New Release: the Media Vampire

Time for some shameless self-promotion of my reference book the Media Vampire: A study of vampires in fictional media.

The book is fully referenced and indexed and looks at the vampire fairly chronologically in the first part of the book from early poetry involving vampires through to Dracula. The second half of the book eclectically looks through topics that I was particularly interested in looking at when I wrote it.

It is currently available via Lulu but it should find its way onto Amazon and other online retailers in the not too distant future.

Lower down in this article is the blurb for the book but I also want to mention the new film database in the right hand links and offer tremendous thanks to Margaret who set the whole thing up for me. It is a work in progress but hopefully will add another dimension to the blog.

Back to the Media Vampire, and the blurb: From 18th Century poetry up to modern 3D cinema, the vampire has developed a genre in its own right.

Leaving behind its roots in phantasmagoria and horror, taking in romance, action and adventure, as well as flights of science fiction fantasy and political allegory.

The vampire is a part of all these fields of artistry and beyond them, a melting pot of imagination and invention that has captivated audiences around the world.

In the first part of this volume, Andrew M. Boylan - author of the famous vampire blog Taliesin Meets the Vampires, looks at the genesis of the vampire genre from Ossenfelder’s poem Der Vampir to Bram Stoker’s seminal novel Dracula.

The second part of the book spreads eclectically out from Dracula, just as the genre spread, taking in some famous kissing cousins of the genre as well as looking at the vampire's changing relationship with the divine and following the toothsome bloodsuckers out into space.

Honourable Mention: The Cave

The cave was a short (5 minutes) film that I caught online and was directed by Rowan Brown. I am unsure of the date that the film was produced.

It begins with a man (Pierce Elliot Matsen) entering a cave, lighting a burning torch and then follows him through the dark maw of rock. The first thing to mention is the wonderful score by Loic Valmy that really adds an atmosphere to the piece and the fact that the lighting seems superbly done for a short indie piece.

the man with a stake

The Man, who we see wears a sword, eventually reaches an area where there is no cave roof, allowing him to stand in sunlight once more. Beyond the sunlight the cave continues and a woman (Nicole Miller), wearing a rich red dress, sits slumbering in a decorative chair. The man goes over to her and produces a stake. He stands above her but then we see that he can’t do it.

the vampire attacks

He brushes the woman’s hair tenderly and she awakens, bears fangs and attacks. He drops the stake but is able to get into the natural light. It is raining but the woman still can’t approach. He sees the stake in the dark of the cave and rushes for it. She attacks him again but he is able to stake her, causing her to scream but then – and this was a powerful piece of physical acting – her face softens and a heart-breaking look of peace crosses it.

That is it, no dialogue, short, sweet and to the point. At the time of this article there is no IMDb page.

Guest Blog: Vampire Evolution by Rebeka Harrington

For centuries vampires were a legendary creature, hidden behind mystery and folklore. Then along came Bram Stoker who bust the coffin wide open and revealed vampires to the world. His anti-hero, Count Dracula, a blood-sucking monster determined to wreak havoc on humanity.

Next up we have Count Orlok (Nosferatu 1922) an adaptation on Stoker’s Dracula. Nosferatu was so ugly you would be scared just looking at him. Again with a single purpose; blood, blood and more blood.

Vampires for decades (centuries even) reigned supreme as the Kings of Horror. The mere mention of the word “vampire” made people tremble with fear. Then in the mid 1970’s the world’s perception of vampires changed with the release of Anne Rice’s series of books “The Vampire Chronicles”. For the first time (worth mentioning) vampires weren’t the villain. Lestat welcomed us into his world, included us in his explorations.

The 20th century saw change and progress everywhere, vampires were no exception. Now in the 21st century, we have seen just about every incarnation possible of vampires. Or have we? They move about during daylight hours, they sparkle, live with humans without guise or façade; what else could there possibly be?

What I think we are yet to see is a thorough investigation of vampire lives and society. I’ve been quoted as saying, “focusing on vampires solely as blood-drinkers is like summing up humanity as oxygen thieves.” Surely there is more to vampires than killing and drinking blood. If vampires are as intelligent and powerful as we have asserted them to be, then how can we continue to portray them in a one-dimensional manner.

