Dead Channel
Compiled By Zuul - September 2008
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True Blood - We previewed this a couple of issues ago and now it’s here: True Blood is based on the Southern Vampire series of books by Charlaine Harris, and is from those responsible for Six Feet Under. The twist here is that the series is set in a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin” and are an accepted fact of life (or death) everyone is aware of - with the Vampires surviving on socially acceptable Japanese manufactured synthetic blood.
The Dead Channel was lucky enough to catch a preview of the first episode (which airs in the US in September) and it’s great – as usual with HBO, no punches are pulled – lots of violence, nudity, swearing (though not to legendary Deadwood levels) and it has a great deep-south mood to it. No word on when you can see this in the UK. Best line so far: “Everyone should have sex with a vampire once before they die”. All the info at: www.hbo.com/trueblood.
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Solomon Kane - Hollywood plunders more classic pulp fiction by taking on another character from the creator of Conan The Barbarian (no, wait, wait!) – Kane wanders the earth righting (mainly supernatural) wrongs and is a classic archetype hero, but why does he do that? Well, because of his actions as a soldier he is damned, so he’s trying to repent of course. James “Marc Anthony” Purefoy stars. No, really, this will be good.
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NetherBeast Incoporated - Office life sucks, and quite literally in this tale of corporate vampires – you may have already caught this at the London Sci-Fi fest where it premiered, but as ever these things can take a while to emerge. This horror comedy features a different kind of stake holder (I know, I’m sorry) – and from the trailers online it looks like fun. Out on DVD at the end of the year.
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Cirque Du Freak - This is the new show from Cirque Du Soleil featuring contortionist freakshow artistes from all over the world and…nah, not really – but it would be good wouldn’t it? Actually it’s a new film based on the first three books of the 12 book Vampire Blood series by Darren Shan.
In the first book, a young boy meets a vampire at the freakshow and joins the circus as an undead initiate (after sacrificing himself for his friend) with the aim of eventually becoming a full vamp. Filmed in New Orleans and due out in the UK in February, this is a big budget attempt at launching a vamp equivalent to Harry Potter (they wish). The cast also includes Santanico Pandemonium herself – Salma Hayek.
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Never Cry Werewolf - Five points for the title – this features Hercules himself (Kevin Sorbo) in a story of a Werewolf moving in next door – I’d suggest this is the Rear Window werewolf movie we’ve all been waiting for but…it’s just a bit of fun – and it’s got some of those skinless werewolf dogs that seem to be all the rage nowadays. The trailer is online, and it should be on DVD “soon”. I also particularly like the tag line “An Immortal Battle For Survival” – what does that mean? No, really, what?
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Max Payne - Never played the game this is based on myself, but this looks fantastic – nearest comparison is Constantine – the trailer looks amazing, with the music adding gallons of depth to the imagery (furiously researches to find music, but can’t identify it). The only issue I have with this is it stars “king of emotion” Marky “Mark” Wahlberg – why oh why? He has one vaguely quizzical expression at his disposal and that’s it! Fans of Lord Inanimate (Keanu) will probably appreciate this though.
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Let The Right One In - We reviewed this grim Swedish vampire novel last issue – and here’s the film version already – it’s a Swedish language film, and it looks like they’ve got the cold foreboding mood of the book about right. Trailer is online now, look for this on DVD sometime next year.
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The Wolfman - Well, it had to happen eventually – Benecio Del Toro has been cast as a werewolf – can’t believe it took so long – he already looks the part! Also starring Anthony Hopkins, this is a big budget take on the legend and a remake of the 1941 Universal film – the makeup (not CGI) looks great (see pic).
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Teeth - Okay, one for the “can’t believe they made it but I’ll go to see it just to say I have” pile. Now of course, we here at the LVG are most interested in tales of biting, but this will make 50% of readers eyes water. This is the tale of a young lady with fangs in a very intimate place. If the Ed has deemed the poster image publishable (it was banned) – you’ll get the idea. This is a horror movie, and this is a comedy. Judge for yourself, as it’s out on DVD in mid-october.
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Beyond The Rave - An online thang this one – which means you can race off and watch it right now at BeyondTheRave.com (well, actually MySpace – and you need an account to watch – this is 18 rated) – this is a Hammer production (all hail) – this vampire tale (which claims a combination of Lost Boys and Near Dark as inspiration – lots to live up to for vamp fans then) – is set in the UK underground dance scene (you know the one).
It does feature one of Dracula’s brides (Sadie Frost). Word to the wise – this really does feature lots of hard core dance, if that’s not your thing, then maybe give it a miss. But it is easily well acted enough (and decently budgeted) to stand along side most DVD horror releases. It’s already 20 (4 minute) episodes in (as of end of August) – catch it while it’s up!
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Hellboy II: The Golden Army - It will have been out a few weeks by the time you read this, but go see it! It’s superb. Clearly Guillermo Del Toro is obsessed with clockwork and metalwork and should just go the whole hog and make an out and out steampunk movie. For now, this is the closest we’ll get.
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Dead & Buried - A new programme on the Dead Channel this – in the ruthless world of US TV, some shows get cancelled before they even see the light of day – vampire shows especially (think about it). This time we have a couple which showed promise, but were bitten to the quick before they could bloom:
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Moonlight - Killed off after just 16 episodes, this story of a man bitten by a vampire 60 years ago becoming a private investigator and falling in love with a mortal woman probably didn’t have enough bite and too much slush, but it had some promise.
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New Amsterdam - They messed up even the title for this one – it was originally called “Amsterdamned” – which I thought was much better. Anyway, this survived just 8 episodes with a plot described as “A New York police detective seeks love while keeping secret that he became immortal 400 years ago”. It does sound an awful lot like Moonlight above. The “curse” could only be lifted by the main character finding his true love. Might as well remake beauty and the beast and be done with it. Tosh.
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