Ken Russell’s Dracula – review

Author: Ken Russell

Published: 2017 (3rd ed)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Written between Tommy and Altered States, Ken Russell’s screenplay for Dracula was one of Hollwood’s best kept secrets. It has been used to inspire two hit films and an internationally successful ballet. Ken Russell’s partially autobiographical re-imagining of Dracula is ready to inspire a whole new generation of artists.

The review: I do like a bit of Ken Russell, the auteur director made some magnificent films and some that might not be magnificent but are certainly memorable and fun. Here at TMtV we remember Russell for his content that touched into the vampire genre (and the history thereof). Gothic explored the party at Villa Diodati, which led to Polidori’s the Vampyre: a Tale. Lair of the White Worm was a vampiric renditioning of Bram Stoker’s novel and, according to Paul Sutton’s introduction in this book, was partially made because the production company couldn’t afford to make this treatment of Dracula. Lisztomania was one of Russell’s classical music orientated films (he was an expert on classical composers) that transforms Wagner into a vampire. Finally, his segment in Trapped Ashes featured vampiric boobs.

How I wish, however, that the list I have just given included his take on Dracula because, if this screenplay is anything to go by, it would have been magnificent (caveated, of course, that it would have changed shape during production and filming). Transposed to the 1920s this is a Dracula who is an artist (indeed he has been many of the great artists and has preserved many others as vampires) and, as such, his motivation has changed from Stoker’s Count but the story begins, as with Stoker, with Harker travelling to Transylvania.

However his coach trip is so very different; gypsies offering blood sacrifices, women fed on by vampire bats and a tussle with a werewolf coachman… or just a trick played upon an unwary traveller?

Dracula is aware of Lucy as she is a world-famous opera singer, dying of leukaemia, and so the motivation of both Dracula in vampirising her and her accepting him changes dramatically from the book. This is a telling of Dracula like no other and is all done with panache. The internal logic changes work so very well. We will never have Ken’s vision unfortunately (even if someone else made it as per this script, it wouldn’t be the vision Ken would have given us) but we do have his treatment and it’s a joy for Dracula and Russell fans alike. Necessary 10 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Path to the Key (Destruction of Magic) (Book 1) – review

Author: April Canavan

First published: 2017

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Magic is fading throughout the world and the supernatural realms can feel the strain growing daily, but Sarah doesn’t care about any of that. She cares about protecting her son from her vampiric ex-husband who is obsessed with gaining power. She’ll stop at nothing to ensure that Alex doesn’t get his hands on Jackson, even if it means welcoming more vampires and other supernatural beings into her life. Their journey takes her across the country, seeking the help of a witch that has invaded her son’s dreams. A vampire named Zander threatens to bring all of her carefully constructed walls crashing down. She’ll break every rule and every preconceived notion they have about her, as long as she can save her son and give him the future that was stolen from her. Sarah’s path connects to the very battle that she tries to avoid, and when she embraces not only her growing power, but also her destiny- she might be able to change the tides of fate.

The review: depending on what you think this book might be will, in my opinion, dictate how you find it. The book straddles the paranormal romance and urban fantasy genres. The thing is, despite some qualms around tying romance into abuse as often happens in the genre, the paranormal romance is simply a romance with (often sanitised) monsters. As such they are undemanding and, whilst there are certainly well written and interesting examples, the bar is set very low. Urban fantasy, on the other hand, is more demanding as a genre – despite being pulp in essence. Solid rules, thought out situations and a plea from me to stay away from your characters being the most important in the world (at least until book 11 in the series). The bar is higher.

Path to the Key is a solid paranormal romance. As a paranormal romance I can buy that vampire Sarah, who has just escaped an abusive relationship would jump the bones of her ex-husband's brother as she gets wrapped up in the romance of it all (as that is the raison d'être of the format) even if the fact that said ex-brother-in-law threatened death and was physically violent towards her just a few hours before makes it seem unreasonable as a character reaction if said genre was more demanding.

As an urban fantasy I was left a tad cold, I’m afraid. Let us begin with names. I could accept ancient characters changing names or modifying them to more modern versions as times move on. However, we had characters called Alex and Xander (twin brothers, why their names where essentially the same was beyond me) and Jonathon, all three thousand+ years old. Contemporary, to them, journals kept their names the same. It just became unviable in my mind, they were Anglicised – yes there was Alexander the Great but his name is Anglicised from Aléxandros – and modernised. Speaking of the journals, I assumed that the witch’s magic allowed Sarah (a modern American girl) to read them rather than being stumped by the ancient languages, so perhaps the magic modernised/anglicised the names as well – though the book doesn’t say so. The rules around these creatures seemed only loosely built and subject to the story rather than vice versa. We are dealing with the most powerful creatures in the world, apparently, who hold the fate of the world in their hands. That fate seems to be the death of magic – something the average non-magical creature would probably not really care about to be fair.

Despite these powerful creatures, I didn’t feel a sense of peril as I read the book, unfortunately. As it was, it became apparent that death doesn’t have to mean the end and so the lack of a sense of peril made sense. The urban fantasy side needed more building, I think, and it needed staging over a longer story. However, if I sound negative, it wasn’t the worst I have read and as a paranormal romance the book worked – hence if reading it as that I think you’ll get a solid slab of what you expect. 5 out of 10.

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (First cour) – review

Director: Daisuke Tokudo

First aired: 2015

Contains spoilers


This is the first twelve episodes of Seraph of the End, an anime that has a second part that runs for a further twelve episodes. The disc I got was a Malaysian release but for some reason I can’t find a release (on its own) of the second part from the same source and the western releases are expensive (to say the least).

This is a shame as I was very much taken by the animation – but rest assured I will get the second cour at some point.

terrified kids

So the first episode, as it opens, shows us the fall of humanity. A mysterious virus strikes making people drop dead. Cars crash, aircraft fall from the sky. We discover this virus only kills those aged thirteen or more and vampires come out of the shadows, rounding up orphans and taking them as livestock. Cut forward four years and we meet Yūichirō Hyakuya (Miyu Irino), known as Yu, and his friend Mikaela Hyakuya (Kenshô Ono), known as Mika. They are twelve year old kids held in the vampire city and live with a group of younger orphans.

Yu and Mika

Yu is quite the rebel and wants to be able to kill vampires – who are faster and stronger than humans. He is unhappy with Mika as he is offering his blood freely to a noble vampire called Ferid Bathory (Takahiro Sakurai). It turns out that it has been a ruse and Mika returns home with a map of the city and a gun. They decide to run away. They get close to the city entrance when Ferid appears. He plays this game often it seems, giving a sense of hope (in the form of escape) and stealing it away.

Ferid feeds

Ferid butchers the orphans and grabs Mika. Yu is able to shoot Ferid in the head (disabling but not killing him). Mika is dying and tells Yu to run, content that his friend, at least, has escaped. Outside it is winter and Yu falls through the snow where he is picked up by members of the Japanese Demon Army – the protectors of the last vestiges of humanity. The squad leader, Lt Col Guren Ichinose (Yûichi Nakamura) recognises Yu as the focus of a prophecy and offers him the chance to kill vampires.

killing a vampire

Cutting forward four years and a sixteen-year-old Yu disobeys orders and kills a Four Horseman of John (a demonic type of creature that appeared as the apocalypse happened). As punishment he is sent to school and must remain there until he makes a friend – having distanced himself from friends after the events of the escape. He does quickly, and accidentally, make a friend and ends up training to be able to claim a demon possessed weapon – as only cursed weapons can convincingly kill a vampire.

Seraph form

The rest of the first cour shows the squad of misfits he ends up in pulling together as a team and the beginning of a vampiric offensive against the humans. We discover that Mika is still alive, having been turned before he died by the vampire Queen Krul Tepes (Aoi Yuki). We also discover that there were a few children (we discover Yu for definite and Mika probably) who were not entirely human, having ten percent Seraph genes. At the end of this cour we see those genes temporarily usurp Yu’s body, making him wildly powerful. We don’t discover much vampire lore, though we do find out that not drinking blood will change the vampire into a mindless demon.

reunion

The series was good fun. A nice balance of characters and an interesting story that needs fleshing out but I am sure will be in the second cour. The score, as stands, is for the first cour only and I think 7 out of 10 is fair. I think fleshing the story out will add to the score. The imdb page is here.

Vampires Most Fowl

A little while back I published a blog post about Bovine Vampires, rare creatures to be sure, but out there nonetheless. In a comment on that post, blog friend Alex suggested that an article on vampire ducks might be in order.

This is not a leap, after all Howard the Duck took on both Dracula and Hellcow but, more importantly, Howard was turned into a vampire too – after being bitten by Dracula – Ahh you see, Marvel catered for all tastes it seems. If you want to read the comic in which Howard lived the life of a blood sucker then the blog the Wonderful World of Stupid have posted the whole comic here.

Drake-ula

Of course Disney had to get in on the act and not so long back we looked at the Duck Tales episode The Ducky Horror Picture Show in which we met the duck version of Dracula – Drake-ula. This duck vampire only bite apples, however, to keep his fangs in good working order. It should be mentioned that Loony Tunes also flirted with vampires, but Daffy Duck (to my knowledge) only wore fake vampire fangs (made by acme of course).

Duckula - villain

The most famous Duck vampire has to have been Count Duckula. He made his first appearance in the cartoon Danger Mouse in which he was comedic, inept, stage struck but very much a villain. Despite the fact that his weaknesses changed (in certain episode he burnt in the sun and others he did not) he certainly threatened to drink blood.

