October Movie Challenge: Blood + Roses (2010)

Not to be confused with Blood and Roses, this movie focuses on the transformation of a human victim to a vampire.

Jane is some sort of depression and she her husband are going to country to get a away for a bit.  All the while she is dreaming of being raped and of vampire Seth.
We later find out that Jane was raped and that is the cause of her depression.  Of course she finds out because Seth has bitten her and she is transforming into a vampire.

Overtly that is what the movie is about, Jane's transformation.  It could have been more horrific, but I think the cast was doing the best they could (which admittedly wasn't much) with the material they had.  The script is not great and neither are the production values, but the story kept my attention.

Still. It was interesting to see the transformation from the "last girl's" point of view.  The ending was not typical for a vampire movie.

In has the feel of an indie movie or even a student movie which I liked, but there was still something off.  The acting is not great and there is no real passion.  Even when Jane discovers she was drugged and raped by her husband's best friend for money she still doesn't react like you might think.  Plus the husband in this is a huge asshole.  So it was difficult to buy into the characters at all really.


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Tally so far:  17 Total Watched / 12 New

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

Great Weekend!

What a great weekend that was!  I can't even feel bad for it being Monday cause I am still riding the high.

I got to watch some cool horror movies with my family. Got our Halloween decorations up (well, most of them) and We played some more Castle Amber Sunday night.

Had a moment of serious Deja Vu when running it too.  In the "White Room" in the East Wing there is a D&D Expert set monster hiding out, a Frost Salamander.  Now back in the day (much like today) we mixed and matched our D&D rules as we needed.  Well back when I was a player and we went through this room I didn't have my D&D Expert book on me. I had just bought the PHB and we were running it as "pure" AD&D.  Well AD&D doesn't have a Frost Salamander.  Neither does D&D 5.
So in both cases we substituted a Remorhaz for it.

I know not a big deal. But for a bit I was transported back in time to when I was my son's age and doing what he was doing.  It was very cool to me.

If you have not had a chance yet, head on over to Tenkar's Tavern to see exactly how not to act when someone is reviewing your kickstarter:

• http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/10/kickstarter-dragonwars-of-trayth.html
• http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/10/wayward-kickstarter-dragonwars-of.html
• http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/10/tales-from-backwater-tavern.html

Very good example of what not to do.

October Movie Challenge: Black Sabbath (1963)

I got the idea to re-watch this one from of the images used in the Krell Labs  banners.  But it has also been years since I have seen it and I have been wanting to watch it again.

Black Sabbath is one of the landmark films of the horror genre. Also known as "I tre volti della paura" or the "Three Faces of Fear". It is a collection of three short stories with introductions by Boris Karloff.  It was Boris Karloff that really scared me the most watching this a kid.  In fact I think this is the movie that my dad showed me to introduce me to Boris Karloff.
It also set the stage for other horror vignettes like Creepshow  nearly 20 years later.

 To this day in fact that old woman in "The Drop of Water" still kinda freaks out.  I also like the idea of treasure, in this case a ring, passing on a curse of fear to anyone that steals it.  That will add some nasty excitement to your character's lives!

"The Telephone" is also the one I remember the least.  Though you can see the origins of many other movies, including Scream here.  Everyday objects can sometimes be the most terrifying.

"The Wurdalak" is one of the ones I remember the best.   The sets for this one remind of the ones used in the Vampire Lovers, but not likely to be the same.

Wurdalak
For Ghosts of Albion
Motivation: Feed and dominate the ones they once loved
Creature Type: Vampire
Attributes: Str 9, Dex 9, Con 8, Int 5, Per 5, Will 8
Ability Scores: Muscle 24, Combat 23, Brains 21
Life Points: 149
Drama Points: 2-4
Special Abilities: Age 6, Hard to Kill 8 (2 levels part of Vampire Quality), Increased Life Points 5,  Mesmerism, Restricted Diet (blood of loved ones), Unattractiveness -1, Unique Kill (family heirloom dagger), Vampire

Combat
Name Score Damage Notes
Bite 25 34 Must grapple first; no defense action
Grapple 25 — Resisted by dodge
Punch 23 24 Bash
Sword 23 42 Slash
Deflect 24 — Magic defense action; deflects spells 45º

The Wurdalak can cast shadows and reflect in mirrors.  They are not active at sundown like other types of vampires, but wait till 10:00pm exactly.  To kill the wurdalak one must use a dagger that has been in the monster's family for at least three generations.


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Tally so far:  16 Total Watched / 11 New

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

October Movie Challenge: Blade Trilogy (1998, 2002, 2004)

I have been sharing my horror movie watching with my son this time around.  We watched the first Blade movie and he enjoyed it so much we watched the other two as well.

