Monday, November 30, 2009

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! – A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts – review

dvd

Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera

First aired: 1969

Contains spoilers

It is odd to realise that this cartoon, which was part of my childhood, is actually that little bit older than I. This is real old school Scooby Doo, indeed from the first season of the first series.

It is a little unusual and I’ll be spoiling the mystery to explain why.

the werewolfThe show starts with a view of Franken Castle and looking out over the countryside is a werewolf. He spots the Mystery Machine in the distance. The gang are actually travelling to the castle, which is the only one ever imported stone by stone from Transylvania. Mention is made of werewolves, they spot a caravan close by.

Carlotta the gypsyThe caravan is offering fortune telling and so they stop. The gypsy is unnamed but I believe was meant to be called Carlotta. She warns them of danger, if they stay in the area, from the world of the dead. When they mention the castle she informs them that the caretaker ran away, that very day, as he believed the place to be haunted. Daphne (Stefanianna Christopherson) suggests they don’t go and Shaggy (Casey Kasem) agrees – “those werewolf cats come out like tonight, when the moon is full” (which is a bit of an oxymoron, if you think about it). They have a look-see anyway.

DraculaThe drawbridge is up and lightning rips the skies though there are no clouds (this effect is not explained). The drawbridge comes down and they start across (on foot) when a vampire appears and tells them to stop as they are not welcome there. He then fades and a bat swoops out at them. The drawbridge starts to lift again and the gang get back to the other side of the moat – that is all bar Daphne who is trapped.

Shaggy swings with Scooby...Not only is she stuck but Frankenstein Monster comes up behind her and chases her further into the castle. Freddy (Frank Welker) lassos a gargoyle and has Shaggy and Scooby Doo (Don Messick) swing across so that they can lower the drawbridge. They release the locking mechanism but are chased off by the werewolf, leaving Freddy and Velma (Nicole Jaffe) looking for their lost friends.

Frankenstein's MonsterNow I said that this was somewhat unusual and it is not just in how uncharacteristically brave Shaggy and Scooby were – yes they ran but they took very little persuading to swing across and actively set traps – Scooby even chases down the villain. It is more in the fact that there is only one villain and that villain, Big Bob Oakley (aka the actor), plays all of the monsters and Carlotta as he searches for treasure. I would have at least expected henchmen in some of the outfits. He is recognised by the sheriff who arrives as Scooby catches him (having been told of strange goings on by the caretaker) and is wanted in seven states.

a stuffed batThe treasure he is looking for is sewn into a tapestry and a message left by Franken in 1668 mentions fooling them all and being as rich as King Tut – an anachronistic line one feels. We wonder how the castle was moved from one continent to another without anyone noticing the jewel encrusted tapestry, why Oakley had to dress up as three different monsters (never actually named, but obviously based on the great Universal triumvirate), why he cross-dressed as a gypsy or indeed how he vanished from within a tomb (presumably via an unnamed and unfound, by th gang, secret passage)? These mysteries are never answered but the presence of the bat is answered, it was stuffed and on a wire.

Yet whilst this failed to answer more than it actually raised as questions it was great fun and pure Scooby in essence. 6 out of 10.

The episode’s imdb page is here.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Little Vampire – 1986 (TV series) – review

dvd setDirected by: René Bonnière

First aired: 1986

Contains spoilers

Ahh rose tinted glasses. Hands up, who remembers this joint Canadian/German production. How about the theme song, ‘They can see in the Dark’, performed by Darkroom, whose lead singer – Jim Gray – played the vampire Lumpi in the series. Those classic lyrics:


If you see one tonight
Don’t put up a fight,
Make a friend if you can,
A friend who can fly,
Can fly oh so high…
Vampires

This was, like the film 14 years later, based on the books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, actually on the specific volumes “The Little Vampire” and “The Little Vampire Moves In”. Note, with character names I am using those in the English recording and not the German dub.

