A few weeks back, Blast Magazine asked me to assemble a list of the top ten vampire movies ever made. You can see that list here.

I received much feedback on the list and was of course offered suggestions for movies that should have been included. One that kept popping up was “Near Dark”. Released in 1987, it seemed to be a good fit for a “retro review.” And while “Near Dark” is a decent enough movie, it’s definitely not a top ten all time vampire film.

Set in the Southwest, “Near Dark” tells the story of Caleb, an aimless cowboy youth, who is “turned” into a vampire by a traveling band of undead. Caleb can never fully commit himself to their bloodthirsty ways even though he is in love with one of the she-vampires. Our hero is fortunate enough to have an animal doctor for a father who performs a blood transfusion to suck out all of the bad stuff and turn Caleb back into a human. Needless to say, before the film concludes Caleb must confront and destroy the vampire clan—and save the woman he loves.

I can see why this is set in Texas and surrounding states, for it has the feel of a Western. Cowboys on horseback, spurs that jingle jangle jingle and slash throats, showdowns on main street, and a saloon or two where bad things happen. If only there was a piano player or a stagecoach in “Near Dark,” both vampire flick and western would have been equally paid for.

Concerning vampire movie codes and conventions, “Near Dark” does seem to deviate slightly. With the exception of daylight being deadly to the vampires, there is almost no other mention of how to stop them. There’s no discussion or use of crucifixes, garlic, wooden stakes, holy water or any kind of Christian iconography. Can a vampire be turned back to human via a blood transfusion? And these vampires aren’t royalty—no urbane Count Draculas here. The undead in “Near Dark” are a bunch of psychopaths who like to populate honky-tonk joints, Winnebagos, and flea bag motels.

Indeed, these are the most gripping and memorable scenes in the movie. About halfway through the film, the brood invades a dive bar and systemically murders all the humans within. It’s a gruesome and horrible scene but done very well. And only a few scenes later, the vamp gang is holed up in a motel room during daylight. Police surround the bungalow and spray the shack with bullets. Daylight begins to stream through the bullet holes and scorch the vampires when it contacts their skin. And though it’s only a moment, there’s a quick scene that was the epitome of what this film excels at: Caleb’s father tries to rescue him from the vampires and shoots the lead vamp in the stomach. The vampire coughs and then spits up the bullet: pure camp genius.

One of the other reasons I wanted to see this film was because of its director, Kathryn Bigelow, who won the Academy Award for best director for The Hurt Locker in 2010. “Near Dark” was one of her first features, made more than twenty years prior, but it’s strictly B-movie material. It’s campy and un-serious with an ending that doesn’t quite add up or satisfy, and the cast is almost unheard of with the exception of Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton (who gives the stand out performance).

When compiling my top ten all-time vampire movie list, I tried to include not only good movies, but also ones that may have influenced the genre or had some significance where film history or pop culture are concerned. While I enjoyed “Near Dark,” I wasn’t convinced that this movie, at least in terms of my criteria, should be in the top ten. But it certainly made for a great “retro review.” 1987 was clearly a good year for blood suckers!

Part one of Breaking Dawn is opening in theaters this Friday, and it highlights the series of events that lead to Bella’s inevitable transformation into a vampire. But, according to Kristen Stewart, the change is not all that glamorous.

Stewart, who has played the protagonist, Bella, in all of the film adaptations, complained about the amber-colored contacts the actors playing vampires are required to wear. She said “That is one thing I can’t wait to say goodbye to. They just kill you.”

The actress expressed her satisfaction with her character finally becoming a vampire, saying “The whole vampire thing – I wasn’t excited to be white and all that. I was really more excited to finally get her there because she wants it so bad.”

Brace yourselves paranormal book and movie lovers. A new film production is in the works that will have you talking for months.

Shayne Leighton’s old world fantasy novel “Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire’s Daughter” was released in e-book format by Decadent Publishing June 26. The book, which is the first of five, has already gained over 2,500 Facebook fans and the addiction of at least one Blast writer.

“Twilight” actor Michael Welch, “Make It or Break It” and “Bring It On: In It to Win It” actress Cassie Scerbo, Andrew Orozco, J LaRose, Camden Toy, “The Incubus” actor Frantisek Mach, Leighton and Candace Charee are teaming up to tell the story of Charlotte Ruzikova, a human who was abandoned as an infant in Prague, and Valek Ruzik, the vampire who took her in.

With war threatening their secret society and a dictator in power who is ready to wipe out the vampire race, the pair must struggle to discover what they mean to each other before everything they care about is lost forever.

“There are so many different elements of the fantasy world that we’ve recently seen in Hollywood that I love,” singer, former “Twilight” convention star and producer of the film Charee said. “But the ‘Of Light and Darkness’ story is different from anything I’ve seen.”

The series is not another “Twilight” look alike, Charee noted. “It’s a more adult story line; it’s more real.”

Unlike many of the fantasy films, TV shows and books that have bombarded the entertainment industry recently, “Of Light and Darkness” is not set in high school.

“It’s a true fantasy film,” Charee said excitedly. “There are vampires, elves, shape shifters and some really interesting creatures that Shayne actually just kind of made up. They all live in this magical occult that’s kind of separate from the rest of the world.”

The story transports audiences to a timeless mystical world of suspenseful heroics, power struggles, loyalty and heartrending love. It is set in modern-day Prague; however, the location and tone lend themselves to an “old school time frame.”

The movie will be true to the book’s ambiance. “We’re going for that same kind of old-time, mystical feel. We want it to be a fantasy but also very real in the sense that the audience will really connect with the characters and they won’t be like, ‘That could never happen.’” Adding to the film’s authenticity, Charee said they plan to film in Prague or Germany.

The main character Charlotte will be played by Leighton. “She wrote the role for herself and she’s a phenomenal actress,” Charee said.

Valek will be played by Mach, and Scerbo will play a witch named Sarah.

Welch will be Aiden, the antagonist of the film. “He’s a very dangerous, very dark character,” Charee explained. “It’s a great role for Michael to play.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the “Twilight” star looks great posing for the role.

While the blockbuster names included in the cast is reason enough for some fans to see the film, there are still those who remain hesitant, worrying that the movie will “ruin” the book. However, Charee assured Blast that the film is going to remain faithful to the original story.

“You always need to change things. You have to add, and you have to dramatize information on screen and punch up the dialogue,” Charee said “However, the fans who read the book will be pleasantly surprised and will see visually on screen what they imagined.”

The film is still in the stages of late development. The script is being polished and Charee will soon be heading to Los Angeles to meet with production companies, actors and directors.

Charee hopes to start preproduction by January. “But when we start filming is based on when everything is put together.”

Charee and Leighton formed Frame 7 Productions for the project. “The idea for Frame 7 is to focus on book to movie translation types of productions,” Charee said. “There are so many great stories and ideas out there, and we want to take really great novels and make them into successful films.”

Part of making a film a success is getting people to talk about it. The cast and crew of “Of Light and Darkness” have been working hard to build a fan base from the ground up using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

“There are not many new projects with as many avid fans as we have,” Charee said. “They love the actors and the book and the excitement of what we’re doing.”

Part of the amazing marketing strategy for Of Light and Darkness includes a poster design, featuring a shirtless Welch, that has already been released.

“Most movies don’t have posters in the predevelopment,” Charee laughed. “But that’s what we’re doing, we’re creating that excitement and fan base now. And of course it doesn’t hurt if you have a hot guy to use.”

