Synopsis/Details
Title: "Vampires?"
Genre: Action, Horror Comedy
Setting: Late 1950s, small forest near an idyllic French village, Paris.
Part 1: The Beginning
1. Opening Scene:
Black and white imagery.
A small forest near a French village.
A vampire-toothed baby emerges from a hole, bites a five-year-old girl (Margot) with a basket, and disappears back into the hole.
2. Transformation:
Margot loses consciousness and wakes up. She heads home as if nothing happened.
At home, Margot's older brother (Luc) cuts his finger with a knife in the kitchen.
The image turns to color as Margot sees the blood, attaches her lips to it, and bites her brother, turning him into a vampire.
3. Family Dinner:
During a family dinner, Luc bites his bride-to-be (Maude) slightly; she runs away.
Luc also bites other relatives, thus sequentially transforming the entire village into vampires.
Part 2: The Invasion
1. Village to City:
The newly turned vampires move to Paris for blood.
Introduction of Sam, a young, ambitious American orphan raised by his uncle and aunt, who is in Paris to conclude a lucrative contract for his uncle's chemical/pharmaceutical company.
2. Sam's Confusion:
Sam notices the strange behavior of the partner company's bosses and the townspeople.
They seem uninterested in money and cast sidelong glances at him, even attempting to attack him.
3. Meeting Maude:
Sam encounters Maude, partially transformed with one pointed fang, as she runs for safety from her pursuing groom.
Sam drags Maude to his hotel room; they share a humorous, erotic kissing scene involving that pointed fang.
Maude explains the situation to Sam, and they decide to fight back.
Part 3: The Plan
1. Seeking Help:
Sam and Maude visit Maude's great-grandmother, considered a witch, in the forest from the beginning scene.
The great-grandmother reveals that only aspen stakes can defeat vampires.
2. Assembling the Team:
Armed with sharpened aspen clubs, Sam and Maude return to Paris.
They realize they need a team to defeat the vampires.
Sam is sure that even vampires will not refuse to cooperate for good money, and he turns out to be correct. Surprisingly, it is not criminals and businessmen who join their team for the sake of money—they're mainly clochards, clergy, politicians, officials, and university teachers, provided they are periodically fed with donor blood.
3. Preparing for Battle:
A retired general from the team came up with the idea of shooting aspen toothpicks from slingshots, which, hitting the vampire in the back of the neck, kill no worse than an aspen stake driven into the back.
Sam and Maude develop a strategy for an all-out street war against the vampires.
Part 4: The Battle
1. Street War:
Scenes of street fights between Sam's team and vampires are filmed in the style of a noir parody.
Comedic moments arise, such as when a stake is driven not into a vampire's back but into a stomach, it causes uncontrollable laughter instead of death.
2. Unexpected Victory:
The team manages to kill all the vampires.
The streets of Paris and the Seine are littered with vampire corpses.
Realization sets in that with all the vampires dead, there's no one left to do business with.
Part 5: The Resolution
1. Government Intervention:
Sam calls his uncle, who contacts a congressman, who contacts the White House.
The American president reaches out to the French president.
The scene at Cape Canaveral Airfield shows capsules labeled Pfizer-V being loaded into planes.
2. Restoration:
Hundreds of NATO-labeled agricultural aircraft pollinate Paris with a white powder.
Dead vampires on the streets come to life and shake off the white powder. With characteristic French jokes, they help each other pull out aspen stakes and toothpicks and then go about their daily business.
The issue of Sam's team, which is still in a vampire state, is also resolved. Scenes of playful fencing with aspen stakes and shooting toothpicks at each other, Maude sprinkles white powder on everyone, and everyone comes to life.
3. Conclusion:
Sam signs the contract.
Sam and Maude fly to the USA, receiving their aunt and uncle's blessing for marriage.
Maude's vampire fang is pulled out at the dentist's office.
The final scene shows Sam and Maud getting married in a church under the direction of a Catholic priest from the anti-vampire team.
Epilogue:
Nine months later, Maude gives birth in Sam's presence in a maternity hospital. The baby smiles, and you see he has one vampire fang, just like his mother.
Story & Logistics
Story Type:
Hero's Journey
Story Situation:
Daring enterprise
Story Conclusion:
Happy
Linear Structure:
Linear
Moral Affections:
Reward
Cast Size:
Several
Locations:
Couple
Characters
Lead Role Ages:
Female Young Adult, Male Young Adult
Hero Type:
Ordinary
Villian Type:
Anti-Villian
Stock Character Types:
Boy next door
Advanced
Country:
France, United States of America (USA)
Time of Year:
Summer
Illness Topics:
Physical
Relationship Topics:
Engagement
Writer Style:
Billy Wilder