Michael Gough as Uncle LudwigIt begins with Rüdiger (Joel Dacks), in a crypt, declaring to his Uncle Ludwig (Michael Gough) that he is bored and going out to eat. Anton (Christopher Stanton) lives with his parents Robert (Michael Hogan) and Helga (Susan Hogan) and when we first meet him he is in a gym class. His ‘friend’ Cyril (Christopher Kent) seems a little less than friendly and his mom has come to pick him up as she and his father are going out to a business dinner. No one notices the face watching from a skylight window.

Joel Dacks as RüdigerThe face belongs to Rüdiger and he follows Anton home. Anton loves horror things – actually amongst the posters in his room is one for the film Saturday the 14th as well as posters for Frankenstein and one depicting Bela Lugosi as Dracula. His parents don’t understand his taste in movies, but they do realise that he is lonely as his best friend Teddy has moved away. Rüdiger appears at his window.

Anna with Aunt HildegardPerhaps Anton is less phased than he should be, but he always knew that vampires were real. For his part Rüdiger acts like a brat ripping up things for the sheer Hell of it. Eventually, of course, they become good friends. Rüdiger explains that he lives with his uncle Ludwig and Aunt Hildegard (Lynn Seymour), their son Lumpi and his sister Anna (Marsha Moreau). Rüdiger smells musty and decayed, but that is actually the smell of the substance put on cloaks to enable the vampires to fly. Rüdiger insists on borrowing a book about Dracula before leaving.

Gert Fröbe as GurrmeyerThe friendship that develops between Anton and Rüdiger is dangerous as vampires have few laws but the one – that leads to banishment from the crypt and loss of the cloak – is that they should never reveal themselves to humans. Dracula did, hundreds of years before, and it led to persecution of vampire kind. Indeed there are a family of vampire slayers called Gurrmeyer and the latest generation of the Gurrmeyer clan (played by Gert Fröbe) has come to the city, hired a house by the cemetery where the vampire family live and become cemetery caretaker. Cyril thinks something is going on and neighbour Effie wants to prove that she has seen Anton fly (and that she isn’t crazy).

Rüdiger becomes an outcastEventually Rüdiger introduces Anton to Anna. Anna has not yet developed her fangs and so drinks milk. This is because she has not yet decided what size/apparent age she wants to be – something a vampire can do. By that logic Rüdiger chose to be a child vampire. When the relationship is eventually discovered, Lumpi appears more understanding because, whilst he has not revealed his actual nature, he also hangs around with humans.

tools of the vampire slaying tradeAnna is rather infatuated by Anton and would like to turn him into a vampire. To be turned into a vampire one has to be bitten, die but also want to be a vampire. It also seems to be on Rüdiger’s mind as he is reminded, when mentioning turning a human, that no human has been turned for 100 years. Other lore we get includes a suggestion that stakes through the heart are a good way to kill vampires as Gurrmeyer keeps them close (and hammers stakes into graves). Garlic smells very strong to a vampire and if they drink the blood of someone who has eaten it they will smell of it for eternity. Sunlight burns them.

Anton and Anna at the Everything is Forgiven partyWe also, over a course of a couple of episodes, attend the vampire’s annual “Everything is Forgiven” party – a bash where literally all transgressions are forgiven. Rüdiger (who is banished at the time, but refuses to accept forgiveness for his crimes, preferring to atone) and Anna sneak Anton in, disguised as a vampire. We discover that all vampires can dance. Gypsy vampires come from wherever their cloak falls. Vampires cannot eat human food, with the exception of milk for teething vampires and consommé; all other food would make them very ill. It appears they must feed on blood on a daily basis, but rarely kill, just cause their victims to faint.

indoor flying looked better than outdoor flyingThe show is very kid’s TV and yet, probably because of rose tinted glasses, I sat entranced as I rewatched it. The acting is varied, Dacks as Rüdiger and Gough as Ludwig stand out. The effects are, well candidly they are not brilliant as they have not stood the test of time – the flying over the city is too obviously matted for instance but, you know what, it doesn’t matter. The show has little tension as the peril is so low throughout. Yet it was great fun.

To be fair, 5.5 out of 10 is probably – in the grand scheme of things – a little too generous if we were to be totally detached when deciding upon a score, but then it is difficult to remain detached about part of your childhood (or mid-teen-hood). I can’t push to a higher score because part of me knows it doesn’t really deserve it. However, it is out there on German DVD and well worth tracking down, especially if you have fond memories of the show.

The imdb page is here.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Honourable Mentions: Dino Boy in the Lost Valley – the Vampire Men

dvd

Dino Boy was part of Space Ghost and this particular 6 minute segment, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, was first aired in 1966.

The almost Boys Own like show had the premise that the young ‘Dino Boy’ (Johnny Carson) was in a plane and had to bail out over the Lost Valley, there he was saved from a sabre toothed tiger by the caveman called Ugh (Mike Road) and went on to have adventures with Ugh and the dinosaur Bronto (Don Messick).

vampire manIn this episode things start with Dino Boy holding on to a kite that he has tied to Bronto, in order that he might fly. Ugh is sceptical of it all but, at first, all seems to be working until the rope snaps and Dino Boy flys off towards some mountains, where he crashes. Out of caves come the vampire men, man like bat creatures.

fighting them offThey grab Dino Boy and take him off to a cave, with Ugh in hot pursuit. Inside the cave the vampire men start prostrating themselves to an opening – from which emerges the King Vampire. Ugh appears, however, and starts fighting the vampire men off, but there are too many of them. To escape he and Dino Boy jump into a river, but the river leads to a water fall…

Okay this is just a few seconds over 6 minutes and the vampire men are bat creatures, rather than the undead, but worth a mention. The imdb page is here.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Vamp or Not? Vedma

dvdThe story Viy, by Nikolai Gogol, has been made into a film a few times now. Most beautiful, in my opinion, is the 1967 film of the same name. Then again, the Mario Bava directed effort from 1960, Black Sunday, might not be recognisable – at first glance – as the same story but it is amongst my favourite vampire films. Black Sunday was kind of remade by Lamberto Bava in 1989, but the resultant Demons 5 was a barely recognisable poor facsimile.

In 2006 Oleg Fesenko remade the story – pretty much in the mode of the 1967 Viy – and called it Vedma. I said that it was pretty much a remake of Viy but I wanted to go through this as a ‘Vamp or Not?’ Whilst this, like the earlier film, seems to show a strigoï it deviates a little in lore and that deviation actually probably adds vampiric elements to the film. For those new to the term we are looking at the traditional form of strigoï, in other words the evil souls of the dead that rise to torment the living, and are one of the bases of the modern vampire myth. There are two forms, the strigoï mort is a dead, or should I say undead, vampire. However the strigoï vii is a living vampiric witch. The strigoï vii will invade the dreams of children and ride them through their nightmares, this is commonly known as being hag-ridden and is a form of psychic vampirism. On death, the strigoï vii will become the strigoï mort.

chance meeting with a priestIvan Berkhoff (Valeri Nikolayev) is a reporter for, given some of the pictures on his wall, a less than salubrious tabloid – the reference to the Pulitzer Prize was, one feels, sarcasm – and is woken by his phone (which is picked up by one of the two ladies he is in bed with). It is his editor and he has been missing for two days, he is threatened with the sack but is soon on his way to Castleville; a place said to be bewitched. As for where this film was set? This is a Russian production but the writing seen – for instance the framed newspaper articles – was in English and it looked like a bizarre mix of Russia and mid-west America in costume and prop design. On the way to Castleville he stops in a bar, has an altercation with a local and ends up speaking to Father Touz – a large bear-like priest, who discusses faith with him.

the old woman offers shelterAs he reaches Castleville’s outskirts his car breaks down and then we see that the weather turns bad. On the radio a man discusses black magic and the mortuus vivus or the living dead. He mentions how the moon can give birth to dead things – something straight out of the earlier vampire stories such as the vampyre and Varney the Vampire. He also goes on to say that water is their element (it is pouring down) – this is due to its association with the moon, but is kind of opposite to standard vampiric lore – and that that night is, astrologically, a particularly bad night. Ivan leaves his car and it locks itself behind him. He has no choice but brave the storm. He finds a house, requests shelter and is given entry by an old woman who shows him to a room.

taking a bathHe runs himself a bath and is in it when a young woman enters the room. He is rather lecherous towards her as she pours him a drink. She tells him, as she leaves, that her name is Marryl. When she returns she is in a nightdress and gets into the bath with him. The lamp burns out as he kisses her shoulder and then we realise she has become the old woman – so does he. She is grabbing at him aggressively and he strangles her below the water. The plug comes out and she drains into the plug hole which then starts belching water back into the bath. He gets out of the room and water starts pouring below the door, a hand appears at the glass and then a tsunami of bathwater crashes through the house, chasing his towel wearing self outside.

flying by the carHe finds himself besides a truck (which we recognise as belonging to Father Touz) and drives off. The old woman appears at the side window, chasing the truck, and he crashes. He gets out of the cab and checks the flatbed. Touz is in it, quite dead with blood at his eyes. Ivan takes his clothes (and his caged rooster) and walks into the night. A policeman picks him up and mistakes him for the priest they are waiting for (Touz).

Meryl in her coffinIn the morning, having met a housekeeper who informs him that a young girl was attacked the night before, he is met by the Sheriff (Lembit Ulfsak) who tells him that the girl was actually murdered and was called Marryl. The Sheriff asks how he knew the girl, something Ivan denies, but it is because she asked – before dying – that the new priest say three nightly masses for her. Ivan is trapped in his lie and has to pray for her for three nights in the gothic monstrosity of a church. He also discovers that Marryl was the sheriff’s daughter.

Mr PatchThe film fairly much follows the pattern of the ’67 Viy now, with Ivan sitting vigil and the corpse coming alive – each night its powers becoming stronger it seems. However, how the corpse behaves is different. On the first night the corpse only seems to twitch a finger and open an eye before she transforms into a flock of bats that chase Ivan through the church. The attack stops as the cock crows and bats, of course, have had a strong vampire resonance ever since Stoker. The following day he is told by Mr Patch – the wheelchair bound brother of the previous priest – that *they* fear light, a circle drawn with chalk will protect Ivan and he must pray.

Meryl flyingThe next night a rather drunk Ivan does pray for the girl who rises from her coffin, her long nailed hand dripping with water as the coffin fills with liquid, she then flies around the church. In fear Ivan draws a circle and it does indeed stop the girl from getting to him. She tells him to look at her and says that she will take his blood and steal his soul. Of course the reference to taking his blood is very vampiric.

breaching the circleIvan knocks over his bottle of whisky and the liquid spills over his chalk and breaks the circle, this lets her push through a rip in the mystical barrier - revealing an almost demonic face. Luckily the cock crows, heralding morning. Ivan’s hair has turned white with fear but a video he set up sees him fighting against nothing. He does try and escape from the town, on the second night he stole a bicycle, to no effect, and the third night he steals a boat but the river just meanders back to town. That last night he discovers that the cock has been cooked for him (it was accidentally run over) and we realise that no one believes he is the priest but they rely on him as they all fear the girl.

repelled by the crossHis circle on the final night is actually three circles and her attack is much fiercer. She sets the circle on fire and also the home in which Mr Patch lives (as it is his prayers and faith that are helping Ivan). The circle breaks down and Mr Patch is injured but he is able to whisper about the crucifix. It seems, somehow, Ivan heard the old man and, holding it up to Marryl, the cross actually holds her back for a moment.

destroyed by the sunHis victory comes, however, when a hole is broken into the roof of the church allowing the sun to flood in. It burns Marryl, who not knowing it was daybreak (as the cock did not crow), is not in her coffin. Being held back by the cross and burning in the sun are both straight from the vampire handbook, as it were. In this version there is no summoning of the creature Viy.

Valeri Nikolayev as IvanYes this falls into the vampiric area. Like Viy (1967), it is probably not instantly recognisable as such. The Strigoi vii and mort motif is still in place (though, like the earlier film, not directly referred to) but the suggestion of taking his blood, the term mortuus vivus, the holding back of her with the cross and the destruction in sunlight actually make for a stronger case than the earlier film. The film is not as good as the 1967 version, not by a long shot, but does have some nicely gothic scenes and is better than the score and comments on imdb would suggest.

The imdb page is here.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Barely a Mention: Grisly Tales from Tumblewater

It might astound some readers to know that I do read and watch things without vampires in them… I just rarely post about it here.

The book Grisly Tales from Tumblewateris a children’s book, written by Bruno Vincent, due for release next year. However I am lucky enough to be on the Amazon Vine review programme and ordered the book from that to review for Amazon. A proof copy landed through my front door and the substance of my review is reproduced below.

The reason I felt I could get away with a mention over here (beyond this being my blog, after all) is the fact that in one of the stories contained within – The Man Who Taught English Literature – we meet a teacher, so insane that when he notices a young man in his class actually reading a book, he wants to help bring the book to life. That book is Dracula and, to try and bring it to life, the teacher kills several bats, which he hangs inside a cloak. He pours animal blood from the abattoir over the cloak and his face and then he creeps out in front of the boy and cackles in a way he thinks Dracula might…

Okay, barely a mention… not even enough for an Honourable Mention but, in my humble opinion, a fine book.

Reproduction of my Amazon review:

If you are a young reader, looking at this review, can I just say, “You will love this book.”

If you are an adult, looking to buy this for a young reader then the message is, “They will love this book.”

Okay, now we have got that out of the way, adults… forget the young reader, buy this for yourself…

This is a collection of grisly tales set in the city of Tumblewater – a place where it perpetually rains. They are presented in the form of a portmanteau, with an equally disturbing wrap-around concerning Daniel Dorey, a young man new to the city, in trouble (innocently) with the law, a collector of stories and a man with a mission.

Vincent draws around us a darkly Gothic landscape, in a way perhaps even darker than that Neil Gaiman presented in
the Graveyard Book. The Graveyard Book was clearly contemporary but this is a landscape drawn out of the industrial revolution, adding a darker perhaps Dickensian edge. Imagine the city to be like the vision drawn of London in Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd but then imagine it made murkier, imagine the rotting buildings huddled closer together, imagine a city where, when dawn comes, we never see a sunrise breaking through the perpetual clouds. One of the stories within dates to the late 19th or early 20th Century, as Dracula is mentioned as a fairly new book, but such clues are unimportant when evoking the vision of the City – the mud soaked carapace as well as the diseased and rotting innards of Tumblewater are painted in every nuance of Vincent’s evocative language.

The final release of the book, I understand, will be illustrated. I can only imagine that this will add an extra something to the proceedings but the proof copy of the book, as supplied via the Vine programme, was without the illustrations. Yet it is the words, the stories, the sense of the grotesque that sucks you into a world where to hear of orphans baked alive and entire towns poisoned is just another rain soaked day.

Highly recommended.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Bite: A Vampire Handbook – review


Author Kevin Jackson

First Published: 2009

The Blurb: One bite and you’ll have the taste for blood.

Arm yourself with garlic, stake and crucifix, for the vampires are back in force – at the top of the bestseller lists, on your TV, on the web and lurking in darkened cinemas. But, where did they come from? Why have they come back now? And how can you tell if you are one?

Beginning with the first sightings of bats and blood-sucking in the Romantic period, BITE follows the undead’s progress through the ages, right up to the twilit present. Alongside gory anecdotes, potted histories facts and figures, each section is punctuated by lists such as the best places around the world for vamp tourism; the box-office top ten films with fangs; famous vampire manifestations in books, comics, ballets and breakfast cereals; as well as the most reliable methods for vampire detection and disposal…

The review: Okay, if we cut through the sensationalist blurb, this is actually a nicely put together – if a little lightweight – book that offers a potted history of the Undead, really beginning with the Byronic vampire as offered to the world via Polidori and wandering through to Twilight. It also looks briefly at vampire myths from around the world, which was a nice little section.

