Lifeforce

Title: Lifeforce

Director: Tobe Hooper

Released: 1985

Starring: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart, Michael Gothard, Nicholas Ball, Aubrey Morris, John Hallam, Chris Jagger, Bill Malin

Plot: When the crew of the space shuttle Churchill discover a spaceship hidden in Halley’s Comet the crew choose to investigate finding three humanoid life forms in suspended animation which they choose to bring back to Earth unaware that they are a trio of space vampires.

 

Review: When we look at the “Masters of Horror” collective Tobe Hooper would be another of the directors like Stuart Gordon and perhaps to an extent Joe Dante whose work never really gets the recognition it deserves. More so in Hooper’s case were he found early success with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” arguable one of the scariest and intense movies ever made, only to find it overshadowing the films which followed as he strived to replicate it with the films which followed in career littered more recently with more misses than hits.

This film really marked the beginning of the decline for his career which would following its release descend into medeocricy outside of the occasional high point which can be found in his TV projects such as the pilot episode for “Dark Skies” and his episodes for the “Masters of Horror” series. This film however would be the first film in a three-picture deal which he was offered Cannon Films following the success of “Poltergeist” and which would lead to Hooper directing both the “Invaders From Mars” remake aswell as the cult favourite “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”.

So were do we begin with this film? Its far from an easy question as this is a film which is seemingly never sure what exactly it wants to be as we start off as an “Alien” style space movie whose similarities are not all that suprising when you consider that the script was co-written by Dan O’Bannon. From here the film seems to be settled into its Space Vampire groove, only to then shift into a body snatchers mood before then switching to an all out zombie apocalypse on the streets of London. It’s a wild and random ride to say the least and one I will attempt to decipher in this review as best as I can, but even as I sit down to write this review I’m left with the same sense of confusion that I got with Hooper’s experimental hippy debut “Eggshells”.

The first half of the film is actually pretty enjoyable as we get the crew of Churchill investigating the mysterious craft, finding fossilised giant bat like creatures and our trio of naked space vampires asleep in suspended animation. Originally this discover sequence was to be shot in silence which would have been really interesting to see, especially when how this opening portion is shot and the zero gravity movements of the characters are almost hypnotic to watch and there is so genuine tension to these scenes of exploration aboard the alien craft.

Unsurprisingly the focus is placed on the hot naked space chick (May) and not the two space studs who are pushed to the background for the most part. Back on Earth she of course wakes up suddenly and wastes little time sucking the lifeforce out of her victims all while wandering around completely naked and with little desire to actually find clothes. In a fun twist her victims which are reduced to shrivelled husks also start feeding on the lifeforce of anyone near them causing this vampire like virus to soon begin spreading out of control, while those unable to find a victim explode into dust which for some reason never gets old.

We are also introduced at this point to our hero and SAS Colonel Caine played here by an impossibly young looking Peter Firth who I was most familiar with his role in the TV series “Spooks” as the MI5 officer Harry, so it was kind of surreal to find him randomly turning up here. Inturn his appearance really gives the film a feeling of a Doctor Who episode, especially as he carries this Quatermass attitude which I really wasn’t expecting to find with this film.

While it seems at this point that you know were the story is going with Hooper seemingly crafting a space vampire romp, things instead take a turn for the random when Churchill crew member Tom Carlsen (Railsback) suddenly returns to earth in the ships escape pod. Carlsen randomly shares a psychic link with the female space vampire who for some reason they never both to name, even in the credits she is listed as “Space Girl”. The psychic link angle really is overplayed throughout the second half of the film which is also were the film starts to grind its gear and loose the momentum it had in the first half with Hooper working in a bunch of Dracula style seduction dream sequences between Carlsen and the female vampire. It also serves to take us out into the British countryside for no real discernible reason I could think of other than to stretch the film out or that Hooper just really fancied filming in the countryside. The body snatchers angle this diversion introduces makes absolutely zero sense and what I would say needed to be cut from what is a greatly inflated runtime which needed to loose around thirty mins. At the same time it would also mean losing Patrick Stewart's appearance as the manager of a hospital they believe she is hiding out in.

