Dead Men Walk - review

Director: Sam Newfield

Release Date: 1943

Contains spoilers


“Dead Men Walk” begins with a book – “The History of Vampires” – being thrown in a fire. We then go to the funeral of Elwyn Clayton (George Zucco), his twin brother Lloyd (also played by George Zucco) steps up to the coffin when the funeral is disturbed by Kate (Fern Emmett) known to be the mad old woman of the village. She says that the holy house if being defiled by having one as evil as Elwyn in it and is removed by the Sheriff (Hal Price).

Later, outside Elwyn’s house, Lloyd tells his niece, Gail (Mary Carlisle), and her suitor David (Nedrick Young) that Elwyn had never been the same after he went to India, that on the trip he had become obsessed with the occult. Lloyd enters the house alone and begins burning Elwyn’s books and papers, saying they are blasphemous. He is accosted by Zolarr (Dwight Frye) who accuses him of murdering his brother.

This wasn’t Frye’s first foray into the vampire genre, he was also Renfield in the 1931 version of Dracula and was the hapless Herman Gleib, the innocent accused of vampirism and murdered in the Vampire Bat. Here, again, he plays the vampire’s mad assistant.

Elwyn, of course, rises as a vampire and it is here that the film comes into its own. In the main the film has a very simple story and is a rehash of many other vampire stories, most notably there are definite elements of Dracula. The more original areas are the fact that the vampire is the twin of the Van Helsing type character and the source of the vampirism. When Elwyn confronts Lloyd he states that he will make Gail a vampire, but also that he had been hypnotising Gail (when he was alive) to make her a disciple of the black arts. Indeed it was for this reason that Lloyd killed Elwyn. He also states that his vampirism was a gift from the Dark Lord of the Abyss, Shaitan. This is an interesting move, Shaitan being the Islamic version of Satan. In fact, many years after this film, Brian Lumley named the source of vampirism in his Necroscope novels Shaitan and the name was also given to a Vampire in the Vampire the Masquerade game.

At first Lloyd does not believe his own eyes, thinking he might be insane. The only one who truly believes that Elwyn has returned is Kate and she is dismissed as mad. However, as Elwyn continues his nightly visitations of Gale and she becomes weaker, Lloyd begins to believe – despite the fact that vampirism does not fit in with the scientific knowledge he, as a doctor, holds dear.

He tries to convince David, but David will have none of it and believes Lloyd is trying to kill his own niece. Eventually Kate gives Gail a crucifix and it successfully wards Elwyn away. Elwyn sends Zolarr to remove the crucifix but he is caught by David and Lloyd. They are visited by Elwyn and finally David does believe. To continue exacting his revenge on Lloyd, Elwyn uses the townsfolk’s fear that Lloyd is a murder – due to David’s earlier accusations – and kills someone in front of witnesses. They of course believe it was Lloyd and a mob descends upon his house. However he is no longer there, he has realised that Elwyn must be in his old house and a final confrontation begins in which a fire is accidentally started. In the end, Lloyd sacrifices himself to keep Elwyn in the burning building until he is destroyed.

The film neatly goes full circle and ends, as it began, with a funeral – this time for Lloyd.

As I said earlier the film borrows many of its ideas and motifs from other movies, but it is a satisfying 63 minutes, if you have little else to do. George Zucco manages to make both brothers distinguishable through his acting and, though not in the film that much, Frye is excellent as always. There is little in the way of sfx and the one that is used the most, the ghostly vanishing of Elwyn does look incredibly dated, it probably wasn’t that brilliant when the film was shot. The power of the film, however, is in what is said, rather than what is seen. I’ll give this film an above average 6 out of 10.

The film is public domain and can be downloaded from the archive, however the file is very small and the film stutters a little and pixelates in places. The visual quality during the final flight in the blazing house is awful as a result. The imdb page is here.

Vamp or not? Nightmare Castle

Directed by Mario Caiano and released in 1965, Nightmare castle is a hard one to pin down. It is certainly an atmospheric gothic chiller, but is it a vampire movie?

The film begins with Dr Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) conducting his experiments. He is baited by his wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) much to the disgust of their wizened maid Solange (Helga Liné). Stephen goes away to a conference and we quickly see that Muriel is having an affair with the gardener, David (Rik Battaglia). Stephen, however, has not gone away. He catches the two together, captures them and chains them in his dungeon.

He tortures them and discovers that Muriel has changed her will and left the castle and monies to her sister Jenny (also played by Barbara Steele). This does not sit well with Solange, who has been helping Stephen for a share of the inheritance. Stephen resolves to kill his wife and her lover anyway and tells Solange that his experiments will continue and he will give her a reward beyond money. He electrocutes the lovers, drains Muriel’s blood and then removes their hearts.

Cut forward. Stephen returns to the castle with Jenny – his new wife. Solange has become young again and we later discover this is through treated blood. It seems that Stephen intends to send Jenny mad and become executor of the estate.

Supernatural events are afoot, however, and the ghost of her dead sister haunts Jenny. She sees visions of Muriel and begins to take on her personality. The film here veers into a possession/revenge type ghost story.

The interesting twist comes at the end when Stephen, to preserve Solange’s youth, decides to be rid of Jenny and transfuse her blood to Solange. The spirits of Muriel and David become corporeal when Jenny’s doctor (Laurence Clift) finds their hearts and removes a dagger from them. Muriel tackles Stephen, telling him that she felt her torture to be a gift as it took her through pain to pleasure and ‘offers’ him the same. At this point she says that she will be with him until her flesh is destroyed by destroying her heart. Meanwhile David finds Solange and slits her wrist, the maid ages and then decays.

Barbara Steele plays a dual role, much as she did in “Le Masque du Demon’ and Muller is excellent as Stephen. The film itself is a very atmospheric gothic tale, but is it vampire? Well Solange is very like a vampire, though the use of blood to become young comes from a scientific basis. The fact that she needs fresh infusions of blood to remain young and, on dying, rapidly ages and then decays is out of the ‘how to do vampires’ text book. Interestingly, the removal of the dagger from their hearts making the ghosts corporeal and the fact that the hearts need to be destroyed to destroy them is very strongly vampire myth in nature.

The film is clearly a hybrid of genres, with very strong vampire myth elements and should appeal to fans of the genre and fans of gothic horror movies alike. It must also be said that Solange is certainly a type of vampire. It is available for free download from the archive and the imdb page is here.

Lestat

So, the critics hate Lestat the musical. The only question I have is, why is anyone surprised?

A pretty good summary of the critics' views can be found in the article from the independent online.

It is suggested that the homo-erotic elements of the musical play a part, which I think is probably unfair. Firstly, there is no reason why art should not challenge conservative thinking. Mainly, however, it is because any homo-eroticism is actually more in the mind of the observer (and perhaps the director) - Anne Rice's vampires had no sex drive.

The main reason that this should have died before it started is that it was always going to be atypically a musical. Anne Rice's novels are of a darkly gothic edge. Musically both films based on the books - whether you appreciate both, one or neither of them - managed to get the music pretty much right, both in very different ways.

Elton John has done the music for Lestat (cue images of a vampire getting out of a coffin and singing "I'm still standing"). This is the sort of subject matter for which dark rock music was made, not bland formula pop. It might not have drawn a typical Broadway crowd, but it might have achieved critical acclaim and gained a cult following. If you think the music can't be that bad, nip over to the official site and check the trailer, there is just enough music to show I'm right but not enough to melt your brain.

Okay, rant over!

I am Legend - news

Empire have indicated that Will Smith has been offered a pay or play contract to star in I am Legend. I must admit that the news has left me somewhat cold. Somehow I just can't see this working out. That said I was one of the doubters that thought Tom Cruise would kill Lestat, and I was happy to eat humble pie when I saw the release, so maybe it won't be too bad... that said.

Mr Vampire - review

Director: Ricky Lau-Koon Wai

Release date: 1985

Contains spoilers
This is a movie that will not deliver your traditional Western style vampires, instead we have the traditional Chinese version. First thing to note is that they hop rather than walk, the next thing to note is that the traditional Western methods of dealing with the undead do not work (except for immolation), and methods such as prayer scrolls and the use of sticky rice is the order of the day.

Please note as I went to get an actors list from the internet, for the review, I noticed that many of the character names were different to those within the collector’s edition DVD subtitles, for example Uncle Kau is listed as Master Ko – I’ve used the net version of names.

The film begins with Man Chor (Ricky Hui Koon-Ying) attending to a mortuary. There is a collection of vampires within the mortuary and he is ensuring that the candles and incense needed to hold them immobile are in place. He places incense in the seal of a coffin but it is pushed back, when he investigates he is attacked by a vampire. Or so he thinks. Actually it is Chow Chun (Chin Siu Ho), dressed as a vampire, and playing a joke. Unfortunately, during their fight the prayer scrolls are knocked from the foreheads of the real vampires and real danger becomes readily apparent. Master Ko (Lam Ching Ying) and his associate (Anthony Chan Yau) who “owns” the vampires come in and deal with the vampires, paralysing them again.

