Bad Blood – review

Author: Jonathan Maberry

Artist: Tyler Crook

First published: 2014

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Life was hard enough for Trick Croft as a college student and a cancer patient—then the vampires attacked and slaughtered his best friend. Now trick knows that his blood is poison to the bloodsuckers, and he will stop at nothing to eradiate them.

The review: A standalone book by Jonathan Maberry – whose V-Wars material has been featured on the blog before, I was greatly struck by this because of its story. Whilst V-Wars does look at individual stories the reader never forgets that we are looking at vignettes playing out on a larger stage. In this case we are focused on Trick and his personal story – despite there being a larger story unfolding unseen (to Trick and therefore mostly to us) in the background.

Trick is attacked by a newly awakened vampire prince, Lord Sturge, and his blood burns and sickens the creature. The Prince has slept through some of our technological advancements and it is the chemotherapy drugs that have made his blood unclean. The Prince promises to destroy everyone Trick knows and so Trick starts to hunt the vampires.

In his quest he slinks into the world of wannabe vampires and meets Lolly, who believes the 'dark ones' will make her a vampire if she is worthy and bides her time as a lap dancer. When she too is violently attacked they discover that her blood is poisonous also. They then meet the famed vampire hunter Jonas Vale who takes them under his wing and trains them.

We discover that the vampires they are up against are from the House of Swords (there are four houses named after the tarot suits) and Jonas suggests “vampires are ghosts. They return from the world of death to haunt the world of the living. They take on human form, but they’re not human. If you know how to look—to really see them—then their glamour becomes transparent and the monster’s true face is revealed.” To become a vampire you must die a violent death, devoid of hope – vampires thus invented human war.

The background was excellently realised and introduced neatly within the very real human story. The art work was lovely, a very light touch style that suited the story but graphic enough when it needed to be. This one is a must get. 8.5 out of 10.

Children of the Night – review

Director: Iván Noel

Release date: 2014

Contains spoilers

I was lucky enough to see this film on the big screen as it played at the 2015 Bram Stoker International Film Festival. I also knew that I would be reviewing it not long thereafter as the DVD was slated for UK release the day after the festival.

Its release to the UK market was perhaps unusual given that it is a fairly unheralded Argentinean film (in Spanish and subtitled on the DVD, with hard subs). However we are lucky that this one has had a release as it is, whilst not perfect in a cinematography sense, unusual and entertaining enough to be an essential for the vampire aficionado.

Sabrina Ramos as Alicia

Indeed, whilst I usually ignore the quotes on DVD boxes this one’s suggestion of it being a “Truly unique vampire yarn” is pretty much on the money. It starts with Alicia (Sabrina Ramos) sleeping and dreaming chaotic dreams that show death. When she awakens we see her go to the bathroom and inject herself – she is a haemophiliac who takes preventative injections. She is also a reporter who has made a career out of searching for Argentina’s missing children (later it is suggested that 400 kids go missing each year in Argentina).

Toto Muñoz as Siegfried

She receives an email from a woman named Erda (Ana María Giunta) who runs an orphanage for sick children called Limbo (the original name of the film). The children are infected with a rare disease but are dying avoidably, she suggests. Alicia’s friend Euge doesn’t think Alicia should go and her (secret from work) boyfriend Gabriel offers to go with her but she refuses his company. She travels across country, arriving for the final walk to the orphanage at night. She meets a strange man who mentions Gabriel and then is met by a child, Siegfried (Toto Muñoz). He says he has been waiting a long time (and as the story develops we discover that he was her childhood friend).

The Count and Erda

The story then sees her getting to know the kids. Their illness is called transylvirus (ok that was silly), indeed it is a Hungarian strain, and has caused “photosensitivity” – the virus aspect fails to take account the supernatural aspects clearly involved. What is interesting is the way that the vampires are drawn positively (they are anything from 8 years old to over 100 and a curious mix of childishness and maturity is used when drawing them) and also in a religious sense. Erda is a catholic and sees them as part of God’s plan, there is no fear of or destruction by religious artefact. The children all (bar the Count (Lauro Veron)) wear white and the vampire hunters (who pick them off one by one and travel from Limbo to Limbo) call themselves Exterminating Angels and wear black.

