bloodthirsty, hunger and bloodlust
2011 nears its end, with 2012 to follow. Many the movie, novel, web comic and television series about the undead await us in the future–and if they deal with vampires let us offer a few gentle reminders. Past tellers have sometimes done marvelous examples of how to deal with the undead, examples that too often …
For some years now I’ve been aware of a startlingly original version of “Dracula” in production in Vancouver. The snippets that I saw, posted on YouTube, made my jaw go slack. One example that comes to mind was the image of Jonathan Harker arriving at Castle Dracula by ferryboat as if crossing the river Styx. …
Lots of “Ten Best” lists for vampire films wait for the would-be reviewer or simple researcher on the web. Almost as common are “Ten Worst” lists. Plenty of debate then follows, about which title deserves its placing and so on. But this list goes after something different. Not best or worst anything. Rather, which vampire …
One of the most renowned vampire films ever made is that of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F. W. Murnau released in 1922. The film is between 81-94 minutes long, depending on the version you get, and is a silent, black and white film with titles and symphonic accompaniment. The film is appropriately …
When vampires first drifted, shadow-like, into popular literature in the early 1800s, this denizen of ancient folklore became an incarnation of the Nightmare Stranger–the alien ‘other’ who presented a threat to civilization itself. It was death reaching out to infect the living. The foreigner who defiled virtuous women. A pagan invader thriving where the light …
Vampire Studies: Bold New Future? This is an update to the August 3, 2010 post, ‘University Offers Course in Vampiric Literature’. If you believe education is the future, you’re going to love this. As previously mentioned, the University of Hertfordshire in the UK has decided to offer courses in Vampiric Studies. But now, the course …
Cliche it may be, but who can doubt the internet created a whole new venue for amateur writers to put their work out there? In other words, the world-wide web proved a godsend for fan fiction. Or maybe from the other end of metaphysical spectrum, depending upon one’s view of the topic! Contrary to popular …
Burned into the collective memory of our age, it is an image of great power. The vampire looms menacingly, but then the hero reaches up and pulls away the curtains. SUNLIGHT! Like laser beams, the purifying rays of the sun sear the undead creature’s flesh. The foul thing dissolves into the dust it should already …
It remains one of the iconic images of the vampire. Lengthened, piercing teeth, usually (but not always) the bicuspids or eye teeth. Sometimes they stretch to the point of becoming tusks or the saber-teeth of the extinct Smilodon. Other times just a subtle increase in length and reshaping creates the effect. Especially since the Hammer …
While scanning the latest vampire blogs and news I came across a list of the top vampire movies, and well, it was horrible (Van Helsing should never be on a top 10 vampire movie list). So I got my google search on and looked up other vampire movie lists, and of course, those were all …
Go to virtually any bookstore and a seemingly odd decision awaits your eyes. Amid Biography, Western, Romance, Self Help and loads of other genres, two invariably get lumped together–Science Fiction and Fantasy. Yet as fans of either (or both) can tell you, many are the differences between the two. Why then group them together? An …
Bram Stoker seems like a such a conservative. He pursued a career as a government clerk until a better opportunity in entertainment presented itself. As manager of a hugely successful actor and theatre, he and his primly beautiful wife reveled as they walked amid high society. His novels abound with staunchly Victorian ideas and prejudices. …
Adaptations of Bram Stoker’s most famous novel often reveal more about the adapters — and about their times — than they do about Stoker or his work. Case in point: Mina Harker, nee Murray. Looking at the novel itself, we find a character who seems very much a yin to her best friend Lucy Westenra’s …
It is an iconic movement, an action in vampire films re-created many times. The motion pictures “Fright Night” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” both had their versions. For many, it remains one of the most memorable events in the first great film of one genre–as well as being a landmark in at least two others. Graf …
Pinocchio the Vampire Slayer was a 2010 graphic novel, with a sequel in the works. The title makes a weird kind of sense, given that the titular hero is in effect a living weapon against the undead. But another thought comes to mind almost immediately. Would Pinocchio have to fight vampires who were also puppets? …
Honestly, I didn’t like the movie “The Lost Boys.” Yes, the music and cinematography were both fantastic, but like too many movies then and now the lead character was boring. Since he didn’t involve me, I didn’t care what happened to him. More, the story didn’t feel like a story. More like a series of …
Draculas have begun to feel like a dime a dozen. Starting with the milestone silent film “Nosferatu” (i.e. skeletal, rat-fanged, pointy-eared) we’ve seen Eastern European versions, Spanish ones, porn Draculas, English Draculas, at least one female Dracula, effete Draculas, etc. We’ve seen the world’s most famous Transylvanian as suave, brutal, silent, wordy, young, old, Byronic, …
Since the day Bram Stoker penned the account of Lucy Westenra being ravaged by Count Dracula; most vampire, and horror fans, have associated our favourite, undead, blood-drinking harbingers with sex or at the very least consider them sexual beings with a lust for flesh which matches their own lust for blood. We see this theme …
1. He never once hints that he himself is Vlad the Impaler (although there is the suggestion that maybe he is related to that figure). For that matter, the most current scholarship into the novel indicates Stoker himself hardly knew anything more about the historical Vlad Tepes (pronounced tseh-PESH) than the name. It sounded good, …
We’ve talked about ‘Salem’s Lot before, –and probably referenced it numerous times. It remains one of the most terrifying, and disturbing, vampire films ever made. The vampires are neither blessed with souls, or romance, or any desire to do good. Kurt Barlow was a testament to the old vampires who don’t want to date your …