I said it was lightweight and given the 192 pages from introduction to acknowledgments this is almost a given. The book offers almost a beginners guide to vampires. Jackson does offer an index, which is useful and sometimes all too absent in such volumes. However he does not particularly offer sources and this, as always, is a shame.

That said the style is very personable, with a nice level of sarcasm at times, when talking about Freudian interpretation of the vampire myth he observes that they “begin with the classic vampire attack: a man enters the bed chamber of a young, usually comely woman; he penetrates her body; fluids are exchanged. Aha! There is something sexual about this! Gosh, do you think so?” Such observations make the book rather readable but are symptomatic, also, of a book that is as much opinionated as factual – nothing wrong with that so long as it is clear that it is the case, and it is.

Sometimes things go astray. For instance, when talking about the Hammer Films, specifically the Dracula ones, his more detailed précis misses out Brides of Dracula and Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires from the Dracula cycle. I would have them in as part of the Dracula cycle but I understand why he did not – perhaps he should have explained that to a reader less versed in the films.

Worse, of course, is when things go factually wrong. If you read this Mr Jackson, then for your errata sheet, in respect of page 115, the Hammer Karnstein series are not based on the figure of Báthory but on Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Be that as it may, errors are not frequent (that was the only really glaring one) and the book does meander into some interesting directions as it lightly explores the genre.

I did not necessarily agree with Jackson’s opinion – especially his views on some films – but I enjoyed reading his opinion. However, I think the final conclusion was skewed when he postulated that Edward (from Twilight) was like a Byronic Hero – thus the genre had come full circle. That, I am afraid, is far from the case in my humble opinion. A Byronic hero (if there is such a thing) would not abstain – indeed excess would be a watchword. I say if there is such a thing for they are much more likely, if not a villain, to be an anti-hero (if they are Byronic); at best capricious (Varney at times) and most likely destructive of all around them for their own hedonistic pleasure (Ruthven). Perhaps Lestat and Spike came close to the Byronic anti-hero, but Edward is far too tame, too restrained and definitely too moral. But, then again, that is just my opinion.

Lightweight, but easily read, with an amusing lilt. This is a good entry level book (so long as the reader takes opinion as such), though for the more well versed explorer of the genre it perhaps offers a little less substance but does take us on some rather interesting paths. 6 out of 10.

Finally, my thanks to Ian, from whom I received the volume as a gift.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

McCloud – McCloud Meets Dracula – review (TV episode)

cover

Directed by: Brice Kessler

First aired: 1977

Contains spoilers

Now, it is a truism – that I hope I have demonstrated on the blog over the years – that vampires get everywhere. For McCloud – a 70s crime show about Sam McCloud (Dennis Weaver), who was a Deputy US Marshall from Taos, New Mexico who ends up assigned to a detective bureau in New York – the vampire episode happened to be the very last episode of the series ever.

Dennis Weaver as McCloudNow, I must admit that I am not too familiar with McCloud but it seems it followed a familiar pattern of McCloud being sidelined from real cases by Chief Clifford (J D Cannon) but then ending up solving them, sometimes with the help of Sergeant Joe Broadhurst (Terry carter) and always with some country insights. He has a secret relationship with reporter Chris Coughlin (Diana Muldaur).

McCloud and JoeIn this episode he is trying to get on the squad investigating a sniper who is terrorising the city. However he and Joe end up at a crime scene that is a little more unusual. It appears that the body has puncture wounds in the neck and no blood. Later, medical examiner Harvey Pollick (Michael Sacks) discovers that there are human teeth indentations in the skin also. One victim is bad enough but then we get more and more.

a victim screamsDespite the fact that the episode goes to great pains to hide the identity of the killer, showing only a victim's scream, a flurry of cloak, a top hat or a wolf’s head cane, we know from the opening credits who it is as they show a special guest of John Carradine! However our first view of him is in archive footage. Chris is researching (coincidentally) for a book on vampires and is watching House of Dracula. The programme pauses for an ad break and, bizarrely, when it returns it is clearly now showing House of Frankenstein. Of course both starred Carradine as Dracula.

