Monday, October 31, 2011

Best Werewolf Movies

In celebration of Halloween and my werewolf costume, here is my list of my 13 favorite movies featuring lycanthropes.

13. Cursed
This is one of the corniest horror films ever made, but it is a total guilty pleasure for me. I mean, you don't see many movies where a werewolf gives you the middle finger.


12. The Company of Wolves
This Little Red Riding Hood story has the strangest werewolf transformations I have ever seen. The weirdest one is probably the one with Stephen Rea where he peels his skin off.


11. Underworld
While this movie is mainly about vampires, I was much more interested in the Lycans. I loved Michael Sheen as Lucian, the lycan who once had a vampire bride that was murdered by her own father for loving a werewolf. I haven't seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, but I am really curious to because the backstory of the werewolves was something that I found interesting from the first film.



10. The Wolfman
This movie didn't get the best reviews, but I actually love it. I love Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt, and I thought that this movie was really cool. "I will kill ALL OF YOU!"



9. Trick r Treat
This movie was cool because I had no idea that they were werewolves until they started transforming. I thought that they were just a bunch of college girls looking to get laid, but they were actually looking for victims. Awesome. You can find that scene HERE

8. Silver Bullet
A bunch of really great werewolf films came out in the 80s and Silver Bullet was one of them. I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I used to love this movie. Here is one of the best scenes in the whole movie.



7. Wolf
Here we see Jack Nicholson as a man who gets bitten by a wolf and finds himself turning into a lycanthrope.



6. The Howling
Another classic 80s werewolf movie. Those were the good days when they used practical effects instead of CGI, so all the transformation scenes look really cool, like the one HERE

5. Curse of the Werewolf
This is one of my favorite Hammer horror films, starring the handsome Oliver Reed. My favorite scene starts below at about 2:38.



4. The Wolf Man
This is the classic 1941 Universal horror film starring Lon Cheney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolf Man. "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."



3. Dog Soldiers
This movie is really cool. It is about this group of soldiers trying to fight off this pack of werewolves in the middle of nowhere. This movie goes old school and has the werewolves walk on two legs.



2. Ginger Snaps
I love this movie. It is about these two death-obsessed sisters, and one of them gets bitten by a werewolf. So, she slowly starts turning into a lycanthrope, and that includes growing a bit of a tail.



1. An American Werewolf in London
Best. Werewolf. Movie. Ever. That just goes without saying. This movie features the best werewolf transformation scene ever, has a great story, some great gore effects, and is also really funny at parts. It is not only the best werewolf movie, but is one of the best horror films ever made. I love love love this movie!


Halloween Playlist

For all of you people having spook-tacular Halloween parties tonight, here are some suggestions for some tunes!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Once again it is my favorite day of the year, Halloween! Unfortunately, Halloween is on a Monday this year and I will be stuck working on my paper that is due tomorrow. It is all good though. I celebrated Halloween on Saturday with my older sister. We checked out some costume contests and saw some really cool costumes. This year I went as a werewolf, one of my favorite horror monsters.


I hope that everyone has a spook-tacular Halloween!


The Walking Dead Episode 3: Save The Last One

God damn! They are never going to find Sophia!!! They barely even looked for her in this episode. I bet next week they won't even look for her at all. Anyways, I knew that Shane was going to be fine. I figured that Otis might die, but not in the way that he did! I thought that Shane was looking a little guilty when he got back without Otis, but I thought that was just because he couldn't save him or something. As soon as he was in the bathroom and they showed the patch of hair missing I knew that it was Shane's fault that Otis didn't come back. Poor Otis! Shane just shot him and let him get eaten by zombies so that he could get away! I mean, Carl was dying, they needed to get that respirator back, and the zombies were gaining on them, but that is still an aweful thing to do. He could have at least shot Otis in the head, so he didn't have to feel them munching on his body before he died. At least Carl is okay. I thought the part with the dangling zombie was really cool. When Daryl and Andrea see the man who tried to hang himself, but turned into a zombie first and got his skin eaten off his legs by other zombies. That just looked really cool. Even though they don't give him a lot of lines, I think Daryl is becoming one of my favorite characters.

