Vampires in Havana

Sometimes, I come upon a movie that I'm not sure what to make of it. Vampires in Havana is one of those.

It's pre-revolutionary Cuba.
Pepe is a musician, interested in playing his trumpet and having sex. He's also part of an underground trying to take down a corrupt general.
He's ALSO Dracula's grandson. His uncle, a vampire created a serum to allow vampires to exist during the day.

This serum becomes part of a power struggle between the North American and European factions of the vampire world.

Oh, yeah... it's animated too. The image on the dvd cover is Pepe vamped out. As someone who's used to the sophisticated animation of Japanese cartoons, and even the not as sophisticated but still pretty good animation of American cartoons, the animation style was... different. Primative, even for 1985 (point of reference: The Transformers: the Movie came out in 1986), it's got an almost European feel.

Vampires in Havana isn't for everyone, but if you're an fan of international animation, it's something worth checking out.

Vampyros Lesbos

I've watched several vampire films with girl/girl content during this project, some subtle, some arty, some cheesy. But Vampyros Lesbos cuts through all the subtext crap and puts it right there in the title.

It's... there's... oh, come on- it's not something most people watch for a plot (though there's a bit of one), but for the writhing naked ladies- it's an exploitation flick pure and simple from Jess Franco. This is the first of Franco's movies I've seen- but knowing he's directed a women in prison movie gives me some context.

Vampyros Lesbos has a seventies score and the sets- including a great spiral staircase with silver foil wall paper- are textbook examples of seventies design.
Really.
That's one of those things that helps me get through movies like this.

Three months down, nine more to go!

Bloodsucking Babes from Burbank

Jesus, what a rancid piece of crap.

Bloodsucking Babes from Burbank is awful. It's so bad I wouldn't even consider it for nomination as a movie for a bad movie night.

You know how you can record video on a digital camera?
I think that was how they filmed this thing.

That's after recruiting talent from the local community college.

There's better ways to spend ninety minutes.
Like sleeping.

The Devil Bat

The last few days have been a bit of a challenge blogging, since for some reason Blogger keeps transliterating my posts into Hindi.
Really.
So, I've got a back log of posts and tonight's post is as much as a regular post as it is a test to make sure this is coming in in English.
Which it seems to be.
Tonight's movie, The Devil Bat, is a little bit of a cheat, as it isn't a proper vampire movie. But it has a bat and Bela Lugosi, so it works thematically.

Lugosi plays a disgruntled chemist taking revenge on his former employers, a perfume company. He has mutated a bat that is attracted to a scent he's devised- a scent that he's mixed into some after-shave he's provided to this former bosses.

It's a little cheesy, but a lot of fun. The best part is where Lugosi instructs a victim how to apply the after-shave "on the tender parts of your neck."

Beverly Hills Vamp

To paraphrase Matt Groening: "Vampires are funny, sex is funny, and comedies are funny, yet no Vampire sex comedies are funny."

That pretty much sums up Beverly Hills Vamp. Three small town guys go to Hollywood in hopes of having their movie produced; when that falls through, they go to a brothel.
A brothel run by vampires!
One of the three is Tim Conway, Jr (he actually makes a Harvey Korman joke), while the stand out is Eddie Deezen- he's one of those THAT guy, you know him when you see him.

It's by Fred Olen Ray, and I really should have expected it to be bad, coming from the man who brought us Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

Dracula (1979)

Well, if I hadn't seen the Louis Jourdan version of Dracula, I'd declare Dracula (1979) what I'd imagine a BBC version of Dracula would be like.

It's pretty good. Since it's an actual theatrical release it had a budget for costumes, sets and most importantly, actors.

Dracula in this instance is played by Frank Langella. He's a sexyDracula though his blown-dry hair, all stylish and seventies is a little distracting.

Of course you can't have a Dracula without a Van Helsing, played here by Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier isn't quite the classic actor he used to be but it was a good paycheck for him.

