One phenomena of the North American film industry is the practice of taking successful and popular European and Asian horror films, and Americanizing them.  Some are as successful as their original source materials, others not as much... and some leave you wondering if the process was necessary... Owen is a young boy growing up in a broken household.  Isolated, and neglected, he faces brutal bullying at school that further pushes him towards a breakdown and violence... Then Abby moves in.  Abby makes him smile.  Abby makes him feel special.  Abby make him feel wanted. Abby needs blood... 2010's " Let Me In " is an Americanized version of the Swedish film " Let the Right One In "- which is based on a novel of the same name.  The story is fairly simple to follow, yet deep enough to keep you mentally and emotionally engaged.  There are no wasted moments in the story- every scene helps to support every other story element.  This is lean, smooth...

Vampires.  Stephen King.  Halloween Day By Day.  The Corner of Terror. A match made in heaven, right? Writer Ben Mears returns to his home town of Salem's Lot to write about the local "haunted house"- the Marsten House.  His arrival seems to herald a plague: children disappearing... locals feeling tired and run down... and growing fear and suspicion. Did Ben bring death to Salem's Lot... or did Straker, another mysterious stranger. And who exactly is the never seen Kurt Barlow? 1979 saw Stephen King's novel " Salem's Lot " adapted for television.  This novel is one of King's more iconic works, and a great modern take on the classic, " Dracula ".  I'll save a review of the book for another time.  Today, we're going to discuss the mini-series. The story is essentially based on Bram Stoker's classic.  It is however nicely updated for a more modern audience, and set in a more grounded population.  It progressed ni...

I remember watching the first " Underworld " movie with Jay (from " We Came From the Basement ") several years ago, and being impressed by the action direction that it took the vampire and werewolf mythos.  I recently sat down to watch the FOURTH movie in the series to see if the ride would still be enjoyable... After spending 12 years in a cryogenic freeze, Selene is freed by a mysterious person, and begins a quest to seek out her lover, Michael.  Soon, however, she winds up fighting to save the vampire race from a new species of werewolves ... The premise is very strong in my opinion, and was certainly strong enough to support the characters, and action scenes in this movie.  The subplot of the company trying to find a vaccine to cure the vampires and werewolves was interesting, as was the subplot involving Selene discovering her daughter, Eve.  These subplots wove together nicely with the main plot to create a cohesive and engaging whole. I also liked th...

These days, it's fairly simple- and cheap to make a movie.  All you really need is a camera, people to act in the movie, decent editing software for video and sound, and directing skill.  Often, it's acting or the directing skills that make the difference between a Good , Bad , or Ugly movie... Detective Jimi Cannon's friend has stopped coming into work, and hanging out with him.  Jimi must find out why... and find a way to save his best friend from the seductive violence of the night... I actually quite like the premise, since it provides a lot of potential for interesting character interaction, action, suspense, and gore.  The love triangle between Mike (Jimi's partner), Tonia, and Konatsu is an interesting subplot- and is fortunately, not done the same way as in the " Twilight " books.  This combined with the main plot of Jimi trying to save Mike from the vampires could've made for a really enjoyable and entertaining movie. The characters are a...

I often think that my Facebook and Twitter followers eagerly await Wednesday, because they know that they'll have a chance to get me to sit through horrible movies... and they've chosen some horrid ones for me to watch over the past year or so.  Fortunately, sometimes, they manage to choose something decent for me to watch and tweet to... Sylvia arrives at Castle Walbrooke to claim ownership of it, and her title as Countess Walbrooke.  The night of her arrival, the mysterious and sexy Blinka warns her that her Uncle, the Count, is after her.  Soon, Sylvia learns a dark secret about her family's past that may cost her her life ... As is often the case with horror movies, the premise is really quite good, and serves as a great starting point for the story.  " Fangs of the Living Dead " does a decent job of delivering an interesting storyline that actually kept me watching.  There is very little in the way of "fat" in this movie.  The few subplots ac...

Vampires and witches are often a good basis for a horror novel.  Through in the Spanish Inquisition, and odds are you'll get a pretty good story. In 1496, while the Spanish Inquisition is in full motion, Diego  de Villanueva is seeking a way to rise through the ranks of the Inquistion.  He will do anything he needs to... even use his brother's darkest secrets and knowledge to bring fear and hatred to the world... " The Black Castle " caught my  eye while shopping at " The Book Place ".  I was intrigued by the idea of it taking place during the Spanish Inquisition.  While I did enjoy reading this book, I was also a little disappointed. The style is very fitting to the story- it has an almost old world charm and rythm to it that I found pleasing to the ear.  It's also easy to read, and flows at a nice pace.  While, it's not "fancy", the images it creates are fairly good and atmospheric. The story itself is a really interesting idea....

In celebration of Vincent Price's birthday yesterday, I sat down and watched, " The Last Man on Earth "... Dr. Robert Morgan lives in a world of the undead.  By day, he goes around to the various vampiric safe houses, and destroys the foul creatures.  By night, he searches for a cure to the plague that has turned humanity into the blood sucking monsters.  Soon however, Morgan learns who the real monster is... This is one of those films that is considered to be one of Vincent Price's classics.  It's not a bad movie- but it's not a great one either.  I enjoyed it, but not enough that I would re-watch it unless it was a Vampire Movie Night. The story is based on Richard Matheson's novel, " I Am Legend ."  Even though he acknowledged it as following his story quite closely (and he helped write the sceenplay), he was dissatisfied with the end result. It's a bit of a mixed bag.  The story is interesting, as are the characters.  There is ...

