October Movie Challenge: Dracula Untold (2014)

It's nice to see a movie in the theaters for the challenge every so often.
Dracula Untold is the "untold" story of how Vlad Dracula Tepes became a vampire.

I am not going to say a lot on this to be honest.  I don't want to spoil anyone.  But I will say there is more "300" and "Lord of the Rings" in this than in Bram Stoker's classic.

Still, it was a very fun movie and I am looking forward to talking about more soon.

We took the kids to see it and they really enjoyed it.  Now I will need to have them watch one of the classic Dracula movies.

I'll pick this up on BluRay.











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Tally so far:  12 Total Watched / 11 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Return of Count Yorga (1971) & The Deathmaster (1972)

Return of Count Yorga brings back Robert Quarry as Count Yorga and Roger Perry as a different character.  Brudah, the maybe-a-werewolf servant of Yorga is also back.  No real explanation is give as to why or how Yorga and Brudah are back.  Mariette Hartley stars and even Craig T. Nelson has a small role.

If anything this is a better movie than the first Count Yorga.  The story is more original, not just a copy of Dracula, though I guess it is similar to Dracula's Guest.
Plus the horror element is heightened.

The Deathmaster is a Yorga sequel in all but name really.  Robert Quarry now has a beard and he is playing a vampire named Khorda, but the shtick is the same. So are most of the make-up effects.  Khorda now takes control over a group of hippies to turn them into his death cult.
The movie is slower than Return, but it does feature a nasty death scene where leeches are thrown onto a vampire and they kill him.

Interestingly enough. The posters for Count Yorga and Return of Count Yorga refer to the Count as "the Deathmaster" and then next year he was in "The Deathmaster".

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Tally so far:  11 Total Watched / 10 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Alucard (2008)

Well...I can say this for this low-budget film.  It makes a valiant attempt to retell Dracula in a modern setting.
It also kept much of the original novel and tropes.  There are some interesting tibbits here too. The use of old fashion phones and typewriters was interesting. In fact the old 90s laptop Harker uses on his trip looked more dated than Mina's typewriter.

All the characters are here. Moreso than any other version of Dracula I have seen; yes even Bram Stoker's Dracula. There are some scenes that obviously influences by that movie, but nothing that also could not be derived from the book.  I do like that they cast an Indiana actor as Holmwood.

The acting is not great, but I did notice that many of actors appeared together in other films from the same company.  The editing is also a little off and the special effects are weak at best.

Interestingly enough while we only get glimpses of various female nudity we are "treated" to a full frontal of Dracula/Alucard.  The cover of the video it just one of the vampire brides.

I will admit. I thought the fight scene at the end was amusing. It wasn't supposed to be though.

At 2 hours and 36 mins the movie really drags on.  Yes the book is long, but I think they could have tightened it up a bit.

If at all possible avoid the song at the end.

A for effort, but a solid C- for execution.

Of course now I wonder why vampires only use permutations of their own name. Dracula = Alucard/a, Carmilla, Mircalla, and so on.  I used to say it was vanity, but maybe there is something more to it. Something to think about.
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Tally so far:  7 Total Watched / 6 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Alucarda (1978)

Alucarda is described as being one of the bloodiest movies ever.  Well...maybe for 1978 sure.  It has its fair share of blood, nudity and screaming.

The story is kind of like Carmilla, but not. It's kinda alluding to Dracula, but doesn't. And it kinda has vampires, but doesn't.  The movie is almost a lot of things, but never quite it's own thing.

Alucarda, and their pronunciation of it makes her name sound unique and interesting, is an orphan who may be the daughter of Lucy Westerna.  She begins a fascination with another orphan Justine (certainly a nod to de Sade I am sure).  They spend their time at the Catholic run orphanage running around in the woods.  Soon they meet up with a band of unsavory gypsies and everything goes to hell.  Quite literally.
Next up is a trippy scene of nudity, blood and implied satanic marriage. Oh and a satanic orgy.

The movie had a lot of potential but it never quite lived up to it.


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Tally so far:  6 Total Watched / 5 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Female Vampire / Erotikill (1973)

Another Jess Franco / Lina Romay collaboration, although this is actually their first one.  In this she plays Countess Irina Karlstien (I think it was supposed to be Karnstien, of Carmilla fame) as a mute vampire that can only survive if she kills her lovers at the moment of orgasm.

