I, Vampire – review

Author: Michael Romkey

First published: 1990

Contains spoilers

The blurb: “Women are my weakness.

“Or to be more accurate, I should say they are my greatest weakness, for I have many. Travel. Books. Classical music. Art. Excellent wine. And, formerly, cocaine. I admit these things without a sense of guilt. I am, as my friend from Vienna says, a man with a man’s contradictions.

“I am neither good nor bad, neither angel nor devil.

“I am man.

“I am vampire.”

The review: I, vampire is an older book and, from what I can gather, the start of a larger series. It is based on the journals of David Parker, an independently wealthy man who was pushed towards law as a career when his passion was music. A man who made regrettable decisions regarding love (and marriage) but who, as he contemplated suicide, met a mysterious Russian woman who changed his life.

The journals look retrospectively at his journey whilst charting the challenges he faces in contemporary Paris. The Russian – Tatiana Romanov (yes, that one) – was a vampire and, fearing an enemy who stalked her, turned David.

In this the vampirism is a virus that completely rewrites the genetic code – though many of the abilities seem supernatural. However the virus is weak, the human immune system will fight it off and it takes three infections to ensure turning (some vampire stories insist on three bites to turn).

The vampires are split into two groups. The good vampires, the illuminati, are the group David sides with. As well as Tatiana we meet Mozart and Rasputin. The evil vampires are under the dominion of Cesar Borgia and (as well as some inconsequential vampires turned to throw David) we meet Jack the Ripper (Prince Albert Victor), Lucrezia Borgia and General von Baden (presumably Max).

The virus makes a vampire susceptible to sunlight (though the illuminati have worked out how to walk in the sun), gives mesmeric powers, David is taught how to levitate and we see shape shifting and body-part reattachment – as I say more supernatural than science sourced.

The story is very well written but I was unsure as I read it. The main character is prone to being maudlin, the good vampire trip may have been fresh(er) in 1990 but is hackneyed now and I didn’t overly like the number of famous vampires. But maybe that was just me or just a reaction to over twenty years of being subjected to moody, romantic, good vampires.

All in all, for the quality of the prose and, bearing in mind the good vampire aspect, 6 out of 10.

New Vampire Cinema – review

Author: Ken Gelder

First published: 2012

The Blurb: New Vampire Cinema lifts the coffin lid on forty contemporary vampire films, from 1992 to the present day, charting the evolution of a genre that is, rather like its subject, at once exhausted and vibrant, inauthentic and 'original', insubstantial and self-sustaining.

Ken Gelder's fascinating study begins by looking at Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Fran Rubel Kuzui's Buffy the Vampire Slayer – films that seemed for a moment to take vampire cinema in completely opposite directions.

New Vampire Cinema then examines what happened afterwards, across a remarkable range of reiterations of the vampire that take it far beyond its original Transylvanian setting: the suburbs of Sweden (Let the Right One In), the forests of North America (the Twilight films), New York City (Nadja, The Addiction), Mexico (Cronos, From Dusk Till Dawn), Japan (Blood: The Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust), South Korea (Thirst), New Zealand (Perfect Creature), Australia (Daybreakers), and elsewhere. In a series of exhilarating readings, Gelder determines what is at stake when the cinematic vampire and the modern world are made to encounter one another – where the new, the remake and the sequel find the vampire struggling to survive the past, the present and, in some cases, the distant future.

The review: A perfect Valentine’s gift? For some maybe not, but for me it was and I must begin this review with a thank you to my long-suffering better half.

Gelder’s volume is a scholarly look at some of the seminal vampire movies of the last twenty years (complaints that Twilight could be included in such a study should be stowed away, whether you like it or not the franchise has, by force of sheer popularity, shoved its way into the public awareness and has influenced – by action or reaction – the entire genre).

I enjoyed Gelder’s writing style and appreciated his thoughts and theories. Not that I agreed with his every point but they were thoughtful, well-argued and I respected each one. There was one point of accuracy that struck me so strongly as I read it that I knew I’d have to mention it. Gelder suggests, when talking about Thirst, that “The vampire suicide is something quite new, going utterly against the grain of the popular cliché that these creatures want to ‘live forever’.” Not so, Varney repeatedly tried to commit suicide as he did not wish to go on between 1845-1847 in Varney the Vampire. or, the Feast of Blood finally ending the saga with a voluntary dive into Mount Vesuvius. The idea of vampiric suicide has resurfaced on occasion since then. This point aside, the only argument I could have with Gelder would be on the basis of opinion.

