This Dhampir turns out to be NYPD Detective Rita Veder, still dealing with the death of her mentally ill mother (a paranormal researcher) some months before. As she and her partner, Detective Justice, investigate the murders on the ship, Rita begins having visions about a woman who looks like her, and starts asking questions about her mother's past. Rita is completely unaware of her vampire heritage, and believes she is losing her mind like her mother.
The next day, Justice finds Rita in her apartment, having slept all day with it completely darkened. Justice informs Rita about Nikki's murder, and vows to help understand her visions, as one correctly foretold Nikki's fate. Rita forgives Justice, but she almost bites him in the neck during a passionate kiss before catching her disappearing reflection in a mirror, and realizes she is becoming a vampire. She confronts Max about the changes occurring in her, and deduces he is also responsible for the murders she and Justice are investigating. Rita further finds out that Max was sent to her by her father; his death at the hands of vampire hunters was what drove Rita's mother insane.
Max tries to convince Rita that she will be happier as a vampire instead of remaining in the human world, where he feels she will remain out of place and misunderstood by society. Justice plans to rescue Rita from Max, and seeks advice from Dr. Zeko, a vampire expert they visited earlier in the murder investigation. Zeko explains that he knew Rita's mother while she did her research on the vampires of the Caribbean islands, and she surrendered to evil by falling in love with Rita's father. To avoid becoming a vampire, Rita must refrain from drinking the blood of an innocent human victim and Max must die before the next full moon. Zeko gives Justice an ancient dagger with instructions to either kill Max or risk being killed by Rita.
When Justice reaches her, Rita is lying inside Max's coffin, almost completely changed into a vampire, and threatens to bite Justice. Justice and Max fight, during which Justice loses Zeko's dagger on the floor. Max encourages Rita to kill Justice and complete the transformation, but she rejects life as a vampire and drives the dagger through Max's heart, causing him to disintegrate. Rita and Justice kiss.
Meanwhile, Julius, now completely decayed, enters his master's limousine. He finds Max's ring and puts it on, instantly transforming him into a fully intact member of the undead. Overjoyed, he tells Silas, "There's a new vampire in Brooklyn, and his name is Julius Jones!", as both of them drive off into the night to parts unknown.
According to Charlie Murphy, the movie was originally going to be a straight horror film with no laughs but Wes Craven brought a different focus to it. He also said: "Maximilian wasn't going to have any redeeming qualities. But Wes taught us that we must get the audience to care about our characters. And even if they didn't know any vampires personally, they would at least have to identify with the type of person he was."[9]
About the movie, Eddie Murphy said: "I've always wanted to do something where I was the villain in the movie. I love horror pictures and I was a big fan of Wes Craven. This movie started out as something small, this was a movie my company was just going to produce and the screenplay came together so well that I thought it will be a fun role to play. Because I got to do something kind of scary and had a safety net because the vampire can turn into other peoples. I get to be funny when I'm the preacher and I get to be funny when I'm the Italian guy. And the vampire is pretty straight and I got all these funny stuff happening around me. I felt it was a unique piece to do."[10]
Roger Ebert gave the film 1 star out of 4, saying: "The movie is unpleasant to look at. It's darker than Se7en, but without sufficient purpose, and my overall memory of it is people screaming in the shadows. To call this a comedy is a sign of optimism; to call it a comeback for Murphy is a sign of blind faith."[17] Variety wrote, in a positive review, "Helmer Wes Craven keeps the action moving despite some detours allowing Murphy to play other characters as he did in Coming to America. Murphy proves effective and menacing as the vampire in a rather brave departure from what might be expected. Bassett looks great once she gets vampired-up. The vampire effects and makeup are also impressive."[18]
At one point early in "Vampire in Brooklyn," the vampire's victim says, "Don't be pulling that old Blacula - - - - on me." If only he had been! "Blacula" (1972), actually one of the better movies from the blaxploitation period, was miles better than this disorganized mess. Eddie Murphy, whose career is seriously in need of reviving, should have thought twice before entrusting it to an amateur-night screenplay stapled together from a story by himself and his brothers.
The story: Maximillian (Murphy) is the last of a race of vampires who fled to the Caribbean from the Nosferatu-haters of Europe. He must find a mate or die. This goes against conventional vampire lore, in which vampires live forever and are quite happy to be alone, but never mind: He journeys to New York to find Rita (Angela Bassett), an NYPD detective whose late mother was an expert on Caribbean superstitions. Apparently the mother had a child fathered by a vampire. Can vampires reproduce? In this movie, they can. (Can you imagine their Lamaze classes? "Suck! Suck!") Maximillian's arrival in New York is accomplished in a scene of such broad racial stereotyping that Amos 'n' Andy would have handled it more tactfully. (The wide-eyed night watchman with the trembling flashlight just barely avoids saying "Feets, do yo' stuff!") Then we meet Rita and her partner Justice (Allen Payne), who is in love with her, although she seems to be somehow on a different wavelength. Soon they are involved in an impenetrable plot involving Maximillian and his ghoul (Kadeem Hardison), who is inconvenienced by body parts that keep falling off.
The movie is an equal opportunity offender; ex-model Jerry Hall turns up as a white woman who, attacked by the vampire, assures him, "I understand the Negro people." That a person of her age would say this might just barely have been possible when "Blacula" was made; to put it in a 1995 movie and hope for a laugh is a sign that the filmmakers are seriously out of touch.
The movie assumes that Rita, a no-nonsense cop with street smarts, would fall instantly for the vampire, who dresses and behaves like a pimp and sends his stretch limousine to pick her up - an ominous sign. He woos her in a slum apartment that he has "made over" with hexes, so that it looks elegant, but it's insulting to the Rita character to assume she'd keel over for that approach.
He wants to sink his fangs in Rita's neck, confirm her vampire status and break up her relationship with the good cop. Since the logic of the film requires him to lose in the end, that leaves us without a hero. Sure, Rita and Justice can get back together, but their relationship has been so choppy in the movie that we don't much care.
There is a vampire in Brooklyn trying to marry a woman that is his immortal love, so standard vampire tripe. This movie is SLOOOOOOOW and BOOOOOORING and I hated it. This is a movie that relies so heavily on long set pieces where Eddie Murphy seems to improvise, which is a problem in 1995 when his improvising is in critical condition. Charlie Murphy may have great stories but he sucks at writing scripts.
An early transphobic joke mars an otherwise not terrible vampire film. Strong references to Dracula give way to a mixture of Murphy's standard comedy and a beautiful gothic nightmare. Neither is as strong as it would be without the other, but it still kinda works, in no small part because Angela Bassett is always incredible. The comedy is the weakest link, yet there are some decent laughs. The horror is more of a dark romance, but there are moments of dramatic gore and violence that are effective. It just doesn't entirely come together.
This is Angela Bassett's second vampire movie. She previously starred in Innocent Blood (1992). Bassett would also play a vampire many years later in Season 5 of American Horror Story (2011), "Hotel".
During the opening narration, Maximilian indirectly references the character of Dracula when he talks about how the Nosferatu were originally from Egypt but were expelled thousands of years ago. Many of the vampires relocated to the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe. It doubles as somewhat of a "take that!" when he smugly mentions that "others of better taste--including myself--settled in a part of the Caribbean known as The Bermuda Triangle." Dracula lived in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania.
The film was released during the mid-1990s cycle of vampire films in the 1990s. Other films are Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Innocent Blood (1992), Dracula (1992), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Night Flier (1997), Blade (1998), and Vampires (1998), respectively.
 38c6e68cf9