“Partial Eclipse of the Heart”

Air Date: 4/2/12

The action picks up directly where we were left off from last week, with Aidan cornered by Henry and a couple of Mother’s henchman vamps. Instead of staking Aidan, Henry turns on the other vampires and helps Aidan elude capture. Henry wants to help Aidan on the lam, and run away with him (and leave Suren), but Aidan refuses, wanting Henry to move up Mother’s ranks instead and is unable to leave his love behind. He gives Henry a little stake in the side to make his point, and to save Henry from suspicion on returning empty handed. Suren, meanwhile, is starving and restless, wanting to feed and wondering if she made the right decision to leave with Aidan after all. To sate Suren’s hunger, Aidan goes off to find a new hiding place where they can find fresh meat, leaving her by herself. He’s an idiot.

After Nora dropped by last week to casually reveal the “cure” for werewolf-dom (one must kill their maker in human form), Josh has nightmares about his werewolf father Ray (the perfectly cast, wolf-y Andreas Apergis). There’s no Nora to be seen this week, but I’d be having nightmares about her killing him instead (as that would reverse Nora’s curse, even if she says she loves her animal side right now). Josh tracks down Ray, surprised to see the guy happy and with his former ex-wife and son. Turns out Ray told the truth about his other side, and the honesty did wonders for his personal life.

Adding to the newest angle of angst for our neurotic hero is the visit of Julia’s best friend Chelsea (Catherine Berube). Getting the third degree from another person he betrayed is probably the last thing he wants to do, but he owes it to Julia in this blessed second go round, even if his reappearance will open the floodgates of information to his friends and family back in Ithaca (go Bombers!). Josh also grapples with the possibility of revealing the real reason he abandoned Julia all those years ago.

Sally, with a firmer grip on reality and less Reaper incidents, flits around the hospital looking for Zoe (Susanna Fournier). Zoe no longer mans her post at the Maternity Ward and is clearly avoiding Sally because she and the Reaper shredded a bundle of her ghost friends and Nick (Pat Kiely), her “love.” Can’t say I blame her.

Sorry I killed your ghost boyfriend, but seriously, he was no Patrick Swayze

Aidan goes on a drive and ends up on a random farm, with a barn full of hanging, asleep vampires. Once there, he convinces the guard to wake up one of them. Our lucky early riser turns out to be long lost buddy, Atlee (Kyle Gatehouse), last seen fleeing from a pack of werewolves and leaving Aidan to die. Instead, Aidan delivered the corpse of a pureblood to him, and Atley, being the opportunistic sleazeball that he is, used the prize to rise up in The Dutch, some impressive European brood of vampires. Aidan threatens to tell his new friends the truth, unless Atlee can help him and Suren flee Mother once and for all. Atlee adds a twist to the bargain.

Sally finally finds Zoe and apologizes profusely and follows her around, Zoe understandably still bitter that she murdered her boyfriend, even if he was an apparition. But, then, because it’s SyFy, the partial eclipse referenced in the episode’s title abruptly occurs. This seems to bring back many of the ghosts that Sally shredded, including a few you may be able to guess. Zoe and Sally rush to the house to see them, while Josh is encumbered in an entirely different way. After a pretty damn impressive performance for Chelsea, the partial eclipse abruptly starts his transformation process in the middle of Happy Hour.

There is not a happy ending for Sally, Josh or Aidan in the penultimate episode of the stellar second season. Every one of our trio is thrown through the emotional wringer. Zoe and Sally are given a shot at closure, and it’s not a peaceful one for Sally. Aidan’s thrown for a loop and neither compares with what happens to Josh. There are some touching moments, but overall, this episode created a complete and utter eclipse of my heart, shocking the hell out of me and completely changing what we can expect from the season finale. I hesitate to say anything more lest I ruin anything, but as always, anything goes on this show, and next Monday’s season finale promises a few surprises, deaths (my money is on Henry, Suren and/or Mother) and longing for Season 3.

Surprise! No more (fore)skin

Being Human, Season 2, Episode 9

“When I Think About You I Shred Myself”

Air Date: 3/12/2012

Even without Nora and her wolfpack, BEING HUMAN improves by the week. This week we get a frightening resolution (of sorts) in Sally’s Reaper storyline, Aidan helps the skinless Henry heal while he ruminates over their shared past, and the awesome Jay Baruchel guest stars as Josh’s deceased friend Stu, who, ahem, complicates Josh’s relationship with his original ex, Julia (When I think about Natalie Brown I _____ myself).

To atone for his mistakes of the past and to rejoin Aidan and Suren’s ranks, Henry got flayed at the end of the last episode. While we were spared that image, we aren’t spared the creepy Red Skull-like results of Suren’s revenge. Aidan brings him to the house, which doesn’t sit well with Josh, who begrudgingly invites Henry inside. Once there, he needs fresh blood to heal, so Aidan pulls a TRUE BLOOD and “glamour’s” a couple college aged gals upstairs for a vampire sex romp gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Having accepted her role as a future reaper (and helping to shred poor Stevie in the process), Sally now undergoes her training with the man she’s eventually replacing, the Reaper (Dusan Dukic) himself. It doesn’t go well. Killing or “shredding” ghosts doesn’t sit well with her, and the Reaper is impatient for progress. When Boner (Reason #43 this show rules: there’s actually a character named Boner) pays a visit inquiring about Stevie’s disappearance, he reveals that the Reaper was lying, that Stevie hadn’t shredded anyone else, and that he wasn’t stalking the bullies of his high school days. Sally goes to Zoe (Susanna Fournier) to ask for advice on getting rid of the Reaper, but they are less than helpful, merely leading the Reaper to the ghost group Zoe meets with, who shreds all of them, including former love interest Nick (Pat Kiely). Oops.

At the hospital, Josh sees Stu (in ghost form) for the first time since he was killed on the same camping trip that made Josh a werewolf. Clearly, there’s some resentment, but Stu says he has finally forgiven him in that whiny, scratchy voice of Baruchel’s that should be annoying but is instead endearing. After showing his face, Stu is always by Josh’s side…when Julia’s around. It’s no coincidence. Stu isn’t there for Josh. He’s following Julia, who he loved before Josh ever did…

]]> http://famousmonstersoffilmland.com/2012/03/20/tv-reviews-being-human-season-2-episode-9-when-i-think-about-you-i-shred-myself/feed/ 0 BloodyHenry Surprise! No more (fore)skin Next-Page-Button http://famousmonstersoffilmland.com/2012/03/15/the-world-premiere-of-the-dark-shadows-trailer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-world-premiere-of-the-dark-shadows-trailer http://famousmonstersoffilmland.com/2012/03/15/the-world-premiere-of-the-dark-shadows-trailer/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:09:51 +0000 Barrett http://famousmonstersoffilmland.com/?p=54638 Finally, we deliver unto you the official HD version of the DARK SHADOWS trailer. Take a look and feel free to express your feelings (expletive-free, please) in the comments section below.

Being Human

“Mama Said There’d Be Decades Like These”

Air Date: 2/20/2012

We need new shirt slogans.

Decades from now we will look back at this episode as the day when Marikym Hervieux made her sterling debut as Female Blood Whore #1. Or maybe not. A week after Nora joined Brynn and Connor’s wolfpack, she has since left Josh in lurch, ditching him entirely. Sally, taking a break from her addiction to possession, finds her Dad (Joseph Antaki) in the hospital mourning the impending loss of her mother Rena (Rahnuma Panthaky). Aidan is haunted by the vision of his maker and mentor Bishop (TV’s ubiquitous Mark Pellegrino) while reuniting with his own son and creation Henry after 80 years of radio silence.

When Josh alerts Sally about Rena, she watches and wistfully remembers idealized family time as her Mom slowly dies and her Dad sits resolutely by his wife’s side. The poor guy has lost his daughter and wife, but this episode is more about Rena. Upon her death, Rena ghosts up and is a lively and happy person, especially for a dead one. Turns out, all these years Rena was nursing love and affection for next door neighbor and fellow ghost Mr. Patterson (Gerry to you, and Graham Cuthbertson to everybody else). Instead of hanging out with Sally, she does whatever spirits can do sexually, which amounts to blurry cosmic foreplay on SyFy.

Sam Huntington is in fine form as Josh this week, as his life unravels in front of him. Not only is he slowly losing Aidan as his best friend and confidante (because he’s drunk and drifting and you know, seeing dead people, which usually isn’t an issue for a show with ghosts, but Bishop is merely his imagination), but Nora’s left and two Boston police officers (Harry Standjofski and Holly O’Brien) have taken her place, investigating the death/murder/mauling of Will (who Brynn, Connor and Nora chewed up at the end of last week’s episode) and following his every move.

After seeing Henry for the first time since he told him to leave Boston and never come back eighty years previous, Aidan searches their old haunts for his whereabouts and contemplates what to do with him with Bishop (or at least a “drunken” vision of Bishop). Alternately mocking, proud, wise and conniving, I think the writers and I finally realized how much BEING HUMAN has missed Pellegrino’s villainous Bishop by walking down memory lane (thankfully Aidan’s long life promises many potential flashbacks). Essentially, Bishop believes that Aidan needs to kill Henry to insure his Boston kingdom. Aidan not only denies this resolution but denies even wanting such power, even if his actions (like beheading Bishop) betray the truth. When Henry arrives at his doorstep, the two hash it out, and like grown men, try and kill each other.

Josh, as always, tries and fails to balance everything, by making food for everyone when Rena and Gerry come over (of course, he’s the only one who eats) for the most awkward dinner ever (we all know Huntington thrives at being awkward). Because Nora won’t return her calls and doesn’t show her face when he arrives at Brynn and Connor’s doorstep, Josh foolishly decides it’s a good idea to pay a visit to newly turned Cecilia (Olunike Adeliyi), Suren and Aidan’s cop on the inside, to solve his problem with the police. To entice her help, he promises her the purebreds, Brynn and Connor. This is probably bad for Josh, but it’s good for us when these character’s worlds blend like last season’s finale, and now we know how it will in the coming weeks.

My Mom gets more action than I do. Sadface.

While we learned about Sally’s childhood and how people can be crappy parents even after they die and this was good and necessary character development, this episode will be remembered for Henry and Aidan’s tussle and what it portends for Aidan and his city. Judging by Bishop’s fateful words at the end of the episode, it ain’t looking good.

If only Mama could save us from decades like these.

DreamWorks has hired Med Men scribe Marti Noxon to take another stab at their proposed remake of 1985′s cult classic Fright Night. Noxon is a veteran of TV vampire sagas, having worked on both Buffy and Angel.

The project was thought DOA earlier this year when Screen Gems halted production, however talks of the demise were premature and the film will be produced by Michael De Luca, Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig and was

The original horror comedy was written and directed by Tom Holland, and starred William Ragsdale as a young horror fan who recruits his favorite TV horror host (Roddy McDowall) to battle Chris Sarandon’s suburban vampire.

If you haven’t seen it, by all means check it out – it’s a great, underrated horror comedy that stands up well alongside An American Werewolf in London and Night of the Creeps, with a clear love of monster-fan culture (how many films feature an aging horror host as its wise-sage?).

There are almost as many long-winded editorials opining the current deluge of remakes as there are remakes themselves, so I won’t indulge my skepticism. Both the creature make-up (love that toothy grin, half camp/half Freudian nightmare) as well as the visual effects (by a post-Ghostbusters Richard Edlund) of the original hold up well, and Holland and the cast balance the tone wonderfully, in a mix all too rarely nailed, especially these days.

I approach this one with a skeptical “wait-and-see.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear about Twilight and its sequels. Things are heating up already on the third installment, Eclipse. They haven’t even started the second one yet, New Moon. When you’ve got a robust franchise, filmmakers are eager to get on board. Word is, the Spanish director of The Orphanage, Juan Antonio Bayona, and 3:10 to Yuma helmer James Mangold are both circling the project, but Summit insists that no meetings are scheduled as yet. Both would be strong choices.

As to the last two unfilled roles in New Moon, vampires Jane and Aro, no offers have yet gone out, despite what you may have read. And the role of Leah Clearwater isn’t being filled, because according to writer Melissa Rosenberg, she isn’t in the script!”

Also Known As: Blood Bath

Runtime: 80 min

Language: English

Color: Black & White

Also Known As: Happening der Vampire, Gebissen wird nur nachts

Runtime: 102 min

Language: German

Color: Color

Also Known As: Grave Desires, Orgy of the Vampires, La Orgía Nocturna de los Vampiros

Runtime: 80 min

Language: Spanish (with English subtitles)

Color: Color