The film follows fresh-out-of-an-institution Jessica (Zohra Lampert), who moves to the Connecticut countryside with her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman) and their hippie friend Woody (Kevin O’Connor). Upon arriving at their new farmhouse, they discover squatter Emily (Mariclare Costello), who captivates the trio. After they invite Emily to stay with them, Jessica begins to notice strange things happening in her presence. Is Emily a vampire hellbent on seducing Jessica? Or is Jessica losing her mind?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 402: Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Grab your cello and wear your wedding dress in the pond because we are talking 1971’s indie psychological thriller Let’s Scare Jessica To Death. Starring an understated Zohra Lampert and the seductive Mariclare Costello, the film is a great early example of gaslight horror.

Plus: the death of the free love movement; debate about whether Jessica is going crazy or if the threat is real; Joe’s hilarious relationship with the score; and comparisons to Carmilla.

Cross out Let’s Scare Jessica to Death!

Coming Up Next: We’re kicking off “Thanks for the Judds,” a six-week programming block of Ashley Judd thrillers. First up is the one that started it all: the 1997 Alex Cross thriller Kiss the Girls!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 514 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on The Devil’s Mouth, Fall 2, Soulm8te, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil and an audio commentary on Practical Magic (1998) in anticipation of its sequel coming out next month.

The post Gaslighting and Gay Panic in ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The latest from director Rebekah McKendry (Glorious, All the Creatures Were Stirring) has its World Premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on August 13, 2026.

Sundown stars Olwen Fouéré (The Watchers, Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Camille Sullivan (Shelby Oaks, Hunter Hunter), and Summer H. Howell (Mike Flanagan’s “Carrie“) as the central family who’ll encounter what appear to be rather monstrous vampires.

The film follows “three generations of women who reunite in a remote cabin to avenge a loved one’s death, only to discover their captive isn’t who he seems to be and his family is closing in, waiting for sundown.“

Rebekah McKendry directs from a script by Glorious collaborators Joshua Hull and David Ian McKendry. 

Daniel Bernhardt (Deathstalker, John Wick), David Alpay (“From”), Kyle Mac (Carrie 2013), Elisa Paszt, Junko Bailey (The Grudge 2019), Megan Best (Time Cut), and David Ian McKendry round out the cast.

The horror film features special effects makeup from Patrick Baxter (“Alien: Earth”, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), and other effects from Creature Cabin and Steven Kostanski’s Action Pants FX.

Producers include Pasha Patriki (Deathstalker), Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, & James Fler of Raven Banner (V/H/S/94, Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon) and Juliette Hagopian (Hunter Hunter). Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash executive produces via his BerserkerGang label alongside Michael Vasicek, Michael Da Silva, and Rodrigo Gudiño.

“Sundown is great,” said Slash. “It is a super tense family vs monster tale that is as claustrophobic as it is terrifying.”

Check out the intense first batch of images below and stay tuned for more.

The post First Look at Rebekah McKendry’s Vampire Horror ‘Sundown’ Teases Brutal Family Revenge Tale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But this is not the limit of the horror novella, and Ito Romo‘s new book Filth Eaters proves it. A vampire story spanning a full millennium, this is epic horror in a slim volume, a book that pushes the limits of the novella in exciting ways while never losing its propulsive punch.

In a future version of New York City ravaged by floods, when vampires are a known reality and blood drinkers gain followings by broadcasting their kills on untraceable livestreams, Doro is ready for the end. He hasn’t been a vampire that long, but he’s been around long enough to know that he’s weary, that the world is falling apart because of humans who recklessly warped and destroyed it, and that he’d rather go out in a blaze of glory than watch it all fade away. But to understand why Doro feels this way, Filth Eaters has to tell much more than his story.

So, Romo’s narrative goes back, way back, chronicling the descendants in a long vampiric line that runs from the Indus River Valley to the fall of Muslim Granada to the Aztec Empire amid Hernan Cortez’s conquest. Along the way, Romo unspools his vampiric mythology with just enough detail to hook us, and plenty of room left for future explorations. We meet ancient vampires, recent converts, vampires who have evolved to give birth like humans, and much more, all while Romo explores the emotional toll such a legacy could have on a fiery personality like Doro at the edge of a dying world.

Because Romo’s novella only runs roughly 140 pages while covering a full millennium of vampiric history, we get to know these immortals in a form nearing a string of vignettes, catching them at crucial moments in their development, the linchpins around which Doro’s story turns. Because of the nature of his family line, he cannot simply reflect on his own life. He carries centuries of memories and knowledge, filling his mind to bursting, and he must look back on all of it as he contemplates the end.

So we see his recollections in flashes, in vampiric births and deaths and movements across continents, like Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles in miniature. It’s a breathless narrative of big, sweeping brushstrokes across a small canvas, and yet the book retains an arresting sense of intimacy.

That intimacy comes not just from the way Romo paces out this vast narrative, but from the themes with which he’s playing. You cannot dig into the battle over Granada or the fall of the Aztec Empire or the history of New York City as this book does without considering colonialism, and by charting a course for one bloodline over centuries, Romo takes on the issue like he’s weaving a dark fable.

What is colonialism, after all, but the ultimate vampire, a force that sweeps through a populace and drains its life, mutating it into something new or wiping it off the Earth altogether. Ito Romo not only grasps this but wields it like a delicate dagger, making precise cuts in our psyche as the book moves with lightning quickness through centuries of devastation, rebirth, and regret, all leading back to Doro.

Filth Eaters is a highwire act, a magic trick, a novella so rich with detail and lore that you’ll want a five-book series in the same world even as you leave completely satisfied with what it offers. It’s an indie horror triumph, and if you love vampire fiction, it belongs on your shelf.

Filth Eaters is available May 19 from Deep Vellum.

The post ‘Filth Eaters’ Review – Ito Romo Packs Epic-Scaled Horror Into Intimate Vampire Novella appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Now, if no two vampires are ever alike, it only makes sense that their movies be so different from each other. And although plenty of titles have broken through and become well recognized by the public at large, others remain in the dark.

This list showcases just ten overlooked vampire movies that are worth sinking your teeth into after watching Ryan Prows’ Night Patrol.

The Blood Drinkers (1964)

Thirst (1979)

This stopover in one’s journey into overlooked vampire cinema definitely leaves a strange taste in the mouth. Henry Silva starred in this Australian oddball about a cult whose members achieve their peak prowess by consuming human blood. So, naturally, they abduct the descendant of fabled vampire royalty, Elizabeth Báthory, and hold her (Chantal Contouri) captive on their blood farm. The ideas here are more interesting than they are perfectly executed, but Rod Hardy’s Thirst is still quite hard to turn down, especially if you love Ozploitation.

I, Desire (1982)

From the small screen comes I, Desire, a telefilm directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (Home for the Holidays, The Night Stalker). This TV-flick is still in dire need of a proper restoration, but for those who have seen it, they can attest to its charms. For what it lacks in blood it makes up for in character and thematic sinew. The cast is also nothing to scoff at; David Naughton and Brad Dourif lead this television gem.

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

Children of the Night (1991)

Horror fans know Tony Randel’s work well enough; he’s directed Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Amityville 1992: It’s About Time, and Ticks. Yet one of his movies still goes unnoticed, despite its occasional appearance on streaming services. The out-of-print DVD goes for a pretty penny as well. That movie is Children of the Night. Although it’s got nothing on Fright Night, this small-town battle against vampires boasts not only decent makeup effects (courtesy of Robert Kurtzman and Greg Nicotero), but it also starred the horror icon, Karen Black.

Shiver (2008)

On the same wavelength as older and tragic monster films, Isidro Ortiz’s Shiver (or Eskalofrío) is more somber than scary. This Spanish story finds a teenager (Junio Valverde) moving to a remote mountain village with his mother, on account of his unique condition. The boy being allergic to the sun doesn’t sit well with the already xenophobic locals. Oh, and vampires aren’t the only supernatural creature to be reimagined here; the werewolf is also retooled.

Vampires (2010)

Before What We Do In the Shadows left a sizable bite in the subgenre of vampire comedy, Belgian director Vincent Lannoo handed in his own darkly humorous two cents on blood fiends living in contemporary society. Presented as a mockumentary, Vampires doesn’t ever feel too inclined to pull off first-person scares and thrills, but the often messy and complicated interpersonal relationships here may elicit a different kind of dread. That said, the movie is also not opposed to blood and violence.

Vampire (2011)

Shunji Iwai’s Vampire doesn’t exactly win points for creative titling, but this contemplative, arthouse horror-drama excels in other ways. An unassuming teacher (Kevin Zegers) leads a second life in between classes and taking care of his sick mother: he feeds on the blood of suicidal women. Truth be told, the protagonist isn’t a conventional vampire; he’s a mortal who hasn’t quite taken to his sanguinary cravings, despite his belief he is a vampire. Nonetheless, this gruesome secret takes a toll on him and his personal life, and it even attracts the attention of another vampire (Trevor Morgan).

Rufus (2012)

Using vampires to better understand humanity is nothing new, but Dave Schultz’s Rufus approaches that concept a lot better than first anticipated. What looks to be another Twilight imitator is really an engaging study of loss as well as that universal desire to find somewhere to belong. Rory J. Saper is that mysterious, lost soul who’s taken in by a still-grieving family, then has the most bloody coming-of-age experience. In the end, this movie has the surprising ability to warm the heart—that is, once the carnage has passed.

Boys from County Hell (2020)

The story of Abhartach, the supposed basis for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, comes to life in Chris Baugh’s Boys from County Hell. This Irish movie, which is adapted from the director’s own short, injects a good deal of local color. And although the mash of humor and horror loses some balance, especially once the bloodsucking monster shows up in the flesh, the overall delivery feels fairly fresh.

The post 10 Overlooked Vampire Movies to Watch After ‘Night Patrol’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Halloween. Escape from New York. Assault on Precinct 13. These are the movies that usually come to mind when fans think of John Carpenter as a film score composer (hell, a lot of us practically have the music from those movies committed to memory).

Their themes are iconic and showcase what’s made the legendary director’s musical output so memorable. Through the synthesizer – an instrument he will always be synonymous with – Carpenter creates layers of atmosphere anchored by melodic hooks that refuse to leave your brain. As a result, he joins the ranks of film composers whose instantly recognizable style has helped them achieve rock star status (at least to us movie nerds).

As is the case with any popular musician with a lengthy catalog, it’s easy to get caught up listening to just the hits. There’s a reason why certain Carpenter scores, like the films they’re paired with, have become seminal records for so many fans. But there are many other fantastic pieces of music to be found throughout his career.

So, here are five John Carpenter scores that deserve more love. Some are underappreciated while others appear to be slept-on entirely. All, as the kids say, are bangers. Give them a spin, if you haven’t already, and see if you agree.

Village of the Damned (1995)

If you’re only familiar with John Carpenter’s 80s output, then his remake of the sci-fi horror classic Village of the Damned will be a fascinating listen for several reasons. For starters, those curious to hear what his synthesizer would sound like accompanied by a small orchestra will find their opportunity here. Also adding to the unique flavor of the score is the fact that Carpenter had a different musical collaborator for this picture. While much of the previous decade was spent working with Alan Howarth, this project saw him teaming up with Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies, most notably on the track “March of the Children.” The end product is a score that sounds unlike anything heard in a Carpenter film to that date.

Prince of Darkness (1987)

The second film in John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” is a steady and deliberate affair. The tension ratchets up incrementally, similar to how the laws of nature slowly begin to defy themselves as the movie’s title baddie gestates in his glass womb. The score to Prince of Darkness illustrates that mounting dread beautifully, providing a smorgasbord of highlights. The pulsing “Opening Titles” plays like a staccato heartbeat, informing us of the impending awakening of the sleeper, while “Darkness Begins” sounds like the perversion of a sacred hymn, complete with a demonic organ and choir. But it’s “The Devil Awakens” that really brings the heat, beginning with a hint of quiet menace before exploding into chaos. It’s Carpenter’s most complete sounding score from start to finish, and it’s no surprise that it’s one of his favorites.

Body Bags (1993)

Listen: I defy you to tell me “The Coroner’s Theme” isn’t a goddamn bop. If that single opening track was the only decent piece of music found in Body Bags, I’d still say the score was underrated; that’s how much it slaps. Thankfully, while it definitely is a high point, there are plenty of other great moments in this collaboration between Carpenter and Jim Lang (who would go on to work with John on In the Mouth of Madness the following year). There’s the jazzy Twin Peaks-esque “Long Beautiful Hair,” the chillingly disturbing finale that is “…Pluck it Out,” and “The Picture on the Wall,” which sounds like a distant cousin to Halloween’s “Main Title Theme.” It might not be the moodiest entry in Carpenter’s discography, but it’s hell of a lot of fun.

Christine (1983)

This may seem like a weird choice for a list of underrated works, but hear me out. Yes, it’s been agreed upon in recent years that “Moochie’s Death” is an absolute heater of a tune. It’s uncanny the way Carpenter is able to give voice to Christine’s single-minded rage and bloodlust, and it’s often the theme that comes to mind for folks when they think of the film. But what always gets me in the feels when watching the movie are the score’s quieter moments. There’s so much going on in “Arnie’s Love Theme,” for instance. On the surface, there’s the sound of the character’s obsession building, but beneath that, we hear the aspects of Arnie’s personality that make him a perfect target for an entity like Christine: his loneliness, insecurity, and self-loathing. To me, this is one of Carpenter’s most emotionally rich musical outings, and it deserves a place amongst his best works.

Vampires (1998)

If you’re a fan of the blues or Memphis soul, you’re probably going to perk up when you look through the list of musicians John Carpenter enlisted for Vampires, his criminally underrated horror western. Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Don, one-half of the iconic Stax Records instrumental group Booker T & the M.G.’s, lend their immense talents to the score, along with Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan guitarist Jeff Baxter. Big names aside, what makes this movie so interesting sonically is the fact that it gives us both sides of the Carpenter musical experience. We get the synth maestro with his brooding and atmospheric melodies (“Sunrise Death,” “Valek’s Portrait”) and the rock & roll-loving bandleader (“Slayers,” “Motel Sex”). It all makes for one of the most versatile and infinitely listenable scores to be found in Carpenter’s catalog.

Follow along all week long as we salute John Carpenter.

The post Deeper Cuts: 5 Underrated John Carpenter Scores appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After delivering a warning about white after Labor Day with John Waters’ Serial Mom (listen) and revisiting the original Troma trashterpiece, The Toxic Avenger (listen), Trace and I kicked off September with the 350th episode of Horror Queersand a trip down to Mexico.

In Robert Rodriguez‘s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), the Gecko Brothers – rational but angry Seth (George Clooney) and sexual predator Richie (screenwriter Quentin Tarantino) – take a family hostage in order to sneak across the border. This puts faithless preacher Jacob (Harvey Keitel), teen daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) and son Scott (Ernest Liu) in extreme danger from the unhinged criminals.

Once they’ve crossed under the nose of the Border Guard (Cheech Marin in one of three roles), everyone holds up in the iconic Titty Twister to wait until daylight. Little do they know that the biker bar hosts more than one of the most extravagant dancers in Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek); it’s also home to a massive horde of hungry vampires who will stop at nothing to devour the humans.

Thankfully the survivors include crotch pistol/mini-lasso wielding biker Sex Machine (Tom Savini) and “maybe never named” Frost (Fred Williamson).

Can the humans band together to survive the night? Or will they be forced to lick Santanico’s perfect feet for the rest of eternity?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday via iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 350: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

For Episode 350 (!) we decided we wanted a party, so we’re headed south of the border to hang out at the Titty Twister with the Gecko brothers in Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

From an epic game that lasts the whole episode to a little bit of drunken slurring by the end, this is a good time through and through.

Plus: Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay and how this collaboration anticipates 2007’s Grindhouse (see previous episodes), worshipping Santanico Pandemonium, Trace’s pitch to watch the TV series, and the many, MANY titles that we may cover in the future. Grab your crotch gun and jump in!

Cross out From Dusk Till Dawn!

Coming Up Next: Episode 351 takes us to the other side of the world as we try to prevent WWIII with 1988’s Japanese anime classic, Akira.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 416 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Cry_Wolf, The Long Walk, Him, The Conjuring: Last Rites, a brand new audio commentary on The Conjuring 2 and episode by episode coverage of Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth.

The post Celebrating 350 Episodes with ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

John Carpenter‘s Vampires will be released on November 4.

The 1998 action horror western is directed by Carpenter from a script by Don Jakoby (Arachnophobia), based on John Steakley’s 1990 novel Vampire$.

Disc 1 – 4K UHD:

• 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
• Presented In Dolby Vision
• Audio Commentary With Director John Carpenter

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

• 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
• Audio Commentary With Director John Carpenter
• Time To Kill Some Vampires – Interviews With Director Jon Carpenter, Producer Sandy King Carpenter, And Cinematographer Garry B. Kibbe
• Jack The Vampire Slayer – An Interview With Actor James Woods
• The First Vampire – An Interview With Actor Thomas Ian Griffith
• Raising The Stakes – An Interview With Special Effects Artist Greg Nicotero
• Padre – An Interview With Actor Tim Guinee
• Original Making Of Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Still Gallery

Jack Crow leads Team Crow, a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When Master Vampire Valek decimates Jack’s entire team, Crow and the sole team survivor, Montoya, set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules, Crow and Montoya take one of Valek’s victims hostage: a beautiful but unlucky prostitute. She is the sole psychic link to Valek and they use her to track down the leader of the undead.

As Valek nears the climax of his 600-year search for the Berziers Cross, Jack and the new Team Crow do everything possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all the vampires the omnipotent power to walk the world in daylight.

James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, and Tim Guinee star.

The Howling will be released on November 4.

The 1981 werewolf classic is directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins) and written by John Sayles (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and Terence H. Winkless, based on Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel.

Disc 1 – 4K UHD:

• 4K Restoration By StudioCanal, Approved By Director Joe Dante
• Audio Commentary With Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone And Robert Picardo
• Audio Commentary By Gary Bradner

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

• 4K Restoration By StudioCanal, Approved By Director Joe Dante
• Audio Commentary With Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone And Robert Picardo
• Audio Commentary By Gary Bradner
• Fun. Fur. Film. – An Interview With Dee Wallace
• Howling’s Eternal – An Interview With Executive Producer Steven A. Lane
• Cut To Shreds – An Interview With Editor Mark Goldblatt
• Interview With Co-Writer Terence H. Winkless
• Interview With Stop Motion Animator David Allen
• Unleashing The Beast: The Making Of The Howling – Vintage Featurette
• Making A Monster Movie: Inside The Howling – Vintage Featurette
• Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary
• Outtakes
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – A Look At The Film’s Original Locations
• Theatrical Trailer
• Trailers From Hell – Writer Josh Olson On The Howling
• Still Gallery

Severely shaken after a near-fatal encounter with a serial killer, TV newscaster Karen White takes some much-needed time off. Hoping to conquer her inner demons, she heads for The Colony, a secluded retreat where her new neighbors are just a tad too eager to make her feel at home.

There seems to be a bizarre link between her would-be attacker and this supposedly safe haven. And when, after nights of being tormented by savage shrieks and unearthly cries, Karen ventures into the forest to find answers, she makes a terrifying discovery. Now she must fight not only for her life… but for her very soul!

Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks star.

Renfield will be released on November 11.

The 2023 horror-comedy is directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) and written by Ryan Ridley (“Rick and Morty”), based on an idea by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.

Disc 1 – 4K UHD:

• Presented In Dolby Vision And Dolby Atmos
• Audio Commentary With Producer Samantha Nisenboim, Screenwriter Ryan Ridley, Post-Production Editor Noah Cody, Supervising Sound Editor Nancy Nugent, Supervising Sound Editor John Marquis, Digital Colorist Supervisor David Cole, Visual Effects Supervisor Jamie Price, And Makeup Effects Artist Christien Tinsley

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

• Audio Commentary With Producer Samantha Nisenboim, Screenwriter Ryan Ridley, Post-Production Editor Noah Cody, Supervising Sound Editor Nancy Nugent, Supervising Sound Editor John Marquis, Digital Colorist Supervisor David Cole, Visual Effects Supervisor Jamie Price, And Makeup Effects Artist Christien Tinsley
• Dracula Sucks: How I Survived the Making of Renfield – Documentary Featuring New Cast And Crew Interviews And Never-Before-Seen Behind-The-Scenes Footage (new)
• Deleted And Extended Scenes
• Alternate Takes
• Monsters & Men: Behind the Scenes of Renfield
• Dracula UnCaged
• Stages of Rejuvenation
• Flesh & Blood
• Fighting Dirty
• The Making of a Deleted Scene – Renfield’s Dance!
• Trailer

For centuries, Renfield has slavishly served Dracula by procuring his master’s prey and doing his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, Renfield is ready to look for a new life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness — if only he can figure out how to end his toxic, codependent relationship…

Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage star with Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, and Adrian Martinez.

The post ‘The Howling,’ ‘Vampires,’ ‘Renfield’ Hit Steelbook 4K UHD in November from Scream Factory appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The unique take on the vampire subgenre is set in a world where vampire blood is harvested as a drug. In Bleeding, “Two desperate teenagers on the run from a vicious dealer break into an empty house and find a sleeping girl locked inside.” Watch the official trailer below for a taste.

Writer-director Andrew Bell makes his feature debut on the indie horror film, which stars John R. Howley, Jasper Jones, Tori Wong, Jay Dunn, Chloe Sirene, and Bell.

“This is a story and issue that’s important to me and our team,” Bell tells Bloody Disgusting. “These experiences shaped who we are. We set out to make something raw, and powerful, and honest. We wanted to tell you a story about vampires, but show that the real monsters were there all along, preying on the young, feeding off the people that trusted them most.”

“When I first read Bleeding, I connected right away with its honest look at grief after losing a sibling and its perspective on how society treats people struggling with addiction,” adds producer Nicholas Payne Santos. “I was excited to help Andrew bring this tense, unsettling vampire story to life—and to make a horror film that doesn’t shy away from deeper themes while delivering a gripping experience for the audience.”

Start screaming now with SCREAMBOX on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Prime Video, Roku, Fire TV, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.

The post ‘Bleeding’ Now Streaming – Vampire Blood Is Harvested as a Drug in Bloodsucking Indie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Sometimes, some movies aren’t necessarily bad, they’re just not for you. And now that both Pattinson and Stewart have firmly established their careers outside of their young-adult-oriented work, I think this is the perfect time to look back on the original Twilight and discuss how this excessively maligned movie can be a legitimately entertaining horror-adjacent experience if you overlook a few surface-level flaws and enjoy is as a campy genre-bending romance.

I was never part of the target audience for Twilight. I actually remember casually passing judgement on the folks who were reading Stephanie Meyer’s romantic saga while I buried my teenaged nose in Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft. Despite my adolescent contempt, however, there’s a reason why these books were so popular. Originally titled Forks, the first novel in the series began life as a long-term passion project written for Meyer’s own amusement, with the story being inspired by a romantic dream where the author imagined herself being stalked by a vampire who thirsted after her heart as well as her blood. This initial manuscript would only reach publishers at the insistence of Meyer’s sister, with its publication being particularly unusual due to the book’s length – over double the size of the average Young-Adult publication.

While Twilight is often accused of being a trope-heavy bore with story-beats borrowed from Buffy and Interview with the Vampire, there really wasn’t anything else quite like it among the Young-Adult offerings of 2005. A surprisingly earnest dark romance that refrained from talking down to its audience, it’s no wonder the book was a hit among teens as well as movie producers – with the manuscript making its way to Hollywood before the book was even released. On the lookout for the next Harry Potter, Paramount Pictures quickly snatched up the rights to the novel and almost immediately started working on an adaptation through MTV Films.

