Vampire Den

Let Me In - Hollywood Adaptation of Swedish Film - Let The Right One In

2010-08-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

As outcasts of society, two children create a fervent and deadly bond with one another in the soon-to-be released film, Let Me In - an adaptation of the Swedish film, Let The Right One In.

During cold winter’s nights, a friendless, bullied boy (Owen) of divorced and neglectful parents befriends Abby, the girl-next-door (hardly the typical girl-next-door) who lives with her elusive guardian.

Only at night this young lady appears in bare feet as the harsh winter doesn’t seem to bother her deathly cold flesh.

The people of this small town are rattled by a series of murders, and the boy’s classmate bullies become the bullied as his new friend proves to be eerily adept at providing protection as part of her undying friendship to Owen.

Let Me In will be available to entertain vampire sycophants, slaves and puppets at theaters October 2010. Until then, my fingers are crossed that this film proves to be thirst quenching, however, I remain dubious it will match its Swedish predecessor.

Photo/Image Credit: Let Me In movie, ComingSoon.net

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True Blood Season 3: Sookie, Bill and the Rest

2010-06-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: HBO Poster

Let’s just say I’ve woken from a long slumber. Thus the long silence in vampire news.

As all vampire lore seekers are aware, this evening introduced the third season of True Blood, the HBO television series based on the Charlaine Harris novels about a supernatural Louisiana town called Bon Temps.

Until now the show has featured vampires, shape shifters and a mainad who temporarily took over the town. According to the lore on the streets, werewolves will be added to the mix of legendary beings. They actually brought in real wolves that the actors interacted with.

Like the previous season, season three began where season two left off – right where vampire Bill is seen being taken from the French restaurant he’s just proposed to Sookie at.

Amidst wolves howling in the background, a group of rough and dirty men shove vampire Bill into the backseat of a car. Pinning him with silver chains, the men swinishly steal Bill’s blood. At least one of the men is shown baring the tattooed sign of the werewolf.

Typical of True Blood, other side stories are materializing alongside the main plot: Sam Merlotte in search of a family by the name of Mickens and the Queen of Louisiana desperate for cash – even by means of selling V (vampire blood) on the streets. The Queen has vampire Eric embroiled in a sticky V drug ring that proves to entangle V dealer, Lafayette who’s indebted to the vampires for sparing his life for selling V in the first place. Then there’s the vampire Magister who oversees the vampire rulebook. He’s also keenly aware of a V conspiracy that he’s determined to get to the bottom of it.

Readers of the novels can look forward to changes in the story keeping the twists and turns unpredictable. Reading the books and watching the show are like alternate realities to one another.

See this season's cast of characters.

Thirst

2009-08-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

Thirst (Bakjwi), the 2009 vampire foreign film written and directed by Park Chan-wook is a story of a priest who volunteers for a secret medical experiment that will hopefully wipe out a deadly virus. The experiment goes awry, and the priest has to get a blood transfusion that happens to be infected turning him into a vampire. It seems to tell the tale of a tortured soul (the priest) who find himself seeking pleasures of the flesh and all the things a priest shouldn’t do.

I’m not sure this sounds like an interesting vampire plot for people like me who feed on classic lore with shadowy willows, dusty lairs, misty graveyards, and flamboyantly glamorous vamps, but I haven’t seen the film yet, so I’ll wait to review it.

Photo Credit: IMDB photos from Thirst

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Blood Canticle

2009-08-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

Anne Rice’s final book to the Vampire Chronicle series, Blood Canticle, is a supernatural symphony for her readers as it connects the Vampire Chronicles with the Mayfair Witches and the Taltos before she moves on forever to writings inspired by Catholicism.

In this canticle, vampire Lestat continues his struggle against his dark vampire nature as his quest for purity continues to transform him. At the same time, he discovers the secret of the Taltos as he tries to rescue a witch from madness and save a witch baby. He interacts with a few ghosts too.

Other favorite characters include the witch, Rowan Mayfair and her husband Michael Curry, their niece, Mona (a dying witch), Quinn Blackwood of Blackwood Farm and the ghost of the patriarchal witch, Julien Mayfair as he tries to protect his family from vampirism.

In 2003 when this book was published, I had the opportunity of having my copy signed by Anne Rice. Coincidently, two blood bank buses were parked in front of Warwick’s Bookstore in La Jolla and Anne Rice was inside with her team sitting regally behind a desk and wearing all black with a large silver cross dangling from her neck - a perfect ending to my favorite vampire legends of all time.

