Dracula: The Un-Dead – review

Authors: Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt

Release Date: 2009

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Based on Bram Stoker’s own notes, the authorized sequel is written by a direct descendant of Stoker and a well-known Dracula historian. Fast-paced, full of suspense and rich with historical detail Dracula: the Un-Dead will captivate admirers of gothic literature.

Quincey Harker, son of Jonathon and Mina, having left his law studies for the stage, stumbles upon the troubled production of Dracula at the Lyceum, directed by Bram Stoker himself. The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents’ terrible secrets. Can it be that history is about to repeat itself?

For, twenty- five years since Van Helsing and his allies reduced Dracula to dust, evil stalks Europe once again. One by one the band of heroes is being hunted down. Has Dracula somehow survived to seek his revenge? Or is there another, more sinister force at work?

The Review: So here it is, the official sequel – as sanctioned by the Stoker estate – of Dracula. Within the first four pages we get more story changes and revision of lore than you can shake a stick at. This is contained in a letter from Mina to Quincey Harker, to be opened on her sudden or unnatural death, a quick summary reveals:

Dracula is referred to as Prince, in the original book he is a Count – the word Prince does not even feature (I did a search of the pdf). This was to tie in with Dracula as Vlad Tepes, as erroneously postulated by McNally and Florescu.

Harker was imprisoned in Castle Dracula as Dracula feared he would reveal the truth of what he was. Not as a snack for the brides as he was finished with him, then?

Dracula travelled in boxes of earth as sunlight would burn him to ash, rather than being able to walk in daylight as Stoker clearly stated.

Lucy consciously ran out into the dark, and was subsequently attacked, the night the Demeter wrecked, rather than sleepwalking three days later.

Mina noticed the two holes on Lucy’s neck, when she found her, rather than assuming, the next day, that she had pricked her neck.

Seward owns the Whitby asylum – rather than one by Carfax.

Quincey plunged his dagger in Dracula’s heart and Dracula burst into flames – rather than just crumbling to dust. One can't help but think of how this would be a dusting effect, ala Buffy or Blade in a subsequent movie.

A year after Quincey Harker was born Mina started dreaming of Dracula who was haunting her dreams, rather than the carefree picture, seven years on, as drawn in the coda to the original book.

Now, there is much, much more as the book continues (to the point that Stoker's novel is openly called a pack of lies by characters in this book) and I note that Elizabeth Miller, who I hold in high esteem, states in the afterword that “a purist might indeed be occasionally shocked by the introduction of such ‘errors’ into the original text.” With all due respect, not so. I am shocked that such artistic licence has been taken with the lore and story of a book in what purports to be an official sequel and claims to use Bram’s notes. This book owes more to Hamilton Deane (who appears as a character), the various movies and the book ‘In Search of Dracula’ than Stoker’s original. I feel that if this were just a sequel based loosely round Dracula it would be one thing, but an official sequel should respect and expand on the original story and lore. Indeed I felt a particular discomfort at the change that persued, what I could describe as, a “Terminator 2 model” – not that there are robots or time travel, before you panic, but in plot/character device.

That said, if we can scour the idea of this not being an ‘official sequel’ from our minds then it isn’t bad as a novel. There are some issues within. For instance the editors should, perhaps, have picked up on “John Tuck, here in Piccadilly, was the best cobbler in London, second only to Lobb on St James” after all it can’t be both the best and the second best but I am being overly picky, probably. Then again... Remember what I listed re Lucy and the marks on her neck, earlier in the review? Well, by the end of the book Mina muses that, on that fateful night, Lucy was sleepwalking and Mina thought she had pricked her neck! Perhaps that wasn't an error but a continuation of the revisionist attitude, maybe even post-modern?

Generally however, it is fast paced, with twists and turns and set pieces clearly designed for the big screen. There are interesting moments, such as the suggestion that perhaps a vampire does not change into, say, a bat but makes the observer perceive a change - I did like that. I also thought there was a good use of Báthory. However I have read better unofficial Dracula sequels – Kim Newman, Elaine Bergstrom, and Freda Warrington all spring to mind. As I scour the words 'official sequel' from my mind I settle upon 6 out of 10.

Magic of Spell – review

Director: Chung-Hsing Chao*

Release date: 1986

Contains spoilers

Magic of Spell – or Qu Mo Tong – is a Taiwanese movie based on the Japanese tale of ‘Momotaro, the Peach Boy’ and stars Lin Hsiao Lan as Momotaro. Last time we saw her in a movie it was in the madcap Kung Fu Wonder Child, in which she, like this, played a male role.

The opening scene begins with a traveller walking along. The traditional Chinese music comes to an end as he falls, unable to see over the giant round of bread he eats, straight into a pothole. The music becomes a pratfall anthem – yes, he is our primary comedy character. He makes camp for the night and some corpses rise – rather zombie like for the two daughters and a skeleton for the father – and we get a physical comedy routine as he fails to notice them and asks his master (via a shrine) for help to combat his fear of the night.

There follows a title sequence in which we get to see the super strong and magical Momotaro in action. Be it lifting giant logs, saving drowning kids (that no one can be bothered swimming out to, it seems) or catching arrows in flight to save cuddly bunny rabbits we tend to get a measure of the boy.

The film cuts to a castle where the forces of evil are filling a bath with blood for their evil elder. He is the vampire of our piece, old and corrupted he seeks the right level of vitality in the blood he bathes him to restore his youth. In younger form he does have fangs. He is also less than impressed that Momotaro has been able to bring peace and prosperity to the human world.

In the world the comedy character (who is never actually named) comes upon a house where an old woman offers food to the shrine of her deceased husband. As he is in need, however, she gives him the food – she even lets him put some on his master’s shrine. It appears, therefore, that his master – a great Kung Fu Warrior is dead. She mentions her son and there is an argument over who is the greatest hero when Momotaro returns home. It seems that the peach boy is the master the comedy character has been searching for.

The latest mix of blood does not contain the vitality the elder needs to become young and his evil doctor suggests that they need the blood of 1000 virgins. This leads to a raid by the demons to steal the village children. The villagers go to Momotaro for help. He prepares to leave – telling the comedy character to be careful on their mission or the demons will drink his blood and eat his flesh. However, the evil doctor comes for Momotaro.

In the ensuing fight Momotaro’s mother is killed and he is gravely injured by the forces of evil. He escapes death as the spirit of the peach (or something like that, I kid you not) is summoned. Yes we have a giant glowing peach firing magic rays at the baddies. Exactly why is never explained by the film – which refers to Momotaro as Peach Boy but does not explain his origins further.

This confusion with regards the folklore then continues when we see the funeral of his mother and he and his companions leave to go to the demons’ castle. His companions are referred to in the Fortune Star subtitles as Monkey, Dog and Chicken – the traditional companions of Momotaro in folklore, well except that Chicken should be Pheasant. The film doesn’t explain this, or why they have joined Momotaro and the comedy character. They are just there and their appearance proves confusing.

Meanwhile humans and demons alike are trying to catch a ginseng boy – a 1000 year old piece of ginseng that can walk and talk. As things go on Momotaro befriends the ginseng and is the first to not suggest eating him. The ginseng wants to be Momotaro’s friend and whilst the peach boy sends him away for his own safety it is their friendship that will save the day.

That involves actually using the manji symbol – or swastika as we know it – and I still appreciate films such as this and (the otherwise awful) Dragon Against Vampire take the symbol that has rightly become associated with evil and reclaim it as a Buddhist symbol of good. Remember that the Manji is, traditionally, a sun symbol so the elder is defeated – symbolically – by the sun.

The film would be quite good – hokey effects aside – if it had cared to explain what was occurring a little more often. I am sure that those familiar with the Momotaro story would get more out of it but the film should stand alone and be watchable by those with no knowledge of the folklore tale it is based on. The comedy character was annoying in this also, his antics too silly (especially in the final battle) and without any pathos to counterbalance the comedy – being a bullied orphan was not pathos enough as it was a background mentioned in passing. That said, it was quite fun for what it was – though not the best of its ilk. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here. * the imdb entry had listed Chung Wu Ching as director, thanks to the posted comment I noticed that this might be erroneous. Checking imdb they have now (19/11/11) changed the director to Chung-Hsing Chao. I have changed this but if anyone can confirm this or knows if this is still erroneous I'd be grateful for the correspondence.

Dumplings – review

Director: Fruit Chan

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

A little while ago we looked at the anthology film Three Extremes and specifically I looked at the segment Dumplings under ‘Vamp or Not?’

I decided that the segment was a variant of the vampire genre; specifically I likened it to a variant of the Báthory story – a human’s search for eternal youth leading them to extremes. I mentioned at the end of the article that a feature length version of the story had been produced and this is said film. It is essentially the same story expanded – with one substantial change that, whilst it was a major change for one of the characters, took the story in the same place essentially. As such, much of this write up will be similar to the ‘Vamp or Not?’ as I look to the story.

The story begins with what look likes border control from mainland China into Hong Kong. Mei (Ling Bai) hand her papers over and then puts a lunch pail in a scanner. She returns home and opens the pail. There are fried egg, ham and rice in one layer but, below that, there is another layer with a box. She opens it. To those entirely new to the film it might not be clear what these are – they are foetuses. She eats one raw.

In a poor looking estate an expensive car pulls up and Mrs Li (Miriam Yeung Chin Wah) gets out. She looks for the home of Mai, asking for directions. Eventually she reaches the flat – Mai clearly has been expecting her and remembers her from her previous career as a TV star. Li has come for Mai’s dumplings, reputedly the most expensive. After a discussion about age – Li guesses that Mai is in her thirties at most, but she says she is much older – Mai makes dumplings for the woman.