While Paramount’s adaptation would have transformed the story into a more action-oriented affair meant to draw in the male crowd (complete with a jet-ski chase scene involving the FBI), the project would soon fall apart due to changes in internal leadership. It was only when Summit Entertainment acquired the rights to the book in 2007 that a more faithful retelling of the story was fast-tracked into production, with Lords of Dogtown director Catherine Hardwicke being hired to helm the picture and Meyer being brought on as a consultant.

In the finished film, which was released in November of 2008, we follow teenager Isabella Swann (Kristen Stewart) as she moves in with her father Charlie (Billy Burke), Chief of Police in Forks, Washington. Enrolling in a new High-School, Bella soon attracts the attention of fellow student Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson, who was cast at the insistence of Stewart after an onscreen chemistry test), eventually discovering that he’s secretly a century-old vampire.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

There are a few benefits to being a millennial. For starters, we were (kind of) the last generation to have our taste in movies be mostly constructed by exposure to media that we had no control over – meaning that we often watched things that weren’t recommended to us by a personalized algorithm and that we had no personal interest in.

This may not sound very convenient, but being forced to watch things outside of your comfort zone is an excellent way to learn how to appreciate media that wasn’t necessarily meant for you. That’s how I still wound up watching Twilight years later despite having participated in the worldwide public shaming of the franchise and its fans. And wouldn’t you know it? I actually found myself enjoying this atmospheric little piece of romantic pulp fiction despite its refusal to cater to my personal genre preferences.

Sure, I’m still bothered by the horrific age-gap between our lead couple (something that would have made the story more interesting if it was ever addressed), but the story here is so sincere in its over-the-top melodrama that it’s easy to ignore most of these trope-heavy blemishes and just go along for the silly ride. Hell, even a grown man like myself was able to relate to Bella’s High-School loner persona, and while I thought that Jacob was an annoying third wheel of a character, he was only ever acting like a realistic teenager.

Of course, the film’s gloomy atmosphere is its greatest asset, with the town of Forks becoming a moody lens through which we observe the lives of hormonal teenagers going through romantic feelings for the first time in their lives. From the scenic photography to the comically exaggerated blue filter over (nearly) the entire picture, you know what the world of Twilight looks like at a glance – and I call that effective filmmaking even it’s excessive.

Over the years, I’ve even softened on the film’s mid-2000s alt-rock soundtrack. It may be the nostalgia speaking, as many of these songs were on the radio back when I was a teenager (even though I hated most of them at the time), but I genuinely think that the energetic melodies and angsty lyrics help to craft an appropriately adolescent world filled with exaggerated emotions.

And you know what? Despite the age difference, if a 100-year-old vampire lady fell in love with me back when I was in senior year – you can bet your ass that I’d be sparkling in the sunlight at the beach and sharing a literal Bloody Mary with her right now. Of course, this is just my way of saying that I remember what it’s like to be a teenager, and so does Meyer.

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Twilight may be a teenage romance, but it’s also unabashedly a vampire movie. From the tragic description of the Cullen clan’s backstories to their World-of-Darkness-inspired super-powers, you can tell that Meyer was quite comfortable scrounging around the vampiric canon of masters like Anne Rice and even Bram Stoker. Her passion for the material is sometimes overplayed, with her characters often feeling more like gloomy comic-book heroes than monsters, but at least the story is being told by a fan of the genre.

And before people in the comments start complaining about how Edward sparkles in the sunlight as opposed to bursting into flames, it’s worth remembering that, before 1922’s Nosferatu, folkloric vampires were not hindered by sunlight. This means that Meyers’ shiny bloodsuckers are technically more lore-accurate than most other vampire flicks out there. That being said, I actually like some of the story’s additions to the mythology, such as having all of a vampire’s bodily fluids be replaced by supernatural “venom.”

There are also a few traditional vampire scares in the flick, mostly involving the nomadic trio of antagonists. And while I agree with the Vampire Sucks gag about the group looking remarkably like The Black-Eyed Peas, I appreciate that the movie allows for some brutal vampire-on-vampire violence despite its PG-13 rating.

I also unironically love Burke’s take on Charlie Swann. While in another more action-oriented experience he’d be the undead-hunting lead character, seeing him relegated to a supportive father role is hilarious when you consider the absurdity of what’s really going on – especially when he seems to have the most common sense out of the entire ensemble.

Campy, charming and occasionally problematic, Twilight may not be a movie I revisit often, but it’s also not the paragon of terrible cinema that the internet once made it out to be. At the end of the day, this is a harmless little teen romance with some memorable characters and legitimately great atmosphere. And even if you don’t like it, I think we can all agree that the memes where horror fans used to photoshop Wesley Snipes’s Blade into screenshots of the film are still objectively hilarious.

The post A Vampire Valentine: Re-Evaluating the Spooky Romance of ‘Twilight’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Despair will rot you from the inside out.”

Castlevania was an incredibly consistent animated action series for Netflix that helped kickstart the streaming service’s impressive track record with video game adaptations. Castlevania reached great heights that made it far more than just a vampire series or video game adaptation and the end of its run after four seasons was met with disappointment. However, the announcement of a spin-off that’s immersed in the lore of Rondo of Blood had many excited for the Castlevania universe’s expansion. Unfortunately, Castlevania: Nocturne’s first season was decent, but forgettable. It was perfectly fine, which is not exactly the benchmark that one strives for with a spin-off to a series that was so subversive and passionate. 

Castlevania: Nocturne felt like a concession in nearly every regard and that its first season of eight episodes was merely a prologue to greater things to come. Season two doesn’t squander this foundation and uses it as an effective springboard to greater storytelling and action. If Castlevania: Nocturne season one was the series on training wheels, then season two is a high-octane motorcycle ride without a helmet. Nocturne rises to the occasion and allows itself to properly have fun in ways that just weren’t possible back in season one. And, if nothing else, Alucard (James Callis) is back in the mix to slit throats and break hearts.

Castlevania: Nocturne’s first season crescendoed to a powerful calamity that involved Erzsebet Bathory’s (Franka Potente) terrifying metamorphosis, Tera (Nastassja Kinski) succumbing to dark servitude and Alucard’s triumphant return. This sets season two up for success and these eight episodes largely feel like one giant battle that’s occasionally interrupted by introspective quests and harrowing feats of strength. The heroes search for Sekhmet’s missing soul, which turns into a physical and spiritual journey for Richter’s (Edward Bluemel) team while they do everything in their power to weaken the Vampire Messiah’s resources and prevent the Egyptian Goddess of War’s full-on resurrection. 

One of the most effective elements from Castlevania: Nocturne’s first season is how it juxtaposed its many undead atrocities with the French Revolution. This continues to be a rewarding setting that amplifies the season’s central themes of power, agency, equality, and legacy. There’s civil unrest among society, but also Erzsebet’s vampiric Night Creature army. The Revolution’s ability to reduce pain and death into entertainment is the perfect backdrop for Erzsebet’s endless bloodshed. Castlevania: Nocturne gleefully relitigates the nature of demons as labels like hero and villain become infinitely obscured and increasingly fluid.

Tera was an important bridge between Richter, Maria (Pixie Davies), and Erzsebet back in season one, yet her role becomes even more important this year as Erzsebet’s new magically-inclined vampire servant. Tera finds herself in a particularly tough place where she’s pulled between two worlds and functions as a grander threat for Maria. She’s forced to reckon with the grim idea that her new allegiance to her damned Messiah, Erzsebet, is stronger than her familial bond with Maria. This new skewed and tainted relationship between Maria and Tera fuels some of the season’s most interesting and uncomfortable moments. 

Maria’s own descent to the dark side also becomes one of the season’s central storylines and sources of suspense. Her trauma with her mother and how she processes this pain fosters a worrisome relationship where she abuses dark magic and begins something sinister that she may not be able to stop. This type of character development isn’t necessarily unexpected in vampire storytelling and a series like Castlevania: Nocturne, yet Maria’s transformation is genuinely disturbing and is often scarier than most of Erzsebet’s evil. There’s something sacred to be lost with Maria. Castlevania: Nocturne really explores the cataclysmic ripple effect of this purity being tainted. It’s also never too busy wallowing in melodrama to weaponize a wry sense of humor – typically by Richter and Juste (Iain Glen) – that’s perfectly interspersed through this darkness.

Castlevania: Nocturne’s gripping internal conflicts and identity crises are rich in conflict. It’s also rewarding that season two digs deeper into the exploration of the origins of Egyptian Gods like Sehkmet. Nocturne pulls its storytelling back to 1200s CE Southern Egypt and proceeds to span multiple centuries, the likes of which help Castlevania: Nocturne feel bigger than its predecessor. There’s a grander scope to this story that goes far beyond the traditional Dracula lore and origins. It successfully broadens the series’ scope and helps the narrative riff on some original ideas, rather than constantly remixing the same Transylvania ingredients. It’s a development that’s necessary for Castlevania’s survival and evolution.

Character development and world-building aside, this season’s fight sequences are on a whole other level. Castlevania: Nocturne’s battles were easily a highlight of the first season, but these action spectacles feel like something orchestrated by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim) or one of the blood-soaked duels from Kizumonogatari. A sword clash with Alucard kicks off the season that’s pure bliss and makes the fan favorite vampire look like some kind of God. His movements exceed perception and leave a pile of limbs and slabs of bodies in their wake. The action sequences never miss in Castlevania: Nocturne, even when other elements fall short. This season has vampires fighting against dragons, so what more could you really want?

Alucard’s bloody massacres are a cut above the rest and one of the many ways in which he adds to the series and makes it such a demonstrable improvement over Nocturne’s freshman year. It’s bad-ass behavior and just so glorious to see Alucard brazenly use the full extent of his vampiric powers, whether that involves dispersing into a flock of bats to avoid an attack or psychically charging weapons to fly through enemies’ torsos. Castlevania: Nocturne never forgets that Alucard is a one-of-a-kind vicious force of nature.

The season is full of immaculate and inventive battle choreography. Lengthy sequences play out where Richter, Annette (Thuso Mbedu), and Maria deliver acrobatic action and explosive elemental magic while they’re bombarded by the undead. Each fight sequence offers something new and showcases contrasting combat styles. Maria gains the ability to summon Night Creatures from the abyss, which makes all of her battles feel fresh and unpredictable. However, it’s Annette who becomes the season’s surprise VIP. Nocturne proudly celebrates this action and allows battles to play out in chaotic single-take sequences where the tension mounts and reaches an intense breaking point. It’s proud of its stylized action, lingering on this chaos, rather than cutting around it and obscuring the craft. This all culminates in a truly epic war between Richter, Maria, Annette, Alucard and Erzsebet’s forces, which contains some of the most satisfying carnage and action from any Castlevania season. It’s a finale that rises to the occasion and concludes on the strongest note possible, if this does in fact end up being a premature series finale.

Castlevania: Nocturne is an artistic achievement and this season’s animation is absolutely gorgeous, whether it’s the presentation of elegant character profiles and environments, intricate battle sequences, or the execution of remarkable bursts of magic. Beautiful expressions of light and shadow wash across the characters and texture their heightened expressions. Each episode is dense in visual delights that help accentuate Nocturne’s gothic horror and dark beauty. Stunning animation comes together with an ornate musical score and fantastical storytelling. So many frames look like gorgeous gothic paintings or Ayami Kojima’s Japanese Castlevania box art brought to life.

This season’s animation also highlights plenty of creative Night Creature monster designs. There are many multi-limbed beasts and creatures that pull from all corners of folklore and pop culture, rather than purely Konami’s catalogue of Castlevania games. These episodes really visually capture the art of a vampire’s duality. Erzsebet, Drolta (Elarica Johnson), and other deadly monsters look beautiful from one angle and terrifying from another. It’s a delicate balance, but Castlevania: Nocturne finds the right mix between austere and scary. Annette’s journey into the spirit world is another enlightening experience that further allows the season to flex its artistic muscles.

Castlevania: Nocturne culminates in a cathartic battle, which shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who has seen the rest of the Castlevania franchise. There’s a rather perfunctory quality to Nocturne’s finale, albeit one that feels appropriate for a series whose future is up in the air. Nocturne goes out on a triumphant and resolute note that avoids manipulative cliffhangers or teases for what’s to come. This restraint is appreciated and it allows these characters a satisfying sense of closure, even if there’s more evil in the world to be vanquished. Castlevania: Nocturne reinforces that the healing power of love and family is a magic that’s far stronger than any trick of the Devil. This may seem glib in a series like Castlevania, but it’s more subversive than one would think when this love is shared between holy heroes, undead monsters, and everything in between. Love is just another name for the one who wields the blade or shoulders the brunt of a brutal blast.

“Castlevania: Nocturne” Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

The post ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ Returns With More Bite, Blood & Brutality in Superior Season 2 [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

From foreign sex symbols to zombie-like hordes and even mindless bat-monsters, vampires have proven to be an oddly versatile creature for filmmakers of every disposition. And in honor of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake revamping one of the most iconic depictions of blood-sucking ghouls in cinema history, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the scariest vampire designs in horror!

As usual, this list is purely based on personal opinion, but be advised that we’ll be including vampires designs based solely on their individual scare-factor – not necessarily the quality of the movie they came from.

With that out of the way, don’t forget to comment below with your own vampiric favorites if you think we missed a particularly spooky design.

Now, onto the list…

6. The Reapers – Blade 2 (2002)

Guillermo del Toro has built a career out of reimagining classic monsters as both romantic and tragic icons, but it’s his second attempt at making vampires scary again that really stuck with me as a terrifying redesign. Depicted as vampire-hunting predators, the mutated Reapers look like the next step in Nosferatu evolution, with these artificial undead even being able to dislocate their jaws in order to better feed on their superhuman victims.

These innovative creatures clearly left a mark on Del Toro himself, with the filmmaker later repurposing many of the same ideas in The Strain, his multimedia collaboration with author Chuck Hogan. And while those vampires were also quite intimidating, I’ll always have a soft spot for the original Reapers.

5. Dwight Renfield – The Night Flier (1997)

I’m still not entirely sure if the made-for-TV Stephen King adaptation The Night Flier is a good movie in the traditional sense, but I still love the hell out of this weird experiment in aviation-related horror. Of course, Michael H. Moss’ Dwight Renfield is the real star of the show here, with his vampiric true form being much more interesting than the movie surrounding it.

Looking more like a demonic bat than most of the other entries on this list, the inhuman version of the titular Night Flier was responsible for quite a few nightmares back in the late ’90s (especially among the younger crowd that managed to catch the flick on late-night TV). Sure, the oversized prosthetic head and Bela Lugosi cape make Dwight look a little silly in from some angles, but I still think his overall design is genuinely frightening.

4. Shark-Toothed Vampires – Fright Night (1985)

An over-the-top horror-comedy about a horror-loving teenager battling against his vampiric neighbor, you’d be forgiven for expecting Fright Night to feature run-of-the-mill “draculas.” And yet, this ’80s classic happens to feature some of the most disturbing vampiric makeup in the history of film, with makeup supervisor Steve Johnson wanting these vampires to look more like ravenous sharks than mere bats.

Not only do the predatory teeth look intimidating, but the ripped jawline and ravenous snarl make their bite look pained, which is why I can’t help but include this design on the list. And while I certainly enjoy the 2011 remake, its digital transformations can’t hold a candle to the original.

3. Javier Botet’s Dracula – The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

I understand why this standalone horror yarn is almost always truncated or even omitted entirely from most Dracula adaptations, but I’ve always thought that the The Captain’s Log was hands-down the most terrifying portion of Bram Stoker’s horrific opus.

That’s why it’s not surprising that the only feature-length adaptation of this part of the novel features one of the scariest depictions of Dracula in decades, with the predatory Count looking and acting a lot more like a purely demonic force of evil than a seductive foreigner. Not only do I adore the were-bat approach to his biology, but I also appreciate how Javier Botet managed to incorporate a certain sense of dark humor into his underrated performance.

2. The Original Count Orlok – Nosferatu (1922)

Over a century of remakes, memes and even watered-down cartoon cameos can’t quite overshadow the genuine terror evoked by Albin Grau and F.W. Murnau’s reimagining of Dracula. While the bald-cap and rat-like teeth may seem a little silly by modern horror standards, the demon’s elongated fingers and inhuman demeanor soon make it clear why it was once rumored that actor Max Schreck was secretly a real vampire in disguise.

Naturally, the degraded film stock and expressionist lighting do a lot of the heavy lifting here, with the dark ambience adding to the feeling that you’re watching a legitimately cursed film, but I believe the original Count Orlok boasts the only vampiric design that looks genuinely demonic. Don’t believe me? Check out this candid behind-the-scenes photograph from 1922.

1. Marlow’s Tribe – 30 Days of Night (2007)

We’ve seen hordes of hungry vampires before in films like The Omega Man and even Stake Land, but sheer numbers aren’t enough to make a group of blood-suckers scary. Thankfully, David Slade and his production team had an ace up their sleeve as 30 Days of Night benefited from some visually gnarly source material that depicted the northern tribes of Nosferatu more like prehistoric fiends.

While the cinematic vampires aren’t quite as scary as their comic-book counterparts (I mean, how can you compete with Ben Templesmith’s eerie artwork?), their shark-like eyes and inhuman jaws make these some of my favorite vampires in film.

The post Fanged Fury: 6 of the Scariest Vampire Designs in Horror Movies appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

So, yes.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts , Stitcher , Spotify , RadioPublic , Acast , Google Podcasts , and RSS. New to the Halloweenies ? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, and Alien!

Next up? Universal Monsters.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind , for hilariously irreverent commentaries (eg The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , Gremlins , Jaws ), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (eg Killer Klowns from Outer Space , Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast .

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The post The Top 10 Vampire Movies of All Time (We Think) [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The 1998 neo-western action horror film has been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision.

James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, and Tim Guinee star.

John Carpenter directed from a script by Don Jakoby (Arachnophobia), based on John Steakley’s 1990 novel Vampire$. Carpenter also composed the score.

Disc 1 – 4K UHD:

• 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative (new)
• Presented In Dolby Vision
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0
• Audio Commentary With Director John Carpenter

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

• 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative (new)
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0
• Audio Commentary With Director John Carpenter
• “Time To Kill Some Vampires” – Interviews With Director Jon Carpenter, Producer Sandy King Carpenter, And Cinematographer Garry B. Kibbe
• “Jack The Vampire Slayer” – An Interview With Actor James Woods
• “The First Vampire” – An Interview With Actor Thomas Ian Griffith
• “Raising The Stakes” – An Interview With Special Effects Artist Greg Nicotero
• “Padre” – An Interview With Actor Tim Guinee
• Original Making Of Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Still Gallery

In the film, “Jack Crow (James Woods) leads Team Crow, a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When Master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack’s entire team, Crow and the sole team survivor, Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), set out in pursuit.

“Breaking all the rules, Crow and Montoya take one of Valek’s victims hostage: a beautiful but unlucky prostitute (Sheryl Lee). She is the sole psychic link to Valek and they use her to track down the leader of the undead. As Valek nears the climax of his 600-year search for the Berziers Cross, Jack and the new Team Crow do everything possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all the vampires the omnipotent power to walk the world in daylight.”

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From director Marco van Belle (Mercy), the upcoming vampire movie Feed is being shot in Ireland. Fitting, given that the film is inspired by the Irish myth of the Dearg Due.

According to Wikipedia (linked above), “Dearg-due, an Irish name meaning ‘red bloodsucker,’ is a female demon that seduces men and then drains them of their blood.”

“The film follows a group of twenty something social media influencers who spend a weekend at a remote contemporary house in an Irish forest, and must fight for their lives when they awaken the world’s original vampire from her slumber.”

Grace Collender (Fréwaka) stars alongside Clinton Liberty (House of The Dragon, Touchdown, Normal People), Daisy Jelley (How To Have Sex, Geek Girl), Niamh Hogan (In The Land of Saints and Sinners, Vikings), Rhys Mannion (Freud’s Session, Silver and The Book of Dreams) and Oskar Smith (Dead & Buried, The Young Offenders).

“With people using social media to make their mark and get rich quick, I’m fascinated to explore the fragility of modern influencer culture by putting our characters against a ruthless creature that has the true power of influence,” Marco van Belle said in a statement.

The post Irish Vampire Movie ‘Feed’ Pits Social Media Influencers Up Against Vampires appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

James Wan’s Vampire Watchlist includes classic like Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula (1931) alongside 1980s favorites including Fright Night and Near Dark, as well as vampire movies directed by the likes of Mario Bava, Neil Jordan, and Francis Ford Coppola.

Here’s the full list of James Wan’s personal favorite blood-sucker movies…

• Bram Stoker’s Dracula
• The Night Stalker (1972)
• Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
• Vampire Circus
• Vampire Lovers
• Horror of Dracula
• Salem’s Lot (1979)
• Dracula (1931)
• Nosferatu (1922)
• Interview with the Vampire
• Near Dark
• Fright Night
• Blade
• Subspecies 2
• Planet of the Vampires

While James Wan has dipped his toes into various horror sub-genres over the years, from the extreme torture of Saw to the creepy dolls of Dead Silence, the supernatural frights of Insidious and The Conjuring, and the giallo-inspired stylings of Malignant, he has to date never directed a vampire movie of his own. But we’re thinking he’s probably got a great one in him.

In the meantime, check out the Wan-produced Salem’s Lot on Max now.

 

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Each What We Do in the Shadows season has been interested in the unique growing pains experienced by Staten Island’s favorite misanthropic vampires, but there’s a sense of catharsis and closure in the series’ sixth and final season. It’d be very easy for What We Do in the Shadows to coast on what’s worked in the previous five seasons without rocking the boat. However, this farewell season channels the appropriate energy as it prepares the audience — and the characters — to say goodbye. There’s heavy awareness and reflection as What We Do in the Shadows’ vampires take stock of what they’ve accomplished throughout their lengthy lives and what they have to show for it all. There’s a lot more that could be done with these characters and What We Do in the Shadows as a whole, but it’s appreciated to see the series go out on a triumphant high note, rather than grow complacent and rot away in a tomb. 

What We Do in the Shadows cultivates a powerful angle for its final season that naturally facilitates epiphanies and growth, albeit in a manner that always feels authentic to the series and these heightened characters. What We Do in the Shadows even begins to fold in on itself as the documentary crew becomes active characters in this story and evolve into much more than a structural device. It’s a tactic that’s not dissimilar to the approach that The Office took during its final season, yet What We Do in the Shadows gets much more playful on this front. This has always been an extremely silly series, but this season is full of rewarding meta moments for those who have been watching from the start and keyed into the series’ production and creative crew. 

What We Do in the Shadows is careful to give its entire cast plenty to do — both as a group and as individuals — but one of the season’s most exciting elements involves the power vacuum that’s caused by Guillermo turning his back on familiar life and his exodus from the Vampire Residence (sort of). This understandably ushers in some drastic changes for Guillermo and a whole new style of subservience for his character, the likes of which Harvey Guillén truly relishes and tackles with aplomb. However, some of the season’s most interesting material — at least through the first several episodes — involves how the rest of the vampires handle the subsequent changes that come out of Guillermo’s departure, whether it’s what they do with his old room or the emergence of a new roommate (Mike O’Brien) who used to be a vital member of their macabre clique. 

O’Brien’s Jerry the Vampire is the type of change that would feel cloying in the middle of a show’s run or if What We Do in the Shadows was running for several more seasons and looking for a way to breathe new life into itself. Jerry works much better as a final season wild card who is more about prompting introspection in these characters than trying to properly integrate himself with the cast. It’s a simple, yet effective detail that starts this season off on the right note and helps usher in the end. 

There’s plenty of soul searching this season as characters are pushed outside their comfort zones in delightful ways. What We Do in the Shadows continues to capitalize on the electric odd couple chemistry between Laszlo and Colin, which has become a thoroughly fulfilling dynamic during the past few seasons. They’re given plenty of strong storylines this year, especially once Laszlo enters his Frankenstein era. This season also thankfully delivers more Nadja doll madness. It’s so nice that this porcelain companion has become a main character and not just a recurring gag that disappeared over the course of a season or two. It’s honestly become one of the most rewarding and entertaining aspects of Nadja’s character. An early episode this season even indulges in an amusing exercise in mass hypnosis that reduces everyone to blank slates. It’s a beautiful way to highlight how these characters are endlessly, hopelessly destined to spend the rest of their lives with each other. 

