Sunday, July 19, 2009

New film news

from trailer

Mercy Brown is a fascinating myth and, to my knowledge, before now un-filmed. All that has changed with a very low budget 40 minute effort by Dementia Films, the Last American Vampire, Mercy's Revenge. The synopsis runs “In 1892 in the small village of Exeter, R.I., the entire community we're dying from unknown causes, both young and old were falling victim to this infliction. The only thing they all had in common were bites on their necks. One particular family the Brown family had already lost their wife, young daughter, and the older daughter Mercy at the young age of 19 years old. The whole community was fearful, that this was the work of a Vampire.

“Mr. Brown was about to lose his youngest son so, to make certain that Mercy hadn't turned into a Vampire, they unearthed her grave. They found her body in perfect condition and she had blood dripping from the sides of her mouth. Mr. Brown was informed by his reverend, Reverend Moses, that Mercy was indeed a Vampire and the only way to save his son (and the community) was to drive a stake through Mercy's heart, tear it out and dismember her body. Reluctantly, Mr. Brown did what the Reverend suggested and consequently started the folklore; Mercy Brown was indeed a Vampire.

“100 years later, 1992, 6 college kids from the University of Connecticut are driving to the University of R.I. for a party. Its a cold, rainy night; they could hardly see, but the driver Jason, a cocky jock, tells his friends, that he'll get them their safely. As Jason is driving along, he suddenly notices a young woman in the road; he swerves the car to avoid her and ends up crashing beside a house. Jason and his friends are shaken by what they've seen and are stranded. One of Jason's friends, Mark, decides that they need to get help, so they run through the pouring rain and enter the house. The house is very old and there is no phone, so they decide to stay there until someone comes along and notices their abandoned car. Once inside, one by one, they are being killed; the deceased have bite marks on their necks. Could this be the work of Mercy Brown 100 years later... or is Mercy trying to warn them about what happened to her in order that she might prevent further murder?

You can see a trailer here.

posterI have mentioned Korean movie Thirst before. It is to get a limited US release from 31st July 2009. Whether it’ll get a UK cinema release is unknown at the time of posting but Metrodome have already secured UK DVD rights.

Coming in at a 133 minutes, Park Chan-wook has eschewed much of the traditional vampire lore purposefully. Film in Focus have a few videos available to watch regarding the film, including Park Chan-wook discussing why he played around with the lore.

posterLast, but certainly not least, is new film Strigoi. This film looks like an absolute hoot, from the trailer I got the sense of a deliciously black comedy that took a more traditional myth pattern as its basis.

The synopsis runs “Vlad (Catalin Paraschiv) investigates a mysterious death in his grandfather’s village that raises questions about land ownership in the community. The trail points to ex-communist bully Constantin Tirescu and his wife, but when Vlad confronts them, he discovers that the richest landowners in the village have become real bloodsuckers.”

There is a homepage and I have embedded the trailer below:


4 comments:

Gabriel said...

That Strigoi film does look like a hoot, and was that old man Meatloaf? It looked like him!

I'll have to look at this Mercy Brown you mentioned, is it a vampire legend I assume?

In regards to vampire legends, I've read the Sean Manchester Highgate Vampire book, and went to Highgate Cemetery on a tour years ago, what do you think of all that?

I mentioned this because there is also a movie titled Highgate Vampire coming out based on the legend. I saw the trailer for it and doesn't seem to be set in the 70's and have Manchester and Farrant in it.

I don't know if it's out either, have you seen that it?

Thirst was out here in limited release but only in Sydney, which is 1000kms from here unfortunately, so just like you I'll have to wait for the dvd release.

Taliesin_ttlg said...

Hi Gabriel - now you mention it... Meatloaf.... hmm....

Mercy Brown is a legend - a New England vampire scare. The wiki page is here.

I personally don't put much credence in the highgate vampire tales - and apparently there has been much argie bargie between Manchester and Farrant. They've made a little money (I'm guessing), fair play to them for that, and may even have convinced themselves that things happened.

As for the movie, I mentioned it here. It is based at highgate but is not a make of the alleged events. The idea is that there will be a movie and an online game also... it is not, to my knowledge, near release yet.

Zahir Blue said...

All three of these look very interesting! I know some folks believe there's a vampire "glut" and that vampire films will soon be passe. Me, I don't see it. These things go in cycles, but the vampire film has been around more-or-less continuously since the 1960s. Don't see that changing.

I've always thought the story of Mercy Brown could inspire a great story.

Thirst looks really interesting while Strigoi looks funny.

Taliesin_ttlg said...

Cheers Zahir... I'd go as far as to say that the V movie has been a constant since Nosferatu, appearing a few times each decade at least - though, as you say, from the 60s the pace really kicked in.

I think the cyclic nature comes out more in the bigger budget flicks, but even so the genre does buck that trend also.