Scary Godmother – Halloween Spooktakular – review

Directed by: Ezekiel Norton

First aired: 2003

Contains spoilers

Halloween is the most wonderful time of the year and this was a Halloween TV animation staring the Scary Godmother (Tabitha St. Germain) and based on a series of children’s books by Jill Thompson. I’m not too aware of the books, but I believe they are aimed at the 4-8 age bracket and the film itself lends itself very much to a children’s audience. However, it is short and cute enough to allow an adult 48 minutes of indulgence.

We start off with the big kids meeting to go trick or treating. There is Katie (Brittney Irvin) dressed as a cat, Darrel as a sweet, Burt as a baseball player in an SUV. They are waiting for Jimmy, dressed as the devil, who has to bring his younger cousin Hannah (Britt McKillip). He’s not happy about this and arranges a prank to get rid of her.

Hannah is scared of monsters – there is a marvellous flashback moment to her leaving for the evening, with the kids acting out the flashback – and Jimmy tells her about the spook house, an abandoned house where monsters live and the new kid has to put candy in the basement to appease them. She enters the house and they trap her in, to scare her, but her tears summon the Scary Godmother who takes her to the Fright Side to meet her monster friends.

Once there she meets the skeleton in the closet – Skully Pettibone (Scott McNeil) – one of Scary’s housemates. Scary and her friends are throwing a Halloween party and the first to arrive is Harry (Gary Chalk) an ostentatious werewolf with a greedy side and little control over his canine instincts. The film cuts in and out of the Fright Side and the real world, as Jimmy and his friends wait for Hannah to come screaming out of the house and, so, they subsequently miss Halloween.

No missing Halloween for Hannah, however, as the next guests arrive. They are the Count Max (Scott McNeil) and his family – Ruby (Tabitha St. Germain), his wife, and Orson (Adam Pospisil), their son. They arrive (Scary suggests to Hannah that she should not feel intimidated; not referencing the fact that they are vampires but that they are royalty) but do not enter. Scary remembers that they need to be invited in – Hannah thinks this makes vampires very polite.

Scary tells Max and his clan to help themselves to food and they hiss over Hannah until it is pointed out that she is a friend not a snack. Orson and Hannah, however, quickly begin to get on and it is revealed that vampires sleep in coffins and can fly. Later, when asked if he would like a drink, Max asks for a “bloody Mary, hold the Mary”.

Beyond this we get several vampire orientated gags and lines. Max is upset with Ruby’s dress as you can nearly see her ankle – in his day vampire Queens dressed like Queens. He and Ruby like to neck and he has a great line in eye mojo – something he uses on Harry to shut the werewolf up… fine until he snaps his fingers and accidentally breaks the spell. When they later order pizza they cannot have garlic on it but they do like a blood topping.

The last to arrive is Bug-a-boo (Gary Chalk), the monster under the bed. He really freaks Hannah out and then ends up upset when he discovers that her fears are due to Jimmy telling her that monsters eat kids (why, he asks, would he eat his clients). Later we discover that Jimmy is on his work route – so big kids can be scared. They make friends over pizza and then the monsters conspire to scare the bejeezus out of Jimmy and his friends – teaching them a lesson.

The animation in this is a wonderful mix of quite blocky drawn animation mixed with 3D computer animation and the combination works really well. The voice acting is good but this perhaps misses a darker heart that an adult would look for generally and is rather simplistic. However, it is short enough to overlook that and for the kids this would be a marvellous Halloween short film. 6 out of 10 for the target audience.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy

Two years after the first feature a second Scary Godmother animation was created, again directed by Ezekiel Noron. As you will be able to tell, by the fact that I have made this an ‘Honourable Mention’, this one doesn’t have as much of an appearance of Count Max, Ruby and Orson (in this voiced by Richard Warke). They are there but play a less central role or, at least, they are much less on the centre stage this time around.

The idea is that it is one year on. The big kids have all decided that the monsters seen the year before were actually bigger kids trying to give them a scare – which they deserved due to their actions against Hannah – and have now befriended Hannah. All, that is, except Jimmy who now fears Halloween as he knows the monsters will come again.

