WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: Top Five Vampire Flicks

Growing up, watching vampire movies - I made up a special rule; vampire movies all get an automatic two stars, and can work up from there. Reason is, it's tough being a vampire movie!  You got so much working against you; the trappings of superstition, pop culture, and a minefield of cliches to navigate. That, and there are a LOT of bad vampire films.  However, I happen to LOVE vampires, and can't get enough of them.

This year's What We Do In The Shadows  looks to be an amusingly "dead" pan take - something that will definitely stand out in a long tradition of vampire movies.

So here's my top five vampire films, with honourable mentions below!

Let The Right One In (2008)
Okay, this may be painfully obvious to those that have seen it, but what about those that didn't? I highly recommend this film, as it's not just a great vampire movie - it's a great movie!

Shadow Of The Vampire (2000)
Willem Dafoe is transcendent! A truly lifelike performance of someone who is most likely undead.

Downton Abbey, Undead Edition

Interview With The Vampire (1994)
I feel like this one gets a lot of undeserved hate.  I'm a fan of the original story - AND I think the scale of this movie is massive, beautifully shot, just a big, sweeping story… and Kirsten Dunst is amazing.

In a remake, this could be a boy band. Still, buy the soundtrack!

The Lost Boys (1987)
Yeah, how could I not include this? If you haven't seen it, this one's got something for everyone; a real snap shot of the 80s.

The Arrughhhhh!

Fright Night (1985)
The original. While I wasn't crazy about it the first time, a recent screening opened my eyes to its cult brilliance. For me, it's all about Evil Ed.

Here's a whack of other vampire movies I enjoyed, but I don't want to crash the server!  I know there can be some strong arguments for a few of these, but really, would you want any vampire fan to miss the above movies?

The Night Flier, Stake Land, Innocent Blood, Byzantium, Near Dark, The Addiction, Mr. Vampire, Monster Squad, Dracula (dir: Todd Browning), Bram Stoker's Dracula, From Dusk Til Dawn, Only Lovers Left Alive, Nosferatu, Lost Highway (when I first saw I swore they were vamps!), Daybreakers, Blade series, Martin, Salem's lot, John Carpenter's Vampires, 30 Days of Night, Cronos, Vamp

Let me know what I missed!

And don't you miss What We Do In The Shadows (2014) playing this year at Midnight Madness!

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS screening times:
Fri., Sept. 12th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Sat., Sept. 13th, 9:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 12
Sun., Sept. 14th, 3:45 PM, SCOTIABANK 3

BIG GAME: Top 5 Film Presidents of All Time

It's hard to believe that up until Big Game nobody had the foresight to cast Samuel L. Jackson as the President of The United States. With that said, here are five examples of where films elected some Midnight Madness approved POTUS'. I'm Sanjay S. Rajput and I approve this message.

#5 Jamie Foxx as President Sawyer in White House Down.

I wasn't thrilled with White House Down (or Olympus Has Fallen for that matter). But Jamie Foxx does his best John McClane as President impression and sure does blow stuff up real good! America, F' Yeah!

#4 Bill Pullman as President Whitmore in Independence Day.

Combat decorated veteran? Check! Able to inspire the world with an awesome speech? Check! Personally leads a global army to fight off a technologically superior invading alien army? Check! Why don't real politicians have credentials like this?!!?

#3 (TIE) Donald Pleasance as President White in Escape from New York 
and Cliff Robertson and President Cahill in Escape from LA. 

While these guys played uber-facists in charge of a North American Police State they did manage to rein in Snake Plissken. At least for a little while anyway... 

#2 Charlie Sheen as President Rathcock in Machete Kills. Any president who wields an M16, smokes pot, and bosses  Danny "Machete" Trejo around has earned a spot on this list. 

#1 Harrison Ford as President Marshall in Air Force One.

He's played Indiana Jones and Han Solo, was there any way he wasn't going to be at the top of this list?!!? A one man terrorist smashing machine who delivers action movie one liners as easily as he passes legislation. I'm pretty sure GET OFF MY PLANE would've made a great campaign slogan.

So, will Samuel L. Jackson make the list? I'll let you know after I check out Big Game at Midnight Madness.

BIG GAME screening times:
Fri., Sept. 5th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Sat., Sept. 6th, 9:00 PM, SCOTIABANK 12
Sat., Sept. 13th, 2:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 12

CUB: 5 Creepy Kids in Horror Cinema

From The Village of the Damned to The Children of the Corn, cinema is crammed with creepy kids. Jonas Govaerts's Cub, which receives its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness programme, follows a group of scouts on a camping trip in the woods. One of them, Sam, tries to convince the others that there's a feral child stalking them but naturally, because it's a horror movie and he's a kid, no one believes him.

What is it about terrifying toddlers that gets us so worked up? Is it because children are considered innocents or because they're unformed beings upon which we project our darkest fears?

Here are five movies featuring some of the scariest children in cinematic history.

The Bad Seed (1956)
The original creepy kid movie. It shows us that The Little House On The Prairie's Nellie Olsen wasn't the first evil flaxen haired girl with braids. Rhoda only kills two people in the movie, but we learn that there's another murder in her past. 

The Brood (1979)
You know it's bad when Oliver Reed has to lock these mutant children up in a shed so that they don't kill people. Maybe the worst part about the kids in David Cronenberg's movie is that they wear brightly colored hooded footy pajamas. Or that they don't have navels. Whatever the case, they're terrifying.

The Children (2008)
Something is in the water and it's making the children sick. Unfortunately, their parents don't want to believe it until it's too late and death and dismemberment have already taken place. After all those slashers where teenagers try to tell the authorities that some kind of monster is on the loose, haven't the adults learned anything? Nope.

Citadel (2012)
Influenced by The Brood, the monstrous kids in this movie wear hoodies and look like mutants but unlike The Children, in this case it's an agoraphobic adult who's the whistleblower. Worst of all, the "hoodies" feed on fear, which isn't great if you're prone to panic attacks.

We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
Poor Tilda Swinton. No one believes that Kevin has serious issues until it's too late. (Do you sense a pattern?) Most of the violence happens offscreen, so it's Kevin's surly behavior and vicious comments that make women everywhere clutch their birth control pills.

Will the scary child in Cub join the legacy of creepy kids in movies? Catch a screening to find out!

CUB screening times:
Wed., Sept. 10th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Thu., Sept. 11th, 8:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 8
Sat., Sept. 13th, 12:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 13