Classic Literature: Dracula

Regular readers of Taliesin Meets the Vampires will know that I have been mulling over, for some time, just how I might summarise and condense the plot and impact of Bram Stoker’s seminal work into a classic literature piece. Finally I’ve decided just to start typing and see what comes out!

Dracula was first published on May 18th 1897 and, to my knowledge, has never been out of print since. The novel itself is an epistolary novel, by that I mean to say it is made up of a series of diary entries, newspaper cuttings and letters. This allows multiple voices within the novel and yet it maintains, primarily, a first person perspective.

A basic plot summary sees the novel begin with junior solicitor Jonathon Harker travelling to Transylvania to meet with his client, one Count Dracula, in order to provide legal assistance for a number of real estate purchases in London. Dracula is, of course, a vampire and Harker’s account of his time in Castle Dracula is a rich gothic horror narrative.

Eventually, Harker is left to the mercy of the Count’s vampire brides whilst he himself travels to England. The ship he travels on, the Demeter, runs aground at Whitby where Harker’s fiancé Mina Murray is visiting with her friend Lucy Westenra. Lucy has three suitors Jack Seward (a doctor who runs an asylum), Quincy Morris (a Texan) and Arthur Holmwood (son of Lord Godalming). It is Arthur whom she chooses to marry but the vampire has started visiting the girl, draining her of her blood. His attentions continue when she moves back to London.

Seward has sought help from his old tutor and friend Abraham Van Helsing, who recognises her illness for what it really is. Unfortunately they are not, despite effort, able to save the girl. Children start to be stalked at night by the Bloofer Lady and Van Helsing realises that it is Lucy returned. He, with her suitors, have to destroy her.

The companions set their sights on the source of their woes and, with the help of Harker and Mina, now married and returned from Transylvania – where Mina had travelled following his escape from the castle, track the Count down.

The Count visits Mina and, with the exchange of blood, ties her to himself before fleeing England but Van Helsing uses that connection to track him, allowing the companions to chase him back to Castle Dracula.

What I have given is the barest bones of the plot outline and I have missed one important character out completely. Renfield is a patient in Seward’s asylum who consumes the lives of flies, spiders and birds in order to extend his own life. He acts almost as a psychic barometer regarding the vampire.

The book can be read simply as an excellent piece of gothic horror fiction but many other interpretations have been given to the novel. It has been seen, for example, as a discourse on England and the influx of “barbarian foreigners” which threatened the English way of life. It has been seen as a discourse on the scientific (Stoker uses the height of science within his novel, Seward records his journal entries on a phonograph, Van Helsing performs blood transfusions) against the superstitious. There have been Freudian readings of the text and interpretations regarding the birth of feminism.

Anyone interested in the various interpretations of Dracula could do worse than seek out the book “Dracula: The Novel and the Legend - A Study of Bram Stoker's Gothic Masterpiece” by Clive Leatherdale which is a fantastic study. Also by Leatherdale is the book “The Origins of Dracula” which is mainly a series of extracts from sources Stoker used as research when writing his book.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to list all the films that directly concern Dracula. The earliest, still available, film based on the novel was Nosferatu (1922) and the book has been interpreted into film, or the character used, time and time again. Dracula has become part of the world’s cultural identity.

The main thing to note, really, about Dracula as a movie vehicle is that there is not one single film, that I can think of, that has followed the story exactly. Character’s shift and change, romance is added where none existed and locations are lost or are added. That said there are many, many good adaptations and I will do no more than suggest you have a browse through the film review section to find some of those.

One way in which the movies changed the book was by making the Count a dapper and, even, sexual being. The Lugosi look, if I can call it that, actually came from the stage and was introduced into the movies through the 1931 adaptation . Stoker’s Count was very different:

“His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

“Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine. But seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse, broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal.”

In the book Stoker introduced us to many of the modern rules of vampirism, the effect of holy items, the transformation into and control of animals (specifically transformation into wolf and bat), the ability to pass through thin spaces etc. He also gave us the word un-dead, in fact that was to be the title of the novel originally. However, the effect of sunlight is an invention of cinema; Stoker’s Dracula could function in daylight though his powers were reduced.

I hope that I have given you a small flavour of the book, though I know I have done it scant justice, but I can really do no more than suggest that you read it for yourself. The book is public domain and many free e-book sites carry versions of it. You might also want to check out the excellent Dracula Blogged who post the book following the dates within the book and, for an audio version, check Librivox.

See also my review of the annotated novel notes, set in draft form - Drafts of Dracula
See also my review of the new Annotated Dracula.
See also my exploration into the Vlad Tepes connection (or lack thereof).
See also my exploration of the bat lore in Dracula and beyond (hosted at Vamped.org).
See also my review of Joel Emerson's expanded version of the novel, the Un-Dead.
See also my short look at Stoker's stage treatment of the novel.
See also the Deane & Balderstone plays
See also Ken Russell's unfilmed script.

See also Powers of Darkness - the translation of the Swedish (1899) reimagining of the novel
See also Powers of Darkness - the translation of the Icelandic (1900) reimagining of the novel
See also Dracula in Istanbul - the translation of the Turkish (1929) reimagining of the novel

See also Dracula: The Audio Drama for a recommended audio version

Playgirls and the Vampire - review

Director: Piero Regnoli

Release Date: 1960*

Contains spoilers

Playgirls and the vampire is, from what I can gather, one of those films which you buy and take your chance on how heavily edited it is. The running times can vary from 66 minutes (the heavily cut US version) to 83 minutes. The running time on the Salvation Films release is 80 minutes.

The film has a flimsy storyline, which we will look at shortly, coupled with some camp acting. However it does have the occasionally excellent visual, though those are few and far between. The main reason for watching the movie, however, is due to the fact that it is one of the earliest vampire sexploitation movies. Given its release date it is astounding just how much lingerie is on view, not to mention a striptease (down to bra and panties) and a (very brief) boob shot. Somehow, however, I find difficulty in seeing why the DVD still carries an 18 certificate in the UK, and perhaps the certificate has more to do with the extras than the film.

The opening shot of the film is one of those visuals I mentioned. Lingering for a moment upon a window in a dungeon, the camera pans around until we see a beautifully carved sarcophagus. The lid shifts and a hand feels its way out. It is an iconic scene, unfortunately rarely repeated.