It is clear that Li was looking for a way to look younger but it is also clear that she knows what she is eating – though Mai keeps her out of the kitchen. Her hesitance leads her to spit up the first dumpling (Mai places it in the soil of a plotted plant – it will bloom much better). The look of disgust on her face is palpable but she eats them anyway – Mai telling her that she mustn’t think of what it was.

A man swims, it is Mr Li (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and one difference between this and the short is we see much more of him. He and his wife are living in a hotel as their home is renovated. After the swim a masseuse (Pauline Lau) is working on him and he is coming on to her. During this section he eats a balut – an Asian delicacy, the balut is a fertilized duck or chicken egg with a nearly developed embryo inside, which is boiled and is said to offer energy and sexual potency. The juxtaposition of this with the subject of the film offers an obvious simile. From their room Mrs Li watches her husband’s antics.

We see Mei in a hospital – the place where she buys her ingredients. The nurse tells Mei that security has been increased and there will be no more for two weeks. As they talk we discover that Mei had been a doctor on the mainland, one who specialised in abortion and, due to the Chinese one child policy, she had performed upwards of 30,000 abortions in ten years. She split up with her husband but they never had kids – he believed that after performing so many abortions her child would be cursed.

Mrs Li wants a faster treatment and is told that the most potent are 5 to 6 months old – third trimester foetus are too tough. We see her in multiple shots, eating the dumplings and at first she is disgusted by what she eats – Mei brings her a raw foetus and she can’t look at it – but eventually she becomes more and more nonchalant about her diet. We also see that Mr Li has an affair with the masseuse and goes ‘away’ (actually to another room in the hotel) with her rather than spend his 15th anniversary with his wife.

Mei is approached by a mother (So-Fun Wong) whose 15 year old daughter, Kate (Miki Yeung), is pregnant. She asks for Mei’s help, who suggests going to a certain hospital where the abortion would be legal but they can’t afford to (presumably it was on the Chinese mainland). Mei actually seems reluctant to help, unlike the short where it goes straight to the abortion, even when she hears that the child was fathered by Kate’s father. Eventually, however, she does help. Before then we see Mei and Mrs Li go to Mrs Li’s home and Mrs Li finding some eggs – presumably for balut. Angry at her husband she smashes them and a live chick emerges from one of the eggs. She squashes it with her foot.

Following Kate’s abortion, Mei prepares more dumplings. However Mrs Li peeks in the kitchen, sees the foetus that is rather well developed and runs in horror. She gets onto the streets, heaves and then, with shaky legs, returns to the flat. Once there she gathers her courage, examines the foetus and eats the resultant dumplings. To me this indicated the final step across the morality border – she had tried to ignore what she was eating but now she had actively seen and it was at a stage where it was recognisably a human baby. There was no more pretence in Mrs Li’s habits.

The film then follows her reconciliation with her husband, her negative reaction to the diet (put down as nerves by her doctor), which led to a rash on her neck and hands that smelt like fish, and Kate’s death as she suffered complications from her procedure. I said this differs from the short and it is in two main ways hereon in - one being a change from the original and one being a thread unseen in the original. For the unseen thread, Mr Li finds out about the dumplings, wants them himself and embarks on an affair with Mei and, for the changed aspect, Mrs Li does not become pregnant – though the masseuse does.

There is a shot towards the end, when Mei has done a runner, that people have suggested indicates she has become older. It is likely that she is not on her diet any more but I couldn’t for certain tell you if that was the aim of the shot or if it just showed her living on the streets – the shot was too distant. We do discover – during her affair with Mr Li – that she is actually 64 years old. She also, at one point, mentions staying young forever.

The film is gorgeously shot (even if the subject matter of the photography is somewhat gruesome) and, for the most part, runs well as a feature. There is one moment when Mrs Li is in Mei’s flat that is very badly edited and her seated position changes in frame but that was a one off event. Later it might appear that Mr Li is switching seats in shot but it seemed more that we were in a sequence of intercut scenes set at different times and the cuts were deliberate. The soundtrack fits rather well and hits a quite industrial level at times, becoming almost whimsical at others.

All in all a fascinating, beautiful film. Some might complain that there is no real conclusion but it fit with the tone of the film. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The Night Gallery – the Devil is Not Mocked – review (TV Episode)

Director: Gene R Kearney

First aired: 1971

Contains spoilers

The Night Gallery was Rod Serling’s follow up to the Twilight Zone and was composed of short visual stories, as it were. This was a shorter segment that featured Count Dracula.

Now, it was interesting that Dracula was played by Francis Lederer, who had played the Count before in the 1958 flick the Return of Dracula. Lederer believed the earlier film was the worst in his career and it is interesting to note that he actually lived through three centuries, being born in 1899 and dying in 2000.

The episode is bookended by Dracula telling his grandson what he got up to in the Great War – why Dracula suddenly had a grandson is not explained. However during the war a group of SS soldiers, led by General Von Grunn (Helmut Dantine), went to a castle looking for partisans. Rather than the freedom fighters they expected they were met by a rather dapper looking man who welcomed them into his home.

