Masque of the Red Death (2025) Directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

This project was suggested to me at a showing of one of my earlier animations. I did not think I could pull it off, the story has over 1000 people and a setting involving 7 rooms of various colours among other technically challenging aspects. After reading the story a few times more I decided it could be pulled back with less people and less room and still keep the tone and message of the story intact. 

Even so, it would mean animating more characters in several shots than I ever had before and involve some animal simulations I wasn’t sure how to pull off. Poe’s wordiness and descriptions were also pulled back partly to reflect the simpler setting but mostly to reflect how bad a narrator I am. I did enhance my voice a little to make it sound better. 

I used Make Human and Human Gen to create the characters. This made it feasible to make so many and also Human Gen can add clothes you make or buy in an easy way which I really needed for this project. One thing that Blender has in abundance is reasonably priced fantastic addons so my one man show looks better, I hope, than it would have totally on my own. 

It was rendered in EEVEE and compositing and colour work was done in Apple Motion while editing was done in Final Cut Pro. 

I did have issues with Human Gen here and there. A few characters suddenly had finger rigging  issues and I wish that plugin had more secondary facial controls like Make Human. It has much better skin and hair so it’s a question of which I could get the most out of. The robed figure was simply rigged withAuto Rig pro. Something I plan to use more in future. 

Not what is next except to get familiar with compositing in Blender. I would like to use depth maps and maybe motion  maps in Apple Motion like I used to and separate elements for better colour corrections. I will try and redo some older animations I think will be greatly improved over the Cinema 4D versions and decide on a new project as I go go through all of that. 

Birder (2024) Directed by: Nate Dushku

 

While there are some wonderful gay centric films out there produced by the community I am the first to admit they are few and far between between and instead there is a much larger number of amateurish low budget productions. Some of these use the low budget and lack of professional actors or crew to their advantage and come across as charming and some are first steps towards better films. Birder is low budget but is done very professionally with good acting and cinematography and it isn't vapid. There is a good amount of full frontal nudity and sex in but they don't come across as soft core porn and are used to show the openness of the situation and the characters. Sure the fact all of the performers are all young and attractive gets your attention but I liked how there was no judgement on sex or sexuality and it was all very matter of fact.

SPOILERS:

It would be impossible to talk much about this film without giving it all away so I won't try to avoid spoilers. The main character is visiting a clothing optional camping area with mostly but not all gay men. I had no idea what the plot of this was but it's clear from the first minute this guy is a serial killer. It doesn't come across as him punishing people for having sex, like many slasher films, but is portrayed more as a fetish he has. I am not sure that is any better a take. This guy single handedly strangles almost all of the other characters and he basically gets away with it. 

This is where I tell you I didn't like the movie despite some of its strong points. The writing I thought was weak. I couldn't believe this was all happening and despite the people at the campground being nice and enough, none of their deaths was particularly upsetting since they were not developed enough to feel much for them. Killing someone by strangling with your bare hands isn't as easy and quick as it looks in this film. The lead is supposed to be literally charming the pants off and the life out of the other campers but if I met him at a camp ground, I'd leave and warn everyone else he was a serial killer. I don't think it's the fault of the actors, I think its possibly the style of editing which lacks giving any sense of suspense. 

In the end the killer leaves after being found out by the ranger who he kills and heads off to another location. On the way he is cruised by a guy in a gas station bathroom, goes back to the guy's van and he himself is immediately made into a victim and the new killer tells him "no hard hard feelings...". I think we are supposed to be surprised but it was always what was going to happen I thought and it didn't feel like he was getting what he deserved for his murderous lifestyle. 

I expected a movie with so much explicit sex and murder to be more engaging. 

Le Vourdalak (2023) directed by Adrien Beau

 

It's hard to talk about this film without spoilers, it's has some interesting elements better experienced as a surprise. Spoiler free, this is a film about a nobleman finding shelter after being robbed on the road and getting caught up in a family's tragic story of death and horror. It is based on Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's 1839 novella The Family of the Vourdalak. I had already read it before seeing this so I had an idea what was going to happen. It's mostly well acted, nicely filmed, slow and hypnotic with some scares and a villain that works when it really shouldn't. 

Spoilers

A vourdalak is basically a vampire and this movie is based on one of the oldest printed vampire stories. it follows much of the lore of the time it was written so its has some nice touches, like vampires eating their shrouds that add a creepier than normal feel to it. The grandfather leaves to fight in the war but warns the family that if he isn't back in 6 days, he has died and if he is seen again to reject him as he will have become a vourdalak. He returns just after the deadline and his son takes his emaciated body into the house despite the protestations of the family. 

The grandfather is a vampire like you haven't really seen in film. Sure he is a living corpse but he is also played by a life sized puppet. This should be comical but it isn't.. at all. It is done well but doesn't really hide that it's a puppet. It has charisma and does manage to scare the crap out of you a couple times. it does what traditional vampires did and begins to transform the rest of the family into undead creatures. 

The nobleman is seen as a dandy, at first. Over time he grows and we see more than a prissy rich guy but someone willing to combat the undead for the family that took him in. He is in love with the daughter but that takes a back seat when the grandfather goes after the young grandson. The film ends with a couple of surprises and strays from the original story but overall it is a good adaption. 

The father is played really well and the rest of the cast does too. The weakest link is the daughter/love interest. She is a too odd to get a sympathetic handle on. Vassili Schneider as the brother is another departure from the novella. He is sexually ambiguous in some ways, dressing like a woman at times but also strong when he needs to be. His family is accepting of him as he is and this normally admirable trait is definitely misplaced when the father accepts the grandfather back into the family. Being a vampire is a little beyond acceptance, in my opinion of course. 

The pace is slow but that helps the viewer accept what is happening and while there is some gore it's restrained. The filming is mostly subtle and natural. There is a night/day issue that crops up quite a bit and it's hard to get an idea if hours or days have passed. it's not a deal breaker as the story and actors really draw you in. 

The Picnic - 5 decades of the Million Year Picnic (2021,2023) directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

 

This was a decade+ long project. Getting interviews and information was much harder than I thought. It was edited and re-edited quietly a few times: sometimes making it longer, sometimes shorter. Getting it shown anywhere was also difficult. I foolishly thought the place was such comic store legend I could get conventions and small festivals to show it. A couple a small festivals did end up showing but the place I really wanted it to play was the Brattle Theatre which is almost across the street from the store. That happened in July 2024 and those who went were good to tell me they liked it. Never got paid, sadly but at least it got it's day in that historic cinema. 

I would really love more people to see the film, the Picnic is and has been a fantastic, special place run by special people and is one of the last independent stores in Harvard Square. The original owner, Jerry Weist, was a ground breaker when he started the store and continued to lead the way when he left the store and started selling the original comic book art at Sotheby's elevating it as the original form of American art it was and is. I was the manager there in the mid-80s and still count my colleagues from those days as friends. 

Just another part of Boston(ish) history I don't want to be forgotten and I hope this makes people want to visit Harvard Square and see how wonderful this odd duck of place is and get captured by it's friendliness and charm. 

Devil Girl from Mars (1954)directed by David MacDonald

 

Nyah, a dominatrix looking alien from Mars is heading to Earth to capture some men to bring back to her home planet after " a devastating war of the sexes". Her ship is damaged and crashes to a location near the Scottish Moores where she tries to enlist  men at the local bar/inn. This, believe it or not is NOT a porn movie scenario... though maybe it should be. 

Patricia Laffan who plays the alien Nyah is the saving grace of this otherwise by the books low budget 50's sci-fi. The other actors are fine but their roles and dialogue betray the theatre origins of the project. I would be interested to see as a play if they camped it up a little more. Laffan is superior and condescending to the humans and is only concerned with her mission to get men to mars for breeding purposes. She is over the top but also give a lot with her knowing looks and calm demeanour. Her character is interesting in that she doesn't seem interested personally in mating with earth men. Earthling are like ants to her and  she does not fall into the trop of falling in love with one and changing her mission for him. She is on point the entire time. 

