When a group of bikers kill an occultist during a satanic ritual, the occultist transfers his spirit into a damaged motorcycle left behind by the bikers, creating the titular vehicle. Why is the occultist’s spirit a vampire? “Why not?” the filmmakers retort. This movie isn’t exactly meant to make sense so much as make you laugh and entertain you, goals it achieves in spades.
Written by Mycal Miller and John Wolskel, and directed by Dirk Campbell, I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle centers on Noddy (Neil Morrissey), who buys the possessed bike, unaware of its vampiric tendencies. Noddy lives with his girlfriend (Amanda Noar), whom he lies to about its price, establishing their relationship as totally healthy.
The motorcycle’s first victim is Noddy’s friend Buzzer (Daniel Peacock), who steals its fuel cap for unknown reasons (perhaps he’s simply a kleptomaniac?). The motorcycle doesn’t take kindly to this theft, and makes a bloody mess of Buzzer in retribution. This leads Noddy to contact Inspector Cleaver (Michael Elphick), a man who reeks of garlic — a gag that, without giving too much away, pays off in the end). It also leads to a nightmare Noddy has about Buzzer and a talking turd (really).
It should be clear Vampire Motorcycle is more comedy than horror, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in horror elements. Namely, the film is super gory, as the bloodsucking bike racks up a higher body count than Christine or any other possessed-vehicle movie could ever dream of. It also features an ass-kicking priest played by C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels, that predates Peter Jackson’s iteration of the character in Braindead (aka Dead Alive) by two years. If you’re a fan of that film, as well as the Evil Dead movies — or any other pictures that trade in splatter for laughs — you’ll no doubt love I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle. —Christopher Shultz