Library Videos of the Week, October 22, 2012.

  Werewolves (and Vampires)                      

Wolfman: the Legacy Collection, starring Lon Chaney. Library Call Number: PN1995.9.W38W65 2004.

          The earliest of the werewolf pictures are all included in the The Wolfman: Legacy Collection, two discs with four movies including the almost unknown picture that started it all, the 1935 Werewolf of London.  Six years later, the original film was overshadowed by the later, classic, Wolfman, with Lon Chaney and Claude Rains, and the success of that movie prompted several sequels, including Frankenstein meets the Wolfman and the She-wolf of London, all included in this box.

Wolf, starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. Library Call Number: PN1995.5.W38W65 2005.

     Wolf, starring Jack Nicholson as the infected human, tells the story of an aging publisher, who loses both job and wife to a younger co-worker, before being bitten by a wolf in the night.  Suddenly he’s a whole new man, eager, energetic, virile.  Though there do seem to be a few side effects.  Half funny, half werewolf, Wolf is an unusual take on the classic story.

The Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, starring Kirsten Stewart, Robert Pattison and Taylor Lautner. Library Call Numbers: PN1995.9.V3T85 2009, PN1995.9.V3T852 2010 and PN1995.9.V3T853 2010.
         Does anyone not know about the Twilight Saga? Although the major mythical creatures are vampires in this trilogy, the werewolves do play a role and anyone looking for a lycanthropy buzz can fill it here, as the rocky road of romance between human Bella and vampire Edward is overseen by friend Jacob (the furry guy) and his werewolf crew.

Library Videos of the Week, October 15, 2012.

Pitch Black, starring Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Claudia Black and Keith David. Directed by David Twohy. (Film release: 2000.) Library Call Number: PN1995.5.S26P58 2004.
Suck, starring Rob Stefaniuk, and Jessica Pare, written and directed by Rob Stefaniuk. (Film release: 2009.) Library Call Number: PN1995.9.V3S83 2010.
Troll Hunter, starring Otto Jesperson, Robert Stoltenberg and Johanna Morck, written and directed by Andre Ørvedal. Film release: 2010. (In English or Norwegian with subtitles.) Library Call Number: PN1995.9.M6T76 2011.
         Three unusual 21^st century horror films for Halloween are spotlighted this week.  Pitch Black, the earliest of the three, is a sci-fi piece about a space ship crash-landing on a desert planet with three suns and no night. Only twelve of the forty passengers survive among them a serial killer named Riddick, and the settlement they discover appears abandoned.  When the castaways begin looking for a way to get the settlers’ ship working again, they piece together a terrible secret—every 22 years, there is a complete eclipse and in the blackness, the planet’s native species emerge—very, very hungry.
          In Suck, a campy vampire movie,  Jennifer is the lead singer of the Winners, a rock band down on its luck.  One night in Montreal, she leaves the club they’re playing with the creepy Queenie and doesn’t return until just before the next night’s gig, with an entirely different look and attitude.  The band begins to get noticed because of Jennifer’s charisma—or is it something else?  The vampire hunter Van Helsing thinks he knows.
          Somewhere in between is the mockumentary Troll Hunter. Dead bears are being slaughtered in the Norwegian wilderness and two University students and a cameraman set out to solve the mystery. Their suspicions fall on the reluctant hunter Hans, until he lets them in on a very dangerous and unbelievable secret. Satiric and suspenseful, the film was the winner of two Amandas, (Norwegian Oscars,)-- Best Visual Effects and Public Choice Award.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 16, 2012

Vampires Today: The truth about modern vampirism by Joseph Laycock.  Library Call Number: BF1556.L39 2009.

         Whether it’s an Anne Rice book or the novels and movies in the Twilight series, vampires are enjoying a surge of interest. Despite the sensational cover, Laycock takes an academic approach to studying the idea of living on blood.  It turns out there are communities of people around the globe who self-identify as vampires.

          From 1733, when the first scholarly research on human vampires was done in Germany, the author moves through history identifying the many places their presence has popped up.  Are they crazy?  Do they actually believe they are a differently evolved species?  As one description of the book puts it, “Is it a religion? A fantasy?  A medical condition?  Or a little bit of each?”

          Laycock attempts to put the phenomenon into an historical and sociological perspective, uncovering a host of people and communities that give a glimpse into a world outside normal experiences and int the process writing a very readable book.  Perhaps the most intriguing sentence of the book’s preface comes when the author says he has driven around Cleveland with members of the Atlanta Vampire Alliance “looking for a good Irish pub.”