Season six of What We Do in the Shadows is rich in changes that are satisfying on a narrative level, but it’s also still an extremely silly show that never takes itself too seriously. These new episodes hilariously expand upon vampire and supernatural lore. The series remains as sharp as ever when it comes to these characters’ attempts to engage in the simplest and most ordinary of tasks, such as making new friends, getting a job, or father-son bonding, admittedly all with paranormal spins. It’s never a dull moment when these vampires interact with the outside world and their abrasive personalities clash with society (which includes several successful guest stars, like Tim Heidecker and Alyssa Limperis). That being said, their petty squabbles and shorthand amongst each other are still at the top of their game and sharper than ever. What We Do in the Shadows features big and outrageous set-pieces this season that do not disappoint. However, it also understands that an extended group argument between the entire cast is the show’s secret weapon and more powerful than any stake or clove of garlic. It’s these lovable bloodsuckers that are what the audience cares about.

There’s a lot to love in this final season and it’s comforting to see such a committed comedy take some big swings as it goes out instead of just playing it safe. This season is such a celebration of everything that fans love about What We Do in the Shadows; and while it may not be perfect, it does recover from some of the growing pains that held the series back during its fourth season. The series concludes with some touching symmetry as the Staten Island vampires spend a lot of time absorbed over the healthiest way to end a relationship, all while attempting to gracefully answer the same question as it closes the door on this silly, supernatural saga. ”What is our current dark purpose?” is a question that’s innocuously posed in What We Do in the Shadows’ premiere. After six successful seasons, the answer seems to be to live, laugh, and love as friends, family, monsters, and misfits.

The sixth and final season of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ premieres October 21st on FX, with next-day streaming on Hulu.

The post ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Goes Out On a Hilarious High Note With the Final Season [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In the world of horror, it doesn’t get much scarier than vampires. There’s just something so creepy about a malevolent night creature lurking outside your window in the dead of night, persuading you to let him come in. One of the most unnerving examples of this horrific trope occurs in Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot.

Adapted from Stephen King’s sophomore novel, the 1979 TV miniseries explores an idyllic Maine town as it falls into the clutches of a powerful vampire. One of the first to transition into a bloodsucking fiend, young Ralphie Glick (Ronnie Scribner) hovers outside his brother’s moonlit bedroom window with glowing and strangely persuasive eyes. It’s an iconic image that still has the power to petrify four decades later.

Gary Dauberman’s new adaptation remakes Hooper’s film with nods to King’s original text. Where the ‘79 miniseries was slow and contemplative, Dauberman’s film is fast and salacious, trading the secrets of a troubled town for ferocious vampires who rip through flesh and bathe in blood. While your mileage may vary based on your affection for King’s original novel, there’s no doubt that Dauberman’s film is a fast-paced and often terrifying version of this classic story.

In fact, the best elements of Salem’s Lot (2024) lie in its bounty of bone-chilling horror set pieces. 

In the Cellar

The film begins on an ominous note. After directions from the sinister R.T. Straker (Pilou Asbæk), we see two delivery men pull up to the basement of the Marsten House. This infamous mansion sits at the top of a high hill and was once home to a notorious child murderer. But regardless of what horrors this frightening manor holds, our first destination is the house’s dark cellar. Delivery man Hank (Mike Kaz) nervously opens the heavy storm doors and peers down into a shadowy cavern. His partner Royal (Timothy John Smith) backs the truck up to the mouth of this entrance, bathing the scene in a sinister, red glow. 

The two men bring a heavy crate–supposedly containing a dresser–down the stairs. Nervous to be in this “haunted” house, the jittery men drop the large box, revealing dirt inside. But as the crate begins to creak open on its own, they flee and slam the cellar doors, leaving us in darkness. We glimpse a pale, bald head, bat-like ears, and malevolent eyes slowly emerging from the crate. This scene takes place later in King’s novel, but Dauberman uses it to open his film, immediately establishing a dark and foreboding atmosphere while introducing us to a hideous vampire. 

In the Woods

One of the most petrifying chapters in King’s beloved novel follows a ghostly figure lurking in the woods. Danny Glick and his younger brother Ralphie are walking home from a friend’s house via a path through the moonlit forest when a ghostly figure comes into view. King leaves this creature in the shadows and cuts to a dazed Danny emerging from the path with little memory of  what has just happened. The literary Ralphie Glick disappears without a trace and only a bundle of blood-soaked clothes in the Marsten House basement hints at his unimaginable fate. 

Expanding on Hooper’s own variation, Dauberman fills in the terrifying details. His Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralphie (Cade Woodward) walk through the growing dark in silhouette against the leafless trees. The sinister Straker appears behind them and snatches Danny away with barely a sound. Moments later, we see the vampire’s familiar dragging a burlap sack into the Marsten House. Ralphie screams inside it as Straker consoles him with the honor of becoming the Master’s first victim. Hundreds of candles suddenly extinguish in the decaying manor as Straker calls to his master, Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward). 

Our perspective then shifts to the frightened young child inside the bag. Through holes in the frayed burlap, Ralphie spies not only Straker’s growing fear, but a shadowy figure descending the stairs. The doomed boy’s screams echo through the town as Barlow goes in for the kill. We don’t see Ralphie’s actual demise, but blood splattering on Straker’s face implies an unspeakably violent end. In this early scene, Dauberman exploits one of horror’s long-standing taboos: brutally killing a cinematic kid. Not only do we see the monster through his victim’s eyes, Dauberman’s creative framing provides the perfect backdrop to introduce the cruelty of both primary villains, while reminding us that no one is safe in Salem’s Lot.

At the Window

Shortly after this devastating murder, Dauberman gives us an equally horrifying death for the older Glick boy. One week later, Danny is lying in bed when he hears a strange sound from outside his window. Notes from the harmonica Ralphie was playing when he was abducted float in over the misty moonlight. Hoping his brother has finally returned, Danny rushes outside, but sees no one there. He finds the harmonica lying at his feet as the backyard seesaw slowly descends. As he creeps closer, still looking for Ralphie, a hand grabs him from above and lifts him into the night sky. 

Next, we see the sickly child awaken his mother claiming to feel sick. In the hospital, Danny is diagnosed with pernicious anemia and given a blood transfusion. He awakens and complains that he is thirsty while reaching for the hanging bag of blood. While his mother searches for a nurse, Danny rips into the bag and begins squeezing the red, viscous fluid into his mouth. His mother returns to find the boy lying dead with blood covering his face and chest, followed immediately by a heart-wrenching funeral. While this segment follows the bones of King’s original story, much of this chapter is Dauberman’s invention. It’s a rapid, but powerful series of events that sets the town’s ultimate demise in motion while delivering a second death for the poor Glick family.

In the Grave

We barely get a moment to breathe before Dauberman pulls us into the next horrific set piece. Gravedigger Mike Ryerson (Spencer Treat Clark) has fallen asleep during Danny’s funeral and come to his senses well after sunset. The camera lingers on his child-sized coffin as Mike begins slowly covering it with dirt. He’s startled to hear banging and pleas for help coming from inside the box and jumps into the grave to rescue the child he believes has been buried alive. But when Mike opens the lid, Danny’s body is lying undisturbed on the coffin’s satin lining. Confused, he returns to his work as Danny stealthily rises from the hole in the ground. A moment later, the young vampire rushes at Mike with glowing red eyes and extended fangs, knocking him back into the grave.

Both King and Hooper place this scene earlier in the day as the sun slowly sets on an unnerving graveyard. Dauberman’s version adds to the creepy ambiance by setting the scene under a sinister moon and lingering on Mike’s growing unease, bringing to life one of King’s most harrowing passages.

In the Morgue

Compounding the tragedy, Marjorie Glick soon follows her son in vampiric death. While her body lays in a neighboring morgue, a small team of would-be vampire hunters hold a vigil to see if she will rise from the dead. Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard) checks the corpse while Ben (Lewis Pullman) and Susan (Makenzie Leigh) wonder how they will defend themselves should she reanimate in front of their eyes. As sunset nears, Marjorie’s slipper suddenly falls to the floor. Her arm begins to flail as she calls for her sons. Still covered in a gossamer sheet, Marjorie slowly sits up and turns to face the horrified observers. Dr. Cody wields a cross hastily made from tongue depressors as Ben and Susan cower behind her, but the moment the clumsy talisman falls apart, the newborn vampire lurches forward. 

Ben grasps the sheet still covering Marjorie’s face and holds it just inches from Dr. Cody’s neck. The screaming doctor stabs her with a scalpel, horrified to see that the wounds produce no blood. When Susan finally finishes making another cross, they burn it into Marjorie’s skin and she disappears in the middle of the room. This scene plays out mostly like King’s novel (while adding Susan to the chaotic mix), but Dauberman injects his own visual flair. The flimsy sheet provides just a hint of coverage while allowing us to see the nightmarish creature beneath. This Marjorie is also much faster and stronger, managing to sink her teeth into Dr. Cody’s neck despite Ben’s attempts to hold her back. 

Outside the Church

As in King’s novel, Dr. Cody is able to heal the vampire’s bite by quickly washing it out. Dauberman adds a rabies shot to this treatment, possibly nodding to another of King’s early novels. This sets a dangerous precedent that Ben tries to employ when Susan is bitten at the behest of her mother, Ann (Debra Christofferson), who has become Barlow’s new familiar. Ben races the bleeding young woman to the church and begs Dr. Cody to administer the same medicine that saved her own life. But Susan writhes on the floor of the holy building, proof that it’s already too late. Fully transitioning, she bolts out into the night with Ben hot on her heels. He loses her in the moonlit street, but quickly realizes that he’s now surrounded by vampires.

Dr. Cody tosses him a stake the instant Mike Ryerson pulls him up into the air and a moment later, both men slam to the ground. Ben has staked Mike midair and the gravedigger-turned-vampire now lies dead just outside the chapel door. This scene is unique to Dauberman’s adaptation, not only injecting the story with thrilling action, but setting up an all new climax as the town’s few remaining humans square off against a horde of powerful vampires.

At the Drive-In

Pulling elements from King’s additional texts and some from his own autobiographical writing, Dauberman sets the film’s final act at the Salem’s Lot drive-in. It’s local tradition to congregate here each weekend and now the town’s vampires have gathered their cars on the expansive lawn while sleeping the daylight hours away in their trunks. As the sun sets, Dauberman shows a visual line of safety moving through the field as his heroes scramble to stay in the light. Vampires begin opening their trunks and crawling out into the growing dusk as the sun sets behind the massive drive-in screen. Mark (Jordan Preston Carter) runs for cover while Ben attempts to fight them off, but quickly finds himself overwhelmed and pulled back into the shadows. Complicating their escape, Ann Norton attempts to pick them off with a shotgun, murdering Dr. Cody before she can drive a stake through Susan’s heart. As the undead creatures swarm Ben, Mark drives a borrowed car through the screen’s supports then into Ann herself. The giant boards crash down onto the cars, flooding the parking lot with sunlight and causing the exposed vampires to burst into flames.  

Now the town’s only survivors, Ben and Mark locate Barlow’s coffin and begin trying to pry it open. But as the sun rapidly sets, the head vampire bursts out and into the air, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust. The frightened vampire hunters take cover in the drive-in’s abandoned concession stand where an undead Susan lies in wait. After a brutal fight, Ben stakes his former lover and watches her die a second time. Meanwhile, Mark has scrambled under the collapsed drive-in screen while Barlow attempts to puncture the makeshift roof. Grabbing hold of his shirt, Barlow is lifting Mark toward a hole in the planks and his own deadly fangs when a stake plunges through his mouth from the back of his head. A moment later, we see Ben through the gaping wound, standing over the master vampire on top of the roof. He then stakes Barlow again through the heart, putting an end to the vampiric plague that has decimated the town. 

This is admittedly nothing like King’s original conclusion, but it does have its own quirky charm. Dauberman has created an original climax that still feels like it fits into King’s expansive universe and concluded the story with an action-packed set piece. Constant listeners will likely be all over the map with this new adaptation. Some will admire the director’s wild swings and fresh takes on the material, while others will long for the character driven heart of the 1975 novel. However, Dauberman has created several impressive action horror sequences that succeed in creating a world filled with terrifying vampires. 

Salem’s Lot is now streaming only on Max.

The post ‘Salem’s Lot’ – The 7 Horror Sequences That Elevate Max’s New Stephen King Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Both creators would go on to become titans of the genre, but in 1979, they were hungry creators, still cementing their legacy. Five years after releasing their breakthrough masterworks, these visionaries would combine forces to create a seminal text in the vampire sub genre.

Based on King’s second novel, Salem’s Lot is Hooper’s fourth full-length directorial outing, a TV miniseries filled with iconic imagery still influencing the genre to this day. Paul Monash’s screenplay is a relatively straightforward adaptation of King’s sprawling story with a few deviations along the way, but it’s in these changes that each creator’s intentions shine through.

Hooper’s version follows a sinister force invading a small town while King’s story explores the effect an evil being can have on a community already consumed with its own dark secrets.

The Lot

King describes the fictional town of Salem’s Lot as one that “knew darkness.” A picturesque village in rural Maine, the tight-knit community is made up of flawed humans consumed with their own petty gripes and daily struggles. Having grown up in similar towns, King presents Salem’s Lot as a character in and of itself, reflecting on the presence of mundane evil taking root in the human heart. He introduces the town and its citizens in a series of roving vignettes spiraling through a typical day in the Lot. From scandalous affairs and playground bullies, to local busybodies and contemplative codgers, King describes the town as a nightmarish, yet relatable version of Peyton Place. 

Hooper incorporates some of these scenes, but only if they further the vampire plot. We meet Father Callahan (James Gallery) but don’t learn the extent to which he’s lost his faith. We get to know Eva Miller (Marie Windsor), proprietress of a local boarding house, but we don’t see her complicated relationship with a pitiable tenant. Larry Crockett (Fred Willard) is a lecherous real estate developer in Hooper’s version, but King describes his shady deal with the vampire’s familiar and his attempts to cover up a horrendous crime. Despite these omissions, Hooper places him at the heart of a much darker story. Larry is having an affair with his assistant Bonnie Sawyer (Julie Cobb) when her gun-toting husband Cully (George Dzundza) confronts them in bed. Hooper includes the scene in which Cully forces the rifle’s barrel into Larry’s mouth then pulls the trigger on empty champers, before implying the horrific bedroom abuse King describes. The story’s original version sees Bonnie seduce a young telephone repairman, but this clever revision condenses the story while highlighting the darkness already lurking in Salem’s Lot. 

Hooper gives us this upsetting scene, but removes others that are equally dark. While touring the town, we meet a teenage mother who hates her life. One year after a shotgun wedding, Sandy McDougall routinely beats her infant son to cope with similar abuse from her discontented husband. Vampires target the ill-fated baby and a heart wrenching scene describes Sandy stumbling upon the tiny corpse then tearfully attempting to revive him with long-overdue motherly love. Hooper also excises Dud Rogers, custodian of the town dump. An outcast due to his malformed back, Dud takes pleasure in lighting trash fires then shooting the rats as they run for cover. He also fantasizes about a teenage girl named Ruthie Crockett who has repeatedly spurned his inappropriate advances. Ruthie becomes a dehumanized gift to Dud after his vampiric transformation–an upsetting end to a young girl’s life.

Barlow and Straker

This gradual erosion of collective morality lays the groundwork for an inhuman monster to set up shop. An austere gentleman named Richard Straker (James Mason) opens Barlow & Straker: Fine Antiques, though his partner Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder) is suspiciously absent. Their arrival causes quite the stir in town, but is actually a front to transport Barlow–a centuries-old vampire–inside his antique coffin. Both versions of the story relay his arrival in an ominous crate delivered to the basement of the Marsten House, an abandoned mansion overlooking the town. 

Reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, the literary Barlow is an urbane and handsome gentleman with dark hair combed straight back from his face. He charms his victims and draws them in with a mix of faux empathy and hypnotic power. When Bonnie’s young lover flees Cully’s gun, Barlow is waiting to console him, promising sweet revenge as he goes in for the kill. The powerful vampire uses a similar tactic on Dud, pledging Ruthie Crockett’s undead devotion and revenge on a town that has turned him away. King’s Barlow appears translucent in direct light and hovers a few inches above the ground, but passes for human to the poor souls unfortunate enough to make his acquaintance. 

The cinematic Barlow spends much of the film’s runtime in the shadows, but Hooper’s grotesque bloodsucker still packs a punch. Taking inspiration from F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, he is a bald creature with batlike ears and long misshapen fangs protruding from his mouth. Unlike King’s head vampire, Barlow does not speak, instead communicating through Straker and unthinkable violence. It’s a significant change, but one that has stood the test of time. This iconic creature design has become an indelible figure on American horror and inspired some of the world’s most popular modern horror.

Susan

Though author Ben Mears (David Soul) is the story’s ostensible hero, his fate quickly intertwines with a young woman from town. King’s Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) is an artist and college graduate determined to escape the Lot and its limited opportunities. She meets Ben in the park while reading his novel and quickly falls in love with the progressive author. King’s Susan has vague dreams of escaping to New York City–plans that horrify her controlling mother. Ann (Bonnie Bartlett) dreads her daughter’s inevitable departure and tries to turn her against Ben with information about his late wife Miranda. This leads to a devastating, but cathartic argument in which Susan finally reclaims control of her life. Hooper’s Susan has already achieved her dream, having worked in a New York ad agency after graduating college. But downsizing forced her to return to the Lot and she now passes the time drawing in the park and applying for jobs in larger cities. 

King ends this apple pie love story midway through the novel when Susan falls victim to the vampire, but Hooper makes her ill-fated courtship the heart of his film. The literary Ben stumbles upon Susan while searching the Marsten House. She’s been discarded by Barlow and lies in his coffin–an “appetizer” meant to dissuade the accidental Van Helsing from defending the town. Mirroring Lucy Westenra’s devastating second death in the pages of Dracula, King uses this scene to define the story’s lore while building sympathy for his reluctant hero. In one of the adaptation’s larger deviations, Hooper changes this timeline and sequence of events. After the cinematic Barlow has been defeated, an undead Susan tracks Ben and Mark to their hideout in Mexico, inviting them to join her in eternal night. The film ends with Ben reluctantly staking his former lover and admitting that he will never be free of the vampire’s curse.

The Ka-tet

In addition to fleshing out troubled small towns, King excels at creating beloved ka-tets– the author’s own word for a band of noble warriors coming together in the face of evil. Similar groups fill the pages of It and The Stand, but it’s King’s Dark Tower series that coins the term. In an updated intro to the novel, King references Tolkien’s fantastical fellowship along with Stoker’s disparate band of vampire hunters as inspiration for the team defending Salem’s Lot. Hooper creates his own version of this crew, remixing the characters and they’re relationship to the town. 

In addition to Susan, Matt Burke serves as Ben’s closest ally. A teacher at the local high school, this aging bachelor first meets the writer at a local tavern where they bond over literary cynicism and knowledge of the Lot’s darker secrets. Matt first discovers the vampyric plot when he invites local gravedigger and former student Mike Ryerson (Geoffrey Lewis) to spend the night in his guest room. The ailing Mike is bitten and bled in Matt’s house, later returning with plans to spread the curse. Matt fends him off, but suffers a heart attack in the process and spends the rest of the story in the local hospital. Aside from changing the character’s name to Jason (Lew Ayres), Hooper keeps much of this story the same, albeit with an abbreviated ending. After hospitalization, Matt Burke serves as the Van Helsing of the group, compiling research to shape a master plan. He eventually suffers a second and fatal heart attack when one of Barlow’s minions attempts to break into his hospital room. Hooper’s Burke presumably dies in the hospital as well, but contributes much less to the story’s ka-tet. 

Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin) is the youngest, but arguably strongest member of this makeshift team. New to the town, we first meet King’s Mark as he’s besting a bully on the elementary playground. Determined to kill the bloodsucker who murdered his friends, Mark breaks into the Marsten House, stake in hand. Captured by Straker, he frees himself from tight bonds before he can be delivered to the monster. Hooper keeps much of Mark’s story, while condensing the timeline of his heroism. The cinematic Mark resolves to kill Barlow after his parents are murdered, presumably as punishment for reporting the vampires. Hooper’s version of Mark is also slightly older and a historian of the town rather than a new student still finding his footing. Much of Hooper’s exposition is delivered during rehearsal for Jason’s student play, an annual pageant detailing the history of Salem’s Lot. 

Jimmy Cody is another beloved member of this ragtag team, but Hooper significantly changes his persona. A young and idealistic doctor, Jimmy accepts Matt’s story of vampire infestation with an open mind and a pragmatic plan. He facilitates a sunset vigil over the body of a recently deceased mother to see if she will rise from the dead then helps search the town for the villainous master. Hooper reimagines this character as Bill Norton (Ed Flanders), Susan’s father who befriends Ben as his daughter’s new boyfriend. Despite their differing origins, both versions of this likable character succumb to a gruesome death. King’s Jimmy walks down sabotaged steps and falls onto knives left upright as a trap. Hooper’s Bill is impaled on a reddish wall of mounted antlers in the Marsten house, a visual nod to the iconic introduction of Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

But Hooper’s most significant alteration lies with Father Callahan. King’s priest is a conflicted alcoholic struggling with various manifestations of good and evil. His drinking corresponds with a loss of faith and he secretly doubts the existence of God. Hooper’s Father Callahan has a much smaller place in the story. In both versions, Barlow challenges the priest to throw down his cross and battle the vampire on the strength of his faith–an epic battle he sadly loses. Hooper’s Callahan simply dies then and there while King’s character suffers a more horrific fate. The literary Barlow forces the priest to drink his blood, transforming Callahan into an unclean soul. He is unable to reenter his beloved church and flees the Lot to parts unknown. Twenty-four years later, the disgraced Father Callahan makes a triumphant return in another of King’s beloved novels, redeeming his name in an alternate world where he once again battles a horde of vampires.

The Marsten House

While most of Hooper’s timeline fits neatly with King’s, the film takes a significant turn in its final act. King’s story follows the ka-tet to the Marsten House intent on confronting Barlow, only to find an exsanguinated Straker hanging in the foyer–punishment for Mark’s escape–and an undead Susan lying in the master’s coffin. They stake her then retreat to consult with Matt and form a new plan. With Barlow resting in a new location, much of the next day is spent strategizing and preparing for nightfall. After a few false alarms, they find Barlow sleeping in the root cellar of Eva Miller’s boarding house. Ben and Mark, the story’s only survivors, defeat the vampire then set fire to the town, hoping to drive out his remaining followers.

But Hooper makes a dramatic change. After escaping his bonds and attacking Straker, Mark bursts out of the house just as Ben and Bill arrive. All three infiltrate the house looking for Susan, but find Straker lying in wait. He kills Bill then dies on the stairs, felled by Ben’s pistol–a human death for a mysterious familiar. Down in the basement, they find Barlow sleeping in his coffin, surrounded by vampiric members of the dying town. Ben stakes the head vampire while Mark locks his remaining followers in the root cellar. They set fire to the Marsten House, hoping it will eventually spread to the rest of the town, a variation of King’s original ending. Combined with Hooper’s romantic coda, these disparate conclusions not only serve their respective media, but reveal the differing interests of each creator. Hooper is concerned with a terrifying monster infiltrating a quaint small town, while King–evidenced by the name of his novel–probes the ease in which external evil can exploit the darkness already lurking in a troubled community. 

Salem’s Lot returns with a new movie on Max beginning October 3.

The post How Tobe Hooper’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ Remixed Stephen King’s Tale of Small Town Horror appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Only Fangs was successfully crowd-funded on Indiegogo earlier this year, the project raising over $41,000 thanks to the contributions of 452 horror fans. Pre-order your copy today.