Gelder included one unusual film, Irma Vep. This film concerns a fictional remake of Louis Feuillade’s 1915 serial Les Vampires. Whilst I give the original serial an Honourable Mention, for reasons explained in that article, I have never considered looking at Irma Vep. In fairness Gelder suggests “Irma Vep is not quite a vampire film; we might say that it puts itself into proximity with vampire films, that it cites them, summons them and draws them in (and keeps them at bay).” Needless to say, I am going to have to look at the film for the blog at some point now.

A great book for the scholar of the media vampire and necessary for any self-respecting vampire library. 9 out of 10.

Vampire Tales volume 2 – review

Author: Various

Artist: Various

First Published: 2010 (this format)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: It’s 1974, and vampires have never been more frightening!

Morbius, the Living Vampire, can’t catch a break as he battles a demon cult and the bizzare Death-Flame for the life of Amanda saint! Plus: Witness Morbius’ origin like never before! Also featuring Lilith, the daughter of Dracula! Kraska! Count Varma! Count Barsac and the Nazis! And more vampires than you can shake a wooden stake at!

The review: How many exclamation marks can one small blurb use? This is the second volume of Vampire Tales – we looked at the first volume here - and covers issues 4 -7. The blurb does reveal much of what is in store for a reader, plenty of Morbius, including his origins and, as well as Lilith the Daughter of Dracula we get a short piece about the biblical Lilith . Satana seemed to have been phased out in this issues as a character.

Morbius is on fine, depressed form, describing a feed thusly: “The Gothic romance novels lie. Roman Polanski’s vampire movie myths are just that. There is nothing erotic or romantic about the vampiric act. It is sheer brutal desperation.”

For the most part the standalone stories are excellent, great stories with the fantastic 70s black and white art that I mentioned in my review of volume 1. One story, Bats, stood out therefore as it was the only one that lost its own internal logic and made the reader surface from the story and wonder what the Hell the author was thinking. One poor short story in a whole volume, however, is an impressive quality mark. Like volume 1 this deserves 8 out of 10.

Being Human (US – season 2) – review

Director: Various

First aired: 2012

Contains spoilers

When I reviewed season one of this US reimagining of the BBC series I was seriously impressed. You see the BBC pilot was astounding but the first BBC season wasn’t quite as good. The dry, Withnail like humour had been lost and whilst it was still funny it wasn’t quite the same.

Season on season the UK series has become poorer and poorer. Deus ex machina, plot holes, plot contrivances and pantomime acting/humour began to overtake the better aspects. Season 5, which I am watching as I review this, is not looking like being too much better (though the Alex character might pull the season out of the mire). So the drama driven, plot tight US series was welcome.

seeing Bishop

Season two has really not disappointed. Ok, it probably has a better budget but it also has believable (within the supernatural framework) stories and better acting that doesn’t make me want to shout “he’s behind you”. I take the point in the comments to my season one review that some of the characters are narcissistic, but I’d rather have that than what developed in the UK series. At the end of season 1 Sally (Meaghan Rath), the ghost, had missed her door to the other side but was still mostly incorporeal. At no point in the series do normal people ever see her. Werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night) and Nora (Kristen Hager, Valemont) try to have a normal life but Josh has scratched her whilst transforming – interestingly she cannot see Sally until after her first turn. Finally vampire Aiden (Sam Witwer) has killed his maker, Bishop (Mark Pellegrino) and is dealing with a power vacuum in Boston.

Mother, the vampire matriarch

Into this enters Mother (Deena Aziz, the Moth Diaries and The Hunger: A Matter of Style). Whilst there is a vampire council the real power resides with this matriarch. She decides that Bishop’s vampire army – the orphans – will all die and that Aiden will not run Boston; rather her daughter, Suren (Dichen Lachman, Bled), will lead Boston with Aiden aiding her.

dessicated vampire

The trouble is that Suren has been buried for eighty years. When she is dug up she is a withered husk, which revives with blood – astoundingly she has kept her sanity. As for Aiden – after the hospital tightens security at the blood bank (and remember vampires reflect/show on cameras in this version) he can’t get blood bags and ends up going on “live”. A recently fed vampire acts drunkenly, Aiden is known to hallucinate when on binges – in this case of Bishop.