The story, such as it is, is that a bus with a travelling striptease troupe, made up of Vera (Lyla Rocco), Katia (Maria Giovannini) and three others, plus their manager, Lucas (Alfredo Rizzo) and driver/piano player Frank, is travelling down the road having skipped out on a hotel without paying. The road is blocked by a landslide and so, despite warnings, they follow another road to a castle.

The gate is locked but Vera seems to know how to open it and they walk up to the castle door to ask for hospitality. They are warned away by the strange groundskeeper (Antoine Nicos) whom we later discover is called Zoltan. This is interesting as the name would be later used as the name of Dracula’s dog in the film “Dracula’s Dog” (1978). The dour housekeeper (Tilde Damiani) tells them that hospitality is not given but allows them entry as the final decision is not hers.

In the entrance hall Vera, who is acting very strangely, walks over to a cigarette box and gets a smoke, Lucas wondering how she knew they were there. The Count Kernassy (Walter Brandi) enters and tells them that they cannot stay and then, on spotting Vera, changes his mind but tells them that they must follow the “regulations”. These consist of, once retiring to bed, not leaving their rooms (no matter what they hear) and not wandering the castle at night.

Katia does not heed the advice and, after borrowing Vera’s coat, goes looking for a shower. On her travels she sees something, unseen to us, which causes her to scream and flee. The next day she is found dead outside the castle, the assumption is that she fell from a window. Overnight bad weather has knocked the bridge out and thus they troupe cannot leave, nor can the authorities be informed of her death so she is buried in the grounds.

Vera finds a portrait of Margherita Kernassy, who looks very much like her, and the Count informs her that the reason he let them stay was the likeness. He tells her that he always felt that she would come to the castle but that she must leave. Something to note here is that the dubbed dialogue clearly states that Margherita died in 1785, but the date of death below the portrait is clearly 1782!

That night Vera walks through the grounds to discover that Katia’s corpse has been dug up, leaving an empty grave. She sees the Count but he backs away from her.

The next day she tries to find the Count and finds a laboratory and, on a slab, Katia’s corpse. The Count calms her hysteria and tells her that he is researching a cure for an evil that causes blood drinking to maintain life (he doesn’t mention the word vampire) and tells her that Katia died because she was wearing Vera’s coat. He then asks her to help him, though that help mainly consists of trusting him and staying silent about what she has seen, and she agrees as he is obviously sincere!

Night falls and Lucas is in bed, having finished reading his girly magazine! The door opens and the naked Katia walks into his room, she bears fangs and he passes out. The others run to his room and shake him awake, it is not clear whether Katia actually attacked him or not.

Later Vera sees her door handle being turned and, despite being told by the Count on numerous occasions not to leave her room or even open her door (even if she hears his voice) she goes and investigates. She opens up a secret passage and is faced with the Count, who bears fangs and bites her. She awakens with the Housekeeper next to her mopping her brow. It is explained that she has been with her all night as she has been feverish. The others are out for a walk.

However, when Vera checks herself in the mirror she sees the puncture wounds in her neck and so she quickly packs. As she tries to leave she walks straight into the vampire. However the Count walks in and they fight. It is clear now (though to be honest it had been clear for awhile) that the vampire is an identical ancestor of the mortal Count. We also discover that Margherita was the vampire’s wife. The Count is knocked out and Vera is picked up by the vampire. Katia challenges him but is instructed to take care of the Count.

The vampire takes Vera to the dungeon and puts her in his wife’s sarcophagus but Katia appears and tells him that he doesn’t need her as she is not his wife and she has replaced his wife. She tries to kill Vera but the vampire attacks her and, taking a burning torch, stakes her. The Count enters the room and fights with the vampire. He pulls a curtain and sunlight enters the room driving the vampire back, who then accidentally impales himself.

The death scene of the vampire has to be specifically mentioned as he rapidly ages and then vanishes but this is all done through drawn stills.

The ending sees everyone now being nice (Zoltan actually gives Vera flowers) and Vera getting on the bus to a voice-over of the Count explaining that he has affairs to settle and then he’ll sell the castle and go find her.

As you can tell the storyline is thin, the characterisation appalling and to make things worse the acting is poor, Brandi is so wooden that he was in danger of being felled and shipped off to a furniture factory! The idea that he was looking for a cure for his ancestor was interesting but not really explored and the aging sequence as the vampire died was jut plain laughable.

This film is worthwhile watching as a historical curio and for its camp appeal, but for very few other reasons. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here. *Note imdb list this film as 1962 but the DVD clearly states 1960.

Black Sunday - review

Director: Mario Bava

Release Date: 1960

Contains spoilers

Black Sunday, or as it is also known Mask of the Demon, was based on the short story “Viy” by Gogol. However there is not much similarity between this film and the later film based on the same story, Viy (1967). There are several things to note regarding this movie before we look at the plot and the, rather unique, vampire elements.

Firstly, you’ll note that the DVD cover I have posted is in French. This is because my edition of the movie is the French release. You should also be aware that this film was actually banned in its native Italy. Though the film is perhaps not that excessive by today’s standards it is actually possible to see why. I will go on the record, at this early stage, to say that this is a marvellous, atmospheric film. In fact you’ll have to go a long way to find a more perfect example of gothic cinema. The dialogue can tend towards the melodramatic, but that probably has a lot to do with the dubbing and, somehow, this only seems to add to the atmosphere. In fact, when Tim Burton listed the film, in the October 17-23 1998 TV Guide, as his favourite horror movie you know you are in for a treat.

The rules around vampirism are somewhat different to a standard piece of vampire cinema and we will look into that later.

The film starts by us being told that “before the age of reason, Satanic beings appeared across the world lusting for blood so as to deny death.” We see the inquisition - they have two captives. Javutich (Arturo Dominici) has been dealt with it seems but his lover (and in the Italian language version his sister) Asa (Barbara Steele) still faces the wrath of the inquisition. She is accused of witchcraft and they brand her with the mark of a witch. The mask of Satan, a grotesque Devil mask with huge nails inside, is then hammered to her face. She is taken to be purified in flame and curses her family line, the inquisitor is her brother also, saying that she will have her revenge through the blood of his sons and theirs. The burning fails, however, as a storm erupts and douses the flames. She is then entombed and Javutich is buried in unconsecrated ground.