In the upcoming film, “A wanna be monster hunter helps a blood thirsty gang of vampire chicks expand their business by creating a new app to turn their victims into customers.”

Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba directed Only Fangs, written by Ragsdale.

The cast includes Kansas Bowling (Cuddly Toys), Drew Marvick (Pool Party Massacre), Nina Lanee Kent (Slashlorette Party), Jessa Flux (Murdercise), Adriana Uchishiba (Murdercise), Meredith Mohler (When the Trashman Knocks), Kristy Adams (Nightmare Toys), Delawna McKinney (Streets of Vengeance) and Ellie Church (Space Babes from Outer Space).

The team previews, “Our mission is make a vampire comedy that will be reminiscent of some of our favorite vampire films of the ’80s and ’90s, such as The Lost Boys, Fright Night, and From Dusk Till Dawn. We intend to capture this feeling via story, wardrobe, sets and music.”

The post There’s an App for That: Vampire Comedy ‘Only Fangs’ Releasing in 2025 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Anime is dense in groundbreaking and foundational vampire texts, whether it’s Vampire Hunter D, Blood: The Last Vampire, Hellsing, or even absurdly violent monster titles like Wicked City and Demon City Shinjuku. However, Kizunonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- clears them all. There’s a strong case to be made that Koyomi Vamp is not just one of the best anime vampire movies of all-time, but also a singularly special anime for the modern era.

To provide some background context, Monogatari is a sprawling coming-of-age high school anime that begins with a vampire attack, but gradually expands to include ghosts, monsters, and a wide range of supernatural threats. Monogatari has run for four seasons that’s divided into 15 separate sub-stories in the grander Monogatari universe. It’s impressive how many plates Monogatari simultaneously keeps spinning and the different characters and concepts that it chooses to expand upon in order to enrich its universe. Kizumonogatari functions as a prequel to the Monogatari franchise that was initially released as a trilogy of films in 2016 and ‘17 — Tekketsu, Nekketsu, and Reiketsu. This trilogy explains the twisted circumstances behind high school student Koyomi Araragi’s descent into vampirism and his parasitic relationship with the vampire who turns him, Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, the King of Apparitions.

Koyomi Vamp is an impressive feat that’s masterminded by SHAFT’s Tatsuya Oishi, the co-director of the original Kizumonogatari trilogy. This surreal saga begins when the meek and mild-mannered Koyomi naively saves Kiss-Shot with his blood, only to become her monstrous minion. Koyomi’s 500-year-old vampire sire finds herself in a weakened child-like state and dependent upon Koyomi’s help to bring her back to full strength — not to mention full-bodied voluptuousness – through the recovery of her lost limbs. That follows feels a lot like Kill Bill, but with vampires, as Koyomi blazes his way through grandiose vampire killers in each act. It’s a very breezy, entertaining structure for a movie.

Koyomi needs to take out three vampire extermination specialists that boil down to epic boss battle-like showdowns. These enemies wield building-sized weapons and dole out enough excessive violence to make Invincible’s cast wince. These gravity-defying fights are really sights to behold and they properly tap into Koyomi’s intense fear as he begins this journey, only for it to metastasize into a stately confidence as he gets further into this bloody quest. There is a certain quality to Koyomi Vamp where the film occasionally feels like it’s killing time until it gets to Koyomi’s next deadly duel, but the movie also works hard to make sure that these fights aren’t the only thing that matters. They’re definitely the movie’s highlights, but there’s still a lot more to appreciate in this unpredictable adventure. There’s a distinct quality to each of these battles, which is essential in a film of this nature. Koyomi Vamp features a lot of combat. However, none of these encounters bleed together or feel derivative of one another. There’s legitimately a Looney Tunes energy to the extreme slapstick violence that makes up the movie’s final fight. 

Koyomi Vamp creates sprawling visual puzzles that make the audience often feel like they’re trapped in a suffocating nightmare. The viewer is bombarded with labyrinthine spirals that tease infinite loss and hopelessness through constricting M.C. Escher-like visuals. The film recklessly shifts between meticulously detailed, ornate drawings to juvenile Tex Avery-esque doodles that are as unpredictable as they are entertaining. It perfectly reflects Koyomi Vamp’s central theme of balance. Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp– excels through its animation and frenetic editing style. However, there’s also an incredible musical score by Satoru Kōsaki that fluctuates between orchestral compositions and a zippier EDM sound that’s stitched together with a creative jazz sensibility.

Koyomi Vamp also ping-pongs between ultra-violence and ultra-horniness as it proudly wears its teenage hormones on its sleeve. Some audiences are perhaps just as likely to wince at the gratuitous displays of underwear and “jiggle physics” as they are at the film’s gruesome deaths. However, it all coalesces together into a powerful combination of emotions that celebrate what it truly means to be alive and in love. Koyomi Vamp elegantly juxtaposes beauty and brutality as it reflects the duality of vampires, but also life itself. Koyomi Vamp is just as much an awkward love story as it is a chronicle of vicious vampires. That being said, the love in question isn’t purely for Tsubasa Hanekawa, the sweet schoolgirl class president, but rather Koyomi’s frayed connection to his humanity and his growing fascination over the power that’s rewarded to him through becoming a “monster.”

Kizumonogatari is anime horror by way of avant-garde French New Wave cinema. It’s surreal, blood-soaked storytelling that’s as action-packed and visually dynamic as it is emotionally rich and character-driven. The film truly feels reminiscent of the existential dread and internal psychological conflict that’s present in Neon Genesis Evangelion’s final episodes, albeit extended into a lengthy feature film that never lets up. Inner desires and secret phrases flash across the scene as the narrative gets invaded by intrusive thoughts that help the audience get under Koyomi’s skin. Many sequences feature Koyomi alone in wide, open spaces where he’s practically swallowed by the frame’s emptiness as if to reinforce the idea that he’s a minuscule, unimportant speck in the universe. However, his opportune meeting with Kiss-Shot changes all this. 

There are some genuinely staggering shots in Koyomi Vamp that took my breath away and made me want to glue my eyes open so that I didn’t miss a single frame. The film’s punk rock style only becomes a more extreme assault as the movie continues. Live-action carnage blends together with animated extremities. There’s a sequence towards the end of the movie where Koyomi has a psychological breakdown that’s so beautifully conveyed through anarchic mixed media that works in spite of itself. It’s something I won’t be able to stop thinking about for weeks and a testament to the truly limitless power of anime. You honestly won’t believe your eyes with Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp-, which is such a special, rare feeling. 

Kizumonogatari throws a lot at the audience and, at 144 minutes, it’s hardly a short film. However, the original Kizumonogatari trilogy runs at a total of 216 minutes — just over three-and-a-half hours — so more than 70 minutes has been excised from the story and it still doesn’t feel like much is lost in the process, especially for anyone who hasn’t seen Tekketsu, Nekketsu, and Reiketsu. Koyomi Vamp doesn’t have any glaring leaps in storytelling or pacing that leaves it feeling like a Frankenstein’s Monster of an edit. This is an impressive, precise compilation that’s far more artful than simply three films being crammed together, while trimming down the slower sections. Koyomi Vamp somehow doesn’t feel laborious and bloated and, if anything, there are certain elements and necessary build-up from the first act that feel rushed and slightly unearned.

Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- delivers vibrant, vicious visuals that put it in a league of its own and makes it one of 2024’s most unique horror films, animated or otherwise. In a year that’s had no shortage of gory, gruesome vampire content like Abigail and Interview with the Vampire, Kizumonogatari flies above its competitors and sinks its teeth into a fresh, lively vein. Anime fans will praise Kizumonogatari for its daring ideas and presentation style, while curious newcomers will be blown away by the medium’s infinite abilities. Prepare to be sired by Koyomi Vamp’s barbaric beauty and submit to its arcane excellence.

KIZUMONOGATARI -Koyomi Vamp- releases in North American theaters August 28.

The post ‘KIZUMONOGATARI – Koyomi Vamp’ Is Blood-Soaked Anime Bliss That Will Take Your Breath Away [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

So this week on Bloody FM’s Guide to the Unknown, we look back at the history of this category of nocturnal baddie, starting way back in the day when people confused buried, gas-bloated corpses as being disturbingly alive and well – so disturbing that they must be unholy.

We then zoom forward in time to discuss the story of a rumored vampire that whipped the public into a frenzy rivaling Twilight Mania (eh, no, it doesn’t, but still): the story of The Highgate Vampire.

In March 1969, the British Psychic and Occult Society (which I’ll be abbreviating to BPOS) started getting reports about a creepy tall black figure wandering around London’s Highgate Cemetery. Most of these stories were just local gossip, but investigators soon found a guy who said he had a close encounter with what they called “The Highgate Vampire”. He said he felt hypnotized by something lurking in the shadows and got all turned around trying to leave.

As he stumbled around in the dark, he started sensing something behind him. When he spun around, he saw this tall black figure, but it vanished in a flash. Shortly after that, two teenage girls walking home on Swain Lane claimed they saw dead people rising from their graves. An elderly lady also said she got spooked by a “tall dark man” with scary eyes while walking her dog inside the cemetery gates. And then, the weirdest part: foxes in the area started dropping dead.

So this got picked up by local papers, including the Hampstead and Highgate Express, which ran an article titled “Why Do the Foxes Die?” Which is kind of awesome. The article supported the idea of this vampire stalking the cemetery and killing foxes. But it was poopooed by David Tarrant from the BPOS, who, however, didn’t rule out the possibility of the animals being killed by groups entering the cemetery to perform Satanic rituals.

Spurned on by all the reported activity and the media attention it was receiving, Farrant and the BPOS began to conduct a private investigation into just what was going on at Highgate Cemetery, and Farrant wrote into the Hampstead and Highgate Express with an update, as well as appearing on TV to spread the news — they had concluded there was indeed Satanic activity going on there, and his team has seen an apparition.

Farrant was careful not to use the word “vampire,” not wanting to sensationalize the events and the BPOS’ subsequent research. But a rival figure soon emerged who had no such reservations.

Sean Manchester was a self-proclaimed vampire hunter and exorcist who got into the mix, stating in TV interviews that the Highgate Vampire was a very old-school, Bram Stoker-style type and that he would hunt and dispatch him. Not only that, he said, but that David Farrant, whose media tour had preceded Manchester’s, would be joining him. The problem was that David Farrant had never signed off on any such partnership.

This crowd went wild. The day after that interview, hundreds of people with wooden stakes and shovels converged on Highgate Cemetery for a vampire hunt, breaking through police barricades — though some would retreat back across the line upon seeing frightening visions inside. In an interview, an attendee named Anthony Robinson said, “I walked past the place and heard a high-pitched noise, then I saw something grey moving slowly across the road. It terrified me…I’ve never believed in anything like this, now I’m sure there’s something evil lurking in Highgate.”

But going off of vibes isn’t enough to sustain a panic, so things died down over the next few months. That is until two schoolgirls walking through the cemetery come across the 100-year-old corpse of a woman who had been dragged out of her tomb, decapitated, and stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake. This led to a police investigation (which went nowhere) and an uptick in vampire sightings, including one where a woman said, “A pallid figure wearing a black cloak threw her to the ground.”

That was enough to get the BPOS back into the mix. They decided to conduct a seance at the cemetery to get any information of use, and “If successful, a rite of exorcism could then be performed to banish the entity from the earthly pane,” Farrant later wrote.

On August 17th, 1970, Farrant and members from the BPOS went into the Cemetery and headed straight to the first sighting area. They marked a big circle on the ground, putting down protective symbols, salt, and holy water. Then they set up another circle with candles and incense where they thought the demon would show up. But as they began their seance, they heard voices in the distance—it was the cops. They hurried to pack up their stuff, but Farrant didn’t make it out in time and got caught by the police.

Seance incomplete, exorcist unperformed, once again, public interest in The Highgate Vampire began to wane, and there haven’t been any significant enough sightings over the ensuing years to bring it back up to its former fever pitch. But if we know anything about vampires, it’s that they creep up on you, sinking in their teeth when you least expect it. Maybe we shouldn’t count The Highgate Vampire out just yet.

For way more about the history of vampires, why Sesame Street’s Count loves to count, and other vamp facts, join us, Kristen and Will, for this week’s episode of Guide to the Unknown. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.

The post The Mini Vampiric Panic That Gripped England in the ‘70s [Guide to the Unknown] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline first reported on Bogieville earlier this week, describing the upcoming film as a “southern fried vampire thriller.” And the vamps in this one look pretty gnarly, with their shark-like teeth reminding us a bit of the bloodsuckers in Radio Silence’s new movie Abigail.

In the film, “A young couple on the run come across the eponymous derelict American trailer park, where they soon learn that the residents are a pack of blood-thirsty vampires.”

Arifin Putra (The Raid 2) and Eloise Lovell Anderson (Villain) star alongside Cronin.

Henry P. Gravelle wrote the screenplay.

Stay tuned for more and find exclusive images and poster art underneath the trailer.

The post ‘Bogieville’ – Bloody Exclusive Trailer Previews Southern Fried Vampire Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Anne Rice is a prolific gothic horror novelist who has eternally changed the shape of vampire fiction. Anne’s literature has flourished for decades, but the film and TV adaptations of her best works have been a mixed bag. Many audiences were ready to dismiss Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire when it first premiered on AMC in 2022, only for it to rise from its grave as one of the year’s best series – horror or otherwise. Interview with the Vampire perfectly captures Rice’s painful pathos that uses the veil of supernatural storytelling and monstrous creatures to explore the human condition. Interview with the Vampire’s second season elevates its moving character development to greater heights and improves upon everything that already worked so well in its debut season. It’s the perfect evolution of this macabre, melancholy love story.

There’s genuine gravitas behind the pomp and circumstance of brutality and bloodbaths that powerfully kick off Interview with the Vampire’s new season. There’s such eloquent and baroque dialogue that’s juxtaposed against grisly, visceral imagery that perfectly captures Anne Rice’s decorated aesthetic. It’s the most important element of Interview with the Vampire and this season absolutely nails it. It’s why this show goes out of the way to call itself Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire rather than simply Interview with the Vampire. 

Interview with the Vampire’s second season immediately grabs the audience by the throat and glamors them into submission. It’s gothic horror that holds itself up to the highest standards of beauty, not unlike Lestat himself. It’s fascinating to see how these episodes very much function as an extension to the first season. It’s the continuation of one big story, rather than simply a second season. These episodes are inextricably tied to the first season’s seven installments and it’d be a futile effort to try to jump in with the show’s second season. There’s something to be said for Interview with the Vampire’s complete disinterest in drawing in new viewers while it instead goes all-in on expanding its rich mythology and character development. 

To this point, Interview with the Vampire’s second season handles Delainey Hawes’ Claudia recasting in an incredibly austere manner that makes this feel like a sophisticated stageplay. Season two’s eight episodes finish off the second-half of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire novel. While it’s unlikely that this will be the end of the series now that AMC is going all-in with their “Immortal Universe,” this would function as an excellent singular adaptation of one of Anne Rice’s most celebrated works if this were to be the series’ end.

There’s an electric energy to Interview with the Vampire’s second season that gets tremendous mileage out of the first season finale’s major revelation that Rashid (Assad Zaman) is actually Armand, a fellow vampire and Louis’ (Jacob Anderson) lover. These vampires’ mind games and toxic relationship dynamics are fully on display, although this time around they don’t purely apply to Lestat (Sam Reid). Interview with the Vampire gleefully indulges in this territory. Its mental manipulation reaches new heights as Louis descends to devastating new lows. Interview with the Vampire’s second season excels when it comes to the depths of Louis’ eternal sadness and struggles. Anyone who felt pangs of sympathy for him in season one will be absolutely gutted in season two. It’s a harrowing ride, but he’s hardly the only wounded fawn. 

This season is thoroughly Louis and Armand’s story, but the narrative gradually morphs into an aberrant love triangle of sorts. Interview with the Vampire’s new episodes provide enlightening and crucial context on how Louis and Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) first met. On that note, the season’s fifth episode is the best hour that Interview with the Vampire has produced and an incredible accomplishment in television. It broke my heart in two and left me weak, drained, and dazed. It’s also shocking how this season’s interviews with Louis and Armand so naturally evolve into a twisted form of couple’s therapy where Daniel plays the role of mediator. It’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but with vampires. 

Interview with the Vampire is melancholy and tragic, but there’s also such a playful, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor to all this, particularly when it comes to Daniel’s interjections to Louis and Armand’s storytelling. On the opposite end of the spectrum, this season features exceptional effects work – much of which is genuinely disturbing – that continues to expand upon the series’ supernatural universe in rewarding ways. This season’s visual horrors resonate just as strongly as the psychological ones.

Louis and Armand’s tortuous trip down memory lane digs up tales of Old World Vampires during World War II that operates as a macabre microcosm of inhumanity and insolence. The players may change and borders shift, but hatred and prejudice are eternal. In a world that’s full of supernatural threats and vampire hunters, sometimes human indifference and a broken heart can be the greatest danger and deterrent of all. Delainey Hawes absolutely shines as the new Claudia and she handles this role with as much confidence, charm, and pain as Bailey Bass brought to the character. Claudia’s theatrical performance has her repeat the refrain, “I don’t like windows when they’re closed.” Interview with the Vampire reflects the same philosophy through characters who seemingly want limitless options — even if their lots in life are technically restricted in several respects — as they fight for anything and everything that the world has to offer.

This season also spends a considerable amount of time on several characters’ indoctrination into the Parisian Theatre des Vampires. It’s an effective framework for this particular chapter of Louis and Armand’s story. These sequences are so staggeringly beautiful and a stunning distillation of what Interview with the Vampire represents. It’s such a unique breed of horror that could only be found in this series and harkens back to classical genre storytelling like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or the works of F.W. Murnau or Fritz Lang.

More than anything else, it’s just appreciated that Interview with the Vampire takes the time to indulge in such artistry. Another segment from the same episode feels like the horror stylistic equivalent to Moulin Rouge! and hits all the right notes. This material also becomes a stark representation of being trapped in a role that no longer fits and being resolved to go through the motions while longing for more. It’s a quandary that most vampire stories explore at one point or another, but Interview with the Vampire adds deeper layers to this obstacle. It adeptly taps into the light and darkness that makes vampires what they are.

Interview with the Vampire remains a uniquely special vampire horror story that’s unlike anything else that’s currently on television. It’s thought provoking, timeless, humanizing, and haunting. This season is such a beautiful reflection of what it means to love and truly live — even if the majority of its characters are dead. AMC will hopefully continue to let this interview run for as long as there’s breath in its lungs. It’s a powerful and important counterpoint to the horror genre that sucks blood from ambivalence and apathy so that it can truly take flight and soar.

Season 2 of ‘Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire’ premieres May 12th on AMC.

The post “Interview with the Vampire” Season 2 Review – A Sublime Evolution of AMC’s Anne Rice TV Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“People can be real parasites…”

The vampires in What We Do in the Shadows are hundreds of years old and while the audience has only been privy to a minuscule fraction of their existence, it’s funny how five seasons can begin to feel like an eternity. Five seasons can be a crucial period for any television series, let alone one that benefits from the limitless nature of vampires and other paranormal creatures, where what worked in the past now wears thin. After four full seasons, What We Do in the Shadows has already touched upon and remixed all of the mainstream vampire tropes. A less confident series would return to the comfort of what’s previously worked, like the safety of a coffin, but What We Do in the Shadows fearlessly forges forward with newfound enthusiasm. This latest season is a satisfying reminder of what made the show successful in the first place, but it also strives to build new relationships and character dynamics through bold, serialized storylines. What We Do in the Shadows’ characters are at their oldest and beginning to show their age, yet this season feels fresher than ever.

It’s difficult for any series to feel fresh five seasons in and What We Do in the Shadows deserves credit for how much these episodes disrupt the status quo. This season is particularly confident when it comes to finding new scenarios for these characters to explore instead of just a retread of what’s worked in the past. A group trip to the mall, for instance, is a playful, low stakes way to kick off the season that’s both familiar and fresh. The same can be said for the vampires’ exposure to a Pride Parade or a night out drinking “with the boys,” and the wild tangents that are born out of this mundanity.

One of this seasons’ greatest strengths is its ability to find new ways to surprise audiences, especially when it feels like the show is about to retread old ideas. This might be What We Do in the Shadows’ most genuinely vicious season. There are some extreme displays of violence that translate into absurd sight gags that feel like a response to the show’s mission to continually top itself. It’s a new element that works well and one that might have felt too cold in the show’s earlier seasons, even if a black sense of humor has always been in What We Do in the Shadows’ DNA.

This season of What We Do in the Shadows challenges itself and its genre in major ways, but this compulsion to prove oneself also carries over into every character. This is most prominent with Guillermo’s struggles to accept whether he’s finally worthy of the vampire label, but also in Colin’s quest to prove himself in office, Laszlo’s acceptance of his subpar hypnosis skills, or The Guide and Nadja’s revelation that they do deserve female friendship. Some of these breakthroughs come across as glib. Nevertheless, it’s still powerful to see these vampires get a better hold on existence and what it means to live their best lives, even if they’ve been dead for centuries. 

What We Do in the Shadows continues to double-down on Guillermo and his arc is definitely the most dynamic this season. He physically experiences the greatest changes and this season is all about him proving if he can make it as a vampire, whether he is one or not, and what a privilege that title holds. Guillermo’s metamorphosis is a fun subversion of his existing power dynamic that allows his relationship with vampirism, self esteem, and friends to continue to develop even if it still recycles the same broader ideas. Guillermo faces the ultimate betrayal and this relationship grows more complicated than ever.

Guillermo’s struggle isn’t made public, yet Nadja finds herself at a similar crossroads once she investigates a hex in her present that has ties to her family and her neglected past. Nadja’s Doll also returns in a very satisfying manner and this season gives her some of her best material in the series. It’s continually amusing how strong of a combination she and Nadja are, especially when they’re out in public. This season pushes their bond to incestuous new supernatural places. Oddly enough, Nadja’s pursuits tie together with Colin’s decision to find purpose through politics. 

Colin’s bid for Staten Island comptroller is a fun way to complicate the season and riff on the past. It’s a move that’s reminiscent of Nadja’s vampire club or the group’s efforts to take over the Vampiric Council. This leads to unique use of Colin that feels distinctly different from the Baby Colin shenanigans that took over season four. Colin’s energy vampire antics also lead to an exceptional sequence where he’s put on trial by the grander energy vampire bureau. This interlude includes truly sublime casting that’s made up of some of the wettest blankets in comedy.

The core cast’s chemistry remains effortless, but it’s encouraging to see relationships further evolve through fresh pairings. This season gets a lot of mileage out of Guillermo and Laszlo’s interactions, as well as Colin- and Nadja-driven stories. No combination of characters in What We Do in the Shadows is a disappointment. However, the series prides itself in its experiments to see what unexplored dynamics might work. This season even brings back some familiar faces who haven’t been seen in years, but to great effect and in a manner that feels justified. All of the episodes’ scripts are as sharp as ever, but Marika Sawyer and Paul Simms really deliver standout work. The dialogue never feels lazy even if certain storylines don’t necessarily pop or feel derivative of the past.

What We Do in the Shadows remains deeply comical, but this season also digs into thought-provoking and emotional conflicts for the cast. The inherent loneliness of these characters has been baked into the series from the start, but these new episodes reflect upon some heavy betrayals–particularly when it comes to Guillermo and Nandor–that explores imposter syndrome and a paranormal peer pressure that’s snuck up on Guillermo all series. It’s really smart to transform Guillermo’s journey to become a vampire into a coming of age narrative where he better understands himself and his body. Some of these developments do seem to come at the expense of seasons’ worth of vampire hunter character building. However, this feels like the right obstacle for Guillermo to overcome before he’s finally able to embrace a new life as his best self. 

The ambivalence behind having everything at one’s disposal also triggers some compelling introspective material this season from Kristen Schaal’s The Guide, who experiences her own mid-afterlife crisis, so to speak. It’s funny that so much of this season involves The Guide’s efforts to indoctrinate herself in the vampires’ clique and become their official fifth member, but Anthony Atamanuik’s Sean becomes much more of a natural supporting player this season without even trying. This season leans on Sean a lot more, which pays off and finds greater value in this odd relationship. If anything, this season proves that everyone is just waiting for their moment to shine.

Five seasons in, What We Do in the Shadows proves that it still has lots of life coursing through its veins and plenty more to say. This is encouraging considering that a sixth season has already been guaranteed. It’s entirely possible that this vampire comedy will remain this sharp after six seasons, but it’s likely time for What We Do in the Shadows to begin to consider its eternal twilight before it finally feels ancient. What We Do in the Shadows has all of the ingredients to be an all-time comedy classic thanks to consistent storytelling and committed performances. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t stay out too late and burn up in the harsh light of day.

Editor’s Note: This review is based on the first four episodes of Season 5.

‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Season 5 premieres July 13th on FX with back-to-back episodes, and next day airing on Hulu.

The post “What We Do in the Shadows” Season 5 Review – FX’s Vampire Comedy Still Feels as Fresh as Ever appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Subspecies is a seminal vampire franchise, Radu has many loyal followers and that fandom has sustained for decades, with long, long stretches without anything to feed it. That is a true testament to the talents of writer/director Ted Nicolaou, original screenwriter David Pabian, and of course Anders Hove as the villainous Radu. The franchise has many rabid fans and people continue to discover it thanks to outlets like Full Moon Streaming and Amazon Prime. But its success, on one level, is both unlikely in that it could have been doomed to fail and predetermined in that both vampires and the video market were absolutely booming in the early ‘90s, when that fateful first movie was released.

One of the best things about Subspecies, though, is that it doesn’t look quite as cheap as it actually is because of its locations. The locations are often the standout stars of this series, and that’s true for the original most of all. The film was shot in Romania, the first modern vampire movie to actually shoot in Transylvania, and that does so much to provide the movie with a sense of place and an inherent mythology, as well as a general mood and atmosphere. The vampires work so much better when they are creeping around actual crumbling castles and dark forests. These are the sorts of locations so feverishly described in Dracula that had never so faithfully been depicted in cinema up to this point.

Shooting in Romania was also a relatively new concept at the time. Subspecies was the first Full Moon production to shoot in Romania and almost immediately after making it, Charles Band and producer Vlad Paunescu opened Castel Film Studio there, where a great many Full Moon productions would shoot throughout the ‘90s. Since Band’s time with the studio, films like Seed of Chucky, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Nun have shot there as well. So, in a way, another huge element of the success of Subspecies is that it led to the creation of a noteworthy studio where major productions are still shot to this day. 

But Subspecies, just on concept alone, was a perfect fit for a testing ground for a Romanian production. It was one of the few movies to shoot there that actually played to its location, something that it did exceptionally well. Centering on a group of grad students documenting local folklore, it was both an old and new exploration of vampires, perfectly embodied in its opposing undead brothers serving as the good and evil forces of the movie. Radu, our antagonist, is a classic vampire in the Nosferatu tradition, even a vampire torn from the pages of folklore. Like the vampires of legend, but much unlike vampires in entertainment of the time—especially in film—Radu is ghoulish to look at and distinctly un-subtle in virtually everything that he does.

It’s hard to say how many influences that went into the character of Radu are intentional, or how many are simply reflections of a long history of vampire cinema. Radu echoes many different vampires that have appeared on screen in the past century, as does the film itself. When he walks down a crumbling corridor, a silhouette with his shadow stretching out in front of him, it obviously brings to mind Murnau’s classic Nosferatu. Aspects of Hove’s performance as Radu, particularly the way he talks in a grating whisper, as if he is so dead that even using his lungs to speak is done with great difficulty, is reflective of Klaus Kinski’s Count in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu remake. And when Radu actually attacks the girls, drooling, biting, groping, definitely not charming or suave but rather animalistic and blunt, and shot without an ounce of expressionism or over-stylization, it looks much more like the vampire films of Jess Franco. It is these varied interpretations of vampires all being depicted at the same time that make Subspecies so special, and they are never more obvious than in the movie’s portrayal of its two brothers.

Stefan is a vampire for the ‘90s. He is a perfect vampiric hero for a time in which Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles were still at their peak. This was, after all, only three years before the highly anticipated Interview With the Vampire finally made it to the big screen. Here’s someone who, like Interview’s Louis, does not embrace being a vampire. It’s much more of a curse for him, something he’s constantly battling. He tries to do his best to appear human. While Radu sticks to the ruins of his castle and only leaves it to feed on the unsuspecting travelers, Stefan crafts a human persona for himself. He uses the alibi that he is staying at the abbey because, like the girls, he is a grad student, only he is studying nocturnal wildlife. Which is actually a great excuse for a vampire, and it’s surprising that no one had really used that up to this point.

Radu adheres to many of the classical folkloric vampire traditions. He lives in an old castle, he is a monstrous, often animalistic presence and clearly a being of pure evil. He can (supposedly) be killed by a stake to the heart, by burning, by decapitation, sunlight and is repelled by crosses and rosary, all of which are at least traditions of many Dracula adaptations and a couple of which originate in the novel itself. In addition to this, there is an historical significance to Radu’s own name. This was right around the time that Dracula films and TV shows were making clear connections between the fictional Count and the real Vlad III Dracula, Wallachian prince most infamously known as Vlad the Impaler. But Vlad also had a younger brother, named Radu.

When Vlad and Radu were sold to the Turks as a token of their father’s loyalty to the Turkish Empire, Radu became a favored child of the Sultan after Vlad was freed. The Sultan trained the boy to hate his own homeland, and when Vlad fought off the invading Turkish army during his reign as prince, it was none other than his little brother leading the Turkish troops as general. So even in historical context, the story of Radu is one defined by sibling rivalry and contempt.

The vampires that Radu creates all appear to be very similar to “classical” definitions as well, at least in literary terms. When Lillian and Mara are turned, they take on personas and appearances very similar to the Brides depicted in Stoker’s Dracula. Lillian calling Michelle outside even echoes dead Danny Glick appearing at Mark’s window in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. And the general aesthetic of the female vampires harkens back to both the Hammer era and even the cinema of Jess Franco. In short, these are very clearly classical, old-world vampires, though the inspirations are taken from many different sources.

Stefan, on the other hand, represents the Anne Rice vampire, the vampire that would also later on be popularized by Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and his self-titled spinoff). But this type of character had been around for some time, dating back at least to the conflicted Barnabas Collins of the Dan Curtis soap opera Dark Shadows. Gradually, vampires had been gaining a sense of morality—or at least melancholy—in pop culture. After Christopher Lee ended his run as the inherently evil Count Dracula, Frank Langella offered a much more romantic take, turning the Count into something more of an antihero. Jack Palance’s Dracula (again by Dan Curtis) also gave a more romanticized take by introducing a reincarnation plot that would go on to become a staple of future adaptations after being popularized by Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992.

While the vampires of Fright Night, Near Dark and The Lost Boys in the 1980s were still largely villainous, they each showed moments of genuine emotion and empathy. Both Evil Ed in Fright Night and David in The Lost Boys shed tears in their respective death scenes, and the victory in dispatching them is portrayed as largely bittersweet. In the 1980s, Anne Rice returned to the world of Interview With the Vampire to begin turning it into a series that centered on complex, morally ambiguous vampires with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. Throughout the 1990s, that series grew exponentially both before and after the success of the film. On television, even before Buffy, viewers could watch a vampire play the hero in Forever Knight and Kindred: The Embraced, the TV adaptation of the popular role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade.

Like Stefan and Radu, these two kinds of vampires are often at odds with one another. They’re incredibly different and therefore don’t really mix. So it was somewhat innovative for Full Moon to include them both in the same film.

And yet, in perfectly Full Moon tradition, the film weaves together its own, wholly original vampire mythology as well. There are things that are lifted right out of history and legend and then there are completely new concepts that truly separate Subspecies as its own unique entity. Firstly, there’s the Bloodstone, the MacGuffin of the film and the franchise as a whole. This loosely defined relic is a perpetual source of blood, one which is said to drip the blood of the saints. Granted, which saints these might be is never explained. This is what drives the plot, but in some ways it often defines the sibling rivalry. Stefan, after all, does not want to be a vampire, at least not as much as Radu. After the vampires made peace with the local people, as is said in the film, it appears that their father, King Vladislas used it as his only source of blood.

The Bloodstone would completely prevent Stefan from having to take a life ever again. For a morally conscious vampire, it is a dream solution. Stefan has every reason to want it. And Radu, conversely, has absolutely no reason to want it as much as he does, save for its likely addictive qualities. He simply wants it because his brother wants it and because it represents a peaceful family legacy that he wishes to destroy.

The subspecies themselves don’t actually have much bearing on the plot. But they’re a distinctly Charles Band concept. One of Radu’s many powers is that he can remove his own fingers to create new minions to do his bidding. Although, in this movie at least, that bidding is not much more than moving the Bloodstone from place to place. Still, these creatures very much feel like Full Moon’s answer to Renfield, a very Band-ish reworking of the archetypal servant character and would almost be more fun to watch if it they had had the time to truly complete the effects.

The score—which is one of the most underrated horror film scores of all time—also echoes the juxtaposition of the gothic and romantic elements inherent in the story. Through much of the movie, especially when focused on Radu, the music is extremely sinister and moody. Yet there is also a love theme between Michelle and Stefan that is much more in keeping with the sort of Rice vampire that Stefan embodies.

By the end, again echoing The Vampire Chronicles, Subspecies sets up a sequel by teasing that Radu is still alive and turning Michelle into a vampire so that she can be easily introduced into the world of vampirism by Stefan. This is one reason why the original film stands out from the rest of the franchise, because that’s not what actually winds up happening. In the opening moments of the second movie, Stefan is unceremoniously killed in his coffin and the story—which was more centered on the two brothers in the first—now becomes about Michelle and her struggle to come to terms with being a vampire without Stefan by her side to guide her through it. To its credit, each entry picks up where the last left off, often with the same cast. In that respect, the Subspecies franchise is kind of Full Moon’s Phantasm.

On paper, Subspecies shouldn’t work even half as well as it does. Conceptually and thematically, it sounds far too ambitious for an early ’90s direct-to-video film, and even if the rough edges are more obvious in some moments than others, it feels twice as big as it is. This is a movie with both a sensitive, romantic vampire and a foul thing from the grave at its center, and the two wildly different kinds of vampires and their many inspirations are all blended seamlessly in this melting pot of vampire tropes and folklore. And they blend into each other, as well, which I think is key. There are moments when Stefan considers giving in to his hunger, or being overcome by his rage. Equally so, there are moments when you can glimpse the humanity in Radu, when his loneliness is clear, and his jealousy of the life Stefan got to have and he never did is made explicit. These moments with Radu, sparse as they are in the original, appear more and more throughout the series, until they pretty much become the very basis of Subspecies V.

With the arrival of that new movie, there’s no better time to revisit the original. It is one of the best vampire movies of its era. It is more ambitious and clever than I think it is given credit for, and because of that, it’s a minor miracle that it even exists at all.

Radu returns in Subspecies V: Bloodrise, on SCREAMBOX and Full Moon Features on June 2.

The post Long Live Radu: Why ‘Subspecies’ Still Soars as a Unique Vampire Movie Over 30 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After finishing off March with a look at the body horror aspects incorporated into Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster, we kicked off April with a journey into the weird and wild world of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer. This week, we’re revisiting Tony Scott‘s iconic 1983 vampire film The Hunger.

The Hunger sees John (David Bowie), the lover of the gorgeous immortal vampire Miriam (Catherine Deneuve), begin to quickly deteriorate into a horrible living death, so Miriam seeks a new companion. She soon sets her sights on Sarah (Susan Sarandon), a young gerontologist, who quickly falls under Miriam’s spell. However, Sarah doesn’t warm up to the concept of vampirism very easily, leading to conflict with Miriam.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 225: The Hunger (1983)

Wipe that sherry off your tit and dust off those human husks in your attic because we’re discussing Tony Scott’s feature directorial debut: the 1983 lesbian vampire (and David Bowie!) movie The Hunger! Joining us for the conversation is Jess, one half of The Spinsters of Horror!

We aren’t saying the word “vampire” (something something Egypt and aliens?), but who could care when the movie is such a vibe? We’ll refute the claims of “style over substance,” while marveling over the central performances of Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve.

Plus, David Bowie in old age makeup, making cigarettes look sexy, debating the male gaze and a lesson in serial monogamy and codependency.

Cross out The Hunger!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re continuing our discussion of classic vampire films with a look at Bill Gunn’s 1973 film Ganja & Hess.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 238 hours of additional content! This month, we’ve got episodes on make-or-break horror movie endings, the latest Children of the Corn film, season 1 of Amazon Prime’s Swarm, and Renfield. Our audio commentary for the month will be on Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses.

The post Discussing Codependency and Lesbian Love Scenes in ‘The Hunger’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“I’m just trying to take care of my kid.”

“So am I.”

Vampires have always been one of the more popular subgenres of horror for television to explore, but these bloodsuckers are in the middle of an Undead Renaissance. The red tide has turned back in vampires’ favor and a number of networks have attempted to breathe fresh life into this undead subject matter. Let the Right One In, based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s striking piece of Swedish vampire fiction, is a story that initially resonated with many, but not necessarily because of its vampires. What makes Let The Right One In stand apart and a story that’s worth repeatedly telling is the ways in which it excels whenever it marries the elegiac beauty and haunting brutality of its subject matter. These undead creatures are also such bastions of understanding and love, despite the dark lots that they’ve been dealt in life. It feels sacrilegious to expose these monsters to love and empathy even though that’s exactly what they need. This might not be what everyone wants out of a horror series, but it’s the eternal bonds of family that turn Let the Right One In into something that’s worth talking about.

Let the Right One In wallows through despair and bombards the audience with reports that homicide and violent crimes are on the rise as a way to check the pulse on society’s regression. This series exists in a cold world where it’s difficult to survive, but this makes every act of kindness feel infinitely warmer. The characters who do open themselves up to others are not just the exception to this rampant negativity, but they’re necessary for the world to change. 

So many quiet moments in the series thrive whenever they highlight different family structures and how there’s not just one definition for the word. Anyone can create happiness and community with others. This is shown through wild extremes, but they all feed into the idea that everyone–young or old, alive or dead–deserves a family. All of the afflicted families in Let the Right One In struggle through impossible odds, but for some of these people, there are genuine moments of joy and appreciation where all of this doesn’t seem so hopeless. There are guardians who can be trusted in life and who, so to speak, can be “let in.”

All of this equips Let The Right One In with an exceptional thematic foundation where there’s plenty of room to explore its ideas. This was also true in both of the previous adaptations of Let The Right One In, but in 2022 it can come across as unnecessary or worse, derivative, in a genre that’s so overexposed and has admittedly said all of these things before. If you’ve seen the other versions of Let the Right One In then all of this hits with slightly less of an impact. This new series should be judged on its own merits, but it’s almost impossible to not think of the other renditions of this story, especially when many of the big narrative twists and turns are already known to the audience. 

Let The Right One In isn’t unsuccessful if audiences are already aware of these trappings–and it’s not as if this TV series doesn’t go in new directions from its predecessors–especially when dealing with material like vampires that’s become increasingly predictable in pop culture. Let The Right One In works, but not because it presents an original take on vampires, sacrifice, or melancholy horror. It’s successful because of the raw, genuine relationships that exist between its characters who indulge in genre tropes, but simultaneously transcend them. This is a story about pained families who will do anything to heal their loved ones that also just happens to involve vampires. Tremendous tension is born out of every moment where Mark (Demián Bichir) feels like he’s let his daughter get exposed to greater vulnerabilities; a fear that anyone can understand.

Let the Right One In doesn’t hold back when it comes to a cast of exceptional actors that include the likes of Demián Bichir, Željko Ivanek, Grace Gummer, and Nick Stahl, but it’s newcomers Ian Foreman and Madison Taylor Baez as Isaiah and Eleanor who truly pop off the screen and elevate each scene above hackneyed melodrama into authentic human interactions. These young actors are the series’ beating heart and there’s such tender beauty here that you temporarily forget that this is a show that’s fueled by gory, bloody massacres and manipulation. These murders are often the centerpieces of episodes, but what makes more of a mark are the humble, innocent moments like when a child visits a planetarium and their eyes are suddenly opened to the endlessness of the universe and that anything in life is possible.

This is best encapsulated in “More Than You’ll Ever Know,” the season’s seventh episode, which flashes back ten years and functions as a fascinating origin story for Eleanor that’s an appreciated exercise in restraint. Let the Right One In wisely holds off on the pieces to this puzzle and the series is better off than if this self-contained episode were to arrive after the first or second installments. It’s one of the strongest entries of the season and a turning point for the characters, but it also functions as an elegant standalone story that anyone can pick up and appreciate as a heartbreaking gothic piece of horror. Let the Right One In looks like it might have a bright future ahead of it at Showtime, but even if it were to fail as a one-season anomaly then it’d be worthwhile for the beauty that’s reached in “More Than You’ll Ever Know.” 

This also begs the bigger questions of where Let the Right One In can go in a hypothetical second season and what a long-running version of this show looks like. At this point, it feels like there’s enough on the table to at least sustain another season or two, but there’s also tremendous potential for this to devolve into the next The Strain. To the series’ credit, many of the more tacked-on elements from the earlier episodes, like the procedural crime component, begin to feel more natural as the season continues. The same is true for whenever these disparate families begin to intersect with each other and become the solutions to one another’s impossible problems. The series banks more on emotional horrors and a haunted fairytale energy than it ever relies on visceral fears. However, Let the Right One In still finds room for vampire monkey test trials and some uniquely terrifying set pieces. 

Let the Right One In likely isn’t going to redefine vampire storytelling or genre cable programming, but it still might turn into Showtime’s next big hit and a dedicated place for somber, gothic meditations on life and death. The strong performances and emotional depth of these relationships guarantee that Let the Right One In is far more than just another vampire series. There’s enough promise and truth in the show’s first season to justify further transfusions rather than locking this series away in a box.

The series premiere of “Let the Right One In” will be available to stream on October 7th, with its proper debut on October 9th at 10 pm (ET) on Showtime.

The post “Let the Right One In” Review – An Emotional Update That Proves Blood Is Thicker Than Water appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

AMC’s playful look at the gothic, gory world of the infamous vampire Lestat hits a healthy artery that feels like it can keep its pulse beating for years.

“There’s a simple answer to that, but I don’t believe that I want to give simple answers. I want to tell the real story.” 

It’s only a few minutes into Interview with the Vampire that a character prompts another for the real story. Vampires are a supernatural creature that have fueled stories for centuries, but many modern examinations of the undead attempt to present the real story and finally uncover a level of truth and realism that’s previously been absent in the genre. In most cases, this “realism” comes across as hackneyed, or even worse, increasingly derivative of past ideas until it’s a Russian nesting doll of diminishing returns. 

Right from the start, Interview with the Vampire feels fresh and unpredictable, which already gives it a distinct advantage over contemporary vampire programs like Vampire Academy, Reginald the Vampire, First Kill, or even What We Do in the Shadows. Of course, that’s largely a testament to Anne Rice‘s rich world that has had decades to ruminate and improve upon itself, but “In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” understands that it has a a lot to prove here and it makes sure that this update on Interview with the Vampire is not just generic vampire material that coasts on comfortable themes and iconography. This premiere episode is just over 65 minutes long and it doesn’t abuse this extra time, nor does it feel laborious in its construction. It has to do the heavy lifting of handling copious introductions, between two timelines no less, but it doesn’t feel like a pilot that’s bogged down in exposition and can’t show off its true colors. 

Furthermore, Interview with the Vampire also has a lot to prove now that AMC has lost Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead might, finally, be approaching some state of final decomposition. It cannot be underestimated how much they need this show to be a hit and the program’s early two-season renewal is good business as much as it’s a gesture of faith in the series. That being said, Interview with the Vampire actually feels like a quality program that could carry the mantle of The Walking Dead. It’s even a show that could pull off a decade-plus of seasons, or multiple spin-offs, since it has hundreds of years to pull from in its fascinating exploration of Louis and Lestat’s growth.

So many vampire series focus on the visceral nature and overflowing sexuality that consumes vampires, which is still on display here, but what’s often overlooked in these vampire projects is the feeling of eternity that constricts these creatures. This endlessness is the whole point of Interview with the Vampire and so it’s satisfying to see that it’s a palpable component that’s felt right from the start of the series. “In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” carries the pomp and circumstance of what a story of this grandiose nature necessitates. Purple narration that’s pulled right out of Rice’s books accompanies gorgeous swooping shots of skylines across the world, throughout time, that are powerful and inspirational, rather than condescending. Alan Taylor’s slick directorial tricks often help the viewer feel as invincible, and fragile, as Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) do at the various points of their lengthy lives in which “In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” checks in.

Lestat and Louis are squarely the focus of this premiere, but Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) is forced to reckon with his own mortality after his dwindling health triggers his reunion with this undead orator. Building upon this level of vulnerability, “In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” also leans into health concerns through the pandemic, but it actually incorporates this modern real-life disaster in a natural manner that’s often lacking in recent series that attempt to do as much. What makes it effective in Interview with the Vampire is that it contextualizes this pandemic as business as usual for Louis. It’s just one, of many, disasters that he’s lived through and will continue to live through. A vampire series of this nature gets the opportunity to flex an eerie, nihilistic perspective when COVID-19 is just one blip that these eternal creatures have seen alongside the Black Plague, Spanish Flu, or anything else.

The start of the series covers multiple stretches of history, but it uses the early 1900s in New Orleans to explore some incendiary turning points for Louis. The series uses these recurring parables to condemn, but also celebrate, humanity as well as reflect the repetitive cycle that it heads down, which makes it all pointless in the process. All of these societal observations and critiques are present in Rice’s original writings, but Interview with the Vampire effectively develops these themes through intuitive changes to race, gender, and sexuality in this version of the text. A lot of the discussions with this series will inevitably come down to Sam Reid’s performance as Lestat and compare him to the previous actors who have portrayed the timeless vampire. Reid makes sure that his take on Lestat is appropriately austere, but there’s a festering anger to the character that’s always fighting to break out of its careful package.

“In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” lives up to its title and it’s a series premiere that feels epic, but also doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. It shows off enough of this world and its characters to feel substantial, yet also creates anticipation for what’s to come and the rest of Lestat’s lengthy life. Interview with the Vampire covers a lot of ground, but it’s important to address a central accusation that Daniel poses to Louis early on in the episode–”Maybe your story wasn’t worth telling.” Despite Louis’ confidence, he still spends the bulk of his time in “In Throes of Increasing Wonder…” attempting to prove the contrary. Interview with the Vampire is ultimately taxed with the same challenge.

In an over-bloated genre, vampire series need to justify themselves rather than purely exist off of reputation alone. It’s still too early to predict the quality of its far-off future, but if the series premiere is any indication, Interview with the Vampire absolutely proves that this is, in fact, a story that’s worth telling.

‘Interview with the Vampire’ debuted October 2nd at 10pm (ET) on AMC.

The post ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Review – TV Series Draws Fresh Blood With a New Take on Anne Rice’s Saga appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

There are vampire films, and then there is Near Dark. A high watermark to the gluttonous guff of the genre, Kathryn Bigelow‘s 1987 gem remains a stealth entry in the pantheon of vampiric content. It’s smart, it’s dirty, it’s unforgiving, and it’s stylish, all qualities that so many imitators have tried to nail down with a stake, only they’re left with splinters.