skinned alive

The backstory shown in season gives us an insight into the near relationship that Aiden had with Suren and her affair gone bad, which led to her burial, with Aiden’s vampire son Henry (Kyle Schmid, Blood Ties). He, of course, reappears on the scene and, to gain her forgiveness, he submits to Suren skinning him alive – a fate that won’t kill a vampire, and the skin will grow back, but has to seriously sting! We discover that a vampire’s eye mojo is powerful but can have its limits. In the last series we saw what happens to an uninvited vampire who steps over a threshold. What happens if a group of vampires are in a house when it legally changes hands (thus they are not invited by the new owner)? This season shows us.

a dead pure-bred

The idea of poisonous werewolf blood was introduced in Being Human (UK) season 4 and was poorly handled. It is introduced here and works well. For a start the “acid blood” aspect is not used. Secondly Aiden admits he has never tried it, something about the smell, and thus he does not know the effect. When in desperate straits he tries it, subsequently he gets a rush of power but is quickly ill, puking blood and bleeding from the eyes, but he does not die. In other wolf lore we discover that there are pure-breds – werewolves born not changed. In a turn around from standard werewolf lore, if one of these is shot in human form (with silver) then the human corpse becomes a wolf. We also discover that, allegedly, killing the one who cursed you, whilst they are in human form, will lift the curse.

seasons don't fear the reaper...

Sally’s storyline is vaguely similar to the Annie storyline in the Second UK Season. She discovers a dark-side to being a ghost, one of human possession (an addictive pastime) and shredding (ripping another ghost apart). As well as this she meets Zoe (Susanna Fournier) a paediatric nurse and medium who helps ghosts reincarnate (if she deems them good enough) by merging them with the spirits of sickly (and dying) babies. Sally also discovers that ghosts can sleep but, when she does, she dreams of a black shape that then stalks her. This reaper (Dusan Dukic) shreds ghosts deemed irredeemable and has a job offer for Sally.

on werewolf blood

This season, if anything, was a cut above the first and is certainly superior to anything the BBC are putting out in the franchise. Cliffhangers aplenty, and a lack of ridiculous situations and pantomime performances from supporting characters, leave me totally anticipating season 3. 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mentions: Dead Snow

It is an aim of mine to look at areas that touch onto the vampire genre even if they are 'not quite' vampire. Now, when it comes to this 2009 Norwegian horror comedy that was directed by Tommy Wirkola, you may well say to me that you know that the modern cinematic zombie genre came from the vampire genre. You may equally say that it created a genre in its own right and that, as fun as zombie films are, they generally do not belong on the pages of TMtV (unless there is a zompire cross-over).

Normally I’d agree, but you know what… these aren’t zombies (Haitian mythology or Romero derived). Now I say that knowing full well that the DVD box has the word zombie plastered over its blurb, that the IMDb page says it is a zombie movie and that the word is used in movie (once). You see, zombies don’t tend to work in unison (other than clumsy mobs), they don’t check out the field of battle with binoculars and they certainly do not shout “arise” as they summon a fresh horde of the dead. So, what are they? Well, according to Watching the Dead they are draugr.

the draugr

The draugr were a type of restless dead hailing from Scandinavia, and much can be read about them in the excellent book Troublesome Corpses. Dr Bob Curran also has a section dedicated to them in Vampires: A Field Guide to the Creatures that Stalk the Night. Now, despite the inclusion in several vampire mythology books there is some debate as to whether a draugr could be classed as a vampire (or vice-versa). The big difference between the draugr (and, similarly, English medieval revenants) and the 18th century vampire seems to be blood drinking was a must for the vampire whereas it is only occasionally mentioned in draugr/revenant folklore.

driving to the cabin

However, even though the word draugr (as far as I noticed) was not mentioned in film, these are draugr (not zombies) and we should take a look at the film. It begins with a woman, Sara (Ane Dahl Torp), being chased through the snows of a sparse forest area. We see little of her pursuers but enough to know that they are the draugr we are going to meet later. The composition "In the Hall of the Mountain King" juxtaposes against the chase as she falls, smashes her leg and becomes fodder for the dead. Cut to two cars in daylight. We visit the car with four men first and then the car with three women. They are all medical students going to spend Easter break at Sara’s cabin in the woods.

the doom-saying stranger

They go as far as they can by car. Sara isn’t with them (they think she is skiing her way to the cabin, but we know she is dead). Sara’s boyfriend Vegard (Lasse Valdal) takes a snowmobile to the cabin and uses it to leave a trail for the others who are hiking. The nerdy Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) mentions horror films based on groups of young people going to a remote cabin out of mobile phone range. At first they have fun but in the night a stranger comes to the door. He seems unimpressed by the students and tells them the legend of Oberst Herzog (Ørjan Gamst), a sadistic SS officer and his men who stole all the valuables of the locals, towards the end of the war, killing any who resisted and the demise of him and his troops in the mountains. The man leaves (and is killed at his encampment by draugr) and Vegard has a dream of a bloodstained Sara hiding something in a floor space in the cabin.