Two hundred years pass, and a Doctor, Dr Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi), and his student, Dr Andre Gorobec (John Richardson), are travelling through the land to a conference. They get the coachman to take a short cut through the forest, a place where an eerie wailing can be heard. The coach throws a wheel and, whilst the coachman repairs it, they investigate the wailing, which seems to be louder and coming from an abandoned chapel. The wailing is nothing more than the wind whistling through broken organ pipes but they then investigate the crypt and Kruvajan recognises it as the final resting place of the witch.

It is here that we find one of our first unique take on vampire lore. Asa is interred in a stone sarcophagus with a window over the face. Above the window is a stone cross, designed so that her corpse can see the cross through the window and it will hold her in place. Eventually Kruvajan is left alone in the crypt and is attacked by a monstrously giant bat. He shoots the bat and then whacks it with his walking stick, in the process smashing the window of the sarcophagus and breaking the cross. When Andre checks on him they rummage through the contents of the sarcophagus, removing a holy icon. Kruvajan also removes the mask revealing a face that is still intact, although the eyes are empty and swarming with insects. Unfortunately he cuts his hand on a shard of glass and we see the blood drip into her eye socket. In a series of wonderfully macabre cut scenes, later, we see the blood in the eye boil and then the eyes reform.

When they leave the crypt they bump into the Princess Katia (Barbara Steele) who is investigating the shot that has been fired. Later we see Katia at home with her brother Constantine (Enrico Olivieri) and father Vajda (Ivo Garrani). We discover that it is the Feast of St George, exactly 200 years since Asa was killed. We also discover that 100 years ago, exactly, there was an earthquake that split the tomb of Asa and, as a result, another Princess who, like Katia, was the exact image of Asa died.

That night Asa summons her dead lover from his grave, which is about as far as I want to go plot wise, though there are still spoilers ahead because I want to examine some of the vampire lore contained in the film.

The vampires themselves do not have fangs. Bava had fangs made but decided against them, so Steele and Dominici can be seen with them in some of the publicity shots. The vampires are scared of religious artefacts and indeed placing them upon the skin burns. What was effective in the scene where this occurs was the close quarter camera and the smoke that raised from the flesh.

To die by the vampire means to rise as a vampire and their activity is restricted to night. It appears, as a grave is opened in the daylight, that sunlight does not destroy them but they are as the dead during the hours of light.

They are primarily blood drinkers but Asa also acts as a psychic vampire, draining the life energy directly from her double.

Most interesting is the way in which vampires can be killed. Though we do see a vampire die through fire the main method employed is to pierce the left eye with a pin or shard of wood. This is interesting as, to my knowledge, this is the only film that employs such a specific method and the method itself ties in with the concept of the evil eye. Given that Asa is a witch as well as a vampire this is fitting and rests well with the concept of the strigoï vii (a living witch type vampire) and the strigoï mort (the undead variety, which the vii becomes after death). The graphic scene where eye fluid explodes from the burst eyeball makes it easy to understand why the film was banned in Italy back in 1960.

The film is an atmospheric masterpiece and a visual treat. I recently reported that it is to be remade and whilst the idea is both interesting and exciting, one wonders how it will fair without Barbara Steele. Whilst not necessarily the beauty that the script suggests she was certainly a most striking woman but it is her sheer presence, which absolutely fills the screen, that will be difficult to replicate.

This film deserves a great 9 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The return of Count Yorga - review

Directed by: Bob Kelljan

Release Date: 1971

Contains spoilers

If one watches this as a sequel to Count Yorga, Vampire (1971) then the film raises questions that are unanswered. How did the Count (Robert Quarry), who died at the end of the last film, become resurrected? How did his resilient, yet ultimately mortal, manservant Brudda (Edward Walsh) come back from the dead, albeit looking a little worse for wear? (Also, why is Brudda's name spelt differently?) Where are the brides who survived the last film? These questions are frustratingly unanswered and so perhaps it is worth seeing this film more as a re-imagining of the first for, whilst the setting is different, much of the core plot is the same.

So it is that Yorga is taking womenfolk to build his harem of vampire brides and the menfolk try to prevent him, again. This time there is a little more substance as Yorga falls in love with a mortal and tries to woo her into actually loving him. There are also some interesting devices used within the film but, ultimately, it fell a little flat for me anyway. This was perhaps due to unwarranted comedy moments, missed opportunities and unfilled plot holes.

The film, first of all, takes us on a guided tour of Yorga’s mansion and then cuts across to Westwood Orphanage where assistant Cynthia (Mariette Hartley) is staring wistfully into space. She is approached by Rev. Thomas (Tom Toner) and asks him if he can hear the wind. It is the beginning of the St Anna wind, mentioned a couple of times at the beginning of the film but not elaborated on, it seems that the winds will knock the bridge out (or cause a weather front that will raise the waters and knock the bridge out, its never explained properly). Rev. Thomas asks if she knows where Tommy is.

We have seen Tommy, a young orphan playing ball outside the mansion. We cut to him and he is playing amongst graves. We hear Yorga whisper that it is time, the earth shifts and hands shoot out of the ground. Brides rise and Tommy runs, straight into Yorga. It should be a great scene except that it was clearly broad daylight when it was shot.

The orphanage is having a fund-raising concert. The, very few, attendees are in fancy dress. One is dressed as Dracula. A beauty Queen, Mitzi (Jesse Wells), walks the deserted halls and we hear Yorga speak her name... Cynthia is upset by the concert and exits, straight into Yorga. She asks him how he got there with the bridge out and he quips that he flew; he then explains that he has bought the nearby Gateway Mansion. Entering the hall she introduces him to several people including her sister Ellen (Karen Ericson), Ellen’s new fiancé Jason (David Lampson) and her fiancé, the psychologist Dr. David Baldwin (Roger Perry). Tommy eventually comes to her and says he cannot sleep and asks to stay at her house, to which she agrees. The Rev. takes a photo but Yorga raises his cape in order to hide his face. The party ends when the unconscious Mitzi is found.

