Vampire Zombies…From Space! (2024) [Blu-ray Review]
I walked into Vampire Zombies…From Space! expecting another low-budget horror comedy trading on nostalgia without earning it. What I found instead was a genuine labor of love that understands exactly what made 1950s B-movies work and how to lovingly skewer them. Director Michael Stasko and writers Jakob Skrzypa and Alex Forman have crafted something that plays like Mel Brooks directing an Ed Wood script with South Park sensibilities. Vampire Zombies…From Space! shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does, but somehow this Canadian indie delivers one of the most purely entertaining horror comedies in years.
Vampire Zombies…From Space! arrives on Blu-ray from Cleopatra Entertainment after a triumphant festival run that included over 25 international film festival selections. The disc represents the first home video release for this cult sensation.
Table of Contents
From Outer Space with Fangs: The Plot (See Title)
Vampire Zombies…From Space! opens in 1947, where young Mary witnesses her mother’s gloriously over-the-top gory death at the hands of Dracula himself. A decade later, the now-adult Mary (Jessica Antovski) still carries trauma from that night when strange things begin plaguing the small town of Marlow. Her father and sister vanish. Bodies turn up dead. Something wicked has returned.
Meanwhile, hard-nosed Chief Clarke (Andrew Bee) and eager transfer Detective Wallace (Rashaun Baldeo) start piecing together clues pointing toward something impossible: an army of vampire bat aliens from outer space coming to Earth to unleash zombified humans upon the world. The film plays this absurd premise with appropriate skepticism from the characters while the audience watches Dracula (Craig Gloster) build his undead army in real time.
Enter Wayne (Oliver Georgiou), a chain-smoking greaser with a heart of gold who seems to be the only person in Marlow who knows how to fight these monsters. When the military arrives under the command of the bombastic Colonel Talbit, our motley crew must band together to stop Dracula before his vampire zombie army overruns not just Marlow, but the entire world.
The title tells you everything you need to know about tone. Vampire Zombies…From Space! embraces its ridiculous premise with gleeful abandon.
Ed Wood’s Revenge: Deliberate B-Movie Brilliance
The genius of Vampire Zombies…From Space! lies in understanding the difference between making a bad movie and making a movie that lovingly recreates what made bad movies entertaining. Director Michael Stasko has studied the work of Edward D. Wood Jr. with the attention a film scholar might give to Hitchcock, then applied genuine craft to recreating that aesthetic.
Vampire Zombies…From Space! is shot in black and white, immediately evoking the drive-in era it parodies. But unlike some modern films that use monochrome as a gimmick, the cinematography by Ken Amlin is genuinely gorgeous. The lighting creates atmosphere. The compositions work. Stasko wanted his parody to look the part while playing every scene for comedy, and Vampire Zombies…From Space! achieves that balance consistently.
The film incorporates footage from public domain classics including Night of the Living Dead, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, White Zombie, Wings, and War of the Colossal Beast. These insertions honor the tradition of low-budget filmmakers stretching their resources while creating comedic juxtapositions with the original footage.
In the spirit of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, writers Skrzypa and Forman voiced all background and crowd scenes themselves, often simply saying words like “chatter,” “whisper,” and “mutter” on repeat. The sound design also incorporates effects from Star Wars, Spaceballs, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. These choices create a cumulative effect that rewards attentive viewers while never derailing the central narrative.
The Cult Icon Cavalry
Vampire Zombies…From Space! assembled an impressive roster of cult horror personalities for supporting and cameo roles.
Judith O’Dea
The legendary Judith O’Dea, who played Barbra in George A. Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead, appears as Vampira, one of Dracula’s Vampire High Council. O’Dea’s presence connects Vampire Zombies…From Space! to the foundational text of modern zombie cinema. Her performance earned a nomination for Best Supporting Performance at Atlanta’s Buried Alive Film Festival and contributed to a Best Ensemble win from Canada’s Terror in the Bay Film Festival.
Watching O’Dea in a parody that incorporates footage from her original Night of the Living Dead creates a delicious meta-textual experience. She’s clearly having fun with the material, bringing the same commitment she gave to Romero’s independent production over five decades ago.
Lloyd Kaufman
Troma Entertainment president Lloyd Kaufman appears as “The Masturbator,” a role exactly as dignified as it sounds. Kaufman has built his entire career on transgressive comedy horror, and his presence in Vampire Zombies…From Space! signals to genre fans that nothing will be sacred. The casting represents a perfect match between performer and material.
David Liebe Hart
The eccentric puppeteer from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! plays Nosferatu, bringing his unique energy to Vampire Zombies…From Space! Hart’s cult following ensures the film will find audiences beyond traditional horror comedy fans.
Simon Reynolds
Known for The Gate II and Saw VI, Reynolds portrays the rambling, war-hungry Colonel leading the military offensive against the space vampires. His over-the-top performance captures the paranoid military authority figures that populated Cold War-era science fiction.
