Hiroku kaibyô-den - review

Director: Tanaka Tokuzô

Release date: 1969

Contains spoilers

This Japanese film has the title on IMDb of The Haunted Castle, though I have also seen the name translated to Secret Chronicles of the Ghost-Cat.

The connection between cats and vampires is not unusual. Carmilla could transform into a cat and, when it comes to the Japanese traditions, the fantastic film Kuroneko was, without a doubt, a vampire film that featured cat creatures. There was also a traditional Japanese story, dating to somewhere between 14th and early 17th century and Anglicised in 1871, which is now known in English as The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima. In fact this is a loose production of the aforementioned story.

Lord Nabeshima Tango-no-kami

The film takes place during the rule of the eighth shogun Yoshimune, placing the film’s setting somewhere between 1716 and 1745, and focuses on a noble Lord Nabeshima Tango-no-kami (note the name). He rides out one day and sees a parasol on the distance. His friend, the blind Mataichirou, is having tea served by his sister Sayo. Nabeshima joins them and comments on her beauty.

Mataichirou murdered

His Chief of Servants, Komori, is sent to Yoshimune to ask that Sayo be sent as a concubine to the Lord. This has caused concern, back in the castle, as the soldier Gyoubu's sister, Toyo, is the master’s wife and Gyoubu wishes to ensure that she remains the Lord's favourite. As it is, Mataichirou declines but the message is intercepted by Gyoubu who relays it with, shall we say, some negative spin. The Lord is incensed and when Mataichirou arrives to play Go with the Lord an argument is manufactured that leads to Nabeshima and Gyoubu murdering Mataichirou.

Sayo's suicide

The body is dumped in a well and then Sayo is banished from her home. She commits suicide in the presence of Tama, Mataichirou’s beloved cat, and as she dies she calls on it to drink her spilt blood knowing that a cat that drinks human blood gains demonic powers. It laps at the blood and she asks the cat to avenge her and her brother, essentially cursing the castle.

odd behaviour

At first the castle is haunted by the tinkling of its bell, then a ghostly mew and soon there are strange murders where bloody cat pawprints are seen leaving the scene. Then Toyo’s mother starts acting oddly and has a bandage on her head. It is removed to reveal a cut like that inflicted on Mataichirou. She is killed and the wound fades away.

possessed by the cat

Soon after Toyo herself starts acting oddly, and desires fish – a dish she never ate before. She is now possessed by the cat but does not bear a wound in her head. Now this is where I feel the film’s interpretation of The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima is at its strongest. In the traditional story a cat kills (by biting the throat and throttling) a woman (probably a concubine) named O Toyo – the name is close enough. The cat then assumes her form to aid its feeding. In this it seems to be more of a possession of the human by the cat.

fangs

Later Nabeshima is said to be tired, as though the life were being sucked out of him. In The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima the cat drinks the Prince’s life blood night after night. We are never shown enough to ascertain that this occurs in this case but we can hazard a guess. It is clear that human blood has powered the cat’s transformation to something demonic. It at first maintains cat form but grows in power until it begins to possess humans. It is eventually powerful enough to disrupt an exorcism aimed at it. This seems to be after devouring victim after victim – whilst draining the life from Nabeshima slowly.

golden eyes

We do not see blood drinking explicitly but we do see neck biting. One can safely, I think, draw the conclusion that she drinks blood to increase her power. Toyo, in cat mode, develops golden eyes and fangs as well as wild hair. We later discover that a talisman, given by a priest at a temple, wards her away. The cat side is referred to as a ghost and is dormant during daylight hours.

the cat

As you start to watch the film you would be forgiven for wondering whether you are watching a vampire movie, that is unless you are aware of The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima and recognise the Lord’s name. However, as the film progresses there are more and more tropes that become apparent – fangs, biting the neck, being warded by holy items and in possession of magical powers (Nabeshima sees Mataichirou’s disembodied head at one point and I think we can assume that cat was behind that).

The film is a wonderful example of Japanese cinema, merging the historical Samurai film with a ghost/vampire story. The film is moody and atmospheric, mainly shot at night. The acting is good throughout and whilst the direction may not be as utterly glorious as that offered by Kaneto Shindô in the previous year’s Kuroneko it does the job masterfully. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

True Blood – season 3 – review

Director: various

First aired: 2010

Contains spoilers

It’s about time I got around to looking at the third season of True Blood, having previously explored Season 1 and Season 2. I felt that season 2 lost its way with one of its two main arcs. This season really only had one main arc – concerning Sookie (Anna Paquin) and the machinations of vampire royalty – and then had some mini-arc’s concerning other characters.

This allowed a focus on the vampire aspects – which is of course why we all watch the show, well for that and the gratuitous sex, which seemed a little less gratuitous this season – without getting bogged down. That said some of the mini-arcs felt a little too flimsy (Sam (Sam Trammell) flipping out towards the end of the season) or perhaps even soap opera (Arlene (Carrie Preston) and her pregnancy, despite the supernatural overtones).

from the earth

The end of season 2 saw Bill (Stephen Moyer, Ultraviolet and Priest) propose to Sookie, her take a moment to compose herself and Bill vanishing. It turns out that he was overpowered with silver chains and dragged off by bikers who subsequently fed on his blood whilst abducting him. He manages to overpower them and cause the car to crash and then go to ground (literally) to escape the sun. When he awakens the next night he pulls himself from the earth and feeds on an old lady.

wolf

He discovers that he is in Mississippi and surrounded by wolves – of a lycanthrope variety – who attack him. He overpowers and kills all bar one when a rider comes along – the rider is Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare), the vampire King of Mississippi and he has an offer Bill really can’t refuse. This brings in the vampire machinations I spoke about. The wolves are a pack dedicated to him (and controlled via vampire blood) and I loved the fact that the wolves were done as actual wolves – albeit evil looking – rather than Wolfman type werewolves.

Sookie watches a flying Eric

There are several threads to this arc, Edgington’s expansion plans, the fact that Queen Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood), of Louisiana, is broke, aspects of Eric’s (Alexander Skarsgård) mortal life, the public face of the vampires as well as their shadowy Authority and why Bill came to Bon Temps. However it all comes down to one thing, the true nature of Sookie. We know she is a telepath, and last season we saw her shoot light out of her hand, now we discover… okay, spoiler time…

crying over gossamer faries?

Sookie is a human/fairy hybrid and I know some felt let down by this (a sentiment shared by the character on screen) but it’s straight from the books (although she doesn’t discover it until quite deep into the series). A relative of Sookie bred with a fae and the genes come out sporadically in the family line. Why do the vampires want a fairy… firstly they thought the vampire’s had wiped out the race, their blood is irresistible to vampires. Secondly, not only is it delicious but it allows them to walk in the sun (for a very short time in the case of Sookie's hybrid blood). I didn’t have a problem with this direction, I did think that the portrayal of the fairies was a little bit gossamer and cheesy, however.

bloody snout

As for mini-arcs, we get Sam discovering his real family and then – post that – suddenly flashing back to his past and developing anger management issues. We get Arlene pregnant, but discovering the baby is not Terry’s (Todd Lowe) but a legacy left by serial killer Rene (Michael Raymond-James). Jason (Ryan Kwanten) adds a welcome comic undertone trying to assuage his guilt for killing Eggs (Mehcad Brooks) at the end of season 2 by wanting to become a cop and falling for meth cooker’s daughter (and were-panther) Crystal (Lindsay Pulsipher). Show favourite Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) meets a bruja in a mini-arc that had little substance, but was carried by the actor’s force of character and should develop as a story next season.

James Frain as Franklin

Vampire-wise we have the romantic arc between vampire Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and human Hoyt (Jim Parrack), which worked well due to the performances and writing. More meaty was Tara (Rutina Wesley) in distress over the death of Eggs turning for solace with vampire Franklin Mott (James Frain), who turns out to be a complete psychopath – more so than any of the vampire’s we have seen, who tend towards sociopath mostly – and proved to be one of the best minor characters added into the show.

pain is so close to pleasure

So, loved how they did the wolves but wish we’d seen more to explain pack dynamics. Some of the mini-arcs were excellent, but some were flimsy or too soap – in fairness some developed stories that should be picked up in the next season. There was only one main arc, which was good, but I never actually got the sense of enormity around the events that I felt the scriptwriters tried to imbue it with (around the vampire machinations). A good season but not as good as season 1. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Sanctuary season 2

When I looked at Season 1 of Sanctuary I looked at specific episodes. I reviewed one episode and gave an honourable mention to two more. The Sanctuary of the title refers to a series of facilities where abnormals – anything vaguely non-human-norm or crypto-zoological – can voluntarily (or otherwise for the really dangerous ones) live in peace, hidden from humanity.