Duckula reimagined

When Duckula got his own series that ran three seasons (click for seasons one, two and three) he morphed from being the villain to the hero and the method was ingenious. Duckula could be resurrected, indeed there was a long line of Counts. In this incarnation there was a glitch (from a vampire point of view). Whilst henchman Igor conducted the ritual to resurrect his master he was passed a bottle of tomato ketchup rather than blood and the Count was reborn vegetarian, good and immune to much of the normal apotropaic things.

vampire cockerel

However it is not only ducks that become vampires. In a madcap moment during the film the First Vampire in China we get a vampire cockerel. The corpses in a certain burial area are put in a cliff face as the ground will turn corpses into vampires. To prove this, the Taoist master has a cockerel buried that a couple of sceptics dig up and, yes, it is a vampire. It manages to injure both, however, and pass on the vampirism. In their case it causes them to scratch at the floor, peck and crow. Sticky rice, however, manages to cure them.

Herschel the turkey vampire

Now, you might be thinking that this is all well and good – and somewhat amusing (perhaps) – but wondering why I would post this on Christmas day. Ahh, but there is method in my madness as we have still to look at the film Blood Freak a film that features a vampire turkey. Yes indeed lead character Herschel becomes a turkey-headed vampire who slits throats so that he can drink his victims' blood (probably because his papier-mâché beak wasn’t up to piercing necks). Remember Herschel, dear reader, as you tuck into your turkey dinner (vegetarians, of course, are saved this delight). An awful film, indeed a real turkey.

And there we have it… vampire fowls.

Blood Freak – review

Directed by: Brad F Grinter & Steve Hawkes

Release Date: 1972

Contains spoilers

I sat and watched this film expecting a turkey. Not a turkey of a film (well actually I did) but an actual turkey. You see this is a ham-fisted attempt at a pro-Christian, anti-drugs message, in a horror film format, where the horror surrounds a blood drinking turkey-man. Okay, let’s have a look at why it is vamp before I go on.

Where man turned into human/turkey hybrids by experimental drugs are not your normal vampire film, the film is listed on filmographies as a vampire movie. The creature does drink blood, turning into a turkey is part of the nagual myth – which is a Mexican evil sorcerer who does drink blood and, well damn it all, I wanted to give this a score. So vamp it is, review it gets.

The film is narrated by a man – I’m sorry the credits are few and far between – who mumbles on about choices and consequence. He appears through the film and helps push the anti-drugs message. Amusing as towards the end he is hacking real well due to the cigarettes he chain smokes whenever he is on screen.

The film itself concerns Herschell (Steve Hawkes), a Vietnam vet who stops to help a woman, Angel or Angela – the sound was awful, with a car problem. She takes him to a party that her sister Ann is throwing. Angel is a bible reading, anti-drugs person (who works in a rehab clinic) and, as Ann is into her drugs, she has Herschell promise not to take anything.

Ann likes Herschell and wants him to take drugs, but he refuses. He leaves with Angel and gets offered a job on her dad’s poultry farm. Ann is determined to get her man and is given some instantly addictive drugs by a dealer named Guy, who wants to get Herschell as he insulted his girl. By suggesting he is a coward, Ann manages to get Herschell to take the drugs and they end up in bed.

Over at the poultry farm they are experimenting with chemicals for the turkeys (presumably to get them to grow bigger or faster or something). They need to human test the turkeys by having someone eat the flesh and so get Herschell to eat a turkey for some extra cash. He does, collapses and convulses, so the scientists ditch his body. The addictive drugs and experimental drugs are clearly reacting together.

Ann wakes up and sees… A giant papier-mâché turkey head. She screams, but the Turkey man passes her a note telling her it is Herschell (as he can now only gobble). Oh, that’s all right then but… what would happen if they married, what would the children think, what would they look like… I kid you not, these are her first concerns.

So that is it, in a nutshell. Herschell did not put his faith in God and did take drugs (plus eat experimentally chemical laced turkey) and is now a giant turkey headed man with, it seems, a taste for blood. There is some vague indication that he is going for drug users and dealers, perhaps for the drugs in their system. However that is inconclusive.

So, how does he feed? Does he stick them with his giant beak? Of course not, a papier-mâché beak isn’t up to it. What he does is string his victim upside down, slits their throat with a knife and then catches the blood in his cupped hands to drink. Of course, it ll makes perfect sense.

It is an ideal time to talk about the effects at this point. The papier-mâché head is bad. So is the blood, as I didn’t realise that blood was pink rather than red, perhaps that is the key – he’s aiming for people with milkshake in their veins! He also cuts a man’s foot off with a circular saw and to see the blood pumping out of a clearly plastic prosthetic was terrifying!

Can he die? Yes, but not by being stabbed in the eye – the closest we get to a staking. How would you kill a turkey? Decapitation is the order of the day and this is where many modern sensibilities will be repelled by the film as this is represented by the decapitation of an actual turkey. Yes, it happens all the time, no, it shouldn’t happen for entertainment. An animal was clearly harmed in the making of this film.

The film is a mess. The dialogue is awful and doesn’t quite escape from the uniformly poor performances. Lines are tripped over and there isn’t an emotion in the house. It is a preposterous idea which then sinks into a nonsense of preachy messages. I am giving this 1 out of 10, for the sheer fact that you’ve never seen anything like it and it is honest in the fact that it is about a turkey and is a turkey.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK