According to Deadline.com, NBC has signed a deal for ZOMBIES Vs. VAMPIRES, described as a “fun buddy cop procedural”.
One of the cops will secretly be a vampire, and his/her partner are both assigned to a unit that handles zombie crimes. You see, being a zombie is just a condition that can be controlled with the proper medication, and those afflicted can be part of normal society if they stay on their meds.
The project comes from Austin Winsberg, who created and produced the John Stamos starring sitcom JAKE IN PROGRESS. Warner Brothers Television and McG’s Wonderland Productions are developing the show. Winsberg, McG and Peter Johnson will serve as executive producers.
Sounds more like something for SyFy or maybe The CW — but what do I know? There was a movie called VAMPIRES Vs. ZOMBIES (aka Carmilla, the Lesbian Vampire 2004). I’ve heard that was unintentionally funny, but I hasten to say that I’m sure there’s no relation.
Photo: Night of the Living Dead
Tag: vampires
"Breaking Dawn Part 2" Gets Release Date
This past June, Summit Entertainment confirmed that the final book of the TWILIGHT series would be released in two parts. Today, we have confirmation that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2 will hit theaters in November 2012, one year after Part 1. After the first three films of the saga were released in less than two years, this certainly does seem like a change of pace, but it does reflect a more conventional release schedule.
"Dead of Night" Clips Surface
The Dylan Dog film adaptation starring Brandon Routh (SUPERMAN RETURNS) is almost ready for release in Italy and the first footage has made its way into the public. DEAD OF NIGHT is the story of Dylan Dog and his zombified friend Marcus. In this world, zombies rely on shops that sell flesh for sustenance. Dylan finds himself pitted against a world filled with a host of supernatural creatures including werewolves and vampires.
Source: Shock Till You Drop
LET ME IN – Trailer 2
Fresh from Comic Con, here is the second trailer for LET ME IN, the remake of the Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. While it shows a bit more than the average fan may want to see, it is still a good indicator of things to come from its production company, the recently reopened Hammer Films. Take a look!
LET ME IN is set to be released October 1st, 2010
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The Playgirls and the Vampire: A Celebration of 1960 Retrospective
Made in Italy as L’Ultima Preda Del Vampire (“The Last Prey of the Vampire”), THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE was picked up for American distribution and dubbed by Richard Gordon (THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, ATOMIC SUBMARINE), then released in the U.S. in 1963. The American version, 7 minutes shorter than the Italian original, was released as an “adults only” picture with a poster suggesting that it might be a “nudie cutie” feature, though patrons expecting plentiful pulchritude doubtlessly felt cheated. There is a female vampire in it who prowls a castle in the buff looking for victims, but her body is repeatedly obscured by shadows and camera angles.
THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE was the creation of Piero Regnoli, who previously had co-written I, VAMPIRI (American title: THE DEVIL’S COMMANDMENT, 1956) with Riccardo Freda. , I, VAMPIRI had kicked off the Continental horror boom after decades without any Italian horror films being made; it set the basic tropes of mixing scares and sexuality that Italian horror cinema would explore throughout the 1960s. Regnoli wrote and directed THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE, but though he remained a prolific screenwriter, he only directed a few more features before his death in 2001. (SAMSON IN KING SOLOMON’S MINE and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN THIEVES were two of them).
The playgirls of the title are not playgirls at all, but rather showgirls who are being bused to their next engagement when the driver learns that a storm has rendered the road impassable. The driver takes a fork in the road and winds up at the castle of Count Gabor Kernassy (Walter Brandi). They ask to stay the night and Kernassy takes little interest until he sees Vera (Lyla Rocco), who looks to be the reincarnation of Margerhita, the woman with whom his ancestor had fallen in love.
Regnoli’s most effective horror moment comes at the very beginning when he borrows Tod Browning’s famous shot of a vampire’s hand emerging from an opened coffin, here restaged with a stone sepulcher. The vampire in the crypt is Kernassy’s look-alike ancestor who seeks fresh blood to sustain his immortality. Kernassy warns the troupe not wander about the castle at night, but the next morning the body of Katia (Maria Giovannini) is found dead on the lawn, apparently having fallen out of the window.
Lack of originality is one of the main problems that plagues THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE. Unlike Freda, whose films explored perverse sexuality such as necrophilia and sadism, Regnoli offers only showgirls lounging around in negligees, teddies, and stiletto heels. Additionally, there is minimal characterization (the three other showgirls are given no real personalities) and minimal plot as well.
Though the viewer can’t take THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE seriously, the film is not played for laughs either (the closest it gets is when one of the showgirls spots a long table and wonders aloud, “I wonder if they will let me do my high-kick specialty on it.” The manager (Alfredo Rizzo) is portrayed as a lech who goes to bed, not with one of his girls, but with a copy of a girlie magazine. He explains to the housekeeper that the girls “have been very upset,” and that practicing their routines is “the only way to make them stop worrying about it.”
However, worry doesn’t really enter into the equation very much. Vera seems barely upset over Katia’s death. When the next night she discovers that Katia’s grave is empty, she remains unconcerned. Instead, she develops an attraction to Kernassy, who has a laboratory in his basement and explains he is researching a creature that sustains itself with blood, /again Vera expresses little concern – not even a question or two about how safe things might be.
Despite its short length, THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE is plodding and mediocre. On the plus side, it is very atmospherically photographed by Aldo Greci. The film also offers two nice scenes at the climax. In one, the now vampiric Katia comes toward the camera to claim a victim, only to be staked by her male vampire (Brandi in a dual role) counterpart. The other notable scene is the male vampire’s staking, which leads to a dissolve of images as the 200-year-old vampire crumbles to a skeleton and then fades away. Rather than employing make-up, this appears to have been done with a series of drawings that dissolve to show the progression of the dissolution.
Though handsome, Brandi is a rather stiff and unimpressive actor, who also starred in two Italian vampire films this year, the other being THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA. He later appeared in the similar but more entertaining BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, in which a troupe of models come to a castle only to become victimized by an over-the-top Mickey Hargitay as the Crimson Executioner – a livelier film that only points up all the more THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE’s shortcomings.
For television, the film was re-titled THE CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE, and has also been released under a myriad of alternate titles including DESIRES OF THE VAMPIRE, DAUGHTERS OF THE VAMPIRE, and THE VAMPIRE’S LAST VICTIM. For genre completists, the Gordon-dubbed version is available on DVD from Image Entertainment.
THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE (L’Ultima Preda Del Vampire [“The Last Prey of the Vampire”], 1960). Written and directed by Piero Regnoli. Cast: Walter Brandi, Lyla Rocco, Maria Giovannini, Alfred Rizzo, Marisa Quattrini, Leonardo Botta, Antoine Nicos, Corinne Fontaine, TIlde Damiani, Eirka Dicenta, Enrico Salvatore.
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Hammer Glamour Star Marie Devereux: A Celebration of 1960 Pictorial
While surfing the Internet searching for images to illustrate the various reviews and retrospectives we are compiling as part of our ongoing tribute to the Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Films of 1960, I have encountered more than a few of Marie Devereux, the stunning beauty who appeared in a handful of Hammer films, including two memorable titles from the year in question, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA and THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY.
According to Hammer Glamour by Marcus Hearn, Devereux’s real name was Patricia Sutcliffe, and she first earned attention as a voluptuous model posing in cheesecake magazines. She may not have been much of an actress (she remains mute in both her Hammer horror appearances), but her looks were striking indeed. She was more than just sexy; she had a certain domineering demeanor that registered as dangerous on screen, which made her memorable even though her roles are mostly eye candy. With a little assist from director Terence Fisher, she especially stands out in THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY; Fisher turns her into an icon of temptation that leads men into fatal danger.
Devereux’s acting career did not pan out; her movie resume dries up after the mid-1960s. But those two appearances are enough to earn her a small place in horror movie history, which we celebrate here with this selection of photos.
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Will Smith To Bare His Fangs in THE LEGEND OF CAIN
Will Smith is never one to buck a trend. According to deadline.com, the I AM LEGEND star has signed on to star in and produce THE LEGEND OF CAIN, a film which revolves around Adam & Eve’s “other” son but with a vampire twist. The film has yet to find a director or studio but will be produced by Overbrook Entertainment, whose partners include wife Jada Pinkett Smith & James Lassiter. Mr. Smith is currently in the process of international promotion of this film and the upcoming MEN IN BLACK III.
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Vampire Babies Coming To A Teen Flick Near You
Well…the header really kind of says it all now doesn’t it?
In an interview with Popsugar.com, Melissa Rosenberg, screenwriter of the TWILIGHT series, seems to confirm that the famous (or infamous depending on how much you enjoy the books) birth of Bella and Edward’s baby will make it to the film version of the final installment THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN.
That was a misquote. The childbirth — all the scenes, I feel — should be on screen. I think perhaps what I was referring to was, would we actually see Edward’s teeth through the placenta? I don’t think so. I don’t think we need to see that, and if someone needs to see that, I think they should take a look at that. [Laughs.] I believe it will be implied, but I don’t think we’ll see teeth in the placenta.
