Movie review - "Countess Dracula" (1971) ** (rewatching)

 Great moment where Ingrid Pitt is busted nude having a blood bath. But that's the one memorable scene. This lacks energy and excitement. It should be great - Pitt worried about ageing, killing peop.e Undercast the actor who plays her lover. Nigel Green doesn't have the star power of a Cushing or Lee. Not enough sex, violence, nudity. Needed to be more full throttle.

Movie review - "Sinners" (2025) ****

 Terrific movie. Slow burn build up, which pays off in the second half with big character impacts - the deaths matter. Satisfying love story resolutions. Splendid production design, music, etc.

Movie review - "Martin" (1977) ***1/2

 Confronting. Well made. Thought provoking. Romero firing all cylinders. Makes you identify with a killer the way Peeping Tom does (not Psycho becauseyou don't know he's the killer until the end). Acting totally fine.

Movie review - "Kiss of the Vampire" (1963) ***1/2 (rewatching)

 Started slow for me - because I know what's happening I guess. Lacked star power. But second half gets better when more things happen. Looks like a dream.

Movie review - "Star Portal".(1997) *

 One of the cheapies made in Ireland by Roger Corman, this has a strong source material, Not of This Earth but is just ineptly done. I like Athena Massey and it's cute to see her blending in to the world learning about sex and taking her clothes off, and Steven Bauer was sweet as a doctor with glasses who pursues her rather like Ryan O'Neal in What's Up Doc? but there's no suspense or horror and the film gets dumber and more incompetent as it goes on.

Movie review - "Nosfertau" (2024) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Gorgeous production design. Good actors. Lily Rose Depp brings star power, Nicholas Hoult is always reliable. Memorable scenes.

The film is a classic script written by a director - full of scenes and moments but badly needs interrogation. I got lost in the second half. Got confused by the time line how long it took to go from one thing to the other and why people tried to kill vampires at night instead of the day and why Depp didn't tell her plan to Hoult? Did you even need Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character? Or his family? I mean good scene killing the kids, good gore but... just more time taken up in a 130 minute movie.

Movie review - "Vamp" (1986) ***

 A clear inspiration for Tarantino's From Dusk til Dawn  - three guys go looking for a stripper in a club and find one (Grace Jones) only to realise she's a vampire. That's a decent premise and this is a pretty fun movie.

It could have done with more character interaction between Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler and Gedde Watanabe. Deedee Pfeiffer is very sweet as the waitress who has an old crush on Makepeace. Grace Jones is perfect in the role.

Apparently they wanted Jerry Lewis to play the barteneder but New World didn't go for his price - they went with Sandy Baron. Billy Drago is in it too.

It's silly rather than scary but is made with energy and a bit of flair.

Movie review - "Saturday the 14th" (1981) **

 If I saw this has a kid I would've loved it with its silliness and scares. It's a spoof of old day house mysteries - a fash of Amityville Horror but also the vibe of scary house stuff in old AIP films like Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.

There is starpower in Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss playing a husband and wife who move into an old house. There's Dracula (Jeffrey Tambour) and his girl trying to kick them out which is underdeveloped. The creatures in the house are fun.

The film has good ideas but can't quite string it together.  Compares badly with say Love at First Bite.

The daughter, Kari Michaelson from Gimme a Break, takea a bath in a drawn out scene which is old school Corman. She was 20 (I googled it) but looks super young, uncomfortably so.

Movie review - "Blood Bath" (1966) (re-watching) **

 I previously reviewed the Track of the Vampire version of this - this one is Blood Bath, shorter at 60 minutes. You need Tim Lucas to talk through the versions.

There's an opening, stylishly shot vampire murder. That's Stephanie Rothman. Beatniks in a bar - that's Jack Hill. There's two girls chatting. One girl goes and dances on the beach, Sandra Knight (this is Rothman). Then the other girl, Marissa Mathes, meets artist William Campbell. He kills her. I think that's Hill. But also he turns into a vampire. Which is Rothman.

Basically vampire = Rothman and artist Campbell = Hill. I'm not sure how much Yugoslavian stuff remains. 

It's confusing. The two stories don't mesh (if Campbell didn't return they should have had a Campbell plus a vampire... or had a second psycho). I know why Hill is frustrated Rothman made the changes but also I think his stuff involved a little too much comedy at the beatnik store - I'm assuming that's all mostly Hill.

Still, the sheer novelty of this film is fascinating. The directors, Corman, the cast - which includes Sandra Knight (Mrs Jack Nicholson) and Jonathan Haze, who were both in The Terror (a more satisfactory patchwork quilt). You've got Sid Haig. The photography is genueinly beautiful. The ending genuinely dumb. Movies!

Top Ten John Landis

 Here we go...

1) Animal House (1978) - I didn't like it when I saw it as a kid but then when I saw it later and understood the jokes it was lots of fun

2) Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - often forgotten he directed this lots of fun

3) The Blues Brothers (1980) - chaotic, hilarious, musical, gosh there must've been cocaine

4) An American Werewolf in London (1981) - again didn't get this til later, had to appreciate it was a horror film not a comedy

5) Trading Places (1983) - smart, funny, always loved it

6) Innocent Blood (1992) - flopped but I think it's great, sexy, scary

7) Spies Like Us (1985) - clever, subversive, Chase and Aykroyd are a good team

8) Coming to America (1988) - fun, elaborate comedy

9) Into the Night (1985) - flawed, I can see why it flopped, but full of wonderful things

10) Thriller (1984) - splendid video

The film I wish he'd directed: Dick Tracy.