Whether or not you enjoyed the books, I really like what Charlaine Harris did with her Southern Vampires series. Over time you learnt about the vampire hierarchy and all the behind-the-scenes vampire stuff that is typically glossed over.

The next step in vampire evolution, I believe, is for writers to look closer; go beyond the murder and mayhem, this is something I am attempting with my own work. In my latest release “Desires Revealed” I explore relationships, sexuality, vampire society and division within that society.

Another aspect of the vampire evolution and how they are portrayed in fiction must be their perception of humanity. Do they study and research humanity as we do for animals? What is their opinion of humanity, besides being a source of food? How involved with human affairs are they? Do they try and sway the course of history in their favour?

As you may have figured out, I have a lot of questions about vampires. This is why I find them so fascinating and intriguing to write about. They can take me anywhere and anywhen. I seriously doubt I’m the only person to share this fascination. The plethora of vampire fiction available would seem to suggest the world has an insatiable hunger for vampires.

While through my writing a lot of my questions can be answered, there a couple of questions I have that remain unanswered. When will it end? And where will this next step in vampire evolution take us?

About Rebeka Harrington

Raised in country Victoria, Rebeka started her writing career working for the local newspaper as a teenager. While she decided not to pursue this as a career, she has always enjoyed writing and being creative

With so many varied interests and eccletic taste in most things, Rebeka enjoys incorporating all of them in her writing. She particularly enjoys writing about vampires.

Rebeka seeks to define and explain vampires in a way not done before. This was achieved with her debut title "Vampires Revealed". Following titles revolve around exploring the world and characters created in her first release.

Currently Rebeka lives in Melbourne with her “demented” but lovable cat, dividing her time between writing and managing a small boutique entertainment agency.

Rebeka’s latest release Desires Revealed is available for purchase at:

Smashwords
Amazon

Cosy up with her characters – www.vampiresrevealed.com
Keep in touch and visit her blog – www.rebekaharrington.com

Dampyr Vol. 2: Night Tribe – review

Written by: Mauro Boselli & Maurizio Colombo

Translation by: Goran Marinic

Art by: Majo

First Published: 2005 (English translation)

Contains spoilers

The blurb: After their near-fatal encounter with Gorka, the powerful master of the night, the unlikely trio of half human/half-vampire Harlan Draka, the beautiful vampire Tesla and tough warrior Kurjak prepare to face him once more. Visions sent to Draka draw the trio ever closer to their foe, and this time it is a bloody, horrifying fight to the death where only one can survive…

The review: I looked at the first volume of Dampyr – Devil’s Son – some time ago and have finally got around to getting the second volume.

I said, with regards the first book, that there was some familiarity within the opening story premise. By this volume the story is very much on its own path and this volume is a succinct little story that brings the Gorka story to a conclusion and teases out a little of Harlan’s parentage and the overarching story that this feeds into.

Lore wise we are told that not all vampire victims rise and that a Master of the Night turns someone into one of his servant vampires by draining them and then injecting a substance into their veins. This ties them to the Master so that, for instance, though Tesla has rebelled against Gorka he can still assume control of her.

If I had a complaint it was that the new antagonists, created by Gorka ,were wafer thin as characters. But, to be fair, they were there as plot device only. 7 out of 10.

Music: Hank3

Last night we went to see Hank3 – Hank Williams III for the uninitiated – and watched an eclectic, enjoyable and long gig. Hank did a full country set, some psychobilly (or hellbilly, and the disappointing part of the gig was that he only did three tracks in this segment), doom metal and 3 bar ranch (speed metal guitar over cattle auctions). For the sheer effort put in we got our money’s worth and a big thanks to Hank for the night.

Highlight track for me was Ghost to a Ghost, from the album of the same name (an album which is well worth purchasingif you like your country definitely alternative), and so I thought I’d share… but of course we only feature tracks that mention vampires here at TMtV and this is no exception:

Watching rot gut whiskey
Drowning all my friends
Sailing on this lonely sea
Where no one wins
Built up to be left down
Is in my family tree
See the wolves and the vampires in their misery



photo by Jez Wright

First Impression: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Timur Bekmambetov brought us the fantastic films Night Watch and Day Watch and returns to the theme of vampires in his adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The film is, of course, an alternate history and as such more aspects of Lincoln’s life, beyond his slaying of vampires, are changed (including how many children he had) but the purist should take the film and story for what it is without getting hung up on biographical details. The film is not designed to be an accurate biopic, it is designed to be fun and that is exactly what it is.

