http://coosacreek.org/mambo film, media and religion from the banks of Coosa Creek Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:51:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_2078" align="alignright" width="320" caption="Number 4 with a (silver) bullet"][/caption] While I'm in Virginia visiting my daughter, posts may be fewer and further between.  But here's a list I found of the Top 70 Vampire Movies of All Time.  Now: my first question is, why 70?  Why not, say, 73 or ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/11/70-top-vampires/ As Appaloosa opens, Marshall Jack Bell (Bobby Jauregui) and two deputies confront rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) about a couple of his hands.  Seems they've killed a man and raped and killed his wife.  Bragg refuses to hand them over -- he says he can't spare them -- and when ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/10/appaloosa/ The Lost Boys is one of those movies that plays better in memory than in fact.  I remember it being a dangerous, not-your-parents vampire movie, with cool music and even more cool vampires.  Even though I was hardly a kid when I saw it -- it was released in 1987 ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/10/when-youre-strange/ No, it's not Barbara Bush, it's Henriette Gérard, the vampire from Vampyr. Easily the creepiest -- if not the greatest -- of all vampire flicks, the film moves as if in a dream: flowing and nightmarish, and with it's own haunted logic. Ms. Gérard is a big reason for this.  She ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/09/my-best-fiend-part-ii/ Even vampires get lonely, even vampires need love.  Unlike the rest of us they can create the perfect  mate, the perfect companion.  All it takes is a nibble here, a nosh there, and voilá: you've got a companion for life, er, death, uh ... undeath.  Well, forever, if you know ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/07/soul-less-mate/ John Badham's Dracula opens on the ship bringing Count Dracula (Frank Langella) to English shores, and as I watched it, two words popped into my head: production values.   The film has that slick Hollywood look of a certain period, as if it had been over-produced on a massive budget.  There ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/06/dracula-1979/ Always keep your priorities straight. [flashvideo filename=http://coosacreek.org/mambo/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/never-stake-2.flv /] http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/05/rules-for-vampire-hunters-part-i/ When I saw the pretentious, 80s-techno opening -- cut to Bauhaus' "Bela Lugos is Dead," for God's sake -- I thought: "Ah, hell. This is going to be a long and bumpy ride."  After all, it was directed by Tony Scott, that master of empty sizzle -- see Spy Game, ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/04/the-hunger/ Look at him:  he looks like a kindly uncle, or a wise older mentor, the kind of guy you can go to for advice about girls or what all the best people are reading, or fine wine.  But then, you start looking a little closer: the jet-black eyes with the ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/03/my-fiend-apologies-to-werner-herzog/ [caption id="attachment_1866" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Count Graf Orlok. Note the shape of the window."][/caption] What can I say about F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror that hasn't already been said?  Not much, I think ... it's an archetype of German Expressionism, and contains one of the single most famous Expressionist ... http://coosacreek.org/mambo/2008/10/02/nosferatu-an-appreciation/