Man Chor and Master Ko are then employed by millionaire Master Yam (Huang Ha) to dig up his father as he wishes to develop the land where he is buried. Master Ko realises that granddad Yam (Yuen Wah) has been buried incorrectly and is becoming a vampire. Man Chor, in the meantime, has developed a crush on Master Yam’s daughter Ting Ting (Moon Lee Choi Fung).

Granddad Yam does rise as a vampire and kills Master Yam. His nephew, inept police captain Wei (Billy Lau Nam-Kwong), blames Master Ko for the murder and arrests him ready to torture Master Ko for a confession. Master Ko has other things to worry about as Master Yam will rise as a vampire and is in the police station with them. Master Yam is eventually taken care of, but at the Yam house Granddad Yam has returned for Ting Ting. She is protected by Man Chor, but in the chaos he is bitten and the race is on to destroy Grandad Yam and prevent Man Chor from turning into a vampire. To make maters worse a beautiful ghost, Jade (Pauline Wong Siu Fung) has fallen in love with Chow Chun and his life is in peril.

The film is a fast paced movie filled with martial arts and comedy. Much of the comedy is slapstick and/or visual and is all at the level of farce. The film does this very well and be it as simple as a tamed hopping vampire having to be helped up a stair it can’t hop up or the long set up of Wei wanting to brand Master Ko with the word cutie and being accidentally branded himself by Chow Chun during the fight with Master Yam, it is all on the mark.

Western audiences might feel that the very different rules of the Chinese vampire would get in the way of the movie, but the film explains the rules very well and you never feel lost.

One of the stand-out scenes concerns Man Chor as they try to prevent him from turning into a vampire. He awakens and his nails have grown and he has become very pale. To belay suspicion he cuts away the nails and puts makeup on. Whilst very different in substance my mind was thrown to the equally funny scene with Sex Machine turning into a vampire in “From Dusk til Dawn” (1995) and trying to hide his condition. Given that the later film was co-written by Tarantino, and the fact that Tarantino is a big fan of Asian cinema, one wonders if there was any inspiration from “Mr Vampire”.

This is a movie that sucks you in and doesn’t let you escape until the final credits role. All in all 8.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The Thirsty Dead - review

Director: Terry Becker

Release Date: 1974

Contains spoilers

This was the movie I recently downloaded from fightmares, and many thanks to them for making this available – it saved me from ever buying it.

What can I say about this except – wow, cheese! The film starts off with the abduction of four girls. Claire (Judith McConnell) is the first we see abducted; she is a cage dancer and is taken from her dressing room, just after we hear a news report about girls being taken from the streets of Manila.

The next is Laura (Jennifer Billingsley), she is abducted by monks. They lead her through the sewer to a boat with another girl, Anne (Fredricka Meyers) in it. The boat is paddled away and then they are in the jungle. They pull ashore and put the two girls with Claire and the fourth abductee Bonnie (Chiqui Da Rosa). Claire seems quite excited by the prospect, especially when the monks strip to loincloths, and actually flirts with her captors.

On route through the jungle Anne cuts herself and the wound is completely healed by pushing a leaf against it. Later Bonnie freaks out and the same leaf is used to subdue her. They are taken to a cult hideout and the cult are, of course vampires. The vampires worship Rau (I’m guessing at the spelling) who is basically a speaking head in a red Perspex box who died some 500 years before. They are given eternal youth by drinking the blood of young women mixed with the magic leaf, we also find out later that there is a "ring of age" around their jungle hide out that they cannot pass or they will age rapidly. It is also clear that they like to wear pastels. Indeed their clothes, especially when high priest Baru (John Considine) puts on his light pastel blue cloak with very high collar (check the picture at the head of the review), reminded me of something out of original Star Trek or perhaps Logan’s Run – as I said, cheese! The vampires bleed their victims by cutting their throats and gathering their blood to mix with the magic leaf, healing the wounds with the leaf to keep their victims alive in order to repeat feed – no fangs and no biting.

Laura is separated from the others. It is their fate to feed the vampires, but she has a destiny as they have a picture that looks like her (ooh, cliché), plus I shouldn’t forget that the head in the box said her name. She refuses their offer of immortality and with the help of a hag (more on her later) the four girls escape. They are, of course captured by Baru. Five minutes later he, having fallen in love with Laura, helps them escape again, sacrificing himself by passing through the ring of age. I say them escape, but Claire does not - having decided she wants to be a vampire (and having completely forgotten that they haven’t offered her the potion and just used her as food) she runs off and manages to fall into a pit and die.

One nice idea in the film was the hag. She seemed to be the tame hag and there were more, kept locked up, who were more desiccated still. They had long withered hands with talons and were covered with open sores. The hags were the victims after a few years with the vampires, all bar the tame one kept hidden because the vampires found their ugliness disturbing. I liked the idea of the rapid aging of the victims however.

As I hope I have put across, this film is pure cheese. Even the acting was pure cheese, there was a scene with Laura running through tunnels that I am sure was only there as a masterclass in how not to act terror and panic – it was a moment of pantomime melodrama that was almost without peer. It is not one I could ever recommend you buy but a free watch is worth it for a laugh. For a score, however, I can only give this 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here

isle of the dead - review

Director – Mark Robson

Release date: 1945

Contains spoilers

“Isle of the Dead”, I have to admit, is one of my favourite movies. I remember seeing it as a kid, although for years I couldn’t remember the name of it, and being moved by it even then. Years on I rediscovered the movie and was just as impressed as I was as a child.

The movie is a vampire movie that does not contain a vampire; instead it concentrates on the peasant level superstition that blames the supernatural – in this case the vorvolaka – on natural disasters such as plague.

The movie begins in the tent of General Pherides (Boris Karloff), known to his troops as the Watchdog. He is having a tardy officer stripped of his rank. He passes the officer a gun and waits as the officer leaves and a shot is fired. All this is witnessed by Oliver Davis (Marc Cramer), an American journalist. Pherides’ wife is buried on an island near-by and the General and Oliver cross through the battlefield to travel to her crypt. Davis wonders why the General has his exhausted men still working, so soon after the battle, and the General informs him that the dead must be buried. This is confirmed by Doctor Drossos (Ernst Deutsch) who tells Oliver that they have had cases of septicemic plague.

At the island, guarded by a statue of Cerberus, the General discovers that all the coffins in the crypt have been opened. They are going to leave when they hear singing. Following the singing they find the house of Albrecht (Jason Robards Sr) a Swiss archaeologist. He has several guests, sheltering on the island to avoid the fighting. There is Madam Kyra (Helen Thimig), the housekeeper. St Aubyn (Alan Napier) a British consul and his wife Mary (Katherine Emery). Mary’s maid Thea (Ellen Drew) and travelling salesman Robbins (Skelton Knaggs). The General is known by Thea and there is some tension there, but Oliver and the General eventually stay the night. Robbins seems drunk and staggers as he retires to bed, falling at Thea’s feet. Meanwhile the general is informed that the crypts were grave robbed for antiquities some 15 years earlier, but then Kyra says that the bodies had to be destroyed as one amongst them was evil.

In the morning Robbins is dead. The General sends for Drossos who confirms that it is the plague. The General quarantines the island and they will all have to stay there until the wind changes. Essentially the plague is carried by fleas and the warm sirocco winds will kill the flea population off in around 24 hours. Kyra has a different explanation, she believes that the plague is being caused by a vorvolaka and even knows who it is – Thea. Thea is young and healthy, whilst her mistress (who suffers from a debilitating illness) is pale and wan.

The vorvolaka is the vampire of the tale, though it is kind of a hybrid of the vampire and werewolf myths. It is the spirit of a wolf which inhabits a human host and, often astrally, drains the vitality of its victims. There is also some indication that it might feed on blood. Sometimes known as a vrykolakas there is a fantastic discourse on the creature here (EDIT 23/10/12, link removed as site gone).

As more and more victims succumb to the plague, rationality begins to be lost on the General. We discover that Mary suffers from catalepsy and she makes Drossos promise that he will not bury her until he is absolutely sure she is not in a trance. Unfortunately he is a victim of the plague and so when Mary falls into a trance she is buried alive. The wind changes but by then the General has contracted the plague and, in his delirium, he is told by Kyra that Mary will rise from her grave, the victim of a vorvolaka will become a vorvolaka. Of course, as she has been interned alive she does rise, but the time in her coffin has broken her mind.

