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Showing posts with label Jessica Dwyer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jessica Dwyer. Show all posts

Friday, August 23, 2019

Podcasts! Weclome to Collinsport and The House by the Sea



If you subscribe to The Collinsport Historical Society Podcast, you might have found another episode in your download queue yesterday. The last few weeks have been incrediblt stressful, what with getting a child ready for kindergarten and all. So my wife and I took the day off yesterday to play videogames and depressurize, so there was no announcement about the podcast here at the website. But yesterday Big Finish's Welcome to Collinsport, and features a chat by the producers of Big Finish's line of Dark Shadows audio dramas about why extending the show's storyline has always been about extending the Collins family.

You can download the episode HERE, stream it below or listen to it on Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcheriHeartRadioYouTube where ever you find your podcasts.




Today's episode is The House by the Sea with Jessica Dwyer. Jessica explains why the sins of Collinsport's royal family aren't always as sinful as they appear. You can download the episode HERE, or stream it below. If you've been keeping count, Jessica's episode marks the end of this week's "single serving" series, meaning you've got new episodes coming your way Monday!

Monday, February 22, 2016

The CHS scores two Rondo nominations!


It's always nice to wake up to good news.

This year's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards nominations went live late last night, and it's list that includes nods for The Collinsport Historical Society in two categories! We've been nominated for BEST WEBSITE OR BLOG OF 2015, and our latest publication, TASTE THE BLOOD OF MONSTER SERIAL, has been nominated for BOOK OF THE YEAR.

For those of you keeping score at home, this is the third consecutive year the CHS has been nominated for Best Website or Blog. (We took home the award back in 2012.) Our previous publication, BRIDE OF MONSTER SERIAL, was also nominated for Best Book last year.

And here endeth the tooting of my own horn.

But we're not the sole standard bearers for DARK SHADOWS on this year's Rondo ballot. A pair of stories from issue #95 of Scary Monsters magazine - an interview with cast member Sharon Lentz and a feature on the history of the Dark Shadows Festival - have also been nominated in writing awards.

Also, congratulations to CHS contributor Jessica Dwyer, who has also been nominated in two writing categories! (Well, three categories, if you count her work in TASTE THE BLOOD OF MONSTER SERIAL.)

As usual, this year's winners will be determined by votes from the public. And that means you. Readers are asked to select winners from this year's nominees and e-mail their selections to awards manager David Colton.

All voting is by e-mail only. If you want to vote in every category, you can find the entire ballot HERE. If you want to vote only for the DARK SHADOWS-related entries, copy and paste this bit of text:

8. BEST SHORT FILM
THEATRE FANTASTIQUE: A POEM OF POE
(A short film by Ansel Faraj starring Christopher Pennock of DARK SHADOWS.)

10. BOOK OF THE YEAR
TASTE THE BLOOD OF MONSTER SERIAL
The final entry in our MONSTER SERIAL line of books collects dozens of essays about some of the best (and worst) vampire movies of all time, brought to you by our regular contributors. This book also features a special introduction by Kathryn Leigh Scott!

12. BEST ARTICLE
‘Reunions in the Dark,’ by Jerry Boyd, SCARY MONSTERS #95. The sometimes tortured history of Dark Shadows conventions.

13. BEST INTERVIEW
Sharon Smyth, Dark Shadows’ youngest ghost, interviewed by Rod Labbe, SCARY MONSTERS #95.

16. BEST WEBSITE OR BLOG OF 2015
COLLINSPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Send your entries David Colton, at [email protected] by Sunday at midnight, April 10, 2016.

Voting is limited to one ballot per person. Every e-mail must include your name to be counted. All votes are kept strictly confidential. No e-mail addresses or personal information will ever be shared with anyone.

Via: rondoaward.com

Friday, September 4, 2015

Monster Serial: SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT


By JESSICA DWYER

When you think of westerns you don’t typically think about vampires. First of allm the western is synonymous with desert landscapes under brightly lit skies. Showdowns at noon with big expansive landscapes with sun drenched mountains. But the vampire western isn’t as farfetched as you’d think, and in fact it has happened more times than you know.

This subgenre is peppered with films that actually fit into it quite well. NEAR DARK is probably one of the most well-known of these movies. Then there’s BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA. Another is the lost classic CURSE OF THE UNDEAD. But another film that seems to slip under people’s radar is the Anthony Hickox directed SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT.