The castle was searched and nothing found, though the General believed the partisans were probably in hidden tunnels below the castle. There was a dinner laid out, which the Count insisted was for the General's repast, whilst the servants entertained his men. The Count did not partake – he would not sup until midnight. Of course, at midnight he vamps out whilst his servants destroy (unseen) the troops.

This was billed by Serling as evil meeting evil and, though it was very short, the joy of it was the interaction between the quietly superior Count and the arrogant SS General. Of course any film showing Nazis being killed has merits and the General discovers he was right, that the Count was leading the partisans, just as he dies.

Short, to the point and fun. 6 out of 10.

The episode's imdb page is here.

:)Q

Vampires – Stories of the Supernatural – review

Author: Alexis Tolstoy

Volume published: 1969

Contains spoilers

When I featured the story Family of the Vourdalak as an interesting short, friend of the blog Olliemugwump mentioned this volume, a rare volume from 1969 that collects that short with three other tales.

The first story is “The Vampire”, penned by Tolstoy in 1841. This is a rollercoaster of a tale. We get the vampires or oupyr, who can be destroyed by ramming a stake between their shoulder blades, reveal themselves to each other with clicks of the tongue and, in the case of at least one, feast on their immediate family. We also get familial curses, hallucinations, ghostly visitations, intrigue, devil worship and a lamia. It is a story that deserves a film, and as I read it I imagined it as a Roger Corman production – at his peak – perhaps with a Masque of the Red Death sensibility.

Next is the erstwhile mentioned “Family of the Vourdalak” and that is followed by “The Reunion After Three Hundred Years”. Whilst this is a ghost story it is more than interesting as it prequels Vourdalak – indicating what occurred between d’Urfé and the Duchess de Gramont that set him on his course to Moldavia.

The final story is “Amena”, a story of pagan Gods, the Roman attack on Christianity and a cursed man. The curse is bestowed upon him by Amena and whilst there is no definitive vampiric activity it is bestowed by a bite and renders the man immortal.

The volume has occasional but glorious illustrations by Mel Fowler and the stories were translated by Fedor Nikanov.

Of course Vourdalak is the story that has had the most defining impact on the genre but this is a must have collection of 19th Century stories for the discerning vampire fan. 7.5 out of 10.

Honourable Mentions: Genuine – a tale of a vampire

This was a film made in 1920 by Robert Wiene, director of (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari), and as you can see it mentioned vampire in (one of) its title(s). We previously looked at the 1916 Les Vampires as an honourable mention as, though primarily featuring a vamp, there was some vampiric allegory in the form of a dance.

Genuine (Fern Andra), as a character, is fairly much a vamp rather than a(n undead) vampire but what we see is a bridge being built between the vamp and the vampire, Genuine seems to have magical abilities, there is some form of supernatural element included and she is called a witch at one point. The depths of this is perhaps difficult to say as all we have to go on is a 44 minute condensed version, which clearly has plot/logical holes due to the missing segments. I understand that the Munich City Film Museum archive holds a full length version.

The film begins with the painter Percy Melo (Harald Paulsen) reading his favourite story. A picture is on the wall with Genuine in it. He falls asleep and she steps down from the painting – is all that now follows Percy’s dream? Is Genuine real? In what we see Genuine is a priestess of a strange, mystical Eastern religion. A war between tribes sees her captured.

She is taken to a slave market – and the appearance of naked breasts in the slave market scene, given when the film was made, felt daring to say the least. The film makes it clear that being there has corrupted her and made her fierce and savage. This is illustrated, when Lord Melo (Ernst Gronau) arrives to look at the slaves, by Genuine biting the hand of one of the slavers. She does have a fierce gleam in her eye. Melo buys her and his guard, the Malay (Lewis Brody), carries her off. She is placed in a sort of garden prison – below his home.

Every day Guyard (John Gottowt), a barber, attends Melo and shaves him; the old man has a habit of sleeping during his shave. However the townsfolk believe something odd is going on in the house and Guyard is called to answer questions for the town judge at the time of the next appointment. He arranges that his nephew Florian (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) will attend the Lord the next day. In the meantime Melo gets a note to say that Percy, his Grandson, intends to visit.

As Florian is kept waiting, Genuine begins to climb a tree in order to escape her gilded cage. Florian is eventually given access to Melo, who falls asleep as usual whilst being shaved. The escaped Genuine enters the room, her movements exotic. Florian seems filled with both awe and dread at once. She starts making movements, indicating that he should slit Melo’s throat and he does so, it seems, almost involuntarily. This, it seems, indicates a power inherent in Genuine.

We get more supernatural shenanigans then as she warns that the Malay is coming and that Florian should get the ring as he will obey the bearer. He takes a ring off Melo’s hand and the Malay enters, sees his master dead and draws a dagger. Florian holds the ring up and he backs away. What power does it actually have? We do not know. However, having slept, Genuine suggests that Florian prove his love by killing himself like a sacrifice, she then takes the ring for herself and tells the Malay to kill Florian…

We hit a huge jump in the film, what has happened to Florian (we discover some of it soon) and how did Percy react when he arrived and discovered his grandfather dead? We don’t know. We do know that Percy is in love with Genuine, he then becomes paranoid – believing she wants him dead – and finally his friend proves to her that she loves Percy by pretending he is dead and then revealing that he isn’t really, her devastation at the news proving her love.

