The sequel to The Lost Boys comes 21 years after the original and again features the two Coreys - Corey Feldman and Corey Haim.

The Frogs are Back

The plot of the new film:

Lost Boys: The Tribe takes place in Luna Bay, where vampire surfers quickly dispatch anyone who crosses their path. Into this dark world arrive moody Chris Emerson (Tad Hilgenbrinck) and his shy sister, Nicole (Autumn Reeser). Having lost their parents in a car accident, the siblings move in with their eccentric Aunt Jillian and become new prey for the local surfers. When Nicole unwittingly drinks the blood of a vampire, Chris must locate and destroy the gang’s Head Vampire, Shane (Angus Sutherland), before his sister’s transformation is complete.

Warner Premiere’s Lost Boys The Tribe arrives on Blu-ray and DVD July 29th from Warner Home Video.

Lost Boys The Tribe is directed by P.J. Pesce from a script by Hans Rodionoff. The movie also features a remake of the song “Cry Little Sister” by G Tom Mac. The updated version of the song is performed by Aiden.

Lost Boys The Tribe will be available in two versions: a single disc rated edition with both widescreen and full screen formats and a single disc Uncut edition with widescreen and full screen formats. The uncut edition will also be available on Blu-ray.

In conjunction with Warner Premiere’s direct-to-DVD launch of Lost Boys The Tribe , the 1987 original comedy-horror cult film The Lost Boys will make its Hi-Def debut also on July 29th. The Lost Boys Blu-ray Hi-Def will be available and will contain the same content as the DVD version of The Lost Boys Two-Disc Special Edition, including commentary by Director Joel Schumacher, interviews, featurettes, The Vampire’s Photo Gallery, deleted scenes and more.

Lost Boys The Tribe contains the following special features:

• Lost Boys: The Tribe: Action Junkies —A piece showcasing the various extreme sports stunt choreography throughout the film.
• Edgar Frog’s Guide to Coming Back Alive — A “How To Kill” doc showcasing various weapons and methods for disposing of vampires. Hosted by Corey Feldman in character as Edgar Frog.
• Alternate Endings: — Two alternate endings featuring a familiar face from the 1987 Original.
• Blu-ray disc includes a bonus Digital Copy of the film.
• Music Videos: an all-new remix music video of “CRY LITTLE SISTER” by original THE LOST BOYS artist G Tom Mac, and three music videos by Yeah Whatever.

And yes, Angus Sutherland is the younger half-brother of Kiefer.

There is an interview with Caroline Munro in the June edition of ZANI.

You might remember Caroline Munro from Dracula A.D. 1972, Maniac, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Excerpts:

ZANI – Do you think, by then, the whole Hammer Horror genre was coming to an end? … maybe there was a natural change in people’s taste.

Caroline Munro – Maybe the Hammer thing was coming to a natural end, but I wasn’t partially aware of it, as I had just signed a year’s contract with Hammer. Which did run for a year. I just think maybe Kronos didn’t have enough of the stuff that had made Hammer famous. You know, heaving bosoms and blood and guts

…

Caroline Munro – There are a few people I would like to work with now, in the genre that appeals to me, in which I could do something for and I would love to work with.

ZANI – I take it Russell T Davies is one.

Caroline Munro – Yes and the others are Quentin Tarantino, a big one I know. Tim Burton and Rob Zombie. Rob Zombie produces interesting work for me, and he uses old girls and boys.

Caroline Munro – Lots people of think Peter (Cushing) just did horror, but he was a serious actor. Yes he was a serious actor, but very funny. I got the chance to work with him twice. Dracula 1972 AD and 2nd time At The Earth’s Core with Doug McClure. Where I got to have a lot of dialogue scenes with Peter. I got to know Peter well off the set. He was the sweetest and loveliest man you could hope to meet.

Christopher Lee is a big man, very handsome. I think when I did Dracula 1972 AD with him that was a big turning point in me, in realising that I wanted to be an actor. A lot of that was down to working with Christopher. I believed that I was Laura. I had never experienced anything like that in my life before. I was inspired by sprit of the young people there, like Christopher Neame, Stephanie Beacham, and Marsha Hunt.