As I finally got around to writing up my thoughts with regards the 2009 season 2, I decided to cover the entire season as an honourable mention. The reasoning goes thus, there are actually three vampire related episodes – a two part season opener, which whilst vampires appear in it the episode didn’t feel that vampire orientated, and a full on vampire episode – as well as an episode that was genre interesting at the very least.

However, beyond this, there is a vampire background to the entire show. Main character Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) was one of five Victorian scientists who injected themselves with a pure sample of vampire blood – vampires once ruled the world and are, in modern times, virtually extinct. All five gained gifts – Helen was blessed with longevity – and one of them, (the) Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young), became a vampire.

recoding Ashley's genes

The season opener (End of Nights, part 1 & 2), as I mentioned, featured vampires. Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) was captured by the shadowy Cabal (at the end of season 1) and programmed as their agent. Being the daughter of two of the five – Helen and John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl), whose power is teleportation – they unlock powers, get more vampire source blood and manipulate her genes to turn her into a vampire.

vampire mode

Then they impose her gene sequence on a group of people who are genetic blank slates (don’t ask how anyone could be a genetic blank slate, the show suggests that imperfections were eradicated through gene therapy but they would still all have genetic differences). Thus they get a group of vampires and use them to attack the Sanctuary system around the world. Ashley eventually gains enough control of herself to die in an act of self-sacrifice.

from Pavor Nocturnis

The next episode to look at was Pavor Nocturnus. In this Helen wakes up, with no memory of the intervening years, in a post-apocalyptic city with the Sanctuary in ruins. A plague has spread through the world, the victims becoming animalistic creatures who feed on humans and pass the plague on to survivors. The plague causes them to mutate and the reason I found it of genre interest was the fact that they develop a long proboscis like stinger (for want of a better word) that was reminiscent of ideas that del Toro put in both Blade 2 and the Strain.

young vampires

The final episode to look at is one entitled Sleepers. After being killed in a car accident a rich young man is reborn as a vampire. He goes to his friends, all of whom went for rehab in a certain Mexican rehab centre and systematically kills them – each one coming back as a vampire. When the Sanctuary team look into it they discover that the Doctor running the clinic is none other than Tesla. As well as curing their addictions he has programmed their genes to rebirth the vampire nation but the programme was meant to kick in thirty years later. The fact that they died started the process early.

de-vamping

All does not go as well as Tesla planned but he included a backup to his plan and created a device to remove the vampirism powered by the electricity his body can create (not a vampire trait) but during his attack on his ungrateful progeny he accidentally also loses his vampirism – essentially vampirism is dead in the world…

…or so we would think, but don’t underestimate Tesla’s desire to get his vampirism back, as well as other vampires who may well reappear in Season 3…

The imdb page is here.

Vampyrnomicon – review

Author: Scott M Baker

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Hunters and vampires seek The Vampyrnomicon, a book that could destroy the vampires...or mankind.

Within the vaults of the Smithsonian Institute lies the key to finding The Vampyrnomicon, the Book of the Undead that contains the history and secrets of the vampires. According to legend, whoever possesses the book can establish a vampire nation on earth - or destroy the undead once and for all. With an opportunity to end the war against the undead so close, Drake Matthews is determined to find the book.

But the vampires also want The Vampyrnomicon. When Master Chiang Shih and her coven of the most powerful and dangerous vampires arrive in Washington to claim the book as their own, the hunters find themselves facing their most deadly enemy yet. With the stakes so high, so is the ferocity of the struggle.

The review: This is the sequel to Baker’s the Vampire Hunters and, despite a silly title, proves to be a step up from the previous volume.

Talking title for just a moment, I’m afraid it struck me as unwieldy as a word and gave the impression, certainly before I read the first volume, that the book was going to be a spoof. It is far from that, it is also less action packed than the first volume but that is no bad thing.

I really enjoyed the high octane action that Baker fuelled the first volume with but, as this is by design a trilogy, I don’t know if action alone could have sustained the series. The author turns down a gear and allows the story to build at a steady pace and further encourages the characters to develop. This permanently takes away the underscore of character cliché that threatened the first volume and forges believable and flawed personalities.

That is not to say that there isn’t action but it is more controlled – just as the new vampires in town are – building to an explosive closing crescendo. That is not to say that the vampires are any less violent or, indeed, any less evil. Baker most certainly wants to put the nasty back into vampires and that is a welcome goal. Sharp eyed readers will have spotted, I am sure, that the master vampire is named Chiang Shih, a variant spelling of kyonsi – though she is not like the hopping vampires of Chinese Cinema. There is an additional piece of lore in this volume that I can’t spoil as it is the basis of a twist.

The prose seems to flow a tad more naturally through this volume, indicating an author more comfortable with his craft. The through-the-ages-flashbacks work very well in this part as well. An interesting premise that has developed from a balls-out action book into an interesting story underscored with developed characterisation. 7 out of 10.

Vamp or Not? Rumah Dara

From the directors Kimo Stambeol and Timo Tjahjanto comes this Indonesian shocker that, at its heart, is a slasher and stars Julie Estelle (Kuntilanak and Kuntilanak 2).

Now whilst it is a slasher at its heart and carries a very dark, brutal atmosphere – thanks largely to Shareefa Daanish’s performance as the main baddy – there is an undercurrent within the film that suggested itself as a “Vamp or Not?” to me.

Ladya (Julie Estelle) is a waitress and her brother Adjie (Ario Bayu), along with his heavily pregnant wife Astrid (Sigi Wimala) and friends Jimi (Daniel Mananta), Alam (Mike Muliadro) and Eko (Dendy Subangil), are in the place she works. He is trying to reconnect to his sister – who blames him for their parent’s deaths – before emigrating to Australia with Astrid. They eventually convince Ladya to go to Jakarta airport with them all.

As they drive away a girl walks in front of the car. She tells them she has been robbed and her name is Maya (Imelda Therinne). They offer to take her home – she lives en route to Jakarta.

Dara feels Astrid's baby bump

Once at Maya's house they are introduced to Maya’s mother, Dara (Shareefa Daanish), who insists on preparing a simple feast to thank the strangers for their kindness. Astrid is given a tea to drink and then goes to a guest room to lie down, accompanied by Adjie, and the others sit down for dinner with Maya, Dara and the two sons of the family. During the meal they are given gourmet meat (and you know that can’t be good) and are drugged.

the film gets rather gory

From the point on the movie becomes a slasher film (meets torture porn to some degree) with the various friends being killed and at least one actually butchered. Yes the family eat human flesh – and it seems they also provide human meat to other like-minded people. However cannibalism itself does not lead one to a conclusion that a film is vampire genre.

old movie

At the head of the film we see a very old home movie of children. Later we see more of it and it is clearly an indoctrination/training session for the three children. They are taught how to beat and kill humans from a young age. However the key to this is that the movie is very old. The indoctrination might explain the incredibly sociopathic attitudes of all three children.

dating the photo

Later we see photographs and one is of Dara and it is dated to 1889. She has either a secret of youth or full immortality and it is directly connected to eating human flesh. I mentioned how good Shareefa Daanish’s performance was and she gave the character an almost alien quality that was, essentially, all kinds of spooky. Dara also seemed incredibly strong, stronger than a standard human certainly.

baby skull

Finally Dara is obsessed with babies. The tea she gives Astrid forces labour and she actually suggests that should Astrid tend to her injured husband and leave the child she might escape. There is a room with baby skulls and many of the vampire myths from Indonesia and other nearby countries involve the devouring of babies.

Shareefa Daanish as dara

I really rather enjoyed Rumah Dara, it was a well done slasher with a psychotic edge. Is it Vamp? The elements are almost background to the actual slasher aspect but they are there. Nothing is explicit but Dara could almost be another species and she certainly is long lived, and eternally young it would seem. I would say this is Vamp.

The imdb page is here.

Vampira – review

Director: Ángel Mora Aragón

Release date: 1998

Contains spoilers

I am guessing that there is a hardcore porn version of Spanish film Vampira somewhere. It features porn stars and several clumsy cuts in the endless stream of sex scenes.

