After Dark

After Dark (Vamps, Book 3)
$8.99
AFTER DARK is the third installment in the VAMPS series. It picks up where NIGHT LIFE leaves off; everyone of Old Blood consequence is attending the Rauhnacht Grand Ball at the Orlock estate. But the night turns sour when the Van Helsings show up and start attacking.

Callie is stunned when she sees her old flame, Peter, among the hunters. And Lilith is awestruck when she finds out that Xander Orlock, aka EXO, is partly responsible for her rescue.

But after the Grand Ball, things are no longer the same. Lilith's mother is now dead, and along with her, all the undead and anything associated with her blood right. And Callie's mother and protectors are also gone. In light of these changes, Callie has now been invited to move into the Todd household. She's still not ousted as Victor Todd's daughter, and Lilith is seething at having Callie move into her mother's rooms.

There are some bright spots, though. Callie's fashion designs were discovered by none other than Sister Midnight at the Ball. After showing Sister her sketches, Callie is invited to have her own runway show at Sister's boutique. But unfortunately, Lilith is to be the star model. Callie can work with that, if she has to.

AFTER DARK is a fun look at the lighter side of vampire family struggles. Callie and Lilith want nothing to do with each other, yet circumstance keep bringing the two of them together. The story moves quickly and engrosses the reader from the first page. The story flows better having read the previous two installments, but readers can quickly pick up the gist of the story if this is their first foray into the VAMPS series.

I don't know when the next installment of VAMPS will be out, but AFTER DARK leaves so many loose ends, you just know there has to be one! I for one will be keeping my eyes open for it!

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

After Dark Horrorfest 8 Films to Die For (Borderland / Unearthed / Tooth and Nail / Crazy Eights / Nightmare Man / The Deaths of Ian Stone / Lake Dead / Mulberry St.)
$119.84
I watched all of the first After Dark Horrorfest and some were good, some weren't that good. I haven't bought them all yet, but I'm working on it, but I was excited to see they had done another year. I started renting them, like I did with last year, and was impressed. These films surpassed the original 8, IMHO. I'll list them in order that I liked them in with a short review.

1) Borderland: This one received massive rave reviews and so I kept it for last. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. Not a very familiar cast, but the story sounded good. Started off like torture-porn, but at the end, I was mortified. I think it helped that it's based on a true story. Shocking, gruesome, and downright scary. Sean Astin was phenomenal in his role. I recommend this one.

2) Frontier(s): While not being an official selection, I consider it part of the series. I hated Hostel. I'm not afraid to say it. This one was what Hostel should have been. In French, but very scary. Similar in style to Borderland, but stands on its own. The acting is well done and the effects are top notch. Superb ending.

3) Mulberry St.: This was the first that I saw, and I loved it. It started off slow, but the pacing really paid off in the end. Excellent acting and character development. Some shocks and jumps to be had. Very creative. The ending was the best of all of them. No real familiar faces in the main roles, which helps suck you in. You think of them as real instead of a face you see all the time.

4) Nightmare Man: This is a very cheap, poorly acted mess, but I really like it for some reason. Some scenes are genuinely creepy, and sometimes bends the rules of horror movies, but the ending was downright hilarious. Seems unfocused on where it wants to go, but it's not for everyone. The ending does seem to tread near the line.

5) The Deaths Of Ian Stone: This isn't so much a horror story as it is a sci-fi story as another reviewer said. Excellent concept and acting make it quite compelling. Slowly the story is unfolded, but the more that's revealed, the less I'm interested. The ending almost ruined a perfectly good story.

6) Lake Dead: The unfortunate titling of this one didn't make me all that interested, but I was quite surprised. It had some good effects and some pretty good acting, but the story seems kind of slow up until the end. Predictable and unexciting ending to a nice little slasher. Had real potential.

7) Tooth And Nail: This one was the one I wanted to see first, but held off. It had one of my favorite subjects of horror; cannibalism! I liked the look of the cast, as well, but Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, and Robert Carradine are unfortunately cast. Had potential, but slow pacing and unexciting death scenes make it a bit of a snoozer. Ending, while good in parts, doesn't make up for the rest of the film.

8) Unearthed: An okay concept, poorly executed. The creature seems to have every skill short of magical powers. It seems very inconsistent with the creature. You don't get a very good view of it and the characters aren't very interesting. You don't seem to care for any of them and hope they die, but you barely get to see that. The ending slightly makes up for it.

9) Crazy Eights: Incredible cast! That's all it has going for it. I'm sure this will appeal to some, but seems too jumpy. There isn't much for scares or violence in this and the characters don't seem that interesting. The film is bizarre and afterwards, I still haven't figure out what I had just watched.

I recommend these films, and the original 8. I'm looking forward to the next batch. They can't seem to get here fast enough. These films seem better than most of the low-budget horror movies that I rent often. Take a chance, and let this annual event keep going.

Type O Negative - After Dark
$24.98
As a Type O fan, I remember waiting ages for something like this to come out.
Includes videos: Cult classic Black no.1,Christain woman,My Girlfriend's Girlfriend,Love you to Death,Cinnamon girl.
It also has lots of footage of the band.With humor,Type O gives a little glimpse into their worlds.
A must have for any fan.

After Dark Horrorfest, Vol. 3
$119.84
For the third year in a row, horror fans find themselves watching a set of 8 movies for no other reason than that someone distributed them in a group together. At this point, it seems more than abundantly clear that these "8 Films To Die For" are never going to be the elite horror experience, or the most extreme, or anything else special or unique. They're just 8 movies no one else wanted to distribute (for good reason, as it turns out).

