Lesser of 2 Evils – review

Director: Timothy Whitfield

Release date: 2006

Contains spoilers

Lesser of 2 Evils is a short film that is available to watch on YouTube (at the time of posting). It also appears on the DVD of short films called Detour Into Madness Vol. 2 – a collection of director Timothy Whitfield’s short films.

The film starts with a girl, Jennifer (Sarah Nicklin), with a man, Duke (William DeCoff, Raving Maniacs). He pays her but then gets rough with her. He doesn’t see her friend, Victoria (Alexandra Cipolla), come up behind him and stab him with a hypodermic.

Jennifer and Victoria

Jennifer and Victoria wake up next to each other, they have slept the day away. When we hear their conversation it is apparent that they are in a new relationship and are still finding their way through it. Victoria gets dressed first and suggests they have work to do. We see her go into a basement like room and throw water into the face of Duke, who is tied up.

William DeCoff as Duke

He angrily threatens her but, when she alludes to the idea that he likes to hurt girls he denies knowledge of what she says. He says that he likes to get a bit rough, it’s his thing, but when she suggests he chokes women to death he strenuously refutes the allegation. When Jennifer comes in the room he threatens both of them. Suddenly a man, Kurt (David J. Garfield), falls through a door to the floor. His hands and legs are bound – the women leave the room.

taunting Duke

Jennifer is angry, she did not know about the other man. Victoria explains that he is a child molester who has just been released from jail despite only serving five years. She thought they could kill two birds with one stone. Jennifer believes that things could go wrong, something Victoria argues against – they have a knife and a gun, what could go wrong? Well, clearly something will and clearly, as I am looking at this here, someone is a vampire…

Fangs on show

That would be Victoria, though Jennifer is not aware of that either. This is the area where the film needed expansion… we do not know why these girls are taking out bad men (a serial killer and a child molester) and their motivation would have helped the short along. Why is a vampire keen to kill bad men? Are they meant to be dinner? Why did Jennifer go along with a plan to kidnap and murder a man, albeit a bad one? Getting the answers to these questions in would have improved the film – though I understand they are looking to make a feature length version and that may offer such background – one hopes so.

Sarah Nicklin as Jennifer

The acting was okay but, again, without revealing the motivations we are left in a quandary as to why they act like they do. The sound on the YouTube version was muddy, with the ambient soundtrack overwhelming dialogue and – in certain scenes – Duke’s dialogue vanishing when he was quieter. Hopefully that was sorted when put onto DVD. There is no real lore revealed except that a vampire is immortal.

All in all I think this deserves 4 out of 10. It wasn’t a bad effort but the sound needs sorting and motivations need exploring. The imdb page for Detour Into Madness Vol. 2 is here.

Vamp or Not? The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein

Ah Jess Franco, there is no other director's work quite like his, and the 1972 La maldición de Frankenstein proves that point. Like many Franco films there are multiple editions. Some are ruder, some are clothed. The Spanish release had a sub-story concerning gypsy girl Esmeralda (Lina Romay, Female Vampire, Vampire Junction, Vampire Blues, Killer Barbys Vs Dracula, Revenge in the House of Usher & Snakewoman) that didn’t touch the main plot (bar referentially) and added an erotic aspect – it was with this cut that the film gained the name the Erotic Rites of Frankenstein.

Jess Franco cameos as Morpho

However such kinky goings on do not concern us as the focus of the “Vamp or Not?” is the character Melisa (Anne Libert, Daughter of Dracula). Now the Amazon UK ‘review’ (less a review and more a 3 line synopsis) suggests that she is “a blind vampire with wolfman hands”. Sounds good but we know that these things can be deceptive and, indeed, she is not that at all.

I've been making a man

However the film proper starts with Dr Frankenstein (Dennis Price, the Horror of it all, Son of Dracula (1974), the Magic Christian, Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein & Twins of Evil) who, with his lab assistant Morpho (Jess Franco), is trying to improve his creature (Fernando Bilbao, the Vampires Night Orgy, Fangs of the Living Dead and also Daughter of Dracula & Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein) – by giving him the facility to speak (although all he then says is that he is in pain!) A coach pulls outside the castle and the agents of the occultist Cagliostro (Howard Vernon, also Daughter of Dracula, Revenge in the House of Usher and Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein) break in. Those agents consist of a coachman and the aforementioned Melisa.