Yet the “Drive-in Double feature” is a barely 1 hour film that has too much story (or an attempt at story, at the very least) to be relegated to the porn only category and thus we will look at the film.

hosing down

It begins, after a forest pov shot, with a man washing his car. He is approached by a woman who grabs his hose (ooo err, missus) and sprays herself, strips and soon there is sex with all the clumsy edits, to cut out anything too rude, that I mentioned earlier. At the end of it she develops cat’s eyes and fangs and has a good chow down on his neck.

in the woods

Alex (Nacho Vidal) is out in the woods to test out camera film in a dusk, near twilight setting. He is wandering through, making Dictaphone notes, when he hears a strange howl. He runs and sees a woman chewing on another man’s neck. He legs it. Cut to him having sex with her, she grabs at his cross, he sees her in vampire form and then wakes up. He quickly removes the film from his camera.

a bite

He goes to speak to his friend Victor (Emilio Lisbona), a violent chap one surmises as he is never too far from a hand-gun. He says that he dreamt of her again and Victor points out that it has been two days and no body has been found. Given what he thought he saw one wonders why he took two days to develop the film but, as it is, there is nothing to see on the film. Cut to another man and another sex scene followed by a bite.

appeared in photo

Alex listens back to his Dictaphone and has captured the woman’s voice – not that they can tell what she says. Victor has to go to work and so has Alex watch an occult show hosted by Tutto Gettaceo (Xaviar Canals). Following this he sees another show about vampires and then has an erotic dream about the woman talking about vampires. He gets a call from Victor – a woman has suddenly appeared in the photos.

Xaviar Canals as Tutto

They go and see Tutto who is astounded by the pictures – he thought *they* were extinct – but tells them to forget they ever came across them. When they give him the tape he plays the voice backwards and it says “I want your blood”… going on to demand sperm and soul also. Tutto tells them that the creatures are naidas, a kind of blood drinking and sperm eating vampire. They live in a different version of time and space and he suspects they want to bring about an empire of evil.

hunting wabbits vampires

They dislike the sunlight, and will rest somewhere dark and humid. Victor knows just the place; the only house in the woods. When Alex asks what will kill them Victor suggests bullets, and being weapon mad happens to have a variety of pistols, a submachine gun and a crossbow for good measure. You might think, now they are hunting them, the sex would end… not so… they can hypnotise and seduce. We get a scene with two of them together and then Alex stumbles across them (the hunters split up, as you do) and ends up in a threeway – yet somehow survives.

in coffin

Given their powers, and the fact that Tutto clearly thinks of them as perfect creatures and thus can’t be trusted, we wonder at the potential outcome. I will say that the naidas sleep in coffins and seem to be able to vanish at will. I'll also say that bullets do work as a vampire slaying tool.

on the prowl

The acting is as poor as you would imagine, the dialogue (or at least the translation to subtitles) is rubbish. However they did try and do more than a simple skinflick. Did it work? No, not really. However, what did you expect. All that said there was some flesh on show, some fangs and some blood. It was certainly a cut above the accompanying feature, Night Vamps, which was no more than a series of unrelated strip teases by silicon overinflated women, and not a fang in sight. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Interesting Shorts: The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima

The cat is an infrequent but always welcome visitor to vampire lore. In 1871 Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford included a traditional tale that he entitled The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima in his volume Tales of Old Japan. This was, of course, a year before Carmilla in which the eponymous vampire could take on cat form.

I have seen it suggested that the original story dates to the Sengoku Period – approximately the 15th to the end of the 17th century – and I imagine that nowhere does the tale, in its traditional form, mention vampires. That is an Anglicisation but fits rather well to what actually occurs in story.

It tells the story of the Prince of Hizen, of the Nabéshima family, whose consort O Toyo is attacked by a large cat. The cat bites her neck and throttles her, then it scratches out a grave, buries the body and assumes her form.

From then on the cat, in O Toyo’s form, visits the prince “in order to drain out his life's blood. Day by day, as time went on, the Prince's strength dwindled away; the colour of his face was changed, and became pale and livid; and he was as a man suffering from a deadly sickness.”

In this we can see, firstly, blood drinking but more importantly a description of a wasting disease and we have explored several times on the blog the connection, traditionally, between vampirism and consumption.

The Prince also has vivid and terrible dreams, connecting the phenomena with nightmares. The Prince’s advisors start sitting with their lord to watch over him but each night they are overcome with a bewitching sleep.