The ending though is really were the film not only jumps the shark but the whole aquarium as the film suddenly turns into a full blown zombie apocalypse which you can’t but wonder if it served as the inspiration for the post-apocalyptic London of “28 Days Later”. This finale Hooper just goes nuts and throws everything at the screen with Caine battling his way through the zombie hordes and seeing how much Peter Firth is seen smiling throughout these scenes its hard to tell if he’s just having fun or just given into the fact that he’s just resigned himself to the fact that none of this is making the slightest bit of sense. It is however a lot of fun to see London being reduced to rubble, thanks to Hopper getting access to a recently closed model village which he could blow up as a substitute London.

Were the film really excels however is with the special effects, in particular the practical effects throughout the film thanks to John Dykstra whose work here really stops the film from being just another throw away Cannon title, while making it non to surprising that it was also one of their most expensive productions alongside “Master of the Universe” and “Superman 4: The Quest for Peace”. What it does give us though are dried husk zombies whose body rejuvenate when they suck the lifeforce out of their victim or explode into dusty clouds when they can’t. By the finale they are more traditional looking zombie effects which is to be understood, but really made up for by some fun body horror elements.

A truly random experience which certainly could have afforded to hack out half an hour, especially the distraction provided by the third act which throws in the unneeded bodyswappers element which really brings nothing to the film apart from adding confusion to the film which would have taken away from the film more had the finale been so much fun. Its hard to say were this film lies in terms of being good or bad as it somehow manages to fall somewhere outside of such ratings and while its far from Hooper’s best film its one which is still worth watch if only to be astounded by its sheer randomness as there really is nothing else quite like it.

Fright Night

Title: Fright Night

Director: Tom Holland

Released: 1985

Starring: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark, Dorothy Fielding, Art J. Evans

Plot: When Charlie (Ragsdale) discovers that his neighbour Jerry (Sarandon) is a vampire he dismayed to find that no one believes him, leading him to recruit Peter Vincent (McDowall), a former movie vampire hunter turned TV host to help him stop Jerry.

Review: Another film from my childhood whose memorable VHS cover I still remember scaring the hell out me back when I used to spend many a misspent hour looking on the shelves of the Video store, at the same time knowing that I would never have the guts to ever watch it. Even as the film in later years has gone on to become regarded as a cult classic, meaning that it has been a source of some dismay for some of my friends that for one reason or another it’s taken me until now to actually watch it.  Perhaps one of the main reasons (outside of the aforementioned minor childhood trauma the cover caused) is that it’s a vampire movie. One of the few horror sub-genres which hardly fills me with the most excitement, especially considering how like Zombies it has been so overworked, with vampires long being the inspiration for countless dire paranormal romance let alone the whole “Twilight” fiasco, so when you tell me it’s a vampire movie it really has to be something special to hold my attention.

The directorial debut of Director Tom Holland who would previous to this film has written the surprisingly good “Psycho 2” and would go onto follow this film with the equally cult “Child’s Play” and the underrated Stephen King adaptation “Thinner” and while he is a director whose better known for his films rather than being the one who directed them. A fact only further highlighted by the fact that I didn’t realise how many of his films I’d seen till I started doing the research for this review.

Charlie is your regular teenage kid who likes horror movies and making out with his girlfriend as highlighted by the opening were he manages to combine the two (something which never works out in real life). He then manages to achieves what I assume to be a horror movie first by blowing off his girlfriend Amy (Bearse) offering to finally sleep with him, as he’s too busy spying on his neighbour after he notices a coffin being moved into the house. It’s worth noting at this point Jerry is still be to proven to be a vampire, so essentially he’s blowing off his girlfriend because of an overactive imagination.