feathery fingers

As we see Melisa she has odd looking talons and green feathered hands, she also has streaks of green feathers on her body. This is because she is part human and part bird (so, not wolfman at all). We discover that she is blind, can intercept the telepathic communications of Cagliostro and is a seer. There is an odd cawing noise she makes that seems to work like echolocation (or perhaps that was just me). Anyway she attacks Frankenstein and seems to bite his neck, in a way that is rather vampiric, and then shows her blood spattered mouth. So, she’s a bird vampire?

mangled and lacerated, apparently

Lets have a look at the forensics! Frankenstein’s body is found in the forest, rather than the scene of the crime. Later Dr Seward (Alberto Dalbés, La Mansión de la Niebla and also also Daughter of Dracula & Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein) tells Frankenstein’s daughter, Vera (Beatriz Savón), that it was difficult to diagnose the cause of death. No vital organs were involved (presumably they were all there then) but Seward suspects that he haemorrhaged to death. Then he suggested that it was apparent that he was mangled and lacerated and was stripped of flesh – when asked if it could have been mountain lions or wolves the good doctor suggests it was more likely vultures. This dialogue was, at best, self contradictory (and all in the one scene) and, worse, the most we see of wounds are three rather superficial lacerations to his neck (and we see them often as his technology keeps getting used to revive him). That is until his spectacularly hysterical second-death by acid, at least.

Blood at mouth

The reason Cagliostro has stolen the monster is that the occultist wants to make a new breed of monster. He intends to make a beautiful woman and then have her breed with the monster. Cagliostro also seems to have a court, where all the courtiers are monsters, with skeletons and zombies included in their number. However getting back to Melisa, we see her rolling (her face) in blood again later on but, aside from the idea that she might have stripped flesh off Frankenstein, we don’t really see anything more.

Not really a vampire

So vampire? I don’t really think so. As with all Franco there is a multiple crossover – Seward, for instance, crops up in many a Franco film and was lifted from Dracula. Her manner of attack (and possibly feeding) was certainly reminiscent of a vampire. Probably safest to say Not Vamp – but of genre interest.

The imdb page is here.

Holy Knight (part 1 & 2) – review

Director: Jiro Fujimoto

First aired: 2012

Contains spoilers


Holy Knight is a (so far) two part ova, each part being just under 30 minutes. The lead character Lilith Kishimoto (Maaya Uchida) reminded me, design wise, of Moka from the anime Rosario and Vampire but, aside from a school uniform, pink hair and cross at the neck the two characters are very different. Artistically Lilith is branded on the chest also.

Lilith

The animation begins in a setting that seems medieval and a town is attacked. As Lilith’s parents try to repel the knights, Lilith is sent away in a boat. Her parents die making her the last Strigoï. Cut forward to modern times and, having been raised by her Aunty Camilla (Yukari Kokubun) – a moroi, Lilith is sent to Japan as a foreign exchange student. Her goal is to seduce a shy young man named Tokoroten Mizumara (Hiro Shimono).

Camilla

Her presence has led to vampire hunters from the order that attacked her village being there (the fact that the opening scenes seemed medieval makes the fact that they seem to be the same knights now in modern Japan seem odd, to say the least). Camilla is close at hand, and has the ability to turn into a bat, and Lilith has a dog (who is really a werewolf, it appears) as a guardian. Tokoroten also has a guardian, though he doesn’t know it, who takes the form of a cat. We discover that the brand on her chest was put there by the moroi.

mystical sword

Lilith has to sleep with him as he is the last of the Romualds, a family of vampire hunters. Her aim is to become pregnant by him, she will then bathe in the blood of him and the baby as that will allow the Strigoï to survive. Suffice it to say the two episodes that have been produce get nowhere near that point and this is where the show is disappointing – the story is thin and partial, it needs the length of a series to blossom and the two episodes don’t really get anywhere. Will there be more? For now that is unknown but as a two part ova this only deserves 3.5 out of 10.

At the time of review there is no imdb page.

Kickstarter: The Supernaturalists

Another kickstarter project I recently noticed is a graphic novel by Patrick Neighly called the Supernaturalists. Concerning vampires during the Jazz Age, the project is described as:

'Near Dark' meets 'Boardwalk Empire'

Flappers, speakeasies and ... the living dead? A killer stalks the streets of 1926 Manhattan. But as detective Edgar Drake races against time to solve an impossible crime, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Unusual suspects, unforeseen allies and a mysterious socialite eventually point to a truth more horrifying than anything he could have imagined.

If that sounds interesting to you then I understand that the graphic novel is already drawn and lettered and the Kickstarter is to be able to print a deluxe hardback edition. The kickstarter page has plenty of samples available and can be found here.

I… Vampire – review

Writer: various

Artist: various

First published: 1981 – 83 (comics)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The dawn of the living undead!

“Four hundred years ago my vampiric kiss transformed the woman I loved into a soulless thing called MARY, QUEEN OF BLOOD! Today an unholy order follows her evil designs, and the blood they spill is on my hands! Thus I must stop her… I, Andrew Bennett… I, VAMPIRE”!

And so begins the quest of Andrew Bennett as he hunts his true love across time amid a horror show of blood, murder and grief. Along the way he is confronted with numerous enemies, devastating self-doubt and few allies. But Bennett’s powers are unrivalled, and he will not be stopped in his relentless crusade… A path that is guaranteed to end in misery.

The review: Having read the first two volumes of the New 52’s I, Vampire (see here and here) I thought it appropriate that I go back in time and read the original series, now collected in a single trade paperback.

The first thing that struck me was that Andrew Bennett, on the cover, looked a bit like a cheap rip off of Marvel’s Dracula from The Tomb of Dracula. To be fair the feeling didn’t persist through the comics but, perhaps, it was shifted by a feel of Barnabas Collins – though that was as much in pathos as look. Andrew Bennett does whine a tad.

The stories are much less apocalyptic (Bennett is no longer the key holding Cain in check, indeed Cain isn't even mentioned) and is not blessed with visitations from a whole load of DC superheroes (bar the last standalone comic in the volume, which is from Batman: The Brave and the Bold). They are also a little dated, these are very much of the era (both art and story) they were created in. But that is no bad thing in itself. In fact it was great fun.

Lore is standard vampire stuff with some inconsistencies; sunlight kills (though not when you are smoke apparently), transformations skills are apparent (smoke, wolf and bat), sometimes stakes paralyse rather than kill (and Bennett demonstrates mind control whilst staked in order to get a mortal to un-stake him) yet at other times they seem to kill, most vampires end up evil - except Bennett and some notable exceptions. The first comic mentions the alternative vampire names dearg-dul and upuir but they are only passing mentions and don't appear again.

For a nostalgic walk down comic-book lane, in the company of a vampire, these are first class, even the odd inconsistency builds into the nostalgia. The ending of the main story arc was excellent (I really did love what they did with it). Great fun. 8 out of 10.

Gossamer: A Story of Love and Tragedy – review

Author: Lee Thompson

First Published: 2013

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: An ancient witch, Dorothy Good, has lost everything to the vampire who has blown in on the hot desert wind and lain waste to her soul and her town. When a young family arrives at the end of a two week battle, she sees a chance to end the bloodshed and possibly regain a portion of what was stolen.

But they're heavily outnumbered and night is falling...

The review: Lee Thompson sent me an e-copy of this for review and, as I started reading, I was struck by two things. Firstly how richly evocative his use of prose was and secondly idiosyncrasies, details that threw me out of the rich prose. I want to start the review with the negative – as a constructive criticism – as the rest of the review will be glowing.

The first part of the book is set in 1692 Salem. It tells the story of a false accusation of witchcraft from the viewpoint of Dorothy Good who was, at that point, five years old. It was the mother of Dorothy who was accused – though in truth Dorothy and her Aunt were witches. However the occasional word cropped up. A policeman is mentioned – he would have been a watchman perhaps, but not a policeman. A tin of peaches is mentioned, canning wasn’t invented until the nineteenth century. Matches are used (again not invented) and panties thrown… I don’t want to seem pedantic but the incongruity of these words in the seventeenth century setting really did throw me out of my suspension of disbelief and I suspect the shock of emergence was increased due to the depth of immersion.

As I say, it was a shame because the prose, otherwise, were superb and the story follows Dorothy's turmoil in Salem until she and her aunt travel across the US wilderness to escape civilisation and then, as pioneers come, create the town eventually named Gossamer. Without spoiling too much Dorothy builds a contraption that uses magic to make the townsfolk immortal. This all goes wrong when a vampire comes into the town and Dorothy sees her town (and her love) fall apart. Soon all the town – including a mysterious magical boy called Peter – are vampires (though Peter is different somehow).

