Blood Dragons – review

Author: Rosemary A Johns

First published: 2016

The Blurb: In a paranormal London, Light is the sexy rebel vampire of the Blood Lifer world. Since Victorian times he’s hidden in the shadows with Ruby - a savage Elizabethan Blood Lifer. She burns with destructive love for Light. But he’s keeping a secret from her, which breaks every rule in Blood Life. When Ruby discovers the truth, things take a terrifying turn.

1960s London. Kathy is a seductive singer. But she’s also human. Light knows his passion for Kathy is reckless but he’s enchanted. Yet such a romance is forbidden. When the two worlds collide, it could mean the end. For both species.

When Light uncovers his ruthless family’s horrifying experiments, he questions whether he should be slaying or saving the humans he’s always feared. What dark revelations will Light reveal at the heart of the experiments? Will he be able to stop them in time? The consequences of failure are unimaginable. Unless Light plays the part of hero, he risks losing everything. Including the two women he loves.

The review: is hosted over at Vamped.

Hiatus

Well my friends, it is that time of year again when I put the blog on a short hiatus and head over the Pennines to Whitby and the annual Bram Stoker International Film Festival.

A reminder that the Festival is hosting the World Vampire Congress 2016 on the first afternoon (Thursday 27th October 2016) and that I will be providing a short presentation about bat motif’s that appeared pre-Dracula entitled Stoker and the Bat.

Although I’m not a great one for Twitter, in the past I’ve tried to tweet about all the films I see at the festival, so feel free to take a look over here.

Normal service will resume week commencing the 31st October – though I’m not sure on which day of that week yet. Comment moderation is on and I intend to check for comments whilst away but if I am a little slow moderating your comment during the time away please be patient.

Honourable Mention: Castlevania: Hymn of Blood

It might seem odd to some of you that I would give this an honourable mention rather than a review. However, despite some professional talent involved, this is a fan film that was originally released as a web serial and can now be watched as a complete film for free. So, notwithstanding the fact that it is actually better quality than some commercial releases, an honourable mention it is.

It was directed by Benji Gillespie and first released in 2012 and is based on the Konami game series. I have played a little of Castlevania (mostly Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which I abandoned eventually as the ported keyboard controls for PC were, quite simply, horrendous) so know a little background but the film story was well laid out and knowledge of the games is not a necessity.

awakening

It begins in Dracula’s Castle and a woman, Isabella (Dimitra Jiova) is giving birth. A priest (Patrick Gorman, Crimson Throne) complains that there is not much time, much to the chagrin of the midwife (Jen Hogan), who realises that Isabella is bleeding too much. The child is born as the sun sets and we see a hand emerge from a stone sarcophagus.

Isabella dies

Isabella holds her child for a moment and names him Simon. There is a letter she has written for him to give when the time is right. In answer as to why they cannot do the ritual instead, the priest suggests to the midwife that the ritual contains and does not destroy the evil – only Simon can do that. The baby is smuggled from the castle and a still born from the village burned in its place. Isabella dies. Dracula (Eric Etebari, Kiss of the Vampire & Vegas Vampires) comes into the room and sees that his son and his wife are both dead. For their failure he feeds off the midwife and rips the priest’s heart out.

Reinhardt and Trevor

Jump forward a couple of decades (having not seen 12 members of the secret society the Brotherhood of Light perform the containing ritual) and we meet Simon Belmont (Rob Norton) who works on a farm with his brother and father and mother (he is adopted, of course). His father, Trevor (David M. Edelstien), was a member of the Brotherhood of Light but when his brother Reinhardt (John Henry Richardson) comes and suggests that the Brotherhood members who performed the ritual are being killed he is dismissive.

Marina Sirtis as Persena

That night General Thain (Michael Dorn, I am Weasel: I am Vampire) attacks the farm, killing Trevor and taking an amulet of blood he used in the ritual and also killing the brother. Leaving his men to finish the rest of the farm off, Simon is able to kill them and the next day his adopted mother gives him Isabella’s letter. He and Reinhardt go off to seek advice and to stop Dracula. On the way they meet a group of gypsies, led by matriarch Persena, played by Marina Sirtis (Vampire Riderz) who is clearly having a great time in her cameo.

