Taliesin meets the vampires

Tomb of the Werewolf – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Director: Fred Olen Ray

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

As well as directing guilty pleasure the Lair, Fred Olen Ray directs some right twaddle. On the other hand, Spannish horror icon Paul Naschy has made a career out of becoming a werewolf (amongst other things) films and amongst Naschy’s excursions as the cursed Waldemar Daninsky is Werewolf Shadow, which was directed by the great León Klimovsky. It seems a shame then that this reimagining of the Daninsky story should be created by an old hack like Ray.

Typically, like many of Ray’s productions, the cast is peppered with actors more famous for porn roles – indeed Ray’s films do seem to fluctuate between B horror movies and softcore porn. This film starts with a girl (Jenna West) bound to a tree as she is approached by Elizabeth Bathory (Michelle Bauer, who we last saw in Morgana). Bathory summons the devil (Brian Carrillo) and told that she must make sacrifices to Satan and, for immortality and to maintain her looks, she must bathe in their blood. She slices the girl’s throat and rubs her face in blood.

Modern day. We see the end of the show Current Mysteries, hosted by Melanie Charles (Danielle Petty). Watching it are Melanie and one of the shows producers, Tony (Leland Jay). He is called to a meeting by studio executive Gilchrist (Don Donason). Before he goes there is just time for a quick sex session – I mention because the fast cut away before any action actually took place didn’t jar with this scene, it further established the two as a couple. However every subsequent, gratuitous, sex scene (straight and lesbian) fast cut away before we actually saw much more than a breast – as though Ray was (strangely) embarrassed to add such scenes in and yet needing to simulate a Euro-sexploitation. Actually it was atypical softcore 'titilation' but nevertheless it jarred.

Tony is introduced to Richard Daninsky (Jay Richardson). He is the last of the Daninskys and has just inherited the European castle. There is talk of the castle containing a treasure and so Daninsky has brought a book with the family history. The idea is that Current Mysteries will go to the castle, with a psychic investigator, and film an episode looking for the treasure. Tony takes the book home and Melanie starts to read it and we get a cut scene back into the life of Waldemar Daninsky and his bride Eleanor (Stephanie Bentley).

Waldemar and Eleanor were deeply in love but then she was struck down with the Black Death. Waldemar was approached by Bathory who stated that she could save Eleanor – for a price. She demanded a kiss and bit Waldemar’s lip. That night, as he watched his beloved (who seemed not much better, to be honest) the full moon shone and he transformed into a werewolf. He killed Eleanor.

Tony and Melanie arrive at the castle and meet up with their crew, Christie (Jacy Andrews), Leslie (Beverly Lynne) and Steve (Frankie Cullen). They also meet creepy house keeper Elizabeth… yes Bathory herself is the housekeeper. After the obligatory lesbian scene, cut short as described above, the filmmakers and Richard settle down to dinner. Then psychic Amanda arrives and we can clearly see that she is Eleanor returned.

As Elizabeth leads Richard to the castle crypt, to show him a secret, Amanda dreams of Waldemar. She dreams of him hunted, in wolf form, and captured by a mob. Of him imprisoned and then killed by having a silver cross stuck through his heart… For those not au fait with the Naschy films' general lore, werewolves can be killed, rather like vampires, by putting a silver cross through the heart. Remove the cross and they come back to life, unless the cross was wielded by one who truly loves the werewolf.

So, Richard is in the crypt and Elizabeth gets him to open up Waldemar’s tomb and there is said silver cross. She tells him to remove it but, when he refuses, she gets him to look at her necklace – which turns out to be a hypno-necklace! He takes out the cross and faces away from the tomb so doesn’t see Waldemar coming back to life (with fresh blood at his hairy old mouth, at that). Of course Richard is wolf food. So… the wolfman is up and at ‘em and Bathory is going to need one of her special baths sooner rather than later. Our intrepid film crew is in all sorts of trouble.

Of course, Bathory is our focus and there isn’t too much lore to give you – except one really weird bit. She bathes in blood (and also licks it up) and is clearly immortal. Because Daninsky killed Eleanor she is stuck at the castle (this isn’t further explained but I’m guessing that as the reward for his soul wasn’t paid – ie Eleanor getting better – it screwed the deal) until he gives Satan 6 souls, and he had killed 6 by the time she says that. The weird lore is surrounding the hypno-necklace as it turns out that pulling the necklace off makes her eyes glow, electricity spark and her blow up!

The film is poor, badly acted, had little to no atmosphere and a story that – despite some meandering – has been done several times before and much more competently within the Naschy back catalogue. Naschy himself has little to do in human form, just lurking around in the background and looking much older than the portrait of him that hangs in the castle. It was a waste of a man who three years later absolutely proved that he still had it, in the excellent short the Vampyre. I do have to say, however, that Michelle Bauer has aged very well indeed and looks absolutely fine in this.

The bottom line is, if you want to watch a Waldemar Daninsky story then go for one of the European productions and avoid this straight to DVD monstrosity. 1 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Changeling – Dark Moon – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:14:00 +0000

Author: Steve Feasey

First Published: 2009

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Can Trey Laporte control his killer instinct?

First he discovered that he was a werewolf.

Then he joined forces with wealthy vampire Lucien Charron in a battle against the evil powers of the Netherworld.

Now Lucien lies in a coma and his gorgeous daughter wants her dad back. Trey is the only one who can save Lucien’s life.

But to succeed he must face his biggest challenge yet: a portal to the Netherworld, an Icelandic zombie, an evil sorceress, and Trey’s nemesis, the dark vampire Caliban.

The Review: Normally I don’t like to miss books out from a series, I’m a stickler for trying – whenever possible – to reading books in order. I have not, however, read the first book of Changeling but as I got the opportunity to get this book for free from Amazon – on their vine review programme – I launched into this with no pre-knowledge of the ongoing story.

This in itself is a test of a book as one then wonders whether the author will make the book accessible to a new reader not already invested in his series. I had no problem getting up to speed with the story or the lore behind this book but found myself facing some, in places, rather clumsy editing.

There is a section that discusses Gwendolin, the mother of primary character Alexa, and we become confused as to what the author is trying to say as it appears that Alexa both knows her to be alive and thinks her dead. In another part of the book a passing character (of no plot consequence) changes name from Liam to Brian and back and forth over a couple of pages. As I say, sloppy editing and one wonders, given that this is printed by a larger publisher, why they feel poor editing can be overlooked in a children’s book.

For make no doubt, this is a children’s book and if it failed, for me, it was because it remained at that level and didn’t straddle the nuances that separate children’s fiction and adult’s fiction. However I did feel it was probably (editing aside) a book that someone in the actual target audience might enjoy.

As for vampire lore we get very little. We do discover that vampires can mist, or move at such a speed that they seem to vanish from one place and reappear in another and that whilst they can rapidly heal, a bite from one of their own kind might often be deadly and it is a festering wound – from instance Caliban bit Lucien (in the previous volume) and that injury has the good vampire trapped in a coma. Luckily there is an artefact that can heal netherworld creatures.

All in all, probably fine for the kids, adults will find it lacking in character believability and more sophisticated nuances, plus Macmillan need to check their editing processes. 4.5 out of 10 reflects a low level mediocrity generally and I may have been generous.

The Twilight Zone – Red Snow – review (TV episode)

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Release date: 1986

Contains spoilers

In this episode segment of the Twilight Zone, from season 1, we find ourselves in the USSR, travelling with one Col. Ulyanov (George Dzundza who you might recall from Salems Lot) of the KGB. As things begin we see him intercepting a dissident who has banned books and a letter to his mother. Ulyanov tells him he will end up in a gulag and yet, when everyone moves on, he posts the letter to the man’s mother.

Along with young agent Vladimir (Andrew Divoff) they meet with the Minister (Rod Colbin). Vladimir argues that exile to the gulag is too lenient and the man should be executed and the Minister agrees. When the younger man leaves the room the Minister explains that the young man has many friends in high places and passes Ulyanov a file about two party members dying in a gulag in Siberia. Ulyanov has cultivated no friends in high places, no one knows the real man just his efficiency – he is to go to Siberia to investigate the deaths.

It is midday when he arrives and the town is in darkness, wolves howl in the snowy forest. He is met by Party Secretary Povin and taken to the inn. The band stop playing as he enters and he announces that Moscow has forbidden the playing of gypsy music and so they must cease playing it – next time they are in Moscow. This seems to break the ice but a man, Titov (Vladimir Skomarovsky), calls them party snobs as they go past him. Povin remembers himself and introduces Mayor Titov. Titov wonders why he would investigate, one man was ripped apart by wolves the other cut his own throat.

Ulyanov arranges to meet Povin in an hour and steps outside. He sees a woman and asks her name, she seems familiar. She is Valentina (Victoria Tennant) an exile, but she says he wouldn’t know her. He meets Povin and, after a while, gets her file. According to that she was exiled by Stalin – 50 years before. Povin suggests that she is the original Valentina’s daughter. He checks the frozen body of the ‘suicide’ and – despite being in ice – realises that there is no blood in the cut on his throat – it was done posthumously. The other body has already been sent South.