Up-and-coming director Jim Mickle is a jack of all trades. For the past decade, Mickle has been dipping his toes in the waters of just about every single different department in feature film or television production. He boasts credits in writing, editing, lighting, art department, visual effects, sound department, camera department, and most recently, directing. His latest work, an indie horror flick titled “Stake Land”, is his sophomore directorial effort that hits theaters June 17.

“Stake Land” is the story of an unlikely duo trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world of savage vampires. Martin, played by “Gossip Girl’s” Connor Paolo, is the sole survivor of a vampire attack that left the rest of his family dead. Not long after the attack, Martin is taken in by a loner badass who goes by the name Mister (played by Nick Damici). Mister takes Martin under his wing and teaches him how to fight the vampires and survive in the cruel world they live in. Together the mentor and apprentice travel north to Canada, where they hope to find the safe-haven town of New Eden. Along the way they meet and join forces with fellow survivors Sister (played by Kelly McGillis of “Top Gun” fame), Belle (“Halloween’s” Danielle Harris), and Willie (Sean Nelson). Together the group battles both vampires and their human allies, a radical religious society called The Brotherhood. As the team gets closer to New Eden, it becomes uncertain whether any of them will actually survive the journey.

Blast Magazine caught up with Mickle when he visited Boston recently to promote the release of “Stake Land.” We got the chance to talk to him about how “Stake Land”got started, what makes this film different than other horror movies, working on an indie budget, future plans, and much more.

BLAST: How did the idea for “Stake Land”come about and what was the process of getting the project started?

Larry Fessenden (L) and Jim Mickle (R) at the premiere of Stake Land

JIM MICKLE: Well we’d done “Mulberry Street” and we were trying to get another movie off the ground and it was a difficult thing to get moving . I think we were trying to make a jump from like, a $60,000 movie to a $3 million dollar movie and I think a lot of people weren’t psyched about that. And we had a lot of starts and stops. So out of frustration we came up with this idea to do a web series and that we could still have control over, do it piece-meal, do it on weekends. If we couldn’t make a weekend, no big deal, we could still piece it together. So that was the original idea and that was how the whole project got started. Nick [Damici, who plays Mister] just started writing these little 10 minute short films or webisodes.

Then at some point, right about the time we were looking for financing, Larry Fessenden called and said “You know, we just did this movie called “House of the Devil”, it was [distributed by] Dark Sky Films, and they want to do another movie. Ti’s busy and I’m busy, so do you have anything?” And so we sent him that first ten page script and he dug it and said, “How do we make a feature out of this?” So that was how that all began – really by accident, because we spent a long time trying to get another thing made and were just banging our heads against the wall. And this thing came along, really without even trying.

BLAST: That’s pretty cool.

JM: I know, it never happens that way!

BLAST: So how much of the web series made it into “Stake Land”?

JM: I’d say maybe about a third of it, because the web series was a completely different world. It was Mister and Martin, but it was set in modern day, and they would get a call – basically the FBI would hire them to go to different towns. So like, it’s a Chinese vamp, so they’d go to Chinatown and there’d be a certain kind of Chinese vamp there. Or you know, they’d have to go to Ohio. So there were all these different kinds of vampires in different towns and that was the “road movie” aspect of it. And in trying to fold it altogether it just felt like a collection of short films.

So, it was right around the time of the elections that Nick decided to take it away for a weekend, and he came back and it was completely reinvented in a way, with the post-apocalyptic angle and the introduction of the Brotherhood and all these new characters. Then we went back to the webisodes and said “you know, I love this webisode and how they go in that house and there’s that little girl in the attic – where can we fit this in?” My favorite was one where they stopped in a town and Martin fell in love with this girl but they had to continue on their way.

So it was fun because we were able to sort of fit in these puzzle pieces.

BLAST: So you said that the script came about during the time of the elections. Is that what contributed to the political themes in “Stake Land”?

JM: Yeah, you know at the time I think this was September of ’08 so it was right in the heat of it. And I think it was just the fact that you couldn’t get away from it really. And “Mulberry Street” has a lot of local politics in it, in a way – it’s a lot about how the landscape of New York City is changing and new buildings are coming up and yuppies are moving in and old New Yorkers are getting kicked out. So I think that was practice for this I guess. And in this we wanted to not really pick a side so much as to say that all this is gonna lead to the country devouring itself from the inside, no matter which way the country goes. And if we continue so divided that maybe this country is too big and has too many ideas going on in it to really sustain itself. So I think that was all we really wanted to address there. And religion was a whole separate element.

BLAST: Yeah, can you talk about that, about The Brotherhood?

JM: That took the most shaping of anything, I think. There was a lot of different stuff that we wanted to address but at some point we made the decision that we had to focus here. For me it was religion because I think that organized religion is kind of a scary idea you know?

BLAST: It can be, yeah.

JM: But also I think we wanted Kelly’s character [Sister] to be the other side of the coin – she shows how there are all these great things that can come with religion and faith. But on the other side, these things can get taken to the extremes and things can get interpreted too literally, and you can also get these guys [The Brotherhood] who have way too much power for their own good. So I think we wanted to address it yet not be too specific – not be like, it’s just Christians, because it’s not that. It’s just a cautionary tale.

Nick Damici and Kelly McGillis in Stake Land

BLAST: I’d love to talk about the music – I think it really helps set the tone of the film. I found out that Jeff Grace was your composer, and I looked into his background.

JM: Yeah, he’s awesome.

BLAST: He worked on the music for all three of the “Lord of the Rings”movies as well as on “Gangs of New York”.

JM: He was Howard Shore’s assistant for a long time, and Howard Shore is awesome.

BLAST: Can you talk about working with Jeff and what you discussed in terms of what you wanted for the music of “Stake Land”?

JM: I didn’t want it to sound like a horror movie. I think that too many people go to make horror movies and they just look at other horror movies for inspiration and reference, so you just wind up with these things that are quadruple cannibalizations of horror movies. I think that’s just the wrong way to go about it.

In this we wanted it to feel like a Dustbowl movie and a Depression-era movie, and we wanted it to sound like none of the music could have been written in the last fifty years. We wanted it to have an Americana feel. And we wanted it to have moments where it was like, a tough guy movie, like a “Dirty Dozen” sort of thing, and also have moments where it was Big Horror. So it was really complicated. I came to Jeff and was like, “Look, here’s all these elements that I want and none of these things really jive together, and it’s going to be your job to find a way to make these all glue together in a way.” And he’s a musical genius so he was able to do that.

We tried to build really classical themes, so each character very much has a theme that identifies them, which is something that I think is lost in film nowadays a little bit. And we decided we wanted to take an old-fashioned approached to it and keep it strings, keep it piano. And if we had to go big, we’d have to find a way to get other sounds out of those that you don’t usually hear. So it really was just Jeff being a genius with all that, and also getting emotionally involved in it. I think too many times people don’t get emotionally involved in horror movies and I think in this one, there was enough depth to really do that and build arcs in the characters musically and story-wise.

Actress Danielle Harris

BLAST: I know that Danielle Harris, who plays Belle, has a long history of being in horror movies, including four of the “Halloween” movies. Did you see her in a horror film and decide you wanted her for “Stake Land”? What about the other actors, how did you find them?