SUNDOWN is a hybrid on many fronts. It’s a vampire horror film, it’s a western, and it’s an unapologetic comedy who revels in its absurd plot. But it’s also an homage to the classic vampire and the western films that inspired it. So even though SUNDOWN laughs at itself, it also salutes the genres it is borrowing from.


SUNDOWN was released on VHS in 1991, sadly not getting a theatrical release (which is a shame because the movie is very pretty.) Hickox gathers together some great actors whose roots are firmly entrenched in the genres he’s referencing. David Carradine, whose father played Dracula in classic universal films as well as the aforementioned BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA, is cast here as the mysterious Jozek Mardulak. John Ireland, who was in numerous westerns from the mid-40s on, is the blood thirsty Quaker Ethan Jefferson. Bruce Campbell, the patron saint of horror comedy, is Robert Van Helsing, a descendant of the famous vampire killer.

The film focuses on the Harrison family who are going to the desert town of Purgatory. David Harrison (Jim Metzler), his beautiful wife Sarah (Morgan Brittany) and their two precocious daughters Juliet and Gwendolyn are visiting Purgatory to inspect a synthetic blood factory that has begun to malfunction.

Hoping the trip will be a vacation and easy fix, they head off, unaware that the town is populated by vampires hoping the blood substitute will allow them to life without relying on violence. Funnily enough, Juliet has a love for vampire toys which seem to be all she wants her mom to buy her.


Before they arrive we see some of the townsfolk cross paths with a group of young campers who witness their friend get his head knocked off by Mort (the great M. Emmet Walsh). He and his brothers live and work at the only gas station in town. Mort is taken into custody by the local sheriff (also a vampire) because of his crime. The witnesses are also taken in because the vampires can’t have them babbling the truth.

With the arrival of the Harrisons we are introduced to more of the strange townsfolk who are comprised of all walks of life and nationalities. We’re also introduced to Shane (Maxwell Caulfield) who knew David and Sarah before he was turned into a vampire, and was the one who came up with the idea of having him come and fix the plant. Shane’s reasons for this are personal ... he wants Sarah back and wants to make David pay for taking her away from him. Shane has joined forces with Ethan, who thinks Mardulak’s plans are a bad idea: Vampires shouldn’t try to live with humans, they should feed on them. Strong ideas from a Quaker.

As the story progresses Robert Van Helsing arrives. He’s a bumbling vampire hunter, but still a Van Helsing. He meets Mardulak’s protégé, Sandy (the lovely Deborah Foreman), who takes him on a tour and falls in love with him in the process. A vampire in love with a human — a Van Helsing of all things — is unheard of. Eventually tensions boil over and the vampires pick sides, those who want to learn to live at peace with humanity and those on the side of Ethan and Shane who want to devour it.


The Harrisons find help in the form of Mardulak and the good vampires, and we see Van Helsing turned by Sandy (in a hilarious scene) who he stands by during the battle. We discover (as does Ethan, much to his dismay) that Mardulak is actually Count Dracula, who has tired of the bloody old ways. The good vampires triumph with the help of the Harrison family.

This essay is one of dozens featured in our new
book, "Taste the Blood of Monster Serial."
SUNDOWN was a great little flick that deserved far more than it got upon release. The film pre-dated the “TrueBlood”/Sookie Stackhouse books and the idea of a blood substitute by more ten years. It also had some neat ideas in regards to portraying vampires. The fact that the townsfolk were from various countries and kept the appearances of the times and places they were from is a nice touch. And anyone who has tried knows mixing comedy and horror isn’t the easiest, but Hickox and co-writer John Burgess pull it off with panache. While there is camp a plenty, it’s meant to be there and it’s fun to watch.

There’s also the interesting subplot of Shane and Sarah and the fact that Juliet is most likely his child from an affair. There’s a scene where Shane shows up to basically rape Sarah, and the little girls barge in on the attack. Where everyone would be seeing a giant bat, Juliet sees Shane himself. That’s an interesting take on the mythos that’s lost sometimes in viewing.

While there is a lot of camp, comedy, and crazy in SUNDOWN, there is also a beautiful point that is made at the end. The Harrison’s raise a large wooden cross which wards off and stops the evil vampires, but at first it also harms the good ones. Then suddenly, the pain ends. Mardulak/Dracula turns with tears in his eyes and states “We have been forgiven.” It’s a beautiful scene and shows that SUNDOWN has a lot more going on than you think at first blush.