Hannah, on the other hand, is really excited about the approaching holiday, is decorating her room and generally getting ready for a great night. This involves going over to the Fright Side to get cobwebs from Scary Godmother – using a key she was given (in the first feature) that opens a portal to that Halloween orientated realm. It is whilst over there she meets Orson and his parents again.

They are just passing by, on the way to the shops, and Ruby wants to know if Scary Godmother wants anything. Orson is so excited to see Hannah that he rushes into the house, forgetting that he needs to be invited. We see him repelled by a barrier that is interesting, lore wise, as it is clearly elastic and also because this seems to indicate that vampires need inviting on each visit.

However, all does not go smoothly as Jimmy decides to destroy Halloween. This takes the form of pumpkin smashing, then candy and costume destroying and finally redecorating the spook house with toilet paper. Each time he does something it seems Halloween is wrecked – until Hannah comes up with a solution – and this starts destroying the Fear Side. At one point Max gains a heartbeat, and the whole family become pink of flesh (and coloured of hair) - a real case of being human!

The film is more referential than the first film (given that the first one wasn’t really referential, to be fair) and so we get a Star Wars moments with a projection to Hannah of Scary Godmother ala Leia’s Hologram in “A New Hope”, we get an Aliens exclamation (Game over, man) and also we get a house on witch moment reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz. Such references makes this a tad more fun for an adult audience than the last film but, more importantly, the target audience will find it just as entertaining.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mentions: Trick r Treat

This film is down as 2008, so why we have had to wait a year to get to see this little gem is somewhat beyond me. An Anthology film with a variety of stories it follows a pattern more in keeping with, say, Creepshow 3 in that it interweaves the various stories.

The film also carries a graphic novel sensibility that works well, and displays it stories in a non-linear fashion. A new horror icon, Sam (Quinn Lord), is also introduced and his presence holds the stories together.

Of course we are looking at vampires and a woman and a cloaked and masked figure are getting it on in an alleyway, off from the main town street where the Halloween parade is in full swing. She is filled with passion at first, but when she realises that she is bleeding from her neck, the blood dripping down her arms, she panics. Even more so when she sees the fangs he reveals.

She runs into the parade, actually into a pair of characters from another story – Henry (Tahmoh Penikett, Trapped Ashes) and Emma (Leslie Bibb), but she is just another fake blood covered trickster, as far as anyone can tell. The cloaked figure gets her and, when done with her, props her body against a wall as though drunk. Later he turns his attention to another girl, Laurie (Anna Paquin, True Blood). She is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and is actually searching for a date but, as he stalks her into the woods, the man – for he is just a mortal killer in a costume – hasn’t realised that there are much worse things out on Halloween Night.

Of course we also get other vampire costumes, and I should mention the boy in the Dracula costume (Richard Harmon) who comes into another story. However, this is a costume only mention, with no real relevance to the section, and I don’t want to spoil this story any further. However, the presence of our wannabe vampire, primarily, as well as the Dracula outfit lets me mention a film that was absolutely wonderful and sure to become many a person’s favourite to show on Halloween night.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Stan Helsing

Stan Helsing is a parody film, much in the Scary Movie mode, in which perennial avoider of responsibility Stan Helsing (Steve Howey), his friend Teddy (Kenan Thompson), his ex-girlfriend Nadine (Diora Baird) an Teddy’s date Mia (Desi Lydic) try to get to a Halloween party.

Their first problem is that Stan has to drop some DVDs off (or lose his job at schlock-busters) and the customer lives in the opposite direction of the party. The second problem is that a variety of modern movie monsters are hunting Stan down as they believe him to be Van Helsing. The monsters have taken over the community of Stormy Heights (where Stan has to deliver the DVDs) and prophecy suggests that Van Helsing will save the community from the monsters.

There is little in the way of vampiric action. Indeed what we get are three brides of Dracula who pose in a shop window, do some lap dancing (and later some phone sex) and are disappointed when Stan admits he is Stan and not Van. No real vampiric action, just some fangs on display, this only just crawls into honourable mention status.

