Day 318: Dracula

Dracula

Don't call him "Drac"

Dracula. The Mummy. Frankenstein. The Wolfman. Call them “classic monsters” or “cinema monsters” or the “Universal Four”. These four are the ones you think of when you hear the words “monster movie”. Their main stories come from literature, but the basic premise from each come tales passed down from generation to generation. Each theme, whether it's man battling the beast within or man versus the unknown, has played out for centuries. It's this ability to reach out across generations that has allowed these characters to be reused and remade over and over again across literature, entertainment and pop culture. The most popular of these Universal monsters is Dracula. Need proof? Next Halloween, count how many vampires you see with black capes and fangs. Kids aren't going around like sparkly vampires with emotional problems. At least, let's hope not.

Dracula is a 1931 vampire horror film starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula (Son Of Frankenstein, Bride Of The Monster). The film is based on the play Dracula by Hamilton Dean and John L. Balderstonr, which was based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Renfield (Dwight Frye, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man) travels to Transylvania to meet with Count Dracula to settle a business deal. He is dropped off at a small village and informs some people that he is going to Dracula's castle. He is warned that vampires inhabit that castle, but insists on having a carriage take him. An innkeeper's wife gives Renfield a crucifix for protection. The carriage ride is particularly rough and when Renfield sticks his head out the window to ask the driver to slow down, he is shocked to find the driver has disappeared and a bat is now leading the horses. Once inside the castle, Renfield is greeted by the eccentric Count Dracula. Through Renfield, Dracula has purchased Carfax Abbey in London and is planning to go there the next day. Dracula turns Renfield into his slave who protects his coffin as they travel by ship to London. When the ship arrives, a raving mad Renfield is found to be the only living person on board. He is committed to Dr. Seward's (Herbert Bunston, Cardinal Richelieu, The Enchanted Cottage) sanitarium. At the same time, Dracula meets Dr. Seward at the theater, along with his daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), her fiance John Harker (David Manners), and family friend Lucy Weston (Frances Dade). Dracula charms them and later that night, drinks Lucy's blood, eventually killing her. Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan, A Shot In The Dark, The Mummy) is brought in to treat Renfield, and after studying his blood, begins to suspect a vampire is in their midst. Dracula then bites Mina with plans to turn her into a vampire. Will Professor Van Helsing and John be able to stop him before it is too late?

Can you smmmeeeeellllllll what Dracula is cooking?

This movie is over 80 years old. Let that sink in for a moment. Some movies barely hold up 5 years after they've been released. Dracula is completely timeless, still capable of striking fear into the audience while maintaining an exciting story. Though the run time is shorter than modern movies (a little over 70 minutes), the story has a steady layout. The film has a great atmosphere thanks in part to keeping the aesthetics from the play it was based on. Simple tricks like lighting and fog add to the overall creepiness of the story. One interesting thing that I noticed was that there wasn't a lot of music throughout the film. Maybe I'm just so used to movies blaring strings and telling the audience when to be scared, but it was refreshing to see a movie that didn't assault my ears. Instead, we are free to focus on the fluid dialogue and, even better, Bela Lugosi's performance.

There are few actor's who so perfectly define a role than anyone playing the character after them will never come close to their greatness. Bela Lugosi is Dracula. His unblinking, steely glare and hand motions truly give the character a supernatural feel. He is both charming and dangerous throughout the film, making it difficult to root against him. The supporting roles are played well, adding credence to the story. While there were a few scary movies prior to this, Dracula was one of the first to completely embrace the supernatural themes. There was no wink-and-nod at the end saying it was just a work of fiction. Nowadays, the special effects may seem quaint with the giant rubber bat on a string, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love his invisible puppet trick

Dracula is the quintessential classic horror movie. It takes a classic character from literature and brings it to the big screen with the effort and respect it deserves. Bela Lugosi is fantastic as Dracula, creating a timeless character that is enjoyable to watch while still being scary. The story has a fast pace but hits all the important parts of the story. For the time, it has good excitement and even a bit of action. Dracula can be enjoyed by both young and old, though I would suggest waiting to show this one to the very young. You're better off with Hotel Transylvania or a box of Count Chocula. Dracula is still thoroughly enjoyable despite being over 80 years old and well worth your time.

10/10

Day 284: Blacula

Blacula

Going black in time

It's time to get funky, you jive turkey. OK, I promise never to do that again, but I couldn't help it. Today's movie comes from the deepest, darkest depths of movie hell: The 1970's. The era of unrest, ridiculous clothes, and disco did manage to spawn some great horror movies, but it also brought about the exploitation era. Many of these movies found their way into grindhouse theaters due to their high levels of violence and sex. With the exploitation movies came the blaxploitation movies, which was geared towards the African American community. It was only a matter of time before horror made it's impact on the sub genre.

Blacula is a 1972 vampire movie starring William Marshall (Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Scream Blacula Scream) as Prince Mamuwalde, the leader of a small African nation. The prince is visited by Count Dracula and asks for his help in stopping the slave trade. Dracula refuses and attempts to capture Mamuwalde. When he fights back, Dracula bites Mamuwalde, changing him into a vampire, and imprisons him in a coffin. In 1972, the castle containing the coffin is purchased by two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy and Billy Schafer. They open the coffin, awakening Mamuwalde, now Blacula, are both killed. At Bobby's funeral, Blacula meets Tina who looks identical to his now-deceased wife. Believing she is the reincarnation of his wife, Blacula pursues Tina, posing as a human Mamuwalde. At the same time, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala, Sanford And Son, Mom And Dad Save The World) and Lt. Peters begin investigating the strange deaths around town. Eventually Tina begins to fall in love with Mamuwalde. The victims of the strange murders change into vampires and soon join Blacula as his undead army. After finding a picture in which Mamuwalde does not appear, Gordon and Lt. Peters, joined by the police, move in to stop Blacula. Will they be able to save Tina before she is turned into a vampire?

Don't fall for Blacula's "Free Hugs" trick

I have to say, I haven't seen many exploitation and blaxploitation movies. Most of my knowledge probably comes from other mediums making fun of the movies. I was expecting Blacula to be an over-the-top, jive-talking, funky vampire movie with goofy rhyming lines and the word “honky” being thrown around like a baseball. Much to my surprise, this wasn't the case. Blacula is far more of a real movie than I could have expected. That's not to say it isn't ridiculous, but it has character motivation and a somewhat decent story. I think a large part of the movie being watchable is the good performance of William Marshall . A veteran of stage, opera, and screen, Marshall brings an air of legitimacy to the role. Surrounded by polyester and blaring funk, Marshall's portrayal of Blacula is both regal and scary. Some may find his performance hokey, but I would attribute that to the rest of the cast playing their characters straight. Unlike many other vampire movies, Blacula manages to actually make the head vampire a sympathetic character.

The movie is very much a product of the 1970's which should be a surprise to no one. There are plenty of bell-bottoms, afros, and unnecessary long scenes of funk bands playing. The movie never goes full “blaxploitation” but you can still sense the racial overtones. While there isn't much in the way of racial slurs, the word “faggot” is used quite a lot. As they say, it was a different time. There are some scenes of violence, but I wouldn't call Blacula a scary or even creepy film. I think part of that is due to seeing the movie through 2012 eyes. The supporting acting is quite bad and certain scenes jump around with no explanation. It's not particularly clear just how Blacula made it to America, although I could have easy missed it while blinded by the ridiculous clothes. There are plenty of holes in the plot, but when you're watching a movie called “Blacula” were you expecting Citizen Kane?

Is it too soon to make a Whitney Houston joke?

Blacula is a fun and bewildering look into a strange time in American cinema and cultural history. Deeply entrenched in the 70's, the movie is full of stereotypes and certain language that would almost never fly in movies today. William Marshall is fun to watch, but he doesn't get a lot of help from some of his supporting cast. There is some violence, but not a whole lot of blood or gore. Blacula spawned a few other horror related blaxploitation movies such as Blackenstein, but I don't think I'll be searching for that one any time soon. Ultimately, Blacula has lots of problems, but it's still an entertaining watch, sometimes for the wrong reasons.

5/10

Day 229: Graveyard Shift

Graveyard Shift

Sure he's missing his eye and skin, but he still has his smile

Stephen King is a household name. While the mainstream audience knows him from his work on The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Stand By Me, we horror fans love him for his work on such classics as Children Of The Corn, Cujo, The Stand, and The Shining. King is able to create horror movies in believable setting and weave tales that are both compelling and horrifying. His stories are full of suspense yet we cannot look away. Being a superstar writer whose movies have also become big hits, I find it strange when I come across a movie based on his work that I've never heard of before. What could possibly be the reason?

Graveyard Shift is a 1990 horror movie based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. The movie stars David Andrews (Fight Club, Apollo 13) as John Hall, a drifter who has just arrived in a small town in Maine. He goes to the local textile mill and is able to procure a job from the manager, Mr. Warwick (Stephen Macht, General Hospital, The Monster Squad), a sadistic man that enjoys verbally abusing and punishing his workers. John works the graveyard shift, 11 pm to 7am, pulling cotton from a separating machine. The mill is infested with rats and John tries to scare them off by throwing empty soda cans at them with a slingshot. Warwick employs Tucker Cleveland (Brad Dourif, Deadwood, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers), a disturbed Vietnam veteran, as the mill's exterminator, but he is unable to keep the population under control. The mill should be closed down due to the infestation and potential fire hazards, but Warwick is able to bribe inspectors and keep it open. Workers sent down to clean up the basement start to disappear. When the exterminator goes into the graveyard next to the mill to kill rats, something pulls him down into the ground. Warwick send Hall and several other workers to clean up the basement. They discover a subterranean maze beneath the mill that leads into the adjacent graveyard. They also realize that they are not alone. Something is done their with them, picking them off one by one and eating them. Hall, an unraveling Warwick, and the rest try to flee onto to come across a mound of bones, belonging to missing workers and the graveyard. What is this horrible monster and how will they survive?

"Oh yeah, you're going to need that tooth removed."

Well, there's a good reason why I've never heard of this Stephen King movie: it's just not good. Graveyard Shift is a simple monster movie that takes way to long to get to the point, forcing the audience to sit through a whole lot of nothing. There are a few hints at the monster living beneath the mill, barely enough to keep things interesting. Despite John Hall being the main character of the movie, more time is spent on Mr. Warwick. He's the most developed and entertaining character in the movie, so I understand why, but then why bother with focusing on the background of Hall when it really doesn't matter. There's no need to make him a drifter if it really makes no difference. He could have just as easily been a regular worker. They tried to make him interesting and set him up as a hero, but it feels too hollow, mostly due to the story being stretched out. As a short story, I can see the appeal of Graveyard Shift, but as a full-length movie it doesn't work. The plot is very basic and when you stretch it out over and hour and a half, you realize how thin it really is.

The movie tries to make up for the lack of entertainment by cramming in a lot of excitement and violence in the last twenty minutes or so. When it finally becomes a horror movie, Graveyard Shift becomes far more watchable and fun to watch. The sets used for the underground tunnels look adequately creepy and the dark atmosphere plays nicely with the violence. The monster looks pretty good when it was finally revealed as some kind of giant, mutated bat. Making the monster a bat does beg the question of why were rats a big focus for most of the movie. Shouldn't the big monster be a rat? The inclusion of rats made me hope that the movie would be similar to H.P. Lovecraft's “The Rats In The Walls,” one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. While the stories are separate, the scene where Hall is climbing a huge pile of human bones in an underground labyrinth is straight out of “The Rats In The Walls” and was very cool to see. One thing that wasn't a problem in the movie was the acting. Everyone plays their part well with Stephen Macht and Brad Dourif putting in the best performances. 

"Have I ever told you about the time I was a doctor in the Old West?"

Graveyard Shift is a good short story, but as a full-length movie, it just doesn't work. Some short stories have enough going on with them that they can be stretched out and easily fill an hour and a half of screen time. The acting is good, so that's not the problem. Unfortunately, Graveyard Shift is unable to do this, leading to boring scenes and weak character development. Nothing of real importance happens until the last twenty minutes or so, which is a shame, because they are a pretty entertaining twenty minutes. They have action, suspense, scares, lots of blood, and even a fight between Hall and Warwick in which they hit each other with skeletons and bones. It's just not enough to make for a better movie.

5/10

Day 126: Vampire Bats

Vampire Bats

Bats all, folks!

It's Creature Feature Saturday once again. I was debating whether or not to watch George Romero's “Monkey Shines” for today, but I just couldn't commit to it's long running time (around 113 minutes), especially when the New York Rangers are playing right now. If I accidentally type “Shoot the damn puck!” that's why. Maybe I'll try it next week. It's not like I'm rushing to watch the latest CGI SyFy Channel animalfest. I wasn't sure what else to watch, but I saw that Xena, Warrior Princess herself, Lucy Lawless, starred in an animal horror movie. She's always enjoyable, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Vampire Bats is a 2005 horror/animal attack movie starring Lucy Lawless (Xena, Warrior Princess, Eurotrip) as college professor/scientist Maddy Rierdon. Maddy and her husband Dan are both professors at Tate University in Louisiana. Her students Jason, Eden, and Aaron go to an underground rave out in the bayou. They drink punch that is spiked with Ecstasy and Jason wanders off. Lost in the woods, he is attacked and killed by vampire bats. Sherriff Herbst questions Eden and Aaron in Jason's death, but Maddy is able to prove their innocence. She inspects Jason's body and points out vampire bat bite marks. The bites are strange and don't exactly match up to those of a typical vampire bat. More bat attacks occur, including at another rave and at a fancy yacht party attended by Maddy. After some investigation, it is revealed that a local chemical company called Carbide Waste Resources has been dumping chemicals in the local water, mutating the vampire bats. Mayor Poelker (Timothy Bottoms, The Paper Chase, The Girl Next Door) is working with Carbide and is trying to keep Maddy and her students from exposing them. Will Maddy be able to stop the bats and save the town?

Xena is deadly with a broom

This movie is better than your average animal-based horror movie, but not by much. The bats are thankfully not over-CGI'd or look like cheap Halloween decorations on strings. It's somewhere in the middle, but believable enough to not hinder the movie. The plot is pretty standard with an evil corporation poisoning the environment, mutating animals and turning them into murder machines. Unfortunately, not a lot of time or effort is given to said evil corporation. That aspect of the story only comes within the last 30 minutes or so. Most of the time is spent with a slow build for a movie that doesn't need one. It's just mutant bats, let them go nuts and eat some flesh. There's too much “in-between” time in the movie. That's not to say there's no action or blood, just not enough for my taste, and when they have close-up shots of the bats attacking, it looks incredibly fake.

Lucy Lawless is very good in her role and pretty to boot. Timothy Bottoms is a nice mixture of George W. Bush and Rick Santorum, so I feel OK when I want to smash his face in. The various college kids are fine and I never felt like they didn't belong in college, which is a problem for some horror movies. There are some plot holes in Vampire Bats that stuck out to me, particularly the local police department so easily giving information to Maddy after Jason's death. Jeez, has this place ever heard of protocol or standard procedures? They even let her inspect his body. A lawyer would have an aneurism over this type of negligence.

"This isn't an old bat...it's a new one! RUN!!!!"

Vampire Bats has it's moments, but overall, it's nothing special. Lucy Lawless puts in a good performance along with the rest of the cast, but it's not enough to overcome a plain story. The action is passable, but I would have preferred more. For creature features, you could do plenty worse than this movie, but you could also do better.

4/10