To be fair, it’s hard to compete with the blood and guts within this rental. You’ve got a murderers row of character actors (see: Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein), all coming off one of the decade’s biggest blockbusters (see: 1986’s Aliens.) You’ve got atmospheric titans Tangerine Dream doing the score. And then, of course, there’s future Oscar winner Bigelow behind it all, bringing her trademark to the whole shebang.

So, lots to love, but also lots to discuss, and the Halloweenies do just that in this exhaustive deep dive. In anticipation of its 35th anniversary this October, the gang has unlocked their 2020 deep dive that finds them discussing the state of the Western in the ’80s, the eclectic filmography of Bigelow, all of the James Cameron regulars, and why it’s impossible to find it. Special guest includes Daily Dead Managing Editor Heather Wixson.

(Again, though, this episode was recorded in August 2020 for our Patreon.)

Stream the episode below or subscribe via iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Scream.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Child’s Play) and one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Saw, 28 Days Later, Manhunter, Nightbreed). Each month promises something new and unexpected from the wildest corners of the genre.

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The post Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Near Dark’ Has Aged As Gracefully as the Vampires Within [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We’ve been bouncing around the decades ever since we wrapped up our ‘Underseen or Underrated’ theme, with stops in 1960 London for Peeping Tom, 2010’s boobies and blood Piranha 3D and 1987’s Near Dark last week. Our unofficial vampire double bill continues this week with Swedish adaptation Let the Right One In, which brings us back to childhood bullying, as well as a slightly murky trans narrative.

In the film, shy outcast Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) befriends reluctant neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson) who has a combative relationship with their “father” Håkan (Per Ragnar). As Oskar suffers horrible bullying from his classmates, Eli encourages him to fight back, even as they themselves struggle with some unnatural bloody urges. As the bodies begin to pile up, it’s unclear if these “kids” are in a love story or a slowly unfurling tragedy.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 173 – Let The Right One In (2008)

It’s time for another gorgeous vampire film as we finally tackle Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In (2008). Along for the ride is The Beauty of Horror‘s Chandler Bullock, who connects deeply with the depiction of bullying in the film. Expect all three of us to get very candid!

In addition to bullying, we unpack a multiplicity of trans readings for Eli, the eternal 12-year-old vampire, as well as debate at length whether the end of the film is a tragedy, a love story, or both.

Plus: Trace’s thirst for child blood, Chandler and Trace’s take on the stage production, a missed Oscar opportunity and Joe fills in the gaps between the book, the Swedish film and its American remake (for a lot more on that, check out his YA adaptation podcast Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr which did a tie-in episode)

Cross out Let The Right One In!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re Hollywood-bound with a look at Robert Zemeckis’ daring technical marvel, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 175 hours of additional content! This month, we’re discussing the 10th anniversary of Joseph Kahn’s Detention, Korean “woman in peril” thriller Midnight, not quite erotic thriller Deep Water, Robert Eggers’ The Northman and a 25th anniversary audio commentary on Anaconda!

The post The Bullying at the Center of ‘Let the Right One In’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After heading back to Haddonfield to discuss David Gordon Green’s 2018 sequel Halloween, we discussed everyone’s favorite vampire-killing Marvel superhero Blade before spending Halloween shacking up with the colorful characters in Clue. Now we’re kicking off November with our 150th episode and a discussion of a seminal queer vampire text in Joel Schumacher‘s The Lost Boys!

In the film, teenage brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with their mother (Dianne Wiest) to a small town in northern California. While the younger Sam meets a pair of kindred spirits in geeky comic-book nerds Edward (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), the angst-ridden Michael soon falls for Star (Jami Gertz) — who turns out to be in thrall to David (Kiefer Sutherland), leader of a local gang of vampires. Sam and his new friends must save Michael and Star from the undead.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 150 – The Lost Boys (1987)

Grab your leather jackets and shape up your mullet because we’re celebrating our 150th episode with a seminal queer vampire text in Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987)! Joining us for the discussion is Marisa Mirabal, a co-host of the Black Magic Coven podcast!

After taking a look at the historical context of the film’s release (height of the Reagan era, AIDS crisis, the Moral Majority), we’ll go all-in on this time capsule of the ’80s, which originated as a sort of “Goonies Go Vampire” before Schumacher stepped in and sexified everything up.

Plus, “Cry Little Sister” (a lot), vampirism as a metaphor for oral sex, Kiefer Sutherland’s “dance bars,” a late-in-the-episode discussion of the film’s two sequels and an anecdote about how The Lost Boys tricked Trace into reading Mormon propaganda.

Cross out The Lost Boys!

Coming up on Wednesday: We don’t often cover television on the podcast, but since we just passed the 20th anniversary of the classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode “Once More, With Feeling”, we’re doing an episode on it!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month, we’ll have episodes on Amazon Prime’s I Know What You Did Last Summer series, SyFy’s Slumber Party Massacre remake, the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City!

The post Celebrating 150 Episodes With ‘The Lost Boys’! [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After heading back to the ’30s to check in with Countess Zaleska in Lambert Hillyer’s queer horror classic Dracula’s Daughter and hitting the road with Steve Zahn and Paul Walker in Joy Ride, we went back to Haddonfield to discuss David Gordon Green’s 2018 sequel Halloween. Now we’re heading back to the ’90s to discuss everyone’s favorite vampire-killing Marvel superhero: Blade!

In the film, a half-mortal, half-immortal named Blade (Wesley Snipes) is out to avenge his mother’s (Sanaa Lathan) death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically-advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special blood type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 148 – Blade (1998)

Climb out of your primo IKEA coffin and grab your garlic mace because we’re heading back to the ’90s to talk about everyone’s favorite Marvel superhero: Blade (1998)! Joining us for the discussion is Ky Fields, the host of the Monstrosities Voice podcast and founder of the KyFx Horror Group!

Join us as we discuss how Blade saved comic book movies before going all in on the film’s opening blood rave sequence (which features some candid talk from Trace and Ky), Joe’s Stephen Dorff‘s obsession and all of us gushing over how sexually charged this movie is!

Plus, pronunciation errors abound, morgues on the 8th floor, a magical Clueless computer, Jumanji drums, Blade literally boning his mom and a lengthy tangent on The Faculty! There’s a lot going on in this episode, everybody!

Cross out Blade!

Coming up on Wednesday: To celebrate Halloween (the holiday), we’re taking a look back at everyone’s favorite murder mystery comedy: Clue!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month, we’ll have episodes on Amazon Prime’s I Know What You Did Last Summer series, SyFy’s Slumber Party Massacre remake, the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City!

The post Carving Out Comic Book Movie History With ‘Blade’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Can you think of a miracle more amazing than that? I mean, cure blindness, sure. Or part the seas, all right. But a second chance? That’s a real miracle…”

Religion is often viewed as a taboo subject matter to explore, especially in the context of horror, but there’s a lot of common ground between the two areas in the context of faith. Neither religion’s sermons or the monsters that lurk in the shadows can have any power without faith and belief. They inherently require a level of buying in and trusting the storyteller and their premise. Faith and religion are no strangers to the horror genre, but it’s especially exciting when these ideas become intrinsically mixed together. There is no shortage of religious horror content, but even Freddy Krueger will admit that belief is fundamental to existence and can be its own super power. 

Vampires are a subset of the horror genre that are often linked to religion and faith, and their very mythos boils down to religious iconography like their weakness to crosses and holy water. What makes Chan-Wook Park’s Thirst and Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass such fascinating counterpoints is they both examine the corrupting powers of faith through the conflicted lens of two priests, Sang-hyun and Father Paul, who become vampires and are left to grapple with their piety, albeit from two very different vantage points on humanity.

SPOILERS FOR THIRST AND “MIDNIGHT MASS” FOLLOW…

Thirst is a haunting story about Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho), a Catholic priest who heads into humanitarian work with terminally infected people, only to receive a blood transfusion that turns him into a vampire and sends him down an impossible test of faith. Alternatively, Midnight Mass depicts Crockett Island, a small community who gets mystified by the arrival of an inspirational priest, Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), who brings with him a series of miraculous events. Paul’s backstory and his unbelievable transformation into something greater eerily aligns with the Bible and sets him up to change Crockett Island as he becomes increasingly convinced that he’s meant for something greater.

Sang-hyun and Father Paul (or his true identity, Monsignor Pruitt) head down very similar paths, but ultimately handle their transformations in very different manners. Foundational horror films like The Exorcist, The Devils or more recently, The Witch, examine holy figures who have lost their way, but the priests in Thirst and Midnight Mass are such fascinating figures because they’re forced to entertain their new animalistic urges with their eternal devotion to the cloth. It’s traumatic for a human to take a life for their own, but it’s completely antithetical to a priest’s pact with God. However, what if a priest’s signals get crossed and they view their inhuman cravings as the Will of God moving through them? This question speaks towards how faith is a dangerous power that can corrupt and that no one is worthy of becoming a false prophet. Sang-hyun and Father Paul both arrive at this conclusion, but one gains the clarity to stop himself while the other needs his power stripped away from him.

The circumstances around Sang-hyun’s turn into a vampire in Thirst are left intentionally vague as if it’s some sort of miraculous act of God that will allow him to continue to do good. Sang-hyun rebels against this premise and doesn’t look for a higher purpose. “I feel like I’ve been chosen,” claims Sang-hyun at one moment over his vampiric condition. “I feel like I’ve been given a special role in this life.” Midnight Mass’ Father Paul feels the same, but he forces a Biblical narrative on it all whereas Sang-hyun spends the film trying to figure out his purpose. He doesn’t develop any delusions of grandeur and he views himself as a monster, not a saint. After Sang-hyun’s transformation he refuses to be called “father” anymore because he doesn’t want his vampire status to taint its saintliness. Meanwhile, Father Paul goes so far as to build his transformation into the act of sacrament and the ritual of church.

Unlike Father Paul, Sang-hyun lacks awe upon his turning. Sang-hyun’s first act after learning that he’s a vampire is to try and kill himself. He abandons hope while Father Paul continually leans into how his transformation is a gift from God. It’s a significant detail, but just the fact that Midnight Mass refers to its creatures as Angels speaks towards the built-in level of reverence that’s present in the material. It demands faith and respect whereas Thirst hides in the shadows and avoids adulation. Sang-hyun even considers talking to God to be no different than direct communication with Satan. It invites this comparison while Midnight Mass gets explicit on this front, but is too blind in faith to see it as such.

Midnight Mass more closely looks at how faith can corrupt while Thirst presents faith as a prison and that more freedom can be found through independence than susceptibility to a belief system or martyr figure. The characters in Thirst that lack faith are the ones that wield the most power and don’t fear what awaits them after death. “When you’re dead, you’re dead.” Midnight Mass instead weaponizes faith in an enlightening way where it’s used to justify actions through mob mentality, yet in Thirst, Sang-hyun struggles to commit bad acts and take lives, even after being “chosen.” 

It’s like there’s a greater responsibility to do the right thing and not exploit his abnormality. Sang-hyun learns that vampire cells can reverse the effects of the debilitating Emmanuel Virus and he has a group of infected people who are already ready to praise him, yet he doesn’t turn them and relieve them of their pain. He doesn’t view himself to have this right and so it’s fascinating that Father Paul is in a very similar scenario on Crockett Island where he does the exact opposite and decides that the public deserve to share in his glory. 

It’s quite telling that both Father Paul and Sang-hyun both receive martyr status, but Sang-hyun treats it like a curse. The public begins to refer to him as “The Bandaged Saint,” but he continually rejects this status rather than turning it into his narrative, like Father Paul does. One of the most important moments in Thirst is that one of Sang-hyun’s final acts before he takes his life is that he intentionally ruins his reputation with his followers so that they can be freed of this false idol. Sang-hyun becomes disgusted not only with himself, but those that idolize him. His powers don’t give him confidence like they do Father Paul, but they only amplify his doubt. Sang-hyun’s perspective is much more akin to Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) and it’s almost as if he were the central character in Midnight Mass rather than someone who experiences such a puritanical power trip like Father Paul. It’s crucial that Midnight Mass explains that Riley Flynn’s time in prison leads to him looking for God in every sacred religious text that he can find, yet he only leaves the experience more convinced that he’s an atheist. Father Paul activates Riley and shows him that he’s “chosen,” but even this isn’t enough to sway his beliefs. He, much like Thirst’s Sang-hyun, embodies the antithesis of Father Paul.

The similarities between Thirst and Midnight Mass become unavoidable in their final acts. Both narratives can use faith to obfuscate the truth and warp intentions, but there’s no hiding from the harsh light of day that shines down as a final judgment for both priests. The conclusions of Thirst and Midnight Mass depict desperate scrambles to survive the rising sun, but it’s during these moments of pure hopelessness that Sang-jyun and Father Paul become the most enlightened and at peace with all of existence. Their journeys mirror contrasting Biblical stories, but they both function as powerful parables. Father Paul and Sang-hyun both perish, because no alternative is possible, but their final moments are with their loved ones, which is all that they wanted from the start. Faith in the eternal, unspoken bond of love is more powerful than any endless belief in religion or monsters.

Both Thirst and Midnight Mass culminate with an affirmation over how dangerous faith can be, especially when it can fester in an echo chamber. Sang-hyun and Father Paul both witness the casualties of what happens when they spread their gospel–whether it’s their beliefs or their inhuman powers–but one recognizes the folly of this whereas the other views himself as a God. They arrive in agreement that no one deserves this power–Midnight Mass even reinforces that God loves everyone equally and that no one is superior to anyone else, regardless of faith, intentions, or their background. However, Thirst’s Sang-hyun arrives at this conclusion on his own, whereas in Midnight Mass it’s forced upon the entirety of Crockett Island. The false idol needs to get torn down whereas Thirst never erects it in the first place.

Faith can be suffocating when it’s manipulated, but when the dust settles in both of these stories the sun never shines more brightly. And in the end, we’re all dust, and to dust we shall return.

The post The Corruption of Faith Through False Prophets in ‘Thirst’ and “Midnight Mass” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Taking place in an alternate version of the San Fernando Valley where zombies, vampires and werewolves are about as common as drug deals and armed robberies, Death Valley is a Cops-styled mockumentary show chronicling the misadventures of the Undead Task Force. With a single 12-episode season that aired throughout 2011, the show explored the daily struggles of law enforcement having to deal with absurd and horrific crimes, all the while being followed by a drama-hungry documentary crew.

While the show was never a certified hit, garnering only modest ratings and a small but dedicated cult following, I believe it was one of the best horror comedies to come out before the TV horror boom of the mid-2010s. With more than a little inspiration from that one episode of The X-Files where Mulder and Scully find themselves being hounded by a reality TV crew during an investigation (Season 7’s excellent X-Cops), Death Valley was a creative departure from your usual supernatural-based programming.

Unlike most shows featuring modern-day monster hunters, the heroes of Death Valley aren’t super-powered chosen ones or even members of a proper special forces unit, they’re just regular cops who happened to deal with the occasional man-eating creature of the night. They may pack UV flashlights and retractable wooden stakes (as well as the occasional baseball bat and grenade launcher), but this is still a down-to-earth romp about a world where society has had to adjust to the existence of the supernatural.

The show’s nonchalant approach to world-building is actually part of its charm, with characters claiming that the undead has been plaguing society for about a year now, with no real explanation as to how it happened or why. Werewolf attacks and zombie infections have become so common that they’re treated like a nuisance, more akin to public intoxication and disorderly conduct than a threat to civilization. This setup is meant to be comedic, but it also makes the show feel like a more realistic take on how most people would react (or refuse to react) to real-world monsters.

The clever scene transitions are a great example of this, showing brief glimpses of the undead wreaking havoc across town as citizens go about their day. These moments really help with the atmosphere, further elucidating how the undead have become just another quirk of life in California. The documentary-style presentation also keeps things believable as we accompany these police officers on their quest to break up vampire parties and reprimand werewolves that aren’t abiding to the mandatory curfew.

The show even gets a little serious at times, often using the undead menace as clear analogues for real-world issues like HIV, drunk driving and even the opioid epidemic. Hell, one episode even introduces us to vampire prostitutes who sell themselves for a taste of blood, showing the grittier side of a world where people have to deal with Vampiric curses alongside traditional STDs. While these situations are mostly presented as tongue-in-cheek satire, there’s no denying that some of it hits close to home.

Of course, the real backbone of Death Valley is comprised by the officers themselves and their quirky personalities. Featuring cops like the over-enthusiastic John-John (Texas Battle), the honorable everyman Joe Stubeck (Charlie Sanders) and the secretly bad-ass rookie Kirsten (Caity Lotz), the show’s unique character dynamics had enough potential for several more seasons, with some moments being reminiscent of a more horror-centric Brooklyn 99. Personally, my favorite character was the batshit-crazy Captain Dashell (played to perfection by Bryan Callen), though his constant sexual remarks were a bit too much even for 2011 standards.

Curiously, the documentary crew is often dragged into the action as well, with sound technicians and cameramen finding themselves in constant peril as they attempt to record the action. With most mockumentary productions opting for a “fly-on-the-wall” approach to justify the aesthetic, it’s fun to see a show embrace the crew as a part of the narrative, even if it makes some of the inconsistent camera setups and impossible angles a little more noticeable (though that’s a nitpick I have with almost all mockumentary shows).

Unfortunately, that’s not Death Valley‘s only shortcoming, as some of the humor is a bit hit-and-miss, with quite a few dated references and some arguably offensive stereotyping. Some of the action sequences are also a little lacking, though that has more to do with the limited budget than anything else. Even so, I think it’s safe to say that most of these issues would have been addressed in future seasons had the showrunners been given the opportunity. As it stands, the show is still worth a watch for genre fans, especially with its smorgasbord of practical gore and monster effects, but I can’t help but wonder where these stories could have gone next.

While there’s little chance of a series revival at this point, I really appreciate what the show did for televised horror comedies and wish we could have seen more. That’s why I’d argue that Death Valley is still worth checking out a decade later despite ending on a demonic cliff-hanger. The show might have been aiming for comedy, but I think there’s something truly frightening about the idea that, even if vampires, werewolves and zombies were real, regular people would still have to get up and go to work in the morning.

The post Looking Back on the Mundane Monsters of MTV’s “Death Valley” 10 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Meagan awarded the film 4/5 stars in her review for Bloody Disgusting, writing: “Blood Red Sky is a surprisingly savage little gem that sticks with you.”

While you wait, check out the new German poster below, which is quite something!

In the German film…

“Nadja and her ten-year-old son are on an overnight flight from Germany to New York when a group of terrorists violently take control of the plane and threaten the lives of the passengers. Suddenly Nadja faces an impossible choice – should she reveal her dark side and the inner monster she has kept hidden from her son for years in order to save him?”

Peter Thorwarth directed Blood Red Sky, written with Stefan Holtz.

Peri Baumeister, Kais Setti, Alexander Scheer, Dominic Purcell, and Graham McTavish star.

The post German Poster for Netflix’s Vampire Movie ‘Blood Red Sky’ Drops Fang at 30,000 Feet appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In the German film…

“Nadja and her ten-year-old son are on an overnight flight from Germany to New York when a group of terrorists violently take control of the plane and threaten the lives of the passengers. Suddenly Nadja faces an impossible choice – should she reveal her dark side and the inner monster she has kept hidden from her son for years in order to save him?”

Peter Thorwarth directed Blood Red Sky, written with Stefan Holtz.

Peri Baumeister, Kais Setti, Alexander Scheer, Dominic Purcell, and Graham McTavish star.

Blood Red Sky will premiere on July 23, and it looks a bit like 30 Days of Night… at 30,000 feet. And just wait until you see vampire mom’s blood-sucking final form she’s forced to unleash…

The post ‘Blood Red Sky’: A Vampire Mother Protects Her Child at 30,000 Feet in Netflix Horror Movie [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The cinematic trailer repeatedly flashes back to how a team of vamp hunters and their little robot buddy got into a fracas with a particularly nasty vampire in a deserted town.

It culminates in the squad walking away after the fight is won, casually bantering with each other as an ominous creature watches them from up on high.

The plot is described as follows,

The quaint island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the island off from the outside world. Trapped with a handful of survivors against diabolical enemies threatening to bleed the town dry.

Redfall will be playable on your own, but you’ll also be able to bring three friends along to stake a few hearts with some inventive vampire-vanquishing tools. As a huge fan of Arkane’s games and vampire games (there aren’t enough of those!), this hits a very sweet spot!

Redfall will be an Xbox exclusive and launch in Summer 2022 on Game Pass.

The post [E3 2021] Slay Vampires With Your Friends in Arkane’s ‘Redfall’ Next Summer on Xbox! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The 2000s were a good time to be a fan of action-horror blockbusters, seeing the rise of R-rated franchises like Resident Evil and the Blade sequels. Knowing that audiences were hungry for more bloody thrills, it’s no surprise that Lakeshore Entertainment would end up investing in a gothic passion project by the unlikely trio of Len Wisemen, Kevin Grevioux and Danny McBride. Proposing a complex mythology detailing an ongoing war between Vampires and “Lycans”, the trio wowed producers with their original pitch, and with a final draft completed by McBride, Underworld finally leapt off the page in 2003.

An international co-production, Underworld was a strange beast, combining the gothic thrills of classic vampire flicks with modern-day action and a gritty sci-fi twist. While the slick photography and exaggerated costumes made it clear that this was a case of style over substance, the surprisingly in-depth lore behind the screenplay wouldn’t have been out of place in a Role-Playing Game. This makes sense, as the producers were eventually sued by White Wolf Inc. due to the film’s similarities to their World of Darkness setting, though the case was ultimately settled out of court.

Regardless, even during that peculiar wave of leather-clad post-Matrix action flicks, Underworld managed to stand out by providing audiences with a fresh take on monster movies and a badass female protagonist. Kate Beckinsale was perfectly cast as the Lycan-hunting vampire Selene, torn between her loyalty to her masters and a newfound love interest in Michael Corvin, played by Scott Speedman. As viewers accompany Selene down the rabbit hole, the film jumps from one bloodthirsty action sequence to the next, always boasting remarkable practical effects and wirework.

Produced on a 22 million dollar budget, Underworld became an unexpected hit, ultimately raking in over 95 million at the box office. While critics weren’t crazy about it, audiences absolutely adored the classy aesthetics and kickass soundtrack (which features an incredible remix of David Bowie’s Bring Me the Disco King by Danny Lohner), not to mention Beckinsale’s memorable performance as a veteran Death-Dealer. Naturally, she would end up becoming one of the most badass leading ladies of the 2000s, rivaled only by RE‘s Milla Jovovich.

The rest of the cast is also impressive, with Bill Nighy gleefully chewing through scenery as the Elder Vampire Viktor and Michael Sheen leading the Lycan rebellion as Lucian (years before becoming a vampire in the Twilight franchise). Kevin Grevioux himself also makes an appearance as Raze, one of the film’s most memorable Lycans. Luckily for fans, despite a few gruesome character deaths, this wouldn’t be the last time that we’d see this curious ensemble on the big screen.

Having successfully jumpstarted a franchise, Wiseman and company soon returned to this world of ultraviolet bullets and rebelling Lycans with 2006’s Underworld: Evolution, a sequel that takes place almost immediately after the first film. While it’s an equally stylish endeavor, with Selene and Michael on the run from Elder Vampires as they uncover the secret origin of both Vampires and Lycans, the movie suffers from trying too hard to be bigger and more action-packed than its predecessor.

Even so, the convoluted script and bloated budget couldn’t keep Evolution from becoming yet another box office success. Critics still refused to warm up to the series, but general audiences appreciated the return to neo-gothic melodrama and balls-to-the-wall Vampire vs Werewolf action. While the film serves as a somewhat definitive conclusion to Michael and Selene’s story, its success meant that we would soon see another entry in the franchise with the 2009 prequel, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Patrick Tatopoulos‘ prequel suffers from having its main plot points spoiled by flashbacks in the previous films, but it’s still my favorite entry in the franchise, focusing on the origin of the conflict between enslaved Lycans and tyrannical Vampires in medieval Europe. While Beckinsale is appropriately absent from the prequel (except for a final zinger), both Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy reprise their roles from previous films and are clearly having a great time doing so. The timeline might not completely add up and the pacing is a little choppy, but the exaggerated action and fresh setting make this one of the most thoroughly entertaining films in the series.