As for the rest of the film it is mildly amusing, poking fun at the horror genre generally and falling back on innuendo to fill in the humour gaps. The best gag, the punchline of which I won’t spoil, is about being ambidextrous. It is the sort of film that a group of friends watching together, preferably with some alcohol, are going to get more out of than if you watch it alone. I should also mention that Leslie Nielson cameos, in drag.

The imdb page is here.

The Creeps – review

Director: Charles band

Release date: 1997

Contains spoilers

Charles Band, and his Full Moon Pictures, have appeared on the blog many times over and the films range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The company have released some truly classic movies – despite low budgets – and yet have managed to balance that with some real stinkers.

The Creeps tries to straddle the two extremes and, as a result, does tend to fall into mediocrity. A horror comedy it is too limited to truly work and yet it has its moments.

The film begins in a library and a man – using the assumed name of Jameson, though actually called Winston Berber (Bill Moynihan, who was also in Jugular Wine: A Vampire Odyssey) – is going through the rigmarole of getting access to a rare book; actually the original manuscript of Frankenstein. Having performed the required checks he is taken to the book by librarian Anna Quarrels (Rhonda Griffin).

He has to wear gloves and a mask and is left with the book. We see him replace the manuscript with a fake. Back at her desk we discover that Quarrels is a new member of staff and she is admonished by older librarian Miss Christina (Kristin Norton) for allowing the man near the book – they never allow access. He returns the book in its tin box and Christina tells Quarrels that the fact that he moved the book around like that is the only excuse they need to ban him from further books. She asks Quarrels out on a date, but the younger woman turns her down.

When Quarrels returns the book she sneaks a look and discovers that the original has been stolen. She can’t report it so gets a private eye, David Raleigh (Justin Lauer), on the job – he is just starting out as a PI and works out of the video store he manages. At first things go well, and he discovers Berber’s identity but then he fails to track him. Meanwhile Berber has Frankenstein, a book with the wolfman in it, a book with the mummy in it and he now wants the original manuscript of Dracula. It happens to be at the same library but when he realises that Quarrels knows he took Frankenstein (and is getting Raliegh to come to the library) he tasers her, grabs both the book and her, and legs it.

The reason he wants the books is because he has built an archetype generator. Pop a book in (for some reason the original manuscript), perform a sacrifice of an under 35, naked, female virgin and you’ll bring the archetype to life. He seeks to create the four evil monsters so that he can rule the world. Raleigh, however, arrives and rescues Quarrels and they grab the books and scarper. Without the sacrifice things go wrong. He creates Dracula (Phil Fondacaro, who we have seen in Kiss of the Vampire, Decadent Evil and Bordello of Blood), the Mummy (Joe Smith), Wolfman (Jon Simanton) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Thomas Wellington) but they are somewhat… short.

From here on in they are after Quarrels, so that the sacrifice can be completed to bring them back to size. It has to be Quarrels, due to the formula created by Berber – in fact they do a trial sacrifice with Miss Christina but it has no effect (bar turning her into a valkyrie). Like the main monsters the film is short and we had so much time building to the actual monster creation that the film doesn’t have much time to do anything else.

Now, I said that this – in some respects – does work as a film and the reason is twofold. Firstly the guys playing the monsters play them absolutely straight. It is left to the others to inject the comedy into this. This is even evident in the makeup effects, the Frankenstein’s Monster makeup being marvellous. The rest of the film might be silly and illogical by turns, but they are great. The second reason is, more specifically, down to Phil Fondacaro’s performance. Not only does he play Dracula straight but he is absolutely wonderful in the role, better in fact than some who have played Dracula in more mainstream movies.

Some of the angles used in film seem odd until you realise that the film was originally shot in 3D. Whilst, like some of the poorer Full Moon pictures, this had limited locations they were used rather well. Actually the fact that it is actually filmed, rather than videoed is telling and lends something to the experience. However it is also short, overly simplistic and just too silly in plot to be great. The comedy only barely works.

All in all this falls into mediocrity, as I mentioned at the head of the review, and gets 4 out of 10 but a definite thumbs up for Phil Fondacaro. The imdb page is here.

