Happy Vampire's Day Soiree!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!  Today we celebrate the Vampire's Day Soiree!!  Check out lots of awesome posts at...

I had something really awesome planned, and then life got it the way, as it often does!  But please, enjoy my Valentine's to some of my favorite Vampires (no sparkling ones, I promise)....

This Valentine's goes to the original and still the best...

You are one of the scarier vamps but you still hold a place in my heart....

This Valentines goes to the hottest Dracula (sorry Mr. Oldman)....

But you are pretty awesome too.....

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....

You are the craziest, but I may love you most of all......

Honorable Valentine's go to these two guys.  They are both good eggs...

Rare Book Review: The Passage

Post Apocalyptic horror is one of my favorite genres.  I can trace this back to reading The Stand when I was about 13.  The Passage by Justin Cronin reminds me of The Stand in more ways than one.  Not only is it about a group of post apocalyptic survivors trying to survive while understanding the meaning of their lives, but it also has a subtle (well, more subtle than The Stand) religious undercurrent.  Not that Cronin or King are trying to push religion on anyone.  It just that when things seem the worst, when there seems to be no reason to go on living, we all need something, some kind of magic or faith, to get us through. 

The Apocalypse in The Passage begins as most apocalypses do, with the U.S. Government.  A plant found in South America seems to possess magical healing powers: powers that could really help the U.S. Army.  The Government begins experiments on Death Row inmates.  When these experiments don't go so well, they decide to try the drug on a child.  The child they choose, Amy, will go on to become "the girl who saves the world."  But you won't see it in this book.  The Passage is the first book in a planned trilogy.  We jump 90 years into the future when most of mankind has been wiped out by the "virals", vampire like creatures that were produced as a result of these experiments.  The virals need to feed on humans.  They are sensitive to light and seem to live forever.  They don't show much intelligence but they seem to hunt in packs.  They are essentially zombie/vampire hybrids.  A group of survivors find Amy, still alive 90 years later and hardly aged.  Amy seems to possess special powers.  It is as if she can "control" the virals.  Driven by some unknown force, Peter Jaxon, one of the survivors, decides he must take Amy to Colorado where the outbreak began.  So begins our journey.

I liked The Passage very much.  It is a real page turner and you really get to know and care for the characters.  Having said that, be aware that it is a trilogy.  The book just kind of ends: it's not even a very good cliffhanger.  I want to know what happens, I just wish the ending of THIS book could have been more satisfying.  Scary in parts, weepy in parts, I highly recommend The Passage.  Just be sure you know that it is going to be a MAJOR time commitment. 

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Run, little girl! Innocence is in peril tonight!

With a tag line like that how could you not love Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural.  Sometimes films appear on my Netflix Queue and I have no idea how they got there.  Such is the case with this 1973 film directed by Richard Blackburn.  And despite what the Netflix envelope says, this film is not as salacious as it sounds.  It is vaguely disturbing and weird however, with dark undercurrents that give you an "ick" feeling long after the film has ended. 

Cheryl Smith (who was 17 at the time of filming) plays 13 year old Lila Lee, a young girl whose gangster Father just killed her Mother.  Lila is taken in by a church, whose parishioners are all women, and whose Reverend (played by Blackburn) obviously has some issues.  Lila receives a mysterious letter one night from a woman who claims to be taking care of her dying Father.  He wants to see Lila one more time, so Lila sneaks away from the church to find him.   Thus begins her descent into adulthood/hell.

This film really is about the loss of innocence.  Every step of the way Lila is thrust into an adult world of leering men, violence, sex, zombies, and Lesbian Vampires.  It is not as great as it sounds.  This is a slow moving film, with lots of running around in the dark and bad make-up.  Lesley Gilb, as Lemora, the Vampire Queen, is a saving grace.  Her performance is very strange.  Is she good or evil?  Is she a "mother" figure or a predator?  She glides through the film as if she was given no clear direction but it works!  The film also looks great.  It is a period piece, set during prohibition, and it feels very authentic.  The ending is a little disjointed, as is the rest of the film, but it is worth checking out.  It is a PG rated horror film, but it is not at all for children.

Never trust a corpse...

I have been looking forward to Glen McQuaid's I Sell The Dead for quite a while.  Yes, I know it was on IFC on Demand but stupid AT&T doesn't offer it.  If it did my life would be so, so happy because IFC is releasing quite a lot of horror at the moment.  So I wait.  And wait.  And finally!  It arrives (thanks Netflix) and then sits on the coffee table for two weeks because I am too tired to watch it.  Or, there is a new Gossip Girl on.  Heaven help me when Glee starts next week because I will never see anything.  Really, when I get home from work now-a-days I have one good hour before I am passed out like frat boy on St. Patrick's day.

I Sell the Dead, besides having an awesome title, is a pretty enjoyable little yarn about two Victorian Grave Robbers.  Dominic Monaghan (my second favorite Hobbit) plays Arthur Blake, a young man who grew up in the grave-robbin trade.  His mentor and BFF is Willie Grimes, played by Larry Fessenden.  I have no idea who Larry Fessenden is but I want him in every movie STAT.  The two eke out a pretty miserable existence, virtual slaves to the evil Dr. Quint, played by the Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm, who I kind of want as my Grandpa.  When they stumble upon a corpse wrapped in garlic with a stake through it's heart, they find the means to get out from under Quint's thumb and make a pretty penny themselves.

All of this is told to Father Duffy (Ron Perlman) by Blake, who is about to be executed for his crimes.  Father Duffy has a particular interest in Blake and Grime's dealings with the Murphy Gang, a rival clan of body snatchers.  The Murphy gang also deals with "unusual" corpses, and a final showdown with them leads Blake and Grimes to their ruin. 

I Sell the Dead is beautifully shot and the acting is impeccable.  It is also, at times, laugh out loud funny.  The pacing is a bit uneven, and the ending left me thinking "is that all?"   The episodic nature of the story suggests it would have made a kick ass TV show, which would have gotten canceled after one season as all good TV shows do.  Nevertheless, I Sell the Dead is a pretty good time.  It has zombies, vampires, ghouls, lots of fog, grave-robbin, and gore.  What more could you ask for?

And yes, I do watch Gossip Girl and Glee.  Alongside horror I love trash and showtunes.  Got a problem with that?