in the sun

I’m not going to spoil where the story goes but I am going to look at the lore. The vampires can levitate and transform into animals (we see a mouse transformation, for instance) and sunlight destroys them (as does beheading and staking). Their fangs grow over time. Erda allows the elder vampires to feed on humans (not fatally) but the younger ones feed on animal blood. One young lad is caught sucking his own blood and Erda likens it to masturbation by quoting Genesis 38-39 at him. A completely new piece of lore was the fact that they have a drug problem in Limbo as some of the vampires like to sniff curry powder. For some reason haemophiliacs cannot be turned – like Alicia, Erda is a haemophiliac.

the kids are bloodied

The Count is the Grandson of Dracula and his father is ever present as a grey cat. He is genetically predisposed to protecting the vampire race and can make (mortal and immortal) blood boil through the power of the mind. Stoker’s novel is referred to as a biography but Stoker himself is referred to as a traitor who sold the vampires out and somehow died as a human. That isn’t explained in detail but the leader of the Exterminating Angels is Stoker’s son and can walk in daylight (so certain vampires can give up their vampirism it seems).

Lauro Veron as the Count

The performances actually work rather well, considering the majority child cast. Toto Muñoz is a likeable rogue as Siegfried but Lauro Veron actually manages to instil a weariness into his portrayal of the Count that makes you feel there is an ancient vampire in there despite the actor’s incredibly young age – though I couldn’t tell if that was accident or design. I liked the soundtrack and thought it suited but I felt the photography was a little too digital at times, offering an amateurish quality – especially in the opening scenes.

blood on tap

There are aspects to the story that seem a little preposterous – the name of the “virus” or the Bram Stoker/Dracula side – and yet somehow they kind of fit into this film. There is a sly sense of humour through the film, which actually takes advantage of some of the silliness (such as the curry powder), which belies the serious subtexts that might have been pushed much more to the fore (child sexuality, coming of age, abuse are all subtexts at times). Yet, despite the flaws I couldn’t help but like the film and enjoyed it as much the second time around. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Dracula AD 2015

Dracula Ad 2015 was a Joshua Kennedy directed vehicle, released 2015, that was an unashamed homage to the Hammer films. As it is available to view for free it is getting an Honourable Mention.

the first victim

We open with the “Dracula theme” from the Hammer movies and then see a janitor, Thorley Ripper (Jeremy Kreuzer), walking through Pace University, NY, whistling a tune. He goes into a corridor and sees (pink) blood – the blood is a particularly rubbish colour in this, purposefully I think, though Hammer used vividly red blood – and cleans it. A shoe drops and then a second. He looks up and sees a woman hanging over the balcony… how the shoes fell, when it is her head and upper torso over the balcony, will remain a mystery of physics.

Terence and Jennifer

Professor Terence Fordyce (Joshua Kennedy) has travelled to New York to lecture at Pace and meet his sister, Jennifer (Kat Kennedy), who studies there. He believes strongly that Count Dracula (Xander Pretorius) was an actual being and lectures before Ingrid Stensgaard’s class. Stensgaard (Bessie Nellis) is named after the first two Hammer actresses who played Carmilla. The basic premise follows Dracula Ad 1972 with Jennifer’s group tricked into resurrecting Dracula and Jennifer becoming the focus of Dracula’s machinations and Terence having to save her.

summoning Dracula

Stensgaard takes the Johnny Alucard role – though Dracula is called Johnny Alucard by Thorley Ripper, who in turn takes a Renfield role. The opening credits suggests special participation by Caroline Munro (Dracula AD 1972, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, Night Owl, Absence of Light, Midsomer Murders: Death and the Divas & Flesh for the Beast). She isn’t in the end credits but I assume she was the voice of Caroline Monlaur’s mother as Monlaur (Hannah Rose Ammon) took Munro’s role in the resurrection ceremony and was told (on the phone) not to do anything her mother wouldn’t do.

to cushing (v)... to make a cross

If AD 1972 had a madcap carriage chase at the head of the film, this has one at the end and an actual ending that apes Dracula (1958). The cast clearly had a whale of a time making the film and that comes across in spades. Special mention to actor Jake Williams, who managed to show some excellent comic timing and expressiveness that really stood out. Xander Pretorius looked tall and dark in distance shots but was, perhaps, just a tad too young to be Dracula. All in all this was fun… the Hammer fan will have double the fun spotting all the references.

The imdb page is here and the facebook page is here.

Annual Hiatus

Ok folks it’s that time of year again… time for me to travel over to Whitby for the Bram Stoker International Film Festival. This year’s film line-up appears to only have one vampire film that I haven’t seen – Children of the Night. The film actually comes out on UK DVD the day after the festival, and so expect a review in the not so distant future. The other vampiric highlight is Dan Curtis’ version of Dracula.

Regular posting will start again no later than the 27th October, in the meantime – if I think on – I will post about the festival films on my Twitter feed.

Short Film: You don’t know My Secrets

An interesting short film, which I can’t find any IMDb details for, this is a vampire film of Chinese origin but uses a Western style of vampire rather than the kyonsi. As such I am afraid I am unsure of the date of release, the director or the actors’ names. It begins in Hongkou in Shanghai in 1995 and a woman carries washing as she sings.

feeding

Turning a corner she sees a vampire feeding on someone. The vampire launches at her – and we realise that she is elderly. We then see a young woman on the rooftop, crying in the rain but holding a baby bottle containing blood. It is clear, to us, that the vampire has become young – and indeed that was a prime piece of Stoker lore, that the vampire when fed could become young.

female vampire

What follows is the story of a male vampire tracking down a woman, who is the female vampire from the prologue. She appears to be looking after an elderly man (at home) and working as a hostess in a bar (with a strange performance of Its All So Quiet occuring on stage). The story leaps to points in time and we discover that she kills reluctantly but did so in the 1940s when she was raped (and became pregnant through the rape).

fangs

The aging and becoming young is taken to quite an extreme by the story, which is interesting. I was a little unsure about the burning in the sun rules in this. Was it only if a vampire had been killed/drained or, if not, why didn’t the victor of the battle also burn – perhaps they were in the shade? You can check for yourself by watching the short.

Classic Literature: After 90 Years

Milovan Glišić’s 1880 vampire story Posle Devedeset Godina, or After 90 Years, had been on my radar after seeing the film based on it, Leptirica. However the story had – as far as I knew – never been translated into English.

James Lyon, as well as writing the vampire novel Kiss of the Butterfly, was in a unique position being a vampire fan and author, living in Serbia (indeed he is an expert in Balkan history), who has actually visited the water mill central to the legend the story is based on… and I might have suggested that the story desperately needed translation.

You might ask why? The vampire originates, through the vampire panics, in Serbia – Arnold Paole originated from Ottoman controlled Serbia and the word vampire reached Western Europe, and more specifically entered into English, through descriptions of his case. The insights that a folk derived piece of literature can offer the student of the vampire (both in folklore and the media vampire) are important and, in many ways, quite unique.

This story does not feature Paole but the folktale vampire Sava Savanović and the lore that the story uses is lifted from Slavic folk tradition. The aforementioned film follows the story fairly accurately – though the characters are somewhat different in motivation – until the film grafted on a large coda not present in the story. But with the release of the translated book you can discover just how close for yourself.

I’m not going to mention lore particularly in this article as I cover that in the foreword for the translation, which I wrote.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Vampires – review

Director: Richard Johnstone

Release date: 2014

Contains spoilers

Originally called Bloodless (I’ll come back to the original title later) this British film has received a UK release under the incredibly original name Vampires and with a cover that obviously apes the style adopted by Dracula Untold i.e. a foreground figure with bats breaking from the clothing.

It’s a shame really because, whilst far from perfect, the film doesn’t deserve to fall into the obscurity that such a marketing move is likely to lead to. Of course, the new title gives the game away good and proper and we are talking vampires – of course we wouldn’t be looking at it here otherwise.

most of the couples

The film starts with a minibus driving through the British countryside. I was struck initially with the dullness of the colours, a dour palette that I trust was deliberate and gave the atmosphere a heaviness. I was later struck with the fact that the photography opened into actual viewable night shots, so congratulations for that. The minibus is carrying 5 couples to a castle, they are Dave (Lucas Hansen) and Sam (Anna Scott) – the nice couple, Scott (Kristian James) and Rachael (Angela Zahra) – he non-descript and she addicted to a prescription pill, Steve (Louis Murrall) and Tracy (Victoria Hopkins) – the wide boy and the tart with a heart, Julie (Jody Baldwin) and Ben (Stewart Blackburn) – she arrogant, he hen-pecked, and finally Amanda (Melissa Advani) and Martin (Edd Muruako, Dead Cert) she practical and he protective.

creepy child

Now if you think I have just thrown stereotypes at the characters then you’d be right because that is what they were. We get some level of background to a couple of them but not too much and that was a shame because, as this was almost 10 Little Indians with couples then the added characterisations would have helped. If we take Rachael as a character (and one that the plot settles on as a key component) we do not know what she is addicted to. She has pills that she is forbidden from taking, but why… are they antidepressants, for instance, and does this make her more susceptible to the forces in the castle? That would add some credence to her reaction of not telling anyone when she meets a creepy little girl, Jessica (Holly Newton), in the castle – even though she ends up with a cut hand for her troubles.

Co-ordinator and Secretary

The couples are there to take part in a drugs trial for a hypertension medication. They have to stay there for a month, no outside contact (to prevent stress), no alcohol or drugs and they have been chosen as they are all healthy. This is all relayed by the Co-ordinator (Patrick Wilde) and the Secretary (Judith Alexander). The only other people in the castle is the driver (Steve Grainger), the castle steward (Bill Fellows) and a pair of medical technicians (Michelle Lindsay & Joseph Teague). Of course there is also the creepy kid I mentioned earlier and the Co-ordinator and Secretary never turn up during the day…. Guess why!!!

Julie and Ben in trouble

The film builds a little tension with its basic premise and also puts some level of interpersonal dissonance into the mix… Julie and Ben, for instance, are booted off the trial for having a mobile phone in their room, but it’s not theirs. However each couple gets £20,000 for the trial and the monies of any who don’t complete it are split between the others. Getting rid of them was a good idea, however, as the Julie character really grated.

in the sun

Eventually we get the vampires revealing themselves but the lore is sparse. They burn in sunlight and a bite or scratch can infect a victim. It would appear that the infected must remain alive to turn (though this was not explicit in the film, however those actually killed did not seem to get up and about). There are moments of vampire vision, offering a POV that prevents us from seeing who the vampire might be – not that it isn’t pretty darn obvious and later we see that they can take some phycial damage (the girl, stabbed in the neck, doesn’t even really flinch). At one point an infected, but not yet turned, Rachael opens up the cut on her hand with a pair of scissors. Very little blood is seen – I wondered if this was deliberate, if this is why the original title was bloodless… but the film said nothing more about it so neither will I.

child vampire

So, the photography used a dull palette but that aided clear night shots. The acting was generally competent but nothing really special. I was annoyed by the Julie character, though that may have been good acting, but the Rachael character seemed too distant, especially as we did not know why. In fact the 10 Little Indian aspect made for ok viewing but more exploration of all the characters would have improved the film no end – though some of the actors may have struggled with that. When the vampires are fully revealed (and character motivations around this sequence were at their most muddy) the action came thick and fast and we went from "picking off a couple at a time" to "they all must die before dawn".

fangs

I didn’t dislike this but I certainly believe it could have been improved in certain ways. Score wise I was hovering above and below 5, vacillating across that middle line as I wrote this review, but then thought 5 out of 10 was probably the right score.

The imdb page is here.

When the Tik-Tik Sings – Review

Author: Doug Lamoreux

First Published: 2015

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: In a sleepy historical Iowa town, on the banks of the Mississippi River, tourist season is in full swing, and the strangest serial killer the world has ever known is roaming at will.

It begins with a mysterious house explosion, a severely burned man, and an unidentified female body. More victims follow, each killed under the oddest circumstances, each bearing an identical but unidentified wound, each attack accompanied by the most eerie, musical ticking. When the lead homicide investigator goes missing, Police Sergeant Erin Vanderjagt is forced into the fray and into a personal hell she never imagined.

Who or what could be behind the bizarre deaths? Why is her lover, firefighter/paramedic Ben Court, suddenly acting crazy? Why has her idyllic world suddenly fallen apart? And – as the murders continue – what can Erin do, where can she go, how can she fight the horror... When the Tik-Tik Sings?

The review: For full disclosure Doug Lamoreux and I are Facebook friends, having met through my previous reviews of his work and the book was provided for me for review purposes. My previous reviews are of his novels Dracula’s Demeter and the Devil’s Bed.