Having realised that the supposedly abandoned church seems to be being used, he looks at where the bodies were found. He hears wolves and then it sounds like someone is in trouble. He runs to find a fanged Valentina feeding upon the wolf. He flees from the scene and is smacked round the head by a piece of wood, wielded by someone unseen. He wakes up in a room with Titov watching over him. The mayor suggets that he ran into a branch, in the dark, but Ulyanov is not fooled – he voices his suspicion, vorvolaka, and insists on seeing in the church.

The church is filled with coffins but they are empty. They are empty because it is dark, says Valentina who enters with a group. Povin has been turned – at his own request – and the human Titov explains that the vampires came during the war, exiles from their own land. They were feared and hunted at first but then the human exiles realised they had more in common than not. Now they protect them in the church during the summer and the vampires protect them during winter from the wolves and the occasional brigand. Valentina wants to kill the KGB man, though Titov thinks he could be sympathetic. It ends up with Titov and Ulyanov running from the church.

They are in the woods when they are attacked by wolves. The vampires come but too late for Titov. Ulyanov gives up but points out the vampires have no safe haven any more, Moscow will send more and more investigators and they will eventually win, they always do. He is a man resigned and Valentina suddenly realises the measure of the man who has tried to fight the system from inside but has been worn down. She offers him the power to fight back. When we see him next he is in Moscow again and he has told the minister the agreed line that the two were killed by Titov, but he has been eliminated. When the Minister leaves the room Ulyanov reveals fangs.

And that was the whole of the segment but it was worth relaying in totality because it was an excellent little story, set in the USSR and very well acted by all concerned. Indeed, one feels that the story could have been easily stretched to a feature. There was enough within it to have been of interest for longer. Worth catching 7 out of 10.

The episode's imdb page is here.

:)Q

Musical Interlude

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:52:00 +0000

The show Key of Awesome is part of Barely Political .com and every week there is a new music video.

This week they are singing about Twilight and the video is embedded below for your entertainment.

A bit of plugging…

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Issue 5 of the always entertaining Ethereal Tales has just been released.

Also the Ethereal Tales audio book is now out and available. It includes my story, Setting the Record Straight, a revisionist look at Dracula. My story was wonderfully read by Sascha Cooper and at three cds in length the audio book is great value (and has a few other vampire tales on it).

Both the new zine and audio book (as well as back issues of Ethereal Tales) can be purchased from Cute n Creepy.

The Flemish Vampire – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Director: R Kan Albay

Release date: 2006

Contains spoilers

It is always nice to discover the more obscure vampire movie and, to be honest, this Belgium vampire flick is pretty darn obscure – at least over here in the UK – being the first Flemish vampire movie (according to the DVD case). The film tries to do something a little unusual with the genre – kudos for that – unfortunately it also manages to fall flat on its face, as we shall see.

The film begins with a written explanation in respect of Vlad Tepes and hints that Tepes, after fighting the Turks and being betrayed by the West, led an army of vampires on a bloody rampage. Pope Pius 2nd, King Charles and Sultan Mehmet 3rd met and formed a secret alliance to destroy his evil. The three men who came along with Mehmet were djinns – they never returned home.

After this we are in the modern day and we see various people who, to be honest, seem to have little to do with each other at first. We see a vet named Frank (Miel Heirbaut). We see a young woman who, much later we discover, is named Anne (Monica Verhofstadt) and is the daughter of Frank and Ursula (Angel Van Saet). We also notice that some of the exposure is overly bright and this is not good.

We see Frank return to his surgery, where he receives a phone call asking him details about vampire bats – I guessed by his son for a thesis. We also see what appears (and turns out to be) preparation for a play. In the actual theatre are Tony (Brahm Shah), Veronique (Sofie Dykmans) and Jack (Youri De Bruyn). Outside the door people cannot get in as the door appears to be locked. There is an understudy (Victor Zaidi) who will take on the role of the baron in the play – we see him at home. The play is about vampires and angels.

The film cuts back in time and we see a man, Johan (Sven De Rider). His wife seems possessed, his father fears the worst and has called for a friend – whom we see approach the house, with a companion. When the friend reaches the house they go to see the woman. He holds up a cross and she reacts, fanged, to it. The cross is also a stake and he quickly despatches her.

Back to the present and we discover that Anne and Veronique are lovers. Anne has not told her father yet and Veronique is impatient as she wants them to live together. We also discover that Tony wears a Muska – a pendant to protect him from djinn. It seems that he came from a village where belief in djinn was very real and tells that stabbing a dagger into the ground, where a djinn has stood, will immobilise them. Djinn can only be killed when possessing a human.

So, Ursula lets slip about Anne being gay and Frank goes nuts. He calls homosexuality a disease, wants Anne to have medical treatment and is trying to call her, but she is in rehearsals and hangs up on him. Ursula distracts him with her womanly wiles but pulls a dog tag with a cross on it from his neck. This seems to set a train of events off – starting with a mirror smashing, of its own volition, downstairs. We start cutting back in time and discover that the friend, who killed the vampire, was one of the djinn and that he surrendered to Vlad in order that he might die. Frank, in the present, goes to see Anne and tries to wear the dog tag again. However the cross on it burns his hand.

We are really quite far into the film now but we finally get to the crux of matters. Frank is Vlad. He has started passing time by becoming younger, marrying a woman and convincing himself that he is mortal. He lives his own deception. Anne – being his daughter – has her own vampirism awaken when his does (being of his blood). She attacks Veronique – though later we discover that she can chose who will rise as an undead and who will remain dead after she attacks.

The understudy is the last remaining djinn. The djinn goes through life, sleeping in a mortal body and only awakening when Vlad is near. The film seems to culminate in their confrontation but it is disappointing as it is two middle aged men unhappy with each other and issuing threats, with the djinn immobilised. As for Vlad/Frank – well he gets a funky eye and face thing going on, sparingly used it has to be said. Crosses burn and ward – because vampires believe they will – the mirror smashing seemed to be a nod to standard mirror lore and a stake through the heart will kill.

The film hits several problems but lets start with the biggest – it goes nowhere slowly. The filmmakers came up with a brilliant concept of a vampiric Vlad and djinn hunting him but actually the film meanders along, sometimes surreally as we see the play and sometimes rather boringly as we get lost in the minutia of things such as a broken lock (to get to the stage area) that served little purpose. Aspects such as Frank’s homophobia, for instance, added nothing to the film except to make a plot reason for him going to the theatre. There is little pace and less atmosphere. Even in the past flashbacks the atmosphere is lacking, despite the unusual colours used in the photography.

The sound is another issue – dialogue sank into the background, becoming lost at times. It seemed a microphone issue, a problem from when the sound was recorded, and felt amateurish. Even though I was watching with subtitles (as I don’t speak Dutch) this annoyed me. The acting is nothing special and the entire thing becomes a good base idea, looking for a purpose and failing to find said purpose. The flashes to the past seemed unnecessary, though eventually the point was made (that there was only one remaining djinn). I mentioned the surrealism and whilst the film is surreal, in places, it felt like a self conscious effort to add weirdness to the film to try and disguise a lack of narrative.

I’ll give this 3 out of 10 – as I appreciate the idea that lay at the heart of this film, its just a shame it never really made the most of the opportunity.

The imdb page is here.

Weird Vampire Tales – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:37:00 +0000

First published: 1992 (collection)

Editors: Robert Weinburg, Stefan R Dziemianowicz & Martin H Greenberg

Contains spoilers

Weird Tales was an American pulp magazine first published in 1923. This is a collection of vampire stories taken from EDIT: this and similar magazines and was recommended to me by regular visitor and friend of the blog Anthony Hogg.

There are thirty stories in all and, I must admit that I found the first couple a little bit of a slog but this was due to the use of phonetics within the dialogue to simulate accent. However, this is a minor quibble as the volume as a whole didn’t follow such a line, plus it contained some fascinating stories and some great lore. I, personally, was struck by some of the sci-fi/vampire crossovers and found at least one story I might consider adapting to audio drama script – at some point in the future. Adaptation of stories is nothing new, of course, and in the volume you will find Everill Worrell’s The Canal, which was the basis of the Night Gallery episode Death on a Barge.

I do not intend to go over every story in the volume but do want to look at a few favourite moments.

Edmond Hamilton’s story Vampire Village, which was published under the pen name Hugh Davidson, contains a nice idea. We know that in Dracula there is the concept that on the Eve of St George’s Day all evil holds sway. Hamilton wonders as to why it would be said that vampires would walk on this night, as they can walk on any night? The answer; it is not the normal vampires at large. All over Transylvania are vampires bound within their graves by the actions of the clergy. On that night all of them can rise from the grave, breaking the bonds that bind them for just one night of the year.

In a visual medium, as far as I know, it was Dan Curtis who brought the concept of the reincarnated love into the vampire genre as a main theme in Dark Shadows. I, the Vampire by Henry Kutner is a much earlier written example of the concept being used – dating back to 1937.

Return of the Undead, by Frank Belknap Long and Otis Adelbert Kline, is about a practical joke that goes horribly wrong but has the interesting concept that it is dangerous to look at a vampire right after it has feasted and thus the stake should be thrust through the coffin lid and into the vampire.