Meanwhile Florian is back with his uncle and quite ill. In his delirium he confesses to being a murderer but Guyard is having none of it, convincing the judge and the townfolk that Genuine is a witch… an angry mob goes in search of her…

As you can tell Genuine was very much the vamp and much less the vampire. Indeed her supernatural elements seem as much witchcraft and Guyard is probably not too wrong in his descriptor. She is also an abused woman, striking out at the men who have abused her. However, I mention this here as I think it closes a gap between the dangerous femme fatale of the vamp of early cinema with the supernatural. Two years later Murnau would define the cinematic vampire (or at least key elements thereof) in Nosferatu and our vampire would become a hideous, male creature of the night. One cannot help but think, however, that (at least in a small way) Genuine was one of the progenitora of the cinematic female vampires to come.

The imdb page is here.

Grace – review

Director: Paul Solet

Release date: 2009

Contains spoilers

Grace is a vampire baby film and this is not exactly new. We had, as far back as 1974, the almost masterful Grave of the Vampire and whilst the baby aspect of the film was small it was rather eerie and there are plenty of other examples – possibly peaking with Baby Blood.

This has a slightly different take on the sub-genre but it is most definitely a vampire baby.

Michael (Stephen Park) and Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd, who was in embrace of the vampire) want a baby. She is a vegan – he seems to live the lifestyle out of marital convenience rather than compulsion – and has miscarried twice. This time around she is pregnant and has got to the seventh month. His mother, Vivian (Gabrielle Rose), is a judge and know it all who does not approve of her daughter-in-law’s alternative lifestyle choices. Rather than use Vivian’s approved doctor, Richard Sohn (Malcolm Stewart), Madeline is going to use old friend and alternative midwife Dr Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris). The film suggests later that Patricia and Madeline had been in a romantic relationship in the past.

Patricia’s intervention is needed when Madeline ends up at hospital due to chest pains that Sohn diagnoses as preeclampsia. Before they can induce Patricia intervenes and fairly much proves it to be gall-stones. Anyway, heading off in the car (presumably to Patricia’s clinic) there is an accident – a car whizzes past and the drivers airbag explodes spontaneously. Michael is killed and Madeline cannot feel the baby move. Madeline determines to carry the baby to full term – even though it is dead – and is left with the child, to say goodbye, when she finally gives birth.

Patricia comes through to tell her that she cannot will the baby to life and is shocked when Madeline shows that she is alive. Madeline calls the miracle child Grace. Except... the child isn’t alive but undead and things are clearly not right. The first thing that Madeline notices is the smell, Grace seems to smell – without dirtying her nappy – and bathing can lead to haemorrhaging through the skin. The smell also seems to be attracting flies, a lot of them.

However Grace also is not feeding. When given milk she vomits it back and eventually she starts suckling blood from the breast. These scenes are done tastefully without (at this stage) resulting in too much gore. As a viewer, we notice, occasionally, that the baby’s skin seems odd and yet, when looking at her face on she seems a healthy baby girl.

Madeline eventually tries a bottle of animal blood but that is simply thrown up and she herself starts to become anaemic due to her own loss of blood. Then we have Vivian, mother-in-law from Hell, who misses her own son and wants to be a mother all over again. She decides (without evidence as Madeline cuts her out of the loop) that Madeline must be shown to be an unfit mother and she will take over. Unfortunately I didn’t think that she was used optimally as a character and seems a wasted oportunity.

The story eventually turns into that of a desperate mother trying to do what is best for her baby and I don’t have a problem with the main performances. Ladd was especially good as the haggard, anaemic mother. However the film dragged for me, I felt that the pace was slow and that the film failed to capitalise on many of its potentials – Vivian’s disturbing desire for motherhood, at any cost, and Patricia and Madeline’s past relationship being two of the most glaring examples.

We never actually get to know why Grace is this undead, vampiric baby. Was it the soya milk and tofu diet her mother was on whilst she was in the womb, was it a freak thing or was it the burning desire within the mother to keep her baby?

The film could have been excellent, creepy and moving in turns, instead – to me at least – it missed the mark. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

A Tale from the East – review

Director: Manfred Wong

Release date: 1990

Contains spoilers

This film begins with a voice over telling us all about the unification of China and the attempt to make pills that granted immortality. It is mostly confusing to be honest except that we need to know that there was a pearl, which was one of these pills, and it was stolen.

After this we see what might have been two ropey looking demons in a car except they were genuinely two people in rubber masks, Chu Tai-Lit (Billy Lau) and his sister Kot-Yee (Joey Wang, who was in the fantastic A Chinese Ghost Story). They are heading to a Barbeque picnic – that it appears they have charged other youths to go to.

