RSSRedneck bar wipeout from “Near Dark”
My favorite scene from one of the best vampire movies of my childhood. Rediscovered via Cinematical.
“His bite was outta site!”
It is a stormy night without rain in 1780! At Castle Dracula! The wicked Count is entertaining royalty from “the dark continent,” as he calls it, as if he thinks he’s some sort of colonial patriarch, and yet he refuses to do proper business with the Africans. In fact, he supports slavery! Who knew the Count was a slave owner? No, none of this makes any sense, but blaxploitation films are not revered for their plots. What matters is the Count bites this “dark prince,” and thus creates BLACULA, the film world’s only black vampire (to my knowledge) until Vamp came along in 1986.
Below is the opening sequence to the movie:
Why resurrect Blacula now? Because Amok Time and Sideshow Replicas have released a 12″ articulated replica of the Prince (see photo at top of post). What makes this figure rock is he’s got three interchangeable heads, including my favorite, the rotted corpse look. Every doll should come with this, particularly Bratz dolls. What makes this not so special is the price is $65, which puts it out of the reach of all but serious collectors.
Oh well, even if you can’t afford it, click through and take a look at the awesome work that went into modeling the three heads.
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SNL video: bathroom terror with Ellen Page and Dracula
If you don’t watch SNL, I don’t blame you, but you may have missed this short last year that spoofs the gotcha! moment in horror movies when someone appears out of nowhere in the bathroom mirror.
Note: if the embedded video doesn’t show up below, blame NBC, not my blog, and click here to view the clip on their site.
Act out your own gothic Dracula play with this Gorey paper doll book
Edward Gorey is like the Alan Ginsberg of a certain type of goth, and although he will be missed, his amazingly stylized drawings continue to live on in every conceivable product—it’s like Garfield, only worthwhile. This Dracula playset is modeled after the set and costume designs he created for the 1977 Broadway production of the play. Comes with 3 16×12″ stage sets, a “cast of 8,” furniture, and an instructional booklet. We only ask that if you buy this and re-enact the story, you give it a happy ending for once.
Edward Gorey’s Dracula: A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts
Review: “Damn Nation”
“Damn Nation”
Writer: Andrew Cosby
Art: J. Alexander
Published by Dark Horse Books
In this nicely illustrated but by-the-numbers horror comic, a Soviet-made plague from the cold war era erupts in modern day America, turning the lower 48 into a quarantined and abandoned land of the… undead?
As with much contemporary horror, the creatures seem supernatural (like vampires, actually) but are created by biological agents. The story pits a hardened, guilt-ridden American solider against a ruthless, unemotional Brit, and throws in a Canadian rescue team, a smart-alecky military group a la “Aliens,” and an innocent child who turns out to be the naturally-evolved cure to the virus.
I just gave away a central plot point, but if you couldn’t see that coming from the second panel of the kid’s appearance (never mind wondering wtf the kid is doing in the country to begin with), then there will be plenty of other clichéd plot elements to surprise you.
Writer Andrew Cosby comes from a TV background, and he has a penchant for creating characters in broad, almost cartoonish strokes, who speak in a combination of exposition and slogans. He relies a lot on existing archetypes in horror and action stories, and doesn’t experiment much with the form. This is not really a problem if you’re looking for a casual horror-themed read. If you want something that pushes boundaries, though, look elsewhere; the story is so mainstream, with a succession of mini-climaxes that are anchored on familiar gimmicks, that it could be a made-for-TV movie on a cable network.
J. Alexander’s artwork is moody, dark, and fuzzy – a little like the messy chaos of the “30 Days of Night” comics, but with a more dynamic color palette that helps differentiate the various locations and times of day. A lot of people like this style, but I have mixed feelings about it. I can appreciate the artwork, but I find it difficult to parse. I want to see precise details, not panel after panel of gauzy, blurred sketches and color washes that seem created to capture tone more than details. But then again, I don’t like Impressionist art either, and this style of dark-and-muddy horror artwork is certainly impressionistic.
In general, if you prefer mainstream, action-oriented horror, and don’t mind (or even enjoy) the staples of modern action and horror movies, then you’ll enjoy “Damn Nation.” It’s a short comic, but seems to be presented as an opening book in a longer series. However, unlike the epic Walking Dead titles, this first book doesn’t develop characters or setting in enough detail to make the concept of a vampire-infested, deserted America very compelling to me (and believe me, I long for a vampire-infested America).
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