Australian writer/director Tom Conyers makes his feature film debut with The Caretaker, an intelligent you-watch-my-back-and-I-won’t-stake-yours vampire thriller starring Aussie stage actress Anna Kate Burgess (”Time Warp: A Rocky Horror Tribute Show”).

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The film’s synopsis reads:

As a wave of vampirism sweeps the world, Annie and Guy, who have taken a road trip in a last-ditch attempt to save their relationship, find themselves part of a discordant group holed up in a decrepit country mansion.

In an uneasy pact, the group agrees to protect vampire Ford Grainger during daylight hours. In return, he guarantees their safety from marauding vampires at night.

Manipulation, deceit and betrayal within the group threaten the fragile agreement, leading to a terrifying and heart-rending showdown.

The Caretaker costars newcomer Clint Dowdell, Colin MacPherson (Parallels) and Lee Mason (Parallels). No word on a release date yet, but there is a website to stay informed and peep some cool BTS stuff.

“Smallville’s” Cassidy Freeman is heading to Mystic Falls, the fictional small Virginia town that vampire brothers Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan Salvatore (the guy who isn’t Ian Somerhalder) call home on The CW’s “The Vampire Diaries.”

TV Line reports that Freeman will play a “sexy and fearless” woman named Sage in the 16th episode of the show’s current season. The character will be introduced in a flashback sequence dating back to 1912, and may return in later episodes.

Freeman, who starred as lesbian Frances Dunhill on NBC’s short-lived 2011 drama “The Playboy Club,” is best known for her portrayal of LuthorCorp CEO Tess Mercer on The CW’s recently ended Superman series “Smallville.”

The folks at Screen Gems want to remind you why you need to see Underworld: Awakening, the fourth installment in the popular vampires-vs-werewolves franchise that sees the return of Kate Beckinsale as death-dealer Selene … and, it has little to do with supernatural creatures.

Sure, the new trailer provides better looks at Eve, Selene’s half-vamp/half-lycan teen daughter, and the film’s bigger, meaner, and hairier mega-lycan, but the hard sell comes near the end of the clip when it states “Kate Beckinsale In 3-D” and with a low angle shot of her crotch.

Well played, Screen Gems, well played. Underworld: Awakening opens Jan. 20, 2012.

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Kelly Overton is ready to run with the big dogs on season five of the HBO vampire soap “True Blood.” The 33-year-old stunner will play a “dirty and beautiful” werewolf named Rikki who is out to uncover what has happened to her pack leader.

Overton, whose genre work includes Anchor Bay’s Tekken and DreamWork’s The Ring Two, joins a growing cast of guest stars that includes Italian actress Valentina Cervi (Jane Eyre) as seductive vampire Salome and Louis Herthum (Last Exorcism) as an elder werewolf.

Her character arch will run for six episodes, but does hold the possibility of turning into a recurring role. Season five of “True Blood’ is expected to premiere next summer. Hopefully it won’t blow fairy balls like season four did.

“Pretty Little Liar” Torrey DeVitto has landed a recurring role on the hit CW series “The Vampire Diaries.” The 27-year-old starlet will play Mary, an intelligent young doctor fascinated by the self-healing powers of history teacher and vampire hunter Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis).

DeVitto’s first two episodes are set to air when “The Vampire Diaries” returns from hiatus on Jan. 5 (this week’s episode marks its last first-run until then). According to THR, DeVitto’s character is expected to have a multi-episode arch.

DeVitto, who is married VD’s regular Paul Wesley (known to most as The Guy Who Isn’t Ian Somerhalder), currently plays Melissa Hastings on ABC Family’s teen-mystery soap “Pretty Little Liars.” Her movie creds include I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer and this year’s exorcism tale The Rite.

She will also be seen starring opposite Radha Mitchell and Stephen Moyer in Fourth Kind director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s Evidence, a found-footage frightener that follows police detectives as they attempt to put together a portrait of a mass murderer by utilizing his victims’ camcorders, flip cams, and smart-phones.

