http://lovehorror.co.uk/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-coming-soon

Film info

Director:
Timur Bekmambetov
Writers:
Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay), Simon Kinberg (screenplay), and 1 more credit »
Stars:
Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell and Dominic Cooper

In fact UK and Irish distributor Entertainment One announced that the fourth and penultimate film in the saga – BREAKING DAWN PART 1 – broke records this weekend as it recorded the biggest all time opening for an American film in the UK, grossing £13.9 million.

BREAKING DAWN PART 1 has set the record with £6.35 million as the biggest non-3D opening Friday figure of all time, eclipsing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which grossed £5.9 million. Including 3D films, this Friday figure has charted as the 2nd highest ever.

This is a shot of a scene from a vampire movie apparently.

The film has become the biggest 2D opening of 2011, beating the previous record set by The Inbetweeners Movie which took £13.2 million over 5 days. BREAKING DAWN PART 1 has scored the biggest Twilight opening so far and the fifth biggest three day figure ever behind well established British franchises Harry Potter and James Bond.

So what does that say about the UK cinema audiences? What is the future for the vampire genre? And why is it that a horror film seems to only do well in the cinema if its not really horrible in any way at all?

A picture of the scariest vampire since Count Duckula

We want to hear what you have to say because we’re sure that it will be more intelligent, passionate and poignant than any of the dire dialogue spewed forth from the anemic anorexic and her fangless fashion doll of a love interest. It’s just a dragged-out, cash-in of a conversion which is feeding off the over stuffed teenage pockets like a grotesque money grabbing vampire leech, filling their fertile minds with unobtainable dreams and a hate of true horror.

Its over to you what do you think?

By the way here is the trailer just in case you need to get angry about this piece of crap all over again:

Sat Dec 24 @ 23:10
DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE (1971). Originally from Jamaica, Martine Beswick, who plays Sister Hyde, was a favourite of the film director Terence Young who cast her in two Bond films. Nicknamed ‘Battling Beswick’, due to her provocative ‘onscreen catfights, Hammer cast her as the ferocious Nupundi in One Million Years BC, opposite Rachel Welsh and spin-off film Slave Girls. She is now retired from acting.

Sat Dec 31 @ 23:10
LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971). Yutte Stensgaard only appeared in one Hammer film but made quite an impression with male viewers as the predatory Mircalla who bites her way through the pupils of a ladies finishing school. She then accepted an offer to become the hostess of ATV’s game show The Golden Shot but the British press shot her down and she went to live in the USA, where she now works for a Radio Network.

Sat Jan 7 @ 23:10
COUNTESS DRACULA (1971). Polish-born Ingrid Pitt is perhaps the most iconic of the Hammer leading ladies and when the company was re-instated in 2007 it was Ingrid they chose to represent the old guard in Beyond The Rave. The Hammer Films’ “Queen of Horror” had a successful acting career beyond playing insidious vampires, starring in The Wicker Man, Who Dares Wins and Smiley’s People. She died in 2010, aged 73.

Sat Jan 14 @ 23:10
TWINS OF EVIL (1971). Born in Malta, Mary & Madeleine Collinson have the distinction of being the only Hammer debutants to appear on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show – this after Hugh Hefner chose them as Playboy’s 1970s ‘Misses October’. Although the film remains one of the most popular amongst fans and the twins give highly credible performances their on-screen careers shuddered to a halt and they retired from acting in 1978.

After their literally explosive introduction we follow them as they attempt to flee across the boarder into Mexico hijacking an RV and the family inside lead by a Pastor having a crisis of faith played superbly and subtly by Harvey Keitel.

Succeeding in escaping the authorities the brutal brothers take their captives to a bar to wait a contact that will grant them a new life south of the boarder. It is here in the classily named Titty Twister that the film takes a twist into the realms of horror as the strip bar turns out to be a nest of vampires.

The kidnapped and their captives must now band together with some unlikely aid to fight the unholy army and survive the night From Dusk till Dawn when they will once again be safe from the hell on earth they have walked into.

Most people remembering Rodriguez’s riotous horror film will talk only about the second act which much like his latter horror homage Planet Terror (also known as the better half of Grindhouse) revels in the over the top horror which dominated the 80’s.

Amazing weapons, spectacular deaths, cheesy but brilliant special effects all combine to make an all out action horror full of fun set in a Mexican Dracula’s castle chock full of fanged females.