John Carradine... he must have done itIn the show, however, he plays an actor called Loren Belasco – famous for playing Dracula and, he claims, a direct descendent of the Baron Exiton Von Dracula of Transylvania. Later he seems to claim that he is said Baron, and a vampire. At first, however, he is deemed as an expert who might help with the enquiries. I should mention that he has a creepy butler named Morris, who is played by Reggie Nalder – who, of course, would go on to star in Zoltan, Hound of Dracula and Salem’s Lot.

The Chief and McCloudOne thing I did like about the episode was the fact that we are never actually sure whether Belasco is a vampire or not. He does not have eye mojo and subdues his victims with a rap on the head from his cane… but then again he does manage to drain his victims and, it seems, he does it through mouth to neck suction, without spilling a drop and, presumably, drinks it all. He sleeps in a coffin, through the day, and has no mirrors in his home and yet can be filmed. He escapes, potentially, by diving into the river. His cloak is found but he is not and yet we see a bat flying off – just a coincidence due to a colony below the bridge?

Michael Sacks as Harvey PollickIn this way the episode keeps us guessing but what was unfortunate was that I am not really invested in the show or the character. It seemed to me that McCloud did little in the way of investigation (indeed Chris did most of that) and, of course, his capturing of the sniper (a case he has no involvement in) was pure luck. It just seemed all a little cheesy and lightweight – but fans of the show probably disagree. I couldn’t see myself watching other episodes, personally, but liked this for Carradine and the fact that it left the concept of the villain being a vampire open to interpretation but easily explained away as necessary. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

;)Q

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Chosen One – review

dvd

Director: Theodore Collatos

Release date: 2009

Contains spoilers

There clearly is something going on over at r-squared films. The indie distribution company have released a few vampire movies recently and we previously looked at Loved Ones. Now, despite that being a bad film, I loved the cover of that DVD and this film also has a cracking, classy DVD cover.

As it is, the cover isn’t the only good thing about this film and whilst aspects of it might be flawed – due to the constraints of budget and indie film making as much as anything else – I found myself faced with an unusual and fascinating look into the world of the undead.

lovers before the stormThe film is in black and white, which for the most part works rather well, and is period set – which falters occasionally (we see electrical bits above a bar, for instance, which were missed) but again, in the main, works well. It begins, however, not with a vampire but with a zombie (Jared Barron) that stumbles Romero like through a graveyard and across fields. We also see an elderly man, later revealed to be Dr Abraham (Arthur Collins), visiting the grave of his wife.

a zombie attackSamuel Wolfe (Sam Porretta) and his wife Elizabeth (Carolina Monnerat) are very much in love. They are running through snowy fields but, when they get to the graveyard, she feels greatly afraid. He tells her that *they* are dead and can’t hurt her. At home she reveals a nursery – she is with child. He waxes lyrical about his son, Samuel Wolfe III. However, the zombie reaches their home and smashing through a window bites Elizabeth’s arm. It gets in the house but Samuel is able to hack away the zombie’s arm and shut the door of the room they hide in, eventually it goes away.

Arthur Collins as Dr AbrahamI would ask what happens to the zombie? Whilst Elizabeth and Samuel go to a fortune teller for help we see it in a cellar and then we see Abraham performing an autopsy on a cadaver, covered so we cannot see the face but making noise, with a heart (when he gets to it) that still beats. At first I thought it was the zombie but later I was not so sure, all I could say is that the autopsy was on someone not exactly dead, who finally dies when the heart is being examined and who Abraham felt had evil in their heart.

pregnant and infectedThis is the main problem with the film, it is very artistic but, at times, forgets that it should offer a certain level of exposition and we’ll return to that problem as the review progresses. As it is, Elizabeth starts bleeding from the mouth and states that she hurts like it is evil. We see her in bed, looking like death warmed up, but we also see the bed as though it has been transported beneath some trees, perhaps a representation of the limbo she is in?

masked men in a limbo worldIn desperation Samuel goes to Dr Abraham, who starts taking blood samples (off both of them, Samuel may be infected also) and we hear much of the doctor’s thoughts in letters to his apprentice (Theodore Collatos). Eventually she is giving birth, a deliberately drawn out scene where we sometimes cut to the limbo world and see Elizabeth surrounded by men with masks. Eventually mother dies but the baby is saved, it is a girl. Samuel puts his finger to the baby and is bitten – Abraham declares it Nosferatu.

It is at this point that Samuel admits to Dr Abraham that Elizabeth was bitten by an undead and Abraham declares that he will raise the girl himself, in the name of science. As for Elizabeth they remove her heart and burn it (on the end of a pitchfork, in what can only be described as a very traditional manner) and bury her out in the wilds, away from the actual graveyard.

Samuel infectedThe film then follows two paths. It follows Samuel and the pain he feels over his wife’s death. Of course, having been bitten, he is now infected and that infection is slowly spreading through him. It is through his eyes, more than anything, that we get to see the reaction of the local population to the danger lurking in their midst.

Dr Abraham bittenThe other path follows Dr Abraham. At first he feeds the baby pipettes of milk but, when he finds birds and mice sucked dry he realises they have passed the need for milk. Note we never actually see the baby, just swaddling, but that works rather well. Abraham is not a patient man and actually, at one point, physically abuses the baby because it cries. When he tries to apologise later (as he often talks conversationally to the baby) the baby is gone and then attacks him in (rather crap) bat form. I mention crap bat, but in honesty it was no worse than many others due to the way the shots were composed.

contortionist vampireAbraham is infected and the child grows quickly into a woman – played by Carolina Monnerat. However, when the townsfolk are turning on him he sends the girl contorted into a trunk, to his assistant. Earlier we had seen the vampire girl in a scene that didn’t gel too well, as there was no explanation to the scene. However the scenes between vampire and the assistant work very well and have a very Euro-horror feel to them.

no sense of camaraderie between the vampiresLore wise we are a little all over the shop. Clearly there is a nod to some of the more traditional lore – burning the heart for instance. Yet the idea that a zombie bite would turn an unborn baby into a vampire was completely from left field. Part of me wondered if the zombie was meant to be more like a revenant. There is an indication of blood infection and a parasite like inclusion in the blood suggested, to me, a nod to House of Dracula. There is an interesting bit with the girl (who often seems to glide rather than walk) putting her blood into wine, an act that makes the wine act like a drug. There is no sense of camaraderie between the vampires.

vampire girl feedingIt is the lack of definitive exposition that lets this down. Perhaps Collatos was composing something more dreamlike but I still felt it needed a little more clarity in its narrative. Some of the scenes didn’t gel with the period setting, but they were few and generally it was well done in that regard. The effects were sometimes limited by the budget, perhaps. Soundtrack wise there were some brave choices that worked in the film’s favour.

Dr abraham sprouts fangsThe acting, especially given the fact that Collatos used local amateur actors, is rather well done. Special mention to Arthur Collins who was a last minute replacement. Part of it is his look, of course, but one almost felt like he had walked out of a Dreyer movie – indeed Dreyer cast Vampyr from locals and based on the performers looking right for the character. High praise indeed but this film, unfortunately, does not hit the same dizzy heights.

I find myself thinking that 4 out of 10 is probably a fair score but 4 out of 10 with caveats. The lack of necessary narrative really does force the score down with this but I will say I enjoyed the film, appreciate what Collatos was doing with it and really believe we should be keeping an eye on this young director. This is a film I am glad I own.

The imdb page is here.