Eric Etebari as Dracula

Visually, whilst there is clearly some green screen work, this is a notch above many straight to DVD and VoD commercial efforts. Some of the effects are a tad clunky (the werewolf effect is comparatively poor, for instance) but they are often much better than, say, SyFy Channel effects. The acting is generally above average – the benefit of getting professionals involved – and John Henry Richardson steals scenes whenever he is on screen.

Jim Tavaré as the Grey Man

The story needed some expansion, the development of Simon warranted more time. There is a Dracula backstory with him seeking immortality and finally being granted it by the Grey Man (Jim Tavaré) – with a hint of more nefarious doings by the Grey Man at the end of the film. The melee was perhaps a little tentative and could have benefitted from better fight choreography or perhaps just more proficient doubles, that said I have seen a lot worse.

The film is definitely worth your time – clearly a labour of love. It can be viewed in full on Vimeo and the imdb page is here.

Blood Reunion 2: Madeline – review

Director: Jim DeVault

Release date: 2015

Contains spoilers

I reviewed Jim DeVault’s Blood Reunion a little while ago and whilst it wasn’t the greatest film ever made, I did enjoy watching it.

Thus this “sequel” was anticipated as I expected the filmmakers to build on the foundation of the previous film. I put sequel in inverted commas as it is from the same universe as Blood Reunion (and features a family reunion) and I think that the unnamed vampire who triggered the events of the first film is the vampire Morgan Locke (Jim DeVault) from this film. However, beyond that they are unrelated.

Cierra Angelik sd Madeline

So there is a quote from Byron’s the Giaour, then the film moves to a car where a couple are making out as a storm rolls in. The bloke goes down on his woman (Carly Capra) and a young girl, Madeline (Cierra Angelik), appears behind her. She opens the door, pulls the woman out and drags her off before getting him. Two things struck me – the sound was bad, overpowered by incidental sounds, and the lighting wasn’t up to much.

shaky camera

The film’s worst moment of camera work, however, was over the opening credits as the camera tracked a mini driving along. Whether it was an interior shot where the camera tried to hone in on the rear view mirror – and bounced all over the place – or whether it just bounced as it tracked the rear of the car, it was awful camera work. Having been used for the establishing journey – as it were – it set all the wrong tone with the viewer, essentially telling us that this film was truly amateurish.

Bridgette and Victoria

The mini is being driven by Bridgette (Sarah Bell) and, now that her mother is dead, she is going to meet a side of the family she was estranged from. This was plot unimportant except for introducing a character who was initially unaware/ignorant of the other characters. She meets her Aunt Victoria (Lorraine Eubank, Blood on the Highway) and I was struck at how unnatural the dialogue felt between the two and at how Lorraine Eubank failed to make any form of eye contact with Sarah Bell, within the scene, making the exchange look altogether artificial.

Jynx and Bridgette

Anyway in the household for the annual reunion are Victoria’s husband Frank (Kevin Scott Fuller), Victoria’s daughter Jynx (Jessica Willis) and her partner Todd (Joshua Briscoe), Aunt Ethel (Nicole Holt, who was also in Blood on the Highway and played a different character in Blood Reunion) and her letch husband Walter (John Pinder), family friend Gaston (Steven N. Russell) and the household’s servant Martin (Rafeal Enrique Santiago). The fact that the servant was the only black character sent the entirely wrong message, the house they filmed in was – I felt – considerably smaller than the house they pretended it was and a sub plot about a peeper who has drilled a hole into the only bathroom (who just happens to be Martin, sending another negative racial message) went nowhere and was absolutely pointless.