The stand out scene, to me, is when Thea has locked herself in Mary’s room, after Mary has fallen into catalepsy. Unsure of what to do she stands vigil whilst Kyra taunts her through the door, accusing her of being the vorvolaka. The scene is heavy with atmosphere.

All the cast are excellent and the direction is top notch.

Incidentally one of the inspirations for the film was the picture “Isle of the Dead” by Böcklin (pictured). The painting is the background to the opening credits and the island in the film is designed to look much like that in the painting.

This film is one of the prime examples of how a film can be a vampire genre movie, without actually having a vampire in it. It is also one of the few (if any) movies that features the particular breed of vampire, the vorvolaka. It is also interesting that, as well as the characters relying on superstition as science seems to fail them (or at least not provide them with an immediate solution) they also turn to the old pagan Gods. Beyond anything else it is a great piece of cinema and I give it 10 out of 10 and recommend you try and watch it if you have never seen it.

The imdb page is here.

The Batman Vs Dracula - Review

Director: Michael Goguen

Release Date: 2005

Contains spoilers

I was most excited when I discovered that an animated feature had been made of Batman, featuring Dracula as the villain (and many thanks to the Mystery of the Haunted Vampire, whose blog piece on this brought it to my attention). The cross-over between the two characters was crying out for a feature (it has already been a subject tackled in graphic novel form). I duly ordered the DVD, and being a sad little thing, ensured I ordered the copy with the collectors’ figures.

What I didn’t know, when I ordered it, was that there are two core Batman franchises running in the States. I was aware of Batman the animated series – we get that in the UK - but this is from the other stable, The Batman. The animation style is very different, and of course they use different voice actors.

Animation wise I was expecting the noir feel of the animated series, but the animation style here works really well in its own right. We begin in Arkham asylum where an inmate tells Penguin (Tom Kenny) about a multi-million stash of loot in Gotham cemetery, that he will split 50/50 if Penguin helps him escape. He reveals it is in the crypt behind the tombstone with a cross, but will (sensibly) reveal no more. He then reveals that he had mentioned it to Joker (Kevin Michael Richardson). Alarms sound and Joker has escaped, Penguin takes his cue and escapes after him.

Batman (Rino Romano) goes after them, concentrating on the Joker, leaving Penguin opportunity to get to the cemetery. A little mention here about the way the Joker has been done. I’m used to the voice of the Joker being fairly high pitched, here Richardson re-works the voice into more of a low growl, with certain shifts to a higher pitch and it really works, the Joker here sounds utterly psychotic – as he should.

Batman almost captures Joker, but he falls from a bridge, his electrocution devices shorting in the water as he sinks, making Batman believe him to be dead. Penguin, however, has another problem when he realises that there are many tombstones with crosses. He picks a tomb he believes to be correct. The interior of the tomb is protected by a huge cross suspended on chains, which he cuts. He opens the coffin, cutting his hand, to find not loot but a chained, desiccated corpse. He gets blood on the corpse, which reanimates and hunts him. Luckily for the Penguin a night watchman gets in the way and becomes Dracula’s first victim – slaking the vampire’s waking thirst. Penguin is captured and hypnotised into being his daylight servant.

There is a piece of exposition where Dracula wonders how his remains were relocated to Gotham – though it is generally unsatisfying. Obviously the filmmakers didn’t want this to be a blank concept, but the explanation adds nothing to the film.

Gothamites begin to vanish as Dracula begins creating an army of the undead, and in the movie they are known as the Lost Ones. Batman is blamed for the disappearances by the press, as a witness saw a large bat shape take one of the missing citizens. Here the film hits a rating quandary, can Batman go around staking all these vampires? The answer is no, he has to develop a cure for vampirism - done, as he explains, as although vampirism is supernatural it is passed through blood and can be cured like a disease of the blood. Then again, he still has to defeat Dracula, a creature stronger, faster and more intelligent than he is.

Joker returns from his watery grave and is vampirised. He immediately goes to raid a blood bank and this leads to one of the best sequences in the movie as Batman and vampire Joker fight it out. If you thought Joker psychotic when alive it is nothing to when he is undead – just wait for the scene where he laps blood from the floor. The sequence itself is very stylised. There isn’t a blood bank in the world that stores its blood in high shelves, unrefrigerated in glass vials – but I can see why it was done like this as it added to the visuals greatly. Batman eventually captures Joker and it is his blood he experiments on as he looks for a cure.

There is also a plot featuring Vicky Vale (Tara Strong) and Dracula wanting her to make a bride. No simple vampirism for Vicky, however, Dracula will drain her soul to reanimate his true bride Carmilla Karnstein.

There were a couple of moments that gave me pause. Dracula’s tomb is connected to catacombs and Batman comments that this is how Dracula must have been getting around, in order to avoid the crosses in the cemetery. Yet the crosses didn’t seem to bother him when he hunted the Penguin at the head of the feature. There is also a moment when, in the bat-cave, Dracula throws the bat-mobile aside like a child’s toy. Impressive visual but Batman had taken the bat-mobile to the cemetery and left it there – had it auto-piloted back? These are only minor things however.

All in all this is an impressive feature, probably more fun if you enjoy the batman story/character than not. However, as someone who always did enjoy batman (in his various incarnations) I’ll give this movie 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Click here for the official site, with two trailers.

Frightmares the Series

One site to nip over to is Frightmares. Frightmares is an online movie show presented by puppets, but showing plenty of public domain horror movies that are linked by the foul mouthed little muppets!

Currently showing is the vampire flick "The Thirsty Dead" (1974). It is available in streaming real player format or downloadable in wmv format, split into three parts. The wmv comes in at around 270 megs in total, so the screen size is not going to be huge. As for the flick itself, well I haven't actually seen it - but I've just downloaded it so hopefully I'll get a chance to watch it over the next week and review it here.

Tales of Horror

An excellent site I've recently discovered is Tales of Horror podcast. With an excellent selection of horror tales it is worthwhile in its own right, but from a vampire point of view have a look at episodes 15 and 16. There you will find The Blood Countess parts 1 and 2 respectively.

Of course, historically, Báthory was more the serial killer than the vampire, but with the bathing (and allegedly drinking) of blood she holds a special place in the vampire pantheon. This was further helped by Hammer’s “Countess Dracula” (1970).

In this the search for blood is in order to call her husbands spirit back from the dead, but she soon starts bathing in order to make herself young for when his spirit comes. However, in this version of the tale, there is a staking early on with a suggestion that they might hammer silver nails into the girl's temples for good measure. Of course, we later realise that the girl was not a vampire rather she was an escapee from the Blood Countess, but even so it is all good vampiric horror stuff.

Nosferatu (industrial gothic mix) - review

Director: F W Murnau

Release date: 1922

Contains spoilers

This is the review of the classic vampire movie, Nosferatu. However, with a little twist as I shall be reviewing it in terms of the gothic industrial mix release, by Cleopatra Home Video. As such I’ll be giving the film two scores at the end, one generally for the film and the second for the score.

For those who don’t know, Nosferatu was the first filmed version of Dracula. Murnau was unable to obtain copyright permission to make the film, but shot it anyway. Stoker’s family sued and Murnau was forced to destroy the copies of the film. Luckily five copies survived, but with so few copies of such an old film the quality of the film stock is, unfortunately, not the best. There are two visual versions that can be found, one in black and white and the other (the version used here) in a sepia tone. The film also runs at various lengths, in this case some 63 minutes which indicates it is not the restored version. However, even the unrestored version is worth watching.

As the film had no copyright permission Murnau changed many aspects of the movie. The film takes place in Transylvania and Bremen rather than England and the name of Dracula was changed to Count Orlok (Max Schreck). It is interesting to note that, despite the name change, the English language version reverts back to the name Dracula.

Indeed all the name’s change. The original German had the character Hutter, who in the English version became Jonathon Harker (Gustav von Wangenheim) and Ellen became Nina (Greta Schroder) – though why not Mina is beyond me. For the review I’ll use the English names that have been taken from Stoker’s original.

Harker is sent by his employer Renfield (Alexander Granach) to Transylvania in order that he can sell a house in Bremen to Count Dracula, interestingly Renfield refers to Transylvania as the Land of Phantoms. On route he stops at an inn, in which he finds “The book of Vampires”. He resumes his journey to a point where the coach will go no further and is picked up by the Count’s coach. The shooting of the Count’s coach is brilliantly done. The film is sped up to make it’s movements otherwordly, the horses are draped in full head and body rugs and there is even the use of a negative shot.

