Movies
A Bootlegged Trailer for ‘Vampire’ Puts Mood on Display
Having premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mostly disappointing reviews (read Ryan Daley’s thoughts), Iwai Shunji’s Vampire is stilllllll seeking U.S. distribution.
In the Japanese film, Kevin Zegers plays a schoolteacher with a taste for human blood, who searches for suicidal young women as his victims; all of whom he falls in love with before their deaths.
A trio of clips were released leading up to the film festival, but nothing really beyond that. Recently an unauthorized trailer leaked on the web with music by Thom Yorke entitled “Hearing Damage”. You can watch it inside before it bites the dust for good.
“Vampire is not a horror film. It is about Simon, a quiet, sensitive biology teacher who uses online message boards to meet suicidal soulmates. He then tricks them into thinking they are joining together in a suicide pact, so that these women will cause their own demise and he can reap his reward –their blood. It is never clear if Simon’s cravings are psychological or physical, and his blood drinking habits don’t always agree with him. As a scientist he wants to save lives, starting with his dementia-inflicted mother, but his urges are unstoppable. Then Simon meets his dark mirror image, another young man with the same affliction who turns out to be a violent murderous beast. Acclaimed Japanese director Iwai Shunji (All About Lilly Chou-Chou) directs his first English language film in his signature meditative style, drenched in black humor, with flashes of surprisingly beautiful macabre imagery and a haunting piano score. Vampire isn’t just about Simon’s unusual needs; it’s also a surreal and even humorous exploration of death.”
The Broadway stage production of Paranormal Activity can’t wait to scare audiences and is acting accordingly; Deadline reports that the opening date has been bumped up several weeks.
Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage is coming to Broadway for a limited 20-week engagement. The first preview performance scheduled for Friday, August 14, at the August Wilson Theatre, remains in place. Now the play will officially open on Tuesday, August 25, moving up from its initial September 15 launch date.
The official synopsis: “James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are.”
Directed by Felix Barrett and written by playwright Levi Holloway, the stage show weaves “an original story inspired by the film franchise, Paranormal Activity reimagines the modern ghost story with an intimacy that only live theatre can provide.”
The Broadway production will follow a strictly limited pre-Broadway engagement in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theatre from July 11 through July 30.
Both the Broadway and Boston casts will feature Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran, and Andrea Syglowski. Understudies will be Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks, and Michael Holding.
Álvarez will play Lou, and Knight plays James.
Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage premiered at the Leeds Playhouse in the UK before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End, where it received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination this year for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
Original Paranormal Activity stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat attended the Paranormal Activity play last year, and they both shared their thoughts over on Instagram.
Katie Featherston raved, “What a truly fun night seeing the new Paranormal Activity at the Ahmanson Theatre! We had a blast- so scary and so fun. The design and production was amazing and the cast did a fantastic job. Congrats to all involved!”
There’s also a brand new movie on the way.
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