Published by wil June 23rd, 2010
in CONTEST.
Horror Yearbook is giving away five (5) copies of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain paperback.
This is NOT your Mother’s Vampire…
They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come.
In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country.
In two months—the world.
An epic battle for survival begins between man and vampire in The Strain (Paperback available June 29) — the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy from one of Hollywood’s most inventive storytellers and a critically acclaimed thriller writer. Guillermo del Toro, the genius director of the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, and Hammett Award-winning author Chuck Hogan have joined forces to boldly reinvent the vampire novel.
To enter leave a comment below then send an e-mail to WIL@HORRORYEARBOOK.COM with the subject line The Strain, include your user name, real name and mailing address. You must be a U.S. citizen to enter to win. The contest starts as soon as you read this and ends on June 29, 2010.
Continue reading ‘Win Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain Paperback’
True Blood has picked up after a long wait just soon enough to get us to forget about the lack of The Vampire Diaries. It’s been a long wait, but luckily the third season opener gives us a lengthy overview on anything people might have missed or forgotten about since last summer. It picks up right where we left off last season, with Sookie coming back to accept Bill’s marriage proposal only for him to find that he has been kidnapped. She tries to get help, but everyone seems to be making light of the situation. All of the sheriffs in Bon Temps seem to think either he’s just taken a hint from Sookie and is keeping his distance or that he’s just simply not a priority since he’s not human. Sookie knows something is wrong and refuses to give up though. She gets Jessica to help her, who got shivers upon Bill’s disappearance and might be able to track him done since he’s her maker. Jessica is dealing with enough herself though, desperate to get Hoyt back, but ends up brushing him off to deal with a dead body. Even revamping him doesn’t seem to do the trick.
The season finale of Vampire’s Diaries is quite possibly the best episode to date. It is without a doubt the episode I found myself the most wrapped up in. It’s full of laughter, extremely shocking moments, one after the other, and puts a lot of our characters and pretty much everything that has happened thus far in to great perspective.
Temptation can be added to the far too short list of compelling and exciting vampire movies. There are countless interesting and thrilling vampire novels and a few good TV series now with True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, but for some reason movies have seemed to always have had a harder time trying to communicate the mindset, blood thirsty nature, and alluring power of the vampire. There are some that reflect the monster well and some that up the alluring factor, but few that really show the monster and the seduction, the weaknesses and the blood thirsty nature, the undead and the immortal nature all as one being.
This week’s appropriately named episode, “Isobel”, is centered on Isobel’s return to Mystic Falls. Alaric has been obsessively searching for his wife. He only just realized she wasn’t dead, but undead. Their reunion isn’t quite what he imagined after all of this time. Isobel is cold, fierce, and couldn’t care less about Alaric. She is simply using him as her messenger in attempts to see Elena. She threatens to start killing townspeople, starting with Alaric’s students until he arranges a meeting with Elena. This isn’t to catch up with the long lost daughter she abandoned. She hardly thought twice about what she did, even when she was still human.
Picking up from last week’s episode, Stefan is locked away by Elena and Damon, forcing him to give up the human blood he has become so addicted to. Stefan becomes so consumed with guilt, over everyone he has hurt over the past century that he decides that he shouldn’t even attempt to go on living.
Elena and Caroline are in the running for Miss Mystic Falls, essentially a beauty pageant for the girl who most embodies the spirit of community in Mystic Falls. Caroline is determined to win, but Elena nearly backs out. The only reason she goes through with it is it was very important to her mother. Even though Elena knows that she wasn’t her real mother she still wants to follow in her footsteps. Stefan agrees to be her date. He seems to be far more upbeat and optimistic lately. Elena assumes that this is just because he got past the cravings and is happy to get out of it alive.
tefan still hasn’t fully recovered from his brush with death and the evil that was infused in him. He has moments where he becomes a completely different person, one that has no moral judgments, but just acts on pure animalistic instinct. When this inner-demon comes out of him, there is no controlling it. He’s lucky if he can snap back in time before he does damage, particularly when Elena’s around and exposed to this part of him. Meanwhile, Jeremy is still having trouble accepting Vicki’s death.
During this week’s episode a war ends up breaking out between the vampires. The freed vampires become more restless and decide to take charge back, disregarding Pearl’s wishes of patiently waiting for the moment they take their town back. Damon had just agreed to work peacefully with Pearl, giving her the information she desires. Frederick, sick of waiting and out to get revenge on the Salvatore brothers, kidnaps Stefan. Damon tries to save him, but as he’s been compelled by the owner not to let him in, he has no way of helping his brother.
Well I was right about last week’s A Few Good Men being a transitional episode, because this week’s Vampire Diaries is already taking us in a new direction with new vampire take-over plans. This time it isn’t even Damon concocting up these plans. There Goes the Neighborhood gives us the true aftermath of what really happened at the tomb and all of the vampires who have been depraved as they hungered for blood for over a century. Now these vampires are just outside of Mystic Falls. Pearl has them contained in an old farmhouse, compelling the human owner to give them blood; something the blood starved vampires take full advantage of. They are getting restless, locked up in the house not much different than their confinement in the tomb for all of those years. They want to go out and live. Pearl fully plans on them reclaiming the town but in good time.
Published by Kelsey Zukowski March 30th, 2010
in Horror BOOKS.
L.J. Smith certainly has gone a different direction with “The Return”, the sub-series of the Vampire Diaries. Shadow Souls marks the second book and most recent addition to the Vampire Diaries. That being said the bulk of it doesn’t really feel like aVampire Diaries book. We are only very briefly in the supernatural magnet small town of Fells Church, Virginia. At least for the first 200 pages very few of our characters are together, in the same place at the same time. The vampire element isn’t nearly as central as it has been in the past. It mostly lies in Damon and Elena’s undeniable attraction that she at long last gives in to.
Vampire Diaries at last makes its return from its second extended hiatus. A Few Good Men shows the aftermath of Damon’s master plan. He has spent the last century searching for someone who couldn’t have cared less about him. With this newfound knowledge he claims he is a free agent with no master plan and nothing to worry about. Damon drowns his sorrows in alcohol and college girl blood donors, while still coming on to Elena as strong as ever. She feels sorry for him, having his heart broken and entire purpose and drive taken away, no matter how evil natured actions and betrayals it might have led him to commit. Damon is about to go too far though, unknowingly mocking Elena’s personal trauma from her past.
Published by wil February 16th, 2010
in HORROR ON THE TUBE - TV and NEWS.
Fans of The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural will be happy to know that The CW has renewed both shows, along with Gossip Girl, 90210 and America’s Next Top Model. That leaves Smallville, One Tree Hill, Life Unexpected, and Melrose Place waiting to hear about their futures.
According to Michael Ausiello, Smallville (keep your fingers crossed… it just started getting good) and One Tree Hill have the best chances of surviving out of the four shows.
Published by Kelsey Zukowski February 12th, 2010
in HORROR ON THE TUBE - TV.
Once again Elena finds herself kidnapped by vampires as bait. This time it isn’t about Stefan though. Her captors have no use for him, Damon is the one with the journal with the secrets of opening the tomb and unleashing all of the vampires inside.
Damon continues to act nonchalantly while Stefan desperately tries to find a way to save Elena. As Stefan begs him for any information he might have, he simply says that he hopes they kill Elena. The bigger reason why Elena was kidnapped actually has nothing to do with the Salvatores. She’s there to make sure Bonnie opens the tomb and releases the buried vampires. Elena ends up actually feeling sympathy for one of her kidnappers as she’s only doing what she’s doing to get back at the mother she lost over a century ago.
Now that Stefan has agreed to help Damon in his diabolical plan, unleashing Katherine and nearly two dozen other blood thirsty vampires locked by a powerful spell for over a century, Damon puts Elena to work as well. Of course, he so elegantly does this while Stefan and Elena were still in bed with one another, claiming they’re all essentially family now and it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before.
