Five years ago, Kevin B. Lee invited Christianne Benedict
and me to talk about Horror of Dracula
(1958) for a podcast on his now-dormant blog Shooting Down Pictures.
Man, it’s fun to talk about Dracula!
During our 25-minute horror geek-out, Christianne and I
ranged freely across the broad vampiric landscape, with fun tangents on the
Hammer Dracula’s similarity to James Bond, low-cut inspirations for
Victoria’s Secret, the professionalization of the vampire stalking business, the threat from
the east, and Bram Stoker’s ever-lurking anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Going into this podcast, I was more than a little
intimidated by the prospect of playing Siskel/Roeper to Christianne
Benedict. She is my favorite living film
critic. When I watch a movie and then want to sample
an intelligent critical response, I take a beeline to her blog first. At Krell Labs, I can always depend on being
challenged and delighted by unexpected insights backed by solid film
scholarship.
This remains my one-and-only podcast, which
probably says much about my performance. I drawl, stutter, repeat
myself, and say ummmm way too much. But
the content’s pretty good, rendering the total podcast respectable enough to
deserve a chance to rise from the grave again this Halloween season.
Christianne, Kevin Lee, and I bonded years ago on the
IMDb (International Movie Database) Classic Film Board. These days,
Christianne and I primarily express our love for movies through our blogs. Meanwhile, Kevin is a rising star. After completing the Shooting Down Pictures project (where he blogged himself through
the 1,000 greatest films of all time as compiled by the website They Shoot Pictures Don’t They?), Kevin became
a filmmaker himself—swiftly gaining a reputation as an innovative master of the emerging video essay format.
This week, it would be worth a trip to Austria to
catch Kevin’s remarkable short documentary Transformers: The Premake at the prestigious Viennale (Vienna International Film
Festival) 2014. This 25-minute film is an
intoxicating joyride that wickedly dissects film production, promotion, and
fandom. And if you can’t make it to Vienna , enjoy a viewing below in its most natural setting: YouTube.
So gorge yourself on the podcast and video treats... and whether you go trick-or-treating this year as the Prince of
Darkness or as a shape-shifting robot monster, Happy Halloween to all!
© 2014 Lee Price
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