This year's crop is slightly better than year 2, though none of them rank with the overall competence of last year's BORDERLAND, or the chills of the first year's THE ABANDONED. If there was a consistent issue this year, it was that each of these (for the most part) had a very interesting concept, but were just executed poorly. As I think on each one, I can tell you at what point the movie shifted from promise to disappointment, like a roller coaster that climbs and climbs to what seems like a wonderfully great drop to come, only to find that the top of the first incline is the end of the ride!

Another consistent theme seems to be "let's compensate for a lack of imagination by just having everyone die in the end!" With one exception, these films all end terribly. Perhaps now and then it is appropriate and interesting to end with tragedy, but such an ending has to be earned. And these films mostly do not do so. If you are going to end on a dour note, you need to at least give me a good reason!

Finally, giving a real ranking of "best" to "worst" is difficult because each film at some point has a major detracting factor - but I will do my best . . .

8) PERKINS 14: I'll start with the worst, because that's pretty easy to pick out. This film was hyped as the one "created by fans." Story, actors, etc . . . were all submitted and voted for online by fans. The story of 14 kidnapped kids raised as animals in cages and sent out for mindless killing was interesting in concept, but horrible in execution! So-lame-you-can-see-the-prop effects, bad acting, and terrible writing, and stupid characters doing stupid things sink this puppy.

7) SLAUGHTER: Tight, tight contention for last place. This one would be in the bottom save for a somewhat well done final third. This one concerns a girl moving out to a farm with another woman she barely knows, only to become wrapped up in a sinister plot for revenge. The film's death knell is it's excruciatingly boring first 45 minutes. The filmmakers must have thought their slow build of disappearing victims would be more interesting than seeing these people killed off. They are wrong - replacing potentially good kills with "girl bonding" does not a horror movie make! And, even with some good "table turning" in its final act, the last turn of the table is so ridiculously bad, I was laughing even during the unnecessarily grim final shot.

6) DYING BREED: Getting a little better. This one looks fantastic, and the actors are fairly likeable, at least in the first half. Typical fare of twenty-somethings being chased in the woods by hillbilly cannibals. The first kill is a real shocker, and one of the later ones involving a bear trap is very effective. But, as with PERKINS 14, the stupidity of the characters when the killing starts tanks the film in its final act.

5) VOICES: Asian entry is heavy on both blood and mood. Kim's family and friends keep trying to kill her. Good camera, creepy atmosphere, and perhaps the best score of the 8 films - the weakness here is, after the third or fourth attempt on her life, it becomes achingly predictable - EVERYONE is going to try to kill her, and she's always going to be saved at the last minute by someone we didn't even realize was there.

4) AUTOPSY: Perhaps the most "fun" of the set. This "horror-hospital" fare has five tweens trying to escape a hospital staffed by psychos working for a mad doctor trying to keep his wife alive with live organ transplants. Unflinchingly gory, but in a fun way, this one never takes its ridiculous premise seriously, which is what saves it. The only thing keeping it from the top spot is some very poor editing near the end, and a completely tacked on and nonsensical final shot.

3) THE BROKEN: Lena Headey sees a double of herself driving down the road, and begins questioning her own reality. Mixed fillings about this one. Loved the concept, loved the mood. The atmosphere was effectively creepy and cold. Huge Lena Headey fan. Had some good creep-outs, particularly in the final act. The problem is pacing - at first, the slower pace feeds the atmosphere. But after thirty minutes, you can't help but start checking your watch. By the time things pick up again, you've lost a lot of interest. The characters are never really fleshed out, and while you know WHAT's happening by the end, you never know WHY. Also, the film cheats by skipping a key moment at the beginning to try to have a twist at the end. However, by doing so, it only makes the twist that much more predictable. Still, from a purely production value point of view, it easily stands above the other entries.

2) BUTTERFLY EFFECT 3: Arguably the best film of the set. Very interesting story, top production value and effects, fine acting, solid ending (the only really happy ending in the group). Travelling back in time to try to discover who killed his girlfriend, our protagonist inadvertently turns a single murder into a string of serial murders, and has to try to set things right. The one thing keeping THIS one from the top spot is, aside from some inappropriately gory kills, this movie is not remotely horror.

1) FROM WITHIN: Comes closest to hitting all the targets. Good production, good concept, good acting, good pacing, VERY creepy and chilling, and unlike BUTTERFLY, it IS a horror movie. A town is plagued by apparent suicides, but there is a sinister plot behind them all. I can reluctantly call this the overall best - my only reservations are the glibly stereotypical portrayals (both of the religious, and the pagan characters) and the fact that most of the best scare effects are lifted from other, better movies (GRUDGE, RING, EMILY ROSE, etc . . .)

Let's give a little more credit where due:

BEST SCARE: toss up between a good jump-scare in AUTOPSY, and a very chilling moment involving the father and his double in THE BROKEN.

BEST CRINGE-MOMENT: The clunky hand-drill to the head in AUTOPSY, definitely - though the teeth pulling in SLAUGHTER had me turning away as well.

STAND-OUT ACTORS: can't really say anyone was "best actor," but I liked Melanie Vallejo in DYING BREED, Jessica Lowndes and Robert Patrick in AUTOPSY, and Lucy Holt did well in psycho-mode at the end of SLAUGHTER. But I'd say Jenette Goldstein probably steals the show as psycho nurse in AUTOPSY - love when Emily pushes her to the floor and she screams "YOU GOT ME DIRTY!"

GORIEST MOMENT: Oxygen Tank to the head and face in AUTOPSY, ala IRREVERSIBLE.

BEST OPENING: VOICES had the creepiest opening, though it had nothing to do with anything else - SLAUGHTER had the most intriguing opening - AUTOPSY had the best opening credit sequence.

All-in-all, I had fun watching these movies, but I don't think a single one of these warrants a purchase, and CERTAINLY not the whole set!