Month: October 2026

Vintage vampire vibes for your Halloween viewing pleasure

Posted on by earthtoshawna

I am not a big fan of horror. I don’t like anything that is over-the-top creepy or gory. In general, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are OK; witches, ghosts, and serial killers are not. I’ve been watching all my favorite vampire movies this month. Maybe I’ll do a werewolf theme next October. In no particular order, here are my blood-sucking faves:

“Only Lovers Left Alive,” 2013. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play Adam and Eve, a centuries-old vampire couple trying to get by in the 21st century. I really love this film; it is beautiful and philosophical, and sort of slow. This is not an action movie. It’s a mood. You have to let it wash over you. The film is directed by Jim Jarmusch, and also stars Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt, Jeffrey Wright, and Anton Yelchin.

“Interview with the Vampire,” 1994. I had a phase of being very obsessed with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles in the ’90s and I watched this way too many times. I remember the outrage of Tom Cruise being cast as bratty vampire Lestat, but he turned out to be perfect for the role. (Director Neil Jordan said Cruise “had an icy quality to him,” which pretty much sums up the great casting here.) Brad Pitt plays the long-suffering Louis de Pointe du Lac, Lestat’s BFF? Life partner? I actually wrote a paper on this movie in one of my college film classes but that’s a story for another time. Kirsten Dunst plays their “daughter” Claudia, and Christian Slater is the interviewer.

“What We Do in the Shadows,” 2014. I’m talking about the movie here, and not the spin-off series, which I did not finish. Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi star in this mockumentary-style vampire comedy, in which the two share a flat with other vampires in New Zealand. Rhys Darby plays a werewolf. “Don’t swear. We’re werewolves, not swear wolves!” Good stuff.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” 1992. This movie’s popularity was also eclipsed by its spin-off series, but I prefer the film version, starring Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, David Arquette, Paul Reubens, Hilary Swank, Rutger Hauer, and Donald Sutherland. It may not stand the test of time like some others on this list, but it will always have a special place in my heart. I love Perry and Arquette, and Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) is hilarious. He reprised his vampire role in the episode “The Trial” of the TV version of “What We Do in the Shadows” (as did Swinton from the aforementioned “Only Lovers Left Alive”).

“The Lost Boys,” 1987. This is another one that I watched repeatedly when it came out. Kiefer Sutherland is the leader of a gang of teen vampires in fictional Santa Carla, where divorced mom Lucy (Dianne Wiest) has just moved with her sons Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim). Alerting Sam to the vampire pandemic plaguing their town are the Frog brothers, Edgar and Alan (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), self-proclaimed vampire hunters he meets in a comic book shop. I described this to my daughter as “set in modern times” (in comparison to “Interview” which is set mostly in the 1800s), and when it started, she said, “This isn’t modern times.” It has come to my attention that 1987 was almost 40 years ago. Yikes.

“Twilight,” 2008. I find these movies, all five of them, incredibly and hilariously cheesy, but that’s part of their charm. My sister and I watched all of them when they came out and were shushed in the theater by more serious fans. I recently introduced my daughter to “Twilight,” and we are carrying on the tradition of mocking such lines as, “Where the hell have you been, loca?” The dialogue is laughably bad, and the plot is nonsensical. Why would someone who is 104 years old attend high school? It’s just one of the many absurdities in the saga of Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner). You may think of this franchise as romance, but it’s really comedy (does it count as comedy if it’s unintentionally funny?) and also horror. After all, what could be scarier than a 17-year-old girl coerced into a love triangle with not one, but two controlling men – one of whom can barely resist the urge to drink her like she’s a beer at a frat party, and is 87 years her senior? Classic horror, I tell you. Run away, Bella! Don’t go in the house! Do not go upstairs!

What are your favorite old vampire movies? “Dracula”? “Blade”? “The Hunger”? “Fright Night”? The newest vampire flick on my list is 12 years old. What are some newer ones that I should watch? Tell me in the comments!

(Here’s one of my vampire costumes – many, many Halloweens ago!)

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Taika Waititi film ‘Klara and the Sun’ is beautiful and moving

Posted on by earthtoshawna

The quirky new sci-fi movie “Klara and the Sun,” directed by Taika Waititi and starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, is finally in theaters. I have been so excited to see it as I love Waititi and I loved Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel of the same name.

I was kind of bummed out to see that there were some negative reviews of the film, but I tried not to let it dampen my enthusiasm, and I went to see it anyway.

Its Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes is now 23%, criticized as being sappy and sentimental, silly, and even “soulless.”

Wow. I completely disagree. I found the film to be a faithful adaptation of the book. Ortega was perfectly cast as the titular Klara, an android purchased to be a friend for a teen girl.

In a Vanity Fair interview earlier this year, she said she got into character by studying her nieces and nephews: “It was really interesting, actually, how free and comfortable they were with being naive and how much kinder they were, or forgiving,” she said.

Ortega’s Klara is so adorable and sweet I want to dunk her in my coffee. How can anyone not like her? Maybe it’s Waititi they don’t like? I’m honestly flummoxed by the number of bad reviews. Some said Waititi played a serious story for laughs, which could not be further from the truth. Yes, it had some funny moments, but they were balanced by serious themes of love, loss, and faith. There are also some dark moments, and I was surprised there were little kids in the showing we attended. (It’s PG-13, by the way.)

