Halloween Bites! Abigail

“A ballerina vampire!“

With a brilliant combination of humor and horror, 2024’s Abigail sees six would-be kidnappers fighting for their lives against a sinister vampire……who happens to be a little girl. The movie stars Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, and Alisha Weir. The rest of the cast is rounded out by a number of excellent actors including Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, and Giancarlo Esposito.

The movie does an excellent job of providing plenty of laughs without sacrificing the horror element. It also has quite a few references to the classic Dracula (1931) film that launched Bela Lugosi to stardom. While this film hasn’t launched any careers yet, I have a feeling that a few of its stars, in particular Kathryn Newton, are well on their way to bigger and better things.

Abigail is definitely worth watching. It’s fun, a bit scary, and the perfect film to watch on a cold and dark night. I hope that there’s a sequel with Abigail teaming up with another vampire (I won’t say who), and based on the film’s success, that’s highly likely.

Halloween Bites! Near Dark

“We keep odd hours.”

A whirlwind night of puppy love with a beautiful stranger turns into a complete nightmare for Caleb Colton, as he becomes part of a vampire caravan that can’t decide whether he should join them or die. That’s the core plot of 1987’s Near Dark, a modern vampire western starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Bill Paxton, and Joshua John Miller. The film is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, best known for The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. The movie didn’t catch on at the box office, but eventually gained a cult following that continues to this day.

The film features cast members that Alien and Terminator fans know well. Henriksen, Goldstein, and Paxton all appeared in the Alien franchise and Paxton and Goldstein had small roles in the Terminator franchise. The trio, along with Miller and Wright, form a band of nomadic vampires that move from town to town, looking for victims. When Wright’s character, Mae, falls for her human victim, Caleb (Pasdar), she attempts to convince the group to let him become their newest member. Caleb struggles with becoming a vampire, refusing to kill but desperate to stay with Mae. Caleb’s father and sister, with no help from the local police, decide to look for him and end up as pawns in a deadly game between Caleb and the caravan.

Paxton was well on his way to establishing himself as an actor in this film and he basically steal the show. His character, Severen, has a close friendship with Jesse (Henriksen), who was a Confederate soldier in his human life. In turn, Jesse and Diamondback (Goldstein), are in a vampire relationship and represent the father and mother of the group. Homer (Miller) is apparently a very old vampire who is trapped in a child’s body. Mae (Wright) is the group’s newest member, and much like Caleb, she struggles with her new way of life.

Of all of the vampire films that hit the big screen in the 1980’s, Near Dark is one of the best in my opinion. It has a great story, wonderful practical effects, and an amazing cast. Be sure to watch it if you haven’t yet.

Halloween Bites! Buffy The Vampire Slayer

“Great. My secret weapon is PMS.“

While there are tons of people out there who swear that Sarah Michelle Gellar is the best Buffy, I’ll go to my grave knowing that Kristy Swanson portrayed Buffy first and best in the 1992 film Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The film stars Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, Luke Perry, and Paul Reubens. It also features a number of other actors that would go on to great careers in film and television including David Arquette, Hilary Swank, Thomas Jane, Ben Affleck, Ricki Lake, and Stephen Root.

In the film, Merrick (Sutherland) comes to Buffy’s school to tell her that she is a vampire slayer and the he will train her to protect humans from the immortal fiends. Her training proves to be difficult due to the fact that she’s a self-centered and immature cheerleader. When Lothos (Hauer) and his seedy sidekick, Amilyn, arrive to take over Los Angeles, Buffy takes charge. Along with her new friend, Pike (Perry), Buffy squares off against Lothos and his legion of new bloodsuckers in a climactic battle at the prom. Who wins? Check out Buffy The Vampire Slayer and find out for yourself!

This film is funny and features some great action sequences to boot. Paul Reubens, appearing in his first major role after being arrested for indecent exposure in 1991, hammed it up as Amilyn. He’s one of the best parts of this film and his death scene has become one of the most memorable vampire deaths in film history if you ask me. While Luke Perry wasn’t the star of the film, but his star power definitely attracted some of the film’s audience thanks to his role as Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. Kristy Swanson continued working in film and television and does so to this day. A few of her career highlights include The Phantom (1996), Big Daddy (1998), and Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000). I have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Swanson on two occasions and I highly recommend meeting her if you ever get the chance.

If you’re looking for a lighter vampire flick that’s tons of fun, definitely check out Buffy The Vampire Slayer. You won’t regret it! Oh, and here’s a photo of yours truly and the lovely Kristy Swanson!

Halloween Bites! Stake Land

“We were on our own now, me and Mister.”

When you think of post-apocalyptic horror, zombies almost always come to mind. That, or aliens or something along those lines. For 2010’s Stake Land, it’s vampires that have run rampant across the world. It’s this world where we get to witness the struggles of life in a vampire epidemic for Mister and Martin, two strangers who befriend one another in order to survive and decide to make their way to a protected city in Canada called New Eden.