This version was an adaptation of the stage play- the same stage play that influenced the Lugosi version- that was famous for the set design by Edward Gorey.

Now in the era of CGI, I'd love to see someone do a video production of Dracula using those designs. They've been turned into a puppet theatre- this seems to be the best visuals I could find on youtube:

While someone has actually used them to make a loose, short adaptation of Dracula here.

30 Days of Night

Sometimes I have these moments where I think "Did that happen, or did I just imagine it?". Occasionally I can go on the internet and find out, yes, indeed, X happened. Like the Klingon Happy Meal commercial. So before watching tonight's movie- 30 Days of Night- I remembered there was an episode of Eight is Enough where one of the sisters was up late watching a movie. A sibling came down to see what was playing and she said "Dracula in Alaska."

"Dracula in Alaska." What a terrifying concept. A vampire, a creature of the night, someplace where night could last a month.

I'd check the movie books, the tv listings, and I never saw such a thing.

Then Steven Niles came along. Niles, with artist Ben Templesmith, created a graphic novel- originally a movie proposal- where vampires besieged an Alaskan town in the darkest part of winter. It's a awesome read. Then the rumors on the internet started- yes, the movie was in production.

First- it's not JUST an adaptation of a comic book, it's one of the most faithful adaptations ever.
Second- in a time when the bigger vampire movies in recent memory were Interview With A Vampire, Queen of the Damned and Bram Stoker's Dracula, 30 Days of Night rescued the vampire from the stereotype of tragic romantic hero and reminded us that they're monsters.

Big nasty monsters with claws and teeth and a cruel streak a mile wide.

That's the awesome of 30 Days of Night.

(And if you remember "Dracula in Alaska" too, please let me know. Eight is Enough isn't available on dvd, and even if it was, I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to go through the episodes to find it.)

The Vampire's Niece

Well, I've been burnt two nights in a row on films that we either tagged as vampire films or looked like they might be (something called Legion of the Dead and another crapfest called Blood Gnomes). It's getting harder to watch vampire movies on demand from netflix- of the 75 films tagged vampire, I've got 23 of them left, with titles like Bloodsucking Babes from Burbank and Beverly Hills Vamp, so I haven't quite hit the bottom of the streaming barrel, I can see it's there.

I played it safe tonight, choosing a movie with the word vampire in the title- at least the version I saw had it. The Vampire's Niece aka The Fangs of the Living Dead aka Malenka.
Italian production, filmed in Spain, starring Anita Ekberg as an heiress to a title in a family of vampires. Her faincee' comes to rescue her from her uncle's cold clutches.

It's not La Dolce Vita, but still entertaining.

(image snagged from Mondo Euro)

The Pyramid

After the last two nights' movies, I'm taking a break from the Vampires.

Tonight I treated my self to David Fincher's Zodiac.

I've seen it a couple of times, and really, it's just for this sequence:

The Transamerica Building is probably one of my five favorite buildings ever. A few years ago I was in San Francisco and I decided to go for a walk; I left my hotel, turned the corner and there it was. The sudden THERE is one of those wow experience I'll always remember.

I need to get out more.

From Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City:

"There's a theory," said Anna, handing him a cup of tea as she climbed back into bed, "That we are all Atlanteans."
"Who?"
"Us. San Franciscans."
Edgar grinned indulgently, bracing himself for another yarn.
Anna caught it. "Do you want to hear it... or are you getting stuffy on me?"
"Go ahead. Tell me a story."
"Well... in one of our last incarnations. We were all citizens of Atlantis. All of us. You, me, Frannie, Dee Dee, Mary Ann..."
"Are you sure she's out of the building?"
"She's gone to her switchboard. Will you relax?"
"OK. I'm relaxed."
"All right, then. We all lived in this lovely, enlightened kingdom that sank beneath the sea a long time ago. Now we've comeback to this special peninsula on the edge of the continent... because we know, in a secret corner of our minds, that we must return together to the sea."
"The earthquake."
Anna nodded. "Don't you see? You said the earthquake, not an earthquake. You're expecting it. We're all expecting it."
"So what does that have to do with Atlantis?"
"The Transamerica Pyramid, for one thing."
"Huh?"
"Don't you know what dominated the skyline of Atlantis, Edgar... the thing that loomed over everything?"
He shook his head.
"A pyramid! An enormous pyramid with a beacon burning at the top!"

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl.

There's something about Japanese cartoons that just doesn't click with me about 95% of the time.

So when I saw that an animation company was somehow involved in the distribution of Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, I cringed.

Fortuneately, it was live action and I was quickly able to realize that it was a... let's be generous and say satire of the horror genre.

Monami is the new girl at school who has fallen for Mizushima, boyfriend of Kieko.

Monami is a vampire and soon turn Mizushima. Keiko is killed, but her father, the assistant principal, is also somehow related to Frankenstein and brings her back to life.

There's some massive and bloody catfighting.

The effects were awesome. When Mizushima has his first vampire moment, he's seeing his class mates as walking circulatory systems. Lots of crimson CGI.

But I just couldn't get into the whole school girl thing. And you know the standard high school cliques thing in the States- jock, stoner, nerd, etc? Well, there were two in VG vs FG that I hadn't encountered before: Cutters and "Ganguro."

We've got Cutters in the States, but the ones in the movie had a club based around it.

And Ganguro.

It's...

Well...

In the movie, anyway, there was a Blackface club. Yes, like Al Jolson.

These girls felt they had more in common with Africa rather than their Japanese heritage. To the degree that they'd blackfaced themselves. One of the girls carried a shield and spear.

I'm sure if this movie had been on a wider radar, it would have really annoyed several parents groups.

That said, it wasn't too bad. I think I might have even enjoyed it after a couple of glasses of sake'.

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter

I remember seeing an ad for Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter in Rue Morgue a while back. Then I heard something about it here, something there. All in all, I heard... positive, if not good, comments.

I need to find those people. I need to hunt them down and punish them.

I sat through my quarter of it.

A quarter. That's my limit. How much of my life am I willing to waste?

Quite a bit with some of these, but not Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.

Yes, he's that JC. He's called in by some priests to investigate the disappearance of parishioners, victims of vampires. After he's shaved to a clean cut look, there's a musical number and some martial arts action.

I think I could choreograph a better fight between my nephews.

It's one of those "lots of enthusiasm" movies.

I think I'd have enjoyed a little less enthusiasm and better production values.

Blood And Roses

Ten years before Hammer did The Vampire Lovers, Roger Vadim did his adaptation of Carmilla in Blood in Roses.

Leopoldo de Karnstein, Mel Ferrar, is engaged to Georgia, Elsa Martinelli. His cousin Carmilla, played by Vadim's wife Annette, is jealous of her. The family has a history of Vampires and on the eve of Leopoldo's engagement party, Carmilla encounters the grave of one of her vampire ancestors, and becomes possessed by her.

It's a stylish movie, more art house than horror film. Since it was filmed in Italy, it's especially lovely to look at, the old villa with contemporary furniture, mosaic tiled floors, marble statues, the old and new in contrast.

It's also a quiet, dreamy film, with the possibility that Carmilla is insane rather than a vampire.

Blood and Roses is classy, sophisticated arty Euro-horror, enough to make me forget some of the direct to video stuff I've seen, if only for a while.

Love At First Bite

"Children of the Night, shut up!"

George Hamilton is Dracula. Let that sink in for a minute. The tannest man in the world is playing an undead creature of the night.

It's Love at First Bite, a vampire comedy from 1979.

Unlike Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It, it's actually funny. A large chunk of the humor is Hamilton's deadpan portrayal of the Count, a fish out of water in New York City. He's been evicted by the Romania government so he goes to America in search of Cindy Sondheim, the fashion model who's captured his heart.

She's played by Susan Saint James, who will always be Mrs McMillan to me no matter how many episodes of Kate & Allie I see. "Oh, that's so kinky, are you biting me?". In the Count's way is Jeffrey, Cindy's ex-boyfriend and the grandson of Van Helsing, played by Richard Benjamin, who always struck me as the Jeff Goldblum of the seventies.

Since you can't have a Dracula without a Renfield, Arte Johnson steals the show with his manic re-interpetation of Dwight Frye's classic Renfield, down to the heh-heh-heh.

I'd put off watching Love at First Bite because I was worried it was going to be annoying like the Brook but it was cute- there was enough silliness to entertain someone who was watching it as a comedy, there were enough subtle references to the Lugosi version to entertain a purist.

(image snagged from Wrong Side of the Art blog)

Shock!

If I hadn't done this blog- the watching 365 vampire movies this year- I would have done another project that I'd been toying with- viewing all the movies in the Shock Theater and Son of Shock syndication packages.

These were the classic Universal Horror films collected for television, where many horror fans were first introduced to the movies and stars like Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney, creating enough interest in the genre that Forrest J Ackerman was able to start up his magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Fifty-two movies in the initial package, twenty more in Son of Shock. Seventy-two films, not all readily available but I'm sure findable by the end of the year.

But there's no need for me to do it- aside from "it's there!"- since someone is already doing it here.

Now I've got another blog archive to read!

The Damned

Um.

The Damned. Insert snarky comment here.

Three friends living in a barrio in Oakland realize their new neighbors are vampires. It's like Fright Night. In the hood.

You know when Todd Bridges is listed in the credits first that you're in for something... unique.

And by unique I mean piece of crap in it's own special way.

Bad acting. Bad sets. Awful "punk rock" soundtrack.

I don't know anyone I hate enough to try and get them to watch this movie.

Dracula's Widow

Tonight's movie was Dracula's Widow.

Now, I'm just pretty much working my way through netflix on demand.

It's directed by Christopher Coppola, and I figured that last name was pretty much what got this thing green-lit.

Lenny Von Dohlen plays Raymond, a creepy fellow who owns a wax museum- and lives above it. He's preparing a Dracula exhibit and is importing antiques from Romania as props. With his five boxes of stuff comes a sixth- carrying Vanessa, played by Sylvia Kristel- famous from the softcore Emmanuelle films.

I'm sure she brought something to the table in those considering the cult following they've developed, but I'm not seeing much in the acting skills department.

The most fun I had while watching this was trying to get some idea of what the filming location of Wilmington, North Carolina looks like in real life. We nearly went there once but the drive down Route 17 was killing us- miles and miles of nothing; we detoured westward to Raleigh and sanity.

The Rondos

I voted today in the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards today, mostly out of nerdish glee, but partially out of local pride.

Several of the nominees are from my hometown area:

Book of the Year nominee Forry: The Life of Forrest J Ackerman by Debbie Painter- I enjoyed her Ackerman presentation on Ackerman at last year's Monsterfest;
Best Magazine nominee Scary Monsters has several writers from the area;
Best Convention nominee Monsterfest from Chesapeake; and
Horror Host nominee Doctor Madblood.

Vampyres aka Daughters of Darkness

Somewhere, someone realized that they could get away with making softcore porn if they had more scenes in the movie that didn't involve sex. In Vampyres, there's at least two girl-girl scenes and two guy-girl scenes and a guy-girl-girl three way, all fairly explicit for a R-Rated 1973 movie.

There's sort of a plot- the ladies of the girl-girl relationship are vampires. They feed on unwary travelers they lure into their home- which happens to be the same house as the Frankenstein Place in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There's a husband and wife on holiday who have parked their trailer across from the house and they're watching the goings on with curiosity.

Of course they are.

Since everything is naturally classier with a British accent- the sets are pretty good as well- I'm sure the gentlemen in trenchcoats in the movie theaters of Times Square felt they were watching something sophisticated.

