“A little something for the holiday season. Can you name all 12 blood suckers? ”

Samhainophobia – Fear of Halloween

• possibly related to Coimetrophobia – Fear of Cemeteries
• maybe stretching to Lygophobia (or Myctophobia) – Fear of Darkness
• or Necrophobia- Fear of Death or Dead things

Sanguivoriphobia – Fear of Vampires (blood drinkers)

• who may have Phengophobia – Fear of daylight or sunshine or Alliumphobia – Fear of garlic
• possibly related to Chiroptophobia – Fear of Bats

Teratophobia – Fear of Monsters in general

• Ambulothanatophobia – Fear of Zombies (literally, ambulo is Latin for “walking”, thanato for “death”, phobia for “fear”
  
• Bogyphobia – Fear of bogeys or the Bogeyman
• Demonophobia (or Daemonophobia) – Fear of Demons
• Pneumatiphobia – Fear of Spirits (similar to and possibly containing Spectrophobia and Demonophobia)
• Spakafobia – Fear of Aliens
• Spectrophobia – Fear of Specters or Ghosts… Boo!
• Wiccaphobia – Fear of Witches and Witchcraft

Paraskavedekatriaphobia – Fear of Friday the 13th, close relative to Halloween

Phagophobia – Fear of being eaten (or of swallowing or of eating, odd pairing…)

Irrational fears of the things that go bump in the night, or justified phobias? You decide. Sleep tight.

If you are stuck on a ghoulishly delightful idea, I just found this cool website with some awesome pumpkin carving patterns: Zombie Pumpkins

Here were some of my fangtastic favorites:

Uncle Vlad Count Dracula

Nosferatu David from the Lost Boys

Count Chocula Count von Count

The also have a ton of other cool patterns to choose from… Angry Birds, creepy Grinning Jacks, Movie Monsters and more.

Check them out! I have a sneaky suspicion I will be requested to do Red Bird or Mario, a Dragon, Zombie Hello Kitty and Elmo pumpkins this year…

Lugosi started as a stage actor in Europe, and was well known for his role in the stage production of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire story, Dracula.

This eventually led to his famous title role in Tod Browning’s motion picture, Dracula (1931). The film was a success, but Lugosi was forever typecast as a horror villain with a thick Hungarian accent in such movies as Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, and White Zombie. Later on, his acting jobs began to dwindle and he became addicted to morphine and methadone.

Later in his life, a long-time fan of Lugosi’s, Ed Wood offered him numerous roles in his films, always playing some variant of a mad scientist/vampire type. The biographical film Ed Wood, by Tim Burton, portrayed Wood’s relationship with Lugosi, who was played by Martin Landau.

One of Lugosi’s most infamous roles was in a movie that was released after his death. When Lugosi died during the filming, Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space featured footage of Lugosi mixed with a thinner double with every shot covering the lower half of his face with his cape.

Lugosi died of a heart attack at age 73 on August 16, 1956, while lying on a couch in his Los Angeles home. Lugosi was indeed buried wearing a Dracula Cape, but it was at the request of his son Bela G. Lugosi and fourth wife Lillian, believing that it is what his father would have wanted (contrary to the belief that was his request stated in his will).

Other Interesting Béla Lugosi facts:

• The Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest features a statue of Bela Lugosi on one of the corners
• Bela Lugosi was a charter member for the Screen Actors Guild (not Film Actors Guild)
• The cape Lugosi wore in the Dracula (1931) film still survives in Universal Studios
• Johnny Depp once purchased Bela’s Los Angeles home
• “Béla Lugosi’s Dead” was the first single by English rock band Bauhaus, often considered to be the first gothic rock record was released in August 1979

The Thirst (2006) is a low grade B vampire movie was another drug addiction turned blood addiction flick, borrowing some scenes from Near Dark and Insatiable, and featuring lots of blood. And I mean lots and lots of blood. There’s about a gallons and a half of blood in the human body (1.5 gallons or 6 quarts or 5.6 liters, whichever is your favorite unit of measure). This movie easily doubled that. When someone’s throat was ripped open for the vampire to feed (or actually bathe), seemingly gallons and gallons of blood spurted and flowed out.  It wasn’t overly blood and guts gory, just excessively bloody. There must have been an after Halloween sale on 5-gallon buckets of watery fake blood…

Joss Whedon got a thanks in the credits, probably for getting the Buffy/Angel/etc. alumni Clare Kramer, Tom Lenk and Adam Baldwin to show up. I expected the music to be better, I like Rasputina, but it was OK. That’s pretty much the whole movie… OK. It was cheesy/comedic at times, serious/violent at times, a love story subplot, plenty of topless and sex scenes… The vampires were portrayed decent, no visible fangs, not overly strong or fast, but susceptible to the sunlight and bloodthirsty. They lived together in a coven, or “family” and traveled around in a blacked-out car… hrmm, sounds familiar…

If you want to get technical, the acting and direction was inconsistent. Really good at times, not so good at others. The story started OK, got better, but then kinda tanked towards the end. I’m never a fan of vampires getting punked and killed (especially the main master vamp), I thought most of the vampire death causes were lame. One of the scenes shows some of the plastic tubing where the fake blood pours out, if you really look carefully and catch it. But again, B movie, low budget. Overlook the nit-picky things and have some fun.

Overall, we’ll give The Thirst (2006) a Four fangs – Moderate, Worth Seeing rating. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it… entertaining enough to pick up for a few bucks and add it to the vampire movie collection.

First criticism, this vampire film does not adhere closely to Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula (1897). No ship voyage, no vampire bats, no wolves, and no Renfield. Then they took the original cast names and shuffled them around. Jonathon Harker, a vampire hunter posing as a librarian (not solicitor) is engaged to Lucy Holmwood, who is the brother of Arthur, who is married to Mina… and a slew of other tweaks… At least Van Helsing’s role is mostly intact. I find it funny the amount of people reviewing the movie who state it “sticks fairly close” to the book… Which book is that? But whatever, that aside, the Horror of Dracula (1958) is a very good movie.

Summed up by “Fangs, Blood and Heaving Breasts”, the Horror of Dracula (1958) remake is the late 50s evolution to the Dracula (1931) of the 1930s. For it’s time, Bela Lugosi’s creepy Dracula was “scary and suspenseful” for the 1930s audiences. Fast forward 27 years, the audiences required a little more with a menacing, snarling and hissing Christopher Lee with his blood-shot eyes and blood dripping from his mouth. Hammer Studios also gave them incisor fangs, COLOR (yay!), and voluptuous women in low-cut dresses. Scary by today’s standards, No. But this version is fast paced, exciting and thrilling to watch for a true Dracula connoisseur. 34 years after this you got the Coppola Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) update, we’ll have to see how Dracula 3D in a year or two does a mere 20 years later…

Christopher Lee’s 7-time portrayal of Dracula has become legendary, although his imposing 6’5″ stature is given very little dialogue (about 13 lines) or screen time in the first film of the Hammer’s series. Depending on your generation or depth of vampire film knowledge, Christopher Lee may be your quintessential Dracula. Peter Cushing is also excellent in his role, the movie could almost have been called Van Helsing, as he monopolized most of the movie.

I would have liked a better blend of the stunning Technicolor with some dark and creepy scenes. Everything seemed very bright and colorful, the bright red blood was fine, but the castle and Dracula scenes could have benefited from a little more spook and gloom though the level of violence and sexuality was ramped up a few notches from anything previous of its time. I’m not sure what they were thinking, perhaps in an attempt to make it glaringly obvious which coffin was Dracula’s, but the bright white casket was a poor choice. I would have kept the “DRACULA” inscription on a black coffin any day. But I did like the dramatic and bombastic musical score that some have complained about, I felt greatly enhanced the suspense and thrilling scenes without being distracting.

Overall, we’ll give Horror of Dracula (1958) a Six fangs – Solid, Recommended, only because it is showing it’s age but still a worthwhile classic from the Hammer Horror collection.

Vampires have long been associated with Halloween and have always remained high on the list of the most popular costumes for both male and females, children and adults. You can choose to dress up as a Gothic of traditional vampire character, or choose to find your inspiration for a more modern vampire look as portrayed in recent movies and TV shows, such as True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Underworld, Blade and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The general vampire ensemble typically includes a long cape, fake vampire fangs, fake blood and white face paint. From there you can mix and match accessories and customize your look as you see fit. You still have time to put together a kicking vampire wardrobe that will knock them dead on Halloween.

Check out some of the styles below and check out Vampire Apparel & Accessories at our Shop Vampire aStore link for the rest of your get up. Have a spooky good time this October 31st, or whenever you get the excuse to don the vampire threads.

1 Women’s Deluxe Gothic Vampire

2 California Costumes Men’s Prince Of Darkness Costume

3 California Costumes Women’s Blood Thirsty Beauty Costume

4 California Costumes Women’s Blood Thirsty Beauty Costume

5 California Costumes Women’s Madame Macabre Costume

6 In Character Costumes, LLC Women’s Midnight Vampiress Costume

7 California Costume Women’s Adult-Vampire’s Mistress

8 California Costumes Women’s Queen Of Nightfall Costume

9 California Costumes Women’s Immortal Seductress Costume

10 California Costumes Women’s Baroness Von Bloodshed Costume

11 Dreamgirl Women’s Fang Bangin’ Fun Vamp

12 California Costumes Women’s Glamour Vamp Costume

13 California Costumes Men’s Very Cool Vampire Costume

14 California Costumes Men’s Baron Von Bloodshed Costume

15 Nightfall Vampire Dracula Vest & Cape Costume Adult

16 Adult Men’s Vampire Baron Halloween Costume

17 Vampire Grand Heritage Collection Men’s Costume

I seemed to be catching a string of bad B horror movies lately – bad acting, bad camera work, poor script, but The V Word (vampire) wasn’t horrible. The first thing I noticed was the cinematography was really good, a welcome change as of late. The acting was decent enough, the mortuary scenes were creepy… not really scary, but I’ll give it creepy. The blood and gore is there, not mild, but not too over the top.

My biggest complaint, not to sound like a broken record… lack of vampire fangs and zombie-like vampire action. They even take the time to zoom in towards the vampire’s mouth to reveal his yellowish green, flat zombie teeth. To which he proceeds to rip apart the kid’s neck with his hands, in zombie fashion before feeding. Which of course is all following the slow and drawn out zombie shuffle chase scene through the hallways… sigh. If they called it The Z Word, it would have worked just as well, only would have had to change the ending slightly.

Overall, this 58-minute movie wasn’t too bad, not much for originality, full of clichés but moderately entertaining. I can’t really rate it more than Three fangs – Poor, but Might as Well Watch. Recommended for fans of the Masters of Horror series, but Masters of Horror: The V Word (2007) is not the best vampire flick out there.

The best thing about this movie that it inspires every wannabe film maker that with a dream, $100, and a Wal-Mart video camera, yes you too can make a vampire movie. But really, this was an amateurish C-movie. Perhaps Mrs. Amworth (2006) could have been a B-movie as it was probably intended, but Frank Sciurba missed.

First off, the “beautiful Mrs. Amworth” who you might expect to be a sexy and voluptuous beauty, wasn’t all that pretty, well I’ll give her OK. Also, she was either very tall, or the other actors were too short – seemed to look odd in some of the scenes. As far as breaking the rules of a B-movie, they had ample quantities of fake blood, but Frank forgot to grab the $.99 fake vampire teeth when he bought his camcorder at Wal-mart! Come on guys, borrow another dollar from mom to have enough money in the budget for vampire fangs. Another B-movie faux paux, if the girl you cast as the female lead is not willing to take off her shirt, find someone else – don’t half-ass the R rating. While Christy Sullivan is indeed attractive, more so than the vampire, if she isn’t going to play the stereotypical B-movie role, someone else will be comfortable with it. And we the viewers will appreciate it.

I can usually find something redeemable in any vampire movie… a standout scene, or interesting plot twist or any number of other minor things would be good… Hrmm… Let’s see, the cinematography, the screen play and the acting were all pretty dismal. The music was very bad 90% of the time, and the overall sound quality was poor… dang Wal-mart camcorder. OK, let’s be fair, some parts of the story had some potential… some. But lack of follow through will kill you every time.

Again, if you are a budding 16-year-old film maker, you can follow the lead here are cast your friends, shoot at their houses and backyard, have your younger brother shoot some scenes from  3-foot-tall height angles, screw the lighting and sound, whatever the camera picks up is good enough and go ahead with a 30 second coffee cup close-up – it really adds interest to the story.

Overall, Mrs. Amworth (2006) gets One fang – Not recommended except for completeness, if you are trying to catch every vampire movie made, you have to watch, just don’t expect too much.

The 30 Days of Night series, graphic novels or movies, are not for everyone. They are also not for every vampire fan. These are not alluring Anne Rice creatures, no crucifixes, holy water, wooden stakes, or garlic wards.

