MY GRANDPA IS A VAMPIRE {1991}

 HALLOWEEN LEFTOVERS:  A REALLY SWEET KIDS HALLOWEEN MOVIE WE SO-CALLED GROWN-UPS CAN REALLY ENJOY! 

This New Zealand film also has the alternate title of GRAMPIRE and that's just a terrific play on words!  An American boy named Lonny (Daytime TV Emmy winner Justin Gocke) travels from his home in California to visit his Aunt Leah (Pat Evison) and Grandpa Cooger (Al Lewis) in New Zealand.  Lonny and his friend Kanziora (Milan Borich) are inseparable once there and they also have a great time with Grandpa Cooger who is a ball of fun . . . . if a little unwell,  Before too long, Grandpa Cooger sadly dies and the family holds a funeral.  However, it turns out that Grandpa Cooger isn't really dead after all but a 400 year old vampire.  Initially shocked and terrified, Lonny & Kanziora realize that Grandpa is actually a good vampire who doesn't bite people's necks and drink their blood.  Yeecccccccchhhhhhh!   The boys go on some adventures with Grandpa and all is good until Aunt Leah's boyfriend Ernie (Noel Appleby) becomes convinced there's a vampire around and it's no one else buy Grandpa Cooger.  The boys have to make sure that Grandpa doesn't get staked by the overzealous Ernie.  Hijinks ensue.

MY GRANDPA IS A VAMPIRE is such a sweet film where the kids are actually written AS kids instead of little adults full of quips and sarcasm.  This is truly a film the likes of which we just don't see getting made anymore.  Perhaps it's something of the last of it's kind:  a kids film that doesn't subsist on poop jokes and cynicism which passes for most kids films today.  All right, now I'M sounding like a Grandpa too!  But it's true.  Oddly, this film gave me something of the Rankin/Bass FROSTY THE SNOWMAN vibe and I don't know why.  Maybe because that too features some kids trying to keep Frosty safe from an evil magician trying to steal his magic hat and end the snowman's existence.  But that's really the feeling I get from watching GRAMPIRE.  It's not a fairy tale feeling but more like those Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. And that's kinda the highest praise I can think of.  Al Lewis (ever famous as Grandpa Munster) is firing on all cylinders here. You can tell he loved every minute of making this film and was reportedly thrilled to get the opportunity to fly to New Zealand and make it.  Lewis does look a lot older and frailer than his actual age

but his energy is boundless and he even gives us a nifty dance routine towards the end of the film!  Gocke and Borich, the two boys, are also superb (and again I'm usually NOT a child actor fan).  But here both boys play their parts like actual boys there age with no attempts to be 'cute' or 'adorable' or any of that other crap I can't stand!  Both kids are really charming and Gocke is an excellent cryer; his tears after Grandpa Cooger's supposed death are heart-wrenching!  New Zealand favourites Pat Evison and Noel Appleby are excellent as well; adept at the comedy as well as the serious scenes.  Director David Blyth (who I only know from the horror film DEATH WARMED UP) does a beautiful job here and screenwriter Michael Heath (who wrote NEXT OF KIN {the horror film, that is} and the aforementioned DEATH WARMED UP) really knows how to write believable children as well as how to do a kids movie!  And final mention must be given to the genuine affection and rapport between Al Lewis and the two boys; Gocke and Borich (sounds like a comedy team -- and in a way they are) clearly love interacting with Lewis and ole Al just as clearly adores the two boys.  Justin Gocke (who not only won that Daytime TV Emmy but also appeared in the Farrah Fawcett flick THE BURNING BED) here has his last movie role.  Sadly, he would take his own life in 2014.  But even that sad fact can't diminish the absolute joy I got from this movie!  This is a movie that you can watch really any time of the year but I know I'll be making it a particular Halloweeny-season rewatch for that priceless feel of childhood nostalgia it gave me!