…

Caroline Munro – I loved the Mod scene, I remember going with my friend Anne Hamilton on a top of the bus, to Brighton, to watch the Mods and the Rockers fight. We were very young, we had to stay on the bus because all the police were there. We weren’t meant to be there, as we were only 13, or 14. I remember watching the Mods fight, and thinking that’s very cool.

…

Read the whole interview here.

There’s a movie coming out called Báthory. It’s Slovakian and should be released next year. The plot deals with the life of Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian countess who lived from 1560 to 1614. The story takes place in what is now Slovakia (at the time it was a part of the Kingdom of Hungary).

Báthory is known as Bloody Lady of Cachtice, the most infamous serial killer in Hungarian and Slovak history. She was an educated woman who could read and write in four languages. The Báthory family was one of the wealthiest in Central Europe. The rivalry they had with the Habsburgs is considered a potential reason for conspiracy against her.

Oil Painting of the Countess, believed to be a realistic portrait

In 1610 and 1611, testimonies were collected from more than 300 witness accounts, which suggest that Báthory killed many local peasant girls. The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. They included:

• severe beatings over extended periods of time
• burning or mutilation of hands, faces, and genitalia
• biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other bodily parts
• freezing or starving victims to death

In 1610, she was imprisoned in Cachtice Castle, where she remained in her room until her death four years later.

If you watched Hostel - Part II, you saw a woman (Monika Malacova) bathing in the blood draining out of a hanging victim. Eli Roth called her Mrs. Bathory. This is in reference to the legend that Elizabeth Báthory bathed in the blood of her victims so that she may retain her youth and beauty. This legend was spread in the 1700s by men like László Turóczi’s and Matthias Bel. However, there is no proof that this ever happened.

Scene from Hostel: Part Eww

The emergence of the bloodbath myth coincided with the vampire scares that haunted Europe in the early 18th century. The connection between the two myths would later be made in the 1970s. Some have tried to establish the myth surrounding Elizabeth Báthory as a source of influence for Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. This theory is strongly disputed, however.

Ingrid Pitt in Countess Dracula, a Hammer horror film from 1971 based on Elizabeth Báthory

Underworld (2003)

Director: Len Wiseman

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy

(out of 4)

She’s A Vamp

A bit better upon a second viewing (and probably because of its attractive cinematography), Underworld is a dream project for the “Vampire: The Masquerade” and “Werewolf: The Apocalypse” RPG players, fulfilling the “what if vampires fought werewolves?” scenario, but at the end of the day it isn’t anything more than a pretty picture - style without substance. The film is beautiful looking but emotionless at its core, not unlike its vampire heroine Selene (Kate Beckinsale), who spends the bulk of the picture in one unchanging ice-queen pose.

Under-Woo

This might not have been a problem if the movie didn’t ask us to believe in a love story between her and a human named Michael (Scott Speedman), who is mysteriously being hunted by the thousand-year adversary of the Vampire nation - the Lycans (werewolves). The backstory that emerges involving the true origin of both werewolves and vampires is interesting, and what happens to Michael at the end engages, but there is no point in the story that we are shown exactly why Selene is attracted to him. In fact, many characters make strange decisions in this film, which I suspect is only done to push the plot along and not because of any logical or emotional causes.

Frank Cotton is back!

The standout performances here are by Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen, each elders of their particular clans (Vampire and Lycan, respectively). It’s too bad that they are balanced out by a horrible performance by Shane Brolly (playing a “bad” vampire to Beckinsale’s “good”). He wants Selene to be his bride; she’s just interested in avenging the death of her family. A curious decision is made, however, in that her plight really isn’t given any emphasis among the scenes of vampires-in-human-form exchanging bullets with werewolves-in-human-form. The thing is, it really doesn’t matter who wins the war since we are not able to care about any character in particular. The film would rather devote itself to its Gothic visuals and John Woo-style action sequences (which are curiously uninvolving - it made me yearn for the Blade movies).