That night at the Nelson household most of the residents, Cynthia and Ellen and their mother (Helen Baron) and father (Walter Brooke) are unable to sleep, Tommy has come downstairs. Mute orphanage assistant Jennifer (Yvonne Wilder) is asleep somewhere, it is strange that imdb list Jennifer as a Nelson, which indicates that she is related, because the dialogue of the later film suggests otherwise. The wind has picked up and the unease grows until suddenly a window smashes and a bride grabs Cynthia through it and more enter the room. They slaughter the family in a scene which, as I watched, reminded me a little of Night of the Living Dead (1968). I checked the entry for the movie, after watching it, in David Pirie’s “The Vampire Cinema” and he makes the connection also, praising the scene for its tension but, to be honest, I felt it missed the mark a little. Perhaps it was the satin gowns of the brides, incongruous with their more zombie like visages, or perhaps it was the comedy fangs some wore? I don’t know but the scene failed to raise the tension levels I expected. Cynthia is held as her family are killed and then carried to Yorga. She is taken to a bed in his mansion, where she is hypnotised into forgetting the attack and believing that she has been in a car crash and the Count is looking after her – this hypnosis doesn’t hold so well as, through the film, she sees flashes of the attack.

In the morning Jennifer walks into the carnage and her silent screams are some of the most powerfully shot scenes in the movie. She finds Tommy, stood in the room, and bundles him out. Tommy is one of the great bits about this film, a child servant of Yorga, he foils Jennifer’s attempts to warn the others and leads adults into danger. It is clear he is unhinged when, later, Jennifer spots him about to dash another child’s brains in with a rock during an argument over a ball. Eventually it is strongly hinted that Tommy commits murder for the Count on at least two occasions.

The police go to the house but the bodies are gone and the broken windows fixed. There is a letter left, to Jennifer, explaining that they had to leave because of a sick relative. With no sign of foul play the cops have to drop it. This is where I became confused as we hear later that no-one knew of any relatives, if Jennifer is related surely she would have known for sure, this is not mentioned. Also, how could the family go off if the bridge is out? The police never mention the bridge, in fact some of the action moves out into San Francisco, the collapsed bridge trapping them has been totally forgotten.

David is not convinced and starts to believe that perhaps Yorga is a vampire. This realisation ties in with Yorga, at the fund-raiser, blatantly telling him that vampires exist, but to me his conversion into being a beliver is rather rapid. He goes to see Professor Rightstat (George Macready), a paranormal expert, a visit that is nothing more than a poorly executed comedy moment. George Macready, you may remember, was the narrator of the previous film.

I won’t go further into the plot but will mention some other parts that seemed incongruous or underused. There is a witch (Corrine Conley) who warns Yorga away from love. This was interesting but so under-used it beggared belief, to the point where it appears that she is just another bride.

There is a scene where Cynthia is trapped in the mansion and being tormented by the brides which was an excellently shot and powerful scene that led no-where. Was it simply an attack by jealous brides? Was it there to try and make her insane and force her to love Yorga, in some twisted way? Was it to convince her that she was still ill from the ‘car crash’ and should remain at the mansion? The film does not tell us, and the episode is never mentioned by the main characters.

When trying to convince the police that Yorga is a vampire, David shows them the photograph taken at the fund-raiser. Yorga does not appear in it and the Rev. can clearly remember him being there. Of course he can, Yorga made his exaggerated cape flick to hide his face. If he had simply stood there, knowing that he would not appear in the photo anyway, perhaps that would have caused them to doubt their memory of Yorga being in shot. It does, however, seem incongruous that a creature that cannot show up on photographic film would go to the trouble of hiding their face. In this film the police eventually go into the mansion, but the characters Lt. Madden (Rudy De Luca) and Sgt. O’Connor (Craig T. Nelson) are nothing more than under-used comedy characters, though I did like the line “the first one to find the vampire, scream his ass off”.

Yorga spends a lot of his time running at people with his arms outstretched and it just doesn’t seem dignified.

One nice moment in the film is when we see Yorga watching TV and the film being shown is Hammer’s The vampire lovers, a nice nod to the great studio. Bizarrely, the film is a Spanish language dubbed version!

There is a twist at the end and it was less obvious than the twist in the first movie

As I said there are some nice bits in this, some of them genuinely powerful, and the plot felt more rounded than that of the first but there were ridiculously incongruous parts, bad comedy moments and it did feel like little more than a re-hash of the first in parts. I’m only going to score the film at 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Gaming: Vampire Story

Having just lamented the fact that (it seems that) you cannot play a vampire in the forthcoming game Night Watch, I have discovered another RPG, for PC, in development by Mayhem Studios. The synopsis of Vampire Story is:

The city lies down to sleep while somewhere in the middle of an old dockyard a man's life fades away. Ivan, one of the most skilled vampire hunters, is dead. The night is damp and chilly as the investigation begins. None of the Nosferatu clans claims responsibility for the attack and what's even worse, strange things start to happen.

From what I can gather you do not actually play a vampire but play a character called Bernard, an adventurer who has lived amongst the living dead for years. Whether you can be turned/choose to be turned remains to be seen. The game is slated for a Q4 2006 – Q1 2007 release.

Screenshot taken from worthplaying.com.

Gaming: Night Watch Demo

Well I’ve now had opportunity to play the demo of Night Watch and I have been left with mixed feelings. Primarily based around the film, it does import concepts from the book – like the Inquisition, those who police both light and dark.

The turn based combat seems functional enough and I do like spinning, turning cameras. You have the option to go three ways (classes in old parlance) which are mage, shapeshifter or enchanter. As I played I chose shapeshifter, expecting to be able to shift into bear or perhaps tiger form, a dog was a little disappointing.

The demo consists of training levels but they were mostly combat orientated. The one puzzle was easily solved, but that is no indication of how the rest of the game will pan out. The one thing that did worry me was that it felt very “on-a-rail” and, given the nature of the world they are recreating, one feels that the rest of the game will be like that. Now I like my RPG to be open. One way in which the openness is limited is through the fact that you can only join the light. Personally I would have liked to have joined the day watch and become a vampire!

Now we hit the crux, we do meet one vampire in the demo but we only realise that because they tell us he is a vampire – no vampish action.

Of course, the linear nature of the game may not be a problem if the story is good and the story that comes out in the demo is certainly intriguing, whether it can be carried through the whole game remains to be seen.

Doctor Who - The Curse of Fenric (Special Edition) - review

Directed by: Nicholas Mallett

Release date: Original 4 parts aired between 25th October – 15th November 1989

Contains spoilers

The Curse of Fenric was a four part Doctor Who adventure which, on the DVD release, has been given the special edition treatment, with extra footage and cut into film format. Thus on disc 1 you get the series as aired and on disc 2 you get the series cut into a film.

It was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch this. For those who don’t know, Doctor Who was a long running BBC series concerning a timelord, the eponymous Doctor. The Doctor travels through time and space, in the Tardis a vehicle bigger on the inside than the out that is stuck in the form of a police telephone box, battling evil. Timelords, rather than dying, regenerate. A neat trick given that it allows the production company the luxury of changing the lead character’s actor should they depart the series.

I had fallen more and more out of love with the series after Tom Baker left the series, each subsequent Doctor more disappointing to me. The Curse of Fenric was filmed when Sylvester McCoy played the Doctor and it is often felt that poor scripts and stories, and a general attempt to dumb the show down, was deliberately employed by the BBC to kill the series. Thus it really wasn’t the actor’s fault. Fenric is, however, classed as one of the better McCoy era stories and is, of course, about vampires. I tried to put my pre-conceptions to rest as I watched it afresh and, I think, succeeded.

The Doctor and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) arrive in England during the Second World War at a top secret naval base where a scientist, Dr Judson (Dinsdale Landen), has developed Ultima, a code cracking computer. In the meantime Russian soldiers are coming ashore; even though they are allies their mission is to steal Ultima. As they head towards the shore a mist rises and one of the landing dinghies does not make it and we see the prow of a Viking longboat under the water.

The plot of Fenric is complex, to say the least, and is also quite dark. This is belied by some of the, almost, children TV scripting, but never the less that darkness is there. Essentially, centuries before, the Doctor trapped an intelligent being of pure evil in a bottle. This bottle was, eventually, stolen by Vikings who were attacked for it by a creature called a haemovore. The haemovore is our future, a mutation/evolution of humanity that subsists on blood. From the time when the earth has become nothing but chemical sludge, he was sent back in time by Fenric. He landed in Transylvania in the ninth century and has followed Fenric’s bottle across the globe.

A naturally occurring poison is being gathered by Commander Millington (Alfred Lynch) to use against the Nazis. The British know the Russians are there and are prepared to let them steal Ultima as it is rigged with the poison to be used against them after the war is ended. Millington is, with the help of Judson, also having Viking runes translated in order to search for the treasure of the Vikings (the bottle which holds Fenric). It is all a convoluted game that will allow Fenric to escape and take over a human body. From there he will have the ancient haemovore (from the future) release the poison into the seas in order to destroy the world.

Fenric uses the haemovores. At first these creatures are not seen and we only see their victims, drained of blood with claw marks down their faces. However, as the film progresses two young girls, Phyllis (Joanne Bell) and Jean (Joann Kenny), go swimming in the water and a mist surrounds them. They vanish from view. When they emerge, before a Russian soldier, they have wild hair and long talon like nails. They draw the soldier into the water and he is attacked by other haemovores.

The other ones seem monstrous, but also seem to wear period costumes, as though their life below water has not been kind to them. As they run amok we discover interesting things about them. The local Vicar, Wainwright (Nicholas Parsons), tries to hold the girls off with his bible but it is no use as he has no faith. This occurs in daylight. The Doctor orders them away and they obey, though that is not explained. Later the Doctor drives a horde of haemovores away by singing a song of faith. Any faith is sufficient, Ace’s faith in the Doctor or the Russian Captain’s, Sorin (Tomek Bork), faith in the revolution. This is great if only for seeing a vampire driven back, not by a crucifix but by the hammer and sickle. It is explained that faith or belief creates a psychic barrier that is painful to the creatures.

Sorin has heard of something similar to what is happening, which occurred in Romania, where a black mist fell and the dead walked. He sharpens stakes and it is good to see that the tried and tested methods work, reducing the haemovores to a pile of green goo. Another power the haemovores have is the manipulation of metal; they can weld with their hands below the sea. This seemed silly but allows them to escape through the metal door of a mine shaft where they have been trapped.

The haemovores overrun the base, converting others into creatures like themselves as Fenric eventually posses a body and orders the presence of the ancient one.

Believing that the end game is afoot he orders the ancient one to disposes of the other haemovores and this is done psychically the others dissolving as his mental command kills them.

The story in Fenric is good but is let down by scripting. Despite the fact that the character of Ace is being developed and the writer wanted to show her blossoming womanhood many of her lines are terrible, it is pure kids TV language and feels unnatural. It seems a shame because this story has a really dark heart and better production values than many of the earlier series (they’re not perfect but old Doctor Who was known for its rubber masks and we can live with that). The story seems a little rushed at times as well, with characters suddenly knowing things that perhaps they wouldn’t naturally, but as all the main players have been chosen as pawns in this game by an ancient evil and are descendants of the Vikings then perhaps the writer was implying that there was a deep-seated, inherited knowledge.

As I said, I approached this with trepidation and a desire not to succumb to preconceptions. I think I managed that and will give this 6 out of 10.

There is no imdb page for the special edition version of this but there are pages for the four parts, the imdb page for part one is here.

Gaming: Nightwatch

It had to happen - a strategic role playing game has been produced based on the film Night Watch. Info about the game can be found here.

I only found out about this because I subscribe to a PC magazine, PC Zone, and it arrived today with a demo of the game on the cover disc. When I've had chance to play it I'll hopefully be able to let you know if it is any good or not.

Count Yorga, Vampire - review

Directed by: Bob Kelljan

Release Date: 1970

Contains Spoilers

Count Yorga, Vampire, also known as The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire, was the surprise vampire hit of 1970. In a way, it very much took it’s lead from Hammer but transported the genre to a modern setting (some two years before hammer did the same with Dracula AD 1972 ) and yet added in some disturbing scenes that Hammer probably would never have contemplated.