Guest Spot

Nip on over to Vamp Chix as I have done a guest article where I wax lyrical about Dark Shadows and my hopes around the future Depp/Burton project to remake the soap for the big screen.

As well as my bit there is a scavenger hunt and a competition.

First Impression: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

This is the first look at the 2009 film, directed by Paul Weitz, and based on the books written by Darren Shan. Now, if you tried to look for the Darren Shan books on the blog you’ll have noticed an absence of them.

In truth I have only read the first book – though I have the second as it was given to me as a gift for the collection. Why haven’t I read the second or bought any more of the series? Because I was singularly unimpressed with the first book. Badly written, was my first impression, lacking in any kid to adult nuance was my second. I was left so cold by the first volume that I had no desire to read further. Walking into the cinema I had no preconceptions based on the book, indeed I was so unimpressed by the first book that I couldn’t even remember the storyline.

Actually, that isn’t entirely true. I had two preconceptions. Firstly, that the film surely couldn’t impress me less than the book had and secondly… well my second preconception, scrap that - it was more a dread, came from a still I had seen and… to be fair we’ll get to that soon enough…

So, we have a tale of Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia), a straight A student and his wilder best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson), who seems to lead Darren astray. Together they go to the Cirque Du Freak – a freak show visting town and… well here came my dread in the form of Madame Truska, played by Salma Hayek – a bearded lady. I mean, come on, you have Salma Hayek in your film and you stick a beard on her! That said other assets were nicely displayed and the beard seemed to be grown and shorn at will (except, distressingly, when turned on and then it appeared) but even so it seemed… well, regular readers will already know of my Salma obsession.

Anyway they see an act which kind of appeals to both of them. The act involves one Larten Crepsley (John C Reilly) and his spider Madam Olga. Now, Darren has a thing for spiders and Steve a thing for vampires, and Steve just so happens to recognise Crepsley from a picture in a vampire book. As the outraged moralists of the town shut the show down, the boys creep backstage and are separated. Steve asks to be made a vampire, but Crepsley refuses – the boy has bad blood. Darren steals Olga. However, when she subsequently bites Steve he has to go to Crepsley and ask for the antidote to her poison. Crepsley offers to give it if Darren becomes half vampire and his assistant.

After this Darren has to die, be buried and dug up but Steve realises what has happened and is intercepted by Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris), a man who wants to start a war between the vampires and the vampaneze. The difference between the two? Vampires do not kill (to feed), they can release a gas in their breath that knocks humans out and then take a small amount of blood (from the shoulder). The vampaneze drain the human and kill them.

The plot most probably veers away from the books – I wouldn’t know but, after book 1, this is probably no bad thing. However, bearing in mind that this is a kids film, I really rather enjoyed this. It was certainly better than some of the big screen vampire excursions this year. I was particularly taken by John C Reilly’s performance that, to me at least, was reminiscent of Gene Wilder (in particular his performance as Willie Wonka, believe it or not). I should also mention that Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's Red Right Hand gets on a soundtrack, again, but that's just an excuse to mention Nick Cave.

However, perhaps the last word should go to my 12 year old son – as he really is the target audience – who left the cinema extolling the virtue of the film, not too subtly suggesting he wanted the DVD when available and explaining that it was “much better than Twilight”... as they say, out of the mouths of babes…

The imdb page is here.

Vamp or Not? Kuntilanak Beranak

Once again we have a Kuntilanak based film – this time directed by Ian Jacobs and released in 2009 – that demands a look under ‘Vamp or Not?’ rather than going straight to review. This seems a common theme with the kuntilanak, which the Indonesian film industry seems to be using generically to describe a ghost, a demon or a vampire. The title can translate to Vampire gives Birth – an odd title as we shall see.

This one sees a group of film students in the hallway of a disused house. They are nervous as they scout for a location for their indie horror film. Then they come across an abandoned video camera. It still has power and they start playback. The majority of the film is the camera footage… or at least is meant to be.

