Vampires » the vampire

The Infamous Sergeant Bertrand

Moonlight — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:00:44 +0000

In the late 1800s there was notorious criminal known at the time only as “The Vampire.” It was later discovered that this criminal was Sergeant Bertrand and before he was caught in 1849, he terrorized the city of Paris.

Bertrand, a military engineer of the 74th Regiment, had been breaking into multiple cemeteries. Once he was in one of the graveyards he would then desecrate tombs, exhume bodies, and then inflict all sorts of horrifying mutilations upon the corpses.

The superstitious guards and caretakers spread mass hysteria throughout Paris by claiming to see shadows darting among the old tombstones and declaring that the sturdy walls and iron gates should have been strong enough to keep out any mortal man. Thus the rumors of the mysterious and terrifying vampire began.

Once “The Vampire” hit a cemetery the guards and security were greatly increased there so that there could be no more attacks, the only problem is that Bertrand never returned to the same cemetery, he always chose a new one. This made it incredibly difficult to find and catch him.

But the guards got lucky and one night the filthy Sergeant Bertrand was captured, but only after being shot and accidentally leaving behind a small piece of his uniform at the scene in his haste to escape. Using the bit of uniform and the knowledge that “The Vampire” was wounded the officials traced Bertrand to a military hospital. Once caught he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for one year. And so ended the devilish deeds of the mysterious vampire of Paris.

Later on in 1901 Sergeant Bertrand’s case was examined by Dr. Alexis Epaulard in his treatise on vampires. In his paper Epaulard suggested that anyone who loved corpses, platonically or not, should be called a necrophile. Epaulard also introduced the term “necrosadism” as a label for those who mutilated corpses, most likely after researching the sick and twisted Bertrand.

- Moonlight

The Infamous Montague Summers

Moonlight — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:00:05 +0000

Way back when science was beginning to beat out illogical superstition there was still a man that was well known for his occult knowledge. Montague Summers (1880-1947) was a semi-famous English cleric, Gothic scholar and at the time, the leading figure on the occult.

Even though he spent nearly his whole life studying the supernatural, nowadays he is more respected for his literary accomplishments. He is actually the author of two of the most famous vampire novels ever written: The Vampire, His Kith and Kin (1928) and The Vampire in Europe (1929). These books take a deep look into vampires from a very Catholic point of view. Summers full heartedly believed in vampires and other supernatural beings, but he didn’t love them. He believed them to be evil and wanted them destroyed – he was one of those people that felt that all witches should be burned to death.

There is actually very little known about his early life. We do know that he was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1908 and that a year later he began studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood but was never ordained. It is thought that he wasn’t ordained because in his early years he dabbled is necromancy and sorcery. It is possible though that he was ordained in Italy by an obscure sect, but either way he was never recognized by the Church, even though he wore elaborate clerical dress.

Montague Summers didn’t focus on vampires only; he also studied werewolves and witches. Some of his other published works were A History of Witchcraft (1926), which was an introduction to the reissue of The Discovery of Witches by infamous Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins. In 1934 he published a study on werewolves, but that’s not all, he wrote others as well, all written with a strict Catholic mindset, so much so that they received approval from the Church.

While Summers despised the supernatural, his books do make for interesting reads. He most definitely put a lot of research into each one, some of his books containing extensive footnotes, excerpts and quotes in Greek, Latin, French and German. But the thing that is most interesting is his point of view, reading books written by somebody that believed 100% in evil supernatural creatures is certainly different.

- Moonlight

Vampires and Pedophilia

annimi — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:40:44 +0000

One of the seldom visited complex topics of vampirism, is the aspect of pedophilia that is associated with a centuries old creature and a fifteen year old teenager. Is the relationship pedophilic? There are a few different perspectives and aspects of pedophilia’s hypothetical existence in vampire pop-culture; whether it’s there or not may be subjective, –it depends on how you feel, basically. Pedophilia is defined as “a sexual attraction to children “, and to most, that pretty much excludes the vampire, –after all, most vampires in pop-culture go after women over twelve. And sorry, guys, but Bella is at the age of consent in most states, and in some cultures, she’s marrying age.

Let’s skip over the Twilight fascination, –at the most, Edward Cullen, is a statutory rapist, and those lines get pretty blurry when immortals are concerned. The issue with drawing the line here, is whether or not the status of childhood is subjective to the individual vampire, –after all, if you were 300 years old, would you not consider a 20-year-old a child? It sounds ridiculous, crazy, insane!, –to think that anything could be subjective to a creature of fiction, but when you consider that it is the adult mind that conceives of the fictional creature, then you’re talking about something else entirely. The question then becomes….