Starting when Abe was young (Played young by Lux Haney-Jardine) we see him intervening when a man, Jack Barts (Marton Csokas), is handing (what I assumed to be) the parents of Abe’s friend Will (played young by Curtis Harris) over as slaves despite the fact that they are free. Barts whips at Will, missing the floored Abe, but as it is Abe’s father (Joseph Mawle) intervenes. Barts sacks Thomas Lincoln and demands payment of monies owed, when payment is refused he suggests there is more than one way to extract payment.

The night Abe is in the roof space not yet sleeping when Barts enters the family cabin. Through a crack in the boards Abe sees the man take the arm of Abe’s mother (Robin McLeavy) and, as he transforms into a monster and goes to bite her wrist, the young boy bolts back from his vantage point. The next day his mother is dying of some form of illness, something the doctor can’t recognise or treat and she dies. The turning rules in the film are not brilliantly explained. It seems that a bite will poison and kill the victim but the victim doesn’t necessarily come back. Later we hear that a pure soul won’t turn but then an offer is made to turn an innocent child already poisoned by a vampire bite. Clarity would have been nice.

Abe grows up (and is played as an adult by Benjamin Walker). He promised his father that he wouldn’t do anything stupid (in other words go after Barts) but after his father dies he feels freed from the promise. He gets drunk – noticed by Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), who suggests that a young man only gets drunk like that for two reasons, to approach a girl or kill a man – and goes after Bart. His pistol fails and he ends up hold up in a shed whilst he tries to reload his pistol. He manages to shoot Bart in the eye but the body vanishes and he is attacked again (later we see that Abe destroyed his eye, which is replaced by the pistol’s ball, no regeneration seems to occur). Sturgess saves him and trains the young man to be a vampire hunter.

Sturgess is a vampire himself – something Abe does not discover until later – and he recruits vampire hunters as a vampire cannot kill another vampire… only the living can kill the dead. Vampires have a problem with sunlight, but the development of a sun screen has enabled them to go out into the day. Whether they should have just dropped the whole sunlight aspect, as it never comes into play, is debatable. So, rather than sunlight, the method of killing vampires seems to be decapitation or through the use of silver (silver bullets seem very efficient). The silver is given its power due to the association of 30 pieces of silver and the betrayal of Christ (though little else religious seems to come into play). Abe’s weapon of choice is an axe, the edge of which has been silvered. We see Abe chop a tree with an axe blow and the action is very much over the top.

Yet that over-the-top action is where the film really works. Abe is cast, essentially, as a super-hero and whilst he hasn’t powers, as such, the fighting skills are well above normal. It is this over-the-top action that carries the story and gives it its pace, and is ultimately the downfall of the film in its middle passage. The film drops the action – as Abe and Henry fall out and Abe enters politics with the aim of the abolition of slavery and marries Mary (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). This is necessary story wise but the change of pace drags a little. Fear not, the action will return for the finale.

Readers may recall a criticism I have of action sequences is the use of jerky, wobbly cameras, a technique that seems to hide any lack of confidence in a director’s ability to shoot action. Bekmambetov uses no such techniques and the action is fantastic. He does use effects a hell of a lot but that just fits in with the almost comic book feel of the film.

I really enjoyed this. Was it a great piece of cinema art? Of course not but it was a great comic-book-style action film that (despite dragging its heels a little in the middle) was great fun. Not as complex or thought provoking as Bekmambetov’s Watch films it was, nevertheless, brimming with style.

EDIT: After re-watching on DVD I think I should score this at 7.5 out of 10. Great fun.

The imdb page is here.

Rock-a-Die Baby – review

Director: Bob Cook

Release date: 1989

Contains spoilers

Rock-a-Die Baby is a portmanteau film, but strangely it actually has two wraparounds. There is one concerning a band and then a second concerning a mother and daughter. The first seems to wrap-around the second. Sandwiched between them both are three stories.