Song of the Week: Monster Mash

Spotlight On: Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee is both a horror icon for his appearances in Hammer Horror films in the 1950s, and also a geek icon for being the only actor to appear in both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films. He is a great actor with a fantastic deep voice, and here are some of my favorites of his roles.

The Curse of Frankenstein
Here he played Frankenstein's monster in his first starring role for Hammer, and one of several times that he was paired with the great Peter Cushing. You can watch a scene from the film HERE



Horror of Dracula
Here he plays another horror icon, Dracula. This is probably his most famous role from the Hammer films, and he is in my opinion, one of the best people to have ever played Dracula.



The Wicker Man
While this film has become slightly overshadowed by the shitstorm that was the Nicolas Cage remake of this movie, the original The Wicker Man is a horror classic. Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle who was the leader of this crazy cult. You can find the best scene of the movie HERE



Sleepy Hollow
He only appears in the beginning of this film, but he definitely leaves a lasting impression with his little cameo. He plays the Burgomeister, who is the one who sends Icabod to Sleepy Hollow. You can find his scene HERE

The Lord of the Rings
I am not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan (I'm more of a Star Wars person), but I love Christopher Lee as Saruman. He just has that great voice of his where you just have to listen to everything he is saying. One of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy is his fight with Gandalf.




Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones/ Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Christopher Lee also appeared in the Star Wars prequels as Count Dooku, a man who was trained as a Sith Lord. I love Dooku because he manages to knock down Anakin a few pegs, who was just way too cocky in Attack of the Clones. Also, you just have to love the scene where he fights Yoda.


Upcoming: He will be apparing in the movies Hugo, Dark Shadows, as well as playing Saruman again in The Hobbit movies.

Horror-A-Day: Day Thirty

What a waste of handsome! In this movie, Michael Fassbender plays a Nazi vampire, but you only see his actual face when they have the scene in the '30s. For the rest of the movie he has this crazy make-up on. The other vampire people looked normal, so why couldn't he? Well, I suppose the wouldn't have been scary if he was a handsome vampire. Oh well, we still have Henry Cavill to look at. The one thing that I really loved about this movie was that after they killed Fassy's character, the teenage vampire girl suddenly aged really quickly and then died. Her curse was broken, but then her age caught up with her.

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Nine

This wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, but I still kind of liked it. The best thing about it was probably seeing Bill Paxton as a vampire. I loved him as Severen. I also love that there are three people from the movie Aliens in this film.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Eight

This movie was fantastic! I cannot believe that I have lived 21 years and have never seen Return of the Living Dead! It is strange that it has zombies that can talk, but this isn't a super serious movie, so it really works. The best part was definitely with the Tarman! When that girl finds him in the basement and he is all "BRAINS!!!!" it was fantastic. Love this movie!!! Plus the part with the woman who they tied to the table was really cool when she was explaining why zombies eat brains.


Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Seven

This movie was an interesting take on the classic Little Red Riding Hood Story. It is about a pretty young girl named Rosaleen who is warned about men who are "hairy on the inside" from her grandmother. The special effects are rediculous in this film, but that is what makes it so great. When Stephen Rea's character turns into a wolf it just looks strange, but I love it.



The best part, though was probably the part at the ending when the werewolf who killed her grandmother transforms and we see the wolf's nose coming out if his mouth. Unfortuanately I can't find a video of that on Youtube...

Thursday, October 27, 2011

American Horror Story Episode 4: Halloween Part 1

Oh My God!!! This episode was intense!!!! There were quite a few shocking moments! It starts out with a gay couple who lived in the house a year ago, one of whom is played by Zachary Quinto. After having a fight, one of them leaves to go to the gym, while Quinto's character gets murdered by the rubber man. Fastforward to now, where Ben and Vivien are still trying to sell their house. Their real estate agent suggests hiring a fluffer to spruce up the place, and interestingly enough, Quinto and his boyfriend show up at the door and Vivien assumes that they are the fluffers. We also find out from Tate that the creature that haunts the basement is the ghost of the son of the doctor who first built the house. He was murdered by a man who wanted revenge on the doctor, and then was transformed into some hideous beast by the doctor. That part was crazy! When they showed the doctor sewing the baby hand my jaw just dropped. The other part of this episode that really shocked me was that Adelaide died!!! Oh my god!!! The whole episode she is saying that she wants to be a pretty girl for Halloween, which is really sad, so her mom buys her a pretty girl mask. Seeing a group of pretty teenagers trick or treating, she decides to run after them, and then gets hit by a car! I couldn't believe it! They just killed off Adelaide!!! Well, before she died her mom dragged her on the lawn of the house to be with "her friends" so I am assuming that that means she will be coming back as a ghost. Speaking of coming back as ghosts, I knew that Kate Mara would be back!!! It is just like I said...she was buried in the same place as Moira, and if Moira can come back, then Hayden can come back. I can not wait until next weeks episode!! Also, I'm pleased to see that Ben is treating Tate again. We didn't see a whole lot of him last episode, and he is one of the more interesting characters. His relationship with Violet is certainly moving along too. He did say that they would be going on a real date, and then that rubber man showed up at the house while Larry was knocking on the door. I'm really curious if that is just Tate. He was wearing that rubber suit earlier in the episode...I mean, I don't think that Tate is the actual Rubber Man who killed Zachary Quinto and had sex with Vivien, but it might me him trying to scare Violet again. That would explain why Violet wasn't at the house at the end. I have no idea, though, so I guess I'll have to wait until next week...

On the show's website is describes Halloween Part 2 like this: Halloween night concludes with Tate coming face to face with his past. Ben and Vivien are haunted by one of the house's newest guests. Well I'm guessing that the new guest is Adelaide's ghost. As for Tate's past...maybe it is what I talked about last week about how Constance might be is real mother... Hmm...

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Six

I spent all of last night and some of this morning writing a paper on this movie, so I am just sick of it already even though I have only seen it once. I was writing a paper on supernatural depictions of Native Americans in film and I started writing it about Wolfen, then about Wolfen and this movie, but I realized that I had a lot more to say on this film. I love the original Ginger Snaps, and this is a sort of prequel to it. It is about the ancestors or Ginger and Brigitte in the 19th century, who are also named Ginger and Brigitte. It is a werewolf origin story and explains how werewolves came to Canada from the white settlers. It features handsome Native actor Nathaniel Archand as a guy called Hunter who helps the girls out. To me, this movie moved really slowly and didn't get good until the ending. I loved the part where Ginger lets all of the werewolves into the Trading Post...that was realyl cool.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Character of the Week: Freddy Krueger

"1..2..Freddy's comin' for you, 3...4...better lock your door." One of the most well-known boogiemen in horror is Mr. Freddy Krueger. A child molester and murderer who was burned to death by a mob of angry parents. Then, he went on to haunt teenagers in their dreams. I never really had nightmares as a kid, but when I was younger I used to have to sleep with the door open and the hallway light on because I would see his face outside of my window. The remake of the original Nightmare on Elm Street showed that noone should be allowed to play Freddy except for Robert Englund. I like Jackie Earle Haley, but it just was not the same!!!

Just Finished Reading: Salem's Lot

I have been crazy busy with school all month, so this book took me forever to read. This is the second Stephen King book that I have ever read, with the first being Carrie when I was 11 or 12. It is probably because I had been reading this book little by little for over a month, but I kept getting characters confused with eachother. I know that Ben is the writer, Susan is his love interest, Father Callaghan is the priest, Mark is the kid, Barlow is the vamp, and Straker was his helper. All of the other characters sort of melted in to one for me, though so I was getting kind of confused by the end of what was happening to who. I did like this book however. My favorite part was reading the description of Ben jamming his stake into Barlow. That was really cool.

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Five

If you took the movie Zombieland, replaced the zombies with vampires, then took out all of the humor, you would get Stake Land. This movie is about two people, an older man and a teenage boy who are trying to survive in a world full of vampires. Although I think that the vampires look pretty freaky, I was getting really bored while watching this movie. Also, they give the vampires animals sounds. They sound like lions when they attack and like squealing pigs when they get hurt. I just thought that it was strange. This movies is just filled with very one-dimensional characters who aren't very likable, so by the end of this movie I really didn't care what happened to any of them.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Four

I like Kevin Smith movies. I loved Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma so I was really curious about whether or not his horror film would be good. Here is my biggest issue with this movie: it is really not a horror film. At all. It starts out with a horror-esque plot. Three horny boys hoping to have sex end up getting held hostage by some crazy religious group. The horror in this horror movie really ends there. This movie is more a commentary on religious fanatics and also on the government. There really are no good guys in this movie because both sides are bad. You have the religious people who plan to kill these three boys, and then you have the government people who plan to kill all of them, including the children. You really don't want to take sides with either of them. Anyways, people are getting shot in this movie left and right at really unexpected moments. I really didn't care for this story at all, but I thought that it had good performances by Michael Parks and John Goodman.

Monday, October 24, 2011

The Walking Dead Episode 2: Bloodletting

Okay, so the episode starts out with a flashback from before the zombie apocalypse. Shane is telling Lori that Rick was shot and is in surgery. We then go to present time, where we see Rick running while holding Carl, who was shot in the previous episode. We find out that he was shot by some idiot who was hunting and they are running towards the farm where he is staying with a few other people. Luckily, one of those people is a doctor, and he gives Carl blood transfusions. Meanwhile, Rick is having a panic attack and freaking out because Lori doesn't know. The whole time I was just thinking "God damn why doesn't Shane go get her!" We then find out that Carl has internal bleeding and they need some medical supplies for the doctor to operate on him. So, Shane and the guy who shot Carl go to a local high school to go get them, while another woman goes to get Lori, who is still looking for Sophia with the others. Dale and T-Dog are still by the RV, and T-Dog has a nasty infection from the cut he got during the last episode. While Shane and the other guy are at the high school, they see that it is overrun with zombies. They distract them while they get to the medical supply van, but when they are not so lucky on their way out. So, the episode ends with Shane and the other guy trapped. Yikes...that was actually pretty freaky when they were running from them. How god damn scary would that be in real life? It was that much worse because of how close they were to them. Shane is one of the main characters, so he is obviously going to make it out alright, but I'm curious about how it is going to play out. Also, I can not believe that she still have not found Sophia! I mean, where the fuck is she? I thought for sure she was going to be with that family on the farm, but nope! Are they just not going to find her ever? Is she going to be just like Merle, a character we never see again? I guess we'll find out...Or maybe we won't...

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Three

I thought that this was going to be a straight-up werewolf movie, but it really wasn't. This movie is about a cop who is tracking down a killer who is slashing his victims to ribbons. All clues lead to a wolf, but an expert on wolves claim that the wounds were not done by an animal. In the beginning, you are led to believe that these Native people can transform into wolves and are doing the murders, but in the end you find out that it is Wolfen doing the killings. Wolfen are not really werewolves, but juse a supernatural type of wolf that coexisted with Native Americans 20,000 years ago. This movie doesn't really have a lot of horror elements until the ending, and uses way to much of the POV of the wolves, especially since the look of it is really dated. What is awesome is that this movie fits with this paper I am writing about Native Americans in Supernatural films. I had no idea that there were Native characters when I rented it, so it just worked out perfectly!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Song of the Week: Crazy

My Favorite Vampires

Here is a list of my 15 favorite vampires from film and TV.

15. Santanico Pandemonium
Santanico Pandemonium is an exotic dancer/ vampire played by Salma Hayek in From Dusk Til Dawn. After doing a very sexy dance for all of the men in the Titty Twister bar, she transforms into a vampire beast and kills Quentin Tarantino. Here is her death scene...



14. Jesus Gris

Jesus is an old man who becomes a vampire after being punctured by the Cronos device in Guillermo Del Toro's film Cronos. We see Jesus becoming obsessed with using the bug-like device and with the concept of eternal life.



13. Drusilla
Drusilla is one of my favorite characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it is pretty disappointing that she is only a series regular in season 2. I always loved her because she was batshit crazy, and I think that her and Spike have the most interesting backstories. I'm pissed that I can't find any good clips of her speaking on Youtube, but I found this cool video.



12. Pam Swynford De Beaufort

While she started out as a minor character, I'm glad that we are seeing more and more of Pam each season of True Blood. She is Eric Northman's right hand woman and has the greatest speaking voice. Here are some of my favorite Pam moments.




11. Dracula's Brides
from Bram Stoker's Dracula
from Van Helsing
When you have a movie about Dracula, you have to have his three beautiful vampire brides. While the ones in Bram Stoker's Dracula are mostly there for eye candy, I love the ones in Van Helsing. Here is a cool video I found that features both sets of brides.



10. Selene
Underworld is basically just about Kate Beckinsale in tight leather outfits kicking ass and taking names. I have only seen this first one, but the trailer for the new one actually looks really cool, so I'm going to have to check out Underworld: Evolution and Rise of the Lycans.



9. David
The Lost Boys is a classic 80s vampire movie. What makes it even better is Kiefer Sutherland as David, the head of a vampire gang!



8. Spike
Spike is my favorite vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've never been a big fan of Angel, but I always liked Spike. I didn't really start watching this show until after it was off the air, so I had no idea that he wasn't in the first season, and was in like one episode of season 3. Here is one of my favorite Spike moments. I don't know why, but it always makes me laugh...


7. Jerry Dandridge
Fright Night (1985)
Fright Night (2011)
Jerry is the vampire next door played by Chris Sarandon in Fright Night and by Colin Farrell in the remake. He is a vamp who messes with his next door neighbor Charley, turns his best friend into a vampire, and uses his vampiric powers of seduction to kidnap his girlfriend, and then turn her as well. I really love the original Fright Night, so I was annoyed when I read it was getting remade, but I actually liked the remake as well. Colin Farrell is one very sexy vampire...


6. Claudia
I read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books when I was in Junior High, and I really loved the character of Claudia. Although she is more interesting in the books in my opinion, I love Kirsten Dunst as Claudia in Interview With a Vampire. She is a bit too old, but I think that they made the right choice in choosing an actress older than the character.




5. Nosferatu
Although technically Nosferatu is a rip-off of Dracula, I am going to count him as his own character. Nosferatu is one of my favorite silent films, and is filled with really cool imagery including the famous sequence of him going up the stairs. He also just has a really great look. His pointy ears and long skinny fingers. His also has the creepiest fangs.


4. Dracula

Although I am not a huge fan of Bram Stoker's novel, I have always liked Dracula on film. The best two movie Dracula's in my opinion are Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman.



3. Eli/ Abby

I still have not read this book, but Let the Right One In is one of the best vampire movies ever made. Eli is a little vampire girl (or boy?) who makes friends with a boy named Oskar. In the remake they are renamed Abby and Owen. The remake is nowhere near as good as the original, but it is still a pretty good movie.




2. Lestat De Lioncourt

I wasn't a big fan of Stuart Townsend's performance as Lestat in Queen of the Damned, but I loved Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. It is my favorite of any of Tom Cruise's roles. He makes a very charming and dashing vampire, but can also be quite evil.




1. Eric Northman
Number one on my list is the sexy Viking vampire from my favorite show True Blood. He is Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana and owner of the vampire bar Fangtasia. While his role was very small in the first season, we see more and more of him each season. He is so sexy and tall and vicious and awesome and is by far my favorite character on the show. Here are some of my favorite Eric moments. I cannot wait until season 5!!!!