Nazi tomb

The next day he goes to find Sara but finds the stranger’s body instead and then falls through the ground into a cavern that later turns out to be the place the nazi’s got as far as before dying. The other friends find a box of treasures in the floor space (the items stolen by Herzog and his men). The inference being, of course, that Sara found the treasure, took it and awakened the dead who want their treasure back. Let us just have a quick quote from Bane’s “Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology”: “Land draugr are created when a very greedy and wealthy man is buried in a barrow with all of his possessions… … A draugr jealously guards its treasures and viciously attacks anyone who enters its tomb. It uses its supernatural strength to crush them to death or strangle them with its bare hands.”

back from the grave

Which is pretty much what we have. The Oberst is pretty much still in command, the nazis attack with bare hands rather than weapons – though they rip their enemies apart rather than strangle or crush. This is despite the fact that they can use equipment (we see the Oberst use binoculars and we see a draugr clearly recognise and worry when a grenade has been activated). They are after the gold and the destruction of the kids. A bite from one does not seem to turn the victim despite Erlend’s movie lore warning. One bite does lead to an amputation just in case, however.

I rather liked this, the premise was perhaps thin and it felt as though some exposition was missing but it was good fun and unusual in that it depicted draugr… not zombies, people, draugr. The imdb page is here.

Monster High: Why do Ghouls Fall in Love? – review

Director: Steve Sacks & Dustin McKenzie

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

Double billed with Friday Night Frights, this attempt to subvert the horror genre (distributed by Universal) no less, loses any vague credibility that the first film on the DVD might have scraped together and incinerates it on the funeral pyre of the monster mash.

Unfortunately, more so than the previous film and definitely more than Ghoul’s Rule, this is vampire orientated – concentrating as it does on Draculaura (Dee Dee Green).

Draculaura

An Elfman-esque opening piece of music drags us through the school and labyrinth basements of Monster High until we get to an underground chamber where the monsters are celebrating Draculaura’s sweet 16th (or, as it corrects, her 1600th). Now, forgive me, if she is 1600 years old (and, we discover, was in a vampire school 400 years previously) can we just wonder how terminally thick this vampire must be… 400 years+ and she’s still in school; evidently not a role model for the target audience.

tomato juice - bleurggh

The party seems to be a-bopping, she is given a car from her father (a sub plot is her trying to pass driver’s ed – see the observation on her educational sub-normalities in the previous paragraph). Perhaps it is because she is a vegan vampire (though she states vegetarian in film). When I say vegetarian I mean carrots. Other vampires spit out the drinks retrieved from the ‘blood fountain’ when it is discovered to be tomato juice.

empty wallet

Anyway, it’s all a fantasy… it’s the birthday she wants and the tough old thing for her werewolf boyfriend Clawd (Ogie Banks), is that her birthday is on Valentine’s Day… indeed Valentine’s Day was dedicated to her by a previous boyfriend called Valentine (Johnathan Lipow). Valentine was about to give her a "forever-after" all those centuries ago, when Draculaura’s parents fled with her – something to do with an angry peasant mob. How can a werewolf compete with that, especially a werewolf whose wallet is empty?

Valentine

This birthday Valentine shows up again. However he is an evil rotter, filling girls’ hearts with love and then breaking them gives him power and he intends to take and break Draculaura’s heart – even resorting to eye mojo. Clawd is distraught until an accident with Cupid’s bow make him and Cupid (Erin Fitzgerald) fall in love. Can the other girl monsters sort it out… Of course true love will out…

And that’s it, an entirely saccharine valentine story and another nail in the coffin of the monster mash as Mattel seek an extra buck. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Monster High: Friday Night Frights – review

Director: Dustin McKenzie

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

When I looked at the first DVD released Monster High vehicle, Ghoul’s Rule, there was so little vampire activity that I felt we could get away with an honourable mention rather than a review.

This is not the case with this short animated film (doubled up with feature “Why do Ghouls Fall in Love?” on its UK DVD release) as the Draculaura (Dee Dee Green) character is central within the plot of this.