Dracula is, of course, a vampire and preys on Harker. He also shows a strange interest in Harker’s photograph of Nina. There is a fantastic scene where the Count approaches Harker in bed, Harker’s scared, rapid movements juxtaposed against Dracula’s slow deliberate movements. Meanwhile in Bremen Nina falls into a somnambulist dream and then cries out to Jonathon, her cry alerting him to the danger. It is within these scenes that we see the Count in his true form, he is an ugly creature, with long clawed fingers, exaggerated ears and twin fangs at the front of his mouth, rather than the more commonly used (in later films) side fangs.

Dracula travels to Bremen on the ship the Demeter, followed eventually by Harker. The boxes of his native earth are filled with rats and this ties strongly with one of the themes of the film. The Nosferatu is the plague bringer. The captain of the Demeter believes the plague has come, we see a newspaper clip that the black sea ports have been visited by the plague and the eventual vampiric attacks are classed as a plague. The use of rats reinforces the plague concept.

It is interesting to note also that Murnau’s vision has a voracious vampire. Whilst Stoker had the crew of the Demeter preyed upon, here we discover there is the Captain, the mate (who throws himself overboard), 7 crew and 5 passengers. Stoker’s Dracula had little noted impact in London, and the main vampire attacks were by Lucy the Bloofer Lady. In this Murnau has processions of coffins through the streets.

Nina discovers the Book of vampires and the way in which a vampire can be killed in this film. He must be offered, willingly, the blood of a woman of pure heart and kept by her side until the cock crows. This is, of course, how the vampire is defeated.

The film is still incredibly atmospheric, with startling images and many modern film makers could do well to study the techniques that Murnau used.

Musically, the gothic industrial mix is excellent and, as it is to my taste, I much prefer it to a more traditional score. It does have its problems, however. The music is very modern and this can almost make the film feel like an arty music video rather than the music being the score of a film. Most of the music is taken from the CD “Vampire Rituals” and is performed by Rozz Williams of Christian Death. Note that the cover of “Vampire Rituals” has Bela Lugosi on it – oh well!

For a rating the film itself must get 10 out of 10, for either the restored or unrestored versions, as this is a marvelous landmark piece of cinema. For the music in this version I’m more inclined to aim towards 7 out of 10 due to its very modern feel that, whilst I do like it as I said, can sometimes feel out of place.

Nosferatu, in black and white (rather than sepia) with a more traditional score, can be downloaded from the Archive note it quotes a run time of 64 minutes, but the version I downloaded from there came in at 84 minutes.

The imdb page is here.

Coming Soon - The Thirst

A new movie with the filming finished and ready to go into post-production is "The Thirst". Fangoria have an interview available with the director, Jeremy Kasten.

This one sounds interesting, regarding a woman played by Clare Kramer (pictured) who believes that she is dying of cancer and finds that dying is the only way she can live.

Clare, of course, is no stranger to the genre having played the character Glory in Buffy.

Looking at the interview Kasten says "the thing I’m most proud of is that it is really an exploitation film in the best sense.” Well, as soon as I read that my interest piqued!

Vampires - encounters with the Undead - review

Edited by David J. Skal

There are many vampire compilation books on the market, walk into a bargain book store and you are bound to find one. Unfortunately, the bargain book end of the market, more often than not contain much the same material and the dedicated fan finds themselves buying such anthologies to pick through for the one thing contained within the volume that they may not already have..

This book, compiled by David J Skal, however, is something special. A weighty 600 page+ hardback tome, it splits its stories into four categories; these being historical, romantic/Victorian, twentieth century and post-modern.

Many of the classics are present and correct, Polidori’s “The Vampyre”, Tolstoy’s “The Family of the Vourdalak”, Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest” to name but a few. The book also contains excerpts from novels, including Matheson’s I am Legend, Stoker’s “Dracula” and Rymer’s “Varney the Vampyre”.

I am not overly sure about the concept of adding extracts from novels. To be honest I would rather read the whole novel, and avoid excerpts religiously. However, that is just a personal preference and many readers like excerpts in order to ascertain whether they will purchase the whole novel.

The joy of this tome, however, is not so much the rich stories that Skal has chosen to go into the volume, nor is it the fact that the volume is illustrated, which is always a nice touch, rather it is the sidebars that run by every story. Each page has a side-column of text. If we look at “Carmilla”, the sidebars contain:

• a section about “Le Fanu”,
• an extract from “Femme Fatale: Images of Evil and Fascinating Women” by Patrick Bade
• an extract from the 1823 English translation of “Wake not the Dead”
• an article regarding Countess Bathory both historical and regarding film treatments
• a piece about the film “Vampyr” (1931) – the first film which claimed “Carmilla” as an inspiration
• a piece about the film “Blood and Roses” (1961)
• a piece about the film “The Vampire Lovers” (1970)
• a piece about the film “Lust for a Vampire” (1971)
• a piece about the film “Twins of Evil” (1971)
• a piece about the film “The Blood-spattered Bride” (1972)
• a paragraph regarding the TV adaptation “Carmilla” (1989)
• & finally a section about “Carmilla” on stage.
  

When the sidebar looks at a movie, there is, more often than not, a black and white rendering of the movie poster or at least a still.

Of course, the list is just a taste from the sidebar of one story and the wealth of information surrounding and supporting each and every story is simply staggering. It is presented in such a way that the reader can happily choose to pick their way through the bonus material (to use a DVD analogy) or simply concentrate on the actual stories.

In “Vampires – Encounters with the Undead” there are some of the best vampire short stories available, some like the Tolstoy quite difficult to find currently, and a vast wealth of trivia and discourse. Skal himself is a scholar of all things macabre and obviously has a genuine love of the vampire genre.

This anthology could only receive 10 out of 10.

Day Watch trailers and news of the Others

Teaser trailers for the movie Day Watch, sequel to Russian move Night Watch are available. The site is in Russian but it is fairly easy to work out which the trailers are.

The DVD of the movie is available on Russian import and has been flying around e-bay, but I personally wouldn't bother. I'll wait for the US/UK official release in the hopes that the subtitling is as good as it was in the release of the first film.

For those unaware, most people I know who have seen the Russian release of the first film, with English subtitles, have come away confused, whilst those who have seen the US/UK release have known what is going on and, quite frankly, the way the subtitles were done was stunning.

In related news, the official release of Day Watch, on UK DVD, is set for 24th April 2006.

Vampirates

Vampirates is a webcomic by Jones. In no way related to the Justin Somper kids books of the same name. As Jones himself says on the comic’s archive page, “Yes. Canadian vampire pirates.I know it's hard to take, but work with me. We'll get through this together.”

The comic is currently on its 67th page, worth a visit to the site.

Tsukihime (Lunar Legend) - vol. 1 life threads - review

Director: Katsushi Sakurabi

Release date: 2005 (UK DVD)

Contains spoilers


Tsukihime is an anime in three volumes, with four episodes in volume one. The first episode, “reversal impulse” sets the scene. It begins with a young Shiki Tohno in hospital saying he can see lines. Then, in the countryside a scene of a mysterious woman handing him glasses and finally a woman in a parking lot being attacked by a vampire.

Shiki has lived with his Aunt and Uncle, but he is now moving back to the family home. Because of his delicate health since a traffic accident – the same accident that led to him seeing lines – his recently deceased father took the unusual step of naming his sister the head of the household.

The first episode is rather slow paced, full of half explained exposition, but as the first 4 episodes come in at 100 minutes this is understandable.

However we do see him finding a recently vampire attacked man and then approached by a girl with claws blades, who we see again, briefly, in episode three, with no further explanation.

Shiki, for some reason unbeknown to the audience, as it is also unbeknown to him to the point that he can’t really remember the events, attacks and kills a girl – Arcueid Brunstein. Yet by the end of the episode she approaches him, whole again, accusing him of her murder.

The other episodes are “Black Beast”, “Mystic eyes of Death Perception” and “Garden of a Cradle”. Episode two is again rather slow, with a brief interlude of action when Shiki is cornered by Arcueid and they are attacked by savage dogs that “dust” when killed. There is also an attack in a hotel, which they barely escape.

It is in episode three that the series hots up. The exposition is fuller. We discover that Shiki has ‘mystic eyes of death perception’, caused by his childhood accident. He can see the death inherent in all things in the form of lines and, by cutting those lines, can cut and destroy things. His glasses stop him seeing the lines. Arcueid is a vampire. In the series there are two types of vampire. The True Ancestors, who need not drink blood and can walk in daylight, and the Dead Apostles. These are what we would commonly term as vampires, created when bitten by a True Ancestor – it seems that though they do not need it, some True Ancestors drink blood for enjoyment – so far we know that these can create animal servants (we’ve seen dogs, serpents and ravens thus far), can develop a fearsome mouth in their stomachs and cannot go out in daylight. During the vampire explanation there is a fantastic line of understatement, “humans wouldn’t like it if they multiplied.” Arcueid explains when she tells Shiki that she is a True Ancestor who hunts Dead Apostles.