The same can’t be said for 2012’s Underworld: Awakening, a movie that was meant to be Beckinsale’s long-awaited return to the franchise. It’s undoubtedly great to see Selene once again mowing down ferocious Lycans with specialized weaponry in a dystopic future (this time unaccompanied by Scott Speedman), but the film really drops the ball with some excessive CGI and low-effort backstory. There are still some legitimately thrilling set pieces as Selene attempts to protect her hybrid daughter from the clutches of an evil organization, but the sanitized atmosphere and decreased focus on practical monsters make this entry less interesting than the films that came before.

Despite even more negative reactions from critics, Awakening was successful enough to warrant another sequel in 2016 with Underworld: Blood Wars, the final film in the franchise. Unfortunately, this one is only marginally better than its predecessor, doubling down on questionable CGI and insanely convoluted mythology in order to tell a generic story. In this one, Selene is being hunted by surviving Vampire and Lycan clans who each need her for their own nefarious reasons. Like Awakening, Blood Wars features almost none of the original Underworld team behind the scenes, resulting in a loosely-fitting cap to a once-memorable franchise.

Like all the Underworld films before it, Blood Wars was financially successful, but it also proved that the series had run its course. Without the original creative team backing these productions, there was little reason to continue making them. It’s now been five years since Blood Wars, and despite rumors of the contrary, it seems unlikely that the Underworld franchise will be undergoing a resurrection anytime soon.

Looking back on these movies, it’s clear that they weren’t all masterpieces, but I’ll be the first to defend their commitment to style and gruesome action. Even when the scripts didn’t make much sense, a lot of effort was put into the look and feel of these films, as well as the choreography behind the memorable monster battles. The Underworld Lycans are some of the best practical Werewolves in media, and it’s a shame that later entries traded in the costumes and puppets for cheap CGI.

Beckinsale’s Selene was also a truly iconic character in her own right. While some fans viewed her as nothing more than a leather-clad sex symbol, her arc was a lot more complex than most folks seem to remember. Her feminine traits were never ignored in favor of traditional action hero tropes, but she also routinely showed up to save her confused love interest, a rare twist on the usual damsel in distress formula.

The Underworld franchise may have been a roller-coaster ride when it comes to quality, but I’ll always have fond memories of those fleeting glimpses into a world dominated by Vampiric intrigue and monstrous mutations. Revisiting these movies, I realized that it’s been a long time since audiences have been graced with stylized gothic action on the big screen, and with Resident Evil getting a fresh start in Johannes Roberts’ new film, I’d also love to see a return to the grimy streets of Underworld. After all, the Vampire vs Lycan war is far from over, and there will always be more dark stories to tell.

The post Looking Back on the Gothic Action-Horror of the ‘Underworld’ Franchise appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This one sounds a bit like I Am Legend…

Deadline details, “The film is set after a global viral outbreak turns people into vampires and follows CIA agent Lauren Webb, who works against the clock to uncover the truth behind a growing uprising that threatens to wipe out humanity.”

Being billed as an “action-thriller,” Uprising is being produced by 21 Laps (“Stranger Things”), and it’s an adaptation of Raymond Villareal’s A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising.

The latest draft of the script was written by Jeremy Slater (“The Exorcist”). Previous drafts, Deadline notes, were written by Jay Basu and JD Payne & Patrick McKay.

The post A Viral Outbreak Turns People into Vampires in ‘Bumblebee’ Director’s Netflix Movie ‘Uprising’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After visiting the quiet, foggy town of Silent Hill last week, we’re now heading on a vampire-filled desert road trip in J.S. Cardone‘s dreadfully boring 2001 film The Forsaken.

In the film, Sean (Kerr Smith) is driving cross-country to deliver a vintage Mercedes, but does the one thing he wasn’t suppose to do — pick up a hitchhiker. From that moment on, his road trip is transformed into a surreal and terrifying nightmare. Sean’s new companion, Nick (Brendan Fehr), is not the laid back, aimless traveler he seems to be. He is a hunter. And his prey is a roving band of forsaken youths who feed upon hapless victims found in the dead of the night — in a word, vampires.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 123 – The Forsaken (2001) feat. Paul Etheredge

Protect your wallets from suspicious drifters because we’re ending April with a boring, unsexy vampire road trip movie: J.S. Cardone The Forsaken! Joining us for this torturous venture is Hellbent director Paul Etheredge!

Join us as we try to determine whether the film is unintentionally homoerotic or just plain bro-y. We’ll delve into Simon Rex‘s ’90s porn career, talk about some of our own porn preferences, and discuss the heavy vampirism-as-AIDS metaphor the film incorporates.

A discussion of The Forsaken can’t be had without discussing kinda-sorta lead actress Izabella Miko and how the film mishandles her character. (She’s nude in her introductory scene, has maybe five lines of dialogue and isn’t given a name until the end credits.) Yay, feminism!

Plus, title card titties, Johnathon Schaech giving a performance, new (terrible) vampire lore, waitresses really concerned about the coffee bill and just how many times can these characters run out of gas? Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

Cross out The Forsaken!

Coming up on Wednesday: We move the clock back a few years to 1998 to revisit the staff of Herrington High school in Robert Rodriguez’s sci-fi horror film The Faculty!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! In May we’re doing a Ghosts ‘n Zombies theme with episodes on new films like Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead and Simon Barrett’s Seance, and episodes on “older” films like Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and Mike Flanagan’s Ouija: Origin of Evil!

The post ‘The Forsaken’: Unintentionally Homoerotic or Just Plain Bro-y? [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Second Sight tweets, “Following a lot of discussion and some logistical delays we finally have news on Martin. Originally intended as Blu-ray only will now be 4K UHD.”

“Working on 4K restoration for late summer release,” they add.

To be clear, a Blu-ray release is also still planned.

In the 1977 movie, released one year prior to Dawn of the Dead, “A young man (John Amplas), who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a small Pennsylvania town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges.”

The post George A. Romero’s ‘Martin’ Coming to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray This Summer With New Restoration appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

And yet in 1817, Frederick Ransom of South Woodstock, Vermont, was exhumed from his grave, his heart removed and burned, to prevent him from returning as a vampire to prey upon his family. In 1845, the same year that Varney the Vampire began publication, Lemuel Ray of Griswold, Connecticut died of an illness that then claimed his father, then his brother. The bodies of all three were buried in an unmarked family cemetery, literally unearthed when two kids happened upon it the early ‘90s. The bones found at the site had shown signs that their hearts had been removed, with the best preserved of them—an unknown specimen classified as JB-55—shown to have been dug up at some point after death and reburied in a classic skull-and-crossbones pattern. In 1892, only five years before the publication of Dracula, Mercy Brown of Exeter, Rhode Island, was believed to be the cause of her family’s illness, after her death. Her family, showing the same signs of weakness she had shown before her death, believed her to be a vampire. When she was exhumed, her body was found not decomposed, but perfectly preserved, cheeks rosy, as though she were still alive. Her mouth was wet with blood. Her heart was then cut out and burned, the ashes mixed into a potion for her sick brother to drink. It did not save his life. These are only a few of the most prominent examples of a frenzy that gripped New England throughout the nineteenth century. 

During that timeframe, vampires were being established as a cornerstone of horror fiction. And at the same time, New England was gripped by a genuine panic, as people were digging up and desecrating their loved ones out of fear that they were rising from the dead. It is absolutely fascinating that these two things, which should be polar opposites, were happening simultaneously. One can’t help but look at these dates so close together and wonder how it was even possible. How did a boom of vampire fiction and a resurgence in the belief in vampires happen at the same time? It sounds completely contradictory. In some ways, it is, and in some ways, it isn’t. 

After all, fact and fiction feed into one another pretty regularly. In that respect, it only makes sense to assume that vampire stories were taking influence from real headlines at the time. That’s pretty common. Writers could easily have come across a bizarre headline and, even if they didn’t believe it, think “what if this really happened?” The biggest problem with that, though, is that news at that point didn’t spread nearly as quickly, nor as far, as it does today. I think the numerous pieces of vampire fiction that popped up throughout the mid-late 1800s did take influence from documented accounts of vampirism, but rarely from New England. They had no doubt read accounts of practices throughout Europe, documented at least a century or more before they were writing these stories. The belief in vampires (of some form or another, depending on culture) had at one point been somewhat common, but not for some time.

So how did this panic even happen, let alone become so widespread? Well, a lot of it has to do with region. The places where these pieces of vampire fiction were being written and the places where these accounts of supposed real-life vampirism were coming from were very different. Polidori, Le Fanu, Stoker and the others crafting the building blocks of vampire fiction were all highly educated and highly read people, all of them living in a climate prided on wealth and intellectualism. Meanwhile, these areas of New England were very rural, very much cut off, much less educated and more superstitious overall, though certainly not centuries out of date.

These incidents weren’t just confined to the most rural areas, either, or to just one part of New England. While these vampire cases were more common in some areas, this was happening all over the region. Vermont, as mentioned, was home to the case of Frederick Ransom. But before him, there had been Rachel Burton. The wife of Captain Isaac Burton, Rachel fell victim to a fever. Her skin grew pale, she grew thin, it appeared as though she was wasting away, as if something was simply sucking the life out of her. A year after she died, her husband remarried Hulda Powell. Not long after their marriage, Hulda began showing signs of the same fever that had claimed Rachel’s life. Doctors were unable to do anything to slow the progression of the sickness. It was Hulda’s elderly aunt who first mentioned the possibility of vampirism, that something was draining the life out of her. Captain Burton made the decision to exhume her body. Like something out of a work of gothic fiction, Rachel’s body was exhumed with a literal mob of townspeople looking on, horrified to see that after death, Rachel was not decomposed but engorged, skin red and ruddy, her mouth full of blood. Rachel’s heart, lungs and liver were removed and burned. Despite “vanquishing” the vampire, Hulda did not survive.

In 1834, the entire Corwin family of Woodstock, Vermont, was believed to be in the grips of vampirism, one falling ill after the other, all dying in the same fashion, succumbing to fever and coughing up blood. Like so many others, the heart of the supposed vampire was removed and burned. Like all the others, it did nothing to save family members who had already fallen ill. Woodstock is particularly fascinating because unlike some rural New England towns that saw reports of vampirism, it was not remotely removed from modern medicine. The town was home to numerous doctors and a medical college, and still this belief gripped the community. 

Maine, unfortunately, has the least amount of documented cases of vampirism. This probably doesn’t mean it was happening any less, only that it wasn’t making it into the town records as often. Still, there are a few. And while they’re less detailed, they’re not remotely small. For example, in 1862, reports of vampirism swept the community of Saco so strongly that almost every deceased resident was dug up and reburied. Every corpse was, apparently, a suspect. In Maine, however, these situations were handled a little differently. Rather than go through the hassle of removing the heart or organs and burning them, the dead were simply dug up and reburied face down in hopes that it would keep them from getting up.

The most famous Connecticut case is the already mentioned Lemuel Ray and his family, most importantly the unidentified skeleton marked only as JB-55. This is also known as the Jewett City vampire incident. The unidentified skeleton was found to have been reburied at some point after its initial death, with the femurs placed in an ‘X’ pattern in the grave and the skull displaced from the spine and placed over the top of them. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1807, a girl was suspected of being a vampire and, like so many others, when they dug her up they found her with full lips and rosy cheeks, looking almost as though she were still alive. In Plymouth, like in Maine, suspected vampires were reburied face down out of the hope that it would keep them in the earth. New Hampshire, meanwhile, has scant few documented cases, but there definitely are some. In 1810, a girl named Janey Dennit was exhumed by her father, in Barstow, New Hampshire. In this instance, it was the community that acted on the father’s behalf, as he was the one dying. They believed his daughter to be a vampire, and it’s unclear if the father himself even believed that or not. 

Without a doubt, though, the most prominent cases of New England vampirism hail from Rhode Island. Mercy Brown is certainly the most famous of them, probably the most famous case of “real” vampirism in history, in general. Mercy’s mother, Mary, died after being sick for some time, followed by Mercy’s older sister Mary Olive in 1886. By 1891, both Mercy and her brother Edwin were sick with the same illness. As each member of the family continued to get sick, neighbors convinced George Brown, the father, that one of the family members had become a vampire. George was eventually talked into giving permission to open the grave of each family member to determine if there was, in fact, any sign of vampirism. Both Mary and Mary Olive had decomposed normally. Mercy, however, was a different story. She had been dead for months and yet was perfectly preserved. Her skin, not pallid, seemed rosy and full of life. She had blood on her mouth and still had blood in her heart. In the community’s eyes, it was clear that this was their vampire. Like so many others, Mercy’s heart and liver were burned, mixed into a potion that was then given to Edwin to drink, and like so many others, it did not save his life.

While this is surely the most famous, there were several other reported incidents from Rhode Island around the same time. In 1799, Sarah Tillinghast—also of Exeter, Rhode Island—was believed to have returned from her grave as a vampire. This name is likely the inspiration for Rhode Island native H.P. Lovecraft’s character Crawford Tillinghast in his short story, “From Beyond.” Even more curious to vampire movie fans, in particular, is that the man who convinced the Tillinghast family that Sarah may be a vampire was named Jeremiah Dandridge, a name astonishingly close to Fright Night’s vampire, Jerry Dandridge. In 1827, Nancy Young of Foster, Rhode Island was also believed to be a vampire, as was Ruth Ellen Rose in 1874. 

It should be worth noting, at this point, that vampirism was not actually to blame, in case there was any doubt. Almost all of the preceding cases share the same, very real disease: tuberculosis. Or, as it was called then, consumption. These were all large, rural farm families living close together, conditions that were unfortunately perfect for the spread of the disease. It’s not at all surprising that it would work its way through entire families as it did, especially at the time. Most of the dead in these incidents were properly diagnosed. But at the time, with no vaccine, cure, or even known cause of the disease, death was almost certain. 

Vampirism was not something people jumped to immediately, either. In most of these stories, it was when the next family member got sick that they let themselves believe in vampires. And even then, things almost always played out in the same way. It was an elderly relative or neighbor, someone more accustomed to the superstition, that managed to talk a grieving or worried family member into considering vampirism as the cause. Tuberculosis is a long, slow, brutal illness. It must be unbearable to watch someone die from it, let alone more than once. When doctors say there’s nothing to be done and you’ve already had to witness the suffering this causes, it honestly makes sense that people would consider the supernatural after being concretely told there was nothing that could be done. As much as these stories sound like fascinating supernatural incidents, these are in reality tragic, heartbreaking accounts of people so panicked and grief-stricken that they let themselves believe in archaic, outdated folklore on the smallest chance that it might save their loved ones, never once succeeding. 

What about the sights seen when the tombs have been opened, though? People with rosy cheeks, as though they were still alive? Blood in the heart and, most importantly, pooled around the mouth? These are actually normal signs of decomposition. As for the lack of rigor mortis, that can begin to fade within two days after death, so it’s likely that these so-called vampires were exhumed after they had settled. On the surface, from this evidence, Mercy Brown is still not so easily dismissed, as she had been dead for months. But Mercy was interred in an above-ground tomb, given the conditions of the soil during the winter. When she was exhumed two months later, her body was likely just then thawing after being frozen, explaining why her decomposition process had appeared so halted. 

Even still, it is an incredible coincidence that all of this panic coincided with the rise of vampire fiction. And, in most cases, it does appear to be totally coincidental. There’s no evidence, for several of the nineteenth century authors, that they had any knowledge of what was going on in New England at the time. Not that it matters, of course, because they had plenty of vampire folklore from all over Europe to draw from. But there was one author who was influenced by the New England Vampire Panic, and we know that for certain. In 1896, on a trip to Philadelphia, Bram Stoker received a clipping from an issue of the New York newspaper The World, titled “Vampires in New England.” The clipping detailed the case of Mercy Brown. This clipping was found among Stoker’s research notes for Dracula. 

Stoker had already been working on the novel for years at this point, so it’s not as if reading the story of Mercy Brown gave him the idea to write the book. Still, I think the story of Mercy Brown had a very clear impact on one character in the novel: Lucy. Like Mercy, Lucy was nineteen years old and a beloved member of the community. The whole section of the book in which her friends try every method possible to save Lucy from her wasting illness and ultimately fail, excavating her tomb and finding her looking as though she is still alive, all of that seems clearly inspired by Mercy Brown. While it’s unclear how much the New England Vampire Panic fed into the vampire renaissance in gothic fiction of the time, it’s abundantly clear that it did, ultimately, have a huge influence on the granddaddy of all vampire tales. As such—to however small an extent—it influenced virtually every other vampire story that followed.

Sources: 
‘Vampires of New England.’ Rondina, Christopher. On Cape Publications. 2008.
‘A History of Vampires in New England.’ D’Agonstino, Thomas. The History Press. 2010.
‘Vampire Forensics.’ Jenkins, Mark Collins. National Geographic Society. 2010.
‘The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories.’ Ryan, Alan, editor. Penguin Books. 1987.

The post How the Rise of Vampire Fiction Coincided With the Real-Life New England Vampire Panic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

First up, the Maiden demo, as it’s called, is not a demo of Resident Evil Village itself, but exists in its world. It does take place in the grand house featured in the trailers and gameplay shown for Village, however. A home owned by that now-infamously tall vampiric lady.

Capcom says this demo is meant to be a showcase of what the game looks and plays like on PS5, as well as setting the tone and atmosphere for the full Village experience. It’s fair to say Maiden does a splendid job on both counts.

The player character, who is seemingly the titular Maiden, awakens in the dungeon of the sprawling castle/mansion, and finds a note stuffed into the wall, offering semi-coded clues on how to escape. After leaving her cell, she has to explore the rest of the dungeon in search of the tools needed to ascend to the main house.

In these early areas, it’s a little harder to tell just how much of an improvement this is visually over Resident Evil VII. The darkness doesn’t reveal too much, but the audio work is impressive enough to unnerve, as footsteps echo, chains rattle lightly, and eventually, something thumps persistently against a makeshift barricade, daring me to creep past to the only viable exit.

Heading into a slightly more illuminated cellar, Maiden’s impressive lighting starts to show its chops. The dull glow and flicker of candlelight show just enough of the increasingly disturbing sights. A dinner table with questionable looking bowls of soup placed on it is one of the first real nods to Village’s vampire-inspired story. Then, a fun early trick the demo plays was making me think there’s a blood trail to something, but when I followed it, it’s just a leaking wine barrel. Later, it becomes clear that my first guess was all too correct. Someone’s got a very particular taste in claret.

I finally found a way into the main house and this is where the demo really looks stunning. There’s more than a little of the original Resident Evil’s Spencer Mansion to the areas you get to explore here. Gold-rimmed wall decals, regal-looking paintings, a twisting wooden staircase, a grand fireplace. There’s a sense of nobility and grandeur to this place, but the snickering laughter I hear echoing around me is a good reminder that this is also a very dangerous place to be wandering around.

Whilst rooting around for a way to escape the sinister laughter, I come across a room with an open, yet barred, window. It gives a small glimpse at the wintry outside world, and a better sense of how much more there is to this building. It’s a devilish tease because I really want to go out there and explore, but the door is locked, and requires a special key.

So in grand Resident Evil tradition, it’s off to search for some unrelated curios that will unlock another room, and eventually, give me the key I need to head out into the more welcoming embrace of the snow blown outdoors.

The demo provides no means of defending yourself, which makes the walk back down to the locked door unnerving because I know something is going to happen. Beyond the glimpse of a person’s shadow, door’s closing ahead of me, the aforementioned laughter, and an ominous clomping of feet in the hall above me, I’ve still yet to see anyone else here. So it’s ever-so-slightly dread-inducing when a woman says ‘I’m watching you’ in a singsong tone as I get halfway down the stairs.

Then things get bad. A swarm of flies moves in front of the doorway to the room I need to get into, and transforms into a young-looking vampiric woman. A not all that successful evasion later, I flee into the room, head for the locked door, unlock it and barely get sight of the outside before an impossibly large figure blocks my view and walks through the door, grabbing me. Needless to say, it doesn’t go well for me, and the demo reaches its end. I’m left wanting more.

The smart thing about this standalone teaser is that it will undoubtedly form a connection to Village, but it’s unlikely to spoil anything about the game. What it did do is sell me on this setup even more. It leaves just enough to the imagination, whilst happily confirming that Village will lean heavily into the vampire stuff with a twist of Resident Evil’s usual sinister experimentation gone wrong.

I think Resident Evil Village might turn out alright, you know.

The Maiden demo is out now on PS5.

Resident Evil Village is out May 7, 2021 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, and PC.

The post The ‘Resident Evil Village’ Maiden Demo Left Me Thirsty For More appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After having some goofy fun revisiting the 2000 horror film Urban Legends: Final Cut, we then had a surprisingly serious discussion over Paul Verhoeven’s misunderstood flop Showgirls (yes, we know this isn’t horror, but give us a break, will ya?). Now we are closing out September with our first foray into Hammer Horror: Roy Ward Baker‘s 1970 lesbian vampire film The Vampire Lovers!

The film sees seductive vampire (with lesbian tendencies) Carmilla Karnstein (Ingrid Pitt) target the beautiful and the rich in 19th century Styria.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 93 – The Vampire Lovers (1970)

“On this week’s episode, we’re making our first foray into Hammer Horror with a journey to 19th century Styria in Roy Ward Baker’s The Vampire Lovers. Joining us for the discussion is Scarred for Life co-host Mary Beth McAndrews, who brings her own passion for vampires to the episode.

After a brief crash course on Hammer Horror, we’ll laud the performances of Ingrid Pitt as the thrice-named anti-heroic vampire Marcilla/Carmilla/Mircalla, marvel at the unusual vampire lore (shrouds?!), and lament the lack of any interesting male characters (though that is undoubtedly the point).

Plus, Mary Beth leads us in a frank discussion of bisexuality and the vampire sub-genre’s relationship to it, which isn’t too shocking considering this film is sexy af.”

Cross out The Vampire Lovers!

Coming up on Wednesday: Now that we’re in October, we’re kicking off the month with something a bit more light-hearted in Todd Strauss-Schulson’s 2015 meta-slasher The Final Girls!

– Joe & Trace

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! This month we’ll have episodes on Ratched, Books of Blood, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Rebecca, as well as an audio commentary on Halloween: H20!

The post [Horror Queers Podcast] Entering the World of Hammer Horror with ‘The Vampire Lovers’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Pale Door follows the outlaw Dalton gang as they hole up in a strange ghost town after a train robbery gone wrong. Seeking shelter for their injured leader, the group is surprised to find aid from a friendly brothel. However, the women are actually a coven of old witches with nefarious designs on the unsuspecting outlaws.

Executive produced by Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-Tep), the film stars Pat Healy, Bill Sage, Noah Segan, Devin Druid, Zachary Knighton, and Melora Walters. The script was written by Koontz (Scare Package), Cameron Burns, and Keith Lansdale.

The Pale Door rides onto Blu-ray & DVD on October 6, 2020. In anticipation of the release, we look back at some of the best horror westerns.

The Burrowers

Before video game writer J.T. Petty scared the pants off gamers with the Outlast series, he helmed this 2008 horror western set in 1879. With a cast full of names like Clancy Brown, Doug Hutchison, Jocelin Donahue, and more, The Burrowers follows a rescue party searching for a family that went missing under strange circumstances from a still unexplored territory. It’s not hostile Native Americans behind the disappearances, though, but a species of monstrous underground dwelling creatures. It’s the perfect merging of the two genres; the mounting tension between American soldiers and Native Americans makes for a great backdrop to the unique monster mythology that provides the supernatural terror.