Many would agree that sinking one’s teeth into placenta is difficult to imply but if anyone can do it, most likely its a sparklingly broody Robert Pattinson. Let’s just hope that there are buckets of Tic-Tacs on stand-by.
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True Blood Season Three review: so far, so good
Early episodes offer engaging characters, memorable dialogue, and social commentary.
So far, the new season of TRUE BLOOD, loosely based on Charlaine Harris’ novel Club Dead, has continued two trends of the Alan Ball’s series: it maintains the high quality of the previous seasons, and it gets further away from Harris’ original Sookie Stackhouse storyline.
For those new to TRUE BLOOD, a little background is in order. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) – a telepathic waitress in Bon Ton, Louisiana – has fallen in love with Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a vampire, who falls in love with her and saves her life. In the first season, we learned that vampires have revealed themselves and some have taken their place in society, subsisting on a blood substitute called Tru Blood rather than taking human lives as they have done for centuries. Not surprisingly, this exposes vampires to prejudice, including signs that declare, “God hates Fangs.” Additionally, vampires are exploited because their blood is used as the drug “V,” which gives humans extraordinary strength and healing power, creating a pricey, black market demand.
TRUE BLOOD’s second season extended the metaphor further in a subplot wherein Sookie’s brother Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) was recruited to become a “soldier of the son,” part of a religious group that intends to conduct a war on all vampirekind. The church kidnapped Godric, the maker of the local vampire sheriff Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), causing Eric to take quite an interest in Sookie and her telepathic powers. At the climax of Season Two, Bill proposes to Sookie at a French restaurant; as she returns to their table to accept his proposal, Bill is kidnapped by some strangers.
The first episode of Season Three picks up where previous season left off: Sookie reports Bill missing to the local deputy, who seems neither terribly interested nor concerned. Meanwhile, Jason is consumed with guilt for having shot a serial killer. Jason’s new friend Deputy Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer), who has taken credit for the killing, advises him to act normal, telling the archetypical dumb jock, “Conscience off; dick on!”
Skarsgard’s female fans are treated to an early nude sex scene when Sookie goes to report Bill missing and finds Eric has been having sex with a tied up, foreign-speaking wench for hours. When Sookie reacts skeptically, he asks her, “Bill’s stamina not up to snuff?” Fans of the novels know that Sookie winds up marrying Eric, but as yet it is hard to say whether series creator Alan Ball will take the storyline in the same direction. Previously, Ball spared Tara’s cousin LaFayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), who died at the end of the first novel; the flambouyant LaFayette has remained one of the series most lively characters, though he is still under Eric’s thumb, forced to sell “V” for the Louisiana vampire queen.
Meanwhile, Sookie’s boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) tracks down his actual family, the white trash Mickens. (In the books, Sam’s father shot his mother when he discovered she was a shape-shifter; in the TV series Sam’s real mother gave him up for adoption, but his adopted family rejected him once he started shapeshifting). Werewolves are a major element this season as the group that kidnapped Bill are revealed to be werewolves working under the command of the Vampire King of Mississippi (series newcomer Denis O’Hare). The king wants Bill to pledge fealty to him and reveal the Louisiana queen’s secrets; otherwise. he will take Sookie and turn her over to Lorena (Mariana Kloveno), Bill’s maker, who is still besotted with him (even though he greets her by throwing an oil lamp at her and setting her on fire). Unlike the recent THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, TRUE BLOOD features true wolves rather than oversized CGI replicas.
TRUE BLOOD’s new season also introduces us to a new vampire, Franklin Mott (James Frain), who beds Tara and uses his hypnotic powers to milk her for information on Sookie and Bill. All at sea is Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), the young female vampire Bill made, who has discovered to her dismay that her vampire healing powers continually restore her hymen; with Bill missing, she is lacking the guidance she needs to function as a vampire. A life-changing event has also occurred for Terry (Todd Lowe) and Arlene (Carrie Preston): Arlene discovers she’s pregnant and tells a delighted Terry that he’s the father. Additionally, when the body of a man Jessica killed is discovered, Bud Dearborne (William Sanderson) decides that he’s had enough and quits his job as the town’s sheriff.
As in previous seasons, the episodes so far this summer have juggled several story lines while offering up engaging characters, memorable dialogue, social commentary, atmospheric photography, and other delights. In these days of vampire oversaturation, TRUEBLOOD remains a very welcome addition to the genre and an example of what a high-quality vampire series can be, putting its competitors to shame. It is easy to see why TRUE BLOOD has, after a shaky start in the ratings, become the most watched HBO series since THE SOPRANOS.