Eventually the cat’s plans are thwarted by a lowly soldier called Itô Sôda, who watches over his lord and prevents himself from sleeping by stabbing himself in the leg with a dagger and, when the desire to sleep overcame the pain, twisting it in his flesh. He even puts oil paper under himself to prevent his blood staining his master’s mats! O Toyo enters the rooms, in human form, but does not feed whilst Itô Sôda is awake and eventually, after several nights, her secret is discovered.

The cat actually escapes at the end of the tale though later, we are told, the Prince sends a hunting party to track the creature down and destroy it but only after it caused much mischief amongst the general populace.

An ebook version of the 1910 edition of Tales of Old Japan can be downloaded free of charge from Project Gutenberg.

In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journey and Travel Guide – review

Author: Steven P Unger

Published: 2010

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Worldwide fascination with Dracula, like the bloodthirsty Count himself, will never die.

Completed and comprising approximately 35,000 words and 185 photographs, In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journey and Travel Guide is the first and only book to include:

• For the armchair traveller, pictures and descriptions, in memoir form, of every site in England and Romania that is closely related to either Bram Stoker's fictional Count Dracula or his historical counterpart, Prince Vlad Dracula the Impaler.

• A thorough history based on original research and face-to-face interviews with experts--such as the Man in Black of Whitby, England--of how the novel Dracula came into being, and almost never happened.

• The true life story of Vlad the Impaler, connecting his lineage for the first time in print to the Brotherhood of the Wolf, which had already survived for two thousand years when Prince Vlad was born in 1431.

• For the independent traveler who would leave his armchair for the Great Unknown, a Practical Guide to the Dracula Trail, including a complete Sample Itinerary with recommendations for lodging and detailed instructions on traveling to each British or Romanian Dracula-related town or site.

Also in the Practical Guide are sections on money; recommended reading; modes of transportation; security and health; internet access, shopping, and cable TV; and alternatives to independent travel.

The 2nd Edition of In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journey and Travel Guide, available now, includes: ---References, Web Links, and Costs Updated to December 2010 ---The First Review of Dracula Ever Written, Published in the Manchester Guardian on June 15, 1897 ---A New Section on Bram Stoker's Dublin ---A Rare Photo of a Wolf-Dragon, the Original Source of the Name "Dracula," Carved Within the Ruins of a Prehistoric Dacian Temple in Transylvania, and much, much more!

The Review: It is probably fitting that Steven Unger has written a travel guide based on Dracula as much of the geographic detail Stoker put into his novel came from travel guides of the time.

The book follows Unger as he travels through some of the world locations associated with Dracula and also Vlad Țepeș. Now, whilst Stoker borrowed a name – thus the association between the fictional Count and the real life Voivode are at best slim – Unger makes the point that the two are now inextricably linked through previous works and thus I felt the exploration of the Voivode, whilst walking the footsteps of the fictional Count, to be legitimate. Unger did not try to tie them closer than they truly are - though he did point out some interesting synchronicities.

For the Dracula scholar there is are nuggets of interesting material within the book – Unger’s details about the Dacians was just such a nugget. More, however, this is a travel book and offers Unger’s passion for his subject as he guides us around the trail he explored. It is a shame, of course, that the photos within are in black and white but that is a publishing limitation. The book also contains details and tips for the traveller who wants to follow Unger round the Dracula related sites, towns and cities.

I find it a treat to read the details of someone’s passion for the genre and a travel book is a welcome departure for me in the style of book read. 7.5 out of 10. Steve Unger recently posted a guest blog on TMtV and that can be found here.

Undying Love – review

Director: Greg Lamberson

Release date: 1991

Contains spoilers

Undying Love, or New York Vampire, had a lot of things against its favour… it really did. Low budget, poor scripting and amateurish acting and yet it raised above all that to become something, if not brilliant, certainly watchable.

Part of this was to do with the film quality. It looked as though it had emerged from the 70s rather than being filmed in the 90s and it carried a gritty aspect because of this.

opening suicide

That grittiness was apparent in the opening shot. It is a window, back lit, that proves to be in a door. It opens and Scott (Tommy Sweeney) comes into view. He switches on the light and we see it is a bathroom. The music fleshes the atmosphere as we see, in cuts, him get into the bath and then slit his wrists. It was a visceral opening scene.

