House of Dracula (1945) – Erle C. Kenton

It’s another Saturday matinee scare-fest as I continue my exploration of Vampires in the cinema while i continue my enjoyable journey through John Landis’ Monsters in the Movies, available now from DK Canada. There are problems and monsters a plenty in House of Dracula, a rather short entry into the Universal Monsters Series. Clocking in…

The Vampire (1957) – Paul Landres

Don’t do drugs kids! That’s the message behind this horror gem from the 50s that is my next stop on DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies by legendary director John Landis. Set in Smalltown, Anywhere USA, single father Paul Beecher (John Beal) is the local sawbones, and when he’s called to a scientist’s home to…

The Virgin Spring (1960) – Ingmar Bergman

Taking its inspiration from a centuries old ballad, as well as Kurosawa’s Rashomon and in turn inspiring Wes Craven’s revenge horror thriller, Last House on the Left, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring comes up on the What Else to Watch list following my screening of The Seventh Seal. Dk Canada’s The Movie Book continues to…

Mark of the Vampire (1935) – Tod Browning

Eight years after the release of London After Midnight, Tod Browning remade the film as Mark of the Vampire with Lionel Barrymore as Professor Zelin, a variation on Chaney’s inspector from the original film. It is also the next film up in John Landis’ Monsters in the Movies, a coffee table tome that I am…

Death Takes a Holiday (1934) – Mitchell Leisen

I continue my exploration of classic cinema with DK Canada’s The Movie Book, as I dive into the What Else to Watch list following my screening of the brilliant, The Seventh Seal. Death Takes a Holiday (remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black) stars Fredric March as Prince Sirki, a man who comes to visit…

London After Midnight (1927) – Tod Browning

Tod Browning’s London After Midnight has been lost, burned in a fire that cleared out a percentage of the MGM vault in 1965. That doesn’t stop it from making it into John Landis’ brilliantly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies, available from DK Canada. A reconstructed version, created from film stills, and a script was released…

The Seventh Seal (1957) – Ingmar Bergman

I love Max Von Sydow, and thanks to DK Canada’s The Movie Book, it was high time for me to dig into one of his most iconic roles in Bergman’s classic The Seventh Seal. This was the first time I had sat down to watch it, and I won’t lie, it also put me in…

Dracula’s Daughter (1936) – Lambert Hillyer

John Landis Monsters in the Movies, available from DK Canada, keeps the fangs coming with this next title from the Vampire section of his book. This 1936 film is supposed to pick up shortly after the close of 1931’s Dracula (despite the fact that it was set in the 19th century, and this film is…

Murder, My Sweet (1944) – Edward Dmytryk

Dick Powell doesn’t quite have the narration patter down of a hard-boiled private investigator, especially not for the one he’s playing, Philip Marlowe, still, this is a great little film-noir bringing another incarnation of Raymond Chandler’s iconic character to the silver screen. And he handles the actual dialogue with his co-stars well, it’s just the…

Interview With The Vampire (1994) – Neil Jordan

Moody, broody vampires are the next stop in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies, by legendary director, John Landis. Adapted from Anne Rice’s novel, with an uncredited rewrite by Jordan, the film headlines Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas as three of the author’s iconic vampires, Lestat, Louis, and Armand respectively. And while Cruise…