Smile My Fangbangers

I never really got into Anne Rice that much -- when the original Interview With the Vampire movie came out in 1994 Teen-Me gave those books a little spin and I remember thinking the gay stuff was hot (which was why I went to read the book in the first place, hearing how skittish Jordan's movie was towards that stuff that actually existed on the page) but other than that it just never became my cuppa. But as stated previously on this here website I'm a big fan of the ongoing T.V. series adaptation starring Jacob Anderson (P.S. more of this photoshoot over here) as our sweet lil' Louis alongside an incomparable Sam Reid devouring the screen and our immortal souls as Lestat. 

All of that is to say that some very happy-making news broke this weekend -- the show is getting a fourth season! Huzzah! It will be re-titled once again -- now it will be called Queen of the Damned, meaning one assumes it'll be an adaption of that book, and that only makes sense since we met that character (played by the great Sheila Atim of Dust Bunny fame) this past round of episodes. (And now I am lol'ing remembering that one of you got very angry at me the last time I posted about how the show changing its title to The Vampire Lestat irritated me and how I'd continue calling it Interview With the Vampire anyway -- lol and no further comment.) I vaguely remember seeing the film of Queen of the Damned with the great Aaliyah (RIP queen) when it came out -- weirdly I was just talking about its long disappeared leading man Stuart Townsend last week when my boyfriend asked if Charlize Theron is gay and I pointed to her forgotten marriage to him as proof of... well, she married a dude once. I guess that's all that proved. Right, Louis? He gets it.

Watch the Dancing Vampires

Are you excited that Interview With the Vampire is back for its third season? granted it's not called "Interview With the Vampire" now -- it's now called The Vampire Lestat since it's moved on to another Anne Rice novel, but whatever -- it'll remain Interview With the Vampire to me because I don't have brain-space for that shit. But yes I am excited and so should you be -- all the word is very good, which makes sense since the first two seasons of the show also ruled. The show drops on Sunday. Anyway let's get to my real reason for this post -- the Tribeca Film Festival kicked off last night and I am running to a screening this afternoon so for the next couple of hours it'll be quiet. I will be back. I think. I should be, unless my office decides to close early while I'm out (always a possiblity on a Summer Thursday when we've got a Summer Friday ahead) but that decision is beyond my means of foretelling. For now just stare at the Dancing Vampires until you find yourself getting sleepy, sleepy, sleepy...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Special Effects (1984)

Neville: Like I always say, I don't know what I like 

until I see it. And then I know I don't like it.

Have any of you seen this sleazy 1984 Larry Cohen film? (Redundancy after redundancy there.) I only saw it a few weeks ago because the fine folks at Radiance Films put out a gorgeous new restoration of it on blu-ray and it was exactly what I wanted from a sleazy 1984 Larry Cohen film that stars Eric Bogosian as a movie director who decides to use a real life murder he commits as inspiration for his next movie. It's kind of Larry Cohen's spin on Vertigo and it's terrific. I totally felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards. Anyway speaking of Eric Bogosian, a happy 73rd birthday to the character actor whose career has as of late gotten a bump thanks to the double-punch of Uncut Gems and the Interview With the Vampire series. And speaking of the latter -- we have a trailer for the new season, baby! Sweet Rockin' Lestat gimme! I'm surprised they officially changed the name of the show to go with the book though.

Interview With the Vampire... excuse me, 

The Vampire Lestat returns on June 7th.

Sam Reid Nine Times

I can feel my Gen X flaring up when I say I'm glad I've been onboard the Sam Reid train for several years now, and I'm not just posting these new photos because I only found out about him thanks to the new Interview With the Vampire series that I binged this past weekend. I was an original fan, man! Before they sold out! Anyway that does mean you should click on our Sam Reid tag, there are plenty of wonders to discover therein. For today though we've got these fresh ones of him for Schön! magazine -- there is also an interview if you're curious what our newfangled (fang, get it) Lestat's got to say for himself. Or just hit the jump for the photoshoot...

I've Crossed Oceans of Time for Lestat

I didn't get much accomplished over this past weekend as my brain needed a rest, but one thing I did manage to do was binge the entire run of the Interview With the Vampire series -- yes, it's universally accepted that bingeing entire television series counts as "an accomplishment" now. Don't side-eye me. It's in the dictionary. Look it up. No I won't say which dictionary. It's not my job to do all of the work, jeez! Anyway Interview With the Vampire rules. Rules. RULES. I had exceedingly low expectations going in but it defied those by leagues of sexy, funny, gory goodness. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid and Eric Bogosian and Bailey Bass are all terrifically cast and the show delighted and surprised every single episode. (How funny it is was the biggest surprise for me.) Anyway I want season two right this second -- here's Variety talking to the show's creator (and yes this is spoilery so don't read it if you're not done with the entire season) about what to expect from season two, which will basically be as far as I can tell the second half of the book. I haven't read any Anne Rice since I was in college but this show's got me feeling like revisiting. So who's watched? Opinions? Hit the comments!

Pics of the Day

The first photos from AMC's upcoming Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire series (and good for Anne -- RIP queen -- for getting that above-the-title treatment) have arrived, showcasing actors Sam Reid (mmmm we love him) as Lestat and Games of Thrones' Jacob Anderson as Louis, aka the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt roles from Neil Jordan's 1994 film adaptation we all still remember well enough, I assume. There are a couple more photos at People, where these ones came from -- the series is out sometime this year. What do we think at first blush?

