CUFF 2025: Jakob Skrzypa on Vampire Zombies…From Space!
By Ansharah Shakil, April 23 2025—
Tongue-in-cheek ode to 1950s sci-fi horror films Vampire Zombies..From Space! has all the ingredients for an audience favourite. The film is making its Alberta premiere at the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) on April 25 at 9:30 p.m., a fitting time according to co-screenwriter and co-producer Jakob Skrzypa.
“This is a midnight movie, to go with your friends and have a great time,” he said. “It’s funny, it’s fun, it’s a movie you’re going to remember for sure.”
Set in 1957, Vampire Zombies…From Space! follows a memorable cast of small-town misfits, including two detectives, a determined young heroine and a laid-back greaser who are fighting against a new diabolical plan by Dracula, which involves sending his son Dylan down from space to help him turn the town’s residents into an army of vampire zombies.
“I think right now there aren’t a lot of comedies being made that are just straight comedies, meant to be goofy, fun, have-a-good-time. We really tried to just make something that would take your mind away for a little bit, a little bit of an escape,” Skrzypa said.
The initial inspiration for the film was Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space. The script was originally written while the writers were in Grade 10. Skrzypa said seeing the low-budget aspects of Plan 9 From Outer Space was part of starting that process.
“You can learn a lot in school, for sure, but you learn so much more by actually being on set and doing it, even if you only have your cell phone and a couple of friends that believe in you. Go make your movie, whatever it may be,” he said to any students thinking about doing the same thing he did in school. “You can take the stupidest idea but if it’s serious to you and matters to you you can make something that’s really cool. If you want to write, just start writing. You’re gonna have really bad days where you get nothing done and you think am I even good, that’s part of the process. You just gotta do it.”
Skrzypa said the black-and-white aesthetic is vital to this type of movie, and so is the big-band, old-school horror score. Cult icons like Night of the Living Dead’s Judith O’Dea, Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman, Tim & Eric’s David Liebe Hart, and SAW VI’s Simon Reynolds make appearances in the film.
“It’s really interesting to me to make a film that has its roots in the old classics but has a contemporary sense of humour and pacing and style and tone,” he added. “In that way, it’s kind of blending the past with the present in a way that a dumb movie about space vampires can do.”
However silly the title may sound, the movie itself is genuine, full of heart and love for the movies it pays homage to, something its Letterboxd reviews have noted. Skrzypa joked that if audiences like the movie, they should leave a positive review, and if not they shouldn’t do anything.
“Letterboxd has been incredible, like shockingly positive,” Skrzypa said. “I’m waiting for a flood of bad reviews at some point, but so far everyone’s finding stuff to connect with, which is really cool cause we made this movie for like a toonie, so it’s really nice to see people around the world connecting with the same thing that made us laugh.”
Skrzypa expressed his excitement to attend the festival with the crowds and to visit Calgary for the first time.
“I think a lot of people are surprised [by the film],” he said. “Around the 20 or 30 minute mark, people are actually engaged and care about the characters and stuff like that.”
Skrzypa encouraged students to attend the screening — not only is the film more fun to watch with a crowd or with friends, the university crowd is who the movie was made for and who he hopes the movie will connect with.
“This is the perfect movie for UofC students, like no joke, you’re at the perfect level of maturity,” he said. “It’s a rowdy movie as well, we’re encouraging people to yell and say stuff and laugh and boo and we want the film to really feel alive. Be loud, I’m gonna be there, I wanna hear people.”
Tickets and more information can be found here.