Yes to YAZ! – Queen of the Damned (2002)

Hello horror family. I hope things are going well on your side of the world. Me? I cannot complain, my personal life is good, work life is good, but, do you know what, my horror life could use a little love right now, so let’s do just that, shall we?

Today I would like to talk about Queen of the Damned (2002) and the reasons why I enjoy watching it over and over again, but first, I would like to quickly go down memory lane and reminisce about the day I watched it for the first time at the movie theater. I was in college, admittedly more focused on my social life than on academics, I remember going to the screening alone for some reason, absorbing every second of the experience since I was already a hardcore Anne Rice fan, curious as to how they were going to successfully adapt my favorite book of the Vampire Chronicles, a book which, by the way, seventeen years later still remains as one of my favorites from the entire collection (13 books and counting). I too remember the shock after realizing that Jonathan Davis from KoRn lent his voice for all the songs (the man even had a cameo appearance as a scalper for Lestat’s concert), which I remember finding both amazing and disorienting since his band was kind of a big deal for me at the time and my brain could not process what was happening in front of my eyes: favorite nu metal band, favorite fiction author, favorite book of the series, compelling Vampire characters, great soundtrack (Deftones, Static-X, Ticky, etc.), plus the great original score and songs from Davis, all of it together on film in an almost obscene display for my eyes and ears.

Wow, I hadn’t thought about that day in ages. Do you do this? Reliving vividly special past events? I see it as a gift and a curse, luckily, today it was the former.

Okay, so now that I have stablished how special the movie was for me, I would like to jump in and give you my Yes to YAZ! list of my top 5 characters/elements in Queen of the Damned. Here we go!

5. Lestat: I liked the fact that stylistically they chose to make him a brunette as I believe that added to the bad boy, rockstar sex appeal. Perfect hair? Check. Pale skin? Check. Slim body? Check. Tight jeans? Check. Sexual voice when speaking? Check. Extra sexual voice when singing? (Thank you again, Jonathan Davis.) Check. Commanding, intimidating presence? Check and check!

This was by far my favorite musical performance:

4. Flashbacks: The movie took elements from book 2 and book 3 (Lestat the Vampire, Queen of the Damned, respectively) of the Vampire Chronicles and at the same time took creative liberties as one would expect from a Hollywood adaptation (Magnus turned Lestat into a vampire, not Marius, just saying), yet the film worked just fine and unless you were an Anne Rice fan you would have never noticed the inaccuracies. I really appreciated going back in time and seeing all the period wardrobe and a “young” Lestat being mischievous as a brand new vampire.

3. Jesse: Not her looks, but the character’s choices reminded of me. Crazy? Yes. Does anyone care? No, no one does.

2. Marius: Strangely enough, I found myself responding more to him than to Lestat… there was something so incredibly attractive about Marius… also, paintings.

1. Queen Akasha: No explanation needed, I mean, just look at her!

Seriously, the ending of this seductive and destructive dance scene was, in my humble opinion, the money shot of the entire movie:

Okay my horror friend, this is it for now.

In Love and Fear,

- Marath

© 2016-2019

Wow, Whoa – A GHOST STORY (2017)

Original Post Date: 01.08.19

Hello! Happy New Year! 2019 is here and so am I. Let’s talk movies, shall we? (keeping this one short and sweet) 

Have you watched A Ghost Story (2017)? Yes, the main character is a ghost, but no, it is not a horror movie. Regardless, I enjoyed it a lot (omg the ending!) and was inspired by the amazing cinematography, I mean, I liked it so much that I was “Wow-ing” and “Whoa-ing” all throughout the film due to its powerful visuals. Don’t believe me? Just take a quick look:

Like I said, whoa! (and short and sweet, bye)

- Marath

© 2016-2019

THIS FRESH BLOOD: The Reflecting Skin (1990)

Original Post Date: 12.25.18

The Reflecting Skin (1990) tells the story of little Seth Dove who lives with his dysfunctional family in 50’s rural America. Seth is eight years old and likes to play with his friends and kill frogs and scare people. One could say he is living a rough childhood.

