Cast
- Messiri Freemanas Eva, Julius' Girl
- Kelly Cinnanteas Policewoman Photographer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- On 3 November 1994, stunt performer Sonja Davis, who doubled for Angela Bassett, was critically injured performing a 42-foot fall in Los Angeles: she struck a wall and missed the safety airbag, and died of her injuries eleven days later.
- Davis's family filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paramount Pictures, Eddie Murphy Productions, Wes Craven and stunt coordinator Alan Oliney, and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited Paramount for four violations and fined the studio $29,000.
- During filming, Clifton Powell abruptly quit a role in the movie after an unnamed sound operator was allegedly racist toward him, and the film's producers, who were informed about the incident, chose not to do anything about it.
- Murphy was reportedly reluctant to film certain scenes for religious reasons, and at times Angela Bassett had to perform opposite Murphy's stand-in; the star “would sometimes remain in his trailer for hours, leaving the crew waiting”.
- The visual effects were produced by Hammerhead, then a new studio, using early digital tools for morphing, glowing eyes and vampire transformations; visual effects supervisor Thad Beier recalled the limits: “We had to buy four-gigabyte drives that cost $1,400 each - that was all the money we had.”
- Murphy had considered directing the film himself and reportedly envisioned rapper Flavor Flav playing the vampire's ghoul companion; Paramount instead brought in Wes Craven, best known for A Nightmare on Elm Street, whose involvement shifted the project toward a more serious tone.
- A large-scale action sequence originally set on the Brooklyn Bridge was abandoned after budget cuts, and the climax was relocated to the vampire's apartment instead.
- Murphy expressed interest in casting Jada Pinkett as the female lead, but the role eventually went to Angela Bassett, who had previously worked with Craven on the short-lived NBC series Nightmare Cafe.