Klara is an older model Artificial Friend. Her dream is to be purchased, to have a chance to fulfill her robot-ly duties as a companion. There’s a Little Orphan Annie “I hope I get adopted” vibe here. She finally gets picked by a girl named Josie (Mia Tharia) and goes to live with her and her mother (Amy Adams) and their housekeeper, who is jealous and hateful toward Klara. (The housekeeper is Rachel House, who was also in “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Our Flag Means Death.”)

Klara is more or less undaunted by anyone’s negative attitude toward her, but she is eager to please. It’s in her programming to be a people pleaser. (Some of us can relate.) She is religious; she prays to the sun (she’s solar-powered).

Like many sci-fi movies, “Klara” asks what makes us human: Is it our empathy, or our unique personalities? Is it our imperfection? Is it our ability to love? To grieve?

I found the movie beautiful – visually and thematically. Adams is amazing as always, and of course Natasha Lyonne (as the robot store manager) is always fun to watch. I liked Tharia (as Josie) – I have not seen her in anything else, but I imagine we’ll be seeing more of her, and the same goes for Aran Murphy (Josie’s boyfriend), who looks exactly like his famous father (Cillian Murphy).

Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go” and the film adaptation are equally brilliant and affecting. If you like “Klara,” check that one out too. Make sure you have tissues on hand – both of these movies made me cry like a baby.

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‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’ includes four new scenes

Posted on by earthtoshawna

Hey sci-fi fans, I just watched “Avengers Endgame: Encore” and there are a few changes to the original 2019 version of the Marvel film.

For the most part, it’s the same movie. The very last scene and three post-credit scenes are the only noticeable changes. It also supposedly has “updated color grading.”

Director Joe Russo has called the re-release “critically important” and “required viewing,” but the additions only amount to a few extra minutes of footage, so I think its importance has been exaggerated. The update has been accused of being a cash grab, and I guess an argument can be made for that, but it was so much fun to see this on the big screen again, that I don’t really care.

This is one of my favorite Avengers movies, so it was worth it to me. I laughed and cried all over again, and I gasped when I saw the new ending.

The other new scenes were either super short or were reminiscent of what you see when you’re standing in line to go on a ride at a theme park. I’ll get to that in a minute.

If you love “Endgame,” go see it in the theater! Just don’t expect it to be hugely different, because it’s not. (Note: One of the new scenes is allegedly only in the IMAX and “Infinity Vision” versions of the film.)

I am going to tell you what these scenes are, so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read any further!

I don’t know if it’s included in every showing, but there is a short message from Chris Evans (Captain America) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) before the film in which they tell us they love us 3000 and remind us to see “Avengers: Doomsday” in December. There’s also, of course, a trailer for “Doomsday.”

The biggest shock for me was the new ending of the movie. Having returned the Infinity Stones to their proper timelines, Steve Rogers goes back to the past to be with his true love, Peggy Carter. They’re dancing in the living room when the original film ends. In the new version, their dance is interrupted by a knock at the door. It’s Loki! In his TVA garb!

In case you forgot, Thor’s mischievous brother snatched the Space Stone and disappeared when the Avengers traveled back to 2012 during their “time heist.” That’s where the Disney+ series “Loki” begins. The 12-episode series is my favorite Marvel series, and if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Anyway. Back to the new ending: Loki knocks on the door and Peggy answers it, saying something like, “Can I help you?” And Loki responds that he can help her and Cap – who looks rightly stunned to see Loki again. I thought the only changes would be after the credits, so the new ending was surprising.

Some fans were less than pleased that Steve and Peggy’s happy ending has been altered, but I was happy to see TVA Loki again, and excited that he and Cap will be in “Doomsday”!

The other scenes are during and after the credits. In one, Bruce has locked himself in an underground bunker. This is the scene that feels like we’re standing in line for an Avengers roller coaster.

He’s recording himself and we’re watching the recording, which glitches when we hear a voice (Doom) saying, “I’m here to collect you.” Kind of silly. But I guess that means Hulk will be under Doom’s thumb at the start of the upcoming movie?

In another scene, Mobius (Owen Wilson) and OB (Ke Huy Quan) reprise their roles from the Loki series, as employees of the TVA – the Time Variance Authority.

This is the agency which controls all the different timelines, and the post-credit scene shows there’s an emergency with different universes beginning to collide. This is reportedly the clip that you can’t see if you don’t see it in IMAX or “Infinity Vision.” That’s what I’ve heard anyway. I’ve only seen the IMAX version, so I can’t vouch for other versions.

If you stay till every last credit rolls, there’s one final, very short scene in which Doom is loudly hammering his metal mask. This is a callback to Iron Man (2008), when Tony built his Mark 1 suit in the cave where he is imprisoned in Afghanistan. I assume because Robert Downey Jr. played Iron Man, and also has been cast as Doctor Doom, they’re leaning into this comparison of the two very different characters, but I’m not sure if there’s more to it than that.

In a recent podcast, RDJ explained his return to Marvel: “What brought me back was the opportunity to redefine the genre of superhero movies, so that’s a tall order.” Ohhhh. He’s redefining the genre! Whatever that means.

He’s a great actor. He was a perfect Tony Stark. I guess it doesn’t really matter if he’s playing a different character. It just seems like a strange choice.

I find most of the MCU supervillains (Ronan, Gorr, etc.) somewhat cheesy, so maybe that’s why I don’t love this casting.

I obviously haven’t seen “Doomsday” yet, so I don’t know if there’s some secret connection between Stark and Doom that justifies RDJ’s return. My theory is he just wanted to be involved in the MCU again, and who can blame him?

“Avengers: Doomsday” will be released Dec. 18. “Avengers Endgame: Encore” is in theaters now.

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