George Hamilton Top Ten

 1. Light in the Piazza (1962)

2. Love at First Bite (1979)

3. Godfather Part 3 (1990)

4. Doc Hollywood (1993)

4. Your Cheatin' Heart (1965)

5. Evil Knievel (1971)

6. Death Car on the Freeway (1979)

7. Rough Riders (1997)

8. Where the Boys Are (1960)

9 Home from the Hill (1959)

10.The Victors (1963)

Movie review - "Kiss of the Vampire" (1963) ***1/2 (rewatching)

 Has its own magic. The lovely photography and art design despite the low budget. The Val Lewton shots of wind in the trees. The slow, but deliberate pace. The fact the cast is without stars. Who are these people?

There's a cult, witchcraft, a missing girl. The ingredients were fresher then. This was Hammer at its peak.

Movie review - "House of Dracula" (1945) **1/2 (re-watching)

 A film with plenty of style and charm - the monster, John Carradine, Lon Chaney as the Wolf Man - and some interesting additions like the hunchback assistant.

It's just frustrating what they don't do. I mean, who cares about Onslow Stevens, and why have him just as a random doctor - why not make him Dr Frankenstein, or a relative, or the invisible man. John Carradine or Lugosi should've played this role. I don't like Carradine as Dracula much but admit he's closer to Stoker.

Lionel Atwill is on hand, and Chaney is great. But the Monster is wasted, there's not enough Dracula or Wolfman... and as the film went on it started to annoy me. And I don't like that about these films.

Movie review - "Vampires" (1998) ***

 A return to form for John Carpenter after some iffy movies. This is a jaunty tale of vampire hunters in the South West, a modern day Western with James Woods as the bounty hunter equivalent out for baddies. He has a posse which is wiped out (the film's best sequence), except for Woods and Daniel Baldwin.

Baldwin gives the film some camp appeal, with his chubby cheeks and faux macho posturing. His "romance", I guess, with hooker Sheryl Lee, who is bitten by the head vampire is very rapey and awkward (he takes off her clothes and chains her to the bed and they fall in love). Lee is beautiful but looks downright uncomfortable in a lot of scenes.

Woods is another attraction with his method intensity and leather jacket. He seems to be having the time of his life. He is given a priest sidekick - no reflection on that actor but I wish the sidekick had been a nun.

I think the other flaw for me was the relationships between Lee and Baldwin and Woods and Baldwin. These are is the emotional core of the film - if this had worked I feel the movie would be remembered more fondly.

Still it's a solid story, and is basically well done by Carpenter.

Radio play review - "Dracula"

 An LATW version of the great novel. Lots of fun. Diary entry format worked well though there were a few characters to keep track of. This is such a great yarn: Jonathan Harker at the castle, death of Lucy, Renfield, Van Helsing, the final confrontation.

Movie review - "The Velvet Vampire" (1971) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Stephanie Rothman's next film after Student Nurses didn't enjoy the same success, maybe because it was too arty. It's still full of interest.

Celeste Yarnall is a vampire who entices couple Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles to her place in the desert. Yarnell is enigmatic and beautiful, everything you want in a vampire. She can walk around in the sunlight so the rules are flexible here.

There's some trippy dream sequences reminiscent of the drug scenes in Student Nurses.I liked the atmosphere and the performances of Yarnell and Blodgett. Miles lets the side down.

Silly logic issues in the last act with people following people and it doesn't make sense. Probably should've kept them in the desert.

Movie review - "Twixt" (2011) ***

 Films don't get more obscure that Coppola's 21st century output but I've got to say I quite enjoyed this shaggy dog tale with its odd bits and pieces. It's got tubby Val Kilmer as a writer described as a second-tier Steven King and the story feels like a King short story... he arrives in a small town, his career on a downward slide, and comes across a local legend about killer kids that he decides to turn into a book.

Bruce Dern is the local sheriff, Elle Fanning is  girl who appears in his dreams, Ben Chaplin is Edgar Allan poe who also appears in dreams, Joanne Walley appears as Kilmer's wife via skype, Alden Ehrenreich (those 70s directors love him) is a local goth.

I enjoyed the atmosphere the spookiness. It got a little odd in the last act, a bit silly... but Coppola is more lively with violence, I'm realising and it was fun,

Radio review - "Dracula" by Bram Stoker adapted by LA Theatreworks

 Entertaining adaptation of the novel - it keeps its diary form. It spanks along and everyone has a high old time.

Book review - "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson (1954)

Masterpiece. Elegant. Concise. Doesn't waste time. The sequence with the dog devastated me. I admit I forgot about Ruth. Amazing ending. Why has this not been filmed properly?

Movie review - "Lifeforce" (1985) **

I would've liked this more if I'd seen it as a kid - the nudity and nuttiness would have made more of an impact. Watching it years on it's another redo of Alien with a spaceship picking up some dodgy aliens... only the bulk of this is set in England in the present day. How did it cost $25 million? There's a bunch of effects at the start and the end but most of it looks drab.

Steve Railsback acts away with hammy integrity, there's too much Peter Firth and Frank Finlay. Firth becomes the hero in the second half and Raisback drops out and it's annoying. The constantly naked Mathilda May is fun It's also a hoot to see Patrick Stewart.

It has no pace and precious few scares. It's not exciting or scary or even that sexy. This should be great junky fun but I found it annoying.