Episode three sees Shiki and Arcueid take on the Dead Apostle Nero. At this point Shiki believes it is over, but with 9 more episodes in the series we are not fooled. Unfortunately the pace of episode four slows again as more building blocks are added to the story.

The animation is good, though in some places it has an almost retro feel. Perhaps it is because much of the action takes place in a high school but I almost got a “Vampire Princess Miyu” feel.

The shame of this is that it is so languid in places, which might put casual viewers off. If you have not seen much anime, or more specifically vampire orientated anime, I would suggest that you begin with the vastly superior “Hellsing” or either of the “Vampire Hunter D” movies.

If, however, you are familiar with the art form then this does have things to offer, or at least hints of things to come. I’m giving this 6.5 out of 10, with the caveat that this is only volume 1 and it is important to note that the whole series might well score higher as a complete experience, certainly the building blocks are in place.

At the time of review the series does not have an IMDB page.

Condoleeza Rice Accepts Role In Vampire Movie

From "The Spoof"

"Now that Dick Cheney has come out in public and said he would never accept Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as his future Vice President, she has been looking around for a change of career.

"Ever since she was a child she has had a fascination with Vlad the Impaler, Count Dracula, werewolves and the nocturnal blood drinking female vampires of Transylvania."

The rest of the article here.

The story as represented above is written as a satire or parody. It is fictitious.

Subhuman - review

Director: Mark Tuit

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

Although on TV as “Subhuman”, this low budget flick is also known as “Shelf Life” and, to be honest, the alternative title suits it better. “Shelf Life” refers to the longevity, or life expectancy, of the vampire hunters in it. It is also a succinct method of allowing us to know exactly what the vampires think of us – we are foodstuff, nothing more. The vampires, in this case, are another species and, as far as I could tell, the human like body is little more than a disguise for the snake or leech like creature hiding within, that only appears – via the mouth – when they feed.

The film has a lot of incidentals based around a bar, but essentially Martin (William MacDonald) is a vampire hunter. He is following two females, who pick up a guy in a bar. They take him outside, and inject him with heroin – essentially to make him more compliant. Just before they feed, Martin enters the alley and decapitates one, the other runs. Martin takes the time to burn the body in a dumpster and then goes after the other one. She has stopped a car and gets in it.

The car hits Martin and the driver, Ben (Bryce McLaughlin), stops to help him. An argument ensues in the car as Martin ends up as their passenger and tells them to drive, whilst the vampire is left behind. Ben and Julie (Courtney Kramer) want to take him to a hospital but he refuses and insists on being driven home – despite his injuries. His home being dilapidated, and he being passed out, they take him to their home.

Martin takes just about every drug known to man, but swears he isn’t a junky. However, when he awakens he discovers that Ben has flushed his drugs. He sends – after much debate, argument and coercion – Ben and Julie to get more. Ben is sent for the illegal ones and Julie for the prescription stuff. Julie meets a man in the chemist who claims he is Martin’s doctor and persuades her to switch one of the myriad pills for a tranquiliser. Julie does this and then calls the doctor and three “orderlies” in. Martin, of course, has smelt a trap; he kills two of the vampires and captures two to prove he is not mad. In the meantime Ben has gone to work, as you do when there is a “crazy” man, who you took home rather than reporting the accident to the cops, in your home, alone with your girlfriend. In fairness the “doctor” did tell Ben to go to work, but who would have followed that instruction in reality?

The extending leech convinces Julie that Martin is not insane, but she is unable to kill the last one and so Martin does the job, despairing of the couple’s shelf life. Then she realises Ben will be in trouble and they go to rescue him, though Martin seems reluctant. With Ben duly saved, though not yet convinced of what is going on, Martin sends the two away - telling them to run. Of course their fates are more closely entwined than that.

The film is obviously filmed on a shoestring – and according to one imdb review it cost just 250,000 Canadian dollars. The fight between Martin and the four vampires is done in a dark and blurry way, with less fast cuts and more jumping chunks, to try and hide that. Nothing can hide, however, the cheapness of some of the decapitation scenes. The film is also very bloody; the vampires are not neatly dusted in this.

Martin himself is obviously a philosopher, and uses every possible moment to wax lyrical. At first it is annoying and gives the film an air of pretensions above its station – yet after a while it seems to work. However, one of the incidentals involves an altercation, over a couple of scenes, with a guy outside the bar and it seems there for very little reason other than to let Martin spout out about fear and violence, it really did seem unnecessary.

There is a strong drug message in the film; Martin uses them to balance the horror of what he does. As Martin needs to heal at the beginning of the film and then goes straight for the drugs, I wondered if he might be “changed” in some way and the drugs were a way of controlling this. Other than dulling his emotions to what he sees and does this was a complete red herring and, indeed, Martin actually tries to encourage Ben and Julie to get high before destroying a vampire as it makes it easier.

In the end it is clear that Martin is looking for a replacement, and the secret of his vast quantities of money is revealed, he (and perhaps up to a dozen other hunters worldwide) is paid by a conglomerate of all the major religions, which are aware of what is going on.

It must be pointed out that there is a very strong simile throughout this film to the Blade movies, and one must presume they offered at least inspiration to Tuit who, as well as directing, also wrote the screenplay. It must also be noted that the concept of the vampire being a parasitic leech hiding within a human host was used extensively by Brian Lumley in the “Necroscope” series of novels.

Incidentally, in this, the bite of the vampires is toxic; it causes a change in scent of the victim that means all the vampires know that the livestock is marked for feeding and eventually rots the brain until the victim is vegetative. Much like injecting the first near victim with heroin, this is probably a good thing, as the ease in which the vampires’ bodies can be severed is alarming; they really need their victims compliant and not fighting back.

I was fully prepared to hate this film. However it does have its moments and the premise is interesting, if Blade-like. I felt that Martin would perhaps work better as a graphic novel noir character, but bizarrely and against my expectations he does work as a movie character – though much of the praise for that must go to MacDonald. Interestingly, after writing the initial draft of the review, I was surfing around trying to pick up some information regarding the movie and discovered it was based on a 96 page graphic novel that Tuit co-created with an artist called Naoki the kid.

All in all I was left with the feeling that I wished the film had a better budget and perhaps a tighter screenplay. However I will give this 4.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

A trailer for the movie can be found, in various formats, here.

In for the Kill

In for the Kill is a short online film written, directed and staring Elizabeth Bee. As the blurb describes:

"What happens when a young man is accidentally turned into a vampire? Well, he must follow the so-called "tradition" and go through the trials, so says his would be master."

The film is an amusing little piece, replete with fart jokes, and not too bad for an online freebee.

The Vampire Hunters Club

Surfing around I discovered this independent film. I don't think it has a distribution yet and there is little detail on the official site. However, from the trailer that is on the site it appears that the hunters, in the club, are all elderly. It is also clear that the enemy is Dracula. The trailer also made it appear that for an independent the quality of the acting may well be (comparatively) quite good.

Not only does the site have a trailer - in real player format, it also has stills from the film and production, plus a couple of film posters - such as the one reproduced here.

This is one that I'm thinking might be worth keeping a weather eye out for.

Cronos - review

Director: Guillermo Del Torro

Release Date: 1993

Contains spoilers

We start with scenes of an alchemist (Mario Iván Martínez) and a voice over. We are told that the alchemist moved to Mexico to escape the inquisition, and there worked to perfect the Cronos Device – a mechanical piece that could offer eternal life. 400 years later the alchemist is accidentally killed by impalement, his skin like marble. No trace of the device was found.

Jesús Gris (Frederico Lupi) is an antiques dealer who lives with his wife Mercedes (Margarita Isabel) and granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath). He discovers the device in the base of a hollowed statue and accidentally triggers it, causing the device to pierce his hand. Later he sells the statue to Angel Del La Guardia (Ron Perlman) who buys it on behalf of his dying uncle Dieter (Claudio Brook). Dieter has the alchemist's notebook and is searching for the Cronos Device as a way to cheat death.

A little nod here to Perlman, a stalwart of Del Torro’s movies, whose nose-job obsessed Angel is an excellent character.

Angel eventually kills Gris, by pushing a car – with Gris in it – over a cliff, having failed to secure the device. Of course he has not been told what is going on by Dieter, who is concerned as to whether Gris was pierced through the heart. Gris reanimates and Aurora helps him as he searches for the notebook, in an attempt to explain what he has become.

Many of the usual rules of the vampire are followed here. Gris regenerates, in fact even before his death wounds heal quickly. Sunlight burns him and a stake through the heart will kill him. The twist, of course, is that it is an alchemical device that causes the vampirism. The device is shaped much like an insect and contains an insect that filters the blood. It is a novel concept.