What is the point exactly, though? She crashed before getting London and her ship is repairing itself so she will be there in a few hours. She doesn't need to leave it or interact with the small group of people in the inn at all. If she had just waiting a couple hours and flown to London I don't her having any problems, looking as she does, getting any number of men to fly to Mars and be willing sex slave for a planet of dominant women. 

There are too many other characters I felt, most there only to fulfill plot points. The escaped killer is only there to be an acceptable sacrifice at the end, the worker is just there to be killed to show how cold Nyah is and the little boy is typically annoying and is there to be taken by the Martian to show so the reporter can be shown as a hero when he tried to exchange himself for the boy. The model looking for love in the Scottish Moores in winter is just a trope and she falls in love with the reporter in 15 minutes. Some of the character beats work but overall you don't really feel for any of them. 

The look of the movie and the invader do carry the film enough that it's fun enough to watch. I don't think I would rewatch it. I will watch a super cut of her throwing open the french doors in dramatic fashion the 150 or so times she does it in the film! 

Hundreds of Beavers (2022) Directed by Mike Cheslik

 

Hundreds of Beavers is a low budget independent slapstick comedy that heavily draws on cartoon action and settings with liberal nods to Buster Keaton among others. Only costing 150 000 $, it's brought in over a million. Pretty good for a film made by two friends with only the experience of making another black and white film called "Lake Michigan Monster" with similar techniques at this one for the much lesser sum of 7 000$! 

The entire movie is mostly special effects done with After Effects and it's very affective. The production reads as a cartoon and the characters are over the top. All the animals are either animated or actors in mascot costumes. To promote the film the director and main actors went on the road with a live show added to the cinema experience. 

The plot is appropriately more like a Warner Brothers short than a live action film. This  mostly works but 108 minutes is a little long to sustain such craziness. I can't say it doesn't succeed, because it does for the most part mainly from the energy the cast and crew bring to it. Ryland Tews as the Applejacks salesman whose business is destroyed by the actions of nearby beavers. This leads into an escalating conflict between him and the beavers and the stakes are made higher when he falls in love with a merchant's daughter but can't marry her unless he brings the merchant hundreds of beaver pelts. I don't think I'll try and lay out many beats of the plot as that will spoil it for new viewers and the comedy relies on how surpassing and outlandish it all is. 

I can 100% see where this will get old really fast for some people so it's not for everyone. I thought it was charming and fun to watch. Tews is a handsome, muscular guy that runs around shirtless in the winter snow a good part of the film so there's that element if the nonstop cartoon aspect gets old for you. I didn't laugh out loud but I did appreciate effort made and found it amusing all the way through. The act of getting this made on so little money with over 1 500 effects shots alone makes it worth a look! 

50 Years (2025 restored version) Directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

 Originally released in 2002 under the title "46 Years", "50 Years" is a recollection of memories and events as they relate to Ralph Hodgdon and Paul McMahon and their life-long love for each other. 

I revisited them 5 years after this was screened in Provincetown, Massachusetts and put for sale on Amazon as times had changed and the couple were able to get married on their 49th anniversary. It seemed right to do an additional interview after their 50th anniversary of the day they met and one year after they were able to get legally married. 

The restoration started in January 2025 when I discovered I had many, but not all the originals scans of the photos used in the film. My software also avowed me to take out the background music and improve the sound and more easily rework some edits. I still had the music done by David M. Puryear and was able to add it back in after the changes were made. 

Shot on Standard Definition video, before HD was a thing does limit how much improvement I could do on my own. I did clean up the titles between sections and updated the credits. I also had to take a break when Ralph got very ill and died in April 2025. Paul had passed in April 2011 and it was just too difficult work on. 

The 2020 version of the movie is for sale/rent on Amazon Streaming Prime Video.

Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) directed by André Øvredal

 

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a film that "fills in" what happened on the ill fated boat that took Dracula and his boxes of earth from his homeland to England. The basics of the story are taken from the captain's logs found the Bram Stoker's original novel and then it adds characters to flesh out the details. In the book we simply know the ship arrives with everyone dead, filled with boxes of earth and rats. The logs tell of something that killed the crew members while at sea. The horror in that part of the book comes from not knowing what happened in any detail. As readers we know it's Dracula feeding on the crew until he reaches his destination and it reinforces him as a source of evil. 

In my opinion that is all there needs to be, this idea of backfilling fictional stories (looking a you Star Wars) so there are no gaps from one event to another is something that really bugs me. Those gaps are often what makes the story work. The viewer fills in nebulous details with ideas of their own and, in the case of a horror movie, that is where the fear and dread comes from. Our own fears can make the film seem much more personally scary. 

The new characters are not bad ones, the lead as the black doctor is well acted and interesting and the woman found in one of the crates - put there as a way to keep Dracula fed on his trip so no one will know he is there - is also a good movie idea. Just not one where we already know what is going to happen. There is also the issue of a few pages in a book or a few minutes in a film allow you to not notice some things that a 2 hour film gives you plenty of time to mull over. In this case while watching we kept asking if they know the "thing" is attacking at night and hiding on the ship, those mysterious boxes would be a good place to do a day search and when they realize that they are where the creature is hiding during the day why not throw them all overboard and save yourselves? Why does it take 90% of the film before they start making sure no one is ever alone at night? 

Dracula is also an issue in how he is portrayed. They are going for a Nosferatu type of vampire, fair enough, but that does not work for the rest of the story after this film ends as we all know already. He is naked and sometimes has wings, sometimes he doesn't. They seem to appear as needed in the plot. 

The ending is truly a mess. I won't totally spoil it but there is a survivor who decided to dedicate their life to destroying Dracula, leading to the typical opening for a sequel. Thing is I would guess most readers have read the book especially anyone who would watch this and by the time you are 5 you have some idea who Dracula is and what the story is about so we KNOW this ending cannot have happened! 

I think if this was not about Dracula but some other creature it would have worked much better. 

It! The terror From Beyond Space (1958) directed by Edward L. Cahn

 

A second mission to mars arrives at the red planet to discover the fate of the previous crew sent there. Only one is left alive, the rest were killed by some creature... according to the survivor who is not believed and taken back with the to stand trial for multiple murders. It  seems he wasn't lying afterall when the creature is discovered to have made it's way on to their ship and is now travelling back to earth with them and killing the crew along the way. 

This film is certainly a low budget product of its time but does have good points. One of those isn't the monster, however. it's pretty ridiculous looking. The acting isn't great and neither is the writing... what's left? The effects of the ship are fairly well done and some of the shots are well thought out. It made me realize how much can be told by one shot and not need further explanation. An example if this is when the nurse disconnects a bottle of blood from a patient injured by the monster, she puts it on a table and there is a shot of the table with about 10 more empty bottles and it tells you right away there is a now a shortage and the treatment isn't working. The basic setup is also interesting and will remind filmgoers of "Alien" as the the ship is divided into layers separated by hatches and the deadly Martian comes from them floor by floor, hiding in ducts and picking off the crew one by one. 

Not the best or the worst of this sort of 50s sci-fi so something to watch if you happen to catch it and can deal with the acting. 

The Twleve (restored 2006 documentary) 2025 directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

Originally released in 2006 on Amazon and then updated several times later, this documentary is about Boston’s most diverse dance club, open from the 70s to the 90s. Three floors, a piano bar and pool tables in the basement, a new wave punk dance floor and then a classic disco dance floor… plus in good weather a roof deck with a grill! The entire LBGT+ community was welcome and mixed together as well straight people and a few other minorities that were not welcomed in other, straighter bars at the time. 

This version is recut, new graphics, where possible, with better sound and upscaled to HD. It was filmed on zero budget with an old video camera and a mono microphone from the Radio Shack so I’ve tried to improve it where possible but tech is only so magical, even these days.

The goal is to give people who were not able to go to this wonderful place and a sense of what it was like and to remind the world of Boston’s gay history and a world that is now gone and lost.