The unedited "Female Vampire" version is more or less porn.  The edited "Erotikill" emphasized the horror elements.

Through out the movie Lina wanders around naked jumping from victim.
The characters seem to take magic and vampires as a given.  The medical examiner after an autopsy claims the victim was killed by a vampire and hardly anyone blinks an eye about it.  Maybe vampires were more common in Madeira then and I just don't remember it.

The most interesting thing about this movie are the number of different versions out there.  The version I have is 104 minutes. I have heard there is a 110 minute version as well but I have no idea what they cut from this one.

Erotikill had more blood than Female Vampire; which is to say it has some scenes of bloody mouths.  In the behind the scenes piece Franco wanted to be ambiguous about whether it was blood, semen or other fluids.  I guess the censors felt blood was less offensive.
Erotikill is only 70 minutes.



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Tally so far:  5 Total Watched / 4 New (I am only counting these as 1 movie total)

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Fright Night 2 New Blood (2013)

Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013)

Fright Night 2 is described as a sequel to the 2011 remake, but really it is the exact same story as the 2011 and 1985 versions.  It is also listed as a horror/comedy, but there is really little of either.  Sure there is some gore and killing of victims, but nothing really compared to other ones I have seen.  Lots of fake blood splatters.

The differences are this one takes place in Romania and Jerry Dandridge is now Gerri Dandridge and is actuality Elizabeth Bathory.

All the same characters but they lack any of the charm of the earlier movies.

There is a neat scene where Gerri/Bathory uses a bat-like sonar to find some kids in a sewer.   The vampire creature she turns into in the end of the movie is kind of cool too, but that is about all the movie has going for it.

Too bad really, I was hoping for more.


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Tally so far:  4 Total Watched / 3 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

October Movie Challenge: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night (2011)

Remake of the classic 1985 Fright Night.  This time staring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell and David Tennant.

The original Fright Night blended horror and comedy quite well, this one...less so, but it is still an enjoyable flick.

Colin Farrell makes for a good vampire, but lacks the suaveness that Chris Sarandon brought to the role.  Though he does make for it in being dangerous.
Peter Vincent is changed from Roddy McDowall's horror host to David Tennant's creepy extreme magician.  It's not a bad change really, Tennant is great in anything he is in.

Like the first Fright Night this one is a fun romp through vampire mythos and generally doesn't take itself too serious.  Chris Sarandon even makes a cameo appearance.

It's a fun update, but no real new ground here.

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Tally so far:  3 Total Watched / 2 New

What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.

Movies Queued up so far

Here are some of the movies I am going to tackle in the next week or so.

Some I have seen, others I haven't.

Alucard (2008)
Alucarda (1978)
Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966)
Black Sabbath (1963)
Blood + Roses (2010)
Count Yorga (1970)
Female Vampire / Erotikill (1973)
Fright Night (2011)
Fright Night 2 New Blood (2013)
Mario Salieri's Dracula (1994)
Return of Count Yorga (1971)
The Deathmaster (1972)
Zoltan Hound of Dracula (1978)

Should be fun!

Zatannurday: Maleficent Takes Over!

Maleficent is out in theatres now and she takes over Zatannurday!




Disney's Maleficent by hetosialvin on deviantART


Maleficent 2 by BobbyJackWright on deviantART


Maleficent/Dragon abandoned concept by J-Scott-Campbell on deviantART


::Maleficent:: by chaseau on deviantART


2013 Christmas Sketch Cards: Maleficent by spidertour02 on deviantART


Warm Up 2, 12-30-2013 Maleficent by Hodges-Art on deviantART


maleficent - My Version of Disney Classic by shonemitsu on deviantART


Maleficent - Disney Villains Designers Collection by NatIvy on deviantART


Maleficent Cosplay by NatIvy on deviantART


Maleficent Cosplay by NatIvy on deviantART


The Wraith of Maleficent by CarlosAE on deviantART

Yog The Monster from Space

It's 1975.  I am sitting down to a night of hopefully watching a monster movie on KPLR-TV out of St. Louis. Our baby-sitter for me and my younger sister is my older sister Terri and my older brother Pat*.  (It could have been my other older brother Mike.)