There are many marvellous moments within the film. Gris explaining to Aurora when, scared of what is happening to her grandfather, she steals the device, that her father had done much the same at her age with Gris’ cigarettes. It is clear that there are overtones of addiction throughout the vampire genre, but rarely has a simile with tobacco addiction been used.

Another moment is when Gris follows a man with a nose bleed into a toilet. When the man leaves he is about to lick up the blood – it would have been the first time he drank blood – when another man enters, who then cleans up the blood. Gris ends up led on the floor, licking up the blood that is spilled there. The filming of this scene seems slightly slowed and makes the feeding appear almost luxurious.

Following his return from death, Gris is seen cutting the stitching from his mouth with a shard of broken glass, and it is attention to such small details that helps make this film as good as it is.

The entire cast are excellent. Shanath as Aurora only speaks one word, at the end of the film, and yet plays a thoroughly intrinsic role in the movie. Her none verbal communication shows an acting ability far beyond her young years.

The direction is superb, as one would expect with Del Torro – though perhaps I am biased as I believe him to be an excellent director. I can quite happily give this film 9 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Trouble Every Day

“Trouble Every Day” (2001) is a film directed by Claire Denis and is bilingual, being in French and English. It is here that I must admit that I struggled with the movie. The DVD case showed languages French and English and subtitles part English. That was fair enough; I do not speak French, and so dutifully tried to put the part English subtitles on, to find they were not there. Fearing that it was something to do with my home player I then put the DVD into the PC, but the subtitles definitely did not exist.

However, lack of subtitles did not overtly detract from the film, as there was very little dialogue – though I feared I missed some exposition, so I have looked through various reviews on the net and discovered that one complaint of the film is there is very little explanation of the events which unfold and that people are torn between whether this is a cannibal film or a modern take on vampirism.

The film centres around two couples. Shane (Vincent Gallo) and June (Tricia Vessey) are newly weds, travelling to Paris for their honeymoon. We meet them on the flight where, after kissing up June’s arm, Vincent locks himself in the plane’s toilet and fantasises about June drenched in blood.

The other couple are Léo (Alex Descas) and Coré (Béatrice Dalle). At first we only see Coré, as she picks up a lorry driver. Later Léo finds her, the driver is dead, trousers around his ankles and she is covered in blood.

Shane has ulterior motives for going to Paris. He is searching for Léo, who he used to work with. They were researching the human libido and, it seems, that Shane stole some of Léo’s research. It is also clear that Shane was enamored of Coré. Shane cannot find Léo, who no longer works at the research lab and is shunned by the scientific community, and his urge to devour June is growing.

Why Coré and Shane feel the things they do was unclear, to me, however online there was suggestion that a virus was involved. The film goes on for some time, without a large amount happening. June feels rejected by Shane, whilst Shane becomes more and more predatory. Léo keeps Coré locked in their home, yet she is able to escape – she actually tools a door to cut an escape route out at one point and Léo buries her victim and cleans her up.

There are two powerful feeding scenes in the film. Two young lads break into Léo’s home. One is “seduced” by Coré – I put seduced in inverted commas because there seemed little seduction, he was almost drawn to her, perhaps whatever happened to her caused her to produce pheromones aplenty, but it was reminiscent of the victim drawn to the vampire. As she rides him, she bites into his neck; she also tears away part of his lips. She grunts orgasmically and he cries, screams and whimpers in a way that can only be described as primal. He is clearly dying as she rubs her cheek through his blood in an almost feline way and laps at it. Later we see that she has painted the walls in blood.

The other scene involves Shane and a chambermaid. He approaches her in the staff changing area and, at first, she seems to respond to him. As his actions become more violent it is clear that the scene becomes less and less mutual until it is rape. He puts his head between her legs, as she screams and screams, and when he emerges his face is dripping with blood. Then he begins to kiss her face.

In both cases there is very little which is cannibalistic, this would not be problematic anyway as some vampire myths show the vampire as a devourer of flesh as well as blood. The motif here is blood. When Shane fantasizes about the blood-drenched June, she is very much alive, just soaked in blood. It is clear that both characters have either been altered or contracted a virus that causes them to need blood in a sexual way, it clearly links the sexuality found in vampire stories with the act of feeding. As Shane battles with his nature he becomes more and more predatory, not wishing to hurt June he turns his attention to strangers.

In both Shane and Coré we also see them at their happiest after the feed, finally sated. Yet, through Coré, we see that the satisfaction is short lived. We see the need to feed, the need for gratification, is like a drug. We see her frustration when she cannot get out of the house in order to sate her hunger.

Is this a vampire movie? Not in the ordinary sense, but it definitely carries motifs from the genre. Indeed, if we look at “Fascination” (1979) then we find a movie – classed most definitely within the genre – that depicts humans with the compunction to drink blood, a movie with cannibalistic overtones. In “Fascination” the symbolism is clearly one designed to represent class, whilst “Trouble Every Day” does not have a clear symbolism – is it about addiction or about sexuality, I’m not too sure – though an understanding of the French sections would have helped.

Many would not want to class this as a genre movie, and to do so might seem controversial, and yet I intend to do so. The film itself is slow paced and I would say of average quality, it felt much like a David Lynch movie in places, most especially “Lost Highway” (1997), yet with none of the power that film carried. There are, however, some beautifully poetic images within the movie and the soundtrack fits the piece well.

It is clear that the language barrier that I felt was not the main confusion with the film; others online have said that Denis explained little in the film and the film had no clear path. Yet within the film is the essence, or at least one interpretation thereof, of the motivation of the vampire. The need to feed, the sexuality of the kill, the pain of the need as it drives you to wish to consume your closest partner, the satisfaction following the feed. It is also an external factor that has caused this desire, this is not the mutual psychosis of a couple, though Shane and Coré knew each other, they are not feeding on each others psychosis. There is a factor here that has caused them to change, to become the way they are. For these reasons I say Vamp.

IMDB page is here.

This Darkness – Review

Director: Dylan O’Leary

Release Date: 2003

Contains Spoilers

“This Darkness” is the fourth and final film in the “Vamps” boxset and is subtitled “The Vampire Virus”.

It Centres around Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Dylan O’Leary), he is the 7th Van Helsing. The Second was the Van Helsing from the Bram Stoker novel, though Stoker – in this – took his character’s name from a newspaper article about Van Helsing and his research into blood.

The film begins with an attack on 2 women and a young girl. The first two attacked are the girl and her mother, out in a park – at night. The mother notices that the girl has vanished when she looks up from the book she is reading. The vampire then breaks into the house and kills the other woman in the shower. The vampire himself has a swastika painted on his stomach. At this point I was already worried about the movie. The acting was very poor and the film quality low. Yet it was the opening of the story that really made me cautious. Woman takes little girl to play in the park, at night, not very likely. That she takes a book to read (despite streetlights, not many people choose to read in a dark park) so she is conveniently distracted when the vampire gets the girl. Too preposterous.

The film then jumps back two days but trying to explain the story in any real order seems pointless as the film was very confused. This was a shame as there were occasional interesting ideas, basing the vampires on virus mutated DNA rather than making it purely supernatural being one. These vampires can walk in daylight, they feed on both flesh and blood – two of them devouring a whole victim in order to hide the evidence.

Van Helsing is developing a cure for aids (officially) but in fact he is researching the vampire mutation and there is a hint that he caused the mutation in the first place, in its more common form, though it is clear that there were vampires already. Van Helsing’s strain are not perfect. One begins spasming when feeding and is destroyed by the other vampires.

There are sub-plots involving a martial artist (who seems to be the equivalent of Whistler from “Blade”(1997)) and a young lad who is a surfer/drummer but all in all the film becomes rapidly lost in very sub-standard acting and seriously poor pacing. In fact the film itself is overly long at 106 minutes and yet the length of the film doesn't help iron out plot confusions. There is also a minor sub-plot that involves Van Helsing having incestuous sex with his mother (Jenevieve Frank) who, unbeknown to him, did not die when he was four but was turned – this had “Blade” overtones as well, reminding me of the scenes in the first movie between Blade and his mother .

Essentially, for the main plot, the head vampire (David Everritt) wants Van Helsing to create some form of “Queen” virus, so he can mate. By the way the head vampire is called Tarquin, what kind of name is that for a vampire?

The fight sequences include some of the worst martial arts in a film and – unlike Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001) - these sequences have no charm, there is no over riding sense of comedy here.

Some low budget movies are excellent, despite the constraints of the budget, others cry out for a remake. This one said to me that there was a plot in there somewhere and then dared me to find it. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Another new one!