The book itself concentrates on aswang myth and features an aswang, specifically of the manananggal type, and a tik-tik. It is made absolutely clear in narrative that the manananggal is not a vampire as it is not undead but, actually, some of the lore we get within the book suggests otherwise – especially the back story idea that it was staked (with a copper stake) and reduced to a skeletal state, but somehow regenerated when mercenaries in the Philippines removed said stake.

Of course the aswang is a cover all name (the tik-tik is a demonic bird in this but is an aswang itself) and many of the aswang myths have vampiric elements. The manananggal in this book is a devourer of foetuses, the consumption killing the mother in the process. But it is actually a soul eater as well with it only preying on a foetus when it is of an age to have a soul (believed to be when the foetal heartbeat is present). The tik-tik is a blood drinker, consuming what the manananggal leaves behind.

The joy of the aswang, for a writer, is the vast array of lore to choose from. Examples in this include the tik-tik being cursed to announce the presence of the manananggal with its song but making it sound close when far away and far away when close. There is the use of blessed coconut oil to detect the aswang, the idea of a manta ray’s tail being an effective whip weapon to fight aswang. Blessed ashes can be used against it and garlic is an effective ward. The manananggal’s eyes hold reflections in an inverted way, it has bat like wings when in monster form and leaves its legs behind when in that form also.

The idea of using such rich lore is one thing, but I think it brave to take that myth and move the action to the US – in this the aswang has followed a mercenary and his Filipino wife back from the Philippines. Generally this worked and allowed for genuine ignorance on the part of the characters. One thing I did like about the prose was the habit of occasionally addressing the reader directly, conspiratorially almost, in a way that drew the reader in. All in all I think When the Tik-Tik Sings worthy of a solid 7 out of 10.

The Stranger – review

Director: Guillermo Amoedo

Release date: 2014

Contains spoilers

This is widely touted as an “Eli Roth presents” vehicle, which is all well and good but I am left – having watched the film – with the distinct impression that it is relying on that connection to sell itself. The film itself is flawed – and in one way that flaw is almost fatal.

This is a shame as the film itself has some level of interesting (if under explored) premise. It was shot, I understand, in Chile but is set in a small Canadian harbour town. The setting does actually suit the film.

Ana's grave

Things begin with a stranger (Cristobal Tapia Montt) arriving by boat. He goes to a specific address and asks for Ana Paole (Lorenza Izzo). The young man, Peter (Nicolás Durán), who answers the door says she doesn’t live there and directs the stranger to her grave. A few things here… The wooden marker is remarkably well preserved 16 years on. Ana is clearly named after the patient zero of vampirology – Arnold Paole (Petar Blagojevich died a year before Paole but it was Paole’s case that was more widely reported and really brought the idea of the vampire into the consciousness of Western Europe). The stranger is not named within the contemporary film but is credited as Martin.



Lorenza Izzo as Ana

The film goes back in time some 16 years. The stranger looks much the same with just a tidier beard. He comes home and the place is a mess, chicken carcasses and vessels that clearly have held blood. He is looking for his wife Ana (Lorenza Izzo, Hemlock Grove) but she is hiding in the locked bedroom. He breaks the door down and her face is covered in blood, by the bed is a woman, her throat torn but still alive. The stranger closes her eyes and then breaks her neck.

Luis Gnecco as De Luca

Back to the present and he is sat on a bench. A group of non-descript thugs lead by Caleb (Ariel Levy) approach him, demanding their bench. It ends with him being beaten. Peter is out spraying graffiti and sees the attack. He tells them they’ll kill the stranger and is told to move along, which he does as Caleb stabs the beaten man in the stomach. Peter rides off on his bike, sees a cop, Lt De Luca (Luis Gnecco), driving past and flags him down, telling him about the attack. The cop approaches gun out, the two henchmen leg it but Caleb stays where he is. Peter, watching from a vantage spot, sees De Luca help Caleb with the body – it turns out that Caleb is his son. They take the body to be buried, believing him dead (as he isn’t breathing), but a call from the police despatcher interrupts them and they cover the body to deal with later. Peter goes over, realises he is alive and takes him home.

