Universal has made multiple, generally unsuccessful attempts to revive their classic movie monsters as something other than nostalgic Halloween images. Their forthcoming Renfield, a dramatic/comedic, modern-day exploration of the toxic relationship between the vampire and his underling, may be the most unusual to date. The film will star Nicholas Hoult, who has appeared in some X-Men films as Hank McCoy, turned up in Mad Max: Fury Road, and played Tolkien in the eponymous biopic. Awkwafina, fresh from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has also landed a key role.

Most of the attention, however, has gone to the decision to cast Nicholas Cage— he of intense and decidedly mixed past performances– as the Count.

Will this batty project fly?

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Star Trek: Discovery needs another episode before the next review– this week’s (somewhat disappointing) installment was too much a chapter– so here’s a review of a recent thriller. It’s not exactly our genre, but it does start with a classic suspense premise, and the plot turns on multiple applications of technology.

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Some Fallout 76 players erected a theatre in their virtual world and staged an online production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Information may be found here (the post also references Station Eleven).

For our final October Countdown Review, for the Big Day itself, we have the 2019 adaptation of the middle grade books accused of warping the minds of a generation, the late-twentieth-century “Tales from the Crypt,” Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Alvin Schwartz and artist Stephen Gammell presented the collections as folk literature, drawing on urban legends, old yarns, and local folklore, and the books have become classics, despite the concerns of some parents and school boards.¹

The movie creates a larger frame in which to place the horror. It begins Halloween Night, 1968, in a small town haunted by a mysterious figure known for her scary stories…. And alleged to have been a killer of children.

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Fear is the mind-killer.

Okay, this one isn’t a horror movie (though it does feature some scary worms that tend to be a little on the large size). This October sees the release of the highly anticipated, third adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 SF classic.

The first adaptation (1984) featured spectacular production and design, but it lurched into incoherence.
The second (2000), a TV miniseries, stuck to the script, but production and performances were not consistently stellar.

Third time’s the charm?

UPDATE: It’s a go for Part Two!

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As the Hammer Age of Horror came crashing down, the studio became more inventive, bloody, and sexual, leaving a notorious but at least interesting body of work that captures the low-rent occult sensibilities peculiar to the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Perhaps the most interesting artifact is this bizarre but compelling cult film.

The cast includes David Prowse, who would gain fame as Darth Vader, Lalla Ward, who later accompanied the Fourth Doctor on and off-screen, Robin Sachs, accomplished actor who acquired numerous genre credits from Buffy¹ to Galaxy Quest, Adrienne Corri, probably best-remembered for a minor role in A Clockwork Orange, and Skip Martin, who haunted the era’s low-budget horrors.

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