Robert Quarry played Yorga, a good performance at times – though perhaps cheesy occasionally – and the film really did play styles off, with scenes of modern LA interposed with flashes of lightning, the howl of wolves, a caped vampire and what amounted to a gothic castle setting.

The film starts with Yorga’s coffin shaped crate being taken from a ship and loaded into a truck. As the truck made its way through the streets of LA we get a voice over by a narrator (George Macready). He tells us the base rules of vampires in the movie. They can see in the dark, they have hypnotic skills and they have more cunning than a mere mortal; stakes kill them as does sunlight (which reduces them “into a miasma of putrid decay”). We also find out, during the course of them film, that they react to crosses, are telepathic and have power over animals, more interestingly we discover that they have differences with their blood. This comes to light when one of the victims, not fully turned, has her blood checked and there is some form of unusual element in it.

The plot is fairly bog standard, the vampire comes along, preys on the women folk and the men folk try to save them. The simplicity of the plot is not a problem in itself but, within the simple plot, I would have liked to find out more about Yorga himself. We know that he comes from Bulgaria. It appears that his total goal is to create vampire brides – not caring to turn the menfolk and he has an interest in the occult. We find out nothing else.

After the truck scene we cut to a séance. A group of friends are trying to contact the recently departed mother of Donna (D J Anderson) and the séance is led by Yorga. It becomes readily apparent that the mother (Marsha Jordan) has been vampirised, we hear that she was Yorga’s lover and he persuaded Donna to have her buried rather than be cremated. Indeed we later see her as a vampire bride.

The séance ends when Donna freaks out, and is subsequently calmed by Yorga by hypnotising her (whilst giving her telepathic commands). Donna’s friend Erica (Judy Lang) seems fascinated by Yorga. She offers him brandy, which he refuses, and comments that he hasn’t eaten. I liked his answer to this, telling her he has a troubled stomach and suggesting he will have a bite later on. Erica and her boyfriend Paul (Michael Murphy) drive Yorga home. At the mansion/castle – I say this because we never really see the outside, but the inside is a full on castle design – we discover that he has a hirsute servant named Brudah (Edward Walsh) who guards the gate with a particularly vicious German Shepherd. The scene with the dog is fairly pointless other than to show that Yorga can quieten the dog with a glance as it never appears again. The couple are trying to leave but their camper van gets stuck in mud, despite the fact that it has not rained – Paul cannot understand were the patch of mud comes from. They stay in the van and there is some touchy feely. Later Paul nips out of the van and feels he is followed (which he is). They sleep and Erica awakens as the noise of insects and frogs outside becomes a cacophony. She opens a curtain and screams; Yorga is there in full vamp mode. He, unseen by Paul, knocks out the young man and then approaches Erica.

The next day she goes to see their doctor friend, Jim Hayes (Roger Perry). He realises that she has lost a lot of blood; she has strange elements in the blood that remains, which I mentioned earlier, and has marks on her neck. In the meantime Paul does not know who attacked him and knows that Erica remembers nothing but he confides in Michael (Michael Macready) that he thinks there is something strange about Yorga. He phones Erica. We see her feet shuffle through a messed up flat and the phone drop to the floor, worried, the boys race to check she is alright.

When we get there we get one of the disturbing scenes I mentioned, Erica munching on a kitten.

The film then follows the taking of the girls by Yorga and the battle of the boys to save her. There is a scene later on when Donna goes to Yorga and is caught by Brudah, he drags her off and lays above her. Later he begs Yorga for forgiveness. It is clear he has raped her but the scene is unnecessary. There is no plot functionality to the scene and its only purpose seems to be to shock.

Yorga is, eventually, staked and turns to dust (complete with finger drawn smiley face where the head would have been!) but the twist at the end of the movie is unfortunately visible a mile off.

All in all the acting is not bad, though it is a shame that Quarry does occasionally drift away into cheese. The main failing of the movie, however, is the fact that the plot is very simple yet seems to go nowhere due to lack of exposition into Yorga’s motivation, okay he is making brides but I felt there should be something more. Hayes suspects a vampire rather quickly though I liked his reticence to go to the police. There is a nice moment with his lady friend (Julie Conners) when he explains that he cannot call the police as they wouldn’t believe him. She tells him she would, if she were the police, as a baby has been found in the swamp with its neck ripped open and its body drained of blood. He therefore calls the police and is dismissed as a prank caller.

There is also a fantastic DIY Van Helsing scene as the heroes smash a chair and go at a broom to get stakes. Hayes asks Michael whether they have a cross and Michael replies negatively but then says he has cord so he will make some on the way to Yorga’s abode.

The scene when Yorga returns to Erica is wonderfully sensual, with Erica swept up in the vampire’s sensuality and we see as many bloody kisses as we see bites. I liked the fact that Yorga offered her eternal love rather than eternal life, though offer was perhaps a little bit of a misnomer as the vampire gave her no real choice. As for the brides, whilst they could speak (as we discover with Donna’s mother) they are rather animalistic, with grasping, long nailed hands and plenty of through fang hissing.

Unfortunately, this movie offered more than it actually delivered and I think I’m stuck with 5.5 out of 10.

Exclamation Mark has also reviewed the movie.

The imdb page is here.

Music: My Chemical Romance

I’ve only heard a few songs by My Chemical Romance, but what I have heard I’ve liked. Taken from their debut album, “I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love”, the track “Vampires will never hurt you” has very vampy lyrics indeed.


"Vampires Will Never Hurt You"

And if they get me and the sun goes down into the ground
And if they get me take this spike to my heart
And if they get me and the sun goes down
And if they get me take this spike and
You put the spike in my heart

And if the sun comes up will it tear the skin right off our bones
And then as razor sharp white teeth rip out our necks I saw you there
Someone get me to the doctor, someone get me to a church
Where they can pump this venom gaping hole
And you must keep your soul like a secret in your throat
And if they come and get me
What if you put the spike in my heart

And if they get me and the sun goes down
And if they get me take this spike and

(Come on!)

[Chorus]

Can you take this spike?
Will it fill our hearts with thoughts of endless
Night time sky
Can you take this spike?
Will it wash away this jet black feeling?

