Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus (1972)
Having sat through Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I came out longing for the B movie vampire flicks of yore where the built in limitations of a low budget often led to tighter scripts, more colorful performances, and a more creative use of visuals. No other vampire movie that I know of better fulfills these requirements than 1972’s Vampire Circuswhich happens to be the first old Hammer film to be given a Blu-Ray release along with the standard DVD issue.
It was a film that I had heard of for years but had never seen until this release. It became one of Hammer’s rarest titles due to distribution problems and one of their most unusual films thanks to its long prelude, surreal circus settings and the fact that many of the victims are children (just as in the new Hammer’s Woman in Black).
Shortly before being dispatched, a vampire count (not Dracula) places a curse on the villagers and their children who brought about his destruction. Many years later the village is ravaged by plague and cut off from the rest of the world. Nevertheless a small travelling circus miraculously appears and children start disappearing after attending performances. The count’s curse is being fulfilled but by whom? The town elders desperately try to figure it out before no one is left.
The performances by Hammer stalwarts Laurence Payne, Thorley Walters, and Adrienne Corri are all first rate and newcomers Anthony Higgins and David Prowse (Darth Vader) make their mark as well. The film transfer is gorgeous and the DVD comes with loads of extras that give background on Hammer and the making of the film. At 87 minutes there is no padding or wasted footage. If you want to see one of Hammer’s best, you need go no further than here.
Michelle Keenan’s Pick: Humpday
Humpday (2009)
After seeing My Sister’s Sister and getting the chance to talk with its writer/director Lynn Shelton, it seemed only fitting to pick one of her other films as this month’s DVD pick. I even asked her which one of her films she’d pick. Her first film, We Go Way Back, is not yet on DVD, so that wasn’t an option. She has a special affection for her second film, My Effortless Brilliance, because it’s where she really began developing the collaborative improvisational style of her filmmaking processing, but she thought Humpday would be a great over all pick.
Humpday is a ‘bromantic’ comedy of sorts. It tells the story of two college buddies, once inseparable, who are now at two totally different stages of life. Ben (Mark Duplass) is married planning on starting a family, while Andrew (Joshua Leonard) has partied and traveled his way through life.
As both are having mini life crises about what they have and haven’t done in life and fearing their lives will become rote, they wage an alcohol induced bet daring each other to star in a gay porno film. They think two straight guys having sex together in a gay film would make them the hit of festival (remember comes about in drunken conversation). Strangely enough, the next day neither backs down and they embark on their ‘artistic experiment’ jeopardizing Ben’s marriage and their dignity.
OK – so yes – it’s an awkward sounding premise, but really what’s going on is two straight men talking about making a gay porn film and the awkwardness is a launch pad for humor. Along the way they find out more about who they really are. Ben is not relegated to a life of white picket fences and domesticity (and all the fears he has with that), nor is the other as beatnik as he thinks.
It’s a film about growing up, facing fears and communication. Shelton guides her actors (herself included) through some amazing ad lib scenes. The result, as ludicrous as it sounds given the premise, is once again a very natural feeling and at times hilariously funny film.
In the hands of any number of other directors and writers it wouldn’t have worked, but with Shelton it comes off like real people just trying to figure things out, real people trying to connect. Like Your Sister’s Sister, it’s a small ensemble talking their way through a relatively unscripted movie and it works.