While there is little doubt over whether Jerry is a vampire or not, even though it would have been epic if he hadn’t turned out to be one. The fun is watching Charlie trying to convince those around him that he’s right, much less the fact that he bases all his knowledge on vampires from what he’s learned from the movies or even more questionable advice from his best friend Evil Ed (Geoffreys). This perhaps might go some way to explaining why he believes a movie vampire slayer would be the best person to assist him with dealing with Jerry. Peter Vincent is a great character and possibly the one character that goes on the biggest journey here as he starts off as a sceptic only to soon find himself having to battle his very real fears to step up and become the man he played in the movies. It has to be questioned though if all the vampire hunting paraphilia in his apartment was all props from his former movie career or if he actually has any real experience? The answer to this question alludes us even if some of his equipment such as his pistol does come with links to his films, making it only all the more confusing.  

A great mixture of comedy and horror runs through this film with Sarandon providing the right combination of charm and threat to make for a suitable villain here, more so when he plays things so close to his chest in terms of his plans. More so when he throws in a real twist by seducing Amy which while its hinted that its due to her resemblance to his former lover, I couldn’t help but think that this was another way to screw with Charlie, more so when he also turns Evil Ed into a vampire one of those rare examples of a good character turning evil and in turn even more awesome than he originally was!

While the film was released back in the 80’s making up an unholy trinity of vampire movies alongside “The Lost Boys” and “Near Dark”, like those films the old school effect still hold up even now, with Richard Edlund and his special effects team when the film was made coming in fresh from “Ghostbusters”. It’s also great that the vampire transformations are more monstrous similar to those seen in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” than the more traditional pointy teeth variant which still continue to plague the genre now, only without any of the charm of the horror legends which originally portrayed these characters to make these more simple vampires work. At the same time we do get some gooey death scenes and an equally astonishing reverse transformation to rival “An American Werewolf In London”.

While for the most part this is a fun ride, it does sag slightly in the third act was the focus shifts to Jerry and his attempts to corrupt Amy with the help of his vampire powers, though taking the focus away from Charlie means that the film loses momentum, but ultimately this is a minor complaint as the film is still a lot of fun with healthy dose of splatter to add to the thrills to ensure it holds its own against its contempories especially when it falls squarely between the worlds of “The Lost Boys” and “Near Dark” making it the perfect companion piece to either film, while being one of those rare vampire films which even the usual haters of the sub-genre like myself can enjoy.

Boxset Binges #2 - True Blood (Season 1)

Okay lets start by clearing up a couple of things, the first and most important being I really don’t like vampires, which lets face it are the most humdrum of the horror monster back catalogue and basically an excuse for certain guys to grow their hair long, hang around in trench coats pretending to be all moody and dark....usually failing badly. This opinion is especially driven home, with there being only a few notables exceptions in the genre popping up occasionally, more often than not these films involving said vampire being portrayed by an acting master like Christopher Lee or Bella Lugosi.
The second notable point is the recent explosion in the “Paranormal Romance” genre, since publishers cottoned onto the fact that “Twilight” made a pile of money for Stephanie Meyer, creating a boom in the market as publishers began pumping out ropey romance novels, which no one would usually care about, except perhaps the more hardcore of the mills and boon crowd, but because these story were usually reworked to cram some vampire love interest into the story. From this wreckage of a genre, which we used to commonly refer to as “books for women not getting enough” (thanks to a certain member of our "Stitch and Bitch" knitting circle for pointing that one out) when I was working at Borders, however out of the masses of imitators emerged Charlaine Harris to pick up the fans left wanting more after the end of the Twilight saga with her “True Blood” series, so it was really only a matter of time before someone found a way to cash in on the series, luckily for Harris it was HBO who got in first turning the first book of the series into this first season, with the added advantage of having Alan Ball adapting, who is probably best known for writing both “American Beauty” (1999) aswell as one of my favourite TV shows “Six Feet Under” which if anyone was going to write a show about vampires, that I was actually going to like, it was probably going to be him and maybe explain what the hell it is about vampires, that seems to get women so darn frenzied.
So as I sat down to watch the first season, after hearing all the usual fans talking about how good it was, I have to admit I was sceptical not only about watching the whole boxset, but making it through one episode.