I have seen all three of these, but they were his first time views.

Blade is very much a comic book vampire which really is the precursor to the modern supernatural vampire.   Blade is strong, fast and hunts bad guys. Basically he is like Spider-man with some weaknesses.

Blade (1998) was one of the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  I did rather like the idea of the summoning a vampire "Blood God".  Seems to work well really.  I am less pleased with the idea of "turned" vs. "born" vampires. But it is something that comes up so often media these days that I am (to quote Blade himself) "trying to ice-skate uphill".  Wesley Snipes will never be considered an A-list actor, but he is a decent enough one for this and he does action well.

Blade II (2002) was also enjoyable if for nothing else Ron Perlman.  But the new type of vampire reminded me at the time and again now of something you would see out of a video game.  Though I do give them credit for actually making them more scary looking.

Blade Trinity (2004) deals with Dracula aka Drake.  Dracula was a huge deal in the Blade comics, here I am not so sure I recognize him as the same Count Dracula, but that is part of the point the film makers wanted to make.   I watched the original ending in the theaters and the unrated DVD ending now.  I had forgotten their were different till I started reading more online.
While fun this was my least favorite of the three.  Though Park Posey almost made up for it.

Blade 
For Ghosts of Albion or Buffy/Angel
Motivation: To kill vampires
Creature Type: Half-Vampire/Daywalker

Attributes 
Strength 9
Dexterity 9
Constitution 8
Intelligence 4
Perception 5
Willpower 8

Acrobatics 9, Art 1, Computers 1, Crime 7, Driving 4, Getting Medieval 8, Gun Fu 8, Influence 2, Knowledge 4, Kung Fu 9, Languages 4 (English, Japanese, Russian, Romanian), Notice 6, Occultism 7

Life Points: 149
Drama Points: 10

Special Abilities: Contacts 4, Hard to Kill 8 (2 levels part of Vampire Quality), Fast Reaction Time, Immunity to Sunlight,  Increased Life Points 5,  Natural Toughness, Nerves of Steel, Restricted Diet (blood or his serum), Situation Awareness, Vampire

Combat
Name Score Damage Notes
Bite 18 34 Must grapple first; no defense action
Dodge 18
Grapple 20 — Resisted by dodge
Punch 18 24 Bash
Sword 17 42 Slash
Deflect 15 — Magic defense action; deflects spells 45º


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Tally so far:  15 Total Watched / 11 New

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

Zatannurday: Justice League Dark Fanmade Film

I was tooling aroung YouTube this week and found this fun little fan-made movie for Justice League Dark.

I am not a big fan of their Constantine, but Deadman and Zatanna are pretty good.
Check it out.




Zatanna is played by Emily Neves.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emily-Neves/110873222449325
https://twitter.com/EmilyNeves

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.

Averoigne via Ravenloft

Chances are we are going to go see the new Dracula movie tonight.  But tomorrow I would like to get in some gaming.  My home group is nearly done with Castle Amber so given the season (and their levels) I want to segue right into Ravenloft.

For those that have played it you know that Stephen Amber send the party back to their own reality once they free him.  But what if he didn't? What if didn't have the power to do that since freeing him also meant letting go of all his power.  Stephen fades, Château d' Amberville crumbles to dust and the party is left standing in the mists.  Where are they to go?

Easy.

Castle Ravenloft.

I have for years talked about the similarities between Château d' Amberville and Castle Ravenloft and the connections between Mystara and the Demi-Plane of Dread.  It is likely that this is all taking place in the Demi-plane of Dread (Ravenloft) or the Dimension of Nightmares (Mystara) where even the Immortals fear to go.

Why do this?

I was thinking about the Doctor Who Series 2 episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "Age of Steel".  The Doctor, Rose and Mickey (who had not traveled with them before except for one episode) get stuck in an alternate universe.  Mickey stays behind.
The pay off on this is when we get to the Series 2 Finale and Mickey is back, and not just back, but since he traveled through "the Void" he and Rose are saved from being killed outright by the Daleks and it was Mickey who passed on his time travel energy (or void energy) to the Genesis Ark.

What's the point of this?  Well the reason they went to the parallel universe were not apparant at the time, but paid off in the finale.  From a story arc they all, including and especially Mickey, needed to go to that parallel universe when they did.

My players are in Ravenloft because they have to be.  They needed to free Stephen Amber and stop the Amber family because that gets them to Castle Ravenloft which in turn gets them the Sunsword and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.   They are going to need those in the coming darkness.