And by sophisticated, I mean kind of sleazy.

(image snagged from classic-horror.com)

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Wow.

First off, a special thanks to Rob Floyd and Jim Blanton of Fantasmo Cult Cinema, the two fellows who were responsible for tonight's movie, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. They're awesome, bringing cult movies- horror, sci-fi, adventure and just plain weird (Can't Stop The Music)- to audiences once a month at the Chesapeake Public Library main branch in Chesapeake, Virginia.

I've been watching these movies on a small screen, it was nice to see it on something impressive- the library has a video projector set up to watch movies on a screen roughly the size of a small screen in a mall two-plex circa 1985.

So, the movie- Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A vampire is loose in Las Vegas and Carl Kokchak, a rumpled and discredited reporter trying to find the big story that will put him on the map again, played by Darrin McGavin, is the only one who realizes that the killings aren't the work of a psychopath, but of an actual monster.

It's a made for television movie that works well as a feature, there's a... texture to it- it's not too polished; kind of stark sometimes in that early seventies tv kind of way.

This might have something to do with McGavin's Kolchak, in his rumpled seersucker suit and battered panama hat, in the frame most of the time, barring the vampire attacks, giving a seediness to the story. Coupled with his voice overs in a prose style not too dis-similar to a tabloid muckraker, you've got a great portrait of someone who's regularly exposed to the less respectable side of things.

And in early seventies Las Vegas, there's plenty of that- the sheriff, the DA, and the police chief will do what ever it takes to suppress anything that might damage the tourist industry.

Richard Matheson's script brings television vampires out of the gothic context and into the modern era, setting the stage for the sequel The Night Strangler and the tv show Kolchak: The Night Stalker, but laying the ground work for Chris Carter's The X-Files (there's a character named after Matheson, a senator who supports the work of Agent Mulder and Darren McGavin plays a retired FBI agent who had investigated some odd cases on his own.)

Even though The Night Strangler wasn't a vampire movie, it does have ties to the genre (besides being a sequel)- Al Lewis - Grandpa Munster- plays a homeless person living in the underground Seattle, while John Carridine - Dracula in Universal's Houses of Frankenstein and Dracula- played Kolchak's publisher.

The television series had an episode related to the movie as well- in the episode The Vampire, October 4, 1974, one of the victims of the vampire from the movie travels to Los Angeles working as a vampire call girl.

Ganja & Hess

Ganja & Hess is one of those movies that I've seen on lists of influential films, but didn't know that much about; when I saw that netflix said it was a Vampire movie, I added it to my list.

When I saw that it was starring Duane Jones, from Night of the Living Dead, as Dr Hess Green, an anthropologist who becomes a vampire after being stabbed with a cursed knife by his crazy assistant, I was really excited to see it.

The crazy assistant kills himself, and Hess, after recovering from the stabbing, laps up the assistants blood from the floor like a cat drinking spilled milk.

He resorts to stealing blood from clinics and killing prostitutes to survive when his assistant's wife, Ganja, shows up.

OF COURSE they fall in love- even after she discovers her husbands body in Hess's basement. "Every body's some kind of freak," she says, true to the early seventies tone of the movie.

Ganja & Hess is an odd movie. Apparently the producers we looking for another Blacula and what they got was a trippy, hypnotic thing, like David Lynch doing an Blaxplotation film. David Lynch like the crazy parts of Mulholland Dr., as opposed to the slightly more accessible Lynch of Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet.

As far as vampire movies go, Ganja & Hess is unique and not for everybody- but if you're a serious fan of the genre and tired of the cliches you need to watch this movie.

Post script: I've been thinking about how visually explicit this movie gets toward the end. So I'm adding this bit to let readers know- it's not for kids. If you've come to the genre from, oh, say... Twilight or Van Helsing, you might not like this movie. If the Hunger was more your cup of tea, then you're set.