Okay I'll admit it, I really liked this first season, not only for it’s great writing, but for how frequently it managed to surprise me over the twelve episodes, which make up it’s first season which seemed actually quite short, especially when most shows tend to have a twenty four episode season, but seeing how the focus it would seem is on turn each book in the series into a season of the show, it was probably for the best as it saves the material from being stretched too thin, which is always the worry with a straight adaptation.

Set in the small Louisinna town of Bon Temps, the series follows the telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with the vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and their attempt at having a normal relationship, in a society were Vampires have not only been acknowledged as existing, but are now recognised as legal citizens, after the creation of a synthetic blood called "Tru Blood" which has provided an exceptable subsitute for vampires to feed from, along with a supply of willing volunteers, who it seems are in endless supply especially with Vampire sex proving a growing popular craze. Meanwhile a crazed killer is stalking the town, killing women seemingly all connected with Sookie’s oversexed brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten).

For myself one of the strong points of Ball’s work, has always been with the supporting characters, who here are really a colourful bunch, from Sookie’s outspoken best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) and her cousin Lafayette, who has a hand in most of the illegal dealings in town from working as a Gay Prostitute to selling vampire blood (or V as it’s known) which when taken by humans provides an addictive high, which over the course of the season Jason becomes increasingly addicted to, while getting involved with fellow V junkie Amy (Lizzy Caplan)

One of the most refreshing aspects of the series, is how the vampires arn't just another carbon copy of every other freaking vampire we have seen before and most reconisably aren’t still under the impression that they are in the 1800’s, but just wearing modern clothes, as although the Vampires here might make references to the era’s in which they were turned, with Bill in perticualr having a flashback episode to his former life as a civil war soldier, they are still highly modernised and concerned with current issues, in perticular the discrimination they face, from society in perticular the Zealot Christian group “The Fellowship of the Sun”, with the whole fight for equal rights for Vampires, in places though out the series bearing numerous references to the Gay rights movement, with a sign declaring “God Hates Fangs” appearing in the opening credits, along with the phrase “Coming out of the Coffin” also being mentioned.

Bell already established his love of death and gore with “Six Feet Under” and once again it is present here, with bloody staking and violent deaths, it’s nice to see a mainstream series such as this, not caring whether it is isolating key parts of the Vampire fanbase, especially those with a penchant for sparkly vamps, as thankfully these vampires still have a severe dislike for sunlight, highlighted by the worst rescue attempt ever by Bill and bites are bloody oozing affairs, with the level of violence and gore actually taking me by surprise throughout, having expected to see nothing more violent than what had already been seen in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” or it’s darker spinoff “Angel”, so kudos on once again bringing gore back to the genre.

I guess my main gripe with the series has to really be with casting hatchet, which is swung far too broadly throughout the first season, as several likable characters fail to make it through this first season, with some of the targets being truly disagreeable and certainly characters I wanted to see more off, while more irritating characters remained. True it might make it all the more interesting not knowing whose gonna make it through each episode, but when you look at the sheer amount of main characters, facing the wrath of the hatchet, it verges on comical and raising more than a few grumbles from myself, as I saw another of my favourite characters removed.
The other grumble with the series has to be with Anna Paquin, whose accent changes in pitch to a nice southern drawl to a pitch which is like a cheese grater in your brain, which is bad for a supporting character, but when it’s your lead actress is kind of more of a problem, still I guess there is the benefit of copious gratuitous nudity, with something for everyone, which will no doubt keep some of you with the series, but then gratuitous nudity does tend to patch over a lot.

So it seems there might be life left in the Vampire genre, which hasn’t been overly romanticised or turned into more sterilised garbage for the masses and despite it’s faults I’m already looking forward to watching the second season, even if I’m now the wiser as to why women are still getting far to excited about vampires, aswell as to see if Ball can continue to build on these foundations he has laid with the first season, or whether it will all fall apart as he gets caught up in the human drama, which essentially was were “Six Feet Under” failed in the later seasons, were it pretty much forgot that it was supposed to be about dead people, though I guess it will be interesting to see whether this show can still keep the interest once the Vampire novelty has worn off, especially with the Paranormal Romance market, only becoming all the more saturated with imitators.