Stragella, by Hugh b Cave, has the idea that a tattooed crucifix could ward a vampire and Robert Bloch’s The Cloak was clearly a prototype for the vampire section in the portmanteau film the House the Dripped Blood - especially when we realise that Bloch wrote (that section of) the film's screenplay. When it was Moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman has Edgar Allen Poe as a central character and William Tenn uses science, and a blood substitute, to enable vampires and humans to coexist, long before True Blood, in She Only Goes Out at Night.

This is a fascinating look into some of the more obscure areas of the genre. Yes it is pulp, but pulp can be very entertaining and very genre defining. Recommended as a collection, 8 out of 10.

Vamp or Not? Jennifer’s Body

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:41:00 +0000

So Halloween night and I went to a preview of Jennifer’s Body – which, given it was Halloween, was very poorly attended but perhaps the movie going public were down the corridor in the re-showing of American Werewolf in London.

Now it was always my intention, once I'd seen Jennifer’s Body, to do a ‘Vamp or Not?’ When it first started appearing on the radar there was a teaser poster that was clearly rather reminiscent of the branding used for True Blood.

Now, on the surface this isn’t vamp, it is demon. Jennifer (Megan Fox) is taken by an indie band and sacrificed to Satan in order that their dreams of superstardom might come true. Unfortunately they believe her to be a virgin – a supposition that, whilst confirmed by her friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and by Jennifer herself, is very far from the truth. The film creates lore that, if a virgin sacrifice happens to not be a virgin, those conducting the ritual will still get their boon (so Satan is rather uncharacteristically generous in this film) but a demon will inhabit the soul of the sacrifice.

Now we have a person killed and brought back due to a merger – if you like – of her soul with a demon. Actually such a demonic basis for vampires does have precedent, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for instance. Clearly Jennifer is now undead and has also developed cannibalistic tendencies – so what is that all about? Jennifer must eat human flesh – though, whilst they say that, when we actually see her feasting we actually see her cupping her hands into a ripped open midriff and supping.

Remember that many versions of the vampire myth have the consumption of flesh as well as, or rather than, simple blood drinking. Jennifer does develop a maw of fangs when she attacks and ties the attacks in with sexuality – though she also seems to thrive on the victim's fear and hopelessness. The cannibalistic act makes her indestructible, she burns her tongue and cuts her arm purposefully at different moments and both injuries heal instantly. It also makes her look at her absolute best. When hungry her skin pales, she gets dark shadows round her eyes and her hair becomes limp and lifeless. The feeding maintains her undead state and, whilst she doesn’t wait too long between feeds, we can assume a continuing decay if she didn’t.

There is a point in film when Jennifer tries to eat a (cooked) chicken and hurls black demonic bile – why that was the case isn’t actually explored in detail, so we can only assume that normal food is now off the menu. Getting back to blood, there seems to be a psychic connection between Jennifer and Needy (certainly during one kill) and this may be down to the fact that Jennifer pricked her finger as a young child and Needy removed the tack and sucked the blood from the puncture; a scene designed to show the birth of their friendship but with a blood element included.

There is a funky eye thing going on, but that could tie in with a variety of supernatural creatures. We get a further power of levitation as well as a definite neck bite. She can be killed – though this is easier when she is hungry. To kill a demon you must stab the host through the heart – okay, that is straight out of the vampire handbook! We also discover that should someone be bitten by a demon and survive, the survivor gains some demon like powers – such as levitation and super strength. Thus we have the transference of power, which whilst not full turning is again rather vampire genre.

The film does not use the V word, at all. It does use ‘Demon’ and also (but this seemed irrelevant) ‘succubus’. However the basic lore this creates is rather vampire genre reminiscent and whilst screenwriter Diablo Cody might have been trying to not write a vampire genre screenplay, it is essentially what she did. This brings us to the question of was the film any good? A lot of the criticism I have heard levelled against the film was within the dialogue and the fact that no real person speaks in the ‘youth speak’ way portrayed. The dialogue was delivered naturally enough by the principle leads but it did stick out like a sore thumb as being unnecessarily trying to be clever and failing to capture anything like real youth speak. That said I could live with it (and it did provide moments of humour). Unfortunately there was also a tendency for the script to be too self-aware, too obsessed with being clever for clever’s sake.

It did seem to me that, for a film named Jennifer’s Body about a character who clearly (as a character) didn’t mind getting naked, we saw very little of Jennifer’s Body. The horror moments within the film seemed somewhat too sparse also – probably because rather than being a straight horror it tries to be something more. It was nice to have some consequences shown, not only larger consequences but also scenes of Needy mopping up the black demonic bile, for instance, and being left with stains around her nails the next day.

This wasn’t the best film I have seen – not by a long shot – but it was alright and it definitely steals its essence from the vampire genre. The imdb page is here.

Scary Godmother – Halloween Spooktakular – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Directed by: Ezekiel Norton

First aired: 2003

Contains spoilers

Halloween is the most wonderful time of the year and this was a Halloween TV animation staring the Scary Godmother (Tabitha St. Germain) and based on a series of children’s books by Jill Thompson. I’m not too aware of the books, but I believe they are aimed at the 4-8 age bracket and the film itself lends itself very much to a children’s audience. However, it is short and cute enough to allow an adult 48 minutes of indulgence.

We start off with the big kids meeting to go trick or treating. There is Katie (Brittney Irvin) dressed as a cat, Darrel as a sweet, Burt as a baseball player in an SUV. They are waiting for Jimmy, dressed as the devil, who has to bring his younger cousin Hannah (Britt McKillip). He’s not happy about this and arranges a prank to get rid of her.

Hannah is scared of monsters – there is a marvellous flashback moment to her leaving for the evening, with the kids acting out the flashback – and Jimmy tells her about the spook house, an abandoned house where monsters live and the new kid has to put candy in the basement to appease them. She enters the house and they trap her in, to scare her, but her tears summon the Scary Godmother who takes her to the Fright Side to meet her monster friends.

Once there she meets the skeleton in the closet – Skully Pettibone (Scott McNeil) – one of Scary’s housemates. Scary and her friends are throwing a Halloween party and the first to arrive is Harry (Gary Chalk) an ostentatious werewolf with a greedy side and little control over his canine instincts. The film cuts in and out of the Fright Side and the real world, as Jimmy and his friends wait for Hannah to come screaming out of the house and, so, they subsequently miss Halloween.

No missing Halloween for Hannah, however, as the next guests arrive. They are the Count Max (Scott McNeil) and his family – Ruby (Tabitha St. Germain), his wife, and Orson (Adam Pospisil), their son. They arrive (Scary suggests to Hannah that she should not feel intimidated; not referencing the fact that they are vampires but that they are royalty) but do not enter. Scary remembers that they need to be invited in – Hannah thinks this makes vampires very polite.

Scary tells Max and his clan to help themselves to food and they hiss over Hannah until it is pointed out that she is a friend not a snack. Orson and Hannah, however, quickly begin to get on and it is revealed that vampires sleep in coffins and can fly. Later, when asked if he would like a drink, Max asks for a “bloody Mary, hold the Mary”.

Beyond this we get several vampire orientated gags and lines. Max is upset with Ruby’s dress as you can nearly see her ankle – in his day vampire Queens dressed like Queens. He and Ruby like to neck and he has a great line in eye mojo – something he uses on Harry to shut the werewolf up… fine until he snaps his fingers and accidentally breaks the spell. When they later order pizza they cannot have garlic on it but they do like a blood topping.

The last to arrive is Bug-a-boo (Gary Chalk), the monster under the bed. He really freaks Hannah out and then ends up upset when he discovers that her fears are due to Jimmy telling her that monsters eat kids (why, he asks, would he eat his clients). Later we discover that Jimmy is on his work route – so big kids can be scared. They make friends over pizza and then the monsters conspire to scare the bejeezus out of Jimmy and his friends – teaching them a lesson.

The animation in this is a wonderful mix of quite blocky drawn animation mixed with 3D computer animation and the combination works really well. The voice acting is good but this perhaps misses a darker heart that an adult would look for generally and is rather simplistic. However, it is short enough to overlook that and for the kids this would be a marvellous Halloween short film. 6 out of 10 for the target audience.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy

Two years after the first feature a second Scary Godmother animation was created, again directed by Ezekiel Noron. As you will be able to tell, by the fact that I have made this an ‘Honourable Mention’, this one doesn’t have as much of an appearance of Count Max, Ruby and Orson (in this voiced by Richard Warke). They are there but play a less central role or, at least, they are much less on the centre stage this time around.

The idea is that it is one year on. The big kids have all decided that the monsters seen the year before were actually bigger kids trying to give them a scare – which they deserved due to their actions against Hannah – and have now befriended Hannah. All, that is, except Jimmy who now fears Halloween as he knows the monsters will come again.

Hannah, on the other hand, is really excited about the approaching holiday, is decorating her room and generally getting ready for a great night. This involves going over to the Fright Side to get cobwebs from Scary Godmother – using a key she was given (in the first feature) that opens a portal to that Halloween orientated realm. It is whilst over there she meets Orson and his parents again.

They are just passing by, on the way to the shops, and Ruby wants to know if Scary Godmother wants anything. Orson is so excited to see Hannah that he rushes into the house, forgetting that he needs to be invited. We see him repelled by a barrier that is interesting, lore wise, as it is clearly elastic and also because this seems to indicate that vampires need inviting on each visit.