Vampire movies have gotten a bit boring over the past few years, relying on either the vampire being either moody and angsty or in a rivalry with a werewolf.  But rest assured that there ARE some that step out of the usual vampire mold and are quite entertaining. Marcel and Amy, two vampires have stolen $100,000.00 from vampire mobster Jimmy "Fangs" Petrucci, and are on the run.  A mysterious vampire hitman has been hired to hunt them down to get the money back.  While waiting for his money to be returned, "Fangs" has to deal with a strange female vampire who is killing his gang on her path to the vampire that created her. " Strange Things Happen at Sundown " is a fun little vampire film that is witty and intellegent.  In 2003, it won the Audience Choice Award at the New York City Horror Film Festival. The story is well crafted and smart.  It uses much of the vampire mythology with minor changes to bring a fresh feeling to the vampire genre.  Unused ...

Vampires have been a staple of the horror movie industry for decades.  As such they've changed over the years from being the purely evil blood sucking beasts of my childhood to the teenage, angsty, mopey tools of recent years.  Once in a while, something different comes along... Dex is a musician who has a problem that is slowly tearing away at his band, his friendships, and his relationship with is girlfriend.  He's an addict... but not your average addict... He's a vampire... The premise is actually quite intellegent- examine the vampire mythos from the perspective of it being an addiction and how it would affect the vampire's dealings with those around him.  Too bad the execution failed to explore that premise to a satisfactory level. " Immortal " is a very low budget production- we're talking camcorder low.  In some ways it's helped, but overall kept it from being a film with depth and coherency.  The film quality gave it a nice gritty lo...

  Before movies like " Twilight " turned vampires into emo, teen angsty, sparkling pretty boys, the movies showed them as vicious, evil creatures that preyed upon humanity in the dark shadows of the night.  They were fearsome creatures deserving of fear. Unfortunately, " Twilight " can't be completely blamed for making vampires boring and dull. A group of unemployed people have been hired to work in a European household.  When their driver dies, they are forced to spend the night in a small town whose mysterious residents turn out to be more than they seem... The Spanish film, " The Vampire's Night Orgy " has some good qualities, but several flaws as well.  Since it's dubbed into English, the words, actions and pacing are skewed, causing a lack of real tension and suspense during the exposition scenes.  I'm sure that to a Spanish audience in the 1970's, the acting and dialogue would probably be considered good. The music is also a d...

These days, you often have to leave the North American film industry in order to find interesting and entertaining horror fare.  While some of these imported films may be as cheesy as those offered by Hollywood, many of them are still interesting because of the different things they bring to the genre. After suffering a horrible auto accident, Jeanette is persauded by a mysterious woman to undergo experimental treatment in the hopes of regaining the beauty she once had.  Soon, however, she is part of a world where love, desire, and murder are all part of the recipe that is behind the special serum that keeps her beautiful. "Atom Age Vampire" is an Italian film originally titled, "Seddok," and was quite entertaining- its apparent cheesiness hiding some rather clever thinking, and an interesting mix of the vampire and Jekyll/Hyde tales. The main cheese factor was the dubbing the Italian over into English.  The dialogue sounded like it was being read- or even im...

I'm not afraid to admit that bats scare the hell out of me.  I have a hard time even watching them on TV or in a movie.  And when a movie is called, " The Vampire Bat ", you can expect me to be ready to squirm a bit when they show the bats... The small village of Kleinschloss is being plagued by a rash of killings- killings where the victims have been drained of their blood.  Unable to find clues of a human killer, the authorities are forced to contemplate the supernatural... " The Vampire Bat " was produced by Majestic Pictures, Inc. as a way for them to cash in on the publicity of Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill appearing in Warner Bros' films " Doctor X " (1932), and " Mystery of the Wax Museum " (1933).  As soon as Wray and Atwill finished filming, " Mystery of the Wax Museum ", Majestic Pictures hired them for their own film. To help their rather low budget film look like that of an "A-List" studio, Majestic Pic...

Let me say that not only am I a fan of horror films, but I'm a fan of black and white horror films... and silent black and white horror films.  There's just something satisfying about watching a well made "old school" movie that is innovative and able to tap into your emotions without being heavily reliant of technology to do so. "Nosferatu" is one of those films. During World War One, Albin Grau- one of the founders of Prana Films was inspired to do a vampire film when a Serbian farmer informed Grau that his father was one of the Undead.  In 1921, Grau and his partner, Enrico Dieckmann assigned Henrik Galeen to come up with a screenplay based loosely on Bram Stokers novel, "Dracula".  French-German film critic Lotte Eisner described Galeen's Expressionist screenplay as: "full of poetry, full of rhythm" Thomas Hutter is sent to Transylvania to meet a new client by the name of Count Orlok.  Despite being warned about Count Orlok...