Daybreakers (2009)

“Daybreakers” was a great idea that turned into an ok movie. While it has some “meh” moments in the plot such as how Willem Dafoe’s character is cured from his vampirism, I do appreciate the side effects of what happens to a vampire when they don’t drink fresh human blood after a while. Turning into an animalistic killing machine is pretty cool and makes sense in addition to being awesome to watch and a great motivator to solve the vampire society’s most pressing issue. Besides some weak story choices, “Daybreakers” does offer a cast of known actors such as Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, and Willem Dafoe to keep us entertained.

In 2019, most everyone has become a vampire and the human blood supply is quickly running out. If you don’t drink your blood, you’ll eventually turn into a mindless beast that kills anything and everything you see, so the vampire boss types want to find a cure as quickly as possible. Edward is a scientist who is working on finding a cure but falls into the wrong crowd, normal humans, and finds a cure that he was not expecting. Now cured but human, Edward is in a world of trouble and is being hunted down by his boss because becoming human and losing your vampire powers was not the objective!

Favorite moment – Sam Neill being creepy as the vampire boss, trying to have as much fun with the role as he can.

"I can be a vampire and look all pensive like Brad Pitt too!"

In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

Another one of all-time favorite movies, “In the Mouth of Madness” is a wonderful tribute to horror great H.P. Lovecraft by John Carpenter. While it doesn’t play on any particular Lovecraft story, the feeling of the film and the themes it explores are mistakenly Lovecraft in nature and style. It is also without a doubt a John Carpenter movie and is currently his last great film as a director.

Sutter Cane is missing and John Trent is hired to figure out where he is. Cane is a huge writer, more popular that Stephen King, and his publishers are waiting anxiously for his newest book, “In the Mouth of Madness”. Trent isn’t a big fan of horror, but as he begins to read Kane’s previous works, Trent starts to have dreams within dreams about the type of characters found in the stories. By luck, Trent discovers that the book covers are pieces of a map and when they are carefully pieced together, it shows where the fictional town of Hobb’s End is, the town that is in all of Cane’s stories. Trent and Cane’s editor, Linda Styles, go for a road trip to see if Hobb’s End exists, at least under a different name. They find the town and realize that they know all of the little details about it from the stories that Cane has written. Trent is under the impression that this is all a huge publicity stunt even though Styles swears that it isn’t. But the longer that they stay in Hobb’s End, the more reality seems to be bending at the seams and everyone in town, including Styles, begin to fall under the influence of Sutter Cane. Eventually Trent admits that something is wrong and that he is playing a part in the apocalypse of the world as we know it.

Favorite moment – It’s impossible to pick one moment in this film that is my favorite. Nothing stands out more than the rest because the film, in my opinion, is running on all cylinders the entire time.

Perhaps John Trent is beginning to believe? Or not.

 John Trent missed the apocalypse!

 Sutter Cane's agent wants lunch too!

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Event Horizon (1997)

“Event Horizon” is one of the ultimate outer space themed horror movies because it utilizes several elements that could only be found in that kind of environment. At its core it’s a simply search and rescue storyline, much like the movie “Ghost Ship”; little ship finds big ship which happens to be the find of a lifetime, little ship is destroyed and crew is forced to try to survive on big ship…and usually fail. And the Event Horizon is a REALLY BIG SHIP. But instead of the Bermuda Triangle or what not, the ship the Event Horizon is lost while trying to perform a death defying feat of physics and ends up going to Hell. With this story happening in space, the idea that the crew is literally weeks away from help really sinks in and if they fail, they die. And to prove this point, a few crew members nearly die in space related accidents. Critics and fans have both described “Event Horizon” as being very similar to “Hell Raiser”; if this is true or not can be debated. But as Sam Neil’s character eerily claims, “Where we’re going…we won’t need eyes to see!”

The Event Horizon was lost in one of the worst space tragedies in history; on its maiden voyage, the ship suddenly disappeared without a trace when it neared the planet Neptune. Seven years later it mysteriously appears and the search and rescue team of the Lewis and Clark is sent out to check for survivors and to find out what happened. Joining Capt. Miller and his crew is Dr. Weir, the designer of the Event Horizon as well as person who developed the experimental gravity drive engine. This massive device was meant to fold space and make travel from one point in space to another practically instantaneous. Once the crew of the Lewis and Clark arrive, they find evidence that a gruesome massacre had taken place on board the Event Horizon and that there isn’t a single survivor. Soon several of the crew members begin to have hallucinations based on their personal fears. Weird accidents occur, Dr. Weir becomes obsessed with his ship and ultimately possessed by the evil that emits from the gravity drive and the ship itself. The crew discovers only too late that the Event Horizon has been to Hell and back and is determined to go back with them as her crew.

Favorite moment – I really like when Capt. Miller is telling his story about his greatest fear and regret in leaving a crew member behind during a past rescue attempt. The crew member was burned to death in a room with zero gravity, and the way that Miller described the fire was poetic. Seeing the visual later in the movie does not do his story justice but it was a decent attempt.