Cinema Basement Vampire Spectacular: 30 Days of Night

A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman I don’t know why I love this movie. 30 Days of Night is not a film to wax poetic about and its barely a movie that revels in being a B-movie. It is an odd artifact of a different time in Hollywood Studio filmmaking like most things from the 2000’s but it is far from a deeply memorable film but yet it is a movie I think of often. When we thought about talking Vampire films it was the first film I thought of yet I don’t speak of it as masterpiece. So why is that? Well I think 30 Days of Night was the last time for decades I saw vampires as being scary before the great vampire romance that made up the end of the 2000’s 30 Days of Night has one of the best premises in history. Alaska has 30 days of night and vampires come and destroy a town in what become a human all you can eat 24-hour buffet. There is no romance. There is no well spoken dialog. It is vampires as a force of nature, as an absolute predator and as something that cannot be stopped. They barely look human. They move like rabid animals. They speak in a tongue beyond human language and they revel in being straight up evil. To a young Azzam this is how he had always seen Vampires. Not as some sexy demons but as straight up monsters that are designed to kill you quickly. They are an apex predator awaiting their time to strike. They don’t care about lulling you into a sense of security then disarming you with charm. They are super beasts and this movie saw it the same way. There is a one-er in this film that shows the town engulfed in vampires violently assaulting towns people in the wake of darkness. That is how vampire cinema should be. No frills, just violence. Now this movie has faded with time. Its director a journeyman now. Its lead actor now a strange curio of a time since past and its leading woman a cardboard cut out of someone who could be. Yet to me it is the last time vampires would be monsters. Twilight would end that and the rise of sexy vampires would come again after interview with a vampire had faded from memory. If you take anything from this remember, vampires are evil.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Let's kick off the spooky season with a bona fide classic. I love the horror genre, but not much really scares or creeps me out. Most horror films I just watch and enjoy. However, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of those that really gets under my skin, and not just because the Sawyer family are eating people. The way Tobe Hooper shoots the film gives it an almost documentary feel. If you have never seen 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' you should probably fix that immediately. Do I need to explain what it's about? A group of '70s kids is driving across Texas in a van and runs afoul of the Sawyer family, including the man himself, Leatherface. It's a classic of the horror genre and one of the pioneers of the '70s and '80s horror boom. The film has a reputation for being sickeningly bloody and violent, but that is not true. It's essentially a bloodless film, which makes it even more horrifying. Most of the violence...

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...

John Candy month: Summer Rental

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Air traffic controller Jack Chester (John Candy) is given paid time off when he nearly causes two airline disasters. He takes his family down to Florida for a vacation. Hijinks ensue because its '80s comedy and Candy ends up challenging a pompous Richard Crenna to a yacht race to close out the summer. This is a movie that has been forgotten to time in the grand scheme of Candy's career. Even with Carl Reiner directing it does have the same name recognition as some of Candy's other works. But I think it's a solid entry in his filmography. He plays a great everyman who we have no problem rooting for. The slobs versus snobs relationship he has with Crenna works like a charm and he genuinely seems like a good father and husband. Candy was always great at playing both the everyman and the aloof goofball. Sometimes he'll even play both. His character of Jack Chester in this is a good example of that. At times Jack is the goofy comic relief...

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