That night there is a certain alignment of planets – that occurs every 200 years – and as the alignment occurs the rains begin. The BBQ moves from being a series of over the top posturing and reaction shots, to all the kids legging it. Kot-Yee and Tai-Lit get to their car but it breaks down and the soft-top springs open. Kot-Yee goes to a nearby house to use the phone as Tai-Lit tried to fix the car. We see a little glowing girl emerge from the Earth.

We also see a warrior, Huang Zhin (David Wu), appear who loses his sword when lightening strikes it. Kot-Yee tries to use the phone but is rebuffed by an irate butler who is trying to have some rumpy pumpy with the maid whilst he awaits the arrival of some electricians (the power is off in the house). Kot-Yee sneaks into the house to use the phone but has to hide when it rings. She sees the little girl and leaves the house when the coast is clear. Back at the car Tai-Lit is under the car when Zhin walks by. However, Tai-Lit notices a piece of gold on the floor (fallen from Zhin’s armour) and then another, he follows a trail of them until he reaches the muddy Zhin. He and Kot-Yee fight Zhin, whom they beieve to be a ghost until a fall in water cleans the mud away. Zhin, however, is knocked out and so they take him home.

We see a creature tracking through the woods looking for the little girl. He is our vampire and is a monstrous warrior monk called the Blood Demon. At the house two electricians arrive (Eric Kot and Jan Lamb) and start trying to fix the electrics whilst the Blood Demon attacks. He manages to kill the butler and maid, cutting the butlers head off and leaving it in the fridge whilst he drinks the man’s blood from the open stump of neck.

Eventually the electricians escape and head back to base – unaware at the time that the little girl has hitched a ride with them. So what is going on? Two hundred years before a corrupt Prince took control of China. He sent Blood Demon after the Queen (also Joey Wang) and the little princess in order that he might steal the jade heirloom that has the pearl in its centre. The Queen died but Zhin (who was a royal guard) and the princess vanished when the planets aligned. The next alignment has brought them back and the Blood Demon still hunts for the pearl.

However all is not good, not only are they hunted but they are also dying as their blood is so old (and thus it has turned pink rather than red) it cannot sustain their lives. Indeed they haemorrhage the pink blood at one point and seem as though they are to immediately expire. They are revived at that time by blood transfusions but that is not a solution that can last them. They actually are not aware of the pearl and its power at first.

Luckily Mr Wesley (Kuang Ni) is on hand to work out what is going on – though it seems to be through novels and Video Discs of Back to the Future. This is not the only western film reference as the theme to the Untouchables and Ghostbusters are used in the film's soundtrack also. It is through Wesley that they are able to use the pearl to cure Zhin when he is left injured.

They have, of course, to destroy Blood Demon and it seems, at first, it is to be through a magic sword – Zhin’s retrieved sword with the pearl attached. Actually it ends up being death through electricity – both from a power cable and lightning channelled through the sword.

The film is okay but it is far from the greatest Hong Kong offering. It seems a little cheap, the effects are corny and the story muddled. Fans of Hong Kong cinema will enjoy looking out for stars such as Amy Yip as herself in fleeting cameos but all told this is a little too filled with histrionics and more than a little saccharine at the end. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Draculas, Vampires and Other Undead forms – review

Edited by: John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart

First published: 2009

Contains spoilers

This volume, subtitled “Essays on Gender, Race and Culture”, came into my awareness as a very good friend of the blog and general online bud – Nick Schlegel – is published in the book. The book is split into three parts and various chapters and, if you will indulge me, I will look at each chapter as they all had something within to make the reader think – whether you agreed or not with the hypothesis it explored.

The first part of the book was entitled “Tackling Race, Gender and Modes of Narration in America”.

The first essay, by Gary D Rhodes, was “Manly P Hall, Dracula (1931), and the Complexities of the Classic Horror Film Sequel”. Whilst the essay did look at the differing form of the horror sequel in the classic Universal period of film-making, what it primarily did was introduce us to Manly P Hall, his life and his vision of a sequel for the classic Universal Dracula. Fascinating stuff.

“The Dracula and the Blacula (1972) Cultural Revolution” by Paul R Lebman and John Edgar Browning was an interesting look at both Blacula and Scream, Blacula, Scream. The authors argued that, far from a blaxploitation film the film actually was a crucial point in the black cultural revolution within cinema. I can agree with them to a point, and have no argument when it comes to William Marshall’s wonderful performance. However I feel that, despite the performance, his influence over the script and the fact that director William Crain was black, the film does still fall into blaxploitation. No doubt it opened the way, however, for films such as Ganja and Hess - though even with that we had to wait until the 2006 release to see the film as it should have been and not in the blaxploitation cut that the studio foisted upon the world.