The basic premise of the first 2 movies are simple and direct:

30 Days of Night (2007) – When a month-long period of prolonged darkness sets in on the tiny Alaskan town of Barrow, the locals are invaded by a flock of bloodthirsty vampires who set off a series of sabotages, escalating into violent siege attack, prompting the town sheriff (Josh Hartnett) to act fast to save the day. Melissa George, Ben Foster and Danny Huston co-star in this horror offering from producer Sam Raimi based on the 30 Days of Night graphic novel series by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010) – Based on the second installment of popular graphic novel miniseries Dark Days (30 Days of Night, Book 2), this harrowing thriller follows Stella (Kiele Sanchez) after her ordeal in Barrow, Alaska, at the hands of rapacious vampires. Grieving for her dead husband, Stella craves revenge. With the aid of some eccentric vampire hunters, Stella travels to Los Angeles to stalk Lilith (Mia Kirshner), the dangerous queen vampire responsible for the attack on Barrow. Ben Ketai directs this sequel to 30 Days of Night (2007).

Also back when it came out, there was a prequel 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails that I caught on FEARnet.com that set up the story.

The 30 Days of Night breed of vampires are not mainstreaming, trying to live among humans and fit in to society in such the way that True Blood portrays them. They are portrayed as uniquely animalistic, savage and violent predators, killing everyone within their grasp to feed on their blood – no romance, no seduction. They are creepy pale-white ghouls with black eyes, hunger-driven, vicious and shrieking, monstrosities fully equipped with razor sharp claws, and rows of shark-like teeth instead of a traditional pair of canine fangs. “Rip everyone’s head off and do not turn them…” utters the menacing pack leader Marlow (Danny Huston) before the siege in an ancient guttural Germanic language, other communication between the vampires consists of shrieks and screams. Action-packed, extreme blood and gore, throat-ripping vampiric violence. Not for the faint of heart.

These hardcore vampires possess some of the usual vampiric powers and weaknesses, vulnerable to sunlight, super-human strength, enhanced speed, ability to turn others into vampires but without shapeshifting or mind control. They are highly intelligent and organized pack hunters – brutal and relentless killing machines, very similar to a pack of Jurassic Park velociraptors. “These Vampires would laugh at Dracula… then rip off his head!” as one reviewer stated.

Sure there are some plot holes if you really want to dissect it. But if you can unhinge yourself from obsessing over the details and just let the blood fly, you are in for a very enjoyably creepy, scary and bloodsoaked treat. There wasn’t much character development, they just jumped into the action. Great cinematography, great special FX, no lame comedic relief and decent acting for a horror bloodbath flick.

What many of the negative reviews failed to realize, is this was more or less a vampire vacation spot. The vampires were wasteful on purpose, playing cat-and-mouse with the humans. They strategically eliminated all channels of escape then had 30 days to hang out. Sure there was the initial attack scene where a large chunk of the townsfolk were decimated, but then the rest were allowed to escape without immediate chase. Run and hide, they have all month to hunt, bait and trap the helpless and isolated survivors at their leisure. Would have defeated the purpose to show up and kill everyone in the first hour then have nothing to do for the next 29 days…  Not sure if people were expecting the vampires to bring funnels and empty milk jugs to collect every drop of blood for later?

But if you did want to go back and start analyzing, pick up on the moral dilemmas portrayed in the film. Would you expect someone or would you yourself attempt to rescue someone else’s elderly father from being brutally mauled by a vampire or would you stay in hiding? what about a defenseless woman or a little girl? But that wasn’t this films strong point, it is a blood and guts siege/survival movie.

I will agree with those who felt that there was a lot to pack into a 90 minute movie and ended up failing to deliver important details. I would have loved this to have been a 10 episode FEARnet.com miniseries if they were able to fill the whole space effectively. That would have given more time for character development so people could care more about the victims before the slaughter, more time to give a better sense of time passing over 30 days, etc. Then again, I’m sure most of the negative reviewer haven’t read any of the graphic novels, or seen the Blood Trails prequel, or watched Dark Days sequel which furthers the story and delves into some more background…

I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending, well part of the ending. But then again I am way biased towards vampires. I really want to see a set of vampire movies where the vampires just obliterate the humans. Of course we need interesting plots but realistically (in an unrealistic vampire setting) vampires would win. Kinda sick of hapless civilians getting lucky, or even skilled vampire slayers getting the edge on a supernatural behemoth.

Overall 30 Days of Night is a scary, entertaining and a vicious white knuckle and jaw-dropping ride of a horror film. In a genre where the villains have been domesticated and glamorized, 30 Days of Night actually gives you a reason to be scared of vampires again. One of the most gruesome vampire movies I have ever seen, which is a good thing. I want to give it a 10 fang rating, but I think it could have been with a few tweaks. I’ll give it a Nine fangs – Outstanding, Highly Recommended for now, and revisit my review later.