Sunday, August 28, 2011

40 Days of Night(mares) Day 6: Favorite Vampire Movie

It's Twilight!!!! No.. Even I can't make that joke. So bad, I crapped out of it after about 5 minutes. This may have been the toughest question yet. I am so torn between two favorites. I mean there's a great race for third place too, you've got The Lost Boys, Nosferatu, Innocent Blood, Salem's Lot, and the entire Subspecies series all vying for a place. But, there were two movies that immediately popped in my head. So, I decided to watch them both and make a decision then. That didn't really help, so I am going to cheat and create subcategories...

Favorite Vampire Movie - Comedy division
Fright Night - No, not the new one, the classic with the wonderful Roddy McDowall in all his glory. What do you do if your neighbor is a vampire? Probably not what William Ragsdale's Charlie Brewster does (it's probably easier to imagine what you'd do with a mannequin who comes to life, right?). It still holds up, except for the typically crappy 80's pop themes. Features a pre Marcy Darcy Amanda Bearse as the girl of Charlie's dreams, who ends up looking kind of hot as the vampire bride. But, it's the droll and dry delivery and composed, cocksure attitude of William Ragsdale (The Princess Bride) as the bloodsucker who makes this film push past cheesiness and into brilliance. Seriously, before you give into temptation and head out to see Colin Farrell in the remake. Do yourself a favor and rewatch the original.
My score... a solid 7 out of 10

Favorite Vampire Movie - Straight up horror division
30 Days of Night. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, it takes the premise of a town in Alaska plunging into 30 days of darkness as a vampire's (blood) wet dream. Awesomely chilling. I first got excited when I saw the trailer, and heard the head vampire answer a victim's prayer in broken english with "no God". Cut off from society in the boonies. No phones, no chance of help, and no chance of the sun's saving rays to come to your aid for quite a while. This is vampires done right. In the way that I love the new running zombie trend, it's scarier to see the cold-blooded, heartless version of the vampire, who is more realistic than the suave, man who has lived many lifetimes and seen everything seductive tone of the classic tale. Turn out the lights and imagine no escape. 30 Days of Night even boasts a strong performance from Josh Hartnett. Enough so that it actually convinced me to give Lucky Number Slevin a chance.
My score... a deserved 7.5 out of 10

No comments:

Post a Comment