Vampires

It appears, therefore, that 1998, when Vampires was released, was right around the time when John Carpenter’s limelight began to dim. It would be harsh to mindlessly lump Vampires in the same category as films such as Escape from L.A. and The Ward however. The reality is that the picture is a decent romp, one that juggles obligatory vampire movie tropes with a more modern twist or two and some action scenes befitting of a western, incidentally a genre Carpenter himself is on record for being quite fond of.

Yakuza Apocalypse is the greatest yakuza vampire movie ever made. It also appears to be the only yakuza vampire movie ever made, and if Miike’s surreal, violent, hilarious and unashamedly bonkers film is anything to go by, it will probably be the last.

What would happen if Joss Whedon and Mike Judge had a cinematic love child? If our puny human brains were capable of comprehending such unmitigated awesomeness, it would probably resemble something like ‘Bloodsucking Bastards.’

Dracula Untold is one of those misfires that’s not even memorably or enjoyably poor, just a monotonous distraction for an admittedly brisk hour and a half. The revisionist Maleficient-like interpretation of Dr. Acula as a heroic figure just doesn’t work with material like this that’s so miserably solemn and lacking in any stirring entertainment value. Only in one brief part of the final act does the film gain some goofy spark, and it’s fittingly when the film actually embraces its horror roots as a fully vampire Vlad turns a bunch of his people and they all go sharp-toothed upon the Turk forces. Of course, that’s all for naught as Gary Shore’s feature debut goes back to neutering Dracula’s bite in making him the lone ‘good guy’ among his suddenly all evil people, and concluding with a likely far too optimistic franchise tease: ending a film with “Let the games begin” almost feels like mockery when there’s been so little incentive offered to come back and play.

In the spirit of Sound on Sight’s 31 Days of Horror, I decided to select some horror related forgotten television. Although not entirely a horror TV series, Death Valley surely has the gore factor of one and certainly the mythology of one.

George Romero decided to make his latest zombie masterpiece a comic book with a planned 15 issues split into three acts,rather than a movie. Act 1 was recently released as a trade paperback. It’s hard to write an objective review of Empire Of The Dead. If you are over a certain age and love zombies than you know that George Romero almost singlehandedly defined the genre. In which case it becomes too easy too give him a pass on his more recent endeavors (Survival Of The Dead) because of his past work (Dawn Of The Dead). If you don’t care for zombies than you have no business reading Empire Of The Dead in the first place.

Editor’s Note: This project is raising money through Indiegogo, a site very similar to Kickstarter Hey Sound on Sight readers. I’m Ryan Clagg, the host of Sketchy, Sound on Sight’s cartoon podcast. I know you’re busy listening to Sketchy right now, but I urge you to take a break and check out the video below. …

Before the fictional world of Buffy Summers expanded into the larger ‘Buffyverse’ franchise of today – including Angel, the comic book continuations, video games, conventions and various other media spin-offs – the Slayer and her friends resided in a singular, contained microcosm of suburban America known as Sunnydale. In a way, they still do and …

Byzantium Written by Moira Buffini Directed by Neil Jordan UK/USA/Ireland, 2012 Two female vampires holed up in a seaside town hotel; for certain savvy viewers, this distilled description of Byzantium’s premise may bring to mind Harry Kümel’s strange and sensual film Daughters of Darkness from 1971. Neil Jordan’s return to both horror and the bloodsucking …

Bram Stoker’s Dracula Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Written by James V. Hart 1992, USA There was a time where horror films were not all about torture porn, found-footage or demonic possessions – this was a time when the genre was less indulgent in killing people. Francis Ford Coppola is known for his epic productions, …

  I recently posted my list of the greatest vampire movies and recently stumbled upon this Vampire Identification Chart by Scott Beale. I thought it was rather cute and well worth my time to post. Check out my list if you haven’t already and let me know if I missed out on any movies. Via …

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Directed by Chris Weitz Are we to expect more from a feature film than from an average episode of a daytime soap? That’s one of many questions to be begged not only of casual moviegoers but of even the most hardened fan of Stephenie Meyer’s socially negligent Twilight series as …