https://soundcloud.com/deadairpodcast/panels-of-blood-ep-1-vampirella-pt-1-feast-of-shadows
Episode 1 of Panels of Blood takes you on an oral journey through the pages of the 2014 Nancy Collins run of VAMPIRELLA. Enjoy, like comment and share.
Big thanks to Chris Bugarin for the new art and Rick Hunter for composing the new theme music. You can find his stuff here www.youtube.com/user/57RickH
For more Podcast check out splatterpictures.net
Awhile I ago I was writing about the zombie genre through the last hundred years or so in film, when I got to Night of the Living Dead, I explained that Romero’s inspiration for the Ghouls that devoured the flesh of the living was derived from Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend. A lot of you will be familiar with the 2007 film starring Will Smith.
When I am Legend was about to hit theatres, they were saying that it was based off of the novel of the same name, and some people went as far as to mention that the 1971 film The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston was also an attempt to adapt the novel.
But before all of that, before Will Smith and Charlton Heston and before Romero would reshape the entire concept of what a zombie was; there was the 1964 film called The Last Man on Earth that starred the great Vincent Price.
I came across this movie completely by accident. A few years ago I had bought one of those giant movie pack box sets. You know the ones? Like fifty classic horror films all in one package (all public domain films). I was shuffling through the titles after I got home and that title in particular intrigued me enough that it was the first movie I watched out of the set.
About halfway through my young ignorant mind made me say “wow this is just like I am Legend, I wonder if this is some first attempt at the movie?” well it obviously is and even though I have never read the book by Matheson, I have seen all three of the interpretations of the book on film and this one is easily my favourite.
Like I said the movie was released in 1964 (a short ten years after Matheson wrote the book) it was actually partially written by Matheson aswell but he didn’t like it and decided not to get credited on it.
The movie starts with showing Dr. Robert Morgan’s (Price) daily routine. He wakes, he checks his home’s security, Mirrors and garlic, he eats even though he finds the process boring and only a means of survival, he runs down everything he has to do, remove bodies from his property and take them to a giant pit to be burned, he needs gas and more garlic, he makes stakes and then goes hunting. That’s right it’s another vampire flick and I swear I don’t mean for them to come up as often as they do. A good portion of his day also consists of going door to door in his city killing as many vampires as he can.
There are a series of flashbacks that start to explain what happened. Three years ago, a strange plague coming out of Europe started to sweep the world. It’s an air born virus and it threatens to reach the United States. Dr. Morgan is optimistic, and has a staunch scientific mind that refuses to believe in the concept of a universal disease that could wipe out everyone. He and his friend Ben Cortman work at the Mercer Institute of Chemical research and are one of the many global facilities trying to find a cure.
Cortman is more inclined to believe that there might be no hope and that the rumours of some of the dead coming back to life are coming back as vampires; showcasing all of their weaknesses and desires and that the government is trying to cover up knowing the truth.
Soon the plague starts affecting Morgan’s own family, his young daughter (Christi Courtland) loses her sight and blindly paws at the air. I think it was supposed to be tragic but it comes off as pretty funny in my opinion. His wife (Emma Danieli) succumbs soon after and is the first person Morgan sees comes back to life and he is forced to kill her.
The ghouls that return are pretty different from any interpretation I’ve seen. They are zombie-like, with barely any intelligence or strength. Morgan lives in a basic two story house and they can’t seem to break in at all. His friend Ben (now a vampire-ghoul-thing) constantly calls his name and tries to pathetically get through the door.
The film hinges on Price’s performance. Morgan is a broken man, who does nothing but survive, he watches old home movies, and just breaks down into a hysterical fits of laughter that soon turns to tears as he remembers the life that will never be. He doesn’t even have any characters to interact with until towards the end of the movie he first finds a dog, that he befriends (this was what tipped it off to me that it was similar to I Am Legend) sadly he realizes that the pooch is infected and has to take ole yeller out back…if you know what I mean.
Later things get interesting when he meets a woman named Ruth Collins (Franca Bettoia) she exhibits some signs of vampirism but is somehow able to keep command of her mind.
It’s revealed that while a majority of the vampires are nearly mindless ghouls, there does exist another kind who are intelligent and are attempting to rebuild their society. This is where the message of the film seems to come into play. Morgan is the last man on earth and now is the one person who is unlike the rest of society and therefore the true monster.
In the Omega Man and I Am Legend the films end with a glimmer of hope. One that might suggest that mankind will make a comeback, but not this one. Last Man on Earth ends telling us that the age of mankind is over. The final moments of the film are just fantastic and overall this is worth a watch. Like I said its public domain and can be found just about anywhere.
See yah next time and thanks for reading!
There is a lot of horror out there, and I mean a lot. No scratch that. There is a lot of cinema out there. The sheer number of films that get made a year is staggering. Especially if you consider every film that gets released, not just the stuff that makes it to theatres. We just don’t have enough time in a day to watch everything.
A lot of my friends like to say that I seem like the type of person who’s seen or heard of everything; especially in regards to horror. Let me tell you that it couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a tonne of stuff out there that I haven’t seen. Every time I slip open a genre magazine, like Rue Morgue or VideoScope I am seeing advertisements or reviews of stuff I’ve never even heard of let alone watched.
One of the reasons I started this site was so that I would have an opportunity to see horror that I normally wouldn’t be able to. It’s equal parts research and dumb luck that leads me to a lot of the stuff I end up watching.
I recently was visiting a friend of mine; he’s always had an impressive and varied taste in movies. Really his collection has something for everyone. Mine is pretty genre specific and as time goes on it only gets more so. While looking for something to watch my finger passed over the Movie Cronos, it looked interesting, I checked the back. “Whoa this movie was directed by Guillermo Del Toro?” I kept reading “Whoa this movie has Ron Perlman in it” I read further “10th anniversary special edition?” How did this movie completely blow past me on all fronts? Apparently this film, by a director I love, and containing an actor I enjoy, was released or rather re-released without my knowledge. Now, let’s be clear about something.
Guillermo Del Toro is an excellent director, and I have yet to find a movie he did that I dislike but like most people, I had no idea who he was until things like Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. The latter being a particular favourite of mine. Also, since another Del Toro horror flick is set to be released this month, it seems oddly appropriate.
Cronos was released in 1993 and is a Spanish language film. It stars Frederico Luppi and Ron Perlman, funnily enough he speaks English through most of it.. It also has Tamara Shanath, to round out the immediate cast.
The film starts off explaining that hundreds of years ago an alchemist created the Cronos device, it would enable the user to live forever provided they keep using it. The Alchemist himself dies about four hundred years later, through a massive chest wound when his house collapsed in on him. After that the device goes missing and nobody is able to find it.
We then meet a kindly old antiques dealer named Jesús Gris (Luppi) and his granddaughter Aurora (Shanath). They discover inside of a statue the Cronos device and while trying to figure it out, Gris winds it up and accidentally sets it off, having no idea what it will do to him.
It’s never really explained how the device works, although it eventually is revealed that inside of it there is some kind of insect that apparently can survive just fine inside of it. The insect is fused with clockwork of the device and the solution it creates is what grants the user eternal life.
Nothing comes without a price and Gris soon realizes that he is changing, not only is he getting younger and more energetic he is also starting to crave blood.
Also, unknown to him is that there is another man who is looking for the device for his own use; Dieter de la Guardia played rather well by the late Claudio Brook. He is sick and dying and wants to use the device to cheat death. He sends his Nephew Angel de la Guardia (Perlman) all over the place looking for it. It’s obvious they hate eachother, and their interactions are some of the highlights of the movie.
The device seems to have an addictive quality to it and Gris can’t help himself but keep using it, despite the fears of his granddaughter Aurora. Throughout off of this she is basically what is grounding him to humanity; she seems to love him unconditionally and will do anything to help him, so long as he doesn’t leave her.
Because he seems to be becoming addicted to using it he also is unwilling to hand it over when De La Gaurdia finds out he has it, they have a series of interactions but eventually out of desperation Gris is murdered for the device. This prompts his resurrection and at this point he is so far gone from this kind old grandfather he was in the first half of the movie that it’s really remarkable.
His skin rots and falls off to reveal a pale undead look underneath; he has an aversion to sunlight and needs blood to…wait a minute. Don’t all of these things make him a vampire? Well yup, it does. Cronos is a well hidden vampire movie, to be sure but it’s pretty subtle and he doesn’t seem to have supernatural powers aside from not being able to die without destroying his heart.
The pacing of the film is kinda slow, and I could have done with a little bit more on the horror side, but if you liked Pan’s Labyrinth I really can’t imagine not liking this, because they are pretty similar in tone.
I have a lot more for you guys in the near future so stay tuned and thanks for reading!
Hello all! Please forgive the late entry for the three part digital chin wag on Vampire films before 1935. We’ve already taken a look at Nosforatu, the silent film that started the genre, and Universal’s Dracula, the first and (arguable) the best portrayal of the most famous blood sucker. Check my notes for a full run-down on both movies, I will definitely be switching gears here and discuss my all time favourite Vampire movie, simply titled “Vampyr” ((no fancy links no proper trailer to show))
Vampyr was made in 1932 by Danish director Carl Dreyer, the most interesting thing about this film is that it uses source material from Sheridan Le Fanu’s “In the Glass Darkly, most specifically, it takes from the short story Carmilla, and also portions of “The Room in the Dragon Volant” The part that is interesting is that these short stories are what inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula twenty-five years later.
The film itself was very low budget So much so that most of it was funded by Nicolas Gunzburg, who also starred in the film under a different name.
The ironic thing about this movie was how hated it was, first screenings in France were met with boos by the audience, which caused Dreyer to re-cut it after the premier. It was his first sound film but it was recorded in three languages, a process that was very expensive so, the film actually has very little dialogue and relies on bizarre imagery more akin to a silent film.
The story is about a man named Allan Gray who arrives at a mysterious inn, when the film starts it already has an extremely creepy vibe, I remember watching it late at night and being a little put off by the old man with the scythe. The movie follows a disorienting atmosphere and you can never really tell if Gray is awake or asleep in many of the scenes.
This film in general is very subdued and low budget offering a different kind of horror experience that is very visual, The story keeps you guessing and I don’t want to give too much away, Ironically only later in life did critics turn around on Vampyr, the very things that audiences and critics hated about it at the time are what are praised today. Sadly much of this film was lost to the sands of time, but a fairly complete versions exist, although with somewhat butchered audio, and only in the original German. Like always, the whole thing is up on Youtube so give it a watch if you got the time.
This is the last of my Vampire series, I just wanted to maybe shed some light on a few things since nowadays, the genre has changed dramatically mostly due to things like Twilight, True Blood, and Vampire Diaries. I will say that the horror is certainly gone from these creatures, and I frankly don’t like it. It is interesting how Hollywood and media in general propelled vampires into the public psyche and not for the better. It’s all about making them sexy, making them appealing when really, aren’t they supposed to be evil monsters? *le sigh* stay tuned I have some more things coming up, hope you enjoyed and I’ll see you next time.
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