New York, and the music changes to hip hop. A couple are in a drugs den and there is a knock on the door. A well-dressed man, Evan (Andrew Lee Barrett), comes into the room and they check him for weapons. He takes a seat in front of the man, as the woman holds a gun on him. He passes the briefcase over, but when opened it is empty. Evan tells the man he wants his money. He snaps the man’s neck and then knocks the woman out before taking their cash. Before he leaves he picks her wrist up and bites.

Julie Lynch as Carmilla

Curtis (Terry Spivey) is throwing a party and Scott arrives. He is offered a wine cooler but he wants a beer. Two negatives come into play here. One is Sweeney as lead, he isn’t massively dynamic and he comes across as a bit wooden. However, that actually works as the film progresses because he seems stoic – only failing, really, when he does a quick take later in the film and stoic melts into caricature. The other failing is in the dialogue, he is there without Lesley (Mary Huner), his girlfriend, but everyone refers to him as Lesley’s boyfriend who tried to kill himself – to his face – it just wouldn’t happen. The exception to this is when Carmilla (Julie Lynch) approaches him, she talks about death as though it were a positive and, of course, given her name we know what she is.

Carmilla and Evan

She is a model, she says, and she is quickly dragged away from him by Renny (Robert C Sabin), her photographer friend. Scott goes back to Lesley’s place and has sex but it is clear, through the cuts, that he is thinking of Carmilla and there is a religious aspect here as Lesley has plenty of catholic paraphernalia that the camera also focuses on, as well as cuts back to the suicide. What I liked, though whether the filmmakers did it purposefully or not is up for grabs, was the way that he was attracted to Carmilla and she to him and he was an attempted suicide. It tied in neatly with the tradition of suicides becoming vampires – for we already know what will happen to him.

Scott transitioning

Wint (Lee Kayman) is a cop. One of his cop buddies pulls him in to tell him about the drugland murders – and the fact that the girl was totally drained of blood. His buddy then goes on to say that Wint shouldn’t obsess as he only has 7 months until retirement and no one wants to hear his stories of vampires. The question then is why bloomin’ tell him in the first place? It seems that his partner was killed by vampires 25 years before (by Evan and Carmilla). Meanwhile Scott finds Carmilla, they go out and then back to his place. She goes down on him, a comment is made about teeth and when she is finished he is dead – she tells the corpse that things are only going to get better.

Lesley's fate

So, of course, he is a fledgling vampire and we get some of the standard stuff, such as raw meat eating and inability to eat cooked food etc. The moment of his awakening, going to the toilet, crying out in pain and a toilet bowl red with blood offered a glimpse of an std undertone. Things start coming together – Carmilla kills Renny by ripping his balls off, chewing out his tongue and drinking his blood, but his pictures of Carmilla alert Wint to the right trail. Evan, it seems, is jealous and barely puts up with Carmilla’s playthings. He turned her during the French revolution, and his jealousy sends him towards Lesley (who catches Scott in bed with Carmilla anyway).

play acting

There are deeper motives playing out in the background but I won’t spoil them. However the way the vampires are done is interesting. Wint has clearly researched vampires. When he confronts Evan he puts garlic and crucifixes up, he carries a cross and has holy water. This all seems to work as he chases Evan around with the cross and then corners him, trapping him with holy water. That is until Evan reveals that he was play acting, none of those things affect vampires.

staked

We do get a staking, but it is of Wint with his own cross, and Evan reveals that vampires can die by ordinary means – though it is apparent that they can take more damage than a normal human. Evan has a tendency to tape razor blades to his fingers and use those as a weapon, but beyond that we don’t get anything like fangs and claws (Carmilla has sharp nails, but there is nothing supernatural about them). They do seem physically stronger than humans.

blooded

The problem with the film was exactly as I highlighted at the head of the review. The budget was low, the script wasn’t always logical (telling Wint about a murder then warning him off) and the dialogue senseless in places (discussing Scott’s suicide attempt in front of Scott). The vampire characters weren’t fleshed out as well as I would have liked. Julie Lynch was fun, but most of the cast weren’t brilliant actors.

Yet the film had ideas I liked, and an atmosphere (that may well have been accidental) that worked. The ending is dour and I liked that also. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.