You see the camera was owned by a girl named Aline and whilst the footage is on her camera, not all of it was thus shot. She travels with a group and there are at least three cameras in use (not counting the footage shot in standard third party style). The idea is kind of a collage of Blair Witch and Diary of the Dead. Anyway Aline speaks to her spiritualist mother and then meets her friends Mai and Bim. They are working on a college project and meet with fellow students Bobby and Dea.

Bim has had the idea that they should go to a nearby village and investigate the disappearance of a Ronggeng Dancer. Her disappearance made headlines but she was never found – it is assumed she was murdered but no murderer was brought to justice. They question several people, most will not talk to them and some say that to mention the dancer is bad luck. We also hear that the troop leader’s wife killed herself. They get to the troop leader’s house and meet a woman who cackles about the fact that 'she is coming', 'she is dead' and 'she has a charm'. The woman enters the house and, when they playback the footage of her, the camera failed to capture her. They go into the house and are confronted by the troop leader. It is clear that the woman is a ghost of his wife.

They’re approached outside by a mute who manages to indicate that he will show them where the dancer lived. They arrange to meet him the next day. However that night several of them see things from the corner of their eyes. Aline’s mother sees something behind her daughter and says that the dancer has followed them home and that they should not return to the village. Aline actually dreams of the corridor we saw in the prologue, though she has not been there yet.

Dea is crept up on in the bath. As for Mai she goes downstairs and sees her mother who says she not asleep yet. As she returns upstairs she bumps into her mother. It is clear that this creature can take on other forms (in this case the mother). Whether such shape shifting could be called vampiric is unlikely, it is as likely to be a ghost, a demon or a witch. The next day the boys are dismissive of the hallucinations and they return, in the evening, to the village to meet the mute.

They are shown the house and, once inside, they split into two groups! This is another bit where the footage being shot on Aline’s camera doesn’t stand up to story scrutiny, as well as moments when they are all in shot in the car and what happened to them in their respective homes. Anyway we get a series of events such as possession, attacks, a throat slit by a fan blade and taking the form of others in the group. None of it is terribly vampiric. Of course there are films with vampiric ghosts but this one seems, simply, a standard haunting.

We then discover that the dancer was potentially having an affair with the troop leader. He had some headwear that was a dance charm and he gave them to the dancer who was then attacked and murdered by his jealous wife. It is this charm that keeps her there, she cannot leave the place whilst she wears it. Then things become very weird indeed.

Aline and Mai go into a basement area. There is a tree that has razor blades hanging from it and nearby they discover the corpse of Dea (who may have been killed by Bobby upstairs when she was possessed by the dancer, though he may have attacked the dancer shape-shifted into her form). Then, nearby, we see kids, many kids, and they obviously have something to do with the dancer – especially given the ‘gives birth’ part of the title. The problem is that the film doesn’t explain what they are and why they are there. Does the kuntilanak kill to feed them? Who knows?

This is the problem, there is a strange mystery here but it isn’t explained. Other than that, the film is much more ghost than vampire and is clearly very influenced by the Blair Witch Project. I have to go Not Vamp.

The imdb page is here.

Morgana – review

Director: Ellen Cabot

First Release: 2001

Contains spoilers

Now, if you compare and contrast the details above with the details of this movie on imdb you’ll notice three main differences. The film's title is listed as Blonde Heaven – Morgana was the DVD and UK TV name. The date is listed as 1995, however whilst the film was completed in 1995 it was not released until 2001. Finally imdb do not list the director as Ellen Cabot but rather David DeCoteau.

Now we have looked at one of David DeCoteau’s vampire movies before in the form of the Sisterhood. Cabot is a pseudonym that DeCoteau used for this film and whilst this is mainly a heterosexual softcore 'erotic' movie, with a little bit of vampire story, DeCoteau couldn’t help but have his trademark black briefed hunks on screen and linger shots over them. Fair play, in that it is clearly what he enjoys seeing, but not so enticing from the point of view of the film's target audience.

Next thing to note is that whilst the DVD cover might say that 'Julie Strain is Morgana' actually her character is called Illyana and there is not a character in the film called Morgana – nor can she fire lightning from her fingertips as the cover suggests. Rather she is the leader of a coven of vampires that run the LA escort agency called Blonde Heaven. After some overtly melodramatic music over credits interspersed with softcore sex, that seemed to go on for ever, we find ourselves in Blonde Heaven and the vampires are bidding over a model.

Now this film really screws around with lore. The vampires bid by pushing a rune stone into the centre of a neon glowing table with astrological symbols (how that works exactly is not explored). If two bid the same it seems – though it is not expressly stated – that the more powerful one defeats the other psychically, causing their rival pain. Illyana – as the most powerful – always gets her pick. Now, I mentioned the rune stones. We see them here and later a vampire hunter, Pluto (Jason Clow), suggests that to remove a vampire from his or her rune stone will kill them. But the stones are not seen again in any meaningful way after this scene or referred to after the Pluto scene.

Having won the woman – who is being filmed in a shower and seems to have bite marks already – Illyana calls on her brothers and sisters to aid her. They focus their energies on a picture of the girls boyfriend and create a pendant that, when worn, gives Illyana his form. She goes to the shower as the boyfriend and gets it on with the girl. However… later they seem to be able to change shape at will, so what was with the pendant, and in this scene she vamps out and bites the girl (we assume, as the camera manages to miss the actual bites throughout the film) in her own form but later she is able to maintain male form to have sex with a girl.

The main film focuses around a waitress from Oklahoma, Angie (Raelyn Saalman), who has come to LA to be a star and her boyfriend, Kyle (Alton Butler), who has come to LA to bring her home. Angie is approached to join Blonde Heaven and just happens to be the spitting image (and reincarnation?) of Victor – Illyana’s lost love. Other vampires try to undermine Illyana through Angie but that is poorly explored and explained.

For his part Kyle manages to meet Pluto – completely randomly – a projectionist and the only vampire hunter in LA it would appear. Through him we get our lore. Vampires can go out in sunlight and be seen in mirrors because they use factor 2000 sun cream. Sometimes they miss a bit, however, and Pluto uses a mirror on his shoe to look up girls' skirts and check if they are a vampire!

We also discover that humans have evolved so that our blood is not really of any use to vampires in the first instance. The first bite of a victim is to inject an enzyme into the blood, which clears out the impurities that makes us of no use to them. They then bite a second time to drink (presumably some time later) but must do this before the next lunar cycle or we become poisonous. Confused? So was I, but don’t worry it doesn’t actually come into the film. Vampires are scared of the cross and we see Pluto ward one off in his cinema and later via a cross on the sole of his shoe.

If it all sounds bobbins, well that’s because it is. The lore and story are only there to string softcore sex scenes together – and the scenes didn’t appear realistic themselves and certainly fell way short of erotic. But if all that was bad, the ending was sheer confusion. The finale sees Pluto being chased around the Agency and having been caught by a vampire, because she is his scream queen idle Amanda Blackwell (Michelle Bauer), ushered into bed with her before biting... then we get to Illyana calling on her brothers and sisters for aid... then everyone is suddenly a vampire, it seems, and Blackwell is in charge and Blonde Heaven will now produce movies. It was just confused and stupid, so apologies if my explanation fell short of lucid.

This is a bad movie. The stereotypes come rushing along thick and fast as, it seems, that all vampires wear black suits/dresses and shades, except vampire leaders who might stray into lingerie and thigh boot territory. The poor softcore sex scenes, which fail to even raise a sexploitation frisson despite Decoteau actually putting nudity in this one, are held together by a story that is barely comprehensible, with unexplained plot areas and lore that isn’t used. This all careens through the rapids of bad movie making until it smashes against the rocks of a senseless ending.

The photography is low end and the sound… well the dialogue and lips are rarely synched together and some dialogue actually sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a well, which is where, perhaps, this film should have stayed. I can’t even offer an extra point for unusual lore because it was unexplained, often moronic and ultimately unused; evidentally the new lore was simply musings within a celluloid mess. 1 out of 10 is given as there are worse films out there but it probably is too generous a score.

The imdb page is here.