Sony Screen Gems has released a second trailer for producer Len Wiseman’s Underworld: Awakening, the fourth installment in the popular vampires-vs-werewolves franchise that sees the return of original star Kate Beckinsale as death-dealer Selene.

This time out we get a glimpse at Selene’s weepy pain-in-the-ass daughter, played by India Eisley (”The Secret Life of the American Teenager”), discover that humans have declared war on both vampires and lycans, and are reminded why we still watch this series at the 1:56 mark.

Underworld: Awakening is directed by Swedish filmmakers Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein (Shelter) from a script by John Hlavin (”The Shield”). It arrives in theaters on Jan. 20, 2012.

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British actress Lucy Griffiths’ starring role on The CW’s now abandoned teen-zombie apocalypse series “The Awakening” may be DOA, but the 25-year-old starlet is set to breathe new life into the fifth season of HBO’s hit vampire soap “True Blood.”

According to TVLine, Griffiths will play Eric Northman’s (Alexander Skarsgard) sister Nora, a centuries old vampire turned by Godric (Allan Hyde) and now working as a double agent within the Vampire Authority. She’s described as an intelligent and intimidating force with a penchant for lying.

Griffiths is best known for her portrayal of doomed Lady Marion of Leaford on the BBC program “Robin Hood.” Earlier this year, she and “Royal Pains” star Meredith Hagner were cast to play sisters on The CW’s “The Awakening,” a coming-of-age drama set against a zombie apocalypse backdrop that wasn’t picked up to series.

Malaysian model/actress Natassia Malthe is set to reprise her role as deadly dhampir (half vampire/half human) Rayne in German director Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne 4, the latest chapter in the popular home video franchise based on the Terminal Reality video game of the same name.

No word on what sinister forces Malthe will face in the new BloodRayne movie, but whatever they may be chances are she’ll do it naked. The 37-year-old stunner has already gone nude while battling evil in BloodRayne 3: The Third Reich, the 2005 Last House on the Left ripoff Chaos and the possession thriller Devil’s Highway.

Malthe’s other genre creds include Boll’s Bloodrayne 2: Deliverance, Universal’s Alone in the Dark 2, the werewolf thriller Skinwalkers, superhero flick Electra (she shared a kiss with Jennifer Garner), Halloween: Resurrection, the David E. Kelly penned creature-feature Lake Placid, and the stupidly awesome DOA: Dead or Alive.

Up next are roles in writer/director Matthew Schilling’s feature film debut Avarice (opposite Kevin Sorbo) and Boll’s … In the Name of the King 2 (with Dolph Lundgren).

Here you see Portuguese model/actress Paula Labaredas shooting a commercial as comic heroine Vampirella for director Dave Edwards upcoming documentary ComicCosplay, an in depth look at people obsessed with dressing up as their favorite movie, anime, and comic book characters.

These shots were taken at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood, Ca. Labaredas looks hot as hell, but the pics don’t look all that professional which leads me to wonder if she’s been bamboozled into starring in one of those parody pornos the kids are crazy about these days ::cough:: Not Vampirella XXX.

Labaredas’ acting creds include the creature-feature Camel Spiders, an uncredited turn as a Princess Leia cosplayer in the Seth Rogan-voiced alien-comedy Paul, and sex comedies Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation and National Lampoon’s Cattle Call.

Warren Publishing first introduced Vampirella in 1969.

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Stephen King read a chapter from his upcoming novel “Dr. Sleep,” the eagerly anticipated sequel to his 1977 masterpiece “The Shining,” while accepting the Mason Award at the annual Fall for the Book festival in Fairfax, Virginia.

“Dr. Sleep” follows a grown-up Danny Torrence as he uses his unique powers to help the ill pass away peacefully at the hospice where he works. Trouble arises, however, when a group of psychic vampires called The Tribe swoop into town to feed on people’s energy.

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