Nicolás Durán as Peter

Now the main issue with the film. Peter is the closest thing we get to a likeable character and he is a meth-head and not really sympathetic. De Luca is a bent cop, his son is a psycho, Peter’s mother (Alessandra Guerzoni) fails to illicit any sympathy and the stranger is obnoxious. There is not a single likeable character or, actually, one who carries our interest. I don’t subscribe to the idea that films have to have likeable or heroic characters to work, but the characters must illicit some reaction that makes us want to watch them – even if it is only to thrill at their Machiavellian machinations or outright acts of evil. Indeed evil characters can carry a charm, as can anti-heroes. Nada in this and it is the film’s near fatal flaw.

facing the sun

In a further flashback we see the stranger try to kill himself and Ana. She lost control, and fed from a human, because she was pregnant and manages to escape him. It has taken 16 years for him to find her last location and the fact that he could go straight to the home of the nurse who took on their child (Peter) makes no sense – Ana voluntarily handed Peter over and then committed suicide by daylight. The fact that Peter has a graffiti tag that is the same as a mark the Stranger wears didn’t make any sense either – I suppose one could argue supernatural knowledge but nothing suggests Peter has such knowledge.

Cristobal Tapia Montt is the Stranger

The Stranger believes he is the last vampire (and, we assume, he has hunted any others down). His blood is extremely infectious, and someone getting it into an open wound will turn. With that (and the fact that he suggests vampires represent man’s doom) we might have had a viral basis for the vampires and the film might have been a simile for disease – it wasn’t really. There might have been interesting things done with the son of a vampire being addicted to drugs, there wasn’t. These vampires are definitely supernatural.

a victim

Ana was 47 when she died, by her grave, but is played by a twenty three year old. The stranger looks much the same age 16 years on and so we can guess they are long lived/immortal. Sunlight kills them and their blood has a miraculously fast healing factor. It can be used to heal without infecting is it is blessed first. There is the mysterious symbol that isn’t explained in any way. Beyond that we get very little lore. There is an indication that the vampires have superior strength, except for when the plot calls on them to be subdued or beaten.

another victim

The film is slowly paced, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it needs characters to anchor us into the pace – and as I say the characters are unsympathetic, annoying and irrelevant in turns. The film could also have done with some background to the vampirism as that might have stretched our interest out. As it stands I am left frustrated by a film that might have worked with some judicious changes. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The Extinction Parade Volume 1 – review

Author: Max Brooks

Illustrations: Raulo Caceres

First Published: 2014

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Max Brooks, author of World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide, brings a new vision of stark terror to comics!

Across the globe the alpha subdead vampire race has identified the battle lines. With their prey dwindling beneath the weight of zombie apocalypse, the bloodsuckers must decimate the ranks of the walking dead to ensure their survival. But the rolling plague hordes are like a tidal wave of destruction, wiping clean the earth beneath them and swelling their ranks to legion. Will even the superhuman ferocity of the vampire race be able to bring mankind back from the brink for the own nefarious purposes? This is how a species dies.

The review: Zombies versus vampires… you have to love the concept and when it is explored by Max Brooks – whose World War Z I believe is very good (and I will get around to reading it when I get a break in the vampire novels, honest) – then it should be something special. But don’t trust the blurb.

The battle lines it talks about appear late in this volume, which contains issues #1-5. The comic actually consists mostly of background, letting us get to know our undead – not specifically the two Malaysian vampires, Laila and Vrauwe, who are the primary characters but more the general attitude of all the vampires as reflected through their eyes and musings.

This is the genius, though they call themselves predators – and Brooks makes a lovely distinction between V and Z by suggesting, “We hunt humans. They consume humanity!” – they are really parasites. Not only living off our blood but also our culture and advances. They do not muse and philosophise but live in a hedonistic now. They even have familiars (the girls' familiar, Willem, comes from a line of helpers, whilst in the West vampires are tricking familiars into serving them and finding their own replacements) who they treat appallingly.

They are aware of the subdead – as they call zombies – and the fact that pockets of infection have risen in solbreeder (or human) society throughout history but have always been put down. They ignore the rise in incidents and from the head of the comic up to the blurb's drawing of battle lines four years pass in which the vampires, in their arrogance, fail to comprehend the danger the outbreaks represent. They fail to realise that the geographic linkage in the modern world, along with the emotional disconnect of a post-social media society, would let the zombies spread too much. Its only one vampire, a rare thinker called Nguyen, who realises that humanity may be lost but even he does nothing. It is Vrauwe who actually finally acts, inspiring the other vampires.