JESSICA DWYER is the host of Fangirl Radio and editor/writer of the website Fangirl Magazine.  She has written for various sites over the years and is a staff writer for HorrorHound Magazine for which her work has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Awards.  Her short fiction has been published by Post Mortem Press.  She is currently working on producing and writing various projects for film and television as well as an upcoming book.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Monster Serial: LOVE AT FIRST BITE


By JESSICA DWYER

1979 saw a boom in vampire films being released.  The Werner Herzog  remake of the classic NOSFERATU, Frank Langella’s version of DRACULA, and the creepfest from Stephen King, SALEM’S LOT, were just some of the bats flying around the belfry of many horror fans.

Within this batch of cinematic blood suckers was yet another version of the Lord of the Undead, but this time Dracula was going modern ... whether he liked it or not.  LOVE AT FIRST BITE gloried in the disco days of the late 70’s while paying homage to the classic films that starred Bela Lugosi as the classic version of Dracula.  While they poked fun at Lugosi’s Count, it wasn’t with a very sharp stake…but with a sharp wit and a slew of modern problems.

LOVE AT FIRST BITE was written by Robert Kaufman, a man known for goofy comedies on the big screen as well as on television, having written for THE BOB NEWHART SHOW.  It starred some familiar faces at the time and is filled with cameos.  Throughout the movie, stars like Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, and even Michael Pataki, who played Dracula in DRACULA’S DOG and another bloodsucker in GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE.


George Hamilton, ironically the man known for his tan, is Count Dracula.  But the make-up work on Hamilton is so good you can’t tell how much he loves the sun.  This is due to William Tuttle who actually worked on Bela Lugosi in the 1935 classic MARK OF THE VAMPIRE and who worked on some big films over his storied career, including the 1974 horror comedy classic Young Frankenstein (which helped set the path for LOVE AT FIRST BITE to be made.)

Richard Benjamin who had made a mark in sci-fi with the movie WESTWORLD and the TV series Quark would play the Count’s nemesis Jeffrey Rosenberg (who was secretly a Van Helsing). Arte Johnson, a classic comedian, would be Renfield.  The lovely Susan Saint James, known for her work on TV as in MCMILLAN & WIFE, would be Dracula’s love interest, the very new world Cindy Sondheim.

The film begins in Transylvania, with Dracula, lonely and still in his castle, pining away for Cindy Sondheim as he looks through his fashion magazines.  He sees within her the soul of many a previous lost love, including Mina Harker.  A knock on the door heralds the arrival of the government.  They are taking the castle and Dracula is basically being evicted.  Even in Transylvania, the modern age doesn’t need or fear a vampire.


Dracula and Renfield pack up and leave, but not before telling the local mob that Transylvania will miss him once he’s gone.  Because seriously, what is there in Transylvania besides Dracula?  So they fly to New York where Dracula has decided to pursue his dream of wooing Cindy.

Taking a suite at the Plaza Hotel (after a mix up of coffins which causes Dracula to have to walk through Harlem and meet some of the locals) they discover where Cindy will be.  Dracula’s not really loving modern New York and it doesn’t seem to love him.  But then he sees Cindy at a local disco where she is every night.  The Lord of the Undead proceeds to sweep her off her feet (literally, in one of the best numbers EVER ... at least in my opinion) and he spends the night with her, giving her the first bite of three that will turn her into a vampire.

The next morning Cindy is telling her ex-boyfriend and current therapist Jeffrey about the experience.  The “hickey” she has disturbs him.   Meeting Vladimir, he and Jeffrey have a “who’s got the biggest hypnotic powers” showdown, causing Cindy to leave disgusted with both of them.  Eventually, after trying to set fire to the Count’s coffin and then trying to shoot him with silver bullets (that’s for werewolves not vampires), Rosenberg is committed, but joins forces with the police who finally start believing him.


Dracula has won Cindy, who decides she’ll go with him after a daring rescue of Cindy from an elevator she’s stuck in during a black out.  They dash to the airport with Rosenberg and the Lieutenant hot on their heels, but they miss their plane.  Dracula’s coffin is going to Jamaica and there’s nothing left to do but fly as a bat to escape.