“The Compulsion of Real/Reel Serial Killers and Vampires: Toward a Gothic Criminology” by Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart and Cecil Greek argues that the general form of the serial killer movie captures the essence and form of the vampire movie – at least when focused on the male serial killer. The argument was okay as far as it went but certain things nagged. For instance, the film Immortality is mentioned with a thought that it isn’t a vampire movie – I disagree – though such a proposition does not detract from the argument. Whilst the film M is mentioned, the fact that one of the killers it is, allegedly, based on was called a vampire in the press is not mentioned and indeed films such as Tenderness of the Wolves and Bloodlust are not mentioned at all – despite the killers being named vampires by the press also.

Perhaps they were ignored as they befuddled the core sexuality argument – adding in paedophilic tendencies (M), homosexuality (Tenderness of the Wolves) and necrophilia (Bloodlust). Yet they are all highly effective serial killer films – albeit not American, given the focus of the book section. Does this mean that it was wrong to look at the serial killer explicitly within an American orientated section? Further, I would also have liked to see Killer X mentioned as it ties the serial killer and vampire together with the Agent seeing the killers as vampiric creatures.

I’ll jump forward to “When women Kill: Undead Imagery in the Cinematic Portrait of Aileen Wuornos” also by Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart and Cecil Greek as this argues that the film Monster, being about a female serial killer, is more Frankensteinean than vampiric. I cannot say, having not watched the film, but I felt that perhaps, by rote, the authors argued that the female serial killer generally was deemed as not vampiric – possibly partly due to the sexuality arguments they used in the previous essay (Wuornos, as the highlighted case, being a lesbian). However, it seemed an omission to look at that and not look at the wealth of material surrounding Erzsébet Báthory – a serial killer who was female, likely bisexual and who is tied inextricably with the vampire genre – though again, she is clearly not an American figure and the vast majority of the films surrounding her are European in origin.

Don’t get me wrong, the last two chapters I just mentioned were fascinating I can just see other directions that needed acknowledging and exploring.

“Blood, Lust and the Fe/Male Narrative in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and the Novel (1897)" by Lisa Nystrom argued that Stoker’s novel had a misogynistic edge, fearing the ‘new woman’ as much as the mysterious foriegner, and went on to look at how this was illuminated visually within Coppola’s film. I have sympathy for this feminist reading of the novel, one does feel that Stoker was as constrained by society as by his own opinion, remembering when the novel was written, and perhaps further investigation might show a desire from Stoker to embrace the concept of the new woman contradicted by his societal restrictions (though I may be being generous). I was less convinced by the idea that the vampiric brides and the vampire Lucy had their narrative stifled due to this – after all they were in no position to add narrative into the story, which was compiled by the humans, and Dracula himself adds nothing personally into the narrative.

“The Borg as Vampire in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996), an Uncanny Reflection” by Justin Everett certainly made me think. Everett pointed out symbolism I perhaps had not seen but I remain unconvinced for two reasons. Firstly Star Trek noodles with its own lore and back history. Whilst the Borg queen was introduced in First Contact she did not exist or at least was not referenced (as far as I am aware) in TNG, indeed the brothers Lore and Data were able to take command of the (self aware) Borg, her quoted interaction with Locutus was introduced in the movie. This noodling makes symbolism a shifting feast within Trek. More so, I actually think that (the queen aside) the Borg are more zombie like and (whilst accepting that Romero was influenced by I am Legend) Everett’s arguments work as well in respect of the zombie movie as the vampire movie, bar the queen who is more seductive and self aware than her drone counterparts.

The Next part of the book was called “Working through change and Xenophobia in Europe.”

Santiago Lucendo’s “Return Ticket to Transylvania: Relations between Historical Reality and Vampire Fiction” looked at the sources of Stoker’s imagined Transylvania – which has become our distorted view of Transylvania. A nice section and well written, Lucendo argues a projection of the anxieties of the West onto the East rather than then East invading the West.

I was much less impressed with the arguments presented in “Racism and the vampire: the anti-Slavic premise of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)” by Jimmie Cain. Clearly there is a definite tone to Dracula of the menace from the East and the foreigner who threatens the decorum of the British Empire. However the arguments presented rang hollow to me. I admit I haven’t read Oinas’ “Eastern European Vampires and Dracula” upon which much of the chapter seemed to rely. However it seemed to also rely on an argument that Dracula was based on Vlad Tepes – a theorem that, other than a footnote borrowed, has been generally dismissed.

Further to suggest that Stoker added staking as a vampire killing method because of Tepes and impalement is ludicrous. I suspect that Stoker was aware of Varney the Vampire, which includes staking, but I know he was aware of and influenced by Carmilla. This is what Carmilla has to say on vampire destruction: “The body, therefore, in accordance with the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects such as might escape from a living person in the last agony. Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head was next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away, and that territory has never since been plagued by the visits of a vampire.” Stoker knew of this lore and thus we need not look to the attrocities of Vlad Tepes for the source of staking, though one could look to the traditional folklore for earlier precedents if one wished. Finally if Stoker had been influenced by the experiences of George Stoker during the Russo-Turkish war, I’d have thought that Russia would have become the setting for the tale not Transylvania.