Are we subconsciously attracted to the idea of pedophilia? Are we hiding that attraction by burying it in a fictional landscape? Think about it before you start screaming, and check out the VILF article. Are we attracted more to the character, or the actor? The character, easily, is the more attractive of the two; the mystique, history, and background combine to make the character the pinnacle of sexual attraction. And how many of those characters are hundreds of years older? Remember, we’re talking about the -character-, not the actor. Would that character consider you a child, if childhood can be subjectively defined by differences in age, experience, and knowledge? After all, that’s the basis for most cases of statutory rape, when the participants are both willing, but the age difference is too great to be denied.

Statutory rape is defined as sexual intercourse with a person who has not reached the age of consent, even if both parties participate willingly. This law applies solely to human beings, –so is it okay to ignore the idea these same laws represent, when we’re talking about vampire and human romance? After all, we’re the ones making it up! We can’t say, that these things don’t matter because they’re not real. It’s coming from a human mind. The same rule applies to the outrage experienced by feminists who see sexism and blatant female oppression in Twilight novels, –though this writer doesn’t agree, she cannot deny that the ideas and opinions aren’t valid. because the concepts come from the human mind. Thoughts, opinions, and the places they go might not be tangible, but they’re real enough.

Before we close out here, I’ll give you something a little more obvious to think about, on the subject. In the Kathryn Bigelow’s film Near Dark, released in 1987, there’s a plot similar to that of the lost boys. Young guy Caleb is transformed, then encouraged to assimilate to the vampire lifestyle by a group of roaming, rough-neck vampires. One of the group of drifter vampires is Homer, a child vampire and one of the major characters, though this writer suspects he escaped any heavy analysis in the film and media because of the taboo topic he represents. Homer plans to kidnap Caleb’s sister, Sarah, a girl of maybe 8 – 9 years old, and make her his mate… Does the tragic character Homer’s subplot smack of pedophilia? Readers, it doesn’t smack, it upper cuts, back-hands, and roundhouse-kicks, of pedophilia.

Vampire Films

veritas — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:30:36 +0000

There are more than likely thousands of vampire movies out there, but most notably, the movie Blade, about the comic book hero, half vampire, half human, the definitive Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Interview With The Vampire, the debut novel of the Vampire Chronicles authored by Anne Rice made into a film, with it’s sequel, Queen of the Damned. Also as equally definitive as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is Nosferatu, eine Symphonie Des Grauens, one of the very first vampire films, released in 1922; the unauthorized adaptation of the novel by Bram Stoker.

Vampire films were inspired almost as soon as the ability to actually make, record, and exhibit films had been created; one of the first of many films was titled simply “The Vampire,” in 1913, and followed by “A Fool There Was” in 1915. Both of these silent films were about “vamps” or, femme-fatales; the inspiration for both the films and the terms came from the 1897 poem The Vampire, by Rudyard Kipling. The poem by Rudyard Kipling, was inspired by the famous painting ‘The Vampire’ by Sir Philip Burne-Jones, featuring a female vampire straddling a wounded, or sleeping man. The first really supernatural vampire film to emerge was Nosferatu; it was so closely related to Bram Stoker’s novel, that his widow sued, won, and all copies were destroyed, except for five. It was finally restored in 1994 in Europe.

Bela Lugosi later starred in the 1931 classic Dracula, and then in two more vampire films following that; one of them Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein, in 1948 which was the last time he would play Dracula. Then another in which he played a vampire character that was everything Dracula was, except his name; the film was Return of the Vampire. Bela Lugosi was in a number of early horror films throughout the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. In 1957 the movie ‘El Vampiro’ was produced, and was one of the first vampire films in which the fangs of the vampire were actually revealed. In 1958, the renowned Hammer Horror series debuted with the film Dracula, starring Christopher Lee, who acted in five of the following seven sequels. Later, Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking classic ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ emerged in 1992.

However, Dracula was not the only vampire novel to inspire directors and screenwriters. Although more distant from the novel by Bram Stoker, Carmilla, the short story by Sheridan Le Fanu inspired many classic vampires films. Carmilla put the sexual spin of lesbian vampirism on several popular vampire films in the 70’s, such as the Karnstein trilogy from Hammer Studios, as well as Blood and Roses, in 1960, Vampyres, in 1974, and The Vampire Lovers, in 1970, to name a few. The 1948 film with Abbot and Costello transformed many Dracula or vampire theme films into comedies. Sexuality has been drawn into the vampire genre of films from all orientations, and in both male and female roles. There are a few but still a strong flow of vampire films left that stick true to Max Shreck’s first portrayal of the disturbing, and monstrous Count Orlok in Nosferatu.

Vampires » the vampire

The Infamous Sergeant Bertrand

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The Infamous Montague Summers

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Vampires and Pedophilia

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Vampire Films

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