It is time to watch some vampire and werewolf movies. Happy October everyone!
Hey everyone! Jess here, actually writing a blog. Yes, I know this is a bit out of character for me. But I just couldn’t pass this up. Spooky season is all the time at my house. I personally live for the month of October and if you know me, I am normally running a haunted house event from the end of the summer until the end of October. This year due to COVID-19 we were not able to make this happen so I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Check out the information below on how the #BOBREYERVWMC was started and how you can join in.
How this all got started…
Let me tell you about my good friend #bobreyer, he knows movies and when I say he knows movies, I mean he really knows movies.
Some of my local friends might know Bob as he ran 112 Video for many years. Others may know him from the podcast #talkingcomics where he has been a co-host for hundreds of episodes. Over on the @valhallaladies podcast we just recorded a podcast about #twilight and when I talked to Bob about this he had a whole list of vampire/werewolf movies that I could watch that were, in his opinion, considerably better 
.
The Challenge
When I showed my hubby @serzyfritz his list we both got way too excited and decided that we would challenge ourselves to watch all of the 29 movies he suggested by the end of October! I figured why not share the fun. So here it is, the #bobreyervwmc! If you want to join us in the fun just use that hashtag and let us know how many of these movies you were able to watch. I’m sure this is going to be a wild ride and a lot of fun. Let the game begin!
Here is the full list of movies set up as a check list. I will be adding to this blog and my social media as I watch these movies so keep an eye out for updates! To find me on any social media platform I am @jarrsica. Or you can see some updates in the @valhallaladies Instagram stories!
Also yes I know I am two days late with this blog post. It’s called life and it gets in the way LOL!
Disclaimer, please read.
Not all of these movies are family-friendly. That is why this was not posted directly onto the normal @valhallaladies social media feeds. Please take a moment to check out the ratings on some of these movies before watching.
UPDATES:
Nosferatu (1922)
“Blood is life! Blood is life!”
-ALEXANDER GRANACH – Knock – ein Häusermakler
Watching a movie that is almost 100 years old is an awesome way to really appreciate what we have now. #nosferatu (1922) was really a ton of fun to watch. Especially with @serzyfritz narrating! But also please check out this dudes mustache and wtf would you ever get into a buggy that looked like that. The horses are cloaked!!! That’s on you bud
Really in all honesty we had a great time watching this, it’s definitely a part of movie history. I really appreciated how they went about creating the “special effects” that they needed for this movie. Fun fact, as it was 1922 they couldn’t shoot any of the scenes at night so they tinted the scenes blue to create the effect that it was night time. You should check out the Wikipedia link on this one because there is an interesting story behind the making of this movie and the film studio.
The studio behind Nosferatu, Prana Film, was a short-lived silent-era German film studio founded in 1921 by Enrico Dieckmann and occultist-artist Albin Grau, named for the Hindu concept of prana. Although the studio’s intent was to produce occult- and supernatural-themed films, Nosferatu was its only production,[11] as it declared bankruptcy in order to evade copyright infringement suits from Bram Stoker’s widow Florence Balcombe.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu
Dracula (1931)
For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you’re a wise man, Van Helsing.
Count Dracula
Last night’s movie was #Dracula (1931)! Oh, what a difference 10 years make. Not only did this movie require no narration from @serzyfritz as it has actual dialogue, but you can also see the vast improvements in film making. It was darker, creepier and the acting is leaps and bounds better, (maybe due to actual dialogue) but still it’s shocking this is not even a full 10 years later. In this movie, we see the more traditional Dracula “powers”. He can change into a bat and persuade people to do his bidding with just a look into his eyes! Bela Lugosi was actually pretty terrifying and I can see why he was so eager to take his stage performance and play the role for the movie. One of my favorite moments is when you get to see Dracula meet Dr. Van Helsing for the first time. The interaction between the two characters is fantastic.
DAMN THIS TREE!!! But it is cute though no? LOL! 
There are a lot of similarities between Nosferatu and this movie, seeing as how they ultimately are the same story. But I still can’t get over this dude getting into a creepy carriage that looks like it was created by death himself. Again another fun watch, if you haven’t seen these older films take a moment, they aren’t very long and have a little movie history fun. Because that’s really what the past two nights have been for us, a lot of fun. Also, I apologize for the weird reflections on the TV my Nightmare Before Christmas tree is up and its lights are on a timer…
Some Extra Fun
If you would like to see some fun trivia about this movie visit it’s IMDB Page. Some of them just might shock you a bit. I found this one to be pretty slick!
In the scene where Dracula and Renfield are traveling to London by boat, the footage shown is borrowed from a Universal silent film called The Storm Breaker (1925).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814/
Why make it when you already have it!
Bob Reyer
After nearly one hundred years this film still retains its “creep factor”, particularly in its last act!
On the legal side, Bram Stoker’s widow did sue and win, as the producers did not properly secure the rights to her husband’s novel, and she came very close to having this film completely obliterated. Thankfully for us cinephiles, some prints evaded her grasp, so “Nosferatu” will always hold a place as a major touchstone in horror movie history!
Jessica Garris-Schaeffer
She actually had most of them burned, correct?
Bob Reyer
Jess,
You are correct! If it wasn’t for some enterprising theatre owners and film societies (plus, I suspect, a not-entirely-cooperative plaintiff!), Mrs. Stoker would have succeeded in wiping “Nosferatu” from the face of the earth!
I’m happy to see that you enjoyed the Bela Lugosi “Dracula”, in particular that you found his performance powerful…and you used the quote I would have selected as a header!!
Off to watch “Dracula’s Daughter” and “Son of Dracula”…just keeping it in the family,
Bob
Bob Reyer
A quick sidebar on Bela Lugosi and Count Dracula; even though Mr. Lugosi portrayed Dracula “count”-less times on stage (sorry!), he only played him twice on-screen! Here in the 1931 original film, and in 1948’s “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”! That said, in Columbia Pictures’ 1943 film “Return of the Vampire”, Bela starred as the vampiric Armand Tesla, and many fans and scholars (myself included) consider this an “unofficial” sequel to the Universal “Dracula”!
Bob Reyer
Hey gang–just checking in as we enter the home stretch, and I hope that everyone’s having a scary good time navigating this list! I’m up to the 21st century, with “Underworld” next on my schedule.
I have heard some (gentle) chiding through social media and e-mail regarding some…”omissions” from the Challenge, but they all happened for good reasons–I think. So…
I prefer “Near Dark” to “Lost Boys”, but whatever fills YOUR coffin, right?
I saw “Teen Wolf” in the cinema and found it OK, but I thought that Jess would get a bigger kick out of seeing a furry Michael Landon!
“Blade”, “Silver Bullet”, and “Lifeforce”, well…I just forgot, sorry. Maybe next year?
There were a few others that I left off mostly-on-purpose for…”reasons”:
The White Reindeer (1952): This award-winning Finnish film is a wonderfully lyrical adaptation of a folk legend about a vampiric were-reindeer, and well-worth seeing…but very hard to come by!
Not of This Earth (1957): This Roger Corman classic centers on an alien who’s come to our planet to save his own, with that process centering on his need to collect human blood. A personal favourite, but I thought it a bit far afield as a “vampire” flick.
Planet of the Vampires (1965): I saw this in theatres way-back-when, and although this stylish Mario Bava movie shares a lot of DNA with “Alien” (“It! The Terror from Beyond Space” being another big influence!), it’s a bit of slog to get through these days.
Let the Right One In (2008)/Let Me In (2010): Both the Swedish original and the American remake (starring a young Chloe Grace Moretz!) are each well-done films, but I thought their “children-in-peril” moments might be too intense. (Yes, I know there are some pretty gory scenes in my later picks, but they come without that extra burden.)