TRUE BLOOD (Season Three, 2010). Created by Alan Ball. Cast: Anna Paquin, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Carrie Preston, William Sanderson, Jim Parrack, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard
The Vampire and the Ballerina: A Celebration of 1960 Review
Although THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (originally L’amanti del Vampiro [“The Vampire’s Lover]) is certainly not the most important continental European or even Italian horror film made in 1960, it is nevertheless of significance for a number of reasons. In the first place, it marks the directorial debut of Renato Polselli. Polselli is one of the more intriguing and under-examined figures in European cinefantastique. A philosophy graduate whose films express a distinctive, personal take on psychology, sexuality and morality, striving for freedom from convention and hypocrisy, he continually explored and pushed the boundaries of acceptability.
Though THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA is relatively tame today, it nevertheless part of a continuum that saw Polselli gravitate towards ever weirder and wilder reaches of erotic and even outright pornographic horror over the next two decades. This is apparent from the fact that the film, like many of the director’s later works, suffered from distribution difficulties, not being released in Italy until 1962. Unfortunately by this time, THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA’s impact was inevitably diluted, given that both Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY and Piero Regnoli’s (decidedly similar) THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE had been released during the interim.
THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA also gave prolific screenwriter and occasional director Ernesto Gastaldi his first credit in both capacities, co-writing the script and serving as assistant director.
The film co-stars Walter Brandi. His period as a leading Italian genre actor was short-lived; his other key appearances are in PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE (also 1960) and SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES (1962). He nevertheless maintained an association with the filone cinema, working as production manager on a number of Bruno Mattei’s productions in the 1980s, including the notorious zombie entry HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Much like BLACK SUNDAY and THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE, THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA itself presents an early working through of the modern Gothic formula established a few years earlier Freda’s I VAMPIRI and Hammer’s CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HORROR OF DRACULA. Like Freda and Regnoli’s films, THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA is shot in black-and-white yet has a contemporary setting, in which the very existence of vampire seems an absurd, atavistic throwback.
This is accentuated in the opening sequences, which contrast the fatalistic world of the rural peasants (“Another victim; nothing can help her now”) with the scepticism of ballet-cum-burlesque dance troupe from the city (“Vampires seem so romantic in a way.” “Sure, you would think so, except that they only exist in movies.”)
Failing to heed the locals’ advice, some of the troupe stop at the supposedly deserted castle to take shelter from a storm. Predictably, they ignore the hints dropped by the Countess (“I don’t care for the world you live in – it is not my world”) and her striking resemblance to a 400 year old ancestress depicted in a portrait, precipitating the usual stalking and staking scenarios and confusions over who is what.
While things are eventually resolved in favour of the living over the undead and good over evil, Polselli nevertheless throws some provocative things our way.
Unlike the classic Dracula scenario, in which the Count is clearly dominant over his non-aristocratic female brides-slaves, THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA presents a cross-cutting of class and gender dynamics: Countess Alda was turned into a vampire by her servant, Herman, but seeks an escape from her unlife that he refuses to grant. Their relationship is thus characterised by a certain perversity born of mutual dependency, each alternately the master and slave and in need of the other’s recognition in a fundamentally sado-masochistic manner. (Hegel relevant to Italian schlock horror shock!)
The director also gives us a reworking of the famous burial scene from Dreyer’s VAMPYR, complete with coffins-eye view shot. Besides being a powerful image in its own right, it also serves as a reminder of the longer tradition of the European fantastique cinema and the impossibility of clearly delineating the better of its products as either ‘art’ or ‘trash’.
Here it’s also about knowing how to make a ‘proper’ film, one that follows the rules, but of making a choice not to. Though THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA is certainly more classical and conventional than Polselli’s later work, the traces are there. The film can also thereby be related to wider developments in the cinema around 1960. This was, after all, also the time of Godard’s BREATHLESS, Antonioni’s L’AVVENTURA, and other more self-consciously modernist films.
THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (a.k.a. L’amanti del Vampiro [“The Vampire’s Lover], 1960). Directed by Renato Polselli. Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Giuseppe Pellegrini, Renato Polselli. Cast, Helene Remy, Tina Gloriani, Water Brandi, Isarco Ravaioli, Gino Turini, Pier Ugo Gragnani, Brigitte Castor, Lut Maryk, Maria Luisa Rolando.
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