JM: With Danielle yes, because I had grown up actually not even knowing her from horror movies, strangely enough. I grew up watching her in TV shows and seeing her sort of grow up on screen, because she’s like a year older than I am. So I always loved seeing her when I was younger, and every time she’d pop up in a movie I’d always be like “Oh awesome, her!” but I never even knew her name or anything. And then weirdly enough we were on a Fangoria horror radio show together, and I was like “Oh my god, that’s that girl!” And then I realized that we were casting [the role of Belle] and she’s completely different than what we were thinking, but she’s awesome. And I kind of like the idea of casting against what’s expected.

BLAST: That’s really cool that it just worked out that way.

JM: Yeah it is, and she’s great, she’s awesome. I mean I think that this shows that she can do other things, because I think too often she gets lumped into “running through the woods screaming” types of roles. So I hope this helps her avoid [those types or roles].

With Sean Nelson [who plays Willie], he was in a movie called “Fresh” in the 90’s, which was an awesome movie. He had to be like 13 or 14 years old at the time and he gives this amazing child performance that I’ve always sort of championed to people. So at some point his name came up on a casting list and I was like, “Dude I gotta meet Sean Nelson.” So that’s how that happened.

Connor [Paolo, who plays Martin] was through a reading, he came in and we met and I had a little bit of a stereotype against like, “”Gossip Girl” kid,” you know?

BLAST: [laughs] Right, so going into it you were probably a little hesitant.

JM: Yeah, as soon as I saw his name I was hesitant, but the casting director kept pushing for him. I kept saying, “I don’t know man, I don’t know…” But fortunately the casting director sort of wore me down and was like, “This “is” the guy, he’s awesome.” So we brought him in for a reading and it was obvious that yeah, he is the guy for the role. And he is awesome – the movie is so much him, not just the performance but his understanding of how a film gets put together. And then I realized afterwards too the importance of having to anchor an entire movie on the lead, that’s a lot of weight to carry.

Connor Paolo as Eric Van Der Woodsen on Gossip Girl

BLAST: I’d like to talk about the oversaturation of vampires in film and television at this point in time, and how that may have affected “Stake Land”. Did you think about that as you started working on this project?

JM: No, not really. Because with “Mulberry Street”we wanted to make a zombie movie and at the time there were no zombie movies, or rather it wasn’t a hot thing. So we started working on it and by the time film”"came out there were like a thousand zombie movies and everyone would say, “Oh great, here comes another zombie movie.” And it’s like no, when we came up with this idea. The purpose [of "Mulberry Street"] was to save zombies and put them back in the mainstream. So “Stake Land”is kind of the exact same thing but with vampires.

BLAST: And that’s not frustrating at all?

JM: It is frustrating, but at the same time it probably helped the film get made, I have to be cognoscente of that.

BLAST: That’s true, that’s a good point.

JM: At the time we were part of a three movie deal – there were three movies being made and we got the biggest of the three budgets. I’m sure that was due to them really liking the script, but also they probably looked at it and said “The first “Twilight” movie is coming out, vampires might be hot, let’s pay a little more attention to this one.” So yes, on the one hand it’s incredibly frustrating because I think a lot of people will write it off without even seeing it.

BLAST: Of course.

JM: But on the other hand I think a lot of people will give it a lot of credit because they’re tired of what’s out there. And it probably helped us get financed, even though we didn’t do that on purpose. So, at the end of the day I think you have to make a movie for yourself, and know that, “Alright I might be the only guy in the world that likes this.” And I think I’ve been lucky that twice now I’ve done that and it just so happens that other people really like it too. So I can go back and say “Good, I didn’t specifically make this for anybody.” And I think that’s partly why they worked, because they feel different and they aren’t trying to be sold to the masses.

BLAST: Horror is typically an expensive genre to shoot due to the costs of makeup, special effects and elaborate props, so was it difficult for you to make a successful horror movie with a small indie budget?

JM: It was, but I think that if I hadn’t done “Mulberry Street”first I would have said “Oh this is impossible.” But that really “was”impossible, so “Stake Land”was almost like a luxury. It’s so funny how in context everything gets changed. Coming off of “Mulberry Street” – we shot that movie in just 18 days, there’s about 15 or 16 huge set pieces in the film, we had no stunt guys, we had a six person crew, we used DV cameras, we had Home Depot clip lights, and we shot in a one-bedroom apartment, so everything was just totally minimal.

So by the time we came to “Stake Land”, we shot it in 26 days, which is still impressive for a movie of this size. But in some ways it actually felt like a luxury and it also felt like a good step up. We had a stunt guy for a couple days, so it was a change to go “Oh, this is what happens when you have money, you don’t have to expect that guy to jump and do a back flip!”

BLAST: [laughs]

JM: “You can bring in this other guy who can dress like him and he can actually make it really convincing!” That kind of stuff. And effects guys – the first time around we had one guy doing “Mulberry Street,” this time we had two really good guys who also had three or four people who were helping them out.

So yes, it was really tough and incredibly frustrating but fortunately I was coming off of something that was even tougher, so I was able to enjoy it.

BLAST: There were a lot of really cool locations that just worked perfectly for the post-apocalyptic setting, so where did you shoot? Did you bounce around or just film in one location?

JM: We did two big chunks. We shot for two or three weeks in Pennsylvania – I grew up outside of Reading, Pennsylvania so we shot there. Then we took a three month hiatus to let the seasons change and let the characters sort of grow up and age. And then we went to upstate New York to the Catskills and shot there for another two or three weeks.

Dario Argento's "Suspiria" is one of Mickle's horror film influences

BLAST: Were you a huge fan of horror growing up as a kid? What are some of your influences that you’ve drawn from when making your past two films?

JM: Growing up, horror movies really terrified me and I went through a phase of hating them. But when I got to be about nine or ten years old I started thinking “Oh, why is this scaring me?” and I started really watching them and became addicted to them. So I really fell in love with movies through horror movies.

A lot of the Sam Raimi ones were the first ones that really made me think “Oh there’s something interesting going on here, it’s not just stupidity for stupidity’s sake,” you know? And then also that was around the same time that “El Mariachi”was coming out and Robert Rodriguez was in this “Do It Yourself” mode – that was a big inspiration. Early John Carpenter stuff really affected me. I think he does elevated genre – or did, he hasn’t done it in awhile unfortunately – but he also combines genres really well and that was my introduction to a lot of different kinds of movies. Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” and all the kind of classic stuff from the 70s was sort of reviving right when I was getting into it.

BLAST: So you’ve done two feature films now, both of which were horror films. You also did a short film called “The Underdogs”which was horror as well. So are you aspiring to be the next George Romero or are you interested in making movies outside of the horror genre?

JM: No, hopefully now we’ll be able to get the movie made that we were trying to get made after “Mulberry Street.”

BLAST: Can you tell me a little about that?

JM: Sure. It’s a book adaptation called “Cold in July” and it’s adapted from the book by Joe Lansdale. And it isn’t horror – it’s actually country-noir, set in the late-80s in east Texas. So it’s much more confined. Both of these movies ["Mulberry Street"and "Stake Land"] are like ensemble movies – they’re big and apocalyptic. I just want to make a movie about a couple characters going through some intense situations [laughs]. So I think this will still be exciting and it’s got a lot of suspense in it, but there aren’t any monsters and I’m happy to be stepping back from that for a little bit.

At the end of the day it’s about the story, really. That’s all I cared about, and these two are really just coincidences, that they’re both horror. And I think also, after “Mulberry Street”, we felt like we could have done a little bit more but we just didn’t have the budget. Not that this was the chance to say “Now we have money, we can do that,” but it was a little bit like, “Alright, we know what we did wrong the first time, we know we can get it right this time.”

BLAST: So are you writing the script for the adaptation of “Cold in July”?

JM: Nick and I co-wrote it.

BLAST: So you’re working with Nick again.

JM: Yeah, and he’ll be [acting] in this one too. Probably not the lead, but he’ll be in it. There are three or four pretty awesome parts in it, and he’ll have a really bad-ass part.

BLAST: For your previous films you’ve been the director and the creator, so the scripts have all been based on your own ideas. How has it been, and how do you think it will be, working on this new project in which you are adapting someone else’s story and ideas?

JM: It’s been really interesting. I mean it’s been a long time, and I think it probably needed a long time because I think there’s no right way to adapt and I think you sort of learn along the way. Originally we tried to be very faithful to the book and do it literally page by page, and we wound up thinking, “It doesn’t have the same effect as it does in the book, and why is that?” So it was an interesting case of analyzing why something works, and then trying to figure out a way to make it work. And at some point you come to an epiphany that sometimes you have to change some things to make it feel the way it’s felt in the book. So it was a really interesting case.

It’s funny because we’ve sent all these drafts to [Lansdale] and we just sent one that we made some big changes in, but also I think it’s the most successful by far and the most faithful in a way. I just emailed it to him yesterday and now I just have my fingers crossed that he’s not gonna read it and freak out. He understands very much that things have to change though. But it’s tough, because you take his words and you’re trying to write in his style and come up with plot points in his style, and the whole time you’re saying “but this is all to make it feel much more like you made me feel when I read your book!” So it will be really interesting to see how it works.

BLAST: If somebody were to go to your IMDB page, they’d see that you have credits in almost every different type of field when it comes to working on films – directing, writing, editing, art department, lighting department, etc. Does that influence how you work as a director?

JM: Yeah, I think it makes me more efficient. Not that I’ve spent enough time in any one field to say that I’m a master of it, but it does really help to know what you can and can’t do, and knowing how to stay within your boundaries. Also knowing what the pace of a shoot day is like. I can’t even imagine going in and having never been on a set before and all of a sudden directing a movie. It must be the most bewildering thing ever, seeing all the people on set and being like “Who are all of these people?” So I think it’s a good way to be able to pop in and say, “Look I know that this sounds crazy when I say it but I know you could do this one thing…”

BLAST: You can relate to them better.

JM: Yeah, exactly. And I think they also respect it. You know I think a lot of times directors will say “I want it to look like this!” and then walk away and everybody is left scratching their heads. I think I’m more able to say “I want it to look like this, but I think this is how we could do it and if you have a better idea let’s do that.” So it’s an easier way to come at things I guess.

BLAST: Makes sense.

JM: And editing, definitely – I think anyone going into film, to come from that background is pretty helpful. I kind of shoot to edit, so I sort of know what I’ve got and know how to make the story work. I think I’m able to walk away [from editing] when people might stay a little bit longer but then also maybe I’ll stay a little longer thinking, “Well I know this one little thing that I might be able to get.” So it’s all part of the voice.

BLAST: Well, unfortunately we’re out of time. Thanks for taking the time to talk to Blast!

JM: Thank you!

There are shows with pretty high stakes. Vampire Diaries is one of those shows. Last night’s episode, “The Last Day” took those high stakes and raised them a thousand times higher. For starters, the episode started right out with Damon getting right down to the gritty stuff: aka being selfishly Damon (in a way that we all love) and force-feeding Elena vampire blood so that even if this “elixir” doesn’t work, she still won’t die because she will be a vamp. Clever Damon. So basically, we have taken the already dangerous storyline in which Elena could potentially die and turned it to an even crazier storyline were Elena could potentially be vamped.

But it doesn’t stop there. The show finally answered everyone’s repeated question: where is Michael Trevino (sort-of) and brought back Tyler from wherever it is that angry werewolves go to figure out their lives with crazy she-wolves. Klaus needed a werewolf to finish up his ritual so he called Tyler back to mystic falls by way of throwing his mother down a flight of stairs which all seemed like a crazy far-fetched series of events but it brought Tyler back so hey, no complaints here.

Where there is Tyler there is of course, Caroline, and where there is Caroline there is Matt. (and as of lately, Sheriff Forbes) After last week’s episode kind of dropped the Matt/Caroline storyline off the face of the earth, probably somewhere with the Tyler/Caroline storyline, it was exciting to have both of these plot pieces come back in one episode. Tyler and Caroline had moment, filled with the wonderful Caroline and Tyler unmistakable chemistry they had pre vamp-knapping, and immediately their “hey I sorta like you,” relationship went right back to being awesome, leaving poor Matt somewhere in the background trying to wrap is adorable head around the fact that every person around him is some kind of hell creature and exactly where he fits into the whole thing. –Which as of right now seems to be somewhere between Caroline and Sheriff Forbes.

In some episodes, Elena and Stefan can get a little heavy with the brooding and self righteous chatter about who is to blame for all the bad stuff that happens around them, but in this one they definitely tugged on a few heartstrings. Seeing Elena deal with a situation that essentially required her to be a little bit selfish was not what we are used to and was definitely a new spin on things. The result was still her usual self-sacrificing behavior however her final scene with Stefan was, if only this once, heart wrenching and not gut wrenching.

Damon seemed uncharacteristically emotion driven and desperate in this episode which gave Ian Somerhalder a chance to show off his acting chops while Damon ran frantically around Mystic Falls enlisting the help of anyone he could find (Matt with a wooden bullet gun?) to stop the ritual from happening and save Elena. Leave it to Damon to always think backwards. Put Elena in more trouble, then, fix the whole thing anyways. Maybe Damon is just a sucker for unusually high stakes like the rest of us.

Anyways, Damon rescued Tyler and Caroline and had a cute little moment where he tried to rescue only Caroline and not Tyler. Silly Damon, they sort-of pretend not to like each other. Don’t you know that? Watching Tyler, Damon, Caroline, and Matt all run through the woods in a rag-tag band of brothers, cast away from the bigger drama was kind of adorable and fun. Also Damon taking the wolf-bite for Caroline was a bit of an interesting plot-line, that could get looked over in the midst of everything going on in this episode, but is definitely not something to be ignored.

Speaking of taking bites, Elena found Jenna lying in a firey field in total transition mode. This means Jenna is going from clueless and in the dark little Jenna, to vampy Jenna all in a matter of two or so TV days. This show has managed to to characterize every possible type of she-vamp: crazy self-centered Katherine, just-wanna-have-fun Lexi, tragically tragic Vicki, sad and confused but still fighting, Caroline, and seriously misunderstood Isobel. Provided Jenna makes it out of this whole ritual debacle alive (along with everyone else) it will be interesting to see what kind of vamp she would become… or better yet what kind of vamp Elena would become. If they both turned that would leave the vampire count in mystic falls seriously high, so all that can mean is we can most definitely expect to see some fatalities in the coming episode.

Alawar Entertainment has released a new vampire game for the iOS platform called Vampire Saga: Pandora Box. The new game built for all iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, focuses on engaging the player in a virtual world of fear and horror, where the player must advance though the storyboard in a Victorian style location and search for the over 300 hidden objects along the way.

Vampire Saga: Pandora Box embraces the tradition of the finest Hammer horror movies and classic novels by H.P. Lovecraft. The main character plays the role of Matthew Ward, who steals aboard a cargo ship to elude from the Spanish-American War and later awakens to the site of menacing coffins and a vacant crew. Mathew feels he is being watched, has strange visions and has no clue where they crew had vanished to.

To help him figure this out, Mathew needs your help and you must venture through several scary Victorian style locations, find over 300 hidden objects and be ready for the creepy surprises that this game has in store.

We decided to take the plunge into the world of unknown and give Vampire Saga: Pandora Box a shot in our tests. Upon launch, I couldn’t help but notice that the graphics were very good. The maps seemed to have decent definition, clarity and resolution.

While I felt the graphics were good, I found game play to be more on the difficult side and it took me a while to figure out how to move and get to where I needed to accomplish the various scenes in order to advance though the game. I found the storyboard and in-game sounds to be well thought out and implemented, but again navigation was a problem for me and I wish there was some kind of on screen navigation pad, rather than having to tap on sparkly spots on the screen to advance forward.

The game starts out at Grandpa’s house and your forced to get inside, in which the door is locked and you must break thought he window and find items to advance further within the game. I’ll stop here, as I don’t want to give too many details away and ruin all the fun.

Check it out for yourself–the game is reasonably priced at $2.99 in the iTunes App store and an iPad version is available for $6.99. If you’re not up for the paid version yet, or just want to try the game, there is a free light version in the iTunes store as well.

The full trailer is here.

In “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

“Eclipse” hits theaters this summer.

Who wants to come see the David and Scott Hillenbrand flick “Transylmania” on Wednesday — before it comes out — for free?

The first 10 people to comment on this story as registered Blast readers will not only get a ticket to the screening but will be GUARANTEED a seat for you and a friend. So if you drag your ass and get there late, you’ll still have a seat, no matter what!

The movie is a spoof horror in which a group of college kids do a semester abroad in Romania and realize that if the partying doesn’t kill them, the vampires just might! Oooo more vampires! It’s like “Twilight!”

Well no. No. No, it’s not.

Where: AMC Boston Common
When: This Wednesday, December 2 at 8 p.m.
Who: You and a friend
Why: Because Blast is awesome.

Get off your ass and go see a movie.

This week on the Vampire Diaries: witchcraft, relationship drama, and a vampire staking. For those that tuned in last week, remember that vampire Vicki is no more, and now the rest of the small town of Mystic Falls is coping with her disappearance. Meanwhile, an old female friend of Stefan’s comes calling for his birthday.

All the stress of this situation, and the horror of vampires existing in general, has left Elena feeling confused and sullen. What makes Elena so likeable as our heroine, is her conflicting and complex feelings on this whole new world. Unlike a certain other vampire saga heroine (Bella, okay, it’s Bella), Elena doesn’t immediately accept Stefan as the personification of a mythical creature. She doesn’t leap into his arms and confess, “Oh you’re a vampire? That’s totally fine because obviously we have romantic interest in one another and absolutely nothing is going to come between that.” Her hesitancy is refreshing and very human. It’s easy to identify with the isolation she feels by carrying the burden of Stefan’s secret and not being able to talk to anyone about it.

Two sub-plots that have been playing out in the last few episodes have done a great job in moving the story along. One involves the key townspeople (the sheriff, the mayor) being in on the vampire secret. They are aware of the existence of vampires in the town, but they don’t know that Damon and Stefan are the ones they are hunting for. They also have the knowledge of how to fight the undead. In another awesome plot twist (seriously, they get me every week) Damon manipulates the “informed” townspeople to his advantage.

The other storyline that I’m glad is finally getting more attention, deals with Elena’s best friend Bonnie. Bonnie is a descendant of Salem witches and discovered a few episodes ago that she does have the power to practice witchcraft. Judging by next week’s episode preview, this particular plot-line will finally be developed more.

“The Vampire Diaries” airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on the CW.

Stephenie Meyer did not invent vampires. Not every show, film or story involving vamps needs to be compared to "Twilight," but these comparisons inevitably happen due to its intensely massive popularity. The new CW show "The Vampire Diaries" is so much more than a love story between a human and the undead. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the "Twilight" series, but what this new show gives viewers is characters with depth and some realism.

The premise of the series involves a high school student Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) struggling to pull her life back together after the death of her parents. Enter the mysterious Stefan Salvatore- the new kid in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Elena and Stefan’s relationship develops very naturally during the course of the show; it doesn’t feel too sudden or intense. Elena has normal, teenage girl reservations about dating Stefan that have nothing to do with him being a vampire, a fact she is not privy to at first. Aside from you know, being 145-year-old vampire, Stefan comes with a lot of complexities. He works hard to maintain an animal blood only diet (yes, I know just like Edward), has issues with constantly lying to Elena, and is trying to keep his meddlesome and evil brother at bay.

Evil older brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is the most fascinating character of the show. He harbors resentment towards Stefan for denying his natural thirst of human blood, and the brothers are still at odds over a mysterious secret from their past involving another woman. Damon is always quick with a sneer and scathing comeback, and makes no apologies for tearing the throats out of various townspeople. He finds his younger brother’s attempts to keep him from feeding humorous. Stefan has his hands full just trying to deal with Damon and his impetuous acts of rage and terror.

The writers of the show have given their monsters traits from several schools of vampire thought. No coffins, crucifixes or garlic, but a wooden stake can end them as well as the sunlight. Super speed, sensitive hearing and even mind control powers are granted but unless you invite them into the house, they are powerless at the doorstep. Strength of powers depends heavily on the amount of feeding with human blood, which is what makes Damon much more powerful than Stefan and ultimately why Stefan cannot simply take his brother down. And no, neither of them sparkles in the sunlight.

This week’s episode brought another Damon-initiated problem into Stefan’s world. In a great plot twist, an impulsive Damon turns the troubled Vicki into a vampire. Vicki is the love interest of Elena’s brother Jeremy and probably the absolute worst person possible to become a bloodsucker. Before Damon’s interference, Vicki was happily living the life of a hard-partying druggie. Add some serious blood-lust to her already addictive tendencies, and the mortals of the town should probably only go out in daylight. Stefan tries in vain to teach Vicki how to control her thirst, but of course Damon is standing by to complicate matters. Coupled with the girl’s rebellious streak, it makes a difficult task for Stefan to control her and keep Elena and Jeremy safe. There’s an explosive action scene near the end that I won’t ruin, but once again the writers pulled off another fantastic plot twist.

"The Vampire Diaries" airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on the CW.

Here’s a whole bunch of photos from the next episode of The Vampire Diaries, airing on Thursday on The CW.

When Elena (Nina Dobrev) attempts to prove Bonnie (Katerina Graham) wrong about Stefan, her best laid plains take an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Mr.Tanner (guest star Benjamin Ayres) reluctantly lets Stefan join the football team after he impresses everyone with his skills. Finally, the town is shocked by an act of violence. Steven R. McQueen, Sara Canning, Zach Roerig and Kayla Ewell also star. John Dahl directed the episode written by Barbie Kligman & Bryan M. Holdman

Be forewarned: If you plan on visiting Mystic Falls, avoid deserted locations at night, particularly around wooded environments. Failing to do may send you to a grim fate, much like the victims from “Night of the Comet,” the latest episode of “The Vampire Diaries.” Yet despite the romantic factor, the follow-up to the pilot continues its momentum in exciting viewers with its bloody thrills and vampiric rampages.

An episode like “Night of the Comet” is somewhat of a surprise when the vampire storyline almost takes a backseat to the more crafted human relationships. Sure it starts off as deja-vu, when yet another random couple is murdered one night, but while this acts as a nice plot device for Damon’s character, (Ian Somerhalder) it serves as reminder for us the danger at hand.

The first half of the episode ties up some loose ends by going through the aftermath of Vicki Donovan’s attack. We witness both her brother Matt, and Elena’s brother, Jeremy, check in on her. However, it’s Jeremy who steals the scene every time he’s with her. It’s a definite credit to the show in casting Steven R. McQueen who, despite a noticeable growth spurt since the pilot, provides enough wit and vulnerability necessary for us to connect with his character.

In the original book, Elena’s sibling is a younger sister. There have been doubts as to whether the changes would diminish the quality. Fans should rest assured because the deviations from the original all work in adding into the spirit of books; the eternal strength of love, and the act of finding redemption.

The director for “Night of the Comet,” Marcos Siega, doesn’t waste time working up the tension between Elena and her brother, Jeremy. One pivotal scene happens at the coffee house when Elena confronts her brother once again about using drugs. The blocking of the scene is tight, and just when you think Jeremy will say what we want to hear, he just takes off. Another scene stealer is Elena and Jeremy’s aunt, Jenna (Jenna Somers), a somewhat free spirit who finds she must adapt quickly to new responsibilities of being a parent to her sister’s children. Her presence in the episode adds the much needed humor to balance the brooding angst. The rants she makes while scouring for drug paraphernalia in Jeremy’s room is an episode highlight. The combination of all these scenarios is part of how “The Vampire Diaries” will continue to thrive this season.

On the romance front, Stefan and Elena continue to make inroads, but to her credit she doesn’t take the typical route of the “damsel” by rushing to her “dark prince.” Instead she takes a step back and lets Stefan know she’s still dealing with the loss of her parents. Naturally, this doesn’t stop Stefan from making an effort, but it’s a relief to see Elena act level headed about her relationship.

Paul Wesley really owns the role of Stefan, and the chemistry he has with Nina Dobrev in this episode is enough to make even the snarkiest critic secretly root for them. Damon’s part in the episode, however, is a bit of a toss up. Somerhalder’s take on the more puckish, sarcastic side of his character is a bit inconsistent. At times he’s spot on, like during the rooftop scene where Damon taunts Stefan by taking hold of Vicki and accusing his brother of “eating bunnies” for strength. Other times he seems almost a little over the top when he is at the boarding house flirting with Elena. It’s all slightly too unrestrained, and he needs to pull back a little. This isn’t to suggest Somerhalder is without his own appeal, he certainly has the acting chops to take on the devious Damon. The issue really comes from his strong onscreen charisma. He doesn’t need to do much to make a point. All it takes is just one sideways grin, threatening tone, or intent glare to speak volumes.

The best scene where this works is during his confrontation with Stefan informing him that the only time they’re closest to humanity is when they’re ripping someone’s throat out. Another other highlight takes place at the counter at what appears to be the coffee shop. In this scene Damon is alone, and Vicki seems to recognize him. She insists she knows him, and he responds without any pretense that it is “unfortunate” for her. It begs the question as to whether Damon perhaps feels as burdened with his existence as Stefan. Again, it’s the little details Somerhalder injects into his role as Damon which stand out.

If the pilot set the premise, then “Night of the Comet” gives us tone for the series by showing there is more to love than just the pretty undead. “The Vampire Diaries” has a lot of characters that are not just likable but at times easily relatable. All in all, “Night of the Comet” is a pleasant surprise with a couple of small growing pains. However, if the trailer for the upcoming episode, “Friday Night Bites” promises anything, it will certainly pick up on the action.

“The Vampire Diaries” is on Thursday Night at 8 p.m. on The CW

This summer Blast brought you coverage of “The Vampire Diaries“ straight from Comic-Con International in San Diego. The supernatural love story between a vampire and a human girl was showcased at the convention not just once but twice with a viewing during the popular Preview Night, and later in its regularly scheduled panel.

No, we’re not talking about “Twilight” … this time.

Since then the buzz over the new “Vampire Diaries” series has exploded into a bit of a phenomenon, drawing comparisons to the mega-popular “Twilight” craze. Despite the similarities, “The Vampire Diaries” is not just a brooding love story as much as it is also a thriller at times — an element which adds to its appeal.

After months of anticipation fueled by countless online promotions and on billboards strewn everywhere, the series made its debut last week with incredible results. “The Vampire Diaries” surprised nearly everyone when its ratings resulted in a staggering 4.8+ million viewers on Thursday night, making it the highest rated series premiere ever for TheCW. With the talents of a production team consisting of Leslie Morgenstein (“Gossip Girl”), Bob Levy (“Gossip Girl”), Kevin Williamson (“Scream” “Dawson’s Creek”) and Julie Plec (“Kyle XY”) the series proved itself golden on its first night.

And so it seems vampires and love stories won’t be unpopular any time soon. But to the show’s merit, it holds promise on going beyond a simple trend. This is clear when we see how the show treats the family relationships between the human characters. As long as “The Vampire Diaries” continues to focus on the relationships of its characters in a way viewers can relate, it will undoubtedly prove its staying power.

Tonight continues with another new episode, “Night of the Comet”, which deals with the aftermath of Damon Salvatore’s arrival — nicely portrayed by Ian Somerhalder — and the havoc he may cause in Mystic Falls.

Catch “The Vampire Diaries” every Thursday at 8 p.m. on The CW.

I think we can all agree that this season of HBO’s True Blood is leaps and bounds ahead of the last one. If season one was a top shelf bottle of True Blood A Positive, then season two has been the blood connoisseur’s version of a perfectly aged Merlot.

Sunday night’s season finale (ominously titled after Bob Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”) left viewers with a cliffhanger”¦ as usual. Sure the good guys won and defeated Maryann the clawed, immortal maenad. Yes, the town is back to normal, free from supernatural mind control, and blissfully ignorant of the madness that recently ensued. But what about Bill?! The season finale set up plenty of problems that need solving and questions that need answers for season three.

In the final scene, Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Sookie (Anna Paquin) go on a romantic date to a French restaurant. Right after dinner, Bill proposes. But overcome with emotion, she rushes to the bathroom to compose herself. Just when she’s sure of her answer, she returns to the empty dining room. Bill is nowhere to be seen, and there are signs of a struggle. So the main question is: Who took Bill Compton and why? And how is Sookie going to get him back?

Meanwhile, back at Merlotte’s Bar, Eggs (Mehcad Brooks) struggles with the revelation that he is responsible (because of Maryann’s mind control) for all the murders that took place in Bon Temps. He confronts Detective Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) with the murder weapon to confess, and begs Andy to lock him up. Unfortunately for Eggs, he never makes it to the jail. Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) sees what looks like Eggs threatening Andy with the knife, and shoots him in the head. Just when we thought Tara (Rutina Wesley) had a chance at happiness in love, we’re left with the sight of her sobbing over her boyfriend’s body.

Aside from all the juicy action and surprises in the season finale, dedicated True Blood might have noticed a little something extra. Near the end of the episode, Charlaine Harris, author of the original Sookie Stackhouse novels, can be seen sitting at the bar, talking to Sam (Sam Trammell).

Will the town find out about Jason shooting Eggs? Will they remember what happened to Maryann? Have we seen the last of the evil maenad? Who are Sam’s parents, and are they really the “bad people” his stepmother claims they are? And why is vampire Queen Sophie Ann forcing Eric to sell vampire blood?

About season three only one thing is certain: There will be blood. And Southern accents.

Shoot son, I can’t wait till next summer’s season three premiere of True Blood! Catch up on all the recent episodes at HBO.com/TrueBlood.

SAN DIEGO — Last week Blast brought an inside look and review on the upcoming CW series’ “The Vampire Diaries” with a review of its pilot during the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Since then, the fledgling series has been the hot topic between loyalists of the books (“The Vampire Diaries” is based on a series by L.J. Smith), fans of its cast like Ian Somerhalder of “Lost” fame, as well as its producers like Kevin Williamson who brought another television hit, “Dawson’s Creek”.

And while the frenzy for all things vampiric hasn’t slowed down, as witnessed by the legion of “Twilight” fans awaiting Stephenie Meyer’s second installation in her series, “New Moon” it begs the question as to whether “The Vampire Diaries” will pander to the popular trend or pave its own way?

Blast spoke with the cast and producers about this dilemma recently. When asked about concerns from fans about its parallels between the books and its depiction onscreen? Producers Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson and Bob Levy were happy to clear some things up.

“Well, the thing is there are very big fans of the books” Williamson said.

“There was this ongoing joke about Damon and oranges on (a fansite) and I thought I had missed something in the books. So, I went back and tried to re-read everything because I didn’t want [fans] to think I hadn’t gone through it” Plec added “So, that site posted it up, and I thought, ‘Perfect! Now at some point we can have Damon with an orange in a scene!’ So it’s just a little nod towards fans.”

Certainly one of the series’ strengths will be the books, themselves, which provide a strong enough platform to make television translation fairly easy. Anyone who has read them will notice that, while the obvious alterations have been made — as casting the heroine, Elena Gilbert, with a brunette actress instead of a blond — the context of the characters are very close to the books despite a few bumps. In fact, the whole debate about hair color is absurd when one realizes how wonderful Nina Dobrev is as the lead. She makes the character likable and interesting as opposed to the mean girl type Elena is in the books. For some this may be a good thing or a bad thing — along the same lines as defining whether Blair Waldorf is necessarily bad or good.

And for clarification, due to all the ruckus about blond versus brunette, Elena could have any colored hair as long as it bore the stark resemblance to a particular character. It’s supposed to have a deja-vu effect and serves nothing more than a plot device in the books. And insofar as romance aspect of the series.

“It’s really about the love story between these two characters (Elena and Stefan)” said Levy. On the possibility of the series getting darker: “I think this is a case where Kevin (Williamson) is at his best. He balances both aspects great. Overall, we will be focused on the relationships between the characters (and) blend them with the plot.”

For those curious as to whether we can expect Elena to do some action scenes like her leading men seen in recent promos: “You know, I’ve been asking that question too!” Nina Dobrev told Blast. “I’ve been asking the writers, ‘When will I get to jump off a roof too?’ You know I grew up with an older brother and played every sport imaginable. So yeah, I would like to do some action scenes. There are some things I can’t talk about but if you read the books, you’ll know it’ll surprise you. So not right now, but eventually.”

Paul Wesley may have gotten some of the action fighting, but so far he doesn’t necessarily have a favorite scene. “It’s a scene that hasn’t happened” he revealed, “but when Elena eventually finds out Stefan is a vampire … when they get to that point, for me, that’ll be my favorite part because it’s such a big moment for them, because he truly loves this girl.”

There is something to be said for that comment considering the character he portrays, Stefan Salvatore, wears his heart on his sleeve, but his brother Damon is another story. “He controls life. Life doesn’t control him … except sometimes it stops, and makes him work a little bit harder” said Ian Somerhalder who plays Damon.

On the traits of playing a more villainous character as Damon Salvatore: “It’s all about perspective, isn’t? It’s fun getting to play him. I mean Damon has an immense amount of strengths. He has mind manipulation powers, and can make you think whatever you want? How cool is that? But when that doesn’t work, it throws him off a bit. So the thing about about Stefan is he loses the love of his life, and there’s this vendetta for (more than one hundred years). I promise him an eternity of misery.” He added the last part with a grin, perhaps unintentionally.

“The Vampire Diaries” is not a series for all demographics. It’s catered toward a particular niche. That niche of viewers tuning to the series will be either of the nerdcore, whose love for vamps and the books know no bounds, or those looking for a weekly escape preceding the successful cult series, “Supernatural.”

The show needs time to grow outside of the shadow of “Twilight” which has saturated the media beyond the popularity of the books and into the personal lives of the actors themselves.

“The Vampire Diaries” is set for Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. on The CW.

SAN DIEGO — This year’s Comic-Con International Preview Night included the exclusive screening of “The Vampire Diaries” which is scheduled to air on The CW Thursday nights at 8 p.m. starting September 10. It also marks the return of Kevin Williamson, whose “Dawson Creek” redefined drama for young adults in the 90s.

Despite a similar premise to “Twilight” about forbidden love and vampires, there isn’t too much “The Vampire Diaries” shares with it. The show is based on a series of young adult novels by LJ Smith, and while the show isn’t 100 percent true to the books, the literary fans will find that the spirit of the story remains intact and the transition to the television medium works well.

The pilot starts with an atmosphere of urgency. It’s classic Williamson with an isolated stretch of road, a couple and swift violence. Williamson grabs the audience’s attention immediately without being overindulgent.

As the stage is set with a “monster” on the loose we are introduced to Elena Gilbert (up-and-comer Nina Dobrev), a girl whose sudden loss of her parents leaves her life in chaos. Meanwhile, making matters worse is her younger brother, Jeremy, whose self-destructive behavior doesn’t help matters.

Nina Dobrev arrives at Liv Nightclub at the Fontainbleau Miami Beach on June 12 for The Vampire Diaries Kick Off Party

Elena meets the new guy in school, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Welsey) whose mesmerizing abilities prove he is not just another high school student. He is in fact, a vampire.

Just when it appears Stefan and Elena are getting closer, another attack takes place. From here, the story picks up at an exciting pace. Stefan is greeted by his brother, Damon (a charismatic Ian Somerhalder). It is clear with the first deadlock stare they share a rocky history. As Damon taunts Stephan by staking a claim on Elena, the brothers begin what is one of the best moments of the episode. The set up for the fight, the witty dialogue and the context of their relationship makes this a worthwhile storyline.

Overall, the pilot for “The Vampire Diaries” is a great start for the series. Audiences will love the hints of humor thrown into the mix of drama, Sommerhalder’s delicious bad boy taunts and the formulaic love story. Dobrev and Wesley are refreshing as their chemistry onscreen intensifies with each added scene. The only stark contrast is the narration of the diary entries which comes across as awkward at times. The atmosphere for the series is balanced, and the collaboration between talent and production are not over the top. There is a focus on keeping up the suspense until the final scenes.

“The Vampire Diaries” drew several cheers even from fans who were skeptical about a “Twilight” reboot. Each scene element demonstrates why this will certainly be the perfect show to take over the coveted slot formerly belonging to “Smallville”. If attendees for Comic-Con get a chance, for the Saturday showing of “The Vampire Diaries”? It’s worth the watch!

About three things I am absolutely positive: first, I just saw Twilight. Second, there is a part of me – and I don’t know how minuscule that part might be – that thinks it was almost okay. Third, it was unconditionally and irrevocably hilarious.

So, all you little spider-monkeys, I did in fact just return from a late-night showing of Twilight (the one that all the embarrassed middle-aged moms went to) and immediately sat down to pen my thoughts on the matter.