And now the nightclub sets the stage for this they come in pairs she said
We'll shoot back holy water like cheap whiskey they're always there
Someone get me to the doctor, and someone call the nurse
And someone buy me roses, and someone burn the church
We're hanging out with corpses, and driving in this hearse
And someone save my soul tonight, please save my soul

[Chorus]

Can you take this spike?
Will it fill our hearts with thoughts of endless
Night time skyCan you take this spike?
Will it wash away this jet black now?

(Come on!)

And as these days watch over time, and as these days watch over time
And as these days watch over us tonight
[x2]

I'll never let them, I'll never let them
I'll never let them hurt you not tonight
I'll never let them, I can't forget them
I'll never let them hurt you, I promise

Struck down, before our prime
Before, you got off the floor
Can you stake my heart? Can you stake my heart?

Can you stake my heart? Can you stake my heart?
(And these thoughts of endless night
bring us back into the light
and this venom from my heart)

Can you stake me before the sun goes down?
(And as always, innocent like roller coasters.
Fatality is like ghosts in snow and you have no idea what you're up against
because I've seen what they look like.
Becoming perfect as if they were sterling silver chainsaws going cascading...)

BBC - new version of Dracula

Marc Warren (pictured) and David Suchet are to star in a new BBC adaptation of Dracula. Executive producer Damien Timmer said "Stewart Harcourt’s extraordinary script introduces some bold new elements and unexpected twists to the Dracula legend. It’s emotionally hugely powerful and genuinely terrifying.”

More here.

Dr Who

The new run of Dr Who has proved very popular and has seen the timelord fight various incarnations of evil such as zombies (new season 1) who were corpses possessed by aliens and a werewolf (new season 2) also an alien entity. We’ve even seen creatures that looked like they came straight out of the Lovecraft copybook.

Now, according to this article the Doctor is due to face… vampires, the key phrase being "blood sucking alien Plasmavores" - sounds suspiciously like a vampire to me. This really shouldn’t come as a shock, however, as there have been two previous vampire storylines, “The Curse of Fenric” and “The State of Decay”. In fact, Dr Who lore states that the timelords great enemies were not daleks or cybermen but vampires.

Still, love the word plasmavore!

Vamp or Not? Deep Freeze

Regular visitor Zombiepunk asked me if I would do a Vamp or Not? feature about this movie and was good enough to get the DVD to me so that I could, which, given the quality of the movie, might make him a sadist! Seriously, however, I always appreciate the opportunity to watch a movie I haven’t seen, especially one that might be vampiric in nature, even if the movie turns out to be a turkey.

This film concerns something being awakened at a deep core drilling facility in the Antarctic and, therefore, I immediately made connections with The Thing, which this film does rip off shamelessly, as well as films such as Alien (monster stalks tunnels) and Ticks.

So why the Vamp or Not? Firstly the DVD box does say that they have “imported a vampire-like prehistoric menace that thrives on death and destruction on it’s quest for human blood.” Secondly because, if you shop on e-bay and do a search for vampire DVDs, ticking both title and description, you can find this film listed on your search. At that point it becomes worth an investigation, if for no other reason than to see if buyers should beware.

Essentially, below the ice, are giant trilobites, about the size of Labradors, which are attacking people. The DVD box says that they go for human blood, though that is not clear in the film, they certainly seem to eat people and we could hazard a guess that it is the blood they are going for. I’m going to refer to them in the plural as, though the film indicates only one is running about, it really isn’t that clear as you watch.

They are described as a worm/mosquito cross, though they look like big beetles and are further described as parasites. There is no evidence of intelligence, these things seem to run on instinct. Okay the lights get cut by one chewing through cables but there is no indication that the act is deliberate.

One wonders if they have been awakened, from a frozen hibernation, or if they live below the ice. The film doesn’t bother to tell us. If they lived below the ice then what did they feed on? As they are prehistoric in nature then why do they go for human blood, we were not around when they evolved?

To continue with the Alien movie theme, there is a giant one, which is reminiscent of the finding of the Alien Queen.

There is no reason why this should be classed as a vampire movie. The main evidence for blood drinking is from the DVD box and such blurbs are notoriously unreliable, let’s face it the box mentions the creatures being imported but they are not removed from the location they are found, all the ‘action’ takes place in the Antarctic. They are not intelligent and there is no supernatural element. This is a badly scripted, poorly executed movie with awful effects and worse acting… luckily this is one that will not sully the vampire genre. Not Vamp.

The imdb page is here.

Edward Gorey's Dracula

The artist Edward Gorey designed award winning sets and costumes for a Broadway production of Dracula. Those sets were reproduced as a toy theatre. Whilst looking through You Tube I discovered this marvelously put together animation using the sets. Many congratulations to those who put this together. More information on Gorey can be found here. In the meantime, enjoy.

The Norliss Tapes on DVD

Hot on the heels of my Kolchak reviews, I have discovered that Anchor Bay are to release The Norliss Tapes on DVD on 3rd of October. This is a US release with no sign of a UK release (why, Anchor Bay, why?).

For those who don't know the Norliss Tapes was a TV pilot for a series that never happened, produced and directed by Dan Curtis. Norliss is an investigative report who fails to turn up for a meeting. In his house are found a set of tapes, which make up the substance of the film and the proposed series.

In this Norliss investigates the mysterious affair of James Cort, a man given life beyond the grave in return for creating a statue of the evil God Sargoth out of clay infused with blood, a statue that will allow Sargoth a physical form in which to enter our world.

This is a film I've been wanting to see for awhile and I'm glad that its getting a DVD release.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker - “The Vampire” - review (TV Episode)

Director: Don Weis

Season 1, released 1974

Contains spoilers

Following the success of The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973), reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) received his own TV series. This, the fourth episode, saw Kolchak again face a vampire – although, this time, it was a female one. The series had moved to Chicago, but this episode takes place in Los Angeles, where Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) has, in a brilliant piece of manipulation by Kolchak, sent the reporter to do a piece on a guru. This sub-story provides much of the comedy of the episode as Kolchak misses his appointment for his interview, as he tracks down what he knows to be a vampire, and tries to get realtor Faye Kruger (Kathleen Nolan) to write his story.

