Vampires, Werewolves, & Zombis Oh My!

Another film where they got it right was The Mists of Avalon. Juliana Margolies’ portrayal of Morgaine was superb, even if she was a little long in the tooth for the early scenes of Morgaine. Hollywood got it right again with Practical Magic[sic].

We had positive if a little over dramatized portrayals of Wicca in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Charmed. Another series that treated Paganism in a positive light was Roar, about Ireland (Hibernia) towards the end of the Western Roman Empire. But more often than not they get it wrong. An example of this is the movie The Craft. Stephen calls it “The Crap.” It doesn’t acknowledge the Goddess. Sure there’s the Horned God but there is also the Goddess. Without Her, there is no Craft. The only part I liked was the soundtrack. Doc used to play just the song “How Soon is Now?” by the Smiths. The only character, adult or teen, who had any sense at all was the proprietress of the magick shop. They completely ignored the Wiccan Rede. The Wiccan community would have censured them for ignoring the Rede. In most cases we are either completely ignored or maligned. Another positive example was Battlestar Galactica, and Caprica, where most people were Pagans, and the monotheists were seen as terrorists, which they are. In Xena Warrior Princess, R.J. Stewart was the consultant. He was also the creator of The Merlin Tarot.

Not all monsters were evil. Some were just monsters because they were born that way. “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.” Jessica Rabbit in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolfman is tortured by his transformation into the Wolfman. His conditiob forces him to rip people’s throats out when he is a werewolf, but he doesn’t enjoy it when he goes back to being human. In the modern version of The Wolfman, the Wolfman, played so skillfully by Benicio del Toro, the condition is inherited from his father (played by Anthony Hopkins). When Larry Talbot was human, which was most of the month, he lived with deep remorse for the mayhem he wreaked during the full Moon. To make a long story short, he was basically a nice meek guy when it wasn’t the full Moon. I hadn’t seen much of Benicio del Toro until he was interviewed on my favorite reality show, Inside the Actor’s Studio. James Lipton did a very able job of interviewing him. Afterwards, I started seeing him in everything. Then he starred in the Wolfman in 2008. The entire cast was stellar. Stephen thought it deserved more than 2 stars.
The Swamp Thing was a monster whose chief concern was how the environment was being despoiled. He found much of value in the bayou, and hated the way the swamp was being exploited. His friends were a small group of humans who felt the same way he did. His main enemy was a representative of a large corporation who wanted higher profits through exploiting the swamp.

To sum up, Hammer Films played a major role in the horror genre of film. From its inception as a low budget thriller and horror film studio in the mid-30s, through its height in the 60s to its demise in the late 70s and early 80s, Hammer Films supplied films for a generation that grew up in the automobile, and cultivated a taste for the drive in movie theatre. But in the late 70s to 80s, tastes had changed, and the drive-in theatre declined. But Hollywood has continued to churn out monsters. Our favorite monsters are vampires; Stephen’s favorites are the supervamps of the Underworld trilogy, and mine is Count Dracula, as played by Gary Oldman.

After an 8 year separation, Stephen’s old friend Lizet Freeman has surfaced again, and has started working with us to make Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick more marketable. It’s kind of funny how this happened. We had gone to our bank, Chase Bank, to get cash, and ran into her there. Unfortunately, Debbie was also there, and I wondered if the two would get into a cat fight right then and there. But they behaved. Later we did a kick ass reading for Lizet, and as payment, she came over the next day, and on my new computer, and designed a third website for us. It’s http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com don’t forget our other two websites http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . Also call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982 for a reading, class, or research.

Forever Knight & Blood Ties for Pagans

We decided to combine the two into one group, because Blood Ties is also Canadian, also took place in Toronto, and didn’t run for very long. Supposedly Blood Ties had 2 seasons, but they both took place within one calendar year, March 11th 2007 to May 20th 2007, and October 12th 2007 to December 2007. Forever Knight was created by James Parriott, while Blood Ties was based upon the novels by Canadian author Tanya Huff. Tegwedd has looked for those novels on the library computer, but they’re not there. There are other novels by her, though. Tegwedd is thinking about taking them out, and reading them, while she waits for the George R. R. Martin novels. This is our 6th vampire group. After Kindred the Embraced, Forever Knight is her favorite vampire show. This is chiefly because of the star, Geraint Wyn Davies, whom she regards as eye candy. It also doesn’t hurt that he is Welsh-Canadian. She’s partial to Welshmen. She really likes the way the show portrays the vampire community’s culture. Stephen also considers this his favorite vampire series. Although the series primarily takes place in Toronto, there are many flashbacks to France and other European locales. In his long and varied past, Knight also spent time in Chicago and New York.

His sire was portrayed so wonderfully and sinisterly by Nigel Bennett, who was also in the French-Canadian space series Lexx. He was also seen in a series put together by Dan Akroyd about psychic research. Just about every Canadian actor was on Forever Knight at one time or another as a guest star. It was recently shown during the day on the SyFy channel. They may bring it back this summer on Chiller or SyFy. Some episodes took place in Montreal. There is a French version, which is much more risque than the regular series was. If you know how we can obtain the French version, please tell us. Tegwedd is mildly curious, but Stephen is wild to get his hands on them. He may even give you a free reading and/or class in exchange for those episodes. Like in the series Moonlight, the main character of Forever Knight lives in a loft with controlled lighting. Both of them drank animal blood, or human blood in those plastic blood donor pints. Both of them regretted ever having turned vampire. One was a cop, the other a private investigator. Vicki Nelson was also a private investigator, after having been a police detective. Neither Nick nor Mick killed to eat anymore. Stephen thinks that the writers of Moonlight might have taken some ideas from Forever Knight. Both main characters had strong relationships with the other vampire characters. Both main characters were also musicians. Both shows had flashbacks back to their early lives. In one of the episodes of Forever Knight, we see how Le Croix became a vampire in ancient Pompeii.

The cast of Forever Knight: Geraint Wyn Davies--Nick Knight Nigel Bennett--Le Croix Deborah Duchene--Janette Catherine Disher--Natalie Lambert John Kapelos--Det. Donald Schanke Gary Farmer--Capt. Stonetree Natsuko Ohama--Capt. Amanda Cohen Ben Bass--Javier Vachon Lisa Ryder--Det. Tracy Vetter Greg Kramer--Screed Blu Mankuma--Capt Joe Reese
Kristin Lehman--Urs

As we have already mentioned, Tegwedd considers Geraint Wyn Davies to be eye candy. Alex O’Loughlin isn’t exactly hard on the eyes either. He’s an Aussie. The soundtrack for Forever Knight is now available; you can probably get it from Amazon. Stephen likes that both shows featured rock ‘n’ roll. There’s rock associated with both shows. There’s also rock associated with the Anne Rice vampire movies. Both vampires could fly. Very rarely did Nick have to deal with supernatural opponents; mostly they were mundane criminals. The love interest in Forever Knight never materializes. Natalie Lambert ME languished with her unrequited love for Knight all three seasons. But in Moonlight the love between Mick and Beth is requited. There was another love interest in Nick’s life, one he’d known for centuries, Janette. But he associates her with his old life of brutality and death dealing.

Janette controlled the bloodletting in her goth club. Part was paranoia, fear of having her vampire nature exposed if the bloodletting became too public. Le Croix just let it all hang out. We’ve told you a great deal about the series. Can you think of anything we’ve missed? We want to hear from you We want to know if any of you knows if how to get hold of the cast members, and whether any of them were Pagans or Pagan symps. We’re having an argument here about Nick’s spiritual beliefs. Tegwedd maintains he was a Catholic, but Stephen says he was an agnostic. What do you think?Whatever he might have been, he was a vampire first and foremost. And we’re vampire freaks.

