Quick review: What We Do in the Shadows (2015) and Witch-tober!

This blog was dead. Very dead. Steak through the heart levels of dead. But this has been a horrifying year, and not in the fun watching-a-horror-movie way, and I need a bit of Halloween joy in my life right now. Thus, this blog is at least temporarily rising from its coffin to discuss and review some movies this Halloween season.

However, this October I will not be focusing mainly on vampires or werewolves. Instead, I'm feeling like a bit of a witch hunt...

... but first, I finally saw What We Do in the Shadows.

Review: The Forsaken (2001)

For Andy - I finally got around to your favorite vampire film

Here at Fangtastic Films, we've seen vampirism as a metaphor for mental illness, addiction, and even African-American struggles and oppression by European upper classes. Now we have vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS; yes, I've gotten around to The Forsaken.

For your Halloween movie night...

Happy Halloween, dear readers! There is a new vampire movie review on its way, but before the witching hour passes, I wanted to give you all my top recommendations for a very vampire and werewolf Halloween Movie Night! If you're having a movie marathon to get in mood for the holiday, you won't want to miss these.

Review: 30 Days of Night (2007)

It's October, which means Pumpkin Spice Lattes, candy sales at every grocery store, and (of course) HALLOWEEN.

You know, Vampire and Werewolf movies likely seem perfect for this season, but not all of them necessarily fit the Halloween "mood." To celebrate the start of this special spooky season, I picked a vampire movie to review that is known for being authentically scary. Should this be added to your Halloween movie marathon list? Let's examine 30 Days of Night.

Review: Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)

The past several vampire movies I've watched for this blog have been of a range of quality, from stunning to fascinating to absolutely dull. However, regardless of quality, they've all had a similar tone and pace; they've been slow, ponderous, serious films, ones which play with subtle mood and mix vampirism with the directors' questions about morality, culture, and philosophy. While many have been well done, this last film left me so drained that I found myself wondering why I was trying to keep this blog updated .....Why had I even wanted to make a vampire movie blog anyway?

Thankfully, my local independent movie theater had a one-week showing of the film Bloodsucking Bastards and it reminded me of one important truth: vampire movies can be a lot of FUN.

Pictured: a lot of fun

Review: Da' Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014)

After sitting with this movie and this review for well over a month now, I finally understand: Spike Lee has not just made a vampire movie; Spike Lee is a vampire.

Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

Picture this: a child walks up to a soda fountain. She has a large cup and now must decide which soda to choose; does she pick the lemony Spite? The complex Dr. Pepper? The classic Coke? The far-too-sweet-and-unnaturally-colored Hawaiian Punch? Unable to decide and wanting the best characteristics of each, she squirts all of them into her cup. The resulting concoction is either the best combination she's every tasted or the most disguising barely-drinkable mess of flavors, depending on the ratio and choice of the combination.

It is easy to imagine a film working very similarly; when you mix concepts and genres, what results can be be either fascinating and brilliant or a confusing and barely-watchable mess. This weekend I got the chance to see one such film: the Iranian, 1950s and Spaghetti Western inspired, black-and-white, independent, vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from writer and director Ana Lily Amirpour.