Thursday, October 30, 2014

Horror of Dracula Has Risen From the Grave!





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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