Into this come Angel, his fiancée Brooke and her teenage daughter Natalie - agents of modern life subsumed into the magical town. Lured from the highway and into Gossamer and prevented from leaving, they become pawns in Dorothy’s attempt to take her town back.

With the vampires we have a feral, snarling horde (bar Julian, the main vampire, and Peter). They hibernate during the sunlight hours and… well, you know what, I don’t want to spoil the book by revealing too much lore as the novel is well worth a read.

Thompson's evocative prose thrusts you into a dust bowl world were nothing is as it seems. There is a real sense of magic flowing through the story but it is earthy and thick not ethereal and wishy-washy. My initial criticism aside (and all that needs is a mild edit really) this was a haunting , beautifully dark novel. 7.5 out of 10.

Crowdsourcing – The Impaler

The Impaler is a vampire film using the figure of Vlad Ţepeş. It is due to be premiered at the 2013 Bram Stoker’s Film Festival and I am looking forward to the viewing.

You may be wondering why the film has a kickstarter attached to it – as it has been made already. Well, it is to get the funding for a theatre release nationwide (presumably USA).

The production company, Full Moon, have also tied in the worldwide distribution with the kickstarter. So have a read of the kickstarter page and see what you think.

The trailer is below:

Honourable Mention: The Cleveland Show: A Nightmare on Grace Street

I am not the biggest fan of the Cleveland Show. I wonder if I haven’t given it enough time but, try as I might, it just doesn’t hit the parts that Family Guy does for me.

Having said that, this 2011 Halloween special had a vampire aspect and so I dutifully watched it. As you can tell, by the fact it is getting an Honourable Mention, it hadn’t really got much of a vampire aspect.

The “A” story saw Cleveland (Mike Henry) and Rallo (also Mike Henry) forced to spend Halloween in a haunted house, whilst a disgruntled neighbour, Donny (Danny Smith), lost it and became an axe wielding maniac. That was ok but it is the “B” story we are concerned about. New boy in school, Edwin (Glenn Howerton), is too cool for the local girls but Donna (Sanaa Lathan) realises it is because he is a vampire and decides to gain his affection.

I know what you are

Having leapt off a cliff, to get him to save her from peril and be hers, she is rescued (albeit disgruntledly) by Caleb (Will Forte). Realising it is a full moon, she suddenly decides he is a werewolf. Eventually she puts the two in a room on their own, to fight over her, but a peek inside shows that Caleb is on top… but they aren’t fighting. A brief appearance by a gay Frankenstein’s Monster is accompanied with the rider that not all gays are monsters but all monsters are gay.

go team Edwin, please... go

So that is it. A cheap poke at Twilight, which is like (as I have said before) shooting fish in a barrel and a guy mistaken as a vampire. Not much of an episode but, as I intimated at the head, I think the show lacks a certain bite generally.

The episode’s imdb page is here.

Blood Shot – review

Director: Dietrich Johnston

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

One thing I have discovered in the years I have been writing this blog is that you really have to keep your eye out. Blood Shot has been on my radar for a while but its limited release (to the date of this review) almost slipped under that radar as it was in Thailand only. The magic of e-bay, of course, knows no cultural bounds.

Now, I didn't know what to expect from a film where the lead vampire, unnamed through the film and played by Michael Bailey Smith, looks as he does. A pasty grey, balding creature with bat like ears we are firmly in a Nosferatu type territory. Yet he is a hit man for the US Government. This was about all I knew before watching the film, that and there were some fairly interesting names tied in with the production.

the terrorists are led by Bob

We begin with a lament from a cop, Rip (Brennan Elliott), over a picture of a girl and the fact that he knows that evil is out there. Elsewhere a terrorist cell prepares weapons; the cell commander watches TV and, after showing a film of a beheading (not in full gory detail), the channel cuts to an Arab – there is an on-running joke in film about the length of his name and it being shortened to Bob (Brad Dourif, I, Desire & Vlad) – who talks about the will of Allah. He is the leader of the terrorist network. Now, wait a second, you might think… Brad Dourif – an Arab… yes he is browned up, chews the scenery like a pro and it is all a little un-PC but… it blooming works and the irreverence in the film is an aspect that goes a long way to making it successful.