On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Nightmare City – review

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Release date: 1980

Contains spoilers

On the surface Nightmare City, or Incubo Sulla Città Contaminata, is a zombie movie rather than a vampire movie. However, it is a thin piece of paper, sometimes, that goes between the two genres because, as we know, the Romero based zombie flick was actually inspired by a vampire story. In this case we have the contaminated, but they wield weapons, drive vehicles and can – it would appear – communicate, if only at a rudimentary level. They also need blood rather than flesh.

The film starts with a news report about a radiation spill. The report says that one Professor Hagenbecks is flying into the city the next day. Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) is sent to interview him. He attends the airport with his cameraman but the Professor hasn’t arrived. In the control tower they have noticed an unauthorised blip on the radar that turns out to be a Hercules Transport that makes an emergency landing.

The plane lands and the police and emergency crews head to it – Miller follows. They cannot see the pilot – though he did communicate with the tower – and demand the door is opened. Eventually it does open and Hagenbeck is there; he stabs the first man in the way and then a horde of people spill out of the plane and attack. Gunshots do not seem to bother them and many have a funky face thing going on. One loses an arm and still goes on. We see one slit a throat of a victim and drink the blood. Miller and his cameraman leg it in a stolen vehicle.

They get back to the station and Miller interrupts a dance show to put out a newsflash. He hasn’t really started when Mr Desmond (Ugo Bologna), the studio boss, pulls it off air. He is summoned and he is told by a General Murchinson (Mel Ferrer, who was in the marvellous Blood and Roses) that they cannot report on the happenings yet. Miller is incensed, Desmond suspends him and he quits. The whole keeping the event secret aspect is under-explored from this point.

Miller tries to phone his wife Anna (Laura Trotter), who is a doctor at the hospital and has already left for work. We see a man, Major Holmes (Francisco Rabal), with his partner. He gets a phone call calling him in to the army base. His partner is a sculptor and has made a bust – it is eerily like the creatures he will face. In the meantime the contaminated have invaded the TV studio – the fact that they attack a live broadcast is never explored, especially frustrating in light of the keep it secret aspect. Miller just manages to get out; during his escape he slams a door on one contanimated’s finger and it screams in pain, he also sets fire to one which seems like a way of dealing with them.

In the base they have autopsied one of the contaminated who fell at the airport – due to a random bullet to the head. The autopsy reveals that they have more radiation in their systems than one would think possible, that they are super strong and fast healing and that they can spread their infection to those they attack – though one assumes that it is to those who survive the attack as we do see bodies in the street later. The radiation is destroying their red blood cells, thus they need to replenish them and the way to stop them is starve them or paralyse them by shutting the brain function down (bullet to the brain). Here we see the thin line being tread between zombie and vampire lore.

However they are organised, they take down power stations, cut telephone wires and work together. They even share the blood they get. The remaining film follows the survivors but it is rather scattered in its focus – as such we develop very little sympathy for them and the impact of the film is lessened. One such couple (actually the General’s daughter and her husband) go off on their weekend camping trip – here we see the intelligent aspect of the contaminated when their friends drive up, at the time they were meant to meet them, but are contaminated and have gone there to feed. There are some odd bits around the sculptor, having been told to lock all her doors she finds her bust on the floor, stabbed with a bloody knife and yet nothing seems to come of that.

Vampires are mentioned. Miller and his wife get to a church and she suggests that the medieval vampire could not enter holy ground and they should go in. When it turns out that the priest is contaminated it kind of blows the vampire theory apart, to Miller anyway. There is some preachiness when the film suggests that striving for power and being unnatural in our lifestyles brings the catastrophe upon humanity. Towards the end a solution is actually found but the means to deliver said solution seems to have been lost. The film twists around in a bizarre fashion at the end, but the twist is actually nothing new, just strange.

The effects sometimes work – the gory ones seem to have an edge over the oatmeal infection look. All in all this works, but not brilliantly and compared to others of its ilk it is too unfocused to score highly. It is interesting in that zombie/vampire cross over way, however. 4.5 out of 10 due to the unusual nature.

The imdb page is here.