Fright Night 2011

Plot: Charlie Brewster discovers that his next door neighbour is a vampire after people in the suburbian area where he lives keep disappearing.  After breaking into Gerry's house, he finds many of the missing people.  Now, with only the help of his girlfriend and a stage magician, he needs to destroy the vampire before sunrise.


This is without a doubt the only time I've seen a remake and thought it was worthy of having been done.
From the subtle changes in the characters, to the costumes, to the modern locations, this version of Fright Night not only held up it's promise to be a great horror film, it held up it's promise to be one of the best films in the last few years.

The vampire genre has been bleed dry as of late by the meek and watered down offering that we've been getting to the extreme other end of the spectrum with the overly sexual ones.   This finally has a balance to fill any fang-fan up to the brim.

Chris Sarandon has a few moments cameo midway through the film.  Which I thought was a brilliant nod to the original {he played the vampire Gerry in the 1985 version }  As well as the inclusion of the iconic dress worn by the character Amy after she's been bitten, and the club scene.
Keeping the monster teeth {which looks very much at times like the teeth of a parasitic leech} was also a great touch as it let you know you were watching a horror film.

The biggest changes beside the location of the story, were Charlie's mother having a larger part in this one, and making Peter Vincent {fearless vampire killer} into a stage magician instead of a horror host. And mixing together both of Gerry and his renfield {played by Johnathan Stark in the original} was an interesting touch.

I await what the film's crew/producers have in store for us next, as a remake of Fright Night 2, I hope is in the works.

What's in a name

One of the key quotes for the remake of Fright Night is the line "That's a terrible vampire name Gerry"
which is being used in the commercials constantly.   It got me thinking about some of the classic vampire character names.  Names you won't be able to think of without thinking about the movies they are connected to.

4- Vlad
3- Radu (the Subspecies series)
2- Armand (Anne Rices Vampire Chronicles)
1- Lestat

Okay, so Lestat is the most obvious and a bit of a cheat as Anne Rice created the name when she originally wrote Interview with the Vampire back in 1976.

I think the vamp name game quote though has to go to 1992's original film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer  with the line "Pike isn't a name it's a fish". 

Just classic.

Movies this week-Aug 14-19 2011

There are two vampire movies this week being released that I am currently aware of. 

 
Priest gets it's DVD/Blu-Ray release  on Aug 16th  and the remake of Fright Night is released in cinemas on Aug 19th


These are release dates for Canada and the US

BloodRayne 3 (2011)

Plot: Rayne teams up with a group of freedom fighters during World War 2.  She accidentally turns one of Hitler's solders into a vampire who just happens to have the same daywalking powers as herself.  Now she needs to stop him before he can turn Hitler.


This movie even with the unrated director's cut only runs at 78 minutes.  Which is still about 30 minutes too long if you ask me.

I hesitated when I saw this on the movie shelf to begin with as I did not care for the first two.  What ended up being the deciding factor in my renting this was the fact Brendan Fletcher was in it. Who by the by was also in BloodRayne 2 Deliverance.  (As was Michael Pare who I think was the only actor to be in all three of the BloodRayne films. )

I get that the series can play out much like the Crow movies creating new storylines and characters given it is a vampire series, but this one fell really short.

The production of it rang like many made for tv Canadian shows, just a notch above an indie film. And I'm usually all for anything with a vampire or Canadian, but this one left a bad taste in my mouth.
There was little plot, bad dialogue and just felt like a waste of $7

Stake Land (2011)

Plot: Mister picks up Martin after his family have all been killed by vampires.  Together they travel through the United States trying to make their way to Canada, which is now called New Eden. The vampire plague has spread through out the rest of the world, mostly in the South.  Just trying to stay alive, they learn how to kill the vampires, and on the way save a nun from being raped.  Little do they know they have to now deal with the Brotherhood as they make their way to Canada.  The Brotherhood want revenge for them having killed two of their men. Things then heat up when a pregnant woman joins their pack of survivors.


I have to say, I loved this.  Normally I don't care for end of the world films, but this one has a quality to it that makes it dare I say believable.
The vampires in this film look more like the classic ghouls of the Night of the Living Dead films, and the kill count is so that we have one right off the start gate.  No prancing around the topic, you're watching a down and dirty film about the things and people who will pray upon you for no other reason then they can.

After watching this, you can't help but wonder if the creators were sticking their forks into other territory then the undead, which just proves something I've said over and over in the past; the vampire is the best metaphor for everything else we need to talk about.  See the movie, you'll get what I'm saying.

The Insatiable (2007)

Plot: Harry is a shy sales man who likes to help people.  While buying a hot dog for a homeless man, he witnesses the guy being killed by a vampire.  After one of his friends also becomes victim to the female vampire, he captures her but is unable to kill her. Soon he's left with the task of either destroying her or letting her destroy him.

I stumbled upon this film literally in the store. I'd never heard of it before.  I picked it up for two reasons, it's a vampire film I'd never heard of before and it starred Sean Patrick Flanery.

It could be called a remake of To Sleep with a Vampire, it has the same undertone to it. It also had a made for tv feel.
As you watch Flanery's performance, it's easy to get lost in his character and to overlook the sometimes poor sound production.  You believe he's this down on his luck out of touch hero. 

The introduction of the succubus mythology could have been expanded on but otherwise, it's a subtle movie.