The band wraparound starts with a man (Bob Cook) trying to sell a song from the band for a horror film. He assures the producer, who he is on the phone to, that the band are really good and can have a song together for the next day. The band are less than happy about this but he sends them off to a cemetery to get some atmosphere. As they arrive there is a woman standing in the cemetery with a tiger, as one does, she is credited as lady vampire (Dawn Hull).

Dawn Hull is the vampire lady

After each segment we cut to the cemetery for a quick moment of a (poor) song called spooky lady, some rock video stylings, lady vampire in a coffin occasionally and clips from the preceding story. The other wraparound sees a mother (Marilyn Hassett) waking up as her very young daughter (Lauren Woodland) watches Night of the Living Dead. The daughter asks for a story and the three tales are the three stories. The first is about soldiers in Vietnam and a woman (Patty Toy) who seems to be a weretiger, it is the best of the three stories. The second is about college kids throwing a fake séance to scare another and getting a real visitation from beyond the grave – it is a poor segment, with little point and worse effects.

she has no reflection

The third segment is our vampire segment and is, according to the mother, the story of when she and the daughter’s father (Dick Sargent) were first married. It starts off with the newlyweds, Eva and Adam, in a cab and telling the cabby (Fil Formicola) to take them to a lover’s lane and leave the meter running. He looks at his fornicating fare in the mirror and she has no reflection.

fangs are revealed later

So, having established that she is a vampire, we start discovering that her husband has no idea. She ‘accidentally’ breaks the mirror in the bedroom, starts when he picks up a log and mentions steak (thinking he means stake). She works in a blood bank, on the night-shift, but he wishes he could take her to the beach (her skin is too sensitive for that anyway) or a baseball game (she’s frightened of bats). The vampire references come thick and fast.

sucking a cut finger

When he cooks her a meal he uses garlic and makes her ill – he just assumes that she is allergic – and when he cuts his finger she takes great pleasure in sucking the wound, though she gets the blood type wrong. The entire section does actually seem a little pointless until we trip over a twist at the end, which makes it kind of cute overall – if entirely throwaway still.

mother and daughter

I won’t spoil the twist but will return to the mother and daughter wraparound. The set-up had seemed odd. We have a young girl (the actress was twelve) watching Night of the Living Dead and then telling her stories that seem inappropriate. Not just for the horror but the first story mentions rape and the second story begins with a game of strip poker. The girl, following the third story, is finally asleep but, as the mother leans in close, they both produce fangs – so she is a vampire girl.

Portmanteau films can struggle and this certainly did. The effects were poor and although I did like the first story, all things are relative and it was not the greatest piece of horror story or filmmaking ever.

It was nice, however, to see Dick Sargent and – as I said – the twist made the vampire story cute. The score is for that segment only. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable mention: Wrong Way

The Vampirologist Anthony Hogg posted a link (over at facebook) to a subtitled version of this short on YouTube. The short is, I think, Bulgarian and is based on a Stephen King short story.

That short story, One for the Road, is a story that centres on ’Salem’s Lot (post the events of the main novel) and whilst the snow storm of that story is replaced for a rain storm and the location is moved from New England to Bulgaria, this remains a very faithful rendition of the story. The film was directed by Georgi Yordanov and was uploaded (without subtitles) to YouTube in 2010.

Lazar

It is narrated by Lazar, a restaurant owner, who reminisces about a man, Evgeni, who comes into the restaurant during a rainstorm. The stranger is soaked to the skin and asks to use the phone, but the lines are down. He then explains that he was travelling through a gorge when his car broke an axel near a village.

Evgeni

Lazar calls the village the dead village and explains that a water plant was meant to be built and so the village houses were bought out, but the plant was never built and the houses remained empty. When he discovers that Evgeni left his wife and child in the car he tells him that each house is said to contain a ghoul – a dead man who has not moved on. When it is suggested that he means vampires he, interestingly, states that vampires and werewolves are the same thing and that they call them ghouls. This was neatly merging these concepts as they often are in folklore.

into the dead village

The storm has ended and so the man returns to his car and Lazar picks up a gun and goes with him; but what will they find…

If you’ve read the story you will know, if not then the film is definitely worth a watch. At the time the article was written I could find no IMDb page.

My Babysitter’s a Vampire – season 1 – review

Director: Various

First aired: 2011

Contains spoilers

This follows on from the pilot film and so will spoil the ending of that if you haven’t seen it.

By the end of the pilot we discovered that teen boys Ethan (Matthew Knight) and Benny (Atticus Dean Mitchell) are a seer and hereditary spellcaster respectively. Ethan, being banned from babysitting Jane (Ella Jonas Farlinger), his little sister, due to his general irresponsibility has a babysitter in the form of Sarah (Vanessa Morgan). Sarah is a fledgling vampire – in that she hasn’t fully turned because she hasn’t bit a human yet. This would be a problem because fledglings die if they don’t feed on a human within an allotted time-scale but Benny’s Grandma (Joan Gregson) is supplying a magically created blood substitute for her.

Benny, Rory and Ethan

All three go to the same school, as do the boys' friend Rory (Cameron Kennedy) and Sarah’s friend Erica (Kate Todd) both of whom were turned into full vampires in the pilot movie and who escaped the general slayage of the vampires in that vehicle. The series is, therefore, a school based light comedy, whose twenty minute or so episodes don’t outstay their welcome.

zompire

In each episode something supernatural is afoot – sometimes an event that the kids get embroiled in and sometimes as a result of poor judgement on behalf of Benny (who has a tendency to act first and think only when the impact is pointed out to him). As such we get a plethora of ghost, demon, zombie and werewolf tales all more or less sorted by the kids within the respective episode. For instance when a coffee mix-up causes anyone who drinks it to become a brain eating zombie, the kids work out that cold reverts them back to human. Incidentally, in that episode a vampire (Rory) is temporarily turned into a zombie… creating a zompire.

vampire nurse

Vampire-wise we do, of course, have our fledgling vampire and two full vampires. There is also an episode where nurses come to the school on a blood drive and these turn out to be vampires also. A territorial battle over the blood (and the mention of a vampire council, which is not mentioned thereafter) is solved because Ethan has H-deficient blood (something only 1 in a million has) and he is able to trade a pint for Erica and Rory’s safety. His blood is not mentioned again, surprisingly. In a vampire related moment we also get a witch who uses ritual to steal souls in order that she can maintain her youth and immortality.

Vanessa Morgan as Sarah

Indeed the episodes are more or less standalone until the last two of the series in which bad vampire Jesse (Joe Dinicol) returns and offers some inter-episode/film continuity (though it is a little too sparse to suggest an arc as such). In this we get the additional idea that rather than a bite turning, it is the presence of venom introduced during the bite that does. We also discover that a vampire’s mesmerism will work on a weaker vampire as well as a human.

soul sucking through witchcraft

As I say, the episodes didn’t overstay their welcome and the show was cute enough. The references to the show’s alternative Twilight series, Dusk, were still there. The episodes covered most of the supernatural areas one would expect and a couple of unusual ones such as the living doll (Georgina Reilly, Valemont) that could suck life energy out of people (turning them into dolls) to maintain her human form.

That said the series was still comedy light and probably narrowly suited to the target audience rather than having a wider age-group appeal. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Carry on Christmas (1969)

I love the Carry On films (or at least most of them, some of them were risible, Carry on Emmanuel I’m looking at you). Their saucy seaside postcard humour, particularly the use of the double entendre, and the wonderful recurring cast make them a joy to watch.

It is still sad that a Carry on Dracula/Vampire was never made and, indeed, I wish that Carry on Screaming could grace the pages of this blog… it’s a pity that there wasn’t a vampire character in the film, just a vamp.

Sid James as Scrooge

The cast made a few Christmas specials for British TV and this was the 1969 special. Less a story than a series of sketches featuring many of the favourite cast members; including Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw (Vampira & Blood of the Vampire), Hattie Jacques (My Son the Vampire) and Barbara Windsor, as well as a special guest in the form of Frankie Howerd. The loose wraparound had Sid James as Scrooge and it is the sketch summoned by the ghost of Christmas past (Charles Hawtrey) that interests us.

