Oct 30, 2005 02:44 AM
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(Updated Oct 30, 2005 02:48 AM)
If this isn't your thing, you're wondering what is the big fascination of the vampire anyway. Fear of the dark, the unseen predator among us, the violence, the blood. They are superior and inferior to us at the same time:- a vampire is immortal, he cannot die of age or disease or accident, but is vulnerable to stuff like sunlight, garlic, fire, silver bullets, etc.
Stories of vampires that had always been around moved to the screen in the b/w Nosferatu in 1922. The ultimate monster of the night has since appeared in hundreds of movies. And times are changing : from simple primitive terror in Bram Stoker to campus rumpus in Buffy, to heroic survivors who are almost Victorian gentlemen in Ann Rice's novels.
Here's 5 films I reccommend, in no order.. I dont claim they're the best. And nothing earlier than 1990.
Blade (1998) : One of the slickest urban vampire movies to be made. Blade, played by Wesley Snipes, is a rather well-dressed black half-human half-vampire half-007(his mother was bitten by a vampire), who will soon lose his half-human status and turn into a full vampire, unless a cure is found for his condition. He has his little team : a weapons expert who supplies gadgetry to keep the vampires at bay (no more garlic and wooden stakes, instead he has spring-action steel bows) and a female scientist trying to discover an antidote for him. (And how its done in movies, is by mixing blue mouthwash and orange soda in test tubes).
Meanwhile, he's up against the vampire Deacon, trying to organize his side into a full-out war against the humans. Blade's condition makes him essential to the vampires plans - he's got all their strengths while still being able to live in sunlight. His blood will be used to summon a super-vampire that will turn the battle. So they get after Blade with a vengeance. There's some excellent fast-paced fight scenes, with Snipes and the vampires battling in subways and other confined urban spaces. Plenty of attitude, and Snipesian cool - a total entertainer.
In contrast, Dracula (1992), an adaptation of the Bram Stoker story by Francis Ford Coppola, has the classic atmosphere - mists and twilight gloom, Transylvanian forests, period costumes and a chilling Gary Oldman playing the undead Count. Much less impressive is Keanu Reeves (speaking an atrocious accent) as a London lawyer who travels to this old country, and falls into the Dracula's hands. His fiancee Mina (Winona ''ethereal'' Ryder) is the Dracula's true love reincarnated, and the Count is trying to lure her back. Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing the vampire hunter is wasted in a lesser part. The retelling of Bram Stoker focuses on creating a unique haunting visual style, Coppola's strongest point, and less on true horror.
Yet a different landscape and setting in The Forsaken (2001). Sean on a desert road picks up a hitchhiker Nick, who turns out to be a vampire hunter on the trail of a group of youngish vampires terrorising passersby, headed by the menacing Jonathan Schaech. This is more in the feel of innocent road trips that run into troubles. When the two try to rescue such a survivor Megan, the tables turn and the vampires are the hunters, chasing them in the desert night for the woman. The movie is wild, with plenty of heart-stopping moments when the two guys are a hair away from violent death. Make sure you leave the lights on while watching.
The frontier setting continues in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) set in New Mexico, where James Woods plays an expert vampire slayer Jack Crow, with a buddy Montoya (Daniel Baldwin). Woods is out to eliminate the last remaining vampires in North America. The vampires in question are hiding out led by a master Valek, who's trying to get used to sunlight (yeah, sunblock should help). Spectacular sets and special effects help the movie, as does a sharp Sheryl Lee, playing a woman who can psychically track the vampires, and Thomas Griffith as the leaderly, majestic Valek in elegant counterpoint to the earthy and tongue-in-cheek-y Woods.
I was saving the most outre one for the last. Addicted to Murder (1995) is supposed to be vampire comedy, but its hard to tell. All the vampires in this movie are cool and sexy, and the movie is about an ordinary joe who falls in love with their lifestyle and wants to be a vampire himself. (!!) Joel Winter, the loser, is captured by a beautiful female vampire Rachel, who uses him for a while, then deserts him. He doesnt turn into a vampire, but he doesnt give up trying. He slinks around at night, though there is no danger from the sun. He has no fangs like a vampire, but he keeps trying to bite, so its like using a very very blunt knife to kill, with very messy results. First he does that with a chicken, then a woman in a nightclub. These scenes are initially comical and then seriously nauseating.
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I won't recommend the one most likely to be seen by a lot of people - Interview with the Vampire. Though an adaptation of Ann Rice's atmospheric novel, the movie suffers from having Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt play the two lead vampires Lestadt and Louis. Pitt's heart seems not in it (who can blame him), and the choice of Cruise is just ridiculous. The elegant visuals of early 20th century New Orleans and Paris are what keep you from leaving right away.