Anyway this movie had been advertised all week and I wanted to see it.  I was already watching Dark Shadows at this point and had seen a Godzilla movie.  Saturday came around and I got to watch a little bit of it; till my older sibs turned it off.  I remembered bits and pieces of it for years, but never knew the title.

A couple years back I asked people on Facebook.  All I could really remember was a giant octopus/squid, tentacles that reached out an grabbed people, and it all took place on an island in the South Pacific.  No luck.  I tried searching in back issues of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. No luck. The biggest problem was I didn't remember enough of the movie to give people enough clues to work on.

Well thanks to my friend Dr. Theda at his eponymous Crypt I was able to piece the last bits of it all together.

The movie that has been bugging me for nearly 40 years is "Yog Monster From Space"!

I bought from a less than reputable website which I have to admit I feel a little bad about.

I got it in the mail last night and popped it in to make sure it worked. It did. It is the movie I remembered. The music and the sound effects were the clincher. The DVD looks like a VHS transfer (complete with "tracking" issues!). The cover was run off on someone's ink jet.

But sure enough this was the movie in question.

Yeah. I paid real money for this.

The way I see it I now have piece of mind. I know what the movie was and now I can finish watching it.
I am like Odysseus at the gates of Ithaca. My long search is over.

So of course what do I actually do last night?  Stayed up and watched Pacific Rim again!

Now I need to add more Kaiju to my games.

New Maleficent Poster

This was released yesterday.

Yeah.  I am really looking forward to this!

Oh no. There's goes Tokyo!

Can't wait for this.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 24

Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?

That's easy.  There really is only one D&D movie.

Star Wars.  Or "A New Hope".

Not only was it out at the same time (more or less) I discovered D&D. It became so much a part of my experiences as a kid that is hard to tease out where one influence begins and the other ends.

This movie has: A boy who would be the hero, a swashbuckling rogue, a princess to rescue, a wise old man/wizard/jedi, an evil warrior, an impenetrable fortress, magic, fights, side-kicks, monsters, sword fights and epic battle.  Everything here IS D&D.  They even meet the rogue in a bar!

Yes this another retelling of the monomyth or The Hero with a 1,000 Faces.  That's why it works so well.

If you have never watched the original trailer, watch it.  It gives you an idea of what Star Wars was in the late 70s, before all the toys and baggage.

This is also one of the reasons I like the d20 Star Wars game over the West End Games d6 one.  To me Star Wars and D&D are the same.

It should also be no surprise that Star Wars movie posters are the only movie posters hanging in my game room/office.

Maleficent Trailer 2

The next trailer for Maledicent is now out.  Angelina Jolie still has cheekbones you could get cut on but her evil is downplayed.  Sure we are told she is Disney's greatest villain (though I think Jafar might edge her out to be honest) we just don't see it.


Here is the synopsis according to Disney's site.  http://movies.disney.com/maleficent/about

"Maleficent" explores the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty" and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king’s newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever.

Not a surprise here really.  But in truth villains need to be more complex than simple evil for evil's sake. I still hope there is plenty of evil in her too.

Still though it's Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. It is  going to be fun.

Id still like to see this movie though:

Saw the Hobbit

I saw the Hobbit yesterday and I enjoyed it.  I was not expecting the book, but I do think some of the changes were a bit too much.

I consider myself a huge Tolkien fan.  I have read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings 12-14 times over the last 30 years. I have read the Silmarillion a couple of times and I loved it. Really. I have read many of the lost tales, the Tolkien Reader and tons of his works.   So I am approaching this as a fan.

Spoilers follow.







I liked the bits with Gandalf at Dol Guldur, that was all in the Lord of the Rings and expanded tales, so I am 100% fine with that.
The CGI didn't bother me. In fact Smaug looked fantastic.
I liked the addition of Tauriel. Yeah she was not in the books, but I don't care.

But the movie was too long and some of the things added to the movie had no real benefit.
In many ways the movie was exactly like the giant golden dwarf statue in the movie.  Large, overwrought, a monument to excess and ultimately ineffective.