Peter Butterworth as Dracula

Scrooge refused to give a loan, the year before, to Dr. Frank N. Stein (Terry Scott) that would have allowed the doctor to complete his experiment. He had already built a female monster, Fannie (Barbara Windsor), but she was somewhat frisky, one might say insatiable, and so he was making a man monster (Bernard Bresslaw) for her. “Where’s the vampire?” you might ask. Well, in a moment that was somewhat lore confusing, the doctor’s assistant was not Igor but Dracula (Peter Butterworth). Other than him mentioning having a friend for a drink and putting some false fangs in he didn’t do anything too vampiric but he was there none the less… and it is the only time I can think of where Frankenstein and Dracula are together and Dracula calls the doctor, “Master”.

The imdb page is here.

32 Fangs – review

Author: David Wellington

First Published: 2012

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Laura Caxton’s battles against vampire Justinia Malvern have cost her everything—the lives of her friends and family, her freedom… And perhaps even her humanity. But even now, reduced to a solitary existence as a wanted fugitive, Laura’s not through fighting. In fact, she’s got a plan—a plan that will force Malvern to come to her and allow the two enemies to face off one last time. The ever-wily Malvern has plans of her own, though… plans that involve Laura’s few remaining friends, a battalion of cops and an army of half-dead slaves.

The review: Have you read any of the Laura Caxton series? If the answer is no, my next question is why not? This is the fifth in the series that runs 13 Bullets, 99 Coffins, Vampire Zero & 23 Hours. If you haven’t read them, yes they are that good. Wellington really puts the vicious back into vampires; deadly, virtually unstoppable killing machines. However, as this is book number five there will be series spoilers in this so perhaps just go out, get 13 bullets and enjoy…

…still here, good. Then I will assume you are up-to-date with Mr Wellington’s opus. Each book has been different, not only in context but also in how Wellington treated central character Laura Caxton. He has taken her through a gamut of emotions and stripped her raw, so much that there is little humanity left in her, therefore little character. She is a weapon forged with one purpose.

As such this book actually spends much more time with her estranged girlfriend Clara Hsu. This is no bad thing, we still see Caxton, she still is the centrepiece character, but Hsu gives us a human focus. The other centre character is Malvern herself. Wellington takes us through a potted back history that lets us into a vampire who is the most three dimensional of all those wew have met through the series and is, therefore, more dangerous for it.

One piece of lore seemed to shift through this backstory. In the very first book we discover that the vampires are reverential of their elders, often coffin bound and desiccated (unless they take enough blood), the vampires engage in something akin to ancestor worship. Not Malvern, we see her destroy a whole group of ancients and this made me wonder as to exactly why she behaved differently. The book is silent on this point, but again it makes her even more dangerous.

The writing, as always, is crisp and drags you in. All the books in the series are compulsive reads once the reader’s eyes settle on the prose. This is a fitting finale to the Laura Caxton series. 8.5 out of 10.

Vamp or Not? Bloodsuckers from Outer Space

Despite the title containing the word Bloodsucker, this film had always struck me as looking a bit too zombie to be on vampire filmographies. However friend of the blog Alex suggested I look at the film and it had been languishing away in my ‘to watch’ pile. So, here goes…

The film dates from 1984, was directed by Glen Coburn and looks cheap… really cheap. But heck, that hasn’t stopped us before! It begins with a farmer (Dan Gallion) doing what farmers do. He seems to notice something, a strange noise perhaps. A wind whips up – but the nearby branches are still – and then he doubles over, puking blood until he falls dead. Then he awakens, blue of face and growling… so far so zombie (in look and inarticulate growl at least).

a victim

Cops are at a crime scene. Two bodies have been left, their throats ripped and drained of blood. Local reporter Jeff Rhodes (Thom Meyers) turns up. One of the cops, Sam (Christopher Heldman), is a friend of Jeff’s and so he lets the reporter know, off the record, what has happened – though he doesn’t want him to report it and start a panic. At one point the V word is mentioned, though dismissively.

