What We Do In the Shadows

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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Vampires, ghosts, witches, werewolves, and zombies: Fun flicks for Halloween

Posted on by earthtoshawna

I’m much more a sci-fi fan than a horror fan. The “scary” movies I like are not very scary. At the theater, I close my eyes at the first few bars of that eerie piano music that tells you you’re about to watch a paranormal movie trailer.
A lot of my favorite Halloween movies are comedies. With that in mind, here are 10 of my favorite ghost, vampire, witch, werewolf, and zombie films to get you ready for All Hallows’ Eve – and to make you laugh.

  1. Beetlejuice. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis star as a recently deceased couple who hire an obnoxious ghost (Michael Keaton) to help them scare away their home’s new tenants (Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Winona Ryder).
  2. Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Who doesn’t love these goofy movies with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson as scientists fighting supernatural entities like giant marshmallow men, balls of slime and demon gargoyles? I can’t wait for next summer’s reboot.
  3. What We Do in the Shadows. I’ve always been a sucker for vampires – I love “Interview with the Vampire,” “The Lost Boys,” and yes, even dorky “Twilight.” This mockumentary-style horror comedy, written and directed by (and starring) Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, is the story of four vampires who live in New Zealand, and it’s hysterical.
  4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kristy Swanson was the first cheerleader/slayer and although the TV series that was based on this movie was more popular, I prefer the campy original. And it has Pee Wee Herman, er, Paul Reubens. Luke Perry, David Arquette, Hilary Swank, Rutger Hauer, and Donald Sutherland also star.
  5. Practical Magic. This witchy romantic comedy isn’t super popular, but I like it. It’s an adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s novel of the same name, and stars Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as the nieces of witches played by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing.
  6. An American Werewolf in London. Another classic, “American Werewolf” tells the tale of two American backpackers who are attacked by a werewolf in England.
  7. Teen Wolf. Would this silly werewolf movie have been so fun to watch if it was anyone but Michael J. Fox? I don’t think so. The new series is more serious, à la Buffy.
  8. Army of Darkness. This is the third in the “Evil Dead” trilogy, and you don’t need to watch the first two to enjoy this one. Bruce Campbell is awesome as Ash, an S-Mart employee who has been sucked into a time portal, winds up in 1300 AD, and has to fight an army of undead. “This is my boomstick!” he tells the villagers, holding up his shotgun. Good stuff.
  9. Shaun of the Dead. This Simon Pegg zombie satire has become a cult classic.
  10. Zombieland. Another great zom com, in which Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone play survivors of a zombie apocalypse. An entertaining, campy adventure.