Draculaura

Laziness again sees me quoting the Wikipedia page with regards this vampire character: “Draculaura is the daughter of Count Dracula. She was 1,599 years old and is now 1,600 years old as of Valentine's Day, and her pet is a bat named Count Fabulous. Although a vampire, she is a vegan and does not drink blood, and is scared to say the word "blood" and faints when she hears it. She has fangs and pale pink skin, and is very friendly. She likes to write stories about her friends and loves to take long walks under the sun (with an umbrella, of course). She is dating a werewolf named Clawd Wolf who is also Howleen and Clawdeen's big brother.”

camera bat

This feature centres around the game Scream – which is a rollerskate chase through a labyrinth of traps, where the first from either team across the winning line takes the game for their side – and anything goes. This “and anything goes” seems to then be ignored as there is behaviour classed as cheating by the Gargoyle team that demolishes the monster high team and wins them the school’s crest – if anything goes how could it be cheating?

Clawd and Draculaura

Anyway, they manage to injure most of the monster high team and the crest contains the school spirit – literally. Without it the school starts to fall apart, which begs the plotting question of why no-one knew? Surely one or the other school has been falling apart as the taking of the crest is a tradition. To win their crest back the team has to be able to get through to the playoffs and meet the Gargoyle team again. But how to do that without a team?

a vampire tries for the team

The girls (cheerleaders all) start by auditioning new players but these new boys, including a vampire character, are pretty rubbish. It then occurs to the girls that there is nothing in the rules preventing girls from playing and so they form a whole girl team… much to the derision of the school and rightly as they are rubbish even losing to the zombie team.

from the vampire team

When they lose to a vampire team they are left in the position of having to win every match to get through but inspiration (from a female player, from the past, whose robotic form is rebuilt) tells them that to win they have to stop trying to play like boys and instead play like girls… in other words play to their strengths. So, overall, the saccharine story has a good, positive message – male and female can be equal but must recognise the differences inherent in the genders and embrace their diversity.

learning to skate

Unfortunately the film doesn’t have the same respect for the monsters of yore, the vampire genre (or any other monster genre) and is a money spinner from a toy company. But we knew that anyway. Is it good? I didn’t think so but I am so far from the target audience it is untrue. That said I have no intention of walking a mile in their moccasins either – 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Vampire Circus – Review

Author: Mark Morris

First published: 2012

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: “Your children will die. Your community will die. To give me back my life.”

The small rural community of Shettle has fallen into a decline. It is rife with crime and its inhabitants plagued by ill-fortune.

When the Circus of the Night arrives, the people are drawn to it like moths to a flame: it’s as though they are bewitched.

Only four men realise that there is something terribly wrong. And as the town is enclosed in a barrier of ‘sickness’ through which no one can enter or leave, they must do their upmost to protect their loved ones.

Before it’s too late…

The review: This is another novelisation of a classic film by the revamped Hammer franchise, previously we have looked at Twins of Evil and Kronos. Of course, the film Vampire Circus is a classic but the direction Mark Morris went in when novelising it was unusual and welcome.

Rather than a straight novelisation the story setting is changed, moved to the present day. Of course this means that the plague visited community is not isolated by fearful villagers from nearby settlements but a mystical ring of sickness. However, by moving the setting Morris has breathed a new life into this that could stand a movie remake.

Other than the setting (and technological changes) the story does pretty much follow the original film and thus I won’t go into that. I was struck by the use of religious iconography in the book. Morris is quick to explain that the humans using crucifixes are not people of faith – it is the vampires who react to the iconography of their own accord. Like the film there are shape shifting moments into bats and panthers and like the film the vampires are ascribed powers and artefacts that are unexplained – such as the mirror that transports victims from the circus to the vampire’s crypt.

Great fun for fans of the original film who can handle a bit (or actually a lot) of change to the original. 7 out of 10.

Hotel Transylvania – review

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Release date: 2012

Contains spoilers

Comedic animations, like standard comedy films, can often boil down to a matter of personal taste. Take, for just a moment, Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters. If you look at the comments there is a brief discussion between myself and Alex (one of our regular TMtV visitors). Alex remembers the film with a fondness whilst I, unfortunately, was bored as I watched it. I did try it again, my opinion remained the same. We are both, however, right as the view of the film is one of personal perspective (as are all films) and in comedic animation these can vary wildly.