Photo/Artwork Credit: AnneRice.com

http://www.annerice.com/Bookshelf-BloodCanticle.html

Dracula by Bram Stoker

2009-08-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Since I’ve savored the various Dracula movies from Tod Browning’s 1931 version starring Bela Lugosi to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version starring Gary Oldman and some others like Erle C. Kenton’s 1945 House of Dracula starring John Carradine, I determined it was nigh time I read the writings of the author who inspired such vampire frenzy and cult following for over a century.

So, I picked up Bram Stoker’s Dracula and haven’t been able to put it down since. The story develops by journal entries and letters between the characters with dates that aren’t always in perfect order, which keeps you hanging on as a reader wondering which character will write next.

The beginning section where Dracula’s solicitor, Jonathon Harker travels from England to the far edges of Eastern Europe to the Carpathian Mountains to Dracula’s dilapidated and musty estate is foreboding. As you discover along with the solicitor that his visit is actually an imprisonment that will end in his death, you feel his fear with each journal entry. Conversations between the solicitor and Dracula give insight into the creature’s past as well as plants seeds to many questions as to his abilities and motive.

Bram Stoker began penning Dracula in 1890, and it was published in 1897 where it was then acted out on stage at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Photo/Image Credit: Postcard of Bran Castle

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/index.html

True Blood: Episodes 18 and 19 Commentary

2009-08-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Is everyone as enthusiastically anticipating the destruction of the perfidious Fellowship of the Sun church as I am? Next week…

The past two episodes of True Blood have been overflowing with supernatural strangeness while the pieces come together and unfold to reveal more secrets of the extraordinary town of Bon Temps.

While vampire Bill is in Texas with human girlfriend Sookie and vampire sheriff Eric getting to the bottom of a vampire gone missing (they believe he's being held hostage by the Fellowship of the Sun), Bill's maker Lorena returns and holds him hostage while Sookie gets into a snare. Meanwhile, Eric’s maker (also the missing vampire) shows up in the final scene saving Sookie from a savage attacker.

Pothead Maryann attempts to use Sam Merlotte as a pagan sacrifice after his new girlfriend betrays him, but after he shape-shifts into a bird and flies away, Maryann must sacrifice one of her loyal followers.

We found out Maryann is the offspring of Dionysus, the god of wine who inspires ritual madness and ecstasy. Maryann is a powerful goddess of the underworld. That explains her goblets of wine, fat joints and dance parties that get out of control.

An amusing scene is when Detective Andy Bellefleur stumbles from the woods into the midst of a satanic celebration where the whole town of Bon Temps dances naked around a pit of fire–all with glazed-over black eyeballs. Maryann controls them from the center wearing a horned devils head while her hands turn into beast-like claws. Detective Bellefleur ventures to break up the party, but is stopped when his possessed cousin snaps his arm. The next day, no one remembers a thing except the Detective and they all think he’s a drunken lunatic.

Photo Credit: TruBlood beverage

See recaps and previews.
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/video.html

Preorder your supply of TruBlood.
http://www.trubeverage.com/

Let the Right One In: Swedish Vampire Film

2009-07-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

“Let the Right One In” (Låt den rätte komma in) is a 2008 Swedish film by director, Tomas Alfredson based on the novel by horror writer, John Ajvide Lindqvist. Receiving numerous Best Foreign Language Film awards and nominations, it’s been said to be one of the most original and haunting vampire movies ever made.

The characters, a pale, bullied boy, Oskar and an ethereal raven-haired girl, Eli drift through dreamy snow scenes to icy ambient music. Friendship between them is sweet yet intensely chilling.

Eli is twelve and will continue to move through time as a twelve year-old as long as she stays out of the sun and gets fed.

Photo Credit: IMDB Movie Poster

http://www.lettherightoneinmovie.com/
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/movies/24righ.html
Teaching Social Media

Ramblings On True Blood: Season 2

2009-07-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

Season two of True Blood expands on the dubious bleeding heart creature known as Maryann Forrester played by Michelle Forbes who suddenly appears in Bon Temps with her enigmatic pet pig, carnal shindigs and her ceaseless appetite for feasting upon tables laden with fruits and other delicacies.

This woman dashes around town in her red convertible like Magnum P.I. spreading her self-improvement message while mentoring troubled souls like Tara Thornton who she takes into her lavish home, which later turns out to be owned by someone else (the pet pig perhaps). Maryann does have this little knack for making shape shifters turn into their animal form and keeping them there.

I like this character and this actor who I remember from Star Trek Next Generation.

Last season, I agreed with vampire, Eric Northman and his assistant, Pam, that newbie teenage vampire, Jessica Hamby was “very annoying.” But, this season, I’m digging this devious redhead chick who is experiencing becoming woman and vampire at the same time. She has the trickery of any teenage girl–just don’t get between her and her bottle of True Blood.

Then there’s the enigmatic devil creature in the forest who leaves deep claw marks on its victim’s backs and the Church of the Sun run by people–who seem like they should be from the Latter Day Saints–that are using Sookie’s brother to lead their all-out vampire annihilation crusade.

Though I’ve read a couple of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, I will not read the novel that inspired this season until it concludes.

http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/season2/

My Top Five Vampire Reads by Anne Rice

2009-07-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

1. The Vampire Lestat
2. Interview with a Vampire
3. Queen of the Damned
4. Blood and Gold
5. Pandora

The Vampire Lestat is a book about everyone’s favorite vampire and is the sequel to Interview with a Vampire. In the first book, Lestat is an unlikable fiend, but in his autobiography (The Vampire Lestat), you quickly fall under his spell and become mesmerized by his fiendish, arrogant ways. He wakes up after a 100-year slumber in the modern world, becomes a rock god, and tells the story of his mysterious past.

Interview with a Vampire is a gothic tale you can’t put down. After I read it for the first time (years ago), I was hooked forever on Anne Rice’s mystical vampires. It is the only book I know of that features a diabolical child vampire who can never grow up.

Queen of the Damned is the only legend that comprehensively explains vampire mystery. Every secret you wanted to know is revealed. It’s terribly satisfying.

Blood and Gold is the fantastic tale of the vampire Marius, protector of the vampire Queen and King. Taking place in pagan Rome and during the Renaissance, you get to find out more about his androgenous, boy-love apprentice, Armand.

Pandora is about a highborn woman in Rome (made vampire by Marius) and her adventures in the ancient world. One of the most macabre scenes in this tale is when she travels to the east and spends time with the abhorrent vampire, Elagabalus.

http://www.annerice.com/Bookshelf-VampireChronicles.html

How-to Make a Vampire

2009-07-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Obviously, you have to be a vampire to make another vampire. Typically, the transformation experience is both a hair-raising and ecstatic one for the person being turned that involves an exchange of blood, human death and rebirth as an immortal.

The following are a few basic methods from various vampire legends.

Method 1:

1. Bite and feed on the human’s blood until they are totally drained and on the brink of death.
2. Feed the human your vampire blood by biting your wrist (they won’t want to drink at first, but they quickly become greedy, and you will eventually have to push them off).
3. Allow the human’s body to go through the painful process of physical death and explain to them what is happening. Reassure them that once the death is complete they will be vampire and a world of extra senses and abilities will be available to them as well as immortality. (It’s best to be nurturing)

Method 2:

1. Bite and feed on the human until they are totally drained and on the brink of death.
2. Feed the human your vampire blood by biting your wrist.
3. Have your servant dig you a deep grave (preferably in a graveyard).
4. Take your new fledging into the earth with you before sunrise.
5. When the sun sets on the following evening, you will both rise as vampire.

Method 3:

1. Hover around the human’s open window and watch them sleep for a few nights until you feel comfortable enough to float inside the window.
2. Creep up to the sleeping human’s bed and bite them (keep doing this for a few nights).
3. Begin feeding the human your blood by the end of the week or so.
4. The human will die after while, there will be a funeral and the human will be buried.
5. Once buried, your fledgling will transform into vampire and dig their way out of the earth in search of you.

To observe method 2, watch episode 11 of True Blood Season 1:
http://horror.about.com/od/trueblood/a/trueblood1.htm

True Blood and Twilight–the Current Vampire Craze

2009-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

The two vampire chillers this past year have been True Blood and Twilight. True Blood, the HBO series from the Charlaine Harris novels about a mind-reading misfit and the town she lives in where supernatural creatures like vampires commingle, will make one’s coffin creak with anticipation each week as a town mystery unfolds. Twilight, is soft-core vampire lore from the Stephanie Meyer young-adult novel and is the rage for teenage girls at the moment.

My preference is True Blood where vampire lore meets the twenty-first century. In this legend, Vampires have gone mainstream thanks to a Japanese engineered synthetic blood drink that is served in a bottle like beer after being warmed in a microwave, but true to their unnatural predatory nature, the vampires prefer savoring real human blood when they get the chance (though they hide this from society).

I’ve heard the vampires of Twilight exist on animal blood instead of human. This bit of modern legend waters down the true nature of the vampire by making them fit into a comfortable and friendly place in the human heart.

The human fascination with that which is vampire gives modern writers the temptation to soften the vampire giving it compassionate human traits, but the vampire is a predator animated from death by a demonic life-force that gives it an insatiable appetite for human blood that is not within its power to control.

Want to know more about True Blood? Here’s a link to the official show site and a chilling wiki:
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/season2/
http://truebloodwiki.hbo.com/

New Moon trailer (sequel to Twilight):
http://www.twilightthemovie.com/