Ghost Town

If you have a soft spot for schlocky ’80s horror, this is for you. Sheriff Langley stumbles upon a missing woman’s car on the side of the road, and in his quest to find her, he finds a nearby old ghost town haunted by the ghosts of its past. He’s then whisked back in time and forced to square off against the zombie-like Devlin, an outlaw who made a pact with the Devil and forever trapped the town in purgatory. Based on a story by David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap), Ghost Town is a fun Western movie that takes a literal interpretation of the ghost town. It offers time travel, black hat wearing villains, and ghosts of the past keeping a dead town alive in spirit.

Dead Birds

Set during the Civil War, a group of Confederate army deserters hides from the law at an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank. They soon find that the land has been left behind for a good reason; it’s home to bizarre, near Lovecraftian supernatural forces. Madness, chaos, and death ensue. Written by Simon Barrett (The Guest, You’re Next), this modest budget horror film brings the scares. Featuring notable actors like Patrick Fugit, Henry Thomas, Isaiah Washington, Nicky Cox, and Michael Shannon, look for memorable horror imagery and an isolated wild west setting.

Eyes of Fire

This atypical western folk tale remains trapped on VHS. Low budget and full of surrealistic imagery, Eyes of Fire is a unique entry in the horror western. Set in 1750, a preacher is accused and persecuted for polygamy and adultery, so he and a group of followers, including his mistresses, escape death by fleeing town. Their journey takes them into Shawnee territory; the hostile tribe is very unhappy about the trespass. It further sets them on a collision course with witchcraft and one very haunted forest. It’s atypical, weird, and dreamlike.

The Wind

Lizzy is a resourceful woman living on a remote stretch of land in the late-1800s. The area is so untamed that the wind never seems to stop howling. Lizzy begins to suspect an evil presence has taken root between the howling and the isolation, though her husband dismisses her concerns as mere superstition. When a newlywed couple arrives at a nearby homestead, their presence amplifies Lizzy’s fears, setting into motion a shocking chain of events. Directed by Emma Tammi, this indie chiller takes a slow-burn approach to psychological terror. Think something in the vein of Repulsion but on the frontier.

Tremors

Tremors may not be a western in the traditional sense, but the setting, motifs, and structure are there. In the desert town of Perfection, Nevada, the ex-mining settlement makes for an isolated, dusty way of life. The town residents feel like modern cowboys, namely plucky heroes Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward). Perfection is becoming a bit of a ghost town itself, in part thanks to giant underground worm creatures dubbed “Graboids.” So, essentially, this is one fun-filled horror-western-comedy creature feature but set in a modern era. It counts.

Vampires

John Carpenter takes on the neo-western. One of the most common recurring themes in western movies is that of revenge. In Vampires, vampire hunter Jack Crow is hellbent on revenge against the vampires that wiped out his entire team in an ambush. That he’s a killer for hire checks off another box of familiar western tropes. Oh, and it’s set in the southwest. This was Carpenter’s way of tackling a western disguised as a horror movie, and it works. At least in the sense that it’s gritty action and a significant departure from the gothic vampires to which we’d grown accustomed. Even though the vampires in this tale are rather fond of gothic attire, it’s still a fun one.

Ravenous

Bearing similarities to the Donner Party’s case and set during the 1840s at a military outpost in California, Antonia Bird’s quirky tale of cannibalism is an all-timer. A mysterious, frostbitten stranger arrives at the outpost with stories of how his travel party was stranded by snow. When the outpost dispatches a rescue party, well, they find themselves prey to a sadistic cannibal instead. It offers quirky humor with an equally strange score to match—Ravenous charms with its eccentricities and unique spin on Wendigo folklore. The cast is stacked, too; Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Neal McDonough, and more star.

Near Dark

“Howdy. I’m gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don’t mind none.” Severen (Bill Paxton) is one mean, scene-stealing vampire. So is the rest of his nomadic clan. Poor midwestern cowboy Caleb had no idea the beautiful drifter that came into his life was a vampire. After being turned by her, he’s reluctantly forced to join her bloodthirsty family as they travel across the country in an RV, leaving a path of destruction and dead bodies in their wake. Katheryn Bigelow’s neo-western blends horror with western and biker movies and the result is one of the most savage vampire movies of all time.

Bone Tomahawk

The bold feature debut by S. Craig Zahler spends its time lulling audiences into forgetting there’s any horror at all in this western. When unseen attackers swoop in one night and steal horses and a few town residents, the town sheriff (Kurt Russell) sets off with a small search party to rescue them. The journey getting there is filled with injury, harsh conditions, and ruthless raiders. None of it prepares them for the vicious troglodyte clan they’ll have to battle for their lives and the lives of the townsfolk they’ve come to save. Zahler uses violence and gore like an art form, and if you thought you’d seen it all, Bone Tomahawk proves otherwise. This movie is pure western, right up until the horror barrels into you like a wild west locomotive.

And of course don’t forget The Pale Door, which captures that same energy of From Dusk Till Dawn as robbers get in over their heads with supernatural creatures. In this case, it’s gnarly, bloodthirsty witches.

Snatch up The Pale Door on Blu-ray & DVD on October 6, 2020. 

The post ‘The Pale Door’ and 10 Films That Perfectly Fuse Horror and Western! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Death comes for us all. It comes for the bees. It comes for the trees. It comes for basically anyone from zero on up…”

Horror and genre programming have recently been embraced to such levels that topics like vampires, zombies, or werewolves are nearly considered to be played out. Accordingly, it’s exciting to see properties that approach this material with genuine love and respect and are interested in pushing the concepts to new places rather than cashing in on something that’s popular. During a time where the supernatural can, unfortunately, make people shrug, it’s inspiring to see a show that causes fits of laughter and gasps. What We Do in the Shadows is a lovely celebration of the horror genre and the last thing that it wants to do is blend in with the crowd. Death still casually gets thrown around as if it’s as natural as breathing in What We Do in the Shadows. Comedy and the macabre continue to sublimely mix together in this amazing television show that proves that something undead can still be so full of life.

These vampires’ egos are more inflated than ever before after their journey for power during season one. They still operate on a relatively small-scale, but they’re prepared to seize the world and make it beg for mercy. It’s enjoyable to witness how the events of the first season have caused these characters to grow in certain ways, but in spite of any developments, they’re all more or less the same characters at their cores.

The entire cast of this series is still fantastic and everyone seems to be even more comfortable in their characters this year. This season also creates more situations to have the entire cast together and those chaotic scenes where everyone gets to play off of each other are often the most satisfying. There are no weak links with this show’s cast, but Guillermo and Colin may low-key be the best characters this season. They hit such fantastic grooves this year and they’re properly utilized to get the most out of their characters. It’s also probably no mistake that they’re the two characters who arguably have the least amount of power in this series. They’re consistent highlights through these episodes. Nadja also gains a fantastic companion in the form of a living doll that blossoms into a weird, wonderful relationship. It’s a bond that’s much deeper than it appears, but it also results in some gloriously surreal visuals.

Ever since Nadja and Laszlo’s exodus from the vampiric council, there have been a slew of assassins who have been trying to take them out, all of which Guillermo disposes of with a certain effortlessness that speaks to his Van Helsing roots. This is highly amusing, but it also results in Guillermo needing to hide this side of himself to his vampire friends. It’s a rich storyline for the season that continues to give as Guillermo buries his latent skills and the vampires handle everything else that’s happening around them. Guillermo’s time in the spotlight this season allows for both his insecurities and his passion over his job to get tested. The direction that he gets pulled in and the new friends that he makes this season are strong additions. It’s a nice change of pace to get some regular scenes where Guillermo is valued and exists outside of his usual vampire clique.

This season embraces the mystical and supernatural side of horror a little more, with necromancers and séances being major topics. In the same sense, this season widens its scope to include zombies, ghosts, and returns to werewolves, all in a satisfying way that provides quirky takes on all of these iconic horror tropes. This is not to say that What We Do in the Shadows has run out of ideas of what to do with vampires, but it’s a nice way in which this supernatural pocket of Staten Island gets to broaden itself.

What We Do in the Shadows becomes even more confident this season and now that it’s established things it plays around with some really clever ideas. There’s a fantastic story that hinges on the idea that if vampires are dead then they should also have ghosts. There are some excellent episodes that are born out of questions that don’t get asked enough in the horror genre. This season really has fun challenging old archetypes in absurd ways. There’s a strong sense of continuity from this season that calls back to many episodes and elements from the first season. It actually expands on those ideas and they don’t just feel like manipulative excuses to bring back characters. It’s a reflection of how the structure of the show’s storytelling becomes even more layered this season.

The stories from this season explore plenty of well-known vampire traditions, like glamour/hypnosis, but it pushes them to more daring and surprising places. The show comes up with plenty of brilliant, new ideas that stem from the evolution of old horror concepts. There’s a delightful spin-off of this series that focuses on the cops from the What We Do in the Shadows feature film, that’s called Wellington Paranormal. For whatever reason, FX or Hulu hasn’t snagged up the rights to air this show, but it’s had two seasons and has expertly handled a wide range of supernatural topics, a lot of the time in a manner that’s even funnier than what’s looked at in What We Do in the Shadows. This second season of What We Do in the Shadows feels like it finally rises to the occasion and provides just as challenging and humorous of a look at the macabre as it’s spin-off. The show’s wider ranger only does it favors.

It’s very entertaining to watch these vampires acclimate to modern customs, but it’s also interesting to see how these fantastical characters have certain supernatural hang-ups and how they’re skeptical to certain creatures or superstitions, in spite of how much they’ve seen. The concept of skeptical vampires is so wonderfully anachronistic. As many supernatural topics are elegantly handled this season, there’s also still plenty of enjoyment to be had over these vampires’ attempts to indoctrinate themselves into society through mundane events like Super Bowl parties, workplace promotions, or e-mail chain letter “curses” (which is easily one of the best episodes that the show has ever done). A lot of this season finds humor in forcing these characters out of their comfort zones, even if it’s in minuscule ways.

This season of the series approaches more adventurous territory and it fits in some very pleasant surprises, much like the show’s first season. There are some very satisfying and unexpected guest stars who fit in very well in this exaggerated universe, as well as the appearance of many of the more popular characters from the first season, even when it seems like that’s impossible. It’s nice to see that What We Do in the Shadows puts just as much effort into its supporting characters and guest roles as it does its main cast.

What We Do in the Shadows continues to be one of the more consistent and hilarious comedies on television and the second season is even better than its strong debut year. In a genre that’s flooded with lazy and unearned takes on vampires, it’s comforting that programs like What We Do in the Shadows work so hard to respect horror’s roots and also take it to fun, new places. As much as this is a fantastic horror series, it’s also just a great “family sitcom” at the end of the day, too. These are characters that you just want to spend more time with, even if that means getting covered in blood in the process. Hopefully there will be many more years to spend time with this eccentric, bloodthirsty bunch.

The second season of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ premieres on FX on April 15^th, and the following day on Hulu.

This review is based on the first four episodes of the show’s ten-episode second season.

The post [Review] Season Two of “What We Do in the Shadows” Bites into Even Bigger Laughs appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As Carpenter notes, Kibbe photographed most of his movies since 1987, including Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Village of the Damned (1995), Escape from L.A. (1996), Vampires (1998), Ghosts of Mars (2001), not to mention Body Bags (1993). IMDb also lists him as a camera operator on Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and additional camera operator on Halloween II (1981).

Kibbe also photographed RoboCop 3 (1993) and  Double Dragon (1994), as well as episodes of HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt”.

Kibbe is a horror legend who should have his name mentioned alongside Carpenter’s until the end of time. He will be missed dearly and we send our thoughts and prayers to his surviving family and friends.

Gary B. Kibbe, the great cinematographer, has passed away at 79. He photographed most of my movie since 1987. He was a kind man, a great collaborator. I’ll miss him.

— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) March 13, 2020

The post R.I.P. Gary B. Kibbe, Cinematographer on Several John Carpenter Films appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The streamer has quietly set the French coming-of-age drama for release on March 20th.

In the series, a Paris teen who’s half human, half vampire grapples with her emerging powers and family turmoil as she’s pursued by a secret vampire community.

Even though the first trailer made available online is in French, you still get the idea of what kind of show “Vampires” will be.

You can save the series to your Netflix list by clicking here.

The post Netflix Releasing Coming-of-Age Series About a Family of “Vampires” [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Having released on the PlayStation and PC (the Dreamcast port having released in 2000), Soul Reaver was a delightful blend of hack and slash gameplay, puzzle-solving, and gothic aesthetics. In Soul Reaver you took on the role of Raziel, a vampire-wraith lieutenant of the vampire Lord Kain; fun fact for those who haven’t gotten a chance to play these games, the previous entry in the Legacy of Kain series had the player controlling Kain. Upon finding out Raziel has surpassed him in vampiric evolution, Kain has him stripped of his wings and killed. After some time has passed, Raziel’s body has rotted away, but he is revived by The Elder God, who in turn makes Raziel his soul reaver and instructs him to kill Kain. From there, Raziel moves forward seeking revenge, laying waste to a variety of enemies.

Soul Reaver offered the player a variety of intriguing ways to take down foes; when going up against other vampires, Raziel could toss them into the sunlight and impale them. When pitted against humans or other spectral creatures, Raziel had the option to use his claws or any of the game’s other melee options, such as spears and staffs. One of Raziel’s most powerful weapons, the Soul Reaver sword, could be set aflame by baptism in holy fire, engulfing an enemy in flames when struck by the sword. Raziel would learn new abilities over the course of the game like constricting enemies with a band or energy and shooting firebolts. He would also discover glyphs throughout the game that would give him extra power in defeating his enemies; some of these powers involved vampire weaknesses such as sunlight, fire, and sound.

Regarding Soul Reaver’s puzzles, Raziel had a special ability which would allow him to shift from the physical world to that of the spectral realm. Where he could only interact with objects in the physical world, the spectral realm would allow him to phase through objects such as gates. The shifting ability would also come in handy to walk across a body of water, given that water is a weakness for him; that said, he eventually learns the ability to swim.

The setting of Soul Reaver is one of its strongest features, its fictional world of Nosgoth exuding an ominous atmosphere. From the arcane design of dungeons to the ethereal air of the spectral realm, Soul Reaver offered players a variety of creepy locales for them to adventure through. Adding to this presentation was the game’s cutscenes, which for the time, provided a great touch of emotion to the narrative’s dramatic element; this is thanks in part to the graphic detail of the characters, as well as that of the voice work. These cinematic components would all come together to make for Soul Reaver’s unique appeal in providing a theatrical horror experience.

At the time of its release, while critics did point out some negative aspects, Soul Reaver primarily saw positive reviews; the title holds a 91% on Metacritic. Noting the game’s well-done gothic atmosphere, Soul Reaver also garnered praise for the detail of its cutscenes, soundtrack, storyline, and its shifting planes mechanic. The series would go on for three more titles, one being Soul Reaver’s direct sequel, Soul Reaver 2 on the PlayStation 2.

While there have been other horror hack and slash titles like Devil May Cry and even Sekiro, there hasn’t been anything along the lines of Soul Reaver in some time. It would be incredible to see a remake of Soul Reaver today, or even a continuation of the story; to return to the adventures of the Legacy of Kain series and journey through a world full with haunting tension and vampires. With the game’s gothic feel and intriguing environment, along with its narrative and action gameplay, the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver stands to this day as a classic.

The post Reminiscing the Gothic Joy of ‘Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver’ on its 20th Anniversary appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But I’ve never been to an Iron Maiden show; the scene mentioned above took place in my parent’s living room in the early ’00s while watching old concert DVDs. Even then, Bruce reached right through the television and filled me with feverous elation. Koji Igarashi did the same with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It’s not the cool undead shit or electric guitars making me compare a Japanese game developer to a British metal band, either. Like Iron Maiden, I’m a couple of decades late to the party, and oh, boy, have I been missing out. Castlevania may be no more, but Bloodstained just might be able to carry on its spirit.

In 1783, the Laki volcanic eruption blanketed Europe in darkness, and from the ashes, demons appeared. This calamity was the work of The Alchemy Guild, a group of mages that guide the hand of the ruling class, trying to justify their existence in the wake of the industrial revolution. Opening a portal to hell for the sake of job security might sound extreme, but who in their right mind isn’t wary of automation?

The Alchemy Guild had a contingency plan though; the shardbinders, humans they imbued with demonic crystal shards. The Guild used these Shardbinders to halt the armies of hell from spreading further into the land of the living, and thus, the world was once again safe. Enter Bloodstained’s protagonist, Miriam, one of two remaining shardbinders who have been in a deep slumber for the ten years since the calamity.  In that time, her best friend and fellow shardbinder, Gebel, erected a castle chock-full of nasty demons. Confused and rightly miffed that he’d do so, she sets out to explore the castle and find out what’s going on.

While there is a creative, elaborate, and romanticized backstory, I never took Bloodstained‘s story all that seriously. The world-building is justification for the gothic architecture, mythical monsters, and all manner of magical what have you. It’s the story about, well, a goth crushing demons beneath the soles of her boot, and that’s all it needs to be. I think the moment that underlined this was when I discovered an enemy hurling fireballs while playing electric guitar. Dave Murray would be proud.

That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate the set dressing, though. The voice acting is stellar; Erica Lindbeck sells Miriam’s lines with an earnest gravitas. I could feel the weight mounting on our heroine’s shoulders as the plot ramped up just through her voice. Special shoutout to Zangetsu, who’s voiced by the legendary David Hayter and who was always eager to remind me that his skills were superior to my own.

The meat and potatoes of Bloodstained is without a doubt its gameplay. For years, I was under the impression that Koji Igarashi’s side-scrolling Castlevania games were just standard action-platformer affairs. If only I could go back and wedgie my younger self for assuming so. 

Bloodstained isn’t the sort of RPG where a party of misfits band together and save the world as a group effort, but more of the solo, lonely, dungeon crawling variety. The base stats pool grew as I defeated enemies and leveled up, but the fun of number-crunching came from customizing attributes through finding and crafting new equipment. I favored combat shoes for my offensive weapon, as they have a fast attack speed and let me dart in-and-out of melee range quickly. Then, I paired the boots with magic that allowed me to hurl throwing axes from afar. This playstyle meant I needed equipment that upped strength, the stat that increases melee damage, and intelligence, the stat that increases magic damage. My build was that of a glass cannon, getting in an enemy’s face with kicks then backing off and doing damage from with the axes. My health and defense were low as a result of this build, but it was no sweat, for I tried never to get hit anyway.

However, I was able to mitigate the health and defense issues in my character’s build through the cooking system. Back at the base of the castle, one of the NPCs taught me all sorts of culinary delights. These delectables gave me temporary stat buffs that made up for holes in my build. Did you know that rice balls add +10 health points and +2 constitution, slightly increasing your health and your defense? Well, they do in Bloodstained! I had to buy some rice and special seasoning off another NPC to gather the ingredients, but it was cash well spent.

Being a shardbinder, Miriam takes the powers of her demonic foes for herself. Enter crystal shards. Each time an enemy is slain, there’s a random chance they’ll drop a shard, and each one has a unique ability. That axe-throwing ability mentioned earlier was from a shard of an enemy that, you guessed it, threw axes. I like to imagine I caught one mid-air and never gave it back– serves them right, the prick. 

There are a ton of shards to collect, and they only get more wild as playtime mounts. Some offer passive buffs; others manipulate the environment, and others still grant attack abilities. Familiar shards are a favorite of mine, as these shards let me summon companions to fight alongside me. The Silver Knight familiar was a little ghost-buddy of mine that deflected projectiles coming my way and stuck enemies with the pointy end of his spear. Indeed, he was ride or die. 

When math is involved, there’s always a scientific, optimal way to solve a problem, and being an RPG means math is involved in Bloodstained. Some of the shards are wildly overpowered, is what I’m saying — and Welcome Company is one of those shards. It envelops Miriam in a series of haunted paintings that both defend from enemy attacks and deal damage enemies on contact. Couple this shard with a good melee weapon, and even the toughest boss is a cakewalk. I avoided using it until my hard difficulty playthrough where it wasn’t so godlike. Welcome Company and a handful of other shards need some balancing, but it’s thankfully the sort of issue that can easily be mitigated with a patch. 

Some shards are far more valuable than others too, and it becomes a problem when they’re divvied up in the same way. Each time I defeated a boss, a powerful key shard was the reward. Make sense; several sections of the castle are gated behind some powerful abilities. So if those shards can only found through a mandatory boss fight, that works. The trouble is there are a couple of shards vital to progress that are not a reward for defeating a boss. One of these moments hit me like a ton of bricks, hours and hours searching every nook and cranny trying to figure out how to get past a specific obstacle, only to have the shard I need to get past it be dropped by a random enemy. I’m intentionally vague here, but here’s your hint: underwater.

I understand what Koji and his team were going for with this. Going over every inch of the castle with a fine-tooth comb after that much coveted 100 percent map completion should require flexing the noggin, but not at the expense of the core formula. Obtuse nonsense like this stands out bad, especially considering how immaculate most of Bloodstained‘s game design is.

Most of the progression and level design is perfection, though. In the first area, there was a ledge far too distant for me to reach. A couple of hours later, I got a double jump, which opened up more of the castle, but I still couldn’t reach the ledge. Then, I found an ability that flung me across ravines, but it couldn’t get me to that damn ledge either. It wasn’t until the last third of the game that I finally attained an ability that let me reach that ledge. There was just a chest with an ok-ish helmet inside; I laughed aloud, and I’m sure Koji did in spirit, too. It wasn’t worth the effort–on paper, anyway–but it’s part of what makes Bloodstained awesome; it just feels incredible navigating this labyrinth. Every hidden door, treacherous leap of faith, and innocuous floor tile is forever etched in my brain.

Curiously, Bloodstained is a retro revival that doesn’t opt for a pixel art style, unlike, say, the Castlevania games of the past or 8-bit-style prequel Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Instead, it rocks a pseudo 2.5D look, and it’s as gorgeous as it is mechanically sound. There’s plenty of traversal and platforming happening in this game, but not once did I have issues distinguishing what was in the background and what was tangible and in the foreground. That 2.5D aesthetic makes the images pop in a way that’s not possible with 2D pixel art. It also helps with particle effects, which ooze pizzazz, and I swear, this game has the most satisfying level-up notification in the history of videogames. Whenever I stuck the final blow on an enemy and the entire screen lit up with blue tendrils that collided into a “level up” message, it was pure euphoria.

Oh, and the soundtrack, my goodness. The soundtrack is something else. Grandious pipe organs, melodramatic church choirs, wailing electric guitars, punchy bass, classic wood stringed instruments, and even a bell toll; they’re all here and metal as fuck. Michiru Yamane walks a line between delightfully cheesy and genuinely powerful notes with her score. I developed a habit of eagerly inching closer to my monitor whenever the screen was about to transition to a new area because I couldn’t wait to hear a new song. 

Just shy of the 20-hour mark, I finally reached Bloodstained’s end credits. That number is slightly higher than the average of first-playthroughs, but I was forever lost down one rabbit hole after the other. Sure, the world needs saving, but I could also learn how to make the perfect bowl of curry, or gather materials to make the cutest outfit possible, you know? Not to mention that there are a few secret bosses that need to have their larynxes crushed. There’s a wealth of hidden content to uncover here, higher difficulties even up the number of enemies on-screen and tweak placement a smidge, and there are even speedrun and boss rush modes! I’ve barely scraped the surface of this behemoth.

Four years ago in 2015 when Koji Igarashi took to Kickstarter, he wanted to prove to the suits of the games industry that people still loved Castlevania. If they wouldn’t give him the series name, he and the fans would make sure it lived on in spirit. Now, in 2019, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is finally here, and it’s everything we hoped it to be. I might be late to the Igavania party, but it made me nostalgic for a bygone era of gaming all the same. As it turns out, the notion that this kind of game is antiquated turned out to be just a strange illusion.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night review code for PS4 provided by the publisher.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is out now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

The post [Review] ‘Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’ Carries on the Legacy of ‘Castlevania’ in Style appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.