Tegwedd didn’t get to see Blood Ties until she put it on the top of her Netflix queue. Netflix is also a good way to watch Forever Knight. For those who aren’t familiar with Blood Ties, it’s about a former police detective who is slowly going blind from retinitis pigmentosa starts an unusual private investigative agency to investigate unusual cases. She is befriended by a vampire, who is Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of Henry VIII. He has a very dry, droll, dark sense of humor. He’s both a rocker and an artist of graphic novels. There’s sexual tension between Vicki and Henry which never really manifests. Like many of our favorite shows, it had a short run. Some of the antagonists are really nasty. We wondered what the name of the assistant was. We thought it was Cassandra, but as it turns out, it was Coreen. As we watched this series, it held our interest throughout. Unfortunately it suffered from the curse so many series we liked suffer from: the Abbott’s Inn Kiss of Death curse. Like Moonlight, Kindred the Embraced, Roar, and the 2nd Dark Shadows, Blood Ties lasted barely 2 seasons. There are many other series that we killed by liking. Another unrelated series that got axed was Law & Order:LA.

This morning Tegwedd looked up Blood Ties and hit the mother lode. Not only did she get the name of the mysterious elusive assistant, but the names of the other three major characters as well, and the actors who played them. To begin with, we were both wrong about the dates of the series. We thought it was in the 90s. It was in 2007; March 11th to May 20th, and October 12th to December 7th. Vicki Nelson was played by Christina Cox, Coreen Fennel by Gina Holden, Henry Fitzroy Duke of Richmond was played by Kyle Schmid, and Det. Mike Celluci was capably played by Dylan Neal, a good Celtic name.

To sum up, we’ve decided to expand this group to include Blood Ties. They’re both Canadian, and took place in Toronto. There are many parallels between Forever Knight and a 3rd abortive series, Moonlight. There was a big parallels in the cars preferred by both vampires, big vintage convertibles. Music was important. Rock figured big in both series. Go to http://abbottsinninternational.com/ , http://abbottsinn.com/ , call 888-611-7982, and go to our network at http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ .

Dark Shadows for Pagans

Welcome to Dark Shadows for Pagans! We’re glad you could make it! This is a new group, so there are no clones to check out YET. But watch out, because a clone could come to your favorite network very soon. Stephen calls this “Dark Shadnoses for Pagans”. You know how he is about noses. In fact, for years, I thought “Lord Nose,” a regular columnist for “High Times” magazine, was Stephen gone incognito. After we do “Lycanthropes for Pagans,” and “Monsters of the Big and Little Screen for Pagans,” we’re going to lighten things up a bit with “Nose-tick Philosophy for Pagans.” This group is very close to Stephen’s undead heart. Stephen really grew up with this series since it started in the fall of 1967. When he was serving time in jail for participating in the Days of Rage SDS National Action, it was the only show everyone wanted to watch in the day room. Stephen got to watch the episodes he’d missed.

Tegwedd was in college when she started to watch “Dark Shadows.” At that time, it was a ½ hour black & white daily daytime serial or soap opera. She would watch it in the dorm with her dorm mates. Her sister, who was not in college, had a fierce crush on Jonathan Frid, who portrayed the vampire Barnabas Collins. She collected pictures of him from movie star magazines, and arranged them arranged the edge of her bed, so that she could sleep surrounded by him. Then she developed a crush on David Selby, who portrayed Quentin Collins, either a lycanthrope, or another vampire, Tegwedd forgets which. But always she returned to Jonathan Frid, who is now in his 90s. David Selby is still acting. The actor who played Willie Loomis is still acting.