The vampires in this film are fast and brutal. They also appear to be evolving. To top it all off, there are cults that have arisen that worship the vampires and hunt down humans that prove to be very good at killing these newfound gods. One of the deadliest vampire hunters in the United States, now known as Stake Land, is Mister, and he has drawn the attention of the vicious Brotherhood. He decides to team up wit a young boy named Martin and they attempt to make their way to New Eden in Canada.

While making their way north, the duo befriend a nun, a young pregnant woman, and a man called Willie. They square off with the Brotherhood on a number of occasions, with a sinister leader named Jebedia that proves to be a challenging foe. Do the two heroes make it to New Eden? Watch Stake Land in order to find out what happens!

The film has a solid cast that features Nick Damici as Mister, Connor Paolo as Martin, Kelly McGillis as Sister, Danielle Harris as Belle, Sean Nelson as Willie, and Michael Cerveris as Jebedia. All of them do a great job in their roles.

Be sure to check out Stake Land. You won’t regret it!

Halloween Bites! 30 Days Of Night

“You keep shooting and they just….they just keep coming.”

I’m not quite sure if any vampire film prior to 2007’s 30 Days Of Night ever visited the concept of vampires in Alaska, but it’s a really cool idea and I’m glad that someone finally put it on celluloid. The story takes place in a small town in northern Alaska called Barrow. Most of the town’s citizens are heading south while a few will stay behind to endure thirty days of night. Seeing this as a potential all-you-can-eat buffet, a group of vampires arrive in town in order to feast upon those that stay behind with zero threat from the sun rising for a month. Barrow’s sheriff heads up a small group of humans that battle to stay alive as they wait for the sun to finally return to their terrorized town.

The film stars Josh Hartnett as Sheriff Eben Oleson and Melissa George as his estranged wife, Stella. The vampires are headed up by Marlow, portrayed with sinister perfection by Danny Huston. The film also features Ben Foster, Manu Bennett, Amber Sainsbury, Mark Boone Junior, Megan Franich, and Mark Rendall. All of the cast do excellent jobs, but Huston, Franich, and the rest of the vampires are particularly fun to watch.

The vampires really breathe life into this film. They are portrayed as brutal, super fast, super strong, and highly intelligent. They get joy from “playing with their food,” and Marlow loves it when the humans fight back. The vampires also speak their own unique language. They are excellent.

I highly recommend this film. It has excellent pacing, a great cast, and some amazing action and horror sequences.

Halloween Bites! Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat

“This is no life for a vampire!”

After years of living peacefully deep in the American West, a group of reformed vampires find themselves in a fight for their immortal lives when a rebellion rises that threatens to endanger not only the peaceful town of Purgatory, but of all humanity. This sets the stage for 1989’s vampire western comedy, Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat. The film’s cast is loaded with a litany of amazing character actors including M. Emmet Walsh, Jim Metzler, Sunshine Parker, Bert Remsen, Buck Flower, and John Ireland. It stars David Carradine, Morgan Brittany, Bruce Campbell, Deborah Foreman, and Maxwell Caulfield. Carradine portrays Mardulak, the leader of the Purgatory community and Ireland plays Ethan, who heads up a vampire rebellion hoping to return to feasting upon humans. Thrown into the mix is the human Harrison family and Robert Van Helsing, who happen to be in the town when the rebellion begins.

The film does a wonderful job of blending comedy, action, and horror. It also features amazing cinematography, utilizing the beauty of locations such as Arches National Park to perfection. The film does get a tad silly at times but, overall, it’s a really enjoyable flick. The quality of the cast and the cult appeal of actors like Bruce Campbell and David Carradine almost guarantee that certain audiences will flock to this film, but it deserves a much larger audience.

If you enjoy westerns, vampire horror, comedy, or some mixture of these genres, you’ll love this film. I really enjoyed watching it and I wish that I would have discovered it earlier. It’s currently available on a number of subscription streaming services and October is the perfect month to check it out as we get closer to Halloween.

Halloween Bites! Vamps (2012)

“You’ll get rats to put on condoms?

Amy Heckerling directs the sugary sweet vampire comedy, Vamps (2012). Heckerling is best known for a string of hit films that she directed including 1982’s Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Look Who’s Talking (1989), and Clueless (1995). The film stars Heckerling’s Clueless lead, Alicia Silverstone, and Krysten Ritter, perhaps best known for her work in Jessica Jones (2015-2019). The film also features Dan Stevens, Wallace Shawn, Justin Kirk, Kristen Johnston, and Richard Lewis. Sigourney Weaver has a small but crucial role in the film as Ciccerus, the “stem” vampire that made Silverstone and Ritter’s characters, Goody and Stacy. Also keep an eye out for Malcolm McDowell as a very domesticated Vlad Tepish and Taylor Negron in a brief cameo that calls back to one of Heckerling’s early films.

In the film, Goody and Stacy are a pair of young (looking) vampires that share an apartment, party, and run a pest control company together. They also abstain from consuming human blood, choosing to feed on the rats that they catch through their company. Goody runs into an old lover in the film and Stacy falls for the son of Dr. Van Helsing. When a plot is discovered to out vampires, the duo combine forces with humans and vampires to save their race. They also run into trouble with Ciccerus. You’ll have to watch the film to find out what happens.

Vamps is funny and features an amazing cast. When compared to some of Heckerling’s more popular films, however, it definitely falls a tad shy of their quality. That being said, it’s still work a look. I really enjoyed it and never felt as if I was wasting my time. Silverstone and Ritter work extremely well together and I’d love to see them team up again. I also enjoyed the performance of the late Richard Lewis. The only actor that seemed to phone in their performance was Sigourney Weaver who just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm in this movie.

This film flew under the radar for most folks, getting a limited release in theaters and then quickly hitting shelves on Blu-ray and DVD. Despite this, I believe that most fans of vampire films will appreciate this fun film.

Halloween Bites! Subspecies (1991)

The Night Has Fangs

Directed by Ted Nicolaou, written by a team that includes B-movie master Charles Band, and backed by Full Moon Features, 1991’s direct-to-video Subspecies breathed new life into the slowly fading corpse of the vampire film genre. The film tells the story of rival brothers Stefan and Radu, two vampires with very different outlooks on their eternal lives. Stefan (Michael Watson) hopes to live as much of a normal life as he can without harming humans. His grotesque, outcast brother, Radu (Anders Hove), plans to seize power from their father (Phantasm’s Angus Scrimm) and begin a reign of terror with a vampire queen by his side. That queen, Radu hopes, will be the lovely Michelle (Laura Mae Tate), who happens to be in Romania studying the local culture with her friends Mara (Irina Movila) and Lillian (Michelle McBride). The two brothers square off against one another with Michelle and her friends caught in the crossfire. Be sure to watch this wonderful B-flick that far exceeds expectations.

Despite its low budget, Subspecies clicks with the audience. There are genuine moments of horror throughout the film and the trio of Michelle, Radu, and Stefan all work well together. The film spawned four sequels (all of which featured Anders Hove as Radu) that slowly degraded in quality and one spinoff film, Vampire Journals (1997) that expanded upon the mythos of Radu and his lineage.

The film features some excellent stop-motion effects and gore and a very solid musical score. It also has a few scenes of female toplessness, something that was a token part of many direct-to-video films in the 1980s and 1990s. The locations and cinematography also prove to be much better than they should be considering the fact that this is a Full Moon film.

Be sure to check out this flick. Radu will have you pulling for him in no time despite the fact that he’s the bad guy!

Halloween Bites! Nosferatu (1922)

“The Master is near…..”

Released in 1922, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror is the first vampire film to ever grace the big screen according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A blatant rip-off of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, Murnau changed the names of the characters and the ultimate demise of the villain in order to avoid legal action by Stoker’s widow, Florence. These moves failed, however, and Florence’s legal team sought to have all versions of the film destroyed. Very few complete original prints of the film exist as a result. A number of secondary versions of the film which included “translations” of character names to the names of the original characters from Stoker’s novel did survive and many of them have been used to create multiple versions of the film.

The silent film stars Max Schreck as Graf Orlok, the vampire that becomes infatuated with Ellen (Greta Schroder), the wife of Orlok’s real estate agent, Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim). Orlok terrorizes the local town, murdering numerous people, as he attempts to take Ellen for his own. You’ll have to watch this legendary film in order to find out what happens!

This film truly is a silent masterpiece. It’s one of my favorite films of all time. I especially love the sad ending of the film and I highly recommend watching it. It is available for free across a number of streaming services. The biggest problem with the film today is that so many versions of it exist that it is very difficult to find an original German version of it with decent intertitles in English, Spanish, or other languages. Despite this, I still recommend seeking out a decent version of this film. It is excellent!

Thirty-One Days O’Horror Returns!

You’re Gonna Drink Up This Year’s Theme!

Vampires! Vampires! Vampires! Need I say more???? While I know that I haven’t been around as much as I’d like to this year (thanks to major changes at my job), I will definitely continue my October tradition of Thirty-One Days O’Horror. This year I’ll be taking a look at thirty-one vampire films and franchises. From new vampire flicks like Abigail to classics like Dracula’s Daughter, I’ll give fans of the fang thirty-one delicious treats to sink their teeth into as we all get ready for Halloween!

I hope that you are as excited about this year’s theme as I am, because I’ve been taking a deep dive into some great vampire flicks. Some of the films and franchises that I’ll be talking about are very well known, but I’ve also found a few films that might have flown under your radar.

Get ready, because Thirty-One Days O’Horror is right around the corner. See you next month!