Seth idolizes his big brother, tolerates his mother, and hangs around with his father a little too much (I am not going to get into it, you will have to find out by yourself if you decide to watch the movie). His father is the reason why he thinks the ‘odd’ neighbor is a Vampire, but only because he shared what a Vampire was in the first place as Seth was curious about what dad was reading… he was reading about Vampires.

So naturally, when Seth’s mom made him go apologize to the ‘odd’ neighbor for scaring her with the exploding frog, Seth—with his young and naive hyper-active imagination—made the decision to believe she was one of those Vampires papa had told him about. This is when Seth seals the grim fate for those around him.

By this point in the story a lot of very disturbing events happened around Seth, none of them involving the ‘odd’ neighbor whose name was Dolphin Blue by the way. (Regarding the disturbing events, I am leaving them out of this post because I can’t even you guys.) But hey, wait, not everything was totally bad for our main little guy as his brother returned from the military which made Seth so incredibly happy. The thing was, when the brother, Cameron, saw Dolphin he was taken with her almost immediately, no, really, it was like seeing a moth to a flame; this made Seth angry so Cameron tried to patch things up with him by sharing some photographs that he had in his wallet.

This last picture with the three photographs was so powerful to me. A grown man showing images of Sex and Violence juxtaposed with real Family to a kid just to bond? I have opinions. Anywhohow.

By the way, did I mention there was a creepy dead baby? Yep. Our little guy found it and kept it under his bed and believed it was his dead friend now in the form of an angel… also, side note, I am just remembering a funny line from Seth when Cameron asked him to leave him alone and go out and play with his friends; Seth said, “I can’t, they are all dead.” The way he said it was so matter-of-factly that my jaw dropped. Wow, Seth.

Okay, let’s go back to Cameron and Dolphin’s romance for a sec. They seemed to be the real deal and actually made plans to live together on their own and mind you, Seth still strongly believed Dolphin was a real Vampire, he even confronted Cameron when Cameron complained he was suddenly ‘getting old’ as he was noticeably losing weight, losing hair, and on top of things had bleeding gums. (Okay, honey, little Seth, baby, it was the 50’s in rural America, there could have been at least a dozen medical reasons why your brother was having those symptoms, malnutrition being the first one that comes to mind but okay, you want to play Van Helsing, be my guest I guess.) Where was I? Oh yeah, Seth confronts Cameron and tells him Dolphin was drinking his blood (he spied on them while being intimate) and that he should stop seeing her, to what Cameron took offense because Goddammit you are a kid and vampires do not exist!

It is now time to get serious in this post.

So, murders have been happening in this small town where everyone knows each other, yet no one, not even the police, knows who is behind the killings. The thing was, Seth saw a gang in a black car abduct his friend—same friend who later on turned out dead inside a shed—but didn’t tell anyone, not even to the police, of what he had seen. My personal Marath reasoning for this was because in his mind, Seth ‘knew’ the Vampire had to be behind the killings for sure, so the gang was just a coincidence…

Enter the following scene. Dolphin was waiting to catch a ride into the city, and while waiting she and Seth had a super weird conversation as she was telling him how one day he was going to get old and be alone and die to what Seth didn’t take so well. So Seth, realizing the gang in the black car was back and was going to give a ride to Dolphin, didn’t say anything and let her get in the car without warning her. Was Seth trying to take vengeance on her for ‘hurting’ his brother? Or was he really that naive and didn’t put two and two together about the gang being the killers?

Okay, this frame tells me Seth was trying to hurt her by letting the killers take her (devilish grin):

This one tells me he had no idea the gang was dangerous (kid being a kid):

3, 2, 1, Surprise! Dolphin is dead and your brother is heartbroken. Double surprise! By her being dead proves that Dolphin was not a Vampire and that Vampires are not real. What you believed in was wrong and unknowingly (big question mark?) you sent a woman to her grave, Seth. Now feel bad about it.

Like I said, rough childhood.

- Marath