The story starts with an air-stewardess getting a flat tyre somewhere in the Nevada region. She freaks as she sees a pair of hands shoot out of the floor, as you would. It is an excellent opening to the story and, perhaps, indicates that our vampire, Catherine Rawlins (Suzanne Charney) has been buried three years before she became active. It is certainly stated that whatever occurred to her to make her a vampire happened in Los Vegas, where she was working as a high class hooker, some three years earlier. I would have liked to have seen this tied firmly with the first film but that never happened, it was only intimated.

She has killed on her way to LA and Kolchak has his first run in with the law as he investigates one of these murders. The officer will not confirm puncture wounds on the throat of a victim found in his car but Kolchak certainly notices that the car windows have been taped, on the inside.

Catherine meets a man she has not seen for three years and goes back to his apartment and feeds on him. This is disturbed by his wife who happens to be her sister and she is despatched also. Kolchak goes to a press conference in the apartment where Lt. Jack Matteo (William Daniels) states that they have two suspects in custody, members of the Dark Star Satanist cult. When Kolchak goes back to the room later he finds the Lieutenant alone in there and tries to convince him that there is a vampire loose – to no avail. I actually thought it would be nice, in this episode, to have the police perhaps believe and co-operate with Kolchak and, unfortunately, the constant battle with the police gives this too much of a feel of the original film.

Kolchak realises that Catherine must be working as a hooker again, through a front company that poses as a catering firm. This leads to the nice line, when describing her pimp, that “in his parlance what he'd just hired was known as a fox. What he couldn't know is what he'd actually acquired had far more in common with the bat."

He tries to hire Catherine, drawing a cross on his hotel room door in lipstick and getting his personal cross and wooden stake out ready. The girl that turns up is not Catherine, however. She has been sent to a football player’s home. Kolchak arrives at the same time as his team-mates; Catherine is feeding and attacks the footballers, dispatching them with ease. Kolchak holds her off, until the police burst through the door and she escapes, by going DIY Van Helsing and making a cross out of a couple of pokers.

The police are not happy with Kolchak, what a surprise, and tell him to get out of town. Something he intends to comply with until he realises he can use Kruger to find out where Catherine lives. By the time they work it out it is night. He goes to the house anyway and is trying to break in when Catherine attacks. Holding her at bay with his cross he manages to run away and leads her to a most spectacular ending.

He has soaked a giant, hillside, wooden cross with gasoline, and made a circle of gasoline. When she reaches it he lights the fuel. The fire stops her escaping and the burning cross paralysis her. Before a stunned Lt Matteo he pounds a stake through her heart.

In the coda we discover that he has to pay for the cross to be replaced, it was a landmark, and had been charged with murder. Mysteriously he was released twelve hours later, perhaps down to the fact that the coroner’s report on Catherine stated that she had the cell structure of a human female who had been dead three years.

McGavin is excellent as Kolchak, though to a degree this episode misses out on the interaction with Vincenzo, which is so good. There are some telephone conversations between the pair, with Kolchak trying to make a bad line with a towel and electric razor but they’re not quite the same. The episode feels a tad too much like the original film, obviously because they are going over the same subject matter, and I would have liked to see a little more of a departure.

As for the vampire, whilst Charney looked good, I have to say that I was a little disappointed. Our vampire from the first film, Skorzeny, had a kind of cool that was severely lacking here. Catherine was much more frantic and was replete with a severe case of bad hissing. It was a shame as, especially given she was posing as a hooker, a much more seductive vampire could have been portrayed.

However, this is a great episode with a fabulous and spectacular finale. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page for the episode is here.

Bonus

Other episodes in the series that are not vampire episodes and yet have some degree (to a greater or lesser extent) of genre interest are as follows:

Episode 3 “They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be” – primarily a UFO episode where to avoid the problem of monster suits the alien is out of the range of human visual perception and therefore invisible. Worth noting, however, as the alien feeds on bone marrow sucked from its victim, thus a very vague genre connection.

Episode 10 “The Energy Eater” - again an invisible foe, though this time a Native American bear god which devours energy. Whilst primarily sucking the energy from electrical equipment as well as radioactive material, the creature does devour the proteins in plasma of a few humans, reducing the blood to almost nothing and killing the victim.

Episode 11 “Horror in the Heights” – co-starring the wonderful Phil Silvers, this is the tale of a Rakshasa. A Hindu evil spirit that, in this, took on the appearance of someone the victim trusted before killing them and eating the flesh from their body. Mentioned because sources such as The Vampire Encyclopedia list the Rakshasa as a type of vampire, though to my way of thinking it is more demonic in nature. The only way, in the episode, to kill one of these is by a crossbow bolt blessed by a priest of Brahma. Whilst it is not necessary to pierce the heart this carries a degree of the stake as well as the holy icon. Interestingly this was written by Jimmy Sangster, who penned the Horror of Dracula (1958) amongst others.

Episode 16 “Demon in Lace” - a succubus is killing young men by possessing the bodies of dead girls. I mention this episode due to the close connection between the succubi and vampire legends. Also rather interesting is the concept that the succubus in this is tied to an ancient tablet and can be destroyed by destroying the tablet. When Kolchak does this the succubus turns to dust, a method of destruction (turning to dust not breaking tablets) common, of course, within the genre.

Episode 19 “The Youth Killer” – victims are found drained of youth. The killer is Helen of Troy who uses sorcery, by sacrificing a person’s youth and beauty to Hecate in order that she might supplement her own, rather than an innate (super)natural ability but the concept of a vampire that drains youth, as opposed to life, has been explored in films such as Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter (1974). It must be said that this episode is criticized as being a rather poor one and, unfortunately, it is.

More on Netherbeast Incorporated

A little more on this, there is a homepage though there is little on it. Shooting runs between August 14th and September 3rd 2006 and the stars are:

Jason Mewes
Darrel Hammond
Dave Foley
Steve Burns
Robert Wagner
Amy Davidson &
Judd Nelson

New Film: Netherbeast Incorporated

According to starpulse Jason Mewes is to star in a new vampire flick called Netherbeast Incorporated.

The film is "a comic look at office politics through the eyes of a 200 year-old pencil-pushing vampire."