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Near Dark, a review by Danae Cassandra

Near Dark
Year of Release: 1987
Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein
Genre: Horror, Western, Crime

Overview:My Thoughts:
This is a stylish hybrid film, bridging horror, western and crime genres together to create a uniquely modern look at the vampire.  Perhaps one shouldn't use the term here, they certainly don't in the film, but it is still definitely a vampire film.  All of the actors do an excellent job, and the pull Caleb finds himself in between his two contrasting families creates quite a bit of excellent tension as you wonder whether he will accept his new family and new life, or continue to cling to his humanity.  Jenny Wright's portrayal of Mae is also just about the best portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome I've ever seen.  There is a bit of gore here, but nothing too bad and all necessary to the story.  Well worth a watch.

Bechdel Test: Fail (I think)

Overall: 4/5

(From Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon on October 9th, 2014)

Halloween: Resurrection, a review by Jon

Halloween: Resurrection
1 out of 5

I was lucky enough to catch this on TV tonight. You see, I was trying to think of something really painful and futile to do, and had just decided to stick pins in my eyes and hit myself in the balls with a mallet, when this came on. Within minutes, the masochist in me realised this was far more excruciating! Joy!

It is unbelievably awful. Busta Rhymes? Busta bloody Rhymes versus Michael Myers? The shame! The whole thing is a terrible joke. Like all truly bad films, at the heart there is something intriguing, otherwise it would just be boring. This had this slightly-not-terrible idea of having a bunch of teenagers explore the original house while feeding footage back to the Internet. Cool! Nostalgia and all that. Unfortunately, no-one at any stage from inception to execution had any idea how to actually capitalise on it.

So you have the same scene repeated endlessly. Michael looking really dumb, being really predictable and barely moving, while he half-heartedly sticks his knife into the next squeaky acting class reject. Then they'd get away... by running back into the house. Yeah, that works. Whatever. Where's my mallet?   

(From Jon's Random Reviews on July 25th, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: The computer that controls the Earth gate doesn't implement all safety precautions a normal DHD has. This allows the SGC to open a Wormhole through a remote sun and this injects heavy elements into the sun's core. It starts with the sun going red but when the process can't be stopped the remote planet won't be able to support life any longer. SG-1 tries to undo their mistake.

My Opinion: A good episode about religious obsession and fatalism. I also liked how SG-1 tried everything to undo their mistake even against the resistance of the locals.

Synopsis: Cassandra has become a teenager but suddenly her body goes haywire. She produces large fields of electricity and she can move metal objects. But she gets worse and the only remedy can be found on her home planet - Niirti experimented on the entire population.

My Opinion: I also liked this episode because it showed how much Sam as well as her stepmother Dr. Frasier care for Cassie.

Synopsis: Daniel is still watching the Unas on the home planet of the Goa'ulds, especially Chaka, the Unas that kidnapped him once. But then Chaka is kidnapped by people from another planet and put to work as a slave. Daniel tries to rescue him.

My Opinion: I like this episode very much because Daniel does anything in his might to help a non-human. This shows perfectly how Daniel perceives the world. But it also showed how problematic it is to interfere in another world's way of living that are different to our own.

Synopsis: During the 37 days the russian Stargate program was active there has been an inoffical unit, too. They have gone lost on a planet and SG-1 and a russian team go after them in a joint venture.

My Opinion:

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 31st, 2008)