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.

Review: Universal's Dracula (1931) and Dracula Untold (2014)

I recently had a good friend visit Seattle, so we went sightseeing and ended up at the EMP Museum. There we saw the currently running horror instillation "Can't Look Away," which examines our fascination with the horror genre.

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The entire exhibit was fascinating, but it made me especially reflect on the influence of the Universal monster films; our images of Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's creature are all so thoroughly shaped by these movies.

Universal was also one of the first companies to create a "shared universe." As the science-fiction site io9 reflects: "The original Universal Monsters series (1931-1945) featured the first crossover between established characters in movie history with Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943), and eventually threw Dracula into the mix in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945)."

Now, 83 years later, Universal is trying to make a new monster movie shared universe, and they're bringing back all of their classics... but for a new audience. One that is used to superheroes and vampires that sparkle. Out of morbid curiosity, I pulled out my anniversary copy of Universal's 1931 Dracula and decided to compare it to my screening of Universal's recent attempt to launch a new monster movie series, Dracula Untold.

So, is the original classic as good as we remember? And is the new Dracula the start of Unversal's return to monster movie greatness... or just horrifying?

The Ultimate Twilight Rundown, Part 3: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) and Part 2 (2012)

What's scarier on Halloween than a slasher movie where a crazed lunatic tries to kill a group of teenagers? How about a movie that seems like it's trying to kill a whole genre?

This, I'm sorry to say, is THE ULTIMATE TWILIGHT RUNDOWN, PART 3 - 

The Ultimate Twilight Rundown, Part 2: New Moon (2009) and Eclipse (2010)

So it's fall here in the Pacific Northwest and the weather has changed. As one of my friends put it, Seattle currently has perfect "traipsing through the fog in a top hat and scarf, looking for Cockney prostitutes to vivisect" weather.

This creepy, Gothic feel actually makes me appreciate even more what Catherine Hardwicke did with the original Twilight movie. Which just makes these next films just so... so... so much worse.