However, all does not go smoothly as Jimmy decides to destroy Halloween. This takes the form of pumpkin smashing, then candy and costume destroying and finally redecorating the spook house with toilet paper. Each time he does something it seems Halloween is wrecked – until Hannah comes up with a solution – and this starts destroying the Fear Side. At one point Max gains a heartbeat, and the whole family become pink of flesh (and coloured of hair) - a real case of being human!

The film is more referential than the first film (given that the first one wasn’t really referential, to be fair) and so we get a Star Wars moments with a projection to Hannah of Scary Godmother ala Leia’s Hologram in “A New Hope”, we get an Aliens exclamation (Game over, man) and also we get a house on witch moment reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz. Such references makes this a tad more fun for an adult audience than the last film but, more importantly, the target audience will find it just as entertaining.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mentions: Trick r Treat

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:47:00 +0000

This film is down as 2008, so why we have had to wait a year to get to see this little gem is somewhat beyond me. An Anthology film with a variety of stories it follows a pattern more in keeping with, say, Creepshow 3 in that it interweaves the various stories.

The film also carries a graphic novel sensibility that works well, and displays it stories in a non-linear fashion. A new horror icon, Sam (Quinn Lord), is also introduced and his presence holds the stories together.

Of course we are looking at vampires and a woman and a cloaked and masked figure are getting it on in an alleyway, off from the main town street where the Halloween parade is in full swing. She is filled with passion at first, but when she realises that she is bleeding from her neck, the blood dripping down her arms, she panics. Even more so when she sees the fangs he reveals.

She runs into the parade, actually into a pair of characters from another story – Henry (Tahmoh Penikett, Trapped Ashes) and Emma (Leslie Bibb), but she is just another fake blood covered trickster, as far as anyone can tell. The cloaked figure gets her and, when done with her, props her body against a wall as though drunk. Later he turns his attention to another girl, Laurie (Anna Paquin, True Blood). She is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and is actually searching for a date but, as he stalks her into the woods, the man – for he is just a mortal killer in a costume – hasn’t realised that there are much worse things out on Halloween Night.

Of course we also get other vampire costumes, and I should mention the boy in the Dracula costume (Richard Harmon) who comes into another story. However, this is a costume only mention, with no real relevance to the section, and I don’t want to spoil this story any further. However, the presence of our wannabe vampire, primarily, as well as the Dracula outfit lets me mention a film that was absolutely wonderful and sure to become many a person’s favourite to show on Halloween night.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Stan Helsing

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Stan Helsing is a parody film, much in the Scary Movie mode, in which perennial avoider of responsibility Stan Helsing (Steve Howey), his friend Teddy (Kenan Thompson), his ex-girlfriend Nadine (Diora Baird) an Teddy’s date Mia (Desi Lydic) try to get to a Halloween party.

Their first problem is that Stan has to drop some DVDs off (or lose his job at schlock-busters) and the customer lives in the opposite direction of the party. The second problem is that a variety of modern movie monsters are hunting Stan down as they believe him to be Van Helsing. The monsters have taken over the community of Stormy Heights (where Stan has to deliver the DVDs) and prophecy suggests that Van Helsing will save the community from the monsters.

There is little in the way of vampiric action. Indeed what we get are three brides of Dracula who pose in a shop window, do some lap dancing (and later some phone sex) and are disappointed when Stan admits he is Stan and not Van. No real vampiric action, just some fangs on display, this only just crawls into honourable mention status.

As for the rest of the film it is mildly amusing, poking fun at the horror genre generally and falling back on innuendo to fill in the humour gaps. The best gag, the punchline of which I won’t spoil, is about being ambidextrous. It is the sort of film that a group of friends watching together, preferably with some alcohol, are going to get more out of than if you watch it alone. I should also mention that Leslie Nielson cameos, in drag.

The imdb page is here.

The Creeps – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Director: Charles band

Release date: 1997

Contains spoilers

Charles Band, and his Full Moon Pictures, have appeared on the blog many times over and the films range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The company have released some truly classic movies – despite low budgets – and yet have managed to balance that with some real stinkers.

The Creeps tries to straddle the two extremes and, as a result, does tend to fall into mediocrity. A horror comedy it is too limited to truly work and yet it has its moments.

The film begins in a library and a man – using the assumed name of Jameson, though actually called Winston Berber (Bill Moynihan, who was also in Jugular Wine: A Vampire Odyssey) – is going through the rigmarole of getting access to a rare book; actually the original manuscript of Frankenstein. Having performed the required checks he is taken to the book by librarian Anna Quarrels (Rhonda Griffin).

He has to wear gloves and a mask and is left with the book. We see him replace the manuscript with a fake. Back at her desk we discover that Quarrels is a new member of staff and she is admonished by older librarian Miss Christina (Kristin Norton) for allowing the man near the book – they never allow access. He returns the book in its tin box and Christina tells Quarrels that the fact that he moved the book around like that is the only excuse they need to ban him from further books. She asks Quarrels out on a date, but the younger woman turns her down.

When Quarrels returns the book she sneaks a look and discovers that the original has been stolen. She can’t report it so gets a private eye, David Raleigh (Justin Lauer), on the job – he is just starting out as a PI and works out of the video store he manages. At first things go well, and he discovers Berber’s identity but then he fails to track him. Meanwhile Berber has Frankenstein, a book with the wolfman in it, a book with the mummy in it and he now wants the original manuscript of Dracula. It happens to be at the same library but when he realises that Quarrels knows he took Frankenstein (and is getting Raliegh to come to the library) he tasers her, grabs both the book and her, and legs it.

The reason he wants the books is because he has built an archetype generator. Pop a book in (for some reason the original manuscript), perform a sacrifice of an under 35, naked, female virgin and you’ll bring the archetype to life. He seeks to create the four evil monsters so that he can rule the world. Raleigh, however, arrives and rescues Quarrels and they grab the books and scarper. Without the sacrifice things go wrong. He creates Dracula (Phil Fondacaro, who we have seen in Kiss of the Vampire, Decadent Evil and Bordello of Blood), the Mummy (Joe Smith), Wolfman (Jon Simanton) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Thomas Wellington) but they are somewhat… short.

From here on in they are after Quarrels, so that the sacrifice can be completed to bring them back to size. It has to be Quarrels, due to the formula created by Berber – in fact they do a trial sacrifice with Miss Christina but it has no effect (bar turning her into a valkyrie). Like the main monsters the film is short and we had so much time building to the actual monster creation that the film doesn’t have much time to do anything else.

Now, I said that this – in some respects – does work as a film and the reason is twofold. Firstly the guys playing the monsters play them absolutely straight. It is left to the others to inject the comedy into this. This is even evident in the makeup effects, the Frankenstein’s Monster makeup being marvellous. The rest of the film might be silly and illogical by turns, but they are great. The second reason is, more specifically, down to Phil Fondacaro’s performance. Not only does he play Dracula straight but he is absolutely wonderful in the role, better in fact than some who have played Dracula in more mainstream movies.

Some of the angles used in film seem odd until you realise that the film was originally shot in 3D. Whilst, like some of the poorer Full Moon pictures, this had limited locations they were used rather well. Actually the fact that it is actually filmed, rather than videoed is telling and lends something to the experience. However it is also short, overly simplistic and just too silly in plot to be great. The comedy only barely works.

All in all this falls into mediocrity, as I mentioned at the head of the review, and gets 4 out of 10 but a definite thumbs up for Phil Fondacaro. The imdb page is here.

Guest Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:19:00 +0000

Nip on over to Vamp Chix as I have done a guest article where I wax lyrical about Dark Shadows and my hopes around the future Depp/Burton project to remake the soap for the big screen.

As well as my bit there is a scavenger hunt and a competition.

First Impression: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:50:00 +0000

This is the first look at the 2009 film, directed by Paul Weitz, and based on the books written by Darren Shan. Now, if you tried to look for the Darren Shan books on the blog you’ll have noticed an absence of them.

In truth I have only read the first book – though I have the second as it was given to me as a gift for the collection. Why haven’t I read the second or bought any more of the series? Because I was singularly unimpressed with the first book. Badly written, was my first impression, lacking in any kid to adult nuance was my second. I was left so cold by the first volume that I had no desire to read further. Walking into the cinema I had no preconceptions based on the book, indeed I was so unimpressed by the first book that I couldn’t even remember the storyline.

Actually, that isn’t entirely true. I had two preconceptions. Firstly, that the film surely couldn’t impress me less than the book had and secondly… well my second preconception, scrap that - it was more a dread, came from a still I had seen and… to be fair we’ll get to that soon enough…

So, we have a tale of Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia), a straight A student and his wilder best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson), who seems to lead Darren astray. Together they go to the Cirque Du Freak – a freak show visting town and… well here came my dread in the form of Madame Truska, played by Salma Hayek – a bearded lady. I mean, come on, you have Salma Hayek in your film and you stick a beard on her! That said other assets were nicely displayed and the beard seemed to be grown and shorn at will (except, distressingly, when turned on and then it appeared) but even so it seemed… well, regular readers will already know of my Salma obsession.

Anyway they see an act which kind of appeals to both of them. The act involves one Larten Crepsley (John C Reilly) and his spider Madam Olga. Now, Darren has a thing for spiders and Steve a thing for vampires, and Steve just so happens to recognise Crepsley from a picture in a vampire book. As the outraged moralists of the town shut the show down, the boys creep backstage and are separated. Steve asks to be made a vampire, but Crepsley refuses – the boy has bad blood. Darren steals Olga. However, when she subsequently bites Steve he has to go to Crepsley and ask for the antidote to her poison. Crepsley offers to give it if Darren becomes half vampire and his assistant.

After this Darren has to die, be buried and dug up but Steve realises what has happened and is intercepted by Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris), a man who wants to start a war between the vampires and the vampaneze. The difference between the two? Vampires do not kill (to feed), they can release a gas in their breath that knocks humans out and then take a small amount of blood (from the shoulder). The vampaneze drain the human and kill them.

The plot most probably veers away from the books – I wouldn’t know but, after book 1, this is probably no bad thing. However, bearing in mind that this is a kids film, I really rather enjoyed this. It was certainly better than some of the big screen vampire excursions this year. I was particularly taken by John C Reilly’s performance that, to me at least, was reminiscent of Gene Wilder (in particular his performance as Willie Wonka, believe it or not). I should also mention that Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's Red Right Hand gets on a soundtrack, again, but that's just an excuse to mention Nick Cave.

However, perhaps the last word should go to my 12 year old son – as he really is the target audience – who left the cinema extolling the virtue of the film, not too subtly suggesting he wanted the DVD when available and explaining that it was “much better than Twilight”... as they say, out of the mouths of babes…

The imdb page is here.

Vamp or Not? Kuntilanak Beranak

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Once again we have a Kuntilanak based film – this time directed by Ian Jacobs and released in 2009 – that demands a look under ‘Vamp or Not?’ rather than going straight to review. This seems a common theme with the kuntilanak, which the Indonesian film industry seems to be using generically to describe a ghost, a demon or a vampire. The title can translate to Vampire gives Birth – an odd title as we shall see.

This one sees a group of film students in the hallway of a disused house. They are nervous as they scout for a location for their indie horror film. Then they come across an abandoned video camera. It still has power and they start playback. The majority of the film is the camera footage… or at least is meant to be.

You see the camera was owned by a girl named Aline and whilst the footage is on her camera, not all of it was thus shot. She travels with a group and there are at least three cameras in use (not counting the footage shot in standard third party style). The idea is kind of a collage of Blair Witch and Diary of the Dead. Anyway Aline speaks to her spiritualist mother and then meets her friends Mai and Bim. They are working on a college project and meet with fellow students Bobby and Dea.

Bim has had the idea that they should go to a nearby village and investigate the disappearance of a Ronggeng Dancer. Her disappearance made headlines but she was never found – it is assumed she was murdered but no murderer was brought to justice. They question several people, most will not talk to them and some say that to mention the dancer is bad luck. We also hear that the troop leader’s wife killed herself. They get to the troop leader’s house and meet a woman who cackles about the fact that 'she is coming', 'she is dead' and 'she has a charm'. The woman enters the house and, when they playback the footage of her, the camera failed to capture her. They go into the house and are confronted by the troop leader. It is clear that the woman is a ghost of his wife.

They’re approached outside by a mute who manages to indicate that he will show them where the dancer lived. They arrange to meet him the next day. However that night several of them see things from the corner of their eyes. Aline’s mother sees something behind her daughter and says that the dancer has followed them home and that they should not return to the village. Aline actually dreams of the corridor we saw in the prologue, though she has not been there yet.

Dea is crept up on in the bath. As for Mai she goes downstairs and sees her mother who says she not asleep yet. As she returns upstairs she bumps into her mother. It is clear that this creature can take on other forms (in this case the mother). Whether such shape shifting could be called vampiric is unlikely, it is as likely to be a ghost, a demon or a witch. The next day the boys are dismissive of the hallucinations and they return, in the evening, to the village to meet the mute.

They are shown the house and, once inside, they split into two groups! This is another bit where the footage being shot on Aline’s camera doesn’t stand up to story scrutiny, as well as moments when they are all in shot in the car and what happened to them in their respective homes. Anyway we get a series of events such as possession, attacks, a throat slit by a fan blade and taking the form of others in the group. None of it is terribly vampiric. Of course there are films with vampiric ghosts but this one seems, simply, a standard haunting.

We then discover that the dancer was potentially having an affair with the troop leader. He had some headwear that was a dance charm and he gave them to the dancer who was then attacked and murdered by his jealous wife. It is this charm that keeps her there, she cannot leave the place whilst she wears it. Then things become very weird indeed.

Aline and Mai go into a basement area. There is a tree that has razor blades hanging from it and nearby they discover the corpse of Dea (who may have been killed by Bobby upstairs when she was possessed by the dancer, though he may have attacked the dancer shape-shifted into her form). Then, nearby, we see kids, many kids, and they obviously have something to do with the dancer – especially given the ‘gives birth’ part of the title. The problem is that the film doesn’t explain what they are and why they are there. Does the kuntilanak kill to feed them? Who knows?

This is the problem, there is a strange mystery here but it isn’t explained. Other than that, the film is much more ghost than vampire and is clearly very influenced by the Blair Witch Project. I have to go Not Vamp.

The imdb page is here.

Morgana – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:17:00 +0000

Director: Ellen Cabot

First Release: 2001

Contains spoilers

Now, if you compare and contrast the details above with the details of this movie on imdb you’ll notice three main differences. The film's title is listed as Blonde Heaven – Morgana was the DVD and UK TV name. The date is listed as 1995, however whilst the film was completed in 1995 it was not released until 2001. Finally imdb do not list the director as Ellen Cabot but rather David DeCoteau.

Now we have looked at one of David DeCoteau’s vampire movies before in the form of the Sisterhood. Cabot is a pseudonym that DeCocteau used for this film and whilst this is mainly a heterosexual softcore 'erotic' movie, with a little bit of vampire story, DeCoteau couldn’t help but have his trademark black briefed hunks on screen and linger shots over them. Fair play, in that it is clearly what he enjoys seeing, but not so enticing from the point of view of the film's target audience.

Next thing to note is that whilst the DVD cover might say that 'Julie Strain is Morgana' actually her character is called Illyana and there is not a character in the film called Morgana – nor can she fire lightning from her fingertips as the cover suggests. Rather she is the leader of a coven of vampires that run the LA escort agency called Blonde Heaven. After some overtly melodramatic music over credits interspersed with softcore sex, that seemed to go on for ever, we find ourselves in Blonde Heaven and the vampires are bidding over a model.

Now this film really screws around with lore. The vampires bid by pushing a rune stone into the centre of a neon glowing table with astrological symbols (how that works exactly is not explored). If two bid the same it seems – though it is not expressly stated – that the more powerful one defeats the other psychically, causing their rival pain. Illyana – as the most powerful – always gets her pick. Now, I mentioned the rune stones. We see them here and later a vampire hunter, Pluto (Jason Clow), suggests that to remove a vampire from his or her rune stone will kill them. But the stones are not seen again in any meaningful way after this scene or referred to after the Pluto scene.

Having won the woman – who is being filmed in a shower and seems to have bite marks already – Illyana calls on her brothers and sisters to aid her. They focus their energies on a picture of the girls boyfriend and create a pendant that, when worn, gives Illyana his form. She goes to the shower as the boyfriend and gets it on with the girl. However… later they seem to be able to change shape at will, so what was with the pendant, and in this scene she vamps out and bites the girl (we assume, as the camera manages to miss the actual bites throughout the film) in her own form but later she is able to maintain male form to have sex with a girl.

The main film focuses around a waitress from Oklahoma, Angie (Raelyn Saalman), who has come to LA to be a star and her boyfriend, Kyle (Alton Butler), who has come to LA to bring her home. Angie is approached to join Blonde Heaven and just happens to be the spitting image (and reincarnation?) of Victor – Illyana’s lost love. Other vampires try to undermine Illyana through Angie but that is poorly explored and explained.

For his part Kyle manages to meet Pluto – completely randomly – a projectionist and the only vampire hunter in LA it would appear. Through him we get our lore. Vampires can go out in sunlight and be seen in mirrors because they use factor 2000 sun cream. Sometimes they miss a bit, however, and Pluto uses a mirror on his shoe to look up girls' skirts and check if they are a vampire!

We also discover that humans have evolved so that our blood is not really of any use to vampires in the first instance. The first bite of a victim is to inject an enzyme into the blood, which clears out the impurities that makes us of no use to them. They then bite a second time to drink (presumably some time later) but must do this before the next lunar cycle or we become poisonous. Confused? So was I, but don’t worry it doesn’t actually come into the film. Vampires are scared of the cross and we see Pluto ward one off in his cinema and later via a cross on the sole of his shoe.

If it all sounds bobbins, well that’s because it is. The lore and story are only there to string softcore sex scenes together – and the scenes didn’t appear realistic themselves and certainly fell way short of erotic. But if all that was bad, the ending was sheer confusion. The finale sees Pluto being chased around the Agency and having been caught by a vampire, because she is his scream queen idle Amanda Blackwell (Michelle Bauer), ushered into bed with her before biting... then we get to Illyana calling on her brothers and sisters for aid... then everyone is suddenly a vampire, it seems, and Blackwell is in charge and Blonde Heaven will now produce movies. It was just confused and stupid, so apologies if my explanation fell short of lucid.