Martin as a vampire

Anyway, Bridgette puts her foot in it by asking about Jynx’ sister and is told she was killed recently by a wild animal. Actually, unbeknown to Ethel and Walter she was turned into a vampire by ancient vampire Morgan Locke and was about to be killed by occult researcher/vampire hunter Gaston but the family intervened. She is now locked in the shed and fed captured animals. Walter stumbles on her and she drinks his blood, kills him and then slips her chains and escapes. We then get a take on Ten Little Indians – with the victims turning into vampires.

staked

Vampire lore is that a stake will stop a vampire, but remove it and the vampire will up and around again. An older vampire can actually pull the stake out themselves, but even a young vampire must be beheaded and cremated to actually kill them. Vampires prey on their loved ones first and a bite causes turning, either straight away or after a short time period, when they die, if the feed is interrupted. Crosses can hold a vampire back – but it isn’t a constant and the vampire really would have had to have been a Christian in life. An older vampire can mojo a mortal, it would seem. Presumably vampires are very strong, as a little girl like Madeline can overpower a large adult male, and if you think too hard about how much blood she must have ingested (she drains several adults) and where it goes, well let’s just say that you’ll be left with questions…

Jim DeVault as Morgan Locke

All in all, this came across as more amateurish than the first film, rather than stepping up the game. The story was essentially Ten Little Indians, as I mentioned, but raises questions about the motivation of Morgan Locke that are at least intriguing (and presumably film number 3 will examine those). The staking effects looked quite good, as did the bite effects, given the budget. However, the dialogue was poor at times, the delivery not brilliant and whilst I appreciate they did their best to make do with the locations they had, better outside lighting and camera work – especially over the credits – were most definitely needed. Unfortunately, for me, this takes a step back from the first film. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

American Horror Story: Hotel – review

Directors: Various

First Aired: 2015

Contains spoilers


I have to open this review with the admission that I have not been watching American Horror Story as a series. I watched the first couple of episodes of season 1 and just didn’t get into it, however, as this season (5) had vampires in it, it had to be watched. For those who know as little, or even less, than me, it is an anthology television series with each series self-contained (ish, I am led to believe that there is some crossover in this season with the first season and the third season).

So, vampires – and a haunted hotel, a serial killer, ghosts and demons it would seem. A cornucopia of horror tropes wedged into a series and it was probably this kitchen sink approach that made the season struggle.

Hotel Cortez

The Hotel Cortez is the hotel of the title, a building designed and built by industrialist, sadist and serial killer James Patrick March (Evan Peters) with a built in murder palace theme. March still rules the roost (or spectral roost, at least) as his ghost is trapped in the hotel like anyone else who died there. Corporeally, the top bod is the Countess (Lady Gaga) – born Elizabeth Johnson, later Mrs March and now a vampire who resides in the penthouse with her lover Donovan (Matt Bomer). Donovan’s mother, Iris (Kathy Bates), works at the hotel in order to be close to her son, who detests her.

from the mattress

The first episode sees two Swedish women book into the hotel, be terrorised by a creature in their mattress, then moved rooms whilst they wait for the police to come and interview them and then attacked by child vampires. By the second episode they are held in individual cages and forced fed good foods whilst their blood is syphoned for the children (who in turn are used to create the Countess’ special blood stock).

Liz with John

Also in the first episode we meet cop John Lowe (Wes Bentley, Underworld Awakening), who is working a serial killer case (the Ten Commandments Killer). He is called to the Cortez by the killer and then has a vision of his son Holden (Lennon Henry), who was abducted five years before. It becomes apparent that the killer might target his wife, Alex (Chloë Sevigny), and daughter, Scarlet (Shree Crooks), and so moves in to the hotel to create a distance for them.

on the hunt

Finally, in the first episode, we see the Countess and Donovan out on a hunt. With the strains of US band She Wants Revenge (and I’ll come back to soundtrack) they go to a graveyard showing of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. They attract a couple, take them back to the hotel and kill and feed on them during coitus. The entire thing has a feeling of the Hunger - not just through the Avant Garde style of the vampires and the method of pick up (albeit using a movie rather than a gig by Goth staples Bauhaus) but because She Wants Revenge remade the scene from the Hunger in one of their music videos. The later use of the Flower Duet by Delibes in the soundtrack underlined this reference.

