Vampires are Back!
It’s impossible to escape vampires these days. The Twilight movies are as insanely popular as ever; the HBO series “True Blood” has a large and dedicated fanbase; and Justin Cronin’s best-selling, post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy (the first two installments, The Passage and The Twelve, are currently in bookstores) looks poised to become the next blockbuster vampire franchise (the books have already been optioned for a planned series of film adaptations by Ridley Scott). The last piece of vampire pop culture to sink its teeth into movie audiences’ necks was the fifth and final Twilight installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2. Hopefully that’s the end of ‘tween vamps…
The release of Byzantium and Only Lovers Left Alive, bodes well for what has been a bloodless few years. Here’s a selection of a few lesser known vampire films that put unique spins on vampire mythology. These are all creative, fascinating movies that definitely do not suck.
Black Sabbath (1963)
directed by Mario Bava
This creepy, eclectic anthology is an early work from Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, who has built up a sizable cult following over the years due to his Gothic, gorgeously photographed fright films, which have inspired the likes of Dario Argento and Tim Burton. Black Sabbath contains three atmospheric stories, the second of which remains one of the most chilling vampire tales ever filmed. Entitled “The Wurdalak,” the segment is based on a story by Aleksei Tolstoy and stars Boris Karloff in one of his last, most sinister performances. Unlike typical vampires, who feast on random human beings, those transformed into “wurdalaks” only prey on those they love most—essentially, their own families. With its haunting yet beautiful visuals, “The Wurdalak” is a masterful family tragedy that shouldn’t be missed.
Martin (1977)
directed by George A. Romero
One of the most underrated horror films of all time (writer-director Romero has said himself it’s his personal favorite of his work), Martin is a modern vampire tale set in a deteriorating Pennsylvania town. The title character (played by John Amplas) is a troubled, disaffected 17-year-old who believes, based on a family legend, that he’s an 84-year-old vampire. Yet Martin doesn’t behave like a typical vampire: He’s immune to garlic and sunlight, and instead of fangs, uses razor blades to drink his victims’ blood. After going to live with his elderly uncle, who strongly believes in the family vampire myth, Martin attempts to live a normal life, but his craving for blood continues to haunt him. Martin is a disturbing, utterly original take on the vampire mythos. Although there are a few creepy, violent scenes to keep horror fans satisfied, the movie is most compelling when we gain insight into the main character. Romero seems to be saying that the suave, seductive vampires we’ve seen in movies, as played by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, are of a past generation. This modern vampire works on a much more realistic, practical, horrifying level.
Near Dark (1987)
directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Before she became the first woman in Oscar history to win the Best Director trophy (for The Hurt Locker), Kathryn Bigelow helmed this unusual film, which fuses together the Western, biker and vampire genres. The film stars Adrian Pasdar as an aimless young man in a rural Midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of dangerous nomadic vampires (among them Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenny Wright). These aren’t your typical blood-suckers—they’re a group of dirty, unhinged drifters who roam the highways in stolen vehicles (during the day, incidentally), moving from town to town to satisfy their insatiable bloodlust. In fact, the destructive, amoral vampires of Near Dark seems to share more in common with the modern serial killer than the classic Dracula archetype. This gritty, genre-bending film put Bigelow on the map, and, 25 years later, it still has the power to dazzle and disturb.
Cronos (1993)
directed by Guillermo del Toro
This remarkably innovative Mexican film marked the feature debut of writer-director del Toro. The movie revolves around an elderly antique dealer (Federico Luppi) who comes upon the deadly yet enticing object of the title—an ancient mechanism that promises eternal life to its owner. When opened, the device painfully inserts a needle into the owner’s skin, yet the wound also brings about a sudden burst of youthful vitality, as well as a desperate craving for blood. Though the word “vampire” is never spoken in Cronos, del Toro’s bold vision provides a unique spin on the age-old vampire mythology. Especially unnerving is the sequence in which the infected old man discovers a puddle of blood (resulting from another man’s nosebleed) in a public bathroom. In what is surely one of the ickiest moments in vampire movie history, he lies down on the floor and proceeds to lick it up, much like a cat would spilled milk. From its fable-like beginning to its surprisingly tragic end, Cronos is full of disturbing yet unforgettable images.