This is a bad movie. The stereotypes come rushing along thick and fast as, it seems, that all vampires wear black suits/dresses and shades, except vampire leaders who might stray into lingerie and thigh boot territory. The poor softcore sex scenes, which fail to even raise a sexploitation frisson despite Decoteau actually putting nudity in this one, are held together by a story that is barely comprehensible, with unexplained plot areas and lore that isn’t used. This all careens through the rapids of bad movie making until it smashes against the rocks of a senseless ending.

The photography is low end and the sound… well the dialogue and lips are rarely synched together and some dialogue actually sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a well, which is where, perhaps, this film should have stayed. I can’t even offer an extra point for unusual lore because it was unexplained, often moronic and ultimately unused; evidentally the new lore was simply musings within a celluloid mess. 1 out of 10 is given as there are worse films out there but it probably is too generous a score.

The imdb page is here.

Nightmare City – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:17:00 +0000

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Release date: 1980

Contains spoilers

On the surface Nightmare City, or Incubo Sulla Città Contaminata, is a zombie movie rather than a vampire movie. However, it is a thin piece of paper, sometimes, that goes between the two genres because, as we know, the Romero based zombie flick was actually inspired by a vampire story. In this case we have the contaminated, but they wield weapons, drive vehicles and can – it would appear – communicate, if only at a rudimentary level. They also need blood rather than flesh.

The film starts with a news report about a radiation spill. The report says that one Professor Hagenbecks is flying into the city the next day. Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) is sent to interview him. He attends the airport with his cameraman but the Professor hasn’t arrived. In the control tower they have noticed an unauthorised blip on the radar that turns out to be a Hercules Transport that makes an emergency landing.

The plane lands and the police and emergency crews head to it – Miller follows. They cannot see the pilot – though he did communicate with the tower – and demand the door is opened. Eventually it does open and Hagenbeck is there; he stabs the first man in the way and then a horde of people spill out of the plane and attack. Gunshots do not seem to bother them and many have a funky face thing going on. One loses an arm and still goes on. We see one slit a throat of a victim and drink the blood. Miller and his cameraman leg it in a stolen vehicle.

They get back to the station and Miller interrupts a dance show to put out a newsflash. He hasn’t really started when Mr Desmond (Ugo Bologna), the studio boss, pulls it off air. He is summoned and he is told by a General Murchinson (Mel Ferrer, who was in the marvellous Blood and Roses) that they cannot report on the happenings yet. Miller is incensed, Desmond suspends him and he quits. The whole keeping the event secret aspect is under-explored from this point.

Miller tries to phone his wife Anna (Laura Trotter), who is a doctor at the hospital and has already left for work. We see a man, Major Holmes (Francisco Rabal), with his partner. He gets a phone call calling him in to the army base. His partner is a sculptor and has made a bust – it is eerily like the creatures he will face. In the meantime the contaminated have invaded the TV studio – the fact that they attack a live broadcast is never explored, especially frustrating in light of the keep it secret aspect. Miller just manages to get out; during his escape he slams a door on one contanimated’s finger and it screams in pain, he also sets fire to one which seems like a way of dealing with them.

In the base they have autopsied one of the contaminated who fell at the airport – due to a random bullet to the head. The autopsy reveals that they have more radiation in their systems than one would think possible, that they are super strong and fast healing and that they can spread their infection to those they attack – though one assumes that it is to those who survive the attack as we do see bodies in the street later. The radiation is destroying their red blood cells, thus they need to replenish them and the way to stop them is starve them or paralyse them by shutting the brain function down (bullet to the brain). Here we see the thin line being tread between zombie and vampire lore.

However they are organised, they take down power stations, cut telephone wires and work together. They even share the blood they get. The remaining film follows the survivors but it is rather scattered in its focus – as such we develop very little sympathy for them and the impact of the film is lessened. One such couple (actually the General’s daughter and her husband) go off on their weekend camping trip – here we see the intelligent aspect of the contaminated when their friends drive up, at the time they were meant to meet them, but are contaminated and have gone there to feed. There are some odd bits around the sculptor, having been told to lock all her doors she finds her bust on the floor, stabbed with a bloody knife and yet nothing seems to come of that.

Vampires are mentioned. Miller and his wife get to a church and she suggests that the medieval vampire could not enter holy ground and they should go in. When it turns out that the priest is contaminated it kind of blows the vampire theory apart, to Miller anyway. There is some preachiness when the film suggests that striving for power and being unnatural in our lifestyles brings the catastrophe upon humanity. Towards the end a solution is actually found but the means to deliver said solution seems to have been lost. The film twists around in a bizarre fashion at the end, but the twist is actually nothing new, just strange.

The effects sometimes work – the gory ones seem to have an edge over the oatmeal infection look. All in all this works, but not brilliantly and compared to others of its ilk it is too unfocused to score highly. It is interesting in that zombie/vampire cross over way, however. 4.5 out of 10 due to the unusual nature.

The imdb page is here.

Mina: the Dracula story continues – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Author: Marie Kiraly

First Published: 1994

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: She tasted the blood of Dracula…

In Bram Stoker’s immortal classic, Mina Harker became the living, breathing object of an obsession – only to fall prey to the stalker’s seductive powers. There was only one way to save her soul – by destroying Count Dracula, the creature who controlled and consumed her. But was the spell really broken? Could Mina really return to the ordinary turns of a day, to the constraints of a Victorian marriage, after the pleasures of such exquisite darkness?

She lives to tell the tale…

This is the haunting story, as told by the dark Prince’s most infamous mistress, revealing an unsettling, sensual, and remarkable tale of love that refused to die.

The review: I love the character of Mina, as depicted in Dracula, and thus I am drawn to books that concentrate on her as a character. There is, however, a sad tale around this book – sad as in me as the reader.

I noticed the book and thought ooh… nice cover and the same name as one of my favourite unofficial Dracula sequels. I bought the book and was struck at the way the author revisited the last section of Dracula and retold it from Mina’s point of view (her voice is lost at the end of Stoker’s novel). I was also struck at how hauntingly familiar it was. Indeed, as the book went on I knew the character names of allegedly new characters and knew already the situations they found themselves in.

This was remarkably similar, I thought, to Elaine Bergstrom’s novel. It had been years since I had read it, however, and the dedication, I noticed, thanked Bergstrom. I decided to compare, dug the Bergstrom volume out and discovered that they were identical… this is Bergstrom’s novel reissued under a different name (which was the pen name I don’t confess to know).

To a degree I felt cheated. I hadn’t known that Kiraly and Bergstrom were one and the same... and yet... in other ways, despite feeling a bit of a fool, I was delighted at having given myself an excuse to re-read this novel. It is a deeply sensuous book with some interesting ideas along the way. For instance, being unofficial, I can forgive the author for tying Dracula into the Tepes story, but what she did with it (and the source of vampirism) was true genius. It was Illona (historically the name of Tepes second wife) who made a deal with the devil and became undead, she turned Vlad and is subsequently one of the three brides from the novel.

The book draws you in and is incredibly well written, giving Mina a strong voice that cannot be denied. In some respects it turns the tables on the male characters (specifically Van Helsing, Jack Seward, Jonathon Harker and Arthur Holmewood) and makes them rather flawed and quite weak in their own ways.

This, under whichever author name you find it, is a worthwhile book and a must have for a collection. There is a sequel, Blood to Blood, that is also very worthwhile. 8 out of 10.

Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:12:00 +0000

Director: Brian Thomson

Release date: 2008

Contains spoilers

With a title like Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned, I guess really you know what you are going to get – low rent horror, filmed on a budget. And that is what you get here, really it is. A short film (some 75 minutes on PAL), with a transfer to DVD that proved to be the first time I have ever, on my PC, had to stretch the aspect ratio to watch and even stretched it left big black bands to the left and right.

Chuck (Joseph Riker) is getting married to Michelle (Trina Analee). He is going golfing for his bachelor party and she is convinced he will stray (she puts condoms in his golf bag). His best man, Sammy (Gregg Aaron Greenburg), picks him up and tells him that there is a change of plans – the party will now be in the Hamptons, at a bungalow owned by the family of a high school ‘friend’ named Gordon (Joe Testa). Sammy has him involved only because of the house and Gordon has to make his own way there. They do, however, pick up friends Paulie (Sean Parker) and The Fish (Delu Dan Rusu) – who happens to be late due to sleeping with a woman, who turns out to be Lloyd Kaufman in drag.

They get lost on route – go to a bar and Sammy shows the barman the address and they immediately get thrown out. However, somehow they find the bungalow. Gordon is there and enters the alarm code 666. There is plenty of Mickey taking out of Chuck as the others have decided that Gordon fancies him. Anyway, evening comes and the entertainment arrives in the form of Emerald (Monique Dupree, Skeleton Key 2: 667 neighbour of the Beast), Vermillion (Kaitlyn Gutkes) and Snowy (Zoe Hunter, A Feast of Flesh). Gordon is not happy and states that if they let the girls in, then the blood is on their hands… he retires to bed.

The girls give Chuck drugged drinks from some strange bottles, which puts him out of it. Snowy takes him off. Sammy suggests that the other two girls service Paulie and The Fish. They are all in rooms and they get to eating Paulie and The Fish… literally. Snowy has a good old ride on Chuck to start with and then vamps out and looks as though she has bitten him slightly. However Michelle had rung Chuck earlier (so Sammy dropped Chuck's phone in the pool) and now rings Sammy. She is on her way there.

Now let us talk plot hole. The guys had trouble finding the place. Michelle simply knows they are in the Hamptons. How the hell she knew where to go and then actually got there was a leap of faith that… Hold on, Thomson answers this in the credits with the disclaimer “Repeat after me: Gaps in continuity constitute the unconscious poetry of the cinema.” Of course that is so much BS, but at least he knew he was offering us a Swiss Cheese of a film.

Sammy gets the girls out of there and tries to get Chuck up and at ‘em, as it were. Chuck, however, seems ill. Sammy even sends Gordon to get some aspirin from a pharmacy. Suddenly the girls are back, claiming that their car has broken down. Sammy lets them in and is going to hide them when he finds the remains of his friends. They attack. Now the effects are odd, they almost seem demonic – though they are meant to be vampires. We get subtitles at one point as Sammy goes for a staking and misses (with an inaccurate view of anatomy as the heart is central). Their skin seems, at times, rotten.

Anyway Michelle arrives and Chuck turns. She then realises he had sex with one of the girls and thus we get a simile of vampirism as a std. Sammy wants to turn Chuck back and decides that killing the head vampire is the way forward. He also decides that this must be Snowy – there is no logic to his decision other than the fact that she was with Chuck. He gets her by decapitation with garden shears but Chuck is still vampirised.

Let’s spoil this now as it leads to a more unusual aspect of this. The head vampire is Gordon (sunlight, crosses and garlic do not effect these vampires, hence he was around during the day). He turned after Sammy got Chuck to play a trick on him, when they were still in high school, and it was the hatred he felt because of it that made him turn. The three girls were cheerleaders at the school – that Chuck and Sammy didn’t recognise for some reason… oh yeah, that’s because of the unconscious poetry of the cinema!

Other than the bit about hatred turning someone into a vampire, which was fairly unique, this really didn’t do anything new or particularly worthwhile. It had some humour and some worked, but most didn’t. The acting was generally low grade though there was something very personable about Gregg Aaron Greenburg. There is cgi in there that is truly awful. Not a great film but it is a great title. 1.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Home Again

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Hello to you all, I’m back from the Bram Stoker International Film Festival and I had a great time. It was great to meet up with some online friends and watch some good movies. I have to thank the organisers for their efforts and they tell me that the festival will definitely be on again next year, bigger and better than ever.

However, let’s talk vampire movies. Unfortunately we missed the festival opener, the documentary Dracula, the Vampire and the Voivode, due to travelling but I have seen it before. Thus the first vampire film I saw was Nightlife, a 2008 movie by Timothy Sanderson. This is a comedy in the form of a mockumentary and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a great cast and fantastic dialogue and the audience all seemed to find that it hit the funny bone.

Next up was Orlok 3D – a 3D rendering of Nosferatu. Now, on a technical level this was very clever, they had treated the film in such a way that key areas were in 3D but it failed all over the place. Key scenes were edited down, such as the shadows on the stairs, and other scenes were missing. The captions were too often and too jokey and human body noises (such as laughter) were unnecessary. The film was relocated (via caption) to London for no good reason and the music was totally rubbish. All in all they made Nosferatu a chore to sit through... but the 3D was clever.

However, immediately following this was the short How My Dad Killed Dracula and this was wonderful. A genuinely funny little movie directed by Sky Soleil that had the audience laughing away. In look (not content) I was perhaps reminded of the Monster Squad, the thing had a little bit of an eighties vibe going on, but more than anything it was fun.

Fun was not a word I would use to describe Temptation directed by Catherine Taylor. I really struggled with this. For a start off there were continuity errors, which I could have lived with if the story was any good but the story was derivative and anything but original. Worse still was the acting... the best you could say about it was that it was stagey, however, actors emoting seemed to be a thing for other films. This is getting a DVD release next year, according to posters at the festival, and like any of the other vampire films at the festival a review will be done when I get hold of the DVD.

Blood on the Highway, directed by Barak Epstein and Blair Rowan, was another comedy and, whilst not as funny or clever as Nightlife, had me laughing away and was definitely worth viewing. A redneck-ploitation film that did careen into base humour territory, it was carried by the personable (if utterly flawed) characters played by Deva George and Robin Gierhart and had a worthwhile cameo by Nicholas Brendon.

For me, the best vampire movie experience at the event was the screening of Thicker than Water. Those who have read my review will know how much I enjoy Phil Messerer’s film. It isn’t technically perfect in all places – certainly there were a couple of sound issues that I noticed more in the theatre than I did at home – but it had a great story, some fantastic performances and heart. This was my pick of the vampire films and the last pure vampire movie screened at the event.

However, things go not end there in the vampire stakes, as there was also a screening of the Glenn McQuaid directed I Sell the Dead. I really enjoyed this as a fantasy piece and there is a vampire in the film. For those who don’t know, the film follows two grave robbers who discover the undead (of all varieties) and realise that they are worth more than standard cadavers. The vampire is the first they discover and an honourable mention will be done at some point in the future.

Of course there were also non vampire films at the festival and the two I enjoyed the most were the pure sexploitation of Bitch Slap directed by Rick Jacobson – a film that had cameo roles for all four primaries from Hercules and Xena – and the wonderful Korean flick The Fox Family directed by Hyung-gon Lee. Based on the myth of the fox, this was a comedy with singing and dancing and moments of drama. Certainly one of the stranger films at the festival but also one of the most engaging, I actually picked this up on DVD during the festival as I was that impressed with it.

A Short Break

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

The blog will be undergoing a short break whilst I am away for a few days…

Everlost, who runs the most excellent blog Vampire News, and myself will both be at the Bram Stoker Film Festival. If you are there, and see us about, say hello, and I’ll undoubtedly let you all know what I thought when I get back… There may even be an audio report for the Frequency of Fear.

New Release: Tempted

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:30:00 +0000

I was contacted with regards the new release in the House of Night series, Tempted by PC and Kristen Cast. Young adult fiction, the series follows 16-year-old Zoey Redbird, who gets “Marked” by a vampyre tracker and begins to undergo the Change into an actual vampyre.

If you are interested then a sample chapter, actually chapter 1, is available here and you can also listen to audios of the first two chapters (only one seems to be showing at the moment but the press release indicates a second is due).

The book has a trailer, below:

The New Doctor Who Adventures: Blood Harvest – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Author: Terrance Dicks

First Published: 1994

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: “Doc’s peddling bootleg liquor in an illegal speakeasy. You’re carrying a gun for him, Ace – which makes you no better than any other gun –moll”

Dekker is a private eye; an honest one. But when Al Capone hires him to investigate a new joint called ‘Doc’s’, he knows this is one job he can’t refuse. And just why are the Doctor and Ace selling illegal booze in a town full of murderous gangsters?

Meanwhile, Bernice has been abandoned on a vampire-infested planet outside normal space. There she meets a mysterious stranger called Romanadvoratrelundar – and discovers an ancient and malevolent power, linking 1922 Chicago with a lair of immortal evil.

The review: This is a book that, whilst featuring the seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy on TV), is a direct sequel to the 4th Doctor (played on TV by Tom Baker) story State of Decay. Now, I am sure regular readers will know that I love that Doctor Who adventure. The novelisation, however, was somewhat marred by Terrance Dicks' simplistic writing.

Dicks write this and it is a cut above the novelisation simply by being an original story. The writing style is simple but not immature and thus bobs along at a fair old pace. What I did note however was that whilst he kept the disparate and yet connected stories (of Prohibition Chicago and the vampire planet in E-Space) running nicely, when they converged we seemed to rush headlong into a trip to Gallifrey that was simply too hurried.

However, on the vampire planet things are afoot and we discover some nice new details. Far from the entire world being made up of a castle and 1 village – as indicated in the TV show – there was a vast feudal network and the vampires had wormed their way into the Lords class throughout the land. They had then been overthrown after (and due to) the events in the TV series but are on the rise again.

They are fairly much standard, needing blood to survive, dying in the sun or by stake and beheading and being held off by garil (the planet’s equivalent to garlic). I mentioned stakes, actually it is just the heart that needs destroying;“hit them in the heart with two slugs from a .45 and they go down and stay down. Even if they’re vampires.”

At the end of the book we also discover that the Doctor accidentally introduces vampirism to Earth, but then says it is already taken care of. I believe that part of the story is covered in a Doctor Who book called Goth Opera. As for this book, it was okay. Not a huge amount of characterisation but a ripping pace that makes it very readable. 5.5 out of 10.

Fear Itself – The Sacrifice – review (TV Episode)

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:57:00 +0000

Director: Breck Eisner

First Aired: 2008

Contains spoilers

Fear Itself was another horror anthology show, which as I write the review of this episode I am in the process of watching and have to say – despite some negatives that I have read about it – I am rather enjoying. Not always relying on standard horror tropes, it actually puts some thriller elements into play as well. How the whole series pans out I’ll have to wait and see but here we are concerned with the vampire episode ‘The Sacrifice’.

The film begins with four men in a car. Up front are Point (Jeffrey Pierce) and Diego (Stephen Martines). In back are Lemmon (Jesse Plemons) and the very injured Navarro (Reamonn Joshee). Lemmon keeps repeating that Navarro needs a hospital and complaining about the fact they are taking the almost dirt track standard back roads that are jolting them about. Point, the driver and Lemmon’s elder brother, knows they don’t want the cops searching their gear if they were to be stopped, hence taking the back roads. Suddenly there is a crunch and the car stops. A metal spike embedded in the road has ripped their engine out.

They put Navarro and their gear into a boat and end up dragging it through the snow, heading towards chimney smoke. A figure, holding a gun, watches their progress. They reach a fort – antlers adorning its outer walls – and go on in. The fort has a large graveyard but no one seems to be around. They enter the main building and a fire burns in the hearth, Diego and Point explore and noises appear to be from a radio – in a room adorned with sketches. They hear a shout from Lemmon and discover a girl, Chelsea (Rachel Miner), stood over Navarro. Guns get pulled and her sister Virginia (Mircea Monroe) appears. The stand off eventually dissipates and the men are offered a place to stay and help for Navarro.

He is taken over to a communal guest room, whilst Diego goes off with Virginia to get blankets. In the common room is a priest (Bill Baska), asleep and said to be ill. Chelsea sends Point and Lemmon off to eat as she starts to work on the hole in Navarro’s chest (they tell her he was injured boating). When they leave the room she sews Navarro’s lips shut. Stew is being served by a third sister, the mute Tara (Michelle Molineux). Meanwhile Diego has been tricked, by means of Virginia’s ample cleavage, and has fallen into an oubliette, the lid closed upon him. Point goes to take stew over to Navarro, and finds him dead, his mouth sewn shut and a stake in his chest.

All hell starts to break loose. Point tries to rescue the priest, who is chained to the bed it is now revealed. He breaks the chains with an axe and makes a break for the door, priest in tow, but something pulls the old man back into the room – the door slams shut, leaving Point outside, and we hear screams. Later, when Chelsea finds the priest dead (and it is also later revealed that he was the girls' father), she prays for him and, when he rises behind her, she cuts his head off. Yes, they are trapped in with a vampire and the girls are feeding him with passersby and then ensuring the victims don’t rise. It turns out that the fort was built by Romanian immigrants, who accidentally brought the creature with them. They have, ever since, sacrificed travellers to it, to spare the outside world. Point finds a wind chime made of stolen licence plates.

With Diego missing and Lemmon strung up, bled and fed to the creature, Point has a real problem especially as a single bite will turn a victim. It might seem luckily that the things they were transporting were weapons, but machine guns are no use against the undead. In this only the stake, fire or beheading will do the trick. Rules around sunlight are not clearly defined and the fact that the vampires have milky coloured eyes, almost like cataracts, seems more a cool looking effect than for any logical reason.

I enjoyed this, I wasn’t too sure about how effective their final move against the vampire would have been but I could live with the concept that they would at least have tried to do what they did. Clearly there was an element that was almost From Dusk till Dawn-like, what with a group of criminals being trapped with a vampire. But that is superficial only, the dialogue is nowhere near as good and the girls are the antithesis of those in the earlier film. I liked the idea of the girl’s forced to give up their lives, and forced to sacrifice others, to preserve the wider world from the evil.

All in all it was a pleasant little episode, a little blood, a little cleavage. The sound effects were probably a little too enthusiastic when it came to attacks, given they weren’t that bloody when you saw the aftermath. A good episode all told, with a nice premise that didn’t let itself get bogged down. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Daddy’s Girl – review

noreply@blogger.com (Taliesin_ttlg) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Director: D J Evans

Release date: 2006

Contains spoilers

Daddy’s Girl has been released in the US as Cravings and has a cover with fangs on it. This is on some levels a spoiler for the film but actually a misnomer, for we are not talking a fanged, un-dead vampire – as the US cover would suggest – but someone psychologically disturbed. That said, the film actually has (potentially) a supernatural element as well, as you will see.

The film starts off with scenes of psychiatrist Stephen Hughes (Richard Harrington) cycling home intercut with scenes of his wife Clare (Alex Dunn) as she smokes a cigarette, looks to use her mobile phone and then runs a bath. She gets in and slits her wrist. By the time Stephen gets home there is bloody water running under the bathroom door. He breaks it down but it is too late.

Six weeks later and he has an Estate Agent (Roger Evans) selling his apartment for him, he is also on a large amount of medication. We see him speaking to a woman in a hospital – we later discover it his mother – and then he bumps into his boss and friend, Eisner (Mark Lewis Jones), and tells him he wants to go back on duty; he is ready. He is given some case files but, as he leaves the hospital, we can tell he isn’t ready when he sees Clare – though it is actually a random woman who he thought was Clare, he then realises.

His first case is Nina (Jaime Winstone) a young girl whose case seems simple, if a little close to home, as it appears she has slit her own wrist. Her mother, Liz (Louise Delamere), is very defensive and Nina claims it was an accident. She starts to cough up blood. Stephen goes to see his mother and suddenly Nina is at the bedside with him. As he takes her back to her ward he explains that his mother’s body no longer produces enough red blood cells but also explains that we all die eventually. Nina claims that she is not going to die.

Nina wanders off again and sees a boy hooked to a blood pack – before she is found and returned to her room, she asks him if she can have some. Stephen, by then, has got back to his flat to find that the bath tap is running. The next day he has a plumber, Rossiter (Ifan Huw Dafydd), round. The plumber has lost a foot but still feels phantom pain, which Stephen stops with acupuncture. The plumber – before he leaves – tells Stephen that *she* says she is sorry. It is clear he refers to Clare.

He visits Nina and she tells him that her injury was an accident; she just didn’t mean to cut so deep. She says that when she did she had put her mouth on the wound to stop the blood and drank some – hence coughing it up. Later, whilst Stephen is at home finding his taps on again, Nina sneaks from her bed again. She goes to Stephen’s mother and tries to take her intravenous blood pack. The older lady reacts and falls and Nina runs before she is caught. When we see her she has blood at her mouth and a necklace in her hand. Stephen’s mother doesn’t survive the fall out of bed.

He is at the hospital when Liz approaches him to ask if Nina can come home. He breaks down into tears and she comforts him, something Nina sees. We cut forward and, after his mother’s funeral, he sees Nina hanging around the graveyard. He confronts her and takes her home, however Eisner sees him walking out of the graveyard holding her hand. Stephen is later warned how inappropriate it seemed. We see a session with another patient, Lucy (Katie Owen), and then a session with Nina where she accuses her mother of wanting to sleep with Stephen.

The film starts to build at a steady rate then. Stephen’s bath and shower keep turning themselves on and Rossiter suggests that Clare is trying to warn him about something. This is the possibly supernatural element, though that is not certain. When Stephen discusses this with Eisner, he suggests that Stephen himself is turning them on and then blanking the act as part of his grief. However one has to question why, in that case, Eisner would keep the man working? He and Liz begin an affair, completely inappropriately. In fact Stephen seems to have lost all form of understanding about keeping an ethical distance.

We do discover that, when Nina was six years old, Liz had left her with her father. Liz believed that he was clean – they had split up die to his drug abuse – but he managed to kill himself through an air embolism whilst he was shooting up. Liz found her watching TV. What we see, but she doesn’t explain to Stephen, is that the little girl had her father’s blood around her mouth.

Her need for blood is increasing. She opens up her pet and also has Lucy cut herself so that she can feed from her. How they knew each other isn’t explained but it did strike me that there seemed something deliberate about having one character named Nina (which sounds an awful lot like Mina, and indeed some versions of Dracula change Mina to Nina) and a second called Lucy. Especially as this progressing from drinking one’s own blood to other peoples is a facet of Renfield Syndrome.

Named by Richard Noll after the character from Dracula, Renfield’s Syndrome or Clinical Vampirism is normally found in men but sees a progression from self drinking to craving others' blood, normally with a sexual connotation after puberty. Stephen believes Nina suffers from this though Eisner suggests that schizophrenia or porphyria might be more likely than a ‘dime store novel diagnosis’. Clearly the film maker’s are looking straight to Renfield’s Syndrome, however.

The film works rather well and I loved the ending, which I won't spoil. However some of the reactions just don’t feel natural – especially in that I don’t think Eisner would have kept him working as long as he did. That said, such feelings only occurred to me on thinking about the film, the pace and tension keeps you engrossed in the film. There are also some moments of black humour, a look by Nina back and forth between blender and poodle was darkly humorous – though her actions subsequently were just plain disturbing. This was down to an excellent performance by Jaime Winstone who really came across as a twisted young madam.

This was an unusual entry into the vampire genre and it was vampire genre; the craving for blood, the belief that she would be immortal, the almost sexual connotation all suggested as much. It is a shame, therefore, that the US release should have a blatant undead vampire theme for the cover. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.