Paul Newland offered a new look at Dracula AD 1972 in his essay “The Grateful Un-Dead: Count Dracula and the Transnational Counterculture in Dracula AD 1972 (1972)”. This essay breathed new life into one of the more maligned of the Hammer Dracula cycle films. However, I still think listening to a bunch of adults pretend to be kids and speak in painfully affected ‘street speech’ is tough – which actually forms one of the strands of his point.

The last essay in this section was “Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) as a Legacy of Romanticism”. In it Martina G lüke examines the strong romanticism elements in the 1979 version of Nosferatu.

The final part of the book was the part I was most anticipating and was entitled “Imperialism, Hybridity, and Cross-Cultural Fertilisation in Asia.”

With “Death and the Maiden: The Pontianak as Excess in Malay Popular Culture”, Andrew Hock—Soon Ng explored the symbolism within the Pontianak – a Malay form of vampire. The Pontianak and Kuntilanak are essentially the same creature and the author seemed to have the same issue that I have had, that the vacillation between the traditional vampire-like folklore and the form of the creature as a ghost makes it difficult, in some filmic versions, to class the Pontianak as a vampire in a Western sense. Though I have not seen the main film he concentrated on, ‘Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam’, the essay was informative and offered an insightful thought on vampires generally: “Vampires are ambiguous signifiers, whose meanings shift according to historical and cultural changes.”

It was nice to see some exposure for Zinda Laash in Sean Moreland and Summer Pervez’ “Becoming-Death: The Lollywood Gorhic of Khwaja Safraz’s Zinda Laash (Dracula in Pakistan [US Title], 1967)”. However I did feel that they perhaps read too much into the film and certainly I disagreed with their interpretation of the ending. They suggested that the hero prays to God and then divine light kills the vampire, obviously bringing an Islamic sensibility to the film underlined by the vampire's turning to dust mirroring the Qur’an. There is no doubt that the film is Islamic in direction – the entire 'becoming the vampire' story underlines that. However the film is essentially a remake of Horror of Dracula and the prayer to God was the Islamic version of Cushing putting two candlesticks together to make a cross. The so called divine light was sunlight let in after the hero knocks a shutter open and, whilst in the interior shot it clearly is studio lights, this is underlined by the hero walking into a daytime exterior shot in the next scene. This was just a rendition of the Horror of Dracula ending – wield cross (with clear divinely inspired impact on the vampire), open curtain, sunlight kills vampire who turns to dust and say prayer, open (albeit accidentally, so maybe God’s hand was in it) shutter, sunlight kills vampire who turns to dust.

Perhaps reading this film in terms of Deleuze’s cinema theory was going a bit far on a film that has, in my opinion, moments of poor direction but it was an interesting theory regarding a film I see as a flawed jewel.

In "Modernity as Crisis: Geong Si and Vampires in Hong Kong Cinema”, Dale Hudson looks at the Geong Si or Kyonsi movie, and whilst mentioning Mr Vampire concentrates more on Vampire Vs Vampire, A Bite of Love and Doctor Vampire. These show a mixture of the kyonsi film with the western vampire – to one degree or another – and the result is an insightful look at how the films mirrored social consciousness and political change in Hong Kong. My only real criticism was it would have been pertinent to also include the film Exorcist Master as I feel it would have added further weight to the theorem.

In “Enter the Dracula: The Silent Screams and Cultural Crossroads of Japanese and Hong Kong Cinema”, Wayne Stein takes us on a whirlwind trip through both Hong Kong and Japanese vampire cinema. He argues that the first fusions of Eastern and Western vampire cinema did not work but, as the film industries found their own path it led to an effective fusion (in the Twins Effect, for instance) as the cultural aspects of the home country were taken into account. It is an interesting essay, though I would disagree that the TOHO films do not work – they may not have been popular but I think they got stronger and stronger. This segues neatly to the next essay.

“Identity Crisis: Imperialist Vampires in Japan” by Nicholas Schlegel concentrates in entirety on the three TOHO vampire films; Bloodthirsty Doll. Bloodthirsty Eyes and Bloodthirsty Roses. However I won’t comment further on the essay as I reserve thoughts and debates for a promised discussion (which will also include the merits of various Stephen King adaptations) over a pint, if myself and Nick ever find ourselves with the opportunity to do so.

The final essay was “The Western Eastern: Decoding Hybridity and CyberZen Goth(ic) in Vampire Hunter D (1985)” by Wayne Stein and John Edgar Browning. Obviously this was a look at Vampire Hunter D and was a welcome discussion with regards the anime.

As I sat down to read this I decided to write the review piecemeal as I read each essay. Indeed one might argue it is more critique than review and I apologise, therefore, for the length. However this underlines the fact that the book is very worthwhile. I might not agree with the directions and theorems of each contributor but, it is safe to say, each contributor made me think. A welcome book for any serious genre fan, scholarly and yet absolutely accessible. 8.5 out of 10.