Saturday, July 20, 2013

365 Days- Day 68

movie: Vampires the Turning
starring: Colin Egglesfield, Patrick Bauchau
genre: Action, Martial Arts,
year: 2005
format: DVD

plot:After his girlfriend is kidnapped by a vampire, a martial arts fighter ends up becoming a member of a team of vampire hunters in order to save her. And in order to get the advantage, becomes a vampire himself.

Not a lot of plot here. Good guy vamps all around vs the bad guy vamps, with the hunters for hire being almost an after thought. This has many of the main elements from the first two movies in the John Carpenter's series - the way the hunters trap and kill the vampires, the fact they are paid to do so by the Vatican, and that they work as a team to get rid of nests. It's also a Destination Film like the second movie. But, even though it is the third film in the trilogy, and the menu has a shot of the vampire from the first film, it does not have John Carpenter's name the title. 

I have to say, I just finished watching this and can't tell you half of what happened. It's just that forgettable- and I've seen it twice before so go figure.

what do i think i learned from this film? Sometimes the bad guys are the good guys and the good guys are the bad guys.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

365 Days-Day 67

movie: The Evil Dead (remake)
starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Jane Levy
genre: Horror,
year: 2013
format: Shaw Video On Demand

plot: A group of friends go to an old family cabin in order to help one of them get off of drugs. Once there, they find that the basement of the cabin had been used by locals for an exorcism, and one member of the group finds the dreaded book of the dead. They end up unleashing something after reading the book

Okay, for starters, yes I've interrupted the John Carpenter's Vampire trilogy. I had the chance to rent the remake of Evil Dead and decided to.
And some of you are thinking, what? how is it a vampire film?  It follows the main rules of hollywood vampirism, dead things back from the dead that bite causing other dead things back from the dead. Which is why the whole zombie thing is a sub-genre of vampires.

This film is one of the best remakes I've ever seen. You keep waiting for the big cameo that you just know in your gut is coming, and if you sit though the whole credits, you get a shadowy one for half a second.

what do i think i learned from this film? Leave the book alone!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

365 Days- Day 66

movie: John Carpenter's Vampires 2 Los Muertos
starring: Jon Bon Jovi, Natasha Gregson Wagner,
genre: Western, Drama, Horror, Thriller,
year:2002
format: DVD

plot: A new team of hunters are brought together to battle another master vampire, this time a female, who is trying to recreate the same ritual in order to walk around in the daylight. One of the team members, is a girl who's been bitten but keeping herself in a state of half vampirism by way of drugs. In the end it comes down to who can you really trust?

One of the themes used in this film is the idea of blood transfusions to clean out the blood long enough for the victims to recover if not fully, at lest part.  We also see the idea of a human using vampire blood to fight the vampire, like a drug. We see the hunter become a vampire in order to get the upper hand.

what do i think i learned from this film? At any point, even the strongest individual can become the weakest link.