Cindy realizes that she must finally choose what she wants in this world, something she’s never truly done.  Rosenberg calls out to her that he thinks he loves her, and Dracula — who has always loved her — waits her decision.  When he sees her hesitation he backs away, bowing and admitting that there is no room left for one such as him, or even for romance in the world.  But then something happens which rarely does ... Dracula gets the girl and Cindy becomes one of the undead, as Rosenberg and Lieutenant Ferguson arrive to stake the cape Dracula leaves behind.   Fluttering down from the sky is a check from Cindy for Rosenberg to pay for all her psychiatry sessions, and proving she’s actually become responsible for her life (or undeath.)


Rosenberg keeps the cape which Lieutenant Ferguson immediately asks to borrow because the two men determine it’s all about the cape (which I can’t fault logically ... sometimes it is).

LOVE AT FIRST BITE on the surface is a great comedy, but it’s also a bittersweet look at the culture at the time (and even today it hits a little too close to home).  Vladimir looked around and saw that the modern world was slowly destroying romance and chivalry, and when he meets Cindy he finds a woman who’s lost who she was to the world around her and trying to be what they all want; a pretty face, a dutiful girlfriend, and trying to fix what really makes her who she is away.  He accepts her and loves her for exactly who she is.  And that’s why for once, Dracula gets the girl and keeps her.  He’s not the monster in this movie. In a way, the ‘70’s is the film’s real villain.

This essay is one of dozens featured in our new
book, "Taste the Blood of Monster Serial."
For many years LOVE AT FIRST BITE was one of the highest grossing independent films ever made, and went on to be a huge hit and cult favorite.  When it arrived on television though many people missed the original song in that glorious dance scene which was “I love the Night Life” by Alicia Bridges due to licensing.  The DVD release also had to have the song removed which is a shame.  It was replaced by “The Man That I Love.” *

George Hamilton wants to eventually make a sequel and has been talking about it for the last few years.  It would in fact take on the influence of the Twilight phenomena as it applies to Dracula and would also include Dracula’s son in the mix.  But sadly nothing yet has come of this.  We can only hope that Hamilton gets his wish and we get to see him back in the cape, because if LOVE AT FIRST BITE taught us anything ... it’s all about the cape.

(* Editor’s Note: During production of this series, Shout! Factory released LOVE AT FIRST BITE on Blu-ray. The new edition also restores the Alicia Bridges song to the film’s dance scene.)

JESSICA DWYER is the host of Fangirl Radio and editor/writer of the website Fangirl Magazine.  She has written for various sites over the years and is a staff writer for HorrorHound Magazine for which her work has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Awards.  Her short fiction has been published by Post Mortem Press.  She is currently working on producing and writing various projects for film and television as well as an upcoming book.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Dark Shadows: Diary Postscript

I interviewed Maggie Evans this week.

Well, not Maggie Evans. It was KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT, actually. It was the second time we've talked on the telephone, and both times it was a little confusing to be speaking to a real person while having a fictional character's voice coming out of the speaker. I've interviewed a lot of people in the public eye over the years, from presidential candidates to musicians to criminals. Those people were all famous for being themselves, while actors are known for their roles (if they're doing their jobs right.) I don't get starstruck easily, but talking to Scott was a pretty amazing experience.

The Collinsport Historical Society is getting into the podcast game this week, and my interview with Scott will be featured as part of that project. The first episode is devoted to HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, and we talk a little about when she was offered a role in the film, the movie's most notorious deleted scene and JOHN KARLEN's passion for entertaining the many fans that flocked to the shooting location. She's also got a new book coming out at Amazon in March, a comedy titled DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HEELS. It's available now for pre-order. Scott has also extended the signed holiday giftcard offer on her website.

Tuesday night, WILL McKINLEY, JESSICA DWYER and PATRICK McCRAY and I spent almost two hours talking about HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, a conversation that wandered over all kinds of Collinsport ground. I'm in the process of editing my interview with Scott and the group discussion into a coherent podcast, and the whole shebang should be available as a free download by the end of the week.

Also, PATRICK McCRAY pointed me in the direction of a DARK SHADOWS blog that I hadn't seen. Lo and behold, the author had some very kind things to say about my website, so I thought I'd return the favor. Check out JOSETTE'S MUSIC BOX ... you won't regret it.
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