Lance Henriksen as Sam

Rip sees a shadow flitting across the night sky and gives chase. After seeing the terrorists make a deal with a drug pusher we flashback to the vampire being given his orders by Government middleman Sam (Lance Henriksen, Near Dark, Vampires: Out for Blood & Monster Brawl). The vampire has been sent after the cell, his orders are to take the commander of the cell out and leave no witnesses. Later we discover that the activities of this Government hitman/vampire are authorised by the President (a cameo by Christopher Lambert, Metamorphosis).

bullets, no problem

The stage is set, therefore, for the vampire to take out the terrorists and then be confronted by Rip. The terrorist commander asks to be bitten before being killed (the terrorists are instructed to ask this of the killer as they suspect what he is). The fight between Rip and the vampire seems odd because the vampire is rather reluctant to kill him but more than happy to fight. As the film progresses Rip uses (unsuccessfully) a variety of killing methods and so we discover that silver bullets sting but holy water only gets the vampire wet. This is strange because Rip’s cross causes the vampire’s eyes to smoke when he sees it and he clearly is in pain. The effect of the cross is put down to his body being possessed by thousands of demons and he mentions his daily fight against their influence. A bite turns and so we discover that the vampire kills a bad guy first and then feeds.

the djinn

I have to mention the fact that there is a djinn in the film, released from its prison of a ram’s skull with the aid of virgin’s blood. The way this interacts with the vampire is interesting (to say the least) but a spoiler too far I’m afraid. The general storyline of the film is based around a terrorist plot to release a dirty nuke in LA, the vampire’s attempt to stop the plot and, of course, Rip gets drawn in and has to work with the vampire. What we have then is a buddy cop movie – but rather than two cops it is a vampire hunter/cop and vampire/CIA hitman. The interaction between the two is fantastic – both when fighting and when buddying up – and this, as well as the irreverence I mentioned earlier, makes the film so enjoyable.

Brennan Elliott as Rip

The film never takes itself overly seriously. A coffin in a crypt is used as a travel tube down to the CIA rendezvous point. There are a couple of gore scenes late on in the film that look sfx ropey but I get the impression that they are meant to. It’s just another layer of the irreverence within the film. The film was amusing, well played and a worthy edition to the genre. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Vampire Boys 2: The New Brood – review

Director: Steven Vasquez

Release date: 2013

Contains Spoilers

When I wrote my review for Vampire Boys I suggested that one element that was missing from a lot of gay orientated horror films was the actual horror.

I am pleased to say that despite this sequel to that film getting much wrong – continuity, dialogue and acting are high up on the list – it does make more of an effort to include a horror element than the previous film. It might not entirely succeed in this goal but it certainly tried.

Jon Euler as Jasin

To recap, in respect of the first film, it followed the fortunes of Caleb (Will Branske), a student moved to LA who is seduced by Jasin (Jon Euler). Jasin is the master of a coven of vampires and because he has been a vampire for 100 years has to find his “chosen one” or he and his coven will die (remember that). By the end of the film Jasin and Caleb are together in a coven consisting of Dane (Brett R. Miller), Adam (Chase Klein) and Tara (Zasu, Vampire Boys). Tara was to have been his chosen one but Jasin passed her over for Caleb. Note that only Zasu is an original actor from the first film. This film is one year on.

Demetrius and Judah

This film begins with some voice overs from Jasin and Demetrius (Rob Hoflund), Demetrius being another vampire who we’ll get to in a second. We are at a boxing sparing session where Judah (Ronnie Kerr) is sparring with Kevin (Quinn Jaxon), whose father is paying Judah to train him. After the sparring there is blood on Judah’s glove. He reveals fangs (we discover later he has never drunk human blood). In comes Demetrius, who is Judah’s cousin. He is looking for revenge because of abandonment.

Rivals at war

Long story short. Demetrius was turned by a vampire (who had been preying on his mother apparently) and led to believe he was the vampire master’s chosen one (the same vampire later turned Judah, after preying on his mother also). The vampire master later abandoned him for another – Jasin (and abandoned Jasin for another also). Demetrius is consumed with jealousy and wishes to destroy Jasin and his coven. He also needs to find a chosen one himself. Here we have continuity error number 1, the big fail as it were. In the last film we discovered that Jasin, as a master vampire in his own right, had to find a chosen one or he and his coven would die. Jasin is obviously a younger vampire than Demetrius and thus Demetrius and his coven should all be dead, by the lore logic of these films, as Demetrius must be over 100 and has no chosen one.

sloppy eater

So Demetrius’ master plan is to create a large coven by getting humans to fight each other to the death and picking the strongest. The first attempt at this (a guy and girl getting it on) doesn’t go so well as they are not prepared to fight each other and so he has vampire and psychic Tyler (Sebastian Liczner) kill them. Another (less drastic) continuity error here as he chows down on one and proves himself to be a sloppy eater getting blood smeared over mouth and chin. He gets up to get the second and his face is miraculously clean again until he feeds off number two.

Zasu as Tara

The second part of the master plan is to convert Tara to a member of his own coven – this is done by Tyler mojoing her somehow. He also has her feed (neither Tara nor Caleb have fed from humans making them fledglings, still part human). The final part is to make Jasin watch Tara kill Caleb, taking away his chosen one and breaking him. Then he aims to take a chosen one himself. As diabolical plans go it isn’t the most despicable in filmic history but it was a better stab at thriller/horror then the original film.

self impaled

So I have mentioned continuity errors. The dialogue was as risible as the first film, they didn’t have a prime central actor as they had in the first film and the whole thing looked cheap. However, this was more enjoyable than the first film, a step along the path to guilty pleasure – even if it hasn’t actually got there yet. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Music: The Awakening

An early post as I don’t know if I’ll post over the next four days because I’ll be indulging in the Rebellion festival. The band I am featuring today aren’t there, more’s the pity, but I am posting up The Awakening’s Vampyre Girl to celebrate the fact that I just won a download of their Anthology XV album plus signed copies of the last two studio albums via a Facebook competition (and my thanks to the band for that).

If you don’t know the band then shame on you, they are a cracking South African Goth act. Go on over to their Official Site where most of their back catalogue is available (Amazon links to their Anthology XV album below).

Honourable Mention: Les Revenants

Let’s make it clear from the first sentence, Les Revenants (marketed in the English market as They Came Back and then the Returned) is not a vampire film. Nor is it a zombie movie, at least not in the Romero mould. Why then look at it on Taliesin Meets the Vampires?

Well, this 2004 Robin Campillo film is certainly of genre interest – especially in view of some of the discussions I have had on the folklore that led to the media genre. It goes to the question of “What is a Vampire?” and the answer to that is quite difficult. We know that the name came through the vampire panics of the eighteenth century and it is argued that this form of restless dead are identifiable because of their need to imbibe blood. However restless dead types had previously imbibed human blood, examples are extant of both Scandinavian draugr and medieval revenants who partook of human blood although most examples of both types do not refer to blood at all.

Géraldine Pailhas as Rachel

The debate is larger than this article has room for, so let me say I fall to the camp, in respect of folklore, that the vampire is a type of restless dead, a subset if you like. This subset had a particular link to blood drinking but to ignore the other types of folkloric restless dead is to miss a huge chunk of the puzzle. Now, I said these aren’t zombies nor are they vampires. I think that the original French title sums it up. They are Revenants. Now the film itself was on my radar when it was first released but I never got around to watching it. More recently it has been made into a TV series and I really wanted to watch it, but I felt I should watch the original film first. My aim was not to post about it on the blog but, following the viewing, I felt that it is of genre interest – especially from a folklore point of view.

leaving the cemetery

That said, much is unexplained in the film – and I am going to spoil the ending, so please take that into account if you haven’t seen the film. One day the dead return. We open with them walking from the cemetery. These are not decaying ghouls, but seem whole and healthy even if their march is dreamlike in their light coloured clothing. The film tells us that there are 70 million in total (whether that is in France or across the world is not explained) and they all died in the last ten years. Now note here that none of them look like they just crawled out of the earth. This is important in respect of the ending, though none of the authorities comment on this during the film. In fact, I’d be opening up the graves and seeing what (if anything) is in there.

treated like refugees

The returned are placed in refugee camp-like centres and brought together with their families. There has to be a census of the dead and they are guaranteed their former jobs back (though most are over 60 and so retired). This brings in an economic burden as their jobs will have gone to others and the retirees require pension etc. What is not explored is the tricky issue of probate and to whom property belongs nor is the issue of partners who have moved on and found new love tackled. The dead take time to regain their memories but what if one was murdered? Perhaps these themes will be explored in the series? At the time of this article I am to yet watch it.

Jonathan Zaccaï as Mathieu

We see the impact that this has on the living through three main people. Rachel (Géraldine Pailhas) is reluctant to discover if her husband Mathieu (Jonathan Zaccaï) has returned but eventually reunites with him. The mayor (Victor Garrivier) has to run the town and reunite with his wife (Catherine Samie). Finally Rachel’s co-worker Isham (Djemel Barek) and his wife Véronique (Marie Matheron) are reunited with their young son Sylvain (Saady Delas) but the dead are not the same as they were. They have a form of aphasia and cannot create new memories. Later it is discovered that their speech is a form of echo and memory, rather than being innovative. They offer a semblance of life. This otherness forms the main crux of the film in that we are looking at the impact on the living, much in the way that a good zombie movie looks at the impact on human survivors, but in this case we look at a much subtler, emotional range.

the returned are cooler

Their bodies are a few degrees cooler than the living. They seem to not need sleep or food so much and they tend to wander. They also start having meetings – here is where the spoilers really are. They are planning escape. Why, we do not know for sure but we know it is back somewhere beyond, because one of the living has a heart attack and the spouse suggests that if they want to come with them then they just have to let go. However the distractions they have arranged cause the living to assume aggression and “fight back”. They have developed a drug that can put the returned into a permanent coma and deploy it in grenades; beyond these grenades the returned appear – through limited evidence – to be fairly indestructible.

back to the grave

The night after “the escape” the dead who have been put in comas are collected and then taken to their graves. They are placed atop them and seem to become hazy, insubstantial, before vanishing. This is where the folklore bit really comes in for me. The question has been asked, how did the folklore vampire leave its grave without disturbing it? This is not just a modern question, philosophers and thinkers during the eighteenth century panics asked the same thing.

a tad creepy

One theory was that it was an "astral" form that left the grave that then, somehow, became substantial. Is this the case here? It certainly looks like a possibility by the little clue we are offered. The film asks more questions than it answers, certainly in terms of the supernatural element. However that is fine as the film is about the reaction of the living rather than the story’s own rationale that explains the returned. The newly rereleased UK DVD suggests that this is “The original terrifying film”. To me that is misleading because I don’t believe there is anything terrifying about it. It could be described as melancholy and full of pathos, as an exploration of emotional reaction and (alright) a tad creepy at times, certainly it could be described as excellent cinema but ultimately not terrifying.

The imdb page is here.

Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga) (Volume 1) – review

Author: Brian P McKinley

First Published: 2013

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Avery Doyle loves vampires; he’s read every novel, seen all the movies, and researched the folklore. When his first one-night-stand, Caroline, turns out to be a true vampire on the run, he jumps at the chance to leave his ordinary life and join her as a “child of the night.” The honeymoon ends, however, when Caroline’s brutal Creator Sebastian enslaves them on his island estate and Avery must confront the dehumanizing reality behind his dreams.

In order to survive, Caroline and Avery take their place as servants in Sebastian’s household during a gathering of the most powerful vampires on Earth, the Hegemony, and soon find themselves involved in the myriad intrigues and deceptions that form the night-to-night existence of The Order. A society of wealth, power, and inhuman decadence whose existence is protected by human complicity and disbelief, The Order is the immortal aristocracy hidden behind the giant corporations and political leaders of the world.

Sebastian, however, has a plan that will change The Order forever and shatter human civilization.

To avoid this terrible fate, Avery and Caroline will not only have to defy the most powerful creatures on Earth, but also confront the darkest aspects of themselves. For in the world of the Hegemony, even victory may cost them their souls . . .

A fast-paced thriller that both re-imagines and pays tribute to the traditional vampire, Ancient Blood is a story of love, ambition, sacrifice, and betrayal that is frighteningly human.

The review: Politics… Power... Two words that can sum up Ancient Blood. I think they sum the book up fairly, especially if you consider the corrupting, decadent traits displayed through the possession of power, but it would do McKinley a disservice to leave the review there.

His book concern the vampyr. One of several types of vampire, though we only meet two types in the book, vampyrs and Jiang-shi. The vampyrs have dominance over the world of vampires (as well as shadowy control over the human world) and have driven most other types to extinction with the exception of the human looking Jiang-shi, who fought back and control Asia. Indeed, unlike the vampyr, the Jiang-shi can daywalk and eat food. Avery and Caroline suspect that a bio-plasmic entity (or demon) animates the jiang-shi corpse and appropriates the host memories. We have evidence that they are energy/emotion eaters too.

We also meet in book the Kuang-shi, the traditional Chinese folklore vampire; white furred, savage creatures with red eyes, talons and a maw of fangs. They serve the Jiang-shi. Similar to these, in social order, are the revenants; cannibalistic vampires that are slaves to Draco – the hegemon (or vampire ruler) of Eastern Europe.

As for the vampyr, created through a virus that reprograms them at the cellular level, they lose body fat during the turning process. Once turned they have increased strength, they must hibernate during the day and have a faster metabolism than humans making them register as hotter (rather than the traditional move to make them register colder in stories). There are some powers – glamour lets a vampire appear as someone else, some can affect memory hypnotically but these powers are not constant through all the vampyrs and some, like glamour, are very rare. A vampire can become feral; the eyes become catlike (their vision becoming colour limited), talons becoming pronounced and their actions animalistic.

One thing I found interesting was that McKinley made Avery, the main voice of the book, a vampire genre fan. This allowed a lot of genre cross reference in a natural way. What he also did was write a book that involved a huge amount of political machination of the most Machiavellian and sadistic nature. That was the real strength of the book to me. Beyond the feudalistic wielding of ultimate power, these vampires craved amusement and had the power to gain that amusement through The Game – political manoeuvrings, deals and double deals. As such McKinley gave these vampires an edge that perhaps isn’t apparent in many recent genre books. It also gave us a set of characters that could not be trusted, not by Avery, not by the reader.

With strong prose and an eye for genre detail this is well worth your time. 8 out of 10.


Paperback                Kindle

Kiss of the Damned – review

Director: Xan Cassavetes

Release date: 2012

Contains spoilers

There is a huge dose of Euro-horror with this US film, from the stylistic original movie poster (which I have used on this review rather than the DVD artwork) all the way to the tone and photography it is clear that Cassavetes had a vision and kudos for following it.

The film itself, well I enjoyed it and it is beautifully shot but it is ponderous rather than plotted as we shall see.

Joséphine de La Baume as Djuna

The film begins with whispers, but they are from a film watched by Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume), this opening is also interspersed with movement through the forest, then a splash of blood. In the morning, when the housekeeper arrives, we see blood on the tiled floor, which is cleaned immediately. We hear a telephone call taken and the housekeeper saying the Djuna is unavailable.

Milo Ventimiglia as Paolo

When she awakens, to a breakfast tray, there is a note letting her know that the video shop called about returning her rentals. When in the shop Djuna sees a man, Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), and there seems to be a connection. But she hurries from the store. Outside the rain beats down and she stands below the shop’s awning. Paolo comes out and speaks to her and they end up having a drink and then back at hers. However, as the passion builds, she sends him away.

vampirism revealed

He is haunted by her, he tries calling her and leaving messages. He goes back to the house and she speaks to him with the door chain preventing his entrance. They kiss through the gap of the doorway but she bites his tongue (and a fair bit of blood is lost) and she sends him away again. He goes back a third time and enters the house. She tells him what she is but he doesn’t believe her and so she takes him to her bedroom and has him chain her. As he kisses her she vamps out and so he unchains her. In a rather erotically shot and sensuous scene she feeds as she rides him.

Paolo bitten

When he next awakes he too is a vampire. She explains that he will not age or grow ill but (direct) sunlight, beheading and immolation will kill him. The house is owned by Xenia (Anna Mouglalis), a vampire matriarch, and Djuna stays as her guest. Djuna feeds on animals and she explains that the hunger begins as a pressure at the small of the back, which builds. She is fearful of any kill (even an animal) returning and later we discover how much self-control a vampire has to exert to not kill and that virgin’s blood is most tempting. In a kick at True Blood comment is made about synthetic blood (which they have) but what the likely human reaction would be if they 'came out', the synthetic blood notwithstanding.

Mimi feeds

The new lovers' idyllic affair is shattered when Djuna’s sister, Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), appears. She has been placed at the house for a week by Xenia as they wait for “vampire re-hab” to be available for her. Mimi is off the rails – and Djuna is not heard as she tries to warn Xenia. Indulging in human feeds, leaving them to turn (according to Djuna, we see no real evidence of this) and sexually promiscuous we watch her machinations and Djuna’s anxiety.

a victim

However there is no big over-arching plot. They just are what they are and we watch their lives unravel, Mimi an unwilling mirror of Djuna’s darkest desires and a first class manipulator. It is within this that, perhaps, the weakness of the film is revealed in that it seemed that we were more a fly on the wall, voyeuristic watchers of a train wreck of two lives, rather than witnesses to a complex drama. However, what a wall; lush, decadent and beautifully shot, both the photography and acting draws the viewer into the film and keeps us there.

6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.