The reason I mention this is because perhaps it is something I could have done with remembering when this was out on the big screen. The critics seemed to savage it and I let the film pass on by (unusual with vampire films, even the rubbish ones) and didn’t visit the cinema to watch it. Now I wish I had done as I really did enjoy this when I finally watched the DVD.

peek-a-boo

It begins in 1895 and the first thing that struck me was just how Hammer the music was through this scene. A bat flies towards a building, becoming a vampire – Dracula (Adam Sandler) – behind the French windows, which open and he (and his shadow) glide towards the cot and… plays peek-a-boo with the baby inside. Dracula’s wife has been killed by an angry peasant mob and he has been left with the promise that he will protect their baby Mavis (Selena Gomez).

flying lessons

Whilst we watch Mavis grow, taking her first flying lessons and being told scary stories about humans, Dracula has a hotel built. The hotel is to be a refuge for monsters from humanity, a place of safety. It is hidden behind a haunted forest and a zombie littered “land of the undead”. The works foreman (James C.J. Williams) tells Dracula that they will be hidden – but not to set off fireworks or have bonfires.

fatherhood - the werewolf way

Cut forward to the present day and Mavis is to have her 118th birthday party at the hotel and monsters are arriving to celebrate it. These include Wayne (Steve Buscemi, Paris Je T’aime ) and Wanda (Molly Shannon, The Amazing Screw-On Head) the werewolves with their massive litter of pups – Buscemi was inspired casting as the parenthood-weary werewolf. Also present are Frankenstein (Kevin James) and his bride Eunice (Fran Drescher) [yes, they make the common mistake of naming the monster Frankenstein], Murray (CeeLo Green) the mummy and Griffin (David Spade) the invisible man. It is a real monster mash.

bat form

Mavis was promised by her father (who is portrayed through the film as somewhat of a control freak) that she could go out of the hotel grounds at her 118th birthday. She wants to go to paradise (she has a postcard from Hawaii that says paradise and it is where her parents met) but he suggests the human village close by would be a quicker trip, especially as everyone has come to celebrate her birthday. He follows her and sees her land in the village to be attacked by an angry peasant mob – but it is all a trick, the peasants are zombies (staff of the hotel) with human masks on and he has deliberately tricked her so that she won’t leave the safety of the hotel again.

angered

High in the foothills a human backpacker, Jonathon (Andy Samberg), sees the zombies returning to the hotel and is able to follow them as they set themselves on fire. He gets to the hotel and is intercepted by Dracula – who disguises him as a Stein so that the other monsters don’t know that a human has breached the sanctuary of the hotel. However he is seen by Mavis and the cover story becomes that he is a party planner – from there on the film follows a slapstick routine with Mavis and Jonathon falling for each other, Dracula trying to hide Jonathon's identity, Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz) the chef trying to find the human he knows to be there and Jonathon trying to liven the hotel up. When Dracula becomes angered/frustrated the old monster shows for a moment.

Wanda, Wayne and Dracula

There is no great involved storyline but there is enough going on to make it interesting and, unlike some franchises – Monster High for instance, there is a genuine appreciation (I felt) for the monster/horror genre. It is amusing all the way through and there were some genuine guffaw moments. There is the obligatory kicks at Twilight – a brief view of the film makes Dracula wonder how vampires are being portrayed – but it is a one off and doesn’t become boring as such.

attempting eye mojo

There isn’t a huge amount of lore; we have seen that they can turn into bats, as well as this we learn that vampires burn in the sun (slowly, however, leading to a burning bat and jet plane chase), have telekinetic powers and their eye mojo can be foiled by contact lenses. I guess, as well, that as two vampires had a baby we could class them as a separate species. The voice acting is spot on, the animation lush and yes – Dracula does rap, but it is at the end of the movie and, to be fair, wasn’t as bad as was made out in the reviews I had read. Is it for everyone? Of course not, it has been pitched primarily at kids but, for adults, it has a charm that fans of the monster mash genre of flicks may well get a kick out of - I certainly did. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Renfield: A Tale of Madness – review

Story: Gary Reed

Art: Galen Showman

Release date: 2006

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: “Those whom God wishes to destroy… He first makes mad…”

In this haunting and sophisticated story, Renfield tells the tale of the bug-eating prophet of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Confined to an insane asylum, Renfield is a man who is slowly being consumed by madness because of the visions and voices that intrude upon his dreams and nightmares. The torment of possession by almost demonic forces and impassioned with the zeal of a religious fanatic, Renfield struggles to grasp the overwhelming need to serve the darkness against his humanity.

The review: Regular readers will know that Renfield is a favourite character of mine. Indeed he is a favourite character of many Dracula fans, immortalised through the performances of such actors as Dwight Frye and Tom Waits. Indeed, I would say that he and Lucy are my two favourite characters from Stoker’s novel.

However Renfield is an enigma within the pages of Dracula. Vitally important as a sort of psychic barometer with regards the activities of the vampire, certainly misunderstood by the principle players and by himself for that matter, we as reader know little about him.

No wonder then that Renfield appeals to writers, that artists wish to recreate the character, to flesh him out. Hence Renfield: A Tale of Madness. Reed has placed Renfield centre stage and, it has to be said, in doing so he gives yet another reworking of the story – staging all the action in Whitby, excising Quincy Morris and generally reworking Stoker’s vision in order that he further his own.

By making Renfield the centre character he cuts out much of Harker’s adventures (except those viewed in Renfield’s dreams) and, when he meets the fate that his original version met, the graphic abruptly ends, with just a few pieces of prose in the form of letters to close the story.

Prior to that, of course, Renfield is inserted into much of the action changing the story as a result – for instance the Captain’s log from the Demeter is included because it was read on deck by Renfield (who reads Russian), he even inspects the corpse – despite the fact that he is an institutionalised lunatic, Seward uses him to help with the inspection and clearing of the wreck! Frankly, it seemed a push.

There are some nice insights, Renfield suggesting that, whilst he does take the life of flies, that to a fly he seems immortal was a particularly nice one. However too much felt crowbarred into the story.

Of course, this is a graphic novel and it fell down here for me as well as I personally was not overstruck by Showman’s illustrations. That is a matter of taste I guess, but I felt them overly simplistic and was not moved by them.

Not the best graphic novel (though certainly not the worst) but if you want to read an imagining of Renfield beyond Stoker’s novel I’d suggest Tim Lucas’ the Book of Renfield instead. 4 out of 10.

A Few Bits and Bobs

Hi all, there are some releases and goodies I want to mention today. First of all a new Blu-ray release and what a release…

Black Sunday is a marvellous film and has just had a UK Blu-ray release by Arrow. As well as a little booklet the set includes two versions of the film; Mask of the Demon (the original European release, dubbed or subbed) and Black Sunday (the US dubbed edit with different music). If that wasn’t enough, the set is a dual Blu-ray and DVD release and even more, there is a third DVD with I Vampiri as an extra. (Arrow's release of Black Sabbath on Blu-ray is set for April 29 2013)

Also new out in the UK is, finally, Young Dracula – season 1. I sit in anticipation of the other seasons.

If you nip over to Un-Dead you’ll find a modern, interactive Dracula tale by Alexander Galant. Being released in instalments, and using an epistolary style, I have to admit I haven’t yet given this the attention it deserves… but I certainly will be doing. Watch out for a guest blog from Alexander in the near future.

Finally Season 5 of Being Human started in the UK last Sunday… I have to admit being torn. As I watched the first episode I rather enjoyed it but when I thought about it I realised that, like previous seasons,  it was filled with plot contrivances (and potential plot holes), which barely stood up to scrutiny. The devil, it appears, is trapped in a body and living in Barry… coincidentally so do our new main cast, who also happen to have gained employment in the same nursing home as he lives and Hal met him once (but never saw the human face, conveniently). Also the Devil caused a war between vampires and werewolves… but being trapped in a human body curtailed said conflict. This seems to ignore the past series storylines and the fact that the two species naturally hate each other… Worse of all was the use, again, of rubbish BBC pantomime characters/acting to inject a humour into the proceddings. We’ll see… perhaps it’ll all be alright in the end…

Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares – review

Author and Art: Jon J Muth

Release date: 1986

Contains spoilers

This is a hard one to pin. Not exactly a graphic novel, it has prose and paintings alongside each other. It is, of course, based on Stoker’s Dracula - very vaguely.

It begins on the Demeter and the opening seems that it might, perhaps, be based on the 1979 Dracula. Indeed it swaps the roles of Mina and Lucy as that film did. Lucy is the daughter of Dr Seward but he seems to be a general practitioner rather than a doctor in charge of an asylum.

Harker is there, almost as an afterthought or a character to bounce dialogue off. Renfield, however, is a man with a wife, a wife abandoned for his work for the Count despite the fact that Seward has just helped deliver her child. The story is curtailed and the ending perhaps owes a touch to Nosferatu though it has its own special twist.