Underworld is the equivalent of the pretty-boy rock star who would rather spend the evening in front of his full length mirror instead of attending the party. There is some worthwhile eye-candy - werewolf transformation effects are quite good, and some early shots of Nighy’s character Viktor still decomposed remind one of Frank’s lack of skin in Hellraiser, but sadly the movie cannot match the Gothic tone of The Crow, or the giddiness of Blade or The Matrix. I suspect, however, that the film would make a great background visual on a big screen at your local Goth/industrial club. - Bill Gordon

Fight Club 2

The extended cut of Underworld has the typical jibber-jabber commentary with director Len Wiseman, Beckinsale, and Speedman. Amusing in the sense that vacuous Beskinsale says things like “Oh, that’s a bit of nasty business, isn’t it?” in that cute British accent (thank God she’s hot), it also features a passage with Wiseman explaining how he implored the CGI guys to make the werewolf transformations more “animatronic”. Well, Len, why didn’t you just go with animatronic in the first place?

Featurettes include a very hilarious piece called “Fang or Fiction” which serves as a half-hour advertisement for the film dressed up as a “documentary”. At least, I hope that’s the case, because if they intended this thing to be a real documentary then I suggest they remove their names from the credits immediately, go home and lock themselves in their rooms, and never come out. Still, it’s worth watching for its Ed Wood inspired awfulness.

Some really cool trailers round out the 2-disc package, including a very clever teaser for Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Van Helsing (2004) 1/2
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale
Director: Stephen Sommers

it is so totally not cold out at all

If you wanted to take a look at everything that is wrong about big budget Hollywood films of today, you would pay very close attention to Van Helsing. Mind-numbingly awful, the movie plays like some kind of endurance test and is proof positive that Stephen Summers merely got lucky with The Mummy. Instead, Van Helsing is more like The Mummy Returns - full of fake CGI effects, insipid dialogue, and unbelievable physical laws. It is so ridiculous that it could almost pass for camp, except that there’s no fun to be found anywhere during its two hour plus running time. It is in love with itself and in love with excess - it doesn’t know how to establish characters to root for or create action scenes that make sense, and what’s worse is that it doesn’t care. It has no originality, stealing from every film imagineable, from Aliens to Indiana Jones to James Bond films. And perhaps worst of all - it’s PG13.

Hugh Jackman plays Van Helsing, accompanied by a friar version of Bond’s Q as he fights every monster you can locate in Universal Studio’s backcatalogue. Working for the man (Vatican), he’s sent off to kill Dracula, and if his missing memories don’t give you a clue that he’s a carbon copy of Wolverine, perhaps his transformation into a werewolf later in the movie will convince you. I half expected Patrick Stewart to come out in a wheelchair. Later he hooks up with Kate Beckinsale, playing some variation of her vampire character from Underworld, except with a really bad Romanian accent and the cheese factor turned way up (yes, even more than Underworld).

don’t you be seein this movie now!

There’s not much left to say about the plot, which doesn’t really matter anyway, since it, along with character moments, are secondary to the horrible CGI effects. I’m sure it took a lot of hard work to render computer generated horses hopping over a huge canyon like flying reindeer, but did anybody stop to ask why? By the film’s end, you’ll be asking many more questions like: why is Dracula’s clothing invisible in a mirror, why do naked vampire chicks have no nipples, why does an exploding light grenade fill up an entire castle, and why is Dracula a whiny goth-boy?

…the bats have left the belltower.. the victims have been bled…

I can’t answer these questions, but perhaps they would have been avoided if some of this movie’s 160 million dollar budget went towards a writer worth his salt. Someone needs to tell Sommers that not every moviegoer is a mindless zombie waiting to be numbed with meaningless eye candy or exhibit a Pavlovian response to Alan Silvestri’s by-the-numbers score. If he really wanted to pay tribute to old Universal Horror perhaps he would have given his film some atmosphere and fright instead of turning it into an empty lightshow. Van Helsing is truly soul sucking cinema, but it did make me sympathize with Dracula - after watching it I felt like I aged hundreds of years. - Bill Gordon

Hey Carl… what exactly are we anyway?

Purchase Van Helsing From Amazon