Was Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck the first vampire comedy? Released in 1967, I caught it on TV much, much later, but don't remember laughing very much. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I seem to recall it had a very arch, theatrical feel that kept me from enjoying it. Coming along twenty years later, Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys was much more in tune with my sensibilities -- and much funnier, filled with smart-aleck one-liners and tight, bloody action. Recently Netherbeast Incorporated tried to combine comedy with vampires in a corporate setting. The AFI Dallas festival audience was very kind to it, but I thought it was a disaster, with very few laughs. Boy, maybe it is a generational thing, and time has passed me by!

Still, I maintain hope that a future vampire comedy will make me laugh and give me some thrills, which is why I'm writing about Barak Epstein's Blood on the Highway. It's a short film that is currently in production in my home base of Dallas, Texas. Filmmaker David Lowery has posted about it on his blog, Drifting: A Director's Log, and he's sparked my interest with his sheer enthusiasm about working 16-hour days as an on-set editor. He volunteered the use of one of his cameras, "whose duties included being strapped to the hood of a car and driven down the freeway at high speeds. Hooray for reckless shooting! Today, I wound up on the opposite side of the lens, playing a vampire. I got some dialogue and my own pair of bloody fangs and everything. It was awesome." In another post, he described what kept things lively (no fair quoting, you have to visit his page to find out). Blood on the Highway is due out in 2008.

Now that he's apparently back on the wagon and sober, Jason Mewes is looking to make something out of his career ... by starring in really crappy movies. I'll admit it: I've never seen Mewes in anything other than a Kevin Smith film, so I guess it's wrong of me to judge. But I'm going to go ahead and judge anyway: His films stink.

Part of me almost wanted to check out Bottom's Up, but the thought of having to watch Paris Hilton try to act for an hour and a half was just too much to handle. Besides, I didn't have a decent enough vomit bucket nearby. In saying that, Mewes has landed a role in Netherbeast Incorporated, to be directed by Dean Matthew Ronalds. (Okay, how many people ask "Dean Ronalds" which school he works for every day? I'm going to say 17.) Pic is said to be a vampire comedy set in the world of America's businesses. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the premise sounds pretty interesting. Lucky for us, Paris Hilton has not been cast. Hmm, seeing as she makes a living sucking the life out of anything remotely interesting, I'm surprised she's not on board.