Jeff and Julie

Jeff goes to see his Aunt Kate (Billie Keller) and Uncle Joe (Robert Bradeen). Uncle Joe gives him an ultimatum – leave the paper and become a farmer or lose his inheritance. He is given until supper to decide and drives off. Jeff has a blowout and, because the spare is flat, he smashes the car with a tire iron. A passing motorist, Julie (Laura Ellis), sees him –and despite him smashing his own car – gives him a lift. Soon they are sucking nitrous oxide together and then in bed.

experimenting on Pace

Meanwhile Jeff’s cousin Ralph (Glen Coburn) is working at the military base known as Research City. The leader of their team, Dr Pace (John Webb), has turned blue and is being experimented on/interrogated. We get the full story of what is happening when General Sanders (Dennis Letts) arrives. A lifeforce has arrived from outer space. The life force is invisible but windy (their description!) and takes over a body. The process of taking over causes them to haemorrhage their blood from the mouth, kills and then resuscitates the corpse, which subsequently need to suck blood to survive. There seems to be some form of telepathic link between the hosts and the unhosted energy.

family are turned

Later we see that the bloodsuckers do not necessarily attack. They wish to hold Jeff and Julie as Jeff has been chosen as a host and she as Jeff’s first meal. We see a taken over Uncle Joe lose a limb with no apparent detrimental effect, whilst Aunt Kate waves farewell to the fleeing Jeff and Julie. We see one bloodsucker distract soldiers whilst three others attack from the back and yet another one play possum to catch his victim. A decapitated body seems to continue without dying. Jeff accidentally discovers that nitrous oxide prevents the lifeforce from taking a host but the General is intent on nuking the town.

a bloodsucker awakens

All in all this is much more Vamp than anything else. Given the look you might almost argue zompire but I think such a label would be inaccurate. These are definitely vampires… the film is rubbish but, one hopes, deliberately so, made for laughs more than just poor horror on a shoestring. If anything it is worth watching for an unexpected breach of the fourth wall and a comment about the incidental music.

The imdb page is here.

My Babysitter’s a vampire (pilot film) – review

Director: Bruce McDonald

Release date: 2010

Contains spoilers

This was a pilot kid’s film that later spawned a TV series and, as for the plot, the clue is in the title! That does it a slight disservice but is actually pretty much true. But to be fair lets break the one sentence synopsis down a little.

Ethan (Matthew Knight) and Benny (Atticus Dean Mitchell) are boys about to enter high school for the first time and, as the show begins, Ethan is supposed to be watching his little sister Jane (Ella Jonas Farlinger). She is sat watching a film in the Dusk series (or, potentially, a trailer for the up-coming Dusk 3: Unbitten) and they are goofing off in the kitchen.

Sparkles in Dusk

The film Dusk 3 plays a central part in the plot and the Dusk series is an imitation Twilight series, including vampires who sparkle. The film is portrayed as having the same sort of fanatical teen-girl fan base called Duskers and the parody is obvious: of course this pilot is aimed at the same demographic. Jane hears something outside and faces a bully whose playing hockey at their garage door. He punts her teddy but when she goes to get it something swoops and gets him. Only a shoe remains and she screams, just as mom (Laura de Carteret, Lost Girl) and dad (Ari Cohen, also Lost Girl) get home.

the cool kids are vamps

As a result, the next time they go out there has to be a babysitter as Ethan can’t be trusted. The original babysitter is meant to be Erica (Kate Todd), a bit of a geeky Dusker girl, who Benny has a crush on. Ethan has a run in (literally, with a plate of food) with her friend Sarah (Vanessa Morgan). Sarah has been a bit distant from Erica, with whom she is meant to be organising the Dusk 3 preview, since she got a new boyfriend, Jesse (Joe Dinicol). Jesse is part of the drama club, portrayed as cool kids who wear black… hmmm…

rat diet

Yes Jesse is the head vampire and Sarah is a fledgling – she hasn’t fed yet. When Erica goes off with Jesse and his friends to a party, Sarah ends up (in order to hide from him) as the replacement babysitter. As a fledgling she has a patchy reflection, drinks animal blood – in her case rats – and will die if she doesn’t feed from a human in so many days. She wants to save her friend and the boys discover their dorky friend Rory (Cameron Kennedy) has gone to the party.

