Hellboy II: The Golden Army

The B.P.R.D. Team in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal)

In the interest of full disclosure I should probably reveal that I have something of a Hellboy shrine in my office. I have one of the Comic-Con exclusive Hellboy action figures (the other Hellboy figures are at home), a poster from the first film, and a prop replica of Hellboy's Good Samaritan gun (this was kindly given to me by a colleague who had two of them after dressing up like Hellboy one Halloween - thanks John Munoa!). The only thing my shrine is missing are some candles but I deemed that too much of a fire hazard. I reveal this because I want to be upfront about going into the new sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (opening July 11 throughout San Diego) with high hopes. Hellboy II was the film I was most looking forward to this summer. (You can also listen to my KPBS Morning Edition Film Chat.)

30 Days of Night

A vampire in 30 Days of Night (Columbia Pictures)

This Halloween season, Hollywood's serving up a re-release The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D, the fourth installment of the torture-gore Saw franchise and 30 Days of Night (opening Oct. 19 throughout San Diego), a vampire film based on the popular comic book series and graphic novel produced by the local company IDW Publishing. Listen to my Film Chat with Maureen and Dwane, and read my review.

Every time the vampire genre starts to look anemic, someone comes along with the needed transfusion to revive it. Dracula gets a makeover about every decade; Roman Polanski and later George Hamilton made the bloodsuckers humorous; Blade (in the comics) created a day-walking vampire and then the movie gave it a muscular martial arts spin; Buffy provided a sense of teen angst; and then along came Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith with 30 Days of Night in 2002. The brilliant conceit of their comic was to let loose a pack of vampires in the northern most city in Alaska where once a year there is 30 days of complete darkness. That means 30 uninterrupted days of vampires feeding on humans. At Comic-Con this past July, Steve Niles, who also penned the films script, discussed what he and Ben Templesmith wanted to do with the vampire genre.

Underworld

The two households in this case are the aristocratic house of the vampire clan and the more feral house of the Lycans (as in lycanthrope). The creatorsdirector Len Wiseman, writer Danny McBride and actor-idea man Kevin Greviouxwere at Comic Con earlier this year boasting about the originality of their concept and of pairing vampires and werewolves together. But on the panel immediately following them, another new film, Helsing, also bragged about bringing the two horror clans of bloodsuckers and lycanthropes together and even with the same star, Kate Beckinsale in the lead. So, originality in Hollywood obviously has a different meaning than elsewhere.

The Devil’s Backbone

Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone

When Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro was four-years-old, he had a life altering experience. After watching an episode of The Outer Limits, Del Toro's brother dressed up like the bug-eyed monster from the TV show to scare his younger sibling. "Then," the adult Del Toro recalls, "I woke up and had an urgent need to pee. I looked around and saw monsters everywhere. There was this fluffy carpet and I thought every single strand of the carpet was a finger and in the closet I saw a big monster. I was so scared that I resigned myself to pee in the bed. That happened almost every night for a couple of weeks and my mother said ‘If you pee in your bed again, I'm gonna really give you a good one.' That night I woke up and wanted to go to the bathroom so I spoke to the monsters in the room and I said that if you let me pee, I will be your friend forever.' They allowed me and here I am peeing happily and making monster movies."

Blade

Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff  in Blade.

Dracula turned a 100 years old last year but the vampire genre is as vigorous as ever with this month's Blade (written by David Goyer) and John Carpenter's soon to be released Vampires. KPBS film critic Beth Accomando spoke with writer David Goyer at San Diego Comic-Con and has this review of Blade.

Vampires have been a popular subject for film ever since Max Schreck donned fangs for the 1923 classic Nosferatu. When New Line Cinema decided to bring Marvel Comics vampire killing Blade to the screen, writer David Goyer, a self-confessed comic book geek, insisted that he was the only man for the job.

Cronos

Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos

Twenty-nine-year-old director Guillermo Del Toro has referred to his early short films as "Catholically incorrect." Cronos (opening May 13), his first feature film also reveals the influence of growing up Catholic in Mexico. Del Toro's film revolves around a vampiric character named Jesus Gris and offers a perverse tale of resurrection and redemption.