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One Man’s Trash: Billy the Kid vs. Dracula

Adam Tyner — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 16:00:36 +0000

Hmmm, how best to succinctly describe the central conflict in Billy the Kid vs. Dracula…? Wait, I’ve got it! Billy the Kid squares off against Dracula! I guess that’s it for the plot synopsis. Load up, fellas! We’re moving on. Okay, okay, I guess I can delve into a little more detail than that. The...

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Fantasia Fest Journal: Dreamland

Jason Gorber — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 12:00:45 +0000

Hard Core Logo and Pontypool director Bruce McDonald’s latest film, Dreamland, brings vampire tropes, Lynchian surrealism, and a love of cool Jazz to audiences that may or may not be receptive to the trippy tale. Dreamland evokes the jumps in logic, tone, and setting that its name implies. The movie is an intentional mishmash that,...

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What We Do in the Shadows Pilot Recap: “Down with the Old Ways, Up with the New World”

Josh Zyber — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 12:00:46 +0000

Based on the 2014 movie of the same name, the FX network’s What We Do in the Shadows transfers Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s cult comedy to a new continent and a new medium, but remains just as dark, quirky, and hilarious. The TV spinoff supposedly takes place in the same world as the movie,...

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The Passage Pilot Recap: “I Didn’t Used to Believe in Monsters”

Josh Zyber — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 13:00:37 +0000

Save for The X Files and Fringe, Fox doesn’t have a great track record for keeping sci-fi dramas on the air longer than a season. Nevertheless, the network keeps trying. Will The Passage find a path to long-term success, or it is doomed to lose its way like so many shows before it? Based on...

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Weekend Roundtable: Dracula Dracula Dracula…

Josh Zyber — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 16:00:32 +0000

Since his creation in 1897, Bram Stoker’s famed vampire Dracula has become an indelible pop culture icon, appearing in hundreds if not thousands of movies, TV shows, books, comics, games and more, sometimes treated seriously and sometimes turned into an Adam Sandler cartoon. This week’s Roundtable looks at some of our favorite treatments of the...

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One Man’s Trash: Vampire in Vegas

Adam Tyner — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:00:47 +0000

Oh, ‘Vampire in Vegas’, you only had two things to deliver. Vampire: check. Vegas: not so much. Filmed in sunny Los Angeles, because of course it was, ‘Vampire in Vegas’ is about an immortal bloodsucker searching for true power. Massacring entire villages is good for a few laughs and all, but after several hundred years...

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‘The Transfiguration’ Review: Fangs Not Required

Philip Brown — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 12:00:50 +0000

Movie monsters tend to move in cycles. We just got out of a soapy vampire romance trend, so the time has come for the undead blood suckers to become moody and unsettling creatures again. First-time writer/director Michael O’Shea attempts to bring back the art house vampire flick with his eccentric debut that knocks down ‘Twilight’...

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‘Underworld: Blood Wars’ Review: Stop It

Philip Brown — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 13:00:11 +0000

Hey, remember when everyone was obsessed with those ‘Underworld’ movies? I’ll bet you don’t because that never actually happened. Yet here we are, 14 years later, and there are still sequels being made. ‘Underworld: Blood Wars’ is the latest title in the franchise. It’s not particularly better or worse than any of the previous handfuls...

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‘Van Helsing’ Pilot Recap: “I’m Nothing Special, Honest”

Josh Zyber — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:00:40 +0000

The best thing about Syfy’s new ‘Van Helsing’ series is that the show is not a spinoff from, and in fact has nothing to do with, the infamous Hugh Jackman flop movie of that same title. The worst thing about the show is… everything else. Weirdly, the show comes from the pen of Neil LaBute...

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‘The Strain’ 3.01 Recap: “We Finally Taking the Fight to These Things?”

Josh Zyber — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 13:00:59 +0000

FX brought ‘The Strain’ back for a third year. I suppose that means people are still watching it. Sadly, I’m not sure I can hang around for another season. The show’s second season was, in my opinion, incredibly lame. To be frank about it, even the first season wasn’t that great. After the S2 finale,...

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‘The Strain’ 2.13 Recap: “Nobody Can Annoy You As Much As I Do”

Josh Zyber — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 19:00:28 +0000

In preparing this post to recap the show’s second season finale, a Google Image search for “the strain night train” brought up some… shall we say, interesting results. ‘Night Train’ is the finale’s episode title, in case that wasn’t clear. Although the name has a quite literal meaning in the episode itself, I have to...

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‘The Strain’ 2.12 Recap: “Nothing Good Comes Easy”

Josh Zyber — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 16:00:45 +0000

Goddammit. Just when I was starting to hope that the writers behind ‘The Strain’ might have forgotten about Zach and would ignore him for the rest of the season until the character could be recast again, the annoying brat is back this week. Also making an unwelcome return appearance is Eph’s awful hairpiece. Episode ‘Fallen...

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