Ethan has visions

Add to that that Ethan starts having visions of Jesse’s plans. We discover later that Jesse was a vampire priest whose 219 vampire followers were killed by the locals. Jesse wants to get a device, the Cubile Animus, and sacrifice 219 souls into it to resurrect his flock. We also discover that Ethan is a seer and Benny is a spellcaster – a fact revealed by Benny’s Grandma (Joan Gregson), an earth priestess.

death by magic dagger

Other vampire lore in the series includes a slightly confused sunlight lore, in that they can walk in sunlight but it is an irritant, however UV tubes damage them (I guess the thought was that they are more intensive, but that wasn’t actually explained). Holy water burns and (in a sprinkler system) can be quite devastating. A stake through the heart (or a pencil fired in a nerf projectile) will kill and Grandma gives them some handy magic daggers that will kill a vampire with a single slice. Vampires must be invited in, they are very strong and can float/fly.

death by holy water

The film was okay, for the target audience at least. The two male leads seemed personable enough to carry things through and the vampires seemed cool but ultimately were there to lose. Just as well really for, as well as making Twilight a target in the form of Dusk, they also brought a vampire/drug simile into the show (Rory is bitten and when they next see him he is a full vampire – and still a dork – when they ask him if he drank blood his defence is that all the other kids were doing it).

It is not particularly taxing for the adults who might watch it and the Twilight parody aspect is, of course, like shooting fish in a barrel. But bearing in mind the target audience it probably deserves 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

True Blood: Season 4 – review

Directors: Various

First aired: 2011

Contains spoilers

True Blood time again, and a recap of my thoughts on previous seasons can be found at the following links: Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

This time around the main arc concerns witches… You could almost call it 'when wiccans go bad' as the leader of a coven, Marnie (Fiona Shaw), starts channelling the vengeful spirit of a witch called Antonia (Paola Turbay). Antonia had been the victim of vampires, when they ran the inquisition as a cover for their nefarious activities and was raped, fed upon and ultimately burnt at the stake.

Stephen Moyer as Bill

Antonia was a powerful necromancer, however, and as she burnt she cast a spell that caused all vampires in a twenty mile radius to leave their coffins and walk into the sun – a useful slaying trick of course. Thus, once they know she is back, many of the vampires spend their days tied into their resting places with silver to prevent them from committing involuntary suicide. This is at Bill’s command.

Sookie in Faery

Why Bill (Stephen Moyer, Ultraviolet & Priest)? Well I should explain that 18 months have passed (Sookie (Anna Paquin) lost time by being in faery, where only a few hours passed and where she discovered the faeries were not as nice as they seem) and Bill has been made King of Louisiana. Other main characters have moved on too, Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer), is now sheriff but a V addict, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) is now a cop and Tara (Rutina Wesley) has moved to New Orleans, become a cage fighter and discovered her lesbian side.

Eric in action

Bill sends Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) after the witches in the first instance, and their defence spell causes him to lose his memory (and subsequently Sookie falls for the innocent Eric) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) embroils herself and is cursed to rot like a corpse – she is not impressed when someone thinks she is a zombie rather than a vampire. However the main story doesn’t feel like it contains the level of peril for the characters that it should.

The armadillo

There wasn’t really any new lore offered, besides the idea that a necromancer could control a vampire because of them being the dead. We did get the use of weapons with wooden bullets containing a silver shaft – an effective tool against a vampire who was stood still. We also got a strange scene with an armadillo being held by Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe). The situation isn’t important but one wonders whether the appearance of the armadillo was a nod to the creature’s unusual place in vampire lore. An armadillo can be seen in Dracula’s castle in the 1931 Dracula and in the Renquist quadrilogy by Mick Farren the armadillo is believed to bring vampires luck (and thus the European vampires import the creatures into their homes from the US).

death by wooden bullet

With regards the side stories they feel somewhat more soap opera than drama. This then is the problem with this season… it felt lightweight. The faery threat just didn’t really surface, the werewolf and shifter storyline was little more than relationship issues, the evil baby storyline was a device to set up something in the main arc and the great character Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) felt side-lined and under used. Then, bang, in the final episode a substantial number of characters from the past suddenly appeared (either temporarily or perhaps for longer) and several characters died. It was a peak at the end of a fallow season.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still enjoyable – just not at its best. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.