Blood of the Vampire is set into the end of the nineteenth century and tells the story about the wrongly accused doctor who ends in the remote prison where mad warden conducts deathly experiments on inmates, with help of his disfigured sidekick. This one was definitely ahead of its time. Why? Because this one is a brutal prison thriller drama about wrongly accused character with little or no hope for saving himself from the situation he is in. Second, it is horror, classic with mad doctor, experiments and blood letting and blood being the life. Donald Wolfit is fantastic in the role of Callistratus, mad warden/scientist, diabolic and anemic, whose presence steals the charisma from all other actors, although Barbara Shelley as Madeleine and Victor Maddern as disfigured Carl are also fabulous and charming, as only those old school horror movies can provide. Characters that are unforgettable, larger than life and ones that we always love to get back to. I am really happy that I discovered this little jewel and watched it. If you love old school horror, prison break movies, drama and macabre, this one is a keeper.
I must admit that I had absolutely no expectations from this one. I thought to myself, this is another teen horror slasher or something, just one in endless row of bad horror, like it is delivered in recent couple of years. But, fortunately I was wrong. The story evolves around group of friends who drive with their SUV somewhere in shithole back country and learn that some witches were hung there in the woods. Like it usually is in our beloved genre, instead of moving on, they decide to go there. And what happens? Their SUV breaks down. They are stranded in snow and all the psychological issues start to come out as something lurks for them in the darkness and cold. Is it witches or only their psyche? Well, this one had some spooky moments for me. There are almost no gore and bloody scenes, just a little, so you gore fiends skip this one. This is pure psychological mental break horror and I loved it. The ending could be better and it left some questions in the movie unanswered but I guess that is the way it must be in movies such as this one. The acting is not well, but decent and Jordan Barker directed this one okay and I have nothing against this movie. Not special, but decent.
October is a right time for many new horrorpunk releases that come out as Samhain is closing in, so it was time for me to have a listen to the new Blood Shift record.
These guys come from Cleveland and they play a mixture of horrorpunk and death rock. There are 11 songs on this one and as I started listening I was awed by musicianship and versatility of this record. Songs like Let It Live are more straightforward catchy horrorpunk songs, but This Dead World is aggressive death rock song with even some doom vibes thrown in for good measure. Infecting Madness starts as a ballad with lots of atmosphere and turns into bass pumping and upbeat horrorpunk song with lots of superb harmonies. Calling is a song with melancholic chorus and reminds me on some of the later era Blitzkid and Gools´ work and I mean that in every possible loving way. Bleeding Secret is one of my personal favorites, so sad, so atmospheric and so loving in any possible way, mid tempo punk song with haunting melody. Forgotten Land serves as acoustic and spooky intermezzo between the second part of the album. As for the second part of the album, my favorite songs there are Illuminate The Night and Fire Of One, being somehow most memorable. This one is a great record, so go listen and get it.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 