Yet as curtailed as it might be there is a poetical, almost lyrical quality to the prose. An atmosphere matched with quotes from Poe, Ovid and Baudelaire. I was impressed with Mina’s decent into hysteria as well as vampirism. However it is not the prose that is important.

There is a reason to own this volume – and own it you should – and it is, very simply, the artwork. The book is filled with magnificent watercolours that lift the atmosphere of the prose into the stratosphere. Beautifully gothic I have placed some samples with this review. A necessary volume for fans of the original novel. 8 out of 10.

The Yellow Wallpaper – review

Director: Logan Thomas

Release date: 2012

Contains spoilers

When I write a review I always put the rider “Contains Spoilers” with it and, invariably, there are (bar the occasional film that has no plot to spoil). This one, however, is a pretty massive spoiler just by being reviewed as the vampire aspect is only revealed at the very end of the film. Sorry… but just like the Hamiltons I have to completely spoilt the twist.

The film itself is based on the Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story of the same name (very, very, very vaguely) but could be said – even before the vampiric twist – to be little more than a reimagining in real terms. In many respects the main female role in this is meant to be a fictionalised version of Gilman and the story she writes in film (that we hear commentated upon but do not hear that content of) is the Yellow Wallpaper.

Juliet Landau as Charlotte

It begins with the camera focused on a woman, Charlotte (Juliet Landau, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), writing at a desk, whilst we hear words spoken by her husband Dr John Weiland (Aric Cushing). He talks about the death of their daughter Sarah (Jessi Case) killed in a fire at their home, a fire that robbed them of all their possessions and their home, as well as their daughter and ultimately, as John mentions, robbed him of his wife.

arrival

It is 1892 and a carriage takes John, Charlotte and her sister Jennie (Dale Dickey) to their new home. Charlotte cries in Jennie’s arms whilst John sits with the driver a mister Isaac Hendricks (Michael Moriarty). Hendricks is renting them a new home, the Wakefield house. The owners rent the house out and it is full of items that the family can use – though not remove. Later we hear that the house is a distance from their former home and Hendricks sought them out.

Dale Dickey as Jennie

Things start getting more and more strange and figures are seen, including that of Sarah. Jennie is uncomfortable in the house but Charlotte begins to believe that it is a conduit that will allow her to be with her daughter again. It is clear, at first, that she blames John for the loss (they had snuck out of the house, leaving Sarah alone, to be together) but as the character driven aspect of the film rolls on we see them grow closer together. This character aspect of the film was good, but things within the plot and some of the settings and symbolism engaged were perhaps under-explored.

the ill-placed desert

There is a quick route to town (about a 25 minute walk) but one ends up in a desert area and that seemed odd after the lush countryside. Later, whilst traversing that desert, John asks a man clearly from the past whether he (John) is dead. This kind of fit in with the purgatory aspect of the expanse, which the inclusion seemed to suggest, but ultimately I don’t think it was anything more than a desert. The few locals we see all seem odd and we discover that the town has a rat infestation problem. There is a graveyard just behind the house but two graves are also uncovered (empty) in the front yard. Much of the weirdness aspects went under-explored.

Eckhart van Wakefield is a vampire

For the most of its running length this is a ghost story, a psychic is even brought to the house in the form of Jennie’s friend Catherine Sayer (Veronica Cartwright). Jennie notices a portrait frame with the picture ripped away that purports to have been of Eckhart van Wakefield (Pieter Kloos). At the climax, John is looking for a carriage so they can leave and the sisters are waiting outside the house. They are chased back into the house by wolves and we then discover that Eckhart van Wakefield still lives in the house (in a secret space behind the yellow wallpaper) and is a victim of 'the disease' – vampirism.

The ghost of Sarah

Flashbacks show us the interactions with the vampire, which they have forgotten, and we discover that the ghosts were previous victims trying to warn the family away. Vampires, we discover, are creatures of the night and control the wills of animals, especially rats and wolves. They can also distort reality it seems and certainly can manipulate memory. There is an indication that earth (grave or native is not revealed) is necessary to their existence. There is a piece of lore I don’t want to spoil as I have already spoilt one main twist and do not wish to spoil the other.

fangs

The film is atmospheric but at times one feels that perhaps it is a little too languid in its approach. Juliet Landau is marvellous in her role but the film itself lacks in some exposition that it desperately needed. Is it bad, no, but it could have been so much better. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.