The Ensemble: Playing It Straight (Sort Of)
The core cast of Vampire Zombies…From Space! understands that comedy parody works best when the actors commit fully to absurd material.
Jessica Antovski brings genuine emotional weight to Mary, a trauma survivor facing the monster that killed her mother. Her performance grounds Vampire Zombies…From Space! during its more frenetic sequences. When Mary confronts Dracula in the climax, Antovski makes you care about the outcome despite the surrounding chaos.
Andrew Bee plays Chief Clarke as a flask-guzzling authority figure straight out of 1950s cop dramas. His deadpan reactions to increasingly insane situations provide consistent laughs. Rashaun Baldeo’s Detective Wallace serves as audience surrogate, expressing appropriate disbelief at vampire zombies from space while eventually accepting the impossible.
Oliver Georgiou steals scenes as Wayne, the greaser hero who seems to have wandered in from a different movie entirely. His James Dean-by-way-of-Fonzie characterization perfectly captures the rebel archetypes that populated drive-in cinema.
Craig Gloster’s Dracula commands the villainous proceedings with theatrical menace. He’s playing a different kind of Dracula than Lugosi or Lee, one aware of his own absurdity while remaining genuinely threatening within the film’s universe.
Michael Stasko: The Auteur of Affectionate Parody
Director Michael Stasko has been making independent films since the early 2000s, building toward Vampire Zombies…From Space! through projects like Things to Do (2006), Iodine (2009), The Birder (2013), and Boys vs. Girls (2020). The latter won Best Feature Film and Audience Choice at the Chicago Comedy Film Festival and starred Colin Mochrie and Kevin McDonald.
Stasko serves as writer, director, producer, editor, composer, and cinematographer on many of his projects, demonstrating the kind of multi-hyphenate control that characterized the B-movie auteurs he parodies. He currently teaches Communication and Film Studies at the University of Windsor, bringing academic rigor to his appreciation of low-budget cinema.
In interviews, Stasko has compared Vampire Zombies…From Space! to Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, noting that effective parody requires beautiful production design and gorgeous cinematography. The jokes work because the craft is real. You’re laughing with the filmmakers, not at incompetence.
From High School to Horror Festival: The Origin Story
Vampire Zombies…From Space! began in 2010 when writer Jakob Skrzypa, a massive Mel Brooks fan, watched Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space and realized B-horror films were ripe for parody. He wrote and began shooting an early version while still a high school student at Cardinal Carter Catholic Secondary School.
Most of the original Mini-DV footage was accidentally deleted by the cameraman, and the script was considered lost. In 2017, Skrzypa found a hard copy and brought it to writing partner Alex Forman. The two rewrote the script throughout 2017-2018, meeting weekly at an Essex Tim Hortons. Their new version retained the 2010 source material while incorporating influences from South Park, Monty Python, and Robert Rodriguez.
This origin story mirrors the scrappy production histories of the films Vampire Zombies…From Space! parodies. Like Ed Wood piecing together footage from multiple sources, Skrzypa and Forman built their movie from whatever resources they could gather. The Tim Hortons detail is perfectly Canadian.
The Festival Circuit Triumph
Vampire Zombies…From Space! premiered at the Eerie Horror Festival on October 4, 2024, launching a festival run that would include over 25 international selections. The film screened at Austria’s Fright Nights Film Festival, Canada’s Terror in the Bay Film Festival, the Windsor International Film Festival, and Belgium’s Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF).
Audience reactions have been ecstatic. Festival attendees describe Vampire Zombies…From Space! as an instant cult classic, predicting it will become a staple of midnight movie programming. The film earned ensemble cast recognition from Terror in the Bay and supporting performance nominations for Judith O’Dea.
WIFF executive director Vincent Georgie called Vampire Zombies…From Space! “joyous, funny and ridiculous” and predicted sold-out screenings. The Windsor premiere paired appropriately with the festival’s annual Rocky Horror Picture Show presentation.
Technical Specifications: Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray
Cleopatra Entertainment presents Vampire Zombies…From Space! on Blu-ray in a region-free release playable in all territories.
Video Quality
The black and white photography translates well to high definition. Contrast is strong, with deep blacks and clean whites that honor the 1950s aesthetic the filmmakers sought to recreate. The intentional use of obvious green screen effects and miniatures is clearly visible, which is the point. You’re meant to see the seams.
Film grain appears natural throughout. The transfer preserves the low-budget texture without introducing digital artifacts. For a microbudget production, Vampire Zombies…From Space! looks better than it has any right to.
Audio Quality
Dialogue remains clear throughout, essential for a comedy where verbal jokes matter. The eclectic sound design incorporating effects from various sources is presented without distortion. The original score complements the pastiche aesthetic.
Special Features
The Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray includes:
- Bonus Slide Show: Behind-the-scenes imagery from production
- Bonus Promotional Clips: Marketing materials created for the festival run
- Trailers: Including the original theatrical trailer
The supplements provide context for the production without overwhelming the main feature. Additional materials may emerge as Vampire Zombies…From Space! builds its cult following.
The Lost Skeleton Connection
Vampire Zombies…From Space! invites comparison to The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001), Larry Blamire’s affectionate parody of 1950s science fiction that found a devoted audience on home video. Both films understand that mocking something requires loving it first. Both use black and white photography and period-appropriate dialogue to create immersive pastiche.
Where Vampire Zombies…From Space! differs is its willingness to incorporate contemporary crude humor alongside period parody. The Lloyd Kaufman casting signals that Troma-style transgression will appear alongside the gentler Ed Wood jokes. This combination broadens the film’s appeal while risking tonal inconsistency. Whether it works depends entirely on viewer taste for raunchy comedy.
Hundreds of Beavers Comparison
Recent independent horror comedy Hundreds of Beavers achieved critical acclaim and cult status through similar commitment to low-budget aesthetics rendered with high craft. Both films demonstrate that microbudget filmmaking can produce genuinely entertaining results when imagination compensates for resources.
Vampire Zombies…From Space! shares Hundreds of Beavers’ anything-goes spirit while working in a different comedic tradition. The 1950s B-movie parody has its own established conventions that Stasko, Skrzypa, and Forman execute with precision.
Where to Buy Vampire Zombies…From Space!
Vampire Zombies…From Space! is available on Blu-ray from Cleopatra Entertainment and through retailers including Amazon and MVD Shop. The disc is priced at $24.95. DVD and signed Blu-ray options are also available.
In Canada, the film is distributed through Indiecan / Red Water Entertainment.
Related Films and Recommendations
Fans of Vampire Zombies…From Space! should seek out the films it parodies and pays homage to. Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space remains essential viewing for understanding what Stasko and company are riffing on. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra offers similar affectionate parody with different comedic sensibilities.
For more Night of the Living Dead connections, the original 1968 Romero film is available in numerous editions, including Criterion’s definitive release. Judith O’Dea appears in Night of the Living Dead: Genesis for those wanting to see her return to the Barbra role.
Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma filmography provides context for that strain of Vampire Zombies…From Space! humor. The Toxic Avenger remains Troma’s signature achievement.
Vampire Zombies Final Verdict: They Came from Canada
Vampire Zombies…From Space! asks us to believe that a group of Canadian filmmakers meeting at Tim Hortons could create a loving tribute to American drive-in cinema that outshines most Hollywood horror comedies. The evidence is on screen. This microbudget production delivers consistent laughs, genuine affection for its source material, and enough craft to justify its aspirations.
The Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray presents Vampire Zombies…From Space! with appropriate quality for a film that deliberately recreates low-budget aesthetics. The region-free disc ensures international fans can experience what festival audiences have been raving about.
I walked into Vampire Zombies…From Space! expecting disposable genre fare. I walked out understanding why festival programmers predicted instant cult classic status. Sometimes the movies made with love by people who understand exactly what they’re doing turn out to be the ones worth remembering. Dracula’s most dastardly plan yet might just be infiltrating your home video collection.
Technical Specifications
Vampire Zombies…From Space! (2024) Cleopatra Entertainment Blu-ray
- Disc Format: Blu-ray (Region 0 / All Regions)
- Running Time: 98 Minutes
- Color: Black & White
- Rating: Not Rated
- Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
- Audio: Stereo
- Subtitles: English
- Release Date: January 20, 2026
- MSRP: $24.95
Cast: Jessica Antovski (Mary MacDowell), Andrew Bee (Chief Ed Clarke), Rashaun Baldeo (Detective Wallace), Oliver Georgiou (Wayne), Craig Gloster (Dracula), Judith O’Dea (Vampira), Lloyd Kaufman (The Masturbator), David Liebe Hart (Nosferatu), Simon Reynolds (Colonel Talbit), Jakob Skrzypa, Alex Forman, Michael C. Gwynne
Crew: Director: Michael Stasko | Writers: Jakob Skrzypa, Alex Forman, Michael Stasko | Producers: Theodore Bezaire, Gerry Lattmann, Michael Stasko | Cinematography: Ken Amlin | Editors: Jakob Skrzypa, Michael Stasko | Production Company: The Dot Film Company | Distribution: Cleopatra Entertainment (US), Indiecan / Red Water Entertainment (Canada), Black Mandala (World Sales)
Festival Selections: Over 25 international film festivals including Eerie Horror Festival (World Premiere), Fright Nights Film Festival (Austria), Terror in the Bay Film Festival (Canada), Windsor International Film Festival, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF)
Awards: Best Ensemble Cast (Terror in the Bay Film Festival), Best Supporting Performance Nomination for Judith O’Dea (Buried Alive Film Festival)
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