Lady Gaga as the Countess

I haven’t mentioned in all the above the ghost Sally (Sarah Paulson), who is haunted by an addiction demon, or transgender barkeep Liz Taylor (Denis O'Hare, True Blood) both of whom play major parts in the season and both of whom are exceptionally well played – especially by Denis O’Hare as Liz. Let us talk vampires, however. They are vampires – I know there were articles when the season first aired asking if they were… the V word is explicitly used in the second episode. The Countess (who is not a countess) was born in 1904 and was a movie extra before being turned by Valentino (Finn Wittrock), who in turn had been turned by Murnau. In a twist on the plot of Shadow of the Vampire Murnau travelled Eastern Europe looking for the fact behind the myth before directing Nosferatu – the twist being he found vampires who were all beautiful creatures (rather than the monster of Shadow of the Vampire) and they turned him.

desiccated

The vampirism is a virus and gives the vampires a hunger. Without feeding they will not die, but they will desiccate and become mummy like. They have no fangs – the Countess uses a glove with metal talons to slit the victims' throats. They can be killed via normal methods (a bullet through the brain will do it as much as a stake through the heart) but they generally heal quickly so a non-mortal blow can be recovered from.

child vampires

They avoid sunlight as it saps vitality, however it does not kill them, but cameras cannot capture them properly. There is a possibility of pregnancy for a vampire, the gestation period is greatly shortened, the only such baby we see is malformed and remains as an infant. In a strong condemnation of the anti-vax movement a child gets, and is dying due to, measles. Alex saves him using vampire blood. This leads to the child turning his class and attacking the teachers but the virus has mutated so that the kids also have measles and only blood clears the spots. Failure to feed causes them to die.

Angela Bassett as Ramona

So, as the season started I had the impression of a twisted version of Twin Peaks (if that is possible) where horror tropes were more plainly played out but undercut with imagery and atmosphere that would find itself at home within Lynch’s seminal TV series. More viscerally dark, though less psychologically engaging perhaps. I was also struck by the superb soundtrack with She Wants Revenge and the Sisters of Mercy front and centre in a strongly chosen set of tracks. However, as it went along I became a little disengaged. The storyline became almost soap-opera like despite the strong ensemble cast. I have already specifically highlighted two of the actors but Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett (who plays a Blaxploitation actress, Ramona, who was turned and later spurned by the Countess) and Lady Gaga also need specific mentions - all of them bringing something special to the party.

Iris and Liz

I watched to the end but as the plot twisted through the serial killer aspect (it became too obvious, too soon as to who the actual serial killer was), the ghosts and the vampires (not to mention a witch as well) I became more and more certain that the series needed more of a focus and a strengthened narrative. Take Holden – the Lowe’s son, taken by the vampires before the season's time-frame and turned. The motivation his discovery would have had on the two parents would have warranted different, and much stronger, reactions than the story allowed for. The measles-kid vampire story seemed to vanish for a while and then get resolved in a blink of an eye. All in all, this wasn’t terrible but could have been so much better. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Faces of Schlock

Faces of Schlock was an anthology collection of absolutely Z grade horror shorts, and not a single one was vampire related. So you may be wondering why the Honourable Mention?

Quite simply for the hostess who appeared between the segments, dressed as a vampire she was named Slutpira (Izzie Harlow). Yes it was that subtle!

The segments were fluff and nothing particularly vampiric happened bar her baring fangs. The unfortunate side to that was that the actress struggled to enunciate because of the fangs.

Izzie Harlow as Slutpirs

As for the full film, it really was Z grade, so the sort of thing to watch only if Z grade films are your thing.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: ABCs of Death 2 ½

I like the ABCs series, but for those who are unfamiliar with the series I should explain that the first two films gave us 26 short films by different directors with each short being named for a consecutive letter of the alphabet and with a theme of death. Within these the first contained a vampire short (U is for Unearthed) and the second an aswang short (I is for Invincible).

This 2016 release is not ABCs 3 (which the title should make self-evident) but the top 26 shorts from a “Filmmaker Frenzy” competition and all the films are named for the letter M. It has its moments, most definitely (there are certainly two very worthwhile zombie shorts), and I did rather like the vampire short we are looking at here – entitled M is for Mailbox.

Trick or treat?

The Dante Vescio and Rodrigo Gasparini directed section starts with a trick or treater (Wallace Stuani) at the door of a house. Inside a man (Ênio Gonçalves) sits in his wheelchair as his wife (Iná de Carvalho) and adult daughter (Fernanda Gonçalves) answer. The trick or treater holds up a sack for his candy swag and the mother heads to the kitchen to get some sweets. The daughter asks the trick or treater is he is meant to be a vampire and he nods in the affirmative.