Friday the 13th – Poster Art by Francesco Francavilla
Check out this new poster by Francesco Francavilla for FRIDAY THE 13TH. Available through MONDO…
John Carpenter – Part 2
Carpenter followed up the success of Halloween with The Fog (1980), a ghostly revenge tale (co-written by Hill) inspired by horror comics such as Tales from the Crypt. Completing The Fog was an unusually difficult process for Carpenter. After viewing a rough cut of the film, he was dissatisfied with the result. For the only time in his filmmaking career, he had to devise a way to salvage a nearly finished film that did not meet his standards. In order to make the movie more coherent and frightening, Carpenter shot additional footage that included a number of new scenes. Approximately one-third of the finished film is the newer footage.
Carpenter immediately followed The Fog with the science-fiction adventure Escape from New York (1981). An American cyberpunk action film, starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasance and Harry Dean Stanton, it is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island into a maximum security prison. Ex-soldier Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is given 24 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured after the crash of Air Force One.
His next film, The Thing (1982), is notable for its high production values, including innovative special effects by Rob Bottin, special visual effects by matte artist Albert Whitlock, a score by Ennio Morricone and a cast including Carpenter regular Kurt Russell and respected character actors such as Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart and Keith David. The Thing was made with a budget of $15,000,000, Carpenter’s largest up to that point, and grossed about $20,000,000.
Carpenter’s film used the same source material as the 1951 Howard Hawks film, The Thing from Another World, Carpenter’s version is more faithful to the John W. Campbell, Jr. novella, Who Goes There?, upon which both films were based. As The Thing did not perform well on a commercial level, Carpenter has stated that E.T.’s release could have been largely responsible for the film’s disappointment. The movie has found new life in the home video and cable markets, and it is now widely regarded as one of the best horror films ever made.
Shortly after completing post-production on The Thing, Universal offered him the chance to direct Firestarter, based on the novel by Stephen King, but when The Thing was a box-office disappointment, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L Lester. Ironically, Carpenter’s next film, Christine, was the 1983 adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The story revolves around a high-school nerd named Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) who buys a junked 1958 Plymouth Fury which turns out to have supernatural powers. As Cunningham restores and rebuilds the car, he becomes unnaturally obsessed with it, with deadly consequences. Christine did respectable business upon its release and was received well by critics; however, Carpenter has been quoted as saying he directed the film because it was the only thing offered to him at the time.
Starman (1984) was critically praised but was only a moderate commercial success. The film received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Jeff Bridges’ portrayal of Starman. Following the box office failure of his big-budget action–comedy Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Carpenter struggled to get films financed. He returned to making lower budget films such as Prince of Darkness (1987), a film influenced by the BBC series Quatermass. Although some of the films from this time, such as They Live (1988) did pick up a cult audience, he never again realized his mass-market potential.
Carpenter was also offered The Exorcist III in 1989, and met with writer William Peter Blatty (who also authored the novel on which it was based, Legion) over the course of a week. However, the two clashed on the film’s climax and Carpenter passed on the project.
His 1990′s career is characterized by a number of notable misfires: Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Village of the Damned (1995) and Escape from L.A. (1996) are examples of films that were critical and box office failures. Also notable from this decade are In the Mouth of Madness (1994), yet another Lovecraftian homage, which did not do well either at the box-office or with critics and Vampires (1998), which starred James Woods as the leader of a band of vampire hunters in league with the Catholic Church.
2001 saw the release of Ghosts of Mars. 2005 saw remakes of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog, the latter being produced by Carpenter himself, though in an interview he defined his involvement as, “I come in and say hello to everybody. Go home.” In 2007 Rob Zombie produced and directed Halloween, re-imagining of Carpenter’s 1978 film that spawned a sequel two years later.
Carpenter returned to the director’s chair in 2005 for an episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series as one of the thirteen filmmakers involved in the first season. His episode, Cigarette Burns, aired to generally positive reviews, and positive reactions from Carpenter fans. He has since contributed another original episode for the show’s second season entitled Pro-Life, about a young girl who is raped and impregnated by a demon and wants to have an abortion, but whose efforts are halted by her religious fanatic, gun-toting father and her three brothers.
The Ward (2009), starring Amber Heard, was his first movie since 2001′s Ghosts of Mars. Carpenter narrated the video game F.E.A.R.3. On 10 October 2010 Carpenter received the Lifetime Award from the Freak Show Horror Film Festival.
In 2011 at the Fright Night Film Festival Carpenter revealed that he is currently working on what he described as a “gothic western” movie and hopes to get it off the ground soon. He went on to say that he is unsure of the film’s fate as it is harder to sell westerns these days… although the success of Tarantino’s Django Unchained may help…
John Carpenter – Part 1
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction films from the 1970′s and 1980′s.
Almost all the films in Carpenter’s career have garnered cult followings, particularly: Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Starman (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and They Live! (1988), while Carpenter has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker.
Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, the son of Milton Jean and Howard Ralph Carpenter, a music professor. He was captivated by movies from an early age, particularly the westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950′s low budget horror films, such as The Thing from Another World and high budget science fiction like Forbidden Planet and began filming horror shorts on 8mm film even before entering high school. He attended Western Kentucky University where his father chaired the music department, then transferred to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 1968, but later dropped out to make his first feature.
He collaborated with producer John Longenecker as co-writer, film editor and music composer for The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. The short film was blown-up to 35mm, and the film was theatrically released by Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.
His first major film as director, Dark Star (1974), was a science fiction black comedy that he co-wrote with Dan O’Bannon (who later went on to write Alien, borrowing freely from much of Dark Star). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O’Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing and directing, while O’Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of George Lucas who hired him to do work on the special effects for Star Wars).
Carpenter’s next film was Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of Howard Hawks, particularly Rio Bravo. As with Dark Star, Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film’s creation. He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also edited the film under the pseudonym “John T. Chance” (the name of John Wayne’s character in Rio Bravo). Carpenter has said that he considers Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real film because it was the first movie that he shot on a schedule. The film also marked the first time Carpenter worked with Debra Hill, who played prominently in the making of some of Carpenter’s most important films.
Working within the limitations of a $100,000 budget, Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The film was originally released in the United States to mixed critical reviews and lacklustre box-office earnings, but after it was screened at the 1977 London Film Festival, it became a critical and commercial success in Europe and is often credited with launching Carpenter’s career. The film subsequently received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best exploitation films of the 1970′s.
Carpenter both wrote and directed the Lauren Hutton thriller Someone’s Watching Me!. This TV movie is the tale of a single, working woman who, shortly after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is being stalked. However, it was his next film which changed the horror landscape, and for which he will be mostly remembered.
Halloween (1978) was a commercial hit and helped give birth to the slasher film genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer Irwin Yablans (titled The Babysitter Murders), who envisioned a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it take place during Halloween and developed a story. Carpenter said of the basic concept: “Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house movie.” The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter admitting that the music was inspired by both Dario Argento’s Suspiria (which also influenced the films surreal colour scheme) and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.
Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget, $320,000, and a young cast of unknowns, headed by Jamie Lee Curtis. The film grossed over $65 million initially, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. In addition to the film’s critical and commercial success, Carpenter’s self-composed “Halloween Theme” became recognizable apart from the movie.
Carpenter has described Halloween as: “True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you.” The film has often been cited as an allegory on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: “It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I’m not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers.”
In 1979, John Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor Kurt Russell when he directed the TV movie Elvis. The made-for-TV movie was a hit with viewers and critics, and was also released as a feature film in cinemas outside the U. S. and revived the career of Russell, who was a child actor in the 1960′s.
Anathema Photography
Check out this clip on Vimeo featuring a selection of work from the fantastic photographic website focussing on all things horror… Anathema Photography. Click on the LINK to go to Anathema Photography… Adults only.
How to Make a Horror Movie
Hilarious flowchart explaining how to make a horror movies… more accurate than any execs would admit. Click on the poster to see 4 more showing how to make an Action, Animated, Short and Porno.
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow (born Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow on February 9, 1945) is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.
Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra. An early film role, as the woman pregnant with Satan’s baby in 1968′s Rosemary’s Baby, saw her portrayal nominated for many awards.
Rosemary’s Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The cast includes Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans and Charles Grodin.
Farrow plays a pregnant woman who fears that her husband may have made a pact with their eccentric neighbours, believing he may have promised them the child to be used as a human sacrifice in their occult rituals in exchange for success in his acting career.
Polanski envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and he wanted Tuesday Weld or his own wife Sharon Tate for the role. Since the book had not reached bestseller status yet, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he felt a bigger name was needed for the lead. Patty Duke was considered for the lead (and ironically, would play the role of Rosemary during a brief sequence at the beginning of the TV movie ‘Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby’ (1976), in which Ruth Gordon was the only actor to reprise her role from the 1968 movie). Mia Farrow had an unproven box office track record, but her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place and her unexpected marriage to Frank Sinatra had made her a household name.
Despite her waif-like appearance (which would ultimately prove beneficial, as Rosemary became more frail as her pregnancy progressed), Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed, and he served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew midway through filming. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
The film was an enormous commercial success, earning over $33 million in the US on a modest budget of $2.3 million. It was met with near universal acclaim from film critics and earned numerous nominations and awards. The American Film Institute ranked the film 9th in their 100 Years… 100 Thrills list. The official tagline of the film is “Pray for Rosemary’s Baby.”
Farrow has appeared in more than forty-five films and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe award (and seven additional Golden Globe nominations), five BAFTA Film Award nominations, and a win for best actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Farrow is also known for her extensive humanitarian work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She is involved in humanitarian activities in Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress and author. Born in Santa Monica, California, to actor Tony Curtis and actress Janet Leigh. Although she was initially known as a “scream queen” because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as ‘Halloween’, ‘The Fog’, ‘Prom Night’ and ‘Terror Train’, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many genres, and has won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. Her 1998 book, Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, made the best-seller list in The New York Times. Curtis is a blogger for The Huffington Post online newspaper. She is married to actor, screenwriter, and director Christopher Guest.
Curtis’s film debut occurred in John Carpenter’s classic 1978 horror film ‘Halloween’, in which she played the lead role of Laurie Strode. The film was a major box-office success and became the highest grossing independent film of its time, earning accolades as a classic horror film. Curtis was subsequently cast in several horror films, garnering her the title, “scream queen“.
Her next film was the horror film, ‘The Fog’, which was helmed by Halloween director John Carpenter. The film opened in February 1980 to mixed reviews but strong box office, further cementing Curtis as a horror film starlet. Her next film, ‘Prom Night’, was a low-budget Canadian slasher film released in July 1980. The film, for which she earned a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress, was similar in style to Halloween, yet received negative reviews which marked it as a disposable entry in the then-popular “slasher film” genre.
That year, Curtis also starred in ‘Terror Train’, which opened in October and met with a negative reviews akin to Prom Night. Both films performed only moderately well at the box office. Curtis had a similar function in both films – the main character whose friends are murdered, and is practically the only protagonist to survive. Film critic Roger Ebert, who had given negative reviews to all three of Curtis’ 1980 films, said that Curtis “is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last one-or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s”. Curtis later appeared in ‘Halloween II’, ‘Halloween H20: 20 Years Later’ and ‘Halloween: Resurrection’, as well as giving an uncredited voice role in the awful ‘Halloween III: Season of the Witch’.
Her role in 1983′s ‘Trading Places’ helped Curtis shed her horror queen image, and garnered her a BAFTA Award as best supporting actress. 1988′s massive hit ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ showcased her as a comedic actress; she was nominated for a BAFTA as best leading actress. She won a Golden Globe for her work in 1994′s ‘True Lies’. Her recent film roles include Disney’s ‘Freaky Friday’ (2003), opposite Lindsay Lohan, for which she was nominated for another Golden Globe.
In October 2006, Curtis told Access Hollywood that she had closed the book on her acting career to focus on her family. She returned to acting after being cast in June 2007 in Disney’s live-action-animated film, ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the 2010 comedy film ‘You Again’, opposite Kristen Bell and Sigourney Weaver.
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen (born 5 November 1964) is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is best known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in ‘GoldenEye’ (1995) and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series (2000-06).
Janssen was born in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. Her first name, Famke, means “little girl” in West Frisian, the native language of the Dutch province Friesland. In 1984, Janssen moved to the United States to begin her professional career as a fashion model.
After retiring from modelling in the early 1990s, Janssen had guest roles on several television series, including a starring role in the 1992 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘The Perfect Mate’, as empathic metamorph Kamala, opposite Patrick Stewart, with whom she later starred in the X-Men film series.
In 1995, Janssen appeared in Pierce Brosnan’s first James Bond film, ‘GoldenEye’, as Femme Fatale Xenia Onatopp. In an attempt to fight against typecasting after her Bond girl performance, Janssen began seeking out more intriguing support roles, appearing in John Irvin’s ‘City of Industry’, Woody Allen’s ‘Celebrity’, Robert Altman’s ‘The Gingerbread Man’, and Ted Demme’s ‘Monument Avenue’. In the late 1990s, she also appeared in ‘The Faculty’, ‘Rounders’, ‘Deep Rising’ and ‘House on Haunted Hill’.
In 2000, Janssen played superheroine Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix in ‘X-Men’. She reprised the role in bothe sequels, ‘X2′ (2003) and ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (2006), for which she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. In addition, Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the popular TV series ‘Nip/Tuck’, as the seductive and manipulative life coach Ava Moore. She reprised her role in the final two episodes of the series.
Halloween – A brief History
The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (“evening”), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.
Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentilia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)”. The name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and Celts in the British Isles is derived from Old Irish and means roughly “summer’s end”.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English folk lore: “Certainly Samhain was a time for festive gatherings, and medieval Irish texts and later Irish, Welsh, and Scottish folklore use it as a setting for supernatural encounters, but there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times, or that pagan religious ceremonies were held.”
The Irish myths which mention Samhain were written in the 10th and 11th centuries by Christian monks. This is around 200 years after the Catholic church inaugurated All Saints Day and at least 400 years after Ireland became Christian.
Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. For instance, the carving of jack-o’-lanterns springs from the souling custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of othic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films (such as the aforemnetioned Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy). Among the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne in 1780, who made note of pranks at Halloween; “What fearfu’ pranks ensue!”, as well as the supernatural associated with the night, “Bogies” (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns’ ‘Halloween’ 1785. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil the occult or mythical monsters. Black and orange are the holiday’s traditional colors.
In Scotland and Ireland, Guising — children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins — is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going “guising” around the neighborhood. According American historian Ruth Edna Kelly, the first reference to “guising” in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. Of course nothing is done on a small scale in the US, Halloween is now the second biggest holiday (after Christmas) in North America!
Stephen Moyer
Stephen Moyer (born Stephen John Emery; 11 October 1969) is an English actor who has starred as vampire Bill Compton in the HBO series ‘True Blood’ since 2008.
Moyer was born in Brentwood, Essex. He became Brentwood Theatre’s first patron in October 2007, especially supporting their “Reaching Out, Building On” campaign to help fund the 2008 completion of backstage facilities.
After graduating from LAMDA, Moyer worked in theatre for five years. He worked with the National Theatre of Wales, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Oxford Stage Company, work which included going on tour and playing Romeo in productions of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. He then made the transition to television and film, with minor appearances in ‘Quills’ (2000) and numerous TV series before winning the role of Bill Compton in ‘True Blood’ in 2007.
Based on ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’ series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana. The series centers on Sookie Stackhouse (played by actress and Moyer’s new wife, Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton.
The series has received critical acclaim and won several awards, including a Golden Globe and an Emmy. A huge hit, now into season 4, on August 11, 2011, HBO announced that True Blood was renewed for a fifth season of twelve episodes to air in summer 2012.
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: ‘Alien’ (1979), ‘Aliens’ (1986), ‘Alien 3′ (1992) and ‘Alien Resurrection’ (1997), for which she has received worldwide recognition (she was also co-producer in the latter two films). Other notable roles include ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’, ’Ghosbusters’ and its sequel ‘Ghostbusters II’, ’Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey’, ’Working Girl’ and ‘Avatar’.
Weaver’s first role was in Woody Allen’s 1977 comedy ‘Annie Hall’ playing a minor role opposite Allen; followed by a small role in Israeli film ‘Madman’. Weaver then appeared two years later as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s 1979 blockbuster, ‘Alien’. The decision to make the lead character a woman was made by Producers David Giler and Walter Hill, who felt this would help Alien stand out in the otherwise male-dominated genre of science fiction. Weaver, who had Broadway experience but was relatively unknown in film, impressed Scott, Giler, and Hill with her audition. She was the last actor to be cast for the film, and performed most of her scree-tests in-studio as the sets were being built. The role of Ripley was Weaver’s first leading role in a motion picture, and is the role for which she will always be remembered first and foremost.
Although Alien was massively successful, Fox did not consider a sequel until 1983, when James Cameron expressed his interest to producer David Giler in continuing the Alienstory. After Cameron’s ‘The Terminator’ became a box office hit, Cameron and partner Gale Anne Hurd were given approval to direct and produce the sequel to Alien, scheduled for a 1986 release. Cameron wrote the screenplay from a story he developed with Giler and Walter Hill. Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the Nostromo, awakens from hypersleep 57 years later, aboard a new space station. She discovers that the planetoid from the first movie (now known as LV-426) is home to a terraforming colony. When contact with the colony is lost, Ripley accompanies a squad of marines there… Aliens was a massive success.
Weaver followed the success of Alien appearing opposite Mel Gibson in ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ (1982), which was released to critical acclaim and as Dana Barrett in ‘Ghostbusters’ (1984) and ‘Ghostbusters II’ (1989). By the end of the decade Weaver appeared in two of her most memorable and critically acclaimed performances in 1988 as Dian Fossey in ‘Gorillas in the Mist’. The same year she appeared opposite Harrison Ford in a supporting role as Katharine Parker in the film ‘Working Girl’ .
Weaver returned to the Alien franchise for the critically less successful ‘Alien 3′ and ‘Alien Resurrection’. Although both movies made money at the box office, they are less regarded than the first two installments in the franchise. Notable mainly for being the directorial debut of superstar director David Fincher, Alien 3 is the better of the two only due to some effective set-pieces. Alien Resurrection was directed by Jean- Pierre Jeunet who after a difficult Hollywood experience, returned to france to make Amelie.
She has remained busy throughout the last 20 years with a varied CV, however she returned to box office domination in James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ (2009) and comic-con cool with ‘Paul’ (2011). She has Amy Heckerling’s ’Vamps’ in post-production and has signed on for the Avatar sequel which is due in 2014.
Weaver has received three Academy Award nominations and six Golden Globe Award nominations, winning two in 1988 (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress) for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. Her 1986 Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Aliens are considered as landmarks in the recognition of science fiction, action and horror genres, as well as a major step in challenging the gender role in cinema.
Sheri Moon Zombie
Sheri Lyn Skurkis (born September 26, 1970) is an American actress and fashion designer. She legally changed her name to Sheri Moon and later Sheri Moon Zombie after she married her longtime boyfriend Rob Zombie. She is a modern day Scream Queen.
Moon was raised in Connecticut. After graduation she moved to California; however she soon found herself moving between homes in both states to attend school and seek work. On October 31, 2002 she married musician and film director Rob Zombie after almost 13 years of dating. The two were introduced by mutual friends at a concert in New Haven, Connecticut.
But Moon found herself preoccupied going on tour with Zombie. When Zombie’s band White Zombie disbanded, Zombie became a solo artist, taking Moon on as a dancer where she also choreographed routines and created costumes for the tour.
Moon has appeared in eleven of Zombie’s solo music videos and an additional four previous to that when he fronted White Zombie. She most famously starred in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari-themed music video “Living Dead Girl”. Moon has graced the cover of the single for “Living Dead Girl” (1998), Zombie’s remix album American Made Music to Strip by (1999), and the cover of the single for “Demon Speeding”.
In 2003, Moon co-starred in her husband’s first feature film, ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ as Vera-Ellen “Baby” Firefly, but previous to that, she claims that she had never had aspirations of becoming an actress. As Moon explains her character in that film, “Baby is the angelic-looking bait to get the victims.” The film was not received well by many critics, including James Brundage of popular website film critic who claimed that it was “too highbrow to be a good cheap horror movie, too lowbrow to be satire, and too boring to bear the value of the ticket.” The film saw some expansion in later weeks and ultimately grossed $16.8 million worldwide, which was successful based on its $7 million production budget.
In 2004, she had a brief appearance in the Tobe Hooper film ‘Toolbox Murders’ starring Angela Bettis, the only film she has been in not directed by Zombie.
Moon reprised her role as Baby Firefly in the 2005 sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, titled ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ (2005). The Devil’s Rejects was financially successful, recouping its roughly $7 million budget during its opening weekend, going on to earn over $16 million and better received by critics than its predecessor. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of a possible four stars. Ebert wrote, “If you are a hardened horror movie fan capable of appreciating skill and wit in the service of the deliberately disgusting, ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ may exercise a certain strange charm.” Moon was awarded Spike TV’s Scream Awards award for “Most Vile Villain” alongside co-stars Haig, Moseley and Leslie Easterbrook for their portrayal of the Firefly family.
Moon designed a clothing line, Total Skull, which debuted at the end of May 2006. She explains, “The phrase “total skull” to me means awesome, rad, the best of the best.”
In 2007, Moon starred in a short faux trailer segment for the film “Grindhouse: . She appeared in the segment directed by Zombie titled ‘Werewolf Women of the SS’ as Eva Krupp. She also appeared in her husband’s version of the 1978 classic ‘Halloween’ (2007), playing Deborah Myers, the mother of serial killer Michael Myers. It currently stands as the highest grossing overall film in the Halloween franchise. Moon reprised her character in the sequel Halloween II, which was released on August 28, 2009.
Moon provides the voice for the character of Suzi X in the animated film ‘The Haubted World of El Superbeasto’ (2009), written and produced by her husband Zombie. In 2010, she guest-starred on the series CSI: Miami in the episode “L.A.,” which was directed by her husband. She will next be seen in the Zombie directed movie, ‘Lords of Salem’.
Linda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in ‘The Terminator’ and its sequel ‘The Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ and Catherine Chandler in the television series ‘Beauty & the Beast’. Currently, Hamilton has a recurring role on NBC’s ‘Chuck’.
Hamilton’s acting debut came first on television, followed by a major role as Lisa Rogers in the prime-time soap opera ‘Secrets of Midland Heights’ (1980). Her theatrical debut was in the thriller ‘TAG: The Assassination Game’ (1982). Hamilton then played the lead in ‘Children of the Corn’ (1984), based on the horror story by Stephen King. The movie was panned by critics, but it made a profit at the box office.
Hamilton’s next role was as Sarah Connor in ‘The Terminator’, co-starring Arnold Swarzenegger, in 1984. It would be pointless describing this movie as if you’re reading 
this you must have seen it! The movie was an unexpectedly huge commercial and critical success.
Following The Terminator, Hamilton starred in ‘Black Moon Rising’, an action thriller with Tommy Lee Jones. She then returned to television as a guest-star in the mystery series ‘Murder She Wrote’ and then ‘Beauty & the Beast’, opposite Ron Perlman, scoring favorable reviews. The series was critically acclaimed, and she received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Hamilton left the series in 1989 and it ended in 1990.
Hamilton returned to the big screen in 1990 with Michael Caine in ‘Mr Destiny’ and in 1991 with ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’, the sequel to The Terminator. The latter was a smash at the box office, grossing over $500 million, more than any other film of that year. Hamilton underwent intense physical training to emphasize the character’s transformation from the first film. Her identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was Linda’s double in Terminator 2. Hamilton received two MTV Movie Awards for her role in the film, one for Best Female Performance and the other for Most Desirable Female. She reprised the character, Sarah Connor, for the Universal theme park attraction T2 3D. Following the success of the Terminator series, in 1990, Hamilton was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world.
While filming Terminator 2 in 1991, Hamilton began a relationship with director James Cameron, whom she had met seven years earlier when he directed her in the first Terminator film. They had a daughter, Josephine, born in 1993. She and Cameron eventually married in 1997, but the marriage was short-lived, ending in a $50 million divorce settlement in 1999.
The Terminator series apart, in 2009 she returned as Sarah Connor in ‘Terminator Salvation’, in voice-overs only, Hamilton has had a largely unremarkable career. however, she was awesome as Sarah Connor in Camerons Terminator movies.
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (April 5, 1917 – September 23, 1994) was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of ‘Psycho’, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. He many times remarked that he had “the heart of a little boy”, quipping “I keep it in a jar on my desk.”
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 20 novels. H.P. Lovecraft was Bloch’s mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent. Bloch won the prestigious SF Hugo award in 1959, the same year that Psycho was published.
Norman Bates, the main character in Psycho, was loosely based on two people. First was the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalised account, “The Shambles of Ed Gein”. (The story can be found in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Volume 3). Second, it has been indicated by several people, including Noel Carter (wife of Lin Carter) and Chris Steinbrunner, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher of ‘Castle of Frankenstein’.
Though Bloch had little involvement with the film version of his novel, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock from an adapted screenplay by Joseph Stefano, he was to become most famous as its author.
The novel is one of the first examples at full length of Bloch’s use of modern urban horror relying on the horrors of interior psychology rather than the supernatural. “By the mid-1940s, I had pretty well mined the vein of ordinary supernatural themes until it had become varicose,” Bloch explained to Douglas Winter in an interview. “I realized, as a result of what went on during World War 2 and of reading the more widely disseminated work in psychology, that the real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls.” While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach, Bloch’s psychological approach in modern times was comparatively unique.
Bloch’s agent, Harry Altshuler, received a “blind bid” for the novel – the buyer’s name wasn’t mentioned – of $7,500 for screen rights to the book. The bid eventually went to $9,500, which Bloch accepted. Bloch had never sold a book to Hollywood before. His contract with Simon & Schuster included no bonus for a film sale. The publisher took 15 percent according to contract, while the agent took his 10%; Bloch wound up with about $6,750 before taxes. Despite the enormous profits generated by Hitchcock’s film, Bloch received no further direct compensation.
Only Hitchcock’s film was based on Bloch’s novel. The later films in the Psycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch’s sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch’s proposed script for the film ‘Psycho II’ was rejected by the studio (as were many other submissions), and it was this that he subsequently adapted for his own sequel novel. Bates dies in Bloch’s second Psycho novel, and has been dead for several years in Bloch’s third novel entitled Psycho House.
Following his move to Hollywood, around 1960, Bloch had multiple assignments from various television companies including 10 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1960–62) and Alfred Hitchcock Hour (7 episodes, 1962–1965). In 1964 Bloch wrote two movies for William Castle, 
‘Straight-Jacket’ and ‘The Night Walker’. Between 1966 and 1972 Bloch wrote no less than five feature movies for Amicus Productions - The Psychopath, The Deadly Bees, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood and Asylum.
In 1994, Bloch died of cancer at the age of 77 in Los Angeles after a writing career lasting 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He was cremated and interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetary in Los Angeles.
My Soul to Take **
In the town of Riverton, a psychopathic killer with split personalities is shot after killing his pregnant wife and is about to kill his daughter. En route to hospital he attacks the Police (again) and the ambulance crashes, his body is never recovered.
16 years later, seven teenagers born on the night of the ‘Riverton Rippers’ demise gather at a yearly ritual to ward off the evil spirit of the ripper who may want to kill them as they just might be hosts for the souls of his victims, released into their newborn bodies the night he died. The kids are a check-list of high school personalities, there’s the bullying jock Brandon (Nick Lashaway), pretty girl Brittany (Paulina Olszyinski), religious girl Penelope (Zena Grey), quick-witted geek Alex (John Magaro), Asian Jay (Jeremy Chu), blind black kid Jerome (Denzel Whitaker) and weird quiet kid Adam ‘Bug’ Heller (Max Thieriot). Bug has suffered more than most of the other kids; he was cut from his mother’s womb after she and Bug’s father were killed in a fatal car wreck. Bug has also suffered migraines, blackouts and hears voices, his older sister Leah/Fang (Emily Meade) doesn’t make his life any easier either, she spreads gossip and lies about Bug at school, convinced that her life was ruined the night Bug was born.
Now Bug is seeing visions of the teenage victims and taking on each of their odd affectations after they’re killed by the ripper. Is Bug absorbing their souls? Is he committing the crimes? Did the ripper survive and come back to wreak revenge? Who really cares..?
My Soul to Take is not one of horror guru Wes Craven’s better movies. The man who brought us ‘The Last House on the Left’, ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Red Eye’ and ‘Scream’ has made another movie that has more in common with his lesser works ‘Shocker’ and ‘Cursed’. Not one of his better efforts then…
The script has a fairly simple premise. Can the souls of a killer and his victims survive within other bodies and can that killer’s soul exact revenge on his victims again? However Craven attempts to over complicate things as the movie nears its end, having characters extrapolating on the curse, their souls, the ripper and the real origin of Bugs grisly birth. The young cast are all fairly believable, proving yet again that Craven can elicit good performances from young actors better than most in the genre.
The ‘ripper’ isn’t one of Cravens better killers. The man who invented Freddy Krueger can do so much 
better than this; even the kills are all fairly tame and unimaginative.
Not as bad as I’ve made it out to be, but I expect more from Craven. Rent one of his better movies.
Quality: 2 out of 5 stars
Any good: 2 out of 5 stars
50 Least Scary Horror Movies
The 50 Least Scary Movies. A list by Complex magazine, check it and be ready to agree/argue.