In a word? It was hysterical. To borrow a trick from Ms. Meyer’s book (or rather her thesaurus), not only was it funny but it was a riotously jocular humdinger of a film.

First, let’s talk tech specs. The film’s cinematography viewed like a bad spoof of 300, only with more vampires, 98% less blood, and 99.9% more extreme close-ups. And when there aren’t a billion poorly-edited cuts between Edward’s face and Bella’s face, there was slow-mo. And a lot of it. At any moment during the baseball scene, for example, I expected some half-naked guy with a lobster claw arm to glide down from the treetops and ask to join the game. I mean, I have a hard time swallowing slow-mo in an action flick, much less in a film in which half of the scenes consist of the characters stretching out on a field to gaze into each other’s soul.

And that brings me to the moment we were all waiting for, fans and anti-fans alike. I’m not going to lie, folks, I was bouncing on my seat in anticipation of the sparklies. Color me curious, but I was excited to see how they would accomplish that effect. Would they use lens flares? Glitter? Bits of cubic zirconia glued to the makeup caked on Robert Pattinson’s face? There seemed to be a lot of options, so the fact that they decided to use Pattinson’s natural (and profuse) perspiration is something of a letdown.

But to be fair, the effects aren’t all bad. After an hour and a half of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”-style soaring through treetops, the big throw-down at the end between James and Edward is actually pretty exciting. In fact, it almost made me appreciate Meyer’s choice of the ballet studio as the battleground in the first place, and on screen I actually winced at Bella’s injuries whereas in the book my reaction consisted of a dash of meh and decent dose of yawn.

And speaking of yawn, that’s a good description of the acting. Kristen Stewart definitely had her moments, but Robert Pattinson not so much. At times his performance is painfully stale and at others, particularly during his and Bella’s first meeting, it is overworked and over-acted. For most of the film, he comes off as either constipated or as a creepy prima donna, or perhaps as a constipated creepy prima donna. It seems to me though that it’s through no fault of his own; the writing is simply that bad. Lines that are passable in a book (“…and so the lion fell in love with the lamb,” for instance) cannot possibly be delivered in any way that makes them sound anything other than horrifically cheesy.

Which brings me to my absolute favorite line of the film, from the sparkle scene:

[CUE "DRAMATIC" MUSIC]
“…This is the skin of a killer.”

Take a minute to laugh, it’s okay. That’s the line that made me wonder if director Catherine Hardwicke had decided to spoof Twilight rather than adapt it; it was a line that I could imagine in a Cleolinda Jones recap and a line that I’m a little jealous for not having written myself. I mean, Edward, come on – you sparkle. “This is the skin of a killer?” It’s like saying “These are the eyebrows of a vampire!” or “Beware my shins, for they are murderous!” I have to wonder how many takes Pattinson needed for the line just because I would never be able to deliver it with a straight face. And frankly, that line sums up the film perfectly: it’s unintentionally ridiculous and takes itself way too seriously, as if it doesn’t realize that it’s actually a film about glitter.

It’s hard to write a review for “Twilight” objectively since, hopefully, about 95 percent of the perspective audience will have read the novel before seeing the film.

There was a lot of hype about making sure certain scenes were in the movie, or whether or not the characters were acted out properly or how director Catherine Hardwicke would be able to pull off making Edward’s skin sparkle in the same beautiful way it was described in the book (which she didn’t).

What was lost in all the fan-promotion and debate and hysteria that surrounds Stephenie Meyer’s vampire universe was what it would take to make a good movie out of the story; not as an adaptation but as a film.

“Twilight” had its moments. About 50 percent of the film was good, 20 percent was spot-on perfect, and 30 percent was just terrible. And not terrible in the way the romantic Naboo meadow scene in “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” was terrible, but “Doom” or “The Scorpion King” or “Gigli” terrible. Terrible like the type of acting you expect out of inexperienced middle-schoolers performing the first rehearsal of “Scrooge.”

The effort was there, and for a fledgling movie studio like Summit Entertainment, who produced “Twilight” and has signed on for the next three installments in the series, “Twilight” was a valiant effort. It’s going to make them the money they need because fans of the series will ignore the acting and instead swoon over Robert Pattinson and pretend that they are standing in Kristen Stewart’s shoes (which is easier when you’re reading the book and a lot harder when you see how gorgeous they gloss Bella up to be in the movie).

People are going to go see “Twilight” if only because they’re loyal. Unfortunately, as far as movies go, the 30 percent of the movie that was downright awful irrevocably polluted the other decent parts of the movie.

Kristen Stewart did an impressive job as Bella, the protagonist of the movie who moves to Forks, Wash. on behalf of her mother to live in the always-raining town with her father and then discovers that the boy she is enamored with at Forks High School is really a vampire. Some dialogue scenes, like one towards the end where she is recovering in the hospital, ruin the movie’s illusion by Stewart’s awkward delivery, but Stewart proved herself again as one of the stronger teen talents coming out of the MTV generation.

Robert Pattinson, however, did not like up to the buildup. In fact, I doubt that few followers of the progress of the film ever even considered that Pattinson might not pull off the character of Edward, the vampire who Bella falls in love with. Most of the focus on the choice of Pattinson as the male lead was on his looks, not his capabilities.

Sure, Pattinson looked pretty, and there were a couple moments in the film where he absolutely nailed the charming an irresistible creature that Edward was supposed to be. He was nearly unbearable the first half of the movie, though. Pattinson said in an interview with Blast that he had strived to portray Edward as a tortured character who was feeling everything all at once for the first time and it was destroying him. The idea was a good one if it had been executed correctly. Instead it was just annoying watching Edward act insane throughout the first 40 minutes of film – inexplicably insane.

“The other side of the Twilight debate” resulted in over 1,500 comments, more than any other Blast Magazine story, ever.

So, author Kellen Rice continued the debate with another article. Here’s a bit:

I decided that it was only right for me (as the author of the original article) to try and help out all those people who would love to engage in literary criticism but don’t yet have that right to freedom of thought. So, here it is:

…

1. Abuse the thesaurus (correct word usage optional; purple prose is a must). If you want to ‘spice up’ your writing so that it sounds just like Meyer’s, a handy thesaurus is key. Then you too can write glorious and dazzling (and dazzlingly glorious) passages like the following:

He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.

If you do not have at least three modifiers* for every noun, you’re doing it wrong. Some authors like George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm) have rules like “Never use a long word where a short one will do” and “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out”, but since Stephenie Meyer is apparently the golden standard for writing young adult literature these days, it’s probably best to ignore Orwell and follow her example instead.

* Bonus points if you use the same modifier multiple times in close proximity of one another. Good examples of words to use this way include “chagrin”, “murmured”, and “chuckled”.

Read it all at the Blast PSA Blog

Kellen Rice, one of the Blast’s writers and a regular contributor to Blast’s PSA: Politics, Sports, Anything Blog recently picked up and read the entire Twilight series.

She did not like it. No, ma’am, not one bit.

“Thankfully, the ‘Twilight’ series is over. Not as great is the fact that millions of girls are reading this sexist tripe without a care in the world, obsessing over the "perfect" Edward Cullen and the "hot" Jacob Black, pretending to be Bella Swan and ignoring the unhealthiness of the relationship just as successfully as the character does. What happened that two hundred years after feminist hero Elizabeth Bennet is put down on the page, we get one of the most awful excuses for a female literary hero that I’ve ever seen?”

Take a read: PSA Blog.