Being from their point of view, and being drawn so wonderfully arrogant, we hear little of their weaknesses. We know they are hardy, strong and fast – foot travel is quicker than a car for instance. We discover that the subdeads’ fluids are poisonous to a vampire but a living person’s blood strengthens their immune system to the negative effects of the fluids. From the beginning of the story we are aware that the subdead do not register the vampires, that they may as well be invisible to them.

Being a fairly recent V vs Z comic series there are obvious parallels to be drawn with Romero’s Empire of the Dead but they are different beasts. This is at outbreak, whilst Empire is much later; this draws the vampires as the main focus, whilst Empire balances our focus between zombie, vampire and human. I liked the artwork in this, it was a very graphic style that suited the series. 8 out of 10.

Honourable Mention: the Warrior From Shaolin

This was a film directed by Chia Yung Liu under the name Lau Kar Wing and was released in 1980 (according to IMDb, elsewhere listed as 1984). It was (primarily) a comedy set during the Japanese occupation of China with the comedic aspect drawn from the interactions between the main character, a Buddhist monk (Gordon Liu, Shaolin Vs Vampire, the Shadow Boxing, Shaolin Vs the Evil Dead & Shaoline Vs Evil Dead: Ultimate Power), and his two reluctant guides.

the spy

It begins with Japanese troops chasing after a spy. Shot, he manages to get to a Buddhist temple and pass on the map he has of Japanese encampments. It needs passing to an agent and the Abbott agrees to help but the Japanese are closing in. Eventually only one monk is left, and he finds himself getting help from a young man who is keen to make money out of the situation. The monk has a box (containing some relics, a prayer book and the map) and the man decides it must contain treasure. He has a friend nearby and they arrange for the friend to pretend to be a ghost and scare him into handing the box over.

corpse shepherd with kyonsi

It is during this scene that we get – inexplicably – the kyonsi. We see a corpse shepherd leading corpses for funeral. His master is unwell and so they lead the corpses into a cave to store for the night, whilst the younger man looks for medicine for the elder. The young guide mistakes the corpses for friends in on the scheme and removes their pacifying scrolls but accidentally gets another scroll stuck on to his back that they follow. There is a very badly lit scene with the corpses following him and some inadvertent kung fu. They do not do anything vampiric (barring their hopping and general animation) and after the corpse shepherd gets them under control they are not in the film again. The man who dresses as a ghost becomes part of the monk’s entourage at that point.

A really weird inclusion – as there is nothing supernatural included in the rest of the film. The edition I watched was really badly dubbed. The imdb page is here.

V-Wars volume 2: All of us Monsters – review

Writer: Jonathan Maberry

Artists: Marco Turini & Alan Robinson

First Published: 2015

Contains spoilers

The blurb: Big Dog and V-8 are the top gunslingers in the escalating battle with vampire terrorists. But the hunt for a new and intensely brutal species of bloodsucker puts them in the crosshairs of the world's most dangerous special operative: Joe Ledger. And, the members of V-8 are tasked to hunt down and obtain plans for a stolen vampire gene screener. Collects issues #6-11

The review: After reading V-Wars volume 1 I was left with a sense that I really liked the graphic but it didn’t quite meet the level of the prose. However, with this volume I felt the game lifted, it fell into its own pattern comfortably. The first half of the graphic follows the special unit V-8 as they hunt a nelapsi - but all is not what it seems and they fall into the murky world of black ops and meet Joe Ledger (crossing over from Maberry’s popular Ledger series). The second part sees two members of V-8 following technology into Paris, but the two soldiers have some very real inner demons to battle, meanwhile folklorist Luther Swann makes a stand (helped by George Clooney) and tries to publically broker a peace between beats and bloods.

The stories worked well, the art complemented it and the real world character appearances were welcome as they offered an interesting undercurrent. The focus was much more on the shadowy governmental underbelly – with Agencies on all sides trying to get their hands on rare vampire types and technology. Blind obedience to a cause is questioned within the narrative.

All in all great stuff and the more I see of V-Wars the more I’m convinced it would make either great TV or even films. 8 out of 10.

Bubba Ho-Tep – review

Director: Don Coscarelli

Release date: 2002

Contains spoilers

“What are you doing Taliesin?” I can see the questioning eyebrows raise but it’s very simple. The crossover between vampire and mummy is obvious, they are both undead and the desiccated look of the average mummy is reminiscent of the un-romantic vampire. Sure the mummy might have a bit more magic in its pedigree at times but the big difference between the two would seem to be the fact that the mummy seems violent but not a creature that feeds on the living.

Not so in this case, the mummy in Bubba Ho-Tep is a soul sucker, an eater of vital essence… in short an energy vampire. Of course the mummy cross-over happens and, indeed, is nothing new. Go back to 1898 and the short story the Story of Baelbrow and we get the unique combination of a vampiric ghost that is able to achieve corporeality by possessing a mummy.

the King

So what about Bubba Ho-Tep? A cult movie, of that there is no doubt, I am sure that most readers of the blog would be familiar with the film. It takes place in a nursing home but before we get there we see footage of mummies being removed from their resting places by archaeologists. In the nursing home we meet Elvis (Bruce Campbell, Sundown: the Vampire in Retreat, Waxwork 2 and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money). The story emerges that Elvis swapped places with an impersonator named Sebastian Haff. Haff died of a heart attack, the world assuming he was Elvis, and Elvis had lost the contract that would prove his identity in a barbeque accident. He then fell off stage, broke his hip and went into a coma. It is assumed Haff is senile, believing himself to be Elvis – perhaps he is, perhaps he isn’t.

Bruce Campbell as Elvis

His roommate (Harrison Young, also Waxwork 2 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) dies and, later in the film, the arrival of his daughter (Heidi Marnhout, Angel) who never visited after bringing him to the home and who throws away the man’s purple heart and photos as she picks through his meagre belongings poignantly underlines the major theme of the film as it takes a hard, if darkly comedic, look at old age and families.

the scarab

Before that happens we get the activities of an old lady (Edith Jefferson) who steals the chocolates belonging to a woman (Solange Morand) in an iron lung. Sat in bed with her ill-gotten gains she is attacked by something that eventually turns out to be a scarab beetle. After it has bitten her and she has squished it with a walking stick we see a mummy (Bob Ivy) rise up in the room, a mummy that wears a cowboy hat and boots – Elvis later dubs the undead fella Bubba Ho-Tep.

the soul sucker

The following night Elvis is attacked by a scarab but deals with it. Going down the corridor to his friend’s room, a resident who claims to be John F Kennedy (Ossie Davis), he finds his friend on the floor. Jack (as he is addressed) explains that he has been attacked the modus operandi described thus: “He had me on the floor and had his mouth over my asshole!” Jack suggests that the mummy was trying to get his soul as they can be sucked out of any major orifice (later we see the mummy over his mouth too). They, of course, team up to take the mummy down.

Kennedy and Presley

The relationship between the two men is movie gold. Despite his own claim to be someone famous he is (at first) dismissive of Jack’s claim, as he is African American – though Jack explains that by saying “They dyed me this colour! That's how clever they are!” Indeed, it is the two performances that make the film. Ossie Davis’ comedic timing is perfect through the film and he is given some outrageous lines delivered with absolute panache. Bruce Campbell, on the other hand, gives arguably the performance of his career, injecting such pathos into a character that could have been a weak parody. For a film that is a cult comedy based on the horror genre, the film really does carry a serious side, with regards growing old, that is delivered in such a smooth way that it complements the comedy rather than detracts. The soundtrack is perfectly pitched to the film also.

the mummy appears

As for the mummy we discover it was stolen but the vehicle used to transport it away was caught in a storm and somehow the mummy has got free of the sarcophagus and whatever magic held it in place. There is no why or wherefore for its attire. The mummy can become incorporeal, causes electrical disturbance and puts hieroglyphic graffiti on a bathroom stall (Jack theorises that it excretes soul residue). It is susceptible to fire and any undigested souls will be freed if killed.

Bubba Ho-Tep

This is a cult classic, no doubt about it. The credits have a reference to Elvis returning in Bubba Nosferatu: the Curse of the She-Vampires, this was meant to be a joke and then became a possibility. Currently it appears trapped in development Hell. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.