Feral Island Nuns & Their Hot Priest Prisoner

.

As alluded to in this morning's "Gratuitous Sam Reid" post there is a brand new series out for y'all to binge this week, and binge it you shall -- binge it you must!!! I binged it last week and it is a real binger. It's an Aussie series from 2019 called Lambs of God and aside from Mr. Reid the real spectacle is its three leading women, all of whom we're great big fans -- there's Essie Davis, who we fell for thanks to The Babadook, there's Ann Dowd, who we fell for because we have watched things in the past ten years of which she has starred in all of them, and there's the still terribly underrated Jessica Barden.

As for Barden we've loved her ever since the movie Hanna, where she stole her every scene as the normal girl that the weirdo girl Hanna befriends after she escapes from her assassin lab. Since then Barden's proven her greatness in movies like The Lobster (she's the girl with the bloody noses) and on the TV series Penny Dreadful and The End of the F***ing World; really any time Jessica Barden shows up you know you're in for a treat and here, once again, she proves that truth.

Lambs of God has that tremendous trio of actresses playing, wait for it, three semi-feral nuns (!!!) living in total isolation inside of a crumbling monastery on a remote and inhospitable island -- they're all a little mad in the way of cinematic nuns, with their ecstatic visions and whatnot. Then one day whammo out of the weeds appears a ridiculously handsome priest (played by the aforementioned Sam Reid, ridiculously handsome) and, well wouldn't you know it shit goes down. Some real shit!

The series won several AACTA awards (that's basically the Aussie version of the Oscars) when it aired there last year and now y'all can see it here in the US, thanks to the new streaming service called Topic, which seems to specialize in international television shows that you can't see anywhere else -- check out their website right here. The series premieres on Topic this very day and I very very much recommend it -- it's gothic and outrageous and well-acted, kind of like The Devils meets Dark Shadows. I had an absolute blast with it. I mean look at these three actresses and tell me you don't want to watch this right this second and I'll call you full nutso:

Good Morning, Sam Reid

.

I have been waiting for the actor Sam Reid to get a good role ever since he starred opposite the great Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Belle in 2013 -- he's one of those ones that are SO handsome (see our previous posts for proof) that it's got to be hard to know what to do with him. (I doubt any of us feel too bad for Sam Reid.) Anyway he's got a terrific role in the TV miniseries Lambs of God, which screened on Aussie TV last year and which is making its US streaming debut today -- but I'll have more to say on that in a minute. For now, it's early, let's just luxuriate in the Gratuitous Sam Reid aspect of the series after the jump...

Sam Reid Four Times

.

Has anybody seen Sam's new Prime Suspect series? 

Is it any good? I need to look at him!

.

Good Morning, Sort Of Gratuitous Sam Reid

.

I almost kind of don't even want to do this post, wishing the actor Sam Reid a happy 29th birthday; I have held out on him for a very long time because he should not be rewarded for bad behavior -- he's been around for five years now, pretty much since starring in Roland Emmerich's William Shakespeare flop Anonymous, and after taking a more-than-cursory glance (more of a scouring, really) of the places where such things would be it appears that Sam Reid in those five years hasn't doffed a single bit of clothing. Not a bit!

Please, I beg of someone to prove me wrong. Was there a bit in Belle I am forgetting? That Hatfield & McCoys miniseries didn't seem to have any trouble getting at least one dude half-naked -- maybe Sam's bared torso was floating around there too? Tumblr seems to be infatuated with his unrequited bromance with Max Irons in the recent film The Riot Club...

... but it would appear that stayed snog-free. I mean really, Sam Reid. You get your career jump started by Roland Emmerich for god's sake and this is how you treat us? There's one thing making me do this post, then. Well there are two. #1, goddamn Sam Reid is gorgeous. But #2: goddamn he is gorgeous and goddamn he and fellow actor slash pretty boy Douglas Booth seem to be inseparable.

INSEPARABLE. As you'll see, after the jump where I've collected all these gorgeous fully-dressed (sigh) pictures, he and Douglas Booth sure do seem very... tight. Hit the jump for the rest...

Future Savior Sexy Father

.

Even though I've never seen the actor Wilson Bethel in anything it seems pretty clear to me that looks-wise he was born to play a Michael Biehn part. Look at them! They could be related!

Bethel is one of five names up for Biehn's role of Kyle Reese in the new Terminator movie - for a hot minute there was talk of Garrett Hedlund but I guess he passed. Instead they're aiming for a smaller name now...

... small in name, but big in pretty obviously. Those dudes are from left to right Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Cocquerel, Sam Reid, and Jai Courtney. Holbrook you might remember as the dude with the porn-stache who shows up to replace Matt Damon in Liberace's bathtub affections in Behind the Candelabra...

His name's actually been rumored as long as Hedlund was. Cocquerel hasn't been in anything really, but he's very attractive. I wonder how he got his name up in here?

Meanwhile Reid is one fine-ass ginger that I remember noticing in Anonymous, before I turned Anonymous off halfway through because it was an unwatchable, awful movie.

And Courtney's been bouncing around by the strength of his fabulous T&A from terrible movie to terrible movie for a bit now. We've ogled him previously. Here is his sex face in that pervy Spartacus show.

.

poll by twiigs.com

.