Remembering Lugosi

On this date, August 16, in the year 1956 the actor most associated with Bram Stoker‘s famous Count, died. He had a heart attack while sitting on his couch in his Los Angeles home. Perhaps inevitably, a new series of rumors about his life sprung up. One, that he was clutching a script by his…

Biting Critique: Vampire Lore as Vehicle For Social Commentary

With the 6th season of True Blood having just concluded, and with fans eager for new episodes, it’s fascinating to reflect on the bevy of issues the show has addressed over the course of its run, including: xenophobia; subjugated groups gaining tolerance in an increasingly permissive society; humanity’s constant struggle to reconcile animalistic urges with…

Vampires Should Be Evil

I encountered the Vampire tale first through the movies, staying up late Friday and Saturday nights watching Bela Lugosi, John Carradine and then Christopher Lee portray Dracula. The Count was the epitome of evil, his whole existence on this Earth one purpose, to feed and create more of his kind. Vampirism was like a plague,…

Lets Remake Dracula’s Daughter

As before, I formally give anyone at all the right to use any of the ideas that follow. Go for it! With the economy being what it is, and the huge competition from the internet and direct-to-dvd, small wonder