October 13th
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
The most entertaining film in the long running series in which not a single scene is wasted. The story begins straight from the off with Jason's resurrection and it never slows until the closing credits as the corpses build up throughout as the masked killer makes his way back to Camp Crystal Lake with inventive maniacal flair.
Thom Matthews and Jennifer Cooke make for an appealing double act you can get behind, (in fact Cooke has more than a passing resemblance to Ellie Cornell from Halloween 4 & 5) rather than the usual disposable teens films of this ilk throw at you.
Dracula (1979)
Director John Badham's take on the classic Bram Stoker story is perhaps more romantic than usual as a seemingly fangless Frank Langella charms his way across the screen. Coming across more Lestat than Dracula, Langella in truth is miscast yet he manages to easily steal many of the scenes he's in especially with Laurence Olivier's Van Helsing, who also appears to be miscast. The mighty Donald Pleasence has a large role in this, although his Dr. Seward isn't a million miles away from his trademark Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series of films. Look out for Sylvester McCoy as well, playing Seward's general dogsbody.
Despite these seemingly damaging flaws in the casting, Dracula is still a good film. It looks terrific and has Gothic atmosphere in spades, and is beautifully photographed, there truly isn't a dull scene to be ahem' scene and whilst it isn't as gory as some of the best vampire films there's still some delightful throat ripping and stakings galore as well as some frightening imagery such as the dead Mina Van Helsing (?) coming on to her unwilling father in her tomb. Isn't it odd how the various Dracula films play mix and match with character names and scenarios?
I was a bit apprehensive as i settled down to watch this, almost fearing the worst, but i actually really enjoyed it.
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