TIFF

Out for blood

Rob Stefaniuk's Suck is a star-studded mash-up of vampires and rock 'n' roll

Last Updated: Thursday, September 10, 2009 | 1:46 PM ET

By Martin Morrow, CBC News

Rock legend Alice Cooper (right) and his daughter Calico co-star in Rob Stefaniuk's rock'n'roll vampire comedy Suck. (TIFF)

It’s a sun-drenched September afternoon, but Rob Stefaniuk is lurking in the dark cave of a grungy rock club on Toronto’s Queen Street West. Stefaniuk is using the Bovine Sex Club, one of his neighbourhood haunts and shooting locales, to plug his new film, Suck, a campy mash-up of the vampire and rock genres.

'He’s playing a guy who's been through it all and seen it all. It’s sort of like the older, wiser wizard role, that tells you, "Look, I’ve been around, I’ve seen it all. Wear a condom, don’t trust vampires."'— Director Rob Stefaniuk on Iggy Pop's character in Suck

The movie, which premieres at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is lean in budget but thick with rock cred. The cast includes Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Moby, Henry Rollins and, in a couple of CanCon cameos, Alex Lifeson of Rush and Carole Pope of Rough Trade. Add The Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley as a sleazeball band manager and Malcolm McDowell as a one-eyed, crossbow-wielding vampire hunter named Eddie Van Helsing and you have the makings of a star-spangled cult hit. Not bad, considering Stefaniuk’s debut, the sci-fi goof Phil the Alien (2006), had precisely one familiar face: Graham Greene.

Perched on a barstool, sporting a spiky punk haircut that makes him look like the love child of Sid Vicious and Gary Shandling, Stefaniuk says the casting coup was really just a domino effect.

“It started off with Iggy,” he explains. “We just sent him the script in an email. And he read the script and liked it. And once Iggy was in, that’s how we got Henry [Rollins]. We just said Iggy was in it, and that was enough for Henry to be in it.” One of Suck’s producers had previously worked with Moby (who plays a skinhead metal singer in the film), and another knew McDowell. “Once we had all those guys, then Alice Cooper was, ‘Well, I play golf with Malcolm, I’ve known Iggy for 40 years, I know everyone in this movie. So, yeah, I’ll do it.’”

Stefaniuk says that while the budget for Suck ($3.5 million) was huge next to Phil the Alien’s ($340,000), it still wasn’t big enough to buy a bunch of rock legends. “Obviously they’re not doing it for the money, and not because they’ve always wanted to be in a Canadian vampire movie,” Stefaniuk says wryly. “They’re just doing it ’cause they’re still really cool.”

Maybe they also saw the potential in the film’s cheerfully ghoulish scenario, which plays on the similarities between the lifestyles of vampires and rock musicians. Stefaniuk stars as Joey Winner, leader of the Winners, a rock band that, despite their name, are doing so badly that their manager (Foley) begs them to fire him. One night in Montreal, the band’s bassist, Jennifer (Jessica Paré, looking very Drusilla), goes and gets herself bitten by a vampire. After that, the group's fortunes take a turn for the better – it seems Jennifer’s sexy vampire chic drives audiences wild.

The Winners' fortunes take a turn for the better when they develop vampire chic. (TIFF)

As the Winners embark on a road trip, the other band members succumb to the lure of vampirism. Joey is left alone to decide if he's willing to damn his soul in return for a bite of fame. Playing the Devil to Stefaniuk’s Robert Johnson is Alice Cooper – he’s a bat-winged uber-vampire who hangs out at the inevitable crossroads when not posing as a bartender. It’s a part tailor-made for the original goth rocker. Iggy Pop, on the other hand, plays the unlikely role of sober sage. His character is a veteran record producer who counsels the band on the dangers of blood-sucking. It’s a shock to see the battle-scarred godfather of punk not only acting like a Dutch uncle, but keeping his shirt on, too.

“He’s playing a guy whose been through it all and seen it all. And I think Iggy’s done both of those. It’s sort of like the older, wiser wizard role, that tells you, ‘Look, I’ve been around, I’ve seen it all. Wear a condom, don’t trust vampires.’”

Stefaniuk also saw what a few other filmmakers (notably, Jim Jarmusch) have realized – that Pop’s leathery mug says more about rock excess than any script could. “He’s got instant credibility,” Stefaniuk says. “There’s just something about that face – you can’t ‘act’ that face.”

Stefaniuk admits he was a bit nervous about directing his rock heroes, but they put him at ease. He recalls bracing himself as he suggested to Rollins, who portrays an obnoxious radio DJ named Rockin’ Roger, that he wear a mullet for the part. “I thought that would be a weird thing for him. But he said, ‘I like making directors happy. I’ll do anything. I want to play a douche bag.’ He’d met tons of guys like that, so I think he had a lot of fun with it.”

Stefaniuk, who started out as musician himself before getting into film (he co-wrote the Winners’ songs on the soundtrack), also wanted to subvert some of the standard rock clichés. He points out that the band’s roadie isn’t the usual beefy dude in a bandana but a weedy French-Canadian named Hugo (Chris Ratz). In a nod to Dracula, poor Hugo ends up as Jennifer’s Renfield-like assistant, carving up her dead victims for disposal and snacking on the occasional stray fly.

Band leader Joey Winner (Rob Stefaniuk, left) gets advice from record producer Victor (Iggy Pop). (TIFF)

Although he has been acting and writing for movies and television since the 1990s, Stefaniuk, 38, still pursues music on the side. He’s currently the keyboardist for the ’70s-influenced R&B group Mamabolo, whose lead singer, Barbara Mamabolo, plays McDowell’s doomed lover in the movie. Stefaniuk is hoping Suck will be his big breakthrough as a filmmaker – that’s one reason he chose such a critic-baiting title.

“I thought, if I got all these stars and my movie’s called Suck, it better not,” he says adamantly. “No excuses. Do the very best you can and get that from everyone else. "It took me five years to make this movie. If it’s just bad, I’m not going to go back to the federal government and ask for more money. I want to make movies that people actually want to see and I want to make money.”

Suck screens at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11, 13 and 16.

Martin Morrow writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.