So in the end I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted, but it was still a lot of fun.

I am not afraid: Disney's Maleficent Official Teaser Trailer

The new Teaser Trailer for Maleficent is now up.


Many thanks to +Joseph Bloch for getting this link to me!  We both will need to stat her up with our respective witch classes.

It looks fantastic.

You know I am going to see this...

It's been a good time for witches on TV lately, movies look like they are not too far behind.

Non-Gaming: So Long Blockbuster

A non gaming post this morning (plus I still have a bad migraine that I can't shake).

Blockbuster has announced it is closing the last of it's 300 stores and it's mail-in Netflix-like service.

While I am sad at the passing of an era and I feel bad bad about those loosing their jobs, I do not mourn the passing of Blockbuster.

Once Blockbuster could be found in every strip mall in suburbia and a store in every town.  That was it's appeal to so many.  Not to me.  I disliked that Blockbuster came in and more or less destroyed the Mom and Pop video stores that had sprung up in the 80s.  I remember renting many old horror movies on Laser Disk (yeah I had one of those) and VHS.  When Blockbuster came to town with their far cheaper rental prices I wasn't a fan.  I had rented Hellraiser once to show a girlfriend at the time and noticed how much of it was cut out.  Yeah they had either edited it themselves (not likely, but that is what I thought at the time) or only stocked edited versions.  No thanks.

While I marked the passing of Borders with sadness of something I had lost, I have not been in a Blockbuster in I don't know how long.  Between Netflix, OnDemand and Amazon Prime streaming services I have unprecedented access to viewing options.

So goodnight Blockbuster. Be kind, please rewind.

October Movie: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

Halloween just isn't complete without a Godzilla movie. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) was on recently. I had been thinking about it, so I popped the DVD in.
Watched this one, but have seen it many times before.  Typical Godzilla logic at play here.
Godzilla goes critical, hit him with a big weapon, side effect that some new scary monster comes up.

There is no plot, but then again why should there be.  This is about monsters beating the crap out of each other.

Destoroyah might actually be one of the scarier Godzilla monsters too. Very demonic looking.  So much so that I have used a Destoroyah toy in my own games.

Works great!

In fact here is Destoroyah's demonic type as an Eldritch Witchery Calabim demon.

Gargantua (Calabim demon)
#App: 1
AL: E
SZ: I (50+ feet)
AC: 8 -4
Move: 180' / Fly: 240'
HD: 30 (125)
Attacks: Claw/Claw/ (2 two-handed sword), tail-swipe, breath weapon (6d6 lightning bolt)
Special: Fly 240', Magic Resistance (fire) 90%, Immune to mundane weapons
Treasure: Nil
XP: 20,000

These horrors are destruction incarnate. These demons stand over 50 feet tall and are vaguely humanoid.  Each one is unique, but all have characteristics in common.  They are typically humanoid in shape, but could be covered in scales, leathery skin, fur, chitin, or any combination of these. Their intellect is below that of animals and they exist only to destroy.  Powerful Balor or even Arch Fiends can control them, but it is difficult to do.  Mostly they are sent somewhere where everything must be destroyed or eaten.  Gargantua will even fight and kill other demons.  All gargantua have massive claw and bite attacks.  Any roll of box cars (double sixes) on a bite indicates the victim has been swallowed whole.  Every gargantuan also has a breath weapon attack. Typically fire, but lighting and wind are also common.
Human wizards have been known to try to summon these creatures but the destruction they cause usually outweigh any perceived benefits they may offer.  The spells to do so are carefully guarded.

Tally: Watched 35,  New 30

What are you watching?

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October Movie: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006, 2013)

Another one on my list to watch, this was the newest one to make the list.
I'll admit. I like watching Amber Heard.  She is not a terrible actress and maybe one day she will even be good.  But until then there are films like this.

Ok so what is this movie?  Er well. it's Friday the 13th with a twist.  No seriously.
We have been over this ground many times. I suppose there is the twist of Mandy herself, but I was spoiled early on and did not see it as big surprise.

Still though. Good fun teenage slasher flick.

Tally: Watched 34,  New 30

What are you watching?

hosted by Krell Laboratories