But with no sign of a blood sucker for the first hour what many people usually forget is the first half, a dialogue packed character piece that can have only been penned by Quentin Tarantino himself who here takes the role of the nerdy and psychotic Richie against Clooney’s cool as a cucumber Seth.

An excellent exploration into tension and character creation the opening of From Dusk till Dawn must have fooled many audience members expecting a horror film but the movies triumph is in making us wait a process which not only builds and confounds our expectations but gives us time to truly understand and care about the people who find themselves in such peril latter on .

Hints of horror are still present in the first part not only in the violence perpetrated by the brothers who are anything but heroes at the start but also in the excellently filmed scene in the motel room where Seth discovers what Richie has done to their first captive a chillingly simple moment of realistic horror which is the uncomfortable flipside of the fantasy blood letting found latter on.

Tarantino’s simmering and switchblade sharp script is delivered by a top-notch cast including a surprisingly good performance from himself. Clooney and Keitel excellently portray two opposites who must find a common ground of respect when faced with the unbelievable yet life-threatening attack of the vampiristic undead.

Juliette Lewis plays the wholesome preachers daughter and Salma Hayek acts as her polar opposite as queen of the strippers and the vampires. To keep horror and film buffs happy is a quartet of cult cameos with Danny Trejo, Blaxplotation star Fred Williamson, special effects master Tom Savini and Rodriguez regular Cheech Marin playing three parts and delivering the most memorable speech of the piece, a diatribe on the myriad of varieties of pussy on offer to all who enter the dammed bar.

Wonderfully directed and acted with a witty and quotable script From Dusk till Dawn is two brilliant films in one perfect package with enough weight and seriousness in one act to brilliantly balance out the action and fun in the final half.

Movie Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Trailer:

Stake Land however, which is low on budget but big on ideas, manages to give the audiences another take on the fanged creatures of the night. It crafts an emotionally moving, post-apocalyptic road movie that meshes genres, whilst delivering enough action and frights to keep horror fans happy and all NEVER losing sight of the human focus of the film.

After an epidemic of vampirism plunges the entire world into chaos, the remaining survivors find themselves clinging to life struggling to find food while the vampires which exist all around prey on them for their nightly meals.

The United States has become anything but, with the people divided through necessity, the cities abandoned and the country falling back in time to the mentality and rule of violence in a world fast becoming more like the wild west each day.

After his family are slaughtered by vampires Martin (Connor Paolo) is saved by the hard as nails hunter Mister (Nick Damici), who takes the boy under his wing training him to become as deadly and determined as he is in ridding the world of the blood sucking scourge.
The duo becomes a strange family unit when they take in first a nun having a crisis of faith (Top Gun and Witness’s Kelly McGillis) an ex-army officer Willie (Sean Nelson) and a pregnant teenager named Belle (Danielle Harris from Hatchet and Halloween).

Travelling around by day and killing vampires by night, they move between the tiny rag-tag groups and communities that exist trying to find some sort of normality in a world gone mad. However, when they cross the land owned by The Brotherhood, a fundamentalist militia they discover that perhaps the vampires aren’t the most evil thing which exists on earth.

Produced by Larry Fessenden as only his third feature director Jim Mickle does an excellent job with Stake Land. Co-writing the script with star Nick Damici they create a dark and down beat story that rips open the raw heart of humanity by plunging the characters into a horrific world and turning reality into a warped nightmare.

Taking archetypal elements seen in many post-apocalyptic movies, such as recent examples The Book of Eli and The Road, Stake Land presents a world where monsters rule the earth a scenario traditionally found in zombie movies.

Keeping the characters and the audience constantly on edge from the bat eared threat that hides in the night works well with the plot never following exactly the path you think it will.

The animalistic vampires which are brutal and blood-thirsty yet without intelligence also serve as a reflection on the people they hunt, who constantly find themselves loosing their humanity and turning to their base instincts unless they remember what they have lost and are so desperate to regain.

Perhaps a little too depressing at times without the humour found in other social comment horrors such as Romero’s Dead trilogy, there is also an annoying climatic villain reveal which seems at odds in the intelligent film and more at home in an action horror.

These small quibbles aside Stake Land is excellent, with a brilliant cast (especially Damici and Paolo, whose voice-over guides us through the film). Well made and packed full of effective effects and gore, plus a great balance of exciting fight scenes and realistic dread, it’s all wrapped up in a poignant and powerful story.

Although Stake Land may be too dark and filled with political and religious comment for some, it’s still a fresh and entertaining steak in the heart of a genre which is in desperate need of new blood.

Movie Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Trailer: