Based (so loosely you'd hardly recognise it) on Sheridan Le Fanu's classic vampire tale "Carmilla" what we have here is a highly entertaining minor Hammer classic. Ralph Bates hams it up as a would-be vampire's servant, Danish dollie-bird Yutte Stensgaard heaves her bosoms magnificently and Mike Raven does his best Christopher Lee impersonation. Strangely, although Christopher Lee appears nowhere in the film, his bloodshot vampire eyes make a fleeting appearance in this trailer...

This looks like fun!

Female Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Other Horrors in Art, Literature and Culture

An interdisciplinary conference at University of Manchester, UK
September 9-10th 2010

Keynote Speaker: Professor Peter Hutchings (Northumbria University)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The figure of the werewolf has haunted art, literature and culture for millennia. While not as common as their male counterparts, female werewolves appear in a variety of texts, of different genres and different cultures. From transcripts of witchcraft trials to Buffy, the female werewolf and her shapeshifting sisters continue to challenge, excite and entertain. 

This conference will explore representations and cultural meanings of female werewolves and other female shapeshifters, and the perennial fascination of these creatures. Papers are sought from researchers in all disciplines.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

• literary and cinematic representations
• representation in art, graphic novels and animation
• teen shapeshifters
• children's literature and fairy tales
• role-playing, gaming and MMORPGs
• mythologies and folkloric belief
• magic, transformation and the body
• historical, medical and legal discourse
• theoretical considerations of gender and female sexuality
• the female shapeshifter and the other

We also invite proposals for papers, discussion groups or workshops from creative professionals.

Selected papers may be invited to be submitted for inclusion in an edited collection following the conference.

Please send abstracts for twenty-minute papers (no more than 300 words) to
shewolf.manchester@googlemail.com by 31st March 2010.

George A. Romero zombie pic set for spring

By Dave McNary

'Survival of the Dead'

George A. Romero's new zombie pic, "Survival of the Dead," has landed at Magnet Releasing, which has set a spring release.

Romero's film, the latest in a series starting with 1968's "Night of the Living Dead," bowed at the Venice and Toronto film festivals this year.

Magnet will unspool "Survival" on VOD platforms nationwide a month before its theatrical release.

Story centers on an isolated refuge where two powerful families maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided, leading to an escalating showdown with echoes of a classic Western standoff.

Magnet has released Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In," John Woo's "Red Cliff," Nacho Vigalondo's "Timecrimes" and Tony Jaa's "Ong Bak 2."

Upcoming it has Nicolas Winding Refn's "Bronson" and action sequel "District 13 -- Ultimatum," from helmer Patrick Alessandrin.