Stephen especially loved the music which was wonderfully haunting. We both like that both series used the same music. We also liked both houses at Collinswood, and the way they used the sounds of the winds and the waves, the tide crashing on the rocks far below. The series was set to have a long run because it was a daytime soap, and something interesting to watch in the daytime. It was a live show with mistakes made in the lines, and mispronunciation. But things moved on in technology as the show progressed. Back then the only way you could record a show was on the very primitive kinescope. But videotape came in in the early 1970s. The show was still going strong in 1973, and only petered out in the mid-70s. The The funny part was the flubbing of the lines, and the worst was Jonathan Frid. Second worst was Jean Simmons, who played Mrs. Elizabeth Stoddard. It would be fun to compare the casts of the 2 series. The 2nd series came in in 1990, the same year as “Twin Peaks.” For the most part, both series followed the same plot line, with cousin Barnabas Collins claiming to have come from England, when in reality he had been awakened by Willie Loomis, the foolish and greedy nephew of the Collins cook. There is some evidence of modernism, considering the demise of the original series. Fans flocked to the new series like lemmings. There were Dark Shadows conventions where fans dressed in the costumes evocative of both series. And when they were going to cancel the 2nd series, there was a protest demonstration in San Francisco. Stephen was on the steering committee of this demonstration. Later at a Dark Shadows convention, he met Ben Cross, who portrayed the Barnabas Collins of the 2nd series, who was very gratified by the attempt made to save the series. The protest had failed. The network cancelled the series anyway, thus making the series succumb to the Kiss of Death curse. If we like a product, it is no longer produced and sold. Chocolate Altoids is an example. If it’s a movie, it leaves the theatres early. If it’s a TV series, it gets cancelled. Besides the physical demonstration, they flooded the network phone lines with calls. Stephen wouldn’t be surprised if they did a 3rd series, with a whole new cast, except for one or two stars from the old series. What Stephen doesn’t get is it was cancelled although it was a very popular series. Tegwedd’s theory is that they don’t care about what real people want. All they care about are their handpicked Nielsen families, who are carefully selected to be the lowest common denominator, be church going, bible thumping jesoids with no taste or intelligence. Tegwedd was considered once to be a Nielsen rator, but she was too educated and intelligent. They want the types who voted for Shrubya both times. They’re the ones who declared this glut of “reality” shows. If indeed they do a 3rd Dark Shadows series, should they start again from the beginning, or from where they left off? Tegwedd thinks they should start from where they left off in the 2nd series, when Victoria Winters returns from the late 18th century because she knows the fans are very familiar with the plot lines of both series. Stephen agrees, but we both know they’ll start again from the beginning yet again, because they assume their viewers are both stupid and ignorant.
What do you think, dear readers and fellow members of this group? Give us your opinions. Anyone can post here who is a member.

Angelique was trained in either Vodoun or Santeria in Montserrat in the Caribbean. Thus there’s a tie-in with our Pirates for Pagans groups. If you have the game “Sid Meyer’s Pirates:Live the Life,” you’ll see that Montserrat plays an active role in the game. The game is not only educational, but very educational. Angelique came from Montserrat just a little after it had been taken over by France again. It passed from colonial power to colonial power all through that period. All of the Caribbean was originally Spanish, after all that’s why it was called the Spanish Main, but the other 3 powers, Britain, France, and the Netherlands, carved out pieces of it for themselves. Angelique also came from Martinique. Stephen believes she came from Montserrat in the 1st series (the daytime serial) and from Martinique in the 2nd. Tegwedd believes that there was some class warfare going on on Angelique’s part, because Josette came from a wealthy aristocratic family (her mother was a Countess), while Angelique was a servant from the lower class. Angelique learned either Vodoun or Santeria. Stephen says Santeria because the islands were originally Spanish, but Tegwedd says Vodoun because the islands were French, and also because people are more familiar with “Voodoo” than they are with Santeria. If Santeria, then she studied rouge or rojo, red Santeria, the dark branch. If Vodoun, then petro, the dark form of Vodoun. She used poppetsand fire magick. After she died, her power increased, becoming very elemental, mostly fire and wind (air).

One group we have to have is Buffy & Angel for Pagans. To sum up, Dark Shadows for Pagans is about both series. The original series started in 1967 as a b&w ½ hour daytime serial (soap opera) that progressed to a full hour color show. The 2nd series was a full hour evening color series that was broadcast weekly. Jonathan Frid, who portrayed the original Barnabas Collins, is now in his 90s. David Selby, now in his 70s, is still acting. Ben Cross, who portrayed the elegant vampire in the 2nd series is still acting. Stephen met Mr. Cross at a convention after a demonstration to protest the cancellation of the 2nd series. There is a tie in with the Pirates for Pagans groups because Josette and Angelique came from Montserrat and Martinique. Go to http://abbottsinninternational.com/ , http://abbottsinn.com/ , http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ and call 1-888-611-7982 for a reading, class or research.