Acording to Upcoming horror movies the 1987 classic "Near Dark" is going to be remade.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this. The ending of the first version sucked big time but the rest of the film is a bon-a-fide classic. The jury is out, and will try to be fair to the film when released, but I fear that this is just one remake too far.

New Film Announced

Shattering Paradigms has optioned Michael Schiefelbein's novel "Vampire Vow", for a movie to be named "Body and Blood". Admittedly I've not read the novel, but it seems it is about a Roman Officer who becomes romantically besotted with Jesus. When spurned he goes on a bloody rampage through Jerusalem and becomes a vampire.

Given the synopsis I can imagine that this one is going to cause a whole load of controversy. More news on this one can be found here and the film already has a website, though it contains very little so far, here. That said, have a look at the official site because the artwork for the logo is very funky indeed.

Vamp or Not? Abomination: The Evilmaker 2

A very brief Vamp or Not? Abomination is the third film in the Vamps boxset. So far we have had Stakes and The Vulture's eye, both vampire movies, with "This Darkness" still to be watched.

Cutting to the chase, Abomination is not a vampire film. It is a possession, evil house film. Worse it is actually an abomination. The soundtrack is awful, the film quality is as low as a home video, the story confused, the direction non-existent and the acting some of the worse I have had the misfortune to witness. Not vamp and very bad - which is a sin in a set called Vamps.

The Vulture’s Eye – review

Release date: 2004

Director: Frank Sciurba

Contains spoilers

This is the second film from the Vamps boxset. Sometimes you watch a low budget movie and think, God, if only they had a budget. This is truly a little gem, and though it gets lost occasionally in trying to be arty, perhaps to cover up the lack of budget, this deserves a lot more attention than it seems to have had.

However, let me first draw your attention to the cover – nothing to do with the film and it is a shame, as they could have used part of the cast. Secondly, let’s get this out of the way, this is a remake or retelling of Dracula set in Virginia.

Lucy Westenra (Brooke Paller) is going to marry Arthur Holmewood (Jason King), though she confides in her cousin Mina (Anna Flosnik) that plastic surgeon Jack (Joseph Reo) might have asked her if Arthur hadn’t. Mina is worried as her boyfriend Quincy Morris (Fred Iacovo) has gone missing on a photographic job in Sierra Leone.

Quincy does return but ill, he won’t talk of what’s happened but we see scenes of him in a cage often being offered raw flesh. He says he suffered from a fever.

One week later, Lucy falls from her horse and is rescued by Count Klaus Vogel (James Nalitz), who has recently bought the old Stoker place (A reference I wasn’t sure I liked, but one that was not laboured). As he talks we get scenes intercut of him feeding on Lucy. Vogel is obviously the Dracula character, it was he who kept Quincy locked away in Sierra Leone and, we later hear, committed atrocities whilst experimenting, in a torture sense, upon Quincy. The film, however, is almost like a twisted nightmare in quality. Instead of the dashing Count, Vogel has long, dirty claw like nails, he has warts or boils around his face and looks very old. This vampire shares more in common with “Nosferatu” (1922) and the Orlock character than the version of Dracula developed via Universal and Hammer – yet he seems to command a terrible presence and an ability to tap into the darkest sexual fantasies of his victims.

I won’t overly go into plot as it follows Dracula recognisably, yet veers away in interesting ways that makes the film fascinating. Suffice it to say that it is extremely dark in places and a few of the scenes need pointing out.

First, however, a nod to Abraham Van Helsing (Paul Zacheis) who is a Southern, cigar chomping doctor. He knows a little about voodoo, and yet knows not much about vampirism – he just knows something is wrong.

Back to a few of the standout scenes. Lucy, once dead, is returned to her coffin after visiting Mina. She is carried there by Quincy and Arthur, in a scene that underlines the surrealness of the movie in places. The fact that she has returned does not seem to phase them, they are more concerned about getting her in the casket before she starts moving again. It is once they have put the lid over her and she starts crying out about the darkness that the characters become upset by what is happening, yet the scene is powerful, and her plaintive cries for help haunting.

At another point the male characters go to the Renfields’ home, believing that Vogel might be there. We find Mrs Renfield (Eve Young) drenched in blood, laughing maniacally. Again it is a disturbing scene.

The last scene I’ll mention is when Vogel forces Mina to drink of his blood, a scene we see in flashback. There is no cutting of the chest with a nail. He sticks his finger down his throat and copiously vomits blood across her face and into her mouth before taking her. As she remembers this, Mina tells Quincy that she enjoyed it.

The vampires in this can walk in daylight. There is no mention of crosses or stakes to the heart. They are despatched in a multitude of ways, pitchfork, gunshot, scalpel, but always concluded with decapitation.

The film is languid in places, but the slow pace only makes the more gory scenes more powerful. The acting is not always of the highest calibre, but most of the performances are solid enough for a film of this budget, in fact the dialogue only really goes astray when the actors are forced to deliver more traditional lines from Dracula. Unfortunately the artiness of some of the scenes seems forced, shaky cameras in particular, and thus the direction is a little off at times – but all in all it is well put together and one gets the feeling that some of it really was used to try and hide the lack of budget. Sometimes the film goes in directions that perhaps haven’t been well explained, but for the most part it holds together well.

In Dracula we often see the seduction and fall of Lucy, this is what this film particularly aims at, going into it in some depth. It does have its problems but I really enjoyed it, that said I feel its going to be a love it or hate it movie – you have been warned. Incidentally the ending of the film is much darker than that envisioned by Stoker. 7 out of 10 for a film that gave much more than I was expecting.

The imdb page is here.

Music: Voltaire

Another artist to look out for is Voltaire. With overtones of Nick Cave and a touch of Morrisey, yet with a humor all of his own, he really is an excellent artist.

The website linked has a track for download from each of his albums, plus the full ep of "Banned on Vulcan", a loving parody of Star Trek.

Voltaire's "Boo Hoo" album has a track, "Vampire Club", which is the track available for download from the album at his site. It is a gentle lampoon of the vampire/goth scene.

The Vampire Club - Voltaire

Oh, the moon was full
And the color of blood
The night the pirates came To the Vampire Club
Their leader was tall and snide and slim
He looked like a gay Captain Morgan
Well, he recognized a Vampire From his school
And he did something that was
Most uncool, he said,
"Hey everybody, see that fool in the cape?"
His name's Bernie Weinstein
And he's in the 8th grade!"

Chorus:

Fangs were flying, capes were torn
Hell hath no fury like a Vampire scorned
The number one rule in this game:
Never call one by his real name
Wigs were pulled, top hats were crushed
By pointy boots in a rush
And Boris at the bar orders a Bud and says,
"It's just another night at the Vampire Club."

Missi lost a fang in the ladies room
And we all laughed and called her 'Snaggletooth!"
And Dee was made cause he broke his cane
And he flushed his contacts down the drain
There was so much angst after the fight
Vlad and Akasha broke up that night
While some rivet-heads danced in a puddle of goo
That used to be "Father" you-know-who!

Well, its hard to believe but we're still around
And when we hang out it's upside down
Dressed in black from toe to head singing,
"Bela Lugosi's still undead!"
A gaggle of goths is a peaceful site
We'd do anything to avoid a fight
But if you really want to see some gore and blood
Wait 'til the Ravers come to the Vampire Club

Stakes – review

Director: Joe Ripple

Release Date: 2002

Contains spoilers

Also known as Vampire Stakes, this is a low to no budget flick that I got in a four film set called Vamps. As such I began watching the movie with very low expectations.

The movie begins with two muggers attacking a ‘mark’. There is a flash of lightning through the alley, with fingers of electricity reaching around ala the Terminator movies and three people appear; two women and a man. The muggers confront them and the newcomers vamp out – ripping the muggers and the victim apart.

We cut to a lab. This is an alternative earth, the skies are red and the planet is overrun by vampires. Three humans have created a machine to jump across to our Earth – presumably to escape the bloodshed. There is Shannon Wallace (Ashira Zima), scientist Dr. Brian Smithers (Steven King) and combat priest Father John O’Grady (George Stover). They realize that three vampires have already gone through their portal, and on seeing the security footage they realize that they are all ‘purebloods’. Worse still it is the vampire Queen Alyssa (Leanna Chamish) and her bodyguards Dragus (John Michaelson) and Raven (Syn DeVil).

The three humans jump across to our world, blowing the machine up behind them. Meanwhile the invading vampires seem to be looking for someone within the telephone book. At this point my heart sank a little, with the portal effects and the searching for someone I could see a real Terminator rip off coming. I was wrong – the portal was similar but then they simply search for someone they can use to get a hiding place. In this case they choose Elizabeth Fleming (Erin J. Corsair), a city developer, kidnapping the woman’s daughter, and then holding her hostage, so that she will do as they require.

The three human visitors drug a detective, Jake Bishop (Jamie Bell), so that they can explain what is going on. Before he is able to come out of his paralysis they leave him with a paging device and tell him to contact them if he finds any strange deaths – such as neck wounds. Meanwhile the vampires are hunting.

Bishop faithfully calls them when he is called to a crime scene with two young people, their throats mauled and their bodies drained. Smithers scans them and confirms they are infected. Here it is probably best to explain the rules of the game with these vampires. A dead body that is infected can be stopped from turning with a holy water injection, crosses hold the vampires back and they can survive short exposure to sunlight. A bullet will stun them for a second but only a stake, through any major organ, will destroy them. When they are staked they “dust” in much the same way as the vampires in Buffy.

Unfortunately the visitors have not faced a pureblood on their world and do not know what will kill them.

Cutting to the chase, Bishops’ partner is killed as they investigate the vampires. Then Fleming calls the cops and they get a firm lead. They end up fighting Dragus, bullets simply ricochet off him and a stake shatters on his chest. However, during the confusion holy water is spilt onto a stake and it is able to penetrate his flesh – though it is thrust into his legs and not in a killing place. Dragus kills Wallace, decapitating her, and escapes.

The heroes work out were the vampires must be and then Bishop has an idea. He freezes holy water, with a steel rod centre for support, to create ice stakes. These do prove effective against the purebloods and so the final confrontation begins.

Fantastical as ice stakes might be, it is an example of the fact that there are some novel ideas in the movie. There was one moment where a vampire is rushing Bishop and is staked, the dust remains cover him as the dust continues along the trajectory of the vampire. I liked that little scene.

However the film is not of a high quality. The movie looks like it was filmed on a digi-cam and the effects are of a poor digital type, for example, the vampires’ eyes flash red but it is an obvious digital effect added in post-production and looks poor for it – coloured contacts would have looked so much better or indeed not changing the eye colour at all would have been fine. The filmmakers have really tried with the effects, but to be honest the lack of budget causes them to look awful and the use of digital effects rather than physical effects makes them look even worse. They would have been better off with some fake blood, coloured lenses and leaving it at that, kudos for trying though.

I must also mention that there is a gratuitous sex scene in the movie which is simply there as a sex scene and has no plot functionality – frankly it leaves you thinking why rather than causing you to become hot and bothered.

The acting is not fantastic by any stretch, however, all the actors seem to be earnest and this is the key to the movie. The entire film feels like a labour of love, despite its problems, and I have to respect that. This is not a great movie, but it is a movie that genre fans can watch and get something from – unlike some poor vampire movies it does not feel pointless. Perhaps with more budget we might have found a cult classic. I feel mean giving this 3.5 out of 10 and caveat the score with if you are a low budget or vampire genre fan at least give it a go – there are a lot worse out there.

The imdb page is here.

Music: New Rising Son

New Risng Son are a US goth band, as far as I know unsigned as of yet.

They have a wonderfully titled track "The Sting of a Vampire's sweet embrace" which is available for download here in either wma or mp3 format.

A quick look at the lyrics gives:

I feel you’re still part of me, you haunt my every waking hour.

Dark memory, I can’t help but dream about.

I know what’s happening, I will prey again.

Let the prayer begin.

Chorus

I will cross my heart, hope to die high.

Let God tear apart a love that’s so divine.

I will close my eyes, sink your teeth in deep

Pray that I go blind, and steal what I can’t see.

The one who created you will bring us back in line when our love was true a picture burned in time.

I know it’s happening you will prey again,

let the prayer begin.

Chorus

I will cross my heart, stick you dagger deep.

I will close my eyes and bleed myself to sleep.

Seal my coffin tight, day will become night.

Do your wishing well, heaven will be hell.

I will close the book and you won’t shed a tear I’ll give back all I took, all that I hold dear.

I have closed the book, my sacrifice is done.

Everywhere you look my blood will run...

Dracula 3000 - review

Director: Darrell James Roodt

Release date: 2004

contains spoilers

When I first heard of this movie I thought, no… please no… Yet, being the glutton for vampiric punishment that I am, I decided that I would have to get the movie anyway (bless e-bay and the kind soul who put it on a ‘buy it now’ for just £2). As things started I thought to myself, well maybe I was a little harsh, but that feeling lasted only a couple of minutes and I realised that my first instincts were right.

The film starts and we see Captain Varna (Udo Kier) recording a video log on his starship Demeter. He holds a cross and is waiting for the self destruct to go and… nothing happens, it is stopped. As the film progresses we see more of these logs, and they are, by far, the best part of the movie.

Jump forward 50 years and the salvage ship Mother, with her misfit crew, find the ship in the distant Carpathian system– but it is not drifting it is limping slowly towards earth.

We are introduced to the crew, Captain Abraham Van Helsing (Casper Van Dien), second in command Aurora Ash (Erika Eleniak). The muscle of the crew is Humvee (Tom ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr.), the brains is the wheelchair bound Arthur “The Professor” Holmewood (Grant Swanby). We also meet stoned crew member 187 (Coolio) and navigator, and ‘I’ve got a bad feeling’ girl, Mina Murray (Alexandra Kamp).

They investigate the ship and, whilst they are onboard, something causes Mother to un-tether from the Demeter and they can’t get their ship back. It is up to the Professor to get the Demeter up and running. Whilst he does the crew discover the remains of Captain Varna, a desiccated husk, his arms tied to the chair (why? I mean in Dracula the Captain ties himself to the wheel of the ship – that made sense – but in a spaceship, which incidentally is out of his control… why?) and clutching a cross in his hand. Most of the crew do not recognise it as a holy symbol – it seems that such things fell out of flavour 200 years earlier.

Meanwhile 187 is trying to find drugs and, on finding coffins, decides they must have drugs inside. Breaking open one he finds nothing but ‘sand’ but he’s cut his hand (imagine that) and blood drops onto the 'sand'.

The rest of the crew hear a scream. Rushing to the cargo hold they find 187 in shock, his leg broken badly, and then he passes out. 187 is taken to the rec room and his leg is reset. As his body is investigated they discover puncture wounds at the neck, 187 turns and attacks.

In the confusion Aurora comes face to face with ‘Dracula’ (Langley Kirkwood). Now I’ve put Dracula in inverted commas for a reason. The film is called Dracula 3000, the character – we discover later – is named Orlock. A computer search for vampires later indicates that Orlock is just a pseudonym for Dracula… so to recap Dracula is listed in the film as Orlock but is actually Dracula. Indeed, when we see the computer search for vampire lore we also discover that Dracula was indeed defeated by Van Helsing as per the novel (though obviously he survived or was later resurrected) and it is fairly clear that Captain Van Helsing is distantly related to the original Van Helsing. Be that as it may, you’d think Orlock/Dracula would have updated his clothing in the 30th century and forgone the frilly shirts and high collars. Unfortunately Kirkwood is no Christopher Lee and makes a rather foppish, unthreatening Dracula.

Getting back to the story. Aurora returns, seemingly none the worse for her encounter with Orlock/Dracula. She claims he did not bite her. Now it is clear that the director wanted to build up some tension here, was she bitten, wasn’t she… The crew are rightly suspicious but I was thinking, hmm… now I’ve seen the Alien films… got it she’s an android. Note to the director, if you are going to ‘homage’ other films don’t expect to build any tension because we already know what’s coming.

Anyhoo… to cut the story short, the crew point the ship towards a binary star system in order to kill Orlock/Dracula with sunlight (though I didn’t see any portholes!). Crew gets picked off, and subsequently staked until only Humvee and Aurora are left. They have locked themselves away from Orlock/Dracula – taking his arm off in the process – but can’t steer the ship so its going to blow up when it gets too close to the stars, the only solution; before she was an undercover security robot she had been a pleasure bot – so off they go for rumpy pumpy.

Bang (the ship and not the unseen pleasure robot scenes).

This film is so clichéd it is untrue. It has not only decimated the Dracula story but it happily rips off films such as Alien for fun. That said I couldn’t help but chortle when Casper Van Dien, with some relish, utters the Picard line “Make it so.” The clichés don’t end there, Humvee’s obsession with pointing out he is black (“All that bloodsuckin', that's some white people sh*t.” he points out when they discover there is a vampire aboard), 187 the ridiculous stoner played by a rapper, Aurora the busty, feisty hero turned pleasure bot… it is all too, too much. The acting rarely gets above the rank amateur, though Van Dien puts effort in and Udo Kier is great, though has very little on screen time.

It is a shame because the idea might have worked if done properly, especially with the nod towards the original story being part of the films mythology. It’s even more of a shame because the world needs more good sci-fi horror crossovers (and the list is severely limited). 2 out of 10, and I’m probably being overly generous.

The imdb is here.