Horror | Varied Celluloid

Vampire Lovers, The

Posted by Josh Samford On April - 9 - 2013

	The Vampire Lovers (1970)

Director:	Roy Ward Baker
Writers:	Harry Fine, Tudor Gates, and Michael Style
Starring:	Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Kate O’Mara, and Peter Cushing

The Plot: The Vampire Lovers tells the slightly episodic story of a powerful female vampire (Ingrid Pitt) who wanders into the homes of affluent families along the Styria countryside. We are first introduced to this stunning young woman when she assumes the name Marcilla and moves into the home of General von Spielsdorf (played by genre great Peter Cushing). Unknown to those surrounding her, Marcilla is sneaking away during most nights and is siphening the life away from the General’s daughter. Although Spielsdorf does eventually try to get his daughter some help, he proves to be too late and Marcilla kills the girl before vanishing into the night. We quickly catch back up with Marcilla and find that she has assumed a new identity, that of a young woman named Carmilla. After manipulating the destruction of her carriage, Carmilla presses her way into the Morton household. Once again, this is an affluent family that has another young daughter named Emma (played by Madeline Smith) who begins to show the same symptoms that afflicted the Spielsdorf girl. Mr. Morton is a bit more proactive, however, and starts searching for anyone who can help him discover what plague is causing his daughter’s illness. Will he be able to stop Carmilla before it is too late?

Continue reading “Vampire Lovers, The” »

News, Reviews

Tormented

Posted by Josh Samford On April - 5 - 2013

	Tormented (2011)

Director:	Takashi Shimizu
Writers:	Sotaro Hayashi, Daisuke Hosaka, Takashi Shimizu
Starring:	Hikari Mitsushima, Takeru Shibuya, and Teruyuki KagawaC

The Plot: Tormented begins with a relatively disturbing sight: a young boy stares down at a rabbit that appears to be terminally injured. As the rabbit breaths profusely while bleeding out, the boy, instead of being disgusted or sad, nonchalantly takes a large brick and brings it crashing down on the little creature. This little boy is Daigo (Takeru Shibuya), the little brother of our main protagonist Kiriko (Hikari Mitsushima). Kiriko, who has been mute since her childhood, is worried for her brother, but she finds herself unable to draw her father’s attention to the problem. After going to the movies and watching a 3D horror movie, Daigo sees a strange vision within the theater. He sees a stuffed rabbit floating down from the screen, and from this point onward he is continually assaulted in his dreams by a large rabbit. The rabbit keeps pointing Daigo towards a hospital, but the young boy can not understand what the creature wants. Will he and Kiriko figure out this monster’s secret before it is too late?

Continue reading “Tormented” »

News, Reviews

Storage 24

Posted by Josh Samford On April - 1 - 2013

	Storage 24 (2012)

Director:	Johannes Roberts
Writers:	Noel Clarke, Davie Fairbanks, and Marc Small
Starring:	Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, and Laura Haddock.

The Plot: Charlie (Noel Clarke) is a poor sap having to deal with one of life’s most difficult hardships: being dumped. After Charlie’s lady leaves him, it seems as if the relationship is all that he is capable of talking about, much to the chagrin of his pal Mark who is completely sick of hearing about it. While Charlie is in the midst of his personal crisis, it seems as if London is in the midst of its own crisis. Apparently there has been a “plane crash” in the center of London, but we will soon find out that this crash is much more surreal than what the news agencies are capable of reporting. Charlie, still being extremely upset, decides to visit his now-ex girlfriend to find out what has went wrong within their relationship. Charlie and Mark track her down to a storage building where she is currently splitting up her material possessions, and of course a bitter argument ensues. It turns out that this bitter dispute will not be the worst thing to happen to Charlie this week. It seems that this plane crash in the center of London has dropped its cargo all over the city. Amongst this cargo, we find a massive alien creature who is looking to find his way off of our planet – and it’s willing to shred anything that stands in it’s way.

Continue reading “Storage 24” »

News, Reviews

Cold Prey II

Posted by Josh Samford On March - 26 - 2013

	Cold Prey II (2008)

Director:	Mats Stenberg
Writers:	Thomas Moldestad, Roar Uthaug, and Martin Sundland
Starring:	Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik, and Kim Wifladt

The Plot: Jannicke (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) is the only survivor after the events of the first Cold Prey, and in this sequel we first find her wandering aimlessly around a snowy Norweigan rural area. The police pick her up and bring her back to the local hospital where she meets local nurse Camilla who tries to discover just what poor Jannicke has been through. The police, meanwhile, head back to the hotel where Jannicke was attacked and they discover multiple bodies. Among them, the mountain man from the first movie. They bring the bodies back to the morgue, but it seems that the mountain man may not be completely out of the game yet. Much to the dismay of Jannicke, the mountain man is brought back to life and his reign of carnage continues yet again.

Continue reading “Cold Prey II” »

News, Reviews

If I Am Your Mirror – online short

Posted by Josh Samford On January - 31 - 2013

If I Am Your Mirror, an animated horror short.

As a continual friend of independent cinema, I thought I would pass along this quick little horror short for any potential viewers. Written and directed by Garrett DeHart for his graduate thesis, the short is quite accomplished. A mix of animation and live action, the short uses a similar style to the rotoscoping effect used by Richard Linklater in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. DeHart’s film is described as a story inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart as well as the painting style defined in the Romantic era. Starring Larry Holden (best known as Jimmy from Memento, but who also had parts in Insomnia and Batman Begins), the short certainly has more polish than the majority of indie shorts I run across. So, if you’re interested, you can visit the Youtube page and give this twenty minute short a go for yourself. Or you can simply click on the following link and watch the embedded video right here on Varied Celluloid.

Continue reading “If I Am Your Mirror – online short” »

News