Wallace Stuani as the Vampire

Suddenly he has a blade and attacks the daughter, not just slitting her throat but decapitating her. He is then on the mother, revealing black eyes and fangs. The child truly is a vampire but what will the wheelchair bound father do? I won’t spoil that or the reason for the name of the short. The short is in Portuguese with English subtitles and hails from Brazil and the directors manage the difficult task of cramming a story into three minutes.

ABCs of death 2 ½ is available to rent and buy via Vimeo but M is for Mailbox is also on Vimeo for free.

The imdb page is here.

War of the Staffs – review

Authors: Steve Stephenson & K.M. Tedrick

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The goddess Adois brings a powerful vampire warlock named Taza through the void to turn Muiria into a planet of evil using her powerful staff. Needing an army, he turns a race of dark elves into vampires, but Prince Tarquin is born to fulfil a prophecy to stop Taza.

The prince cannot do it alone. The Wizard Celedant sends him to the Borderers, an elite group of dwarves to learn how to fight, while the wizard begins his search for the Staff of Adaman, the only thing capable of thwarting Taza and Adois’ Staff.

War of the Staffs is the search for two pieces of the ancient Staff of Adaman to counter Adois’ plans. The darkness is rising and using the black power of the Staff of Adois and his army of dark elves, giants, and orcs, Taza will begin a reign of terror the planet will not soon forget.

The review: I like the merging of fantasy and vampirism as a concept and it is done all too rarely. Whilst there are impressive series like the Hendee’s Noble Dead series (which starts with the volume Dhampir) they are few and far between.

So the idea of an epic fantasy series with a main vampire villain was a real draw. The book itself hits the main fantasy notes that it should and even manages to peel away from the standard hero quest by having the young hero placed into a Dwarven army squad rather than out adventuring (though, of course, he rapidly rises through the ranks despite being the only human). However all was not perfect – and that was beyond my own inability to take a hero called Tarquin seriously.

If we take the scenario described above, the Dwarves speak in some oldee worldy dialogue that was distracting and yet all seemed to speak “common” rather than dwarvish. Given that it was a dwarven squad, in a dwarven army, in a dwarven city, the authors could have made ample use of language barriers within the narrative and the situation (despite being fantasy) felt unnatural.

The prose itself was rather simplistic. There was nothing essentially wrong with the prose, it just wasn’t really anything special and could have used a good deal of spit and polish to make it more evocative and less basic. There was a great deal less grit than I would have liked as well.

The vampirism was interesting in that there was a mystical fire in the vampiric blood that infected one who was turned. The idea of trying to build a vampire world steps away from a self-limiting creature and begs questions around food supplies etc.

However, the story is not incompetent and the whole thing is above average. 6 out of 10, but it didn’t rock my world.

World Vampire Congress 2016

I am a regular visitor to the Bram Stoker International Film Festival, held annually in Whitby. Indeed, I have been attending since its inception. This year the organisers have decided to do something a little different and host the World Vampire Congress 2016 on the first afternoon (Thursday 27th October 2016).

It was with an amount of (pleasant) shock that I received the email asking if I would participate in said event – doing a 20-minute lecture on anything vampire related. I agreed and will be putting together a little talk entitled Stoker and the Bat. It was common wisdom that Stoker put the transformation into bats into the genre but this lecture will look at pre-Stoker ideas of bat transformations and vampires becoming bats. They were rare, but there are examples out there.

The full lecture running order is:

Andy Boylan: 'Discusses Stoker and the Bat'
Dr Stella Louis: 'Twenty-one century vampires'
Dr David Annwn: 'Mysteries of the First Film Vampires'
Mr Kieran Foster: 'Presentation: Two Unmade Hammer Film scripts'
Katrina Stead: 'Bram Stoker meets Jane Stoddard'
Mr Stephen N. Farr: 'The Writing of Dracula in Whitby'
Dott. Mag. Debora Moretti: 'Witches and blood in Early Modern Tuscany'
Mr. Gavin Baddley: 'Fangs for Nothing: Putting the Bite Back in the Undead'

This will be followed by a screening of Nosferatu with Dmytro Morykit's new score performed live.

Tickets for the Congress and for the Nosferatu screening are available separately from full event wristbands.

Night People – review

Director: Gerard Lough

Release date: 2015

Contains spoilers

This is a portmanteau film, made on a low budget and set in Ireland. The surround concerns itself about two criminals, the older Mike (Michael Parle) and younger Luke (Jack Dean-Shepherd), breaking into a house – it transpires to commit some arson as an insurance fraud.

Mike’s mate has hacked the nearby cctv systems and has wiped their approach but they must wait an hour before the next hack to leave the scene and thus they wait and Mike encourages some story-telling. If this sounds convoluted, it not only is but the film (at the end) comments on its own convolution.

The two stories (first told by Mike and second told by Luke) due have some impact in the wraparound. It is the second story that interests us.

Claire Blennerhassett as Faustina

Faustina (Claire Blennerhassett) is a fixer, it would seem. Less a pimp, she brings clients of various fetishes together for a price – matching the “dates”. When we meet her she is meeting John (John D. Ruddy) for the first time. She keeps client details on paper – it can be destroyed so much more easily than electronic data – and he is so ashamed of his fetish that he has written it down rather than speaking it aloud (we never discover what it is).

Philip Doherty as Matt

The name Faustina apparently means lucky (and there is a Saint Faustina in Catholic doctrine) but to me it was immediately reminiscent of Faust, however her actions seem to be much more in the mould of Mephistopheles, at least at first. In a club she sees a couple of people she recognises and one of them, Matt (Philip Doherty), later approaches her with a deal. She dislikes Matt, believing he preys on the vulnerable, and indeed he wants use of her apartment (as all his rooms are in use) for a VIP client to use with a young man. When he tells her he can help her find *him* she agrees to his Faustian deal and takes on the title role.

dancers

She goes to watch a dance show – which consists of little more than three woman gyrating before a projection. She follows one, named Lilian (Sarah Louise Carney), to a bar and approaches her. She quickly reveals that she knows Lilian is in *his* employ and makes it clear that she wants to become a supplier for him. Lilian guesses Matt has revealed her fealty and suggests that Faustina has to perform three tasks as a test. Faustina reads what she has to do and, at first, refuses. However, she does decide to perform the test and this seems to be drawing blood from three victims. To do this she uses a contraption that seemed insect like in design with the “legs” the needles that extracts the blood.

the device

To be honest it all seems a bit convoluted but you might wonder where the vampire actually comes into this (or is the client just a blood fetishist)? Eventually Lilian reveals that she is (or at least believes herself to be) a vampire. She wonders whether Faustina believes she might becoming one herself (she isn’t but the narrative of the section is not strong enough to properly explore this). All in all, it is the narrative that lets this down.

reminiscent

You see Claire Blennerhassett gives probably the strongest performance of the whole film and yet the section fails to capitalise on this and give her enough to test that strength against. It was the actress that kept me focused on this section as the trial itself seemed just a bit meh plot-wise. You can tell this is filmed on a budget and some of the performances, through the entire piece, are weak. There is a shot, I noticed from my screenshots, that seems reminiscent of a famous Bela Lugosi shot – but that was probably coincidence. The idea behind the first story is more interesting than that of the second. 4 out of 10 is probably mostly down to Blennerhassett’s performance.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: the High Cost of Dying

The High Cost of Dying is a 2015 film directed by Rodney V. Smith and based on a character from his prose series So You Might Be a Vampire.

It follows the character Beatrice (Sara Cecile) who tells us that she has been out of the world for ten years. She wears a medical gauze over one eye, is followed by a man in black (Joe Cheng) who is likely in her own mind and is giving presents to those who know her, before moving on, but she actually doesn’t know any of the people. She asks a waitress, Clarice (Nikki Barran), for her usual but the waitress has never seen her before. When she says this, Beatrice suggests that the waitress just pretend as she really needs a friend.

blood stains

Leaving would appear to be suicide and this is clarified when she meets the sinister Mr Flynn (Simon Fletcher Li) who welcomes her back and suggests he will have her killed. When she mentions killing herself at dawn he allows her the night. In their conversation she mentions the strain that progress is having on her – the move of things like carriages to the automobile a moment of stress in her life. So will she kill herself or will Flynn do it for her?

You’ll have to watch and see. The character was interesting. In 11 minutes there is little room to build a character but Smith does very well in the time he has to play with. The imdb page is here.

Vamp or Not? Orgy of the Dead

Although directed by Stephen C. Apostolof this 1965 movie was written by Edward D Wood Jr based on his novel of the same name and featured Criswell (Plan 9 from Outer Space). It often worms its way into vampire filmographies and so I decided to look at it here.

The film, in truth, seems to be little more than a portmanteau wraparound for a series of (rather un-erotic) burlesque dances by half naked girls – apparently the novel has stories instead. However it begins with a coffin being opened and the occupant sitting up. He is the Emperor (Criswell) and he gives us a typically Criswell-esque speech about the “threshold people”, this being a phrase describing all the monsters/undead. Later he refers to them as Night People also.

post car crash

Bob (William Bates) and his gal Shirley (Pat Barrington) are driving at night looking for a graveyard as Bob is a horror writer and is searching for inspiration. Shirley is a nag and she is doing just this as he speeds up looking for a place to do a u-turn and crashes. They awake nowhere near the car but awfully near the graveyard where the Emperor is.

Black Ghoul and the Emperor

The Emperor is judging the dead (or the female dead, at least). This is based on whether their dances entertain him. With him is his princess of the night, Black Ghoul (Fawn Silver). The Mummy (Louis Ojena) and the Wolfman (John Andrews, Horror of the Blood Monsters) capture Bob and Shirley and tie them up, forcing them to watch the entertainment whilst Black Ghoul pleads to be given Shirley and the Emperor decides their fates.

a famous cloak

So, vampire? Well if there is one it would be the Emperor or Black Ghoul. Black Ghoul certainly looks vampish – and this is unsurprising as the role was written with Vampira in mind. However, she does nothing vampiric – almost. Criswell wears a cape and does walk with his cloak over his face, reminiscent of Tom Mason pretending to be Lugosi in Plan 9. According to IMDb trivia the cloak he wears is the same that Lugosi wore as Dracula in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein. I said almost nothing re Black Ghoul's vampiric activity and, as sunlight hits the cemetery, she does turn into a skeleton as does the Emperor... but so do the wolfman and mummy. Indeed, all Night People do, or so the reformed Emperor informs us, whilst sat in his coffin, and then they reappear on the night of the next full moon.

captured

So, barely a plot, wooden acting, un-erotic burlesque and Criswell hamming it up. The best I can say for this is that the colour palette of the photography looked nice. But is it Vamp? No. Let’s be honest, she is referred to as a ghoul (and yes there is a lot of ghoul and vampire crossover) and looks a complete Vamp and he is wearing Bela’s cloak, but that does not make someone a vampire. The turning to skeleton in daylight impacts all the creatures and so loses its vampire exclusivity. It just shouldn’t be on the vampire filmographies unless looking a bit like a vampire gets you on.

The imdb page is here.

The Night of the Chupacabras – review

Director: Rodrigo Aragão

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

Now, I know quite often that Chupacabra films are covered under the auspices of ‘Vamp or Not?’ articles but in this case it was so definitely ‘Vamp’ that I decided to just go straight for review. This means I am going to spoil an aspect quite badly but it is necessary as we chronicle developing genre tropes and lore.

A Noite do Chupacabras, to give it the original title, is an independent Brazilian film and is far from perfect – as a piece of cinema – however I’ll say up front that I did kinda like it. Certainly it has an exploitative edge with a nice line in gore – even if the storytelling could have been sharpened up, a lot.

Dog senses the beast

It begins with a dog going nuts at night waking his owner, Pedro Silva (Markus Konká). Pedro leaves the house, carrying lantern and gun, and finds a goat dead, blood at its neck. He releases the dog, which immediately chases off into the jungle. He follows but eventually finds the dog’s body. We see something creeping in the background, given away by its glowing eyes. It is, of course, the chupacabra (Walderrama Dos Santos). As it moves towards Pedro he fires off a shot into the dark.

walking home

At a train station Douglas Silva (Joel Caetano) and his heavily pregnant wife Maria Alícia (Mayra Alarcón) have been waiting for his brother Jorge (Jorgemar de Oliveira) for an hour. They decide to walk towards the family home, following the train tracks. En route Maria Alícia wanders off towards a small cave or hollow, where a photographer is taking pictures of a jaguar that has been killed. Eventually they find Jorge and get to the farm, where mother Clara (Margot Benatti) is disapproving of the new daughter-in-law.

actual goatsucking

His other two brothers, the wheelchair bound Ricardo (Ricardo Araújo) and head injured Alzir (Alzir Vaillant), are butchering a pig to prepare it for lunch – with the intention of selling the rest of the meat. Douglas goes to find his dad, Pedro, who is burying the dog and the goat. He blames “the devil” for the deaths – the rest of the family blame the nearby Carvalho family with whom they have a feud. Ricardo has Alzir take over the burial (and tells his brother to remove the goat from the grave, they’ll sell its meat rather than the pig’s).

Silva family dinner

As the story progresses we discover various things about the family. Douglas, it seems, is a lover not a fighter and was not involved in the fight between the two families (whether he had gone to the city to study medicine at that point is not revealed). The head of the Carvalho clan tried to buy Pedro’s land but the farmer refused. The Carvalho patriarch was killed in the jungle and the clan blamed the Silvas. This led to a shootout where Ricardo was shot, making him a paraplegic, and Alzir was smashed in the head giving him brain damage. To save their lives Pedro gave away much of his land and there has been a truce since.

Pedro hunts the beast

The brothers go to sell the meat to a bar owner (Afonso Abreu), who is suspicious as the meat smells funny but gives them $30 and a bottle of booze. Douglas has gone with them when he discovered that Maria Alícia has brought some sort of drug with her (we later hear that she is an addict). It just so happens that the Carvalho boys also go to the bar, eat the meat and then end up projectile vomiting (so the bite of a chupacabra leaves the meat of the victim spoilt) and then have a bar fight with the Silvas. Meanwhile Pedro tries to lure the beast with a chicken, shoots at it and his gun explodes (something he had been warned about, with his antique firearms), and kills him.

cannibal shaman

The Silvas blame the Carvalhos for the death and go armed to get revenge. The amount of blood left in the wake causes the chupacabra to terrorise both the Silva household and the men who are fighting… And that is where I’d leave the description but there is lore to cover. Firstly, and off chupacabra, Douglas gets himself captured by a cannibal shaman, who eats part of a Carvalho, whilst casting a spell, and then rips away his own skin revealing new skin beneath. This is a case of cannibalism to maintain youth (or not quite as old).

chupacabra

As for the chupacabra, it drinks blood – rather than eats flesh – and with both the goat and humans it seems to go for the neck and suck the blood from there. One might ask why it has suddenly ramped up the number of attacks (because the film needed it to is the obvious answer) but it had been taking a lot of livestock previously and, generously, the amount of blood spilt was also a lure. It is very difficult to kill, being shot numerous times. The flesh of a dead victim is rotten, as mentioned, but should a victim survive… well that is the spoiler I mentioned. The chupacabra is evidently a man transformed and can pass the condition on to another person.

detail of head

Unfortunately, the film could do with some tightening up, story-wise. The cannibal shaman came out of leftfield and vanished just as quickly. There is some evidence that he killed the Carvalho patriarch (due to coins he has) but that is not capitalised on. The acting is not brilliant and not a single character is likeable (bar sister or wife Kika Silva (Kika Oliveira), who comes across as nice and helpful but is a periphery character and probably Pedro, but he is more a dramatic device than a character). Even main “hero” Douglas turns out to be a git. This makes it quite difficult to root for anyone.

turning

All that said, despite its faults I liked this. I could have lived with 15 – 20 minutes shaved off it but, on the other hand, I loved the fact that the monster was a man in a suit, I really liked the setting and there was some nicely done gore at times. It isn’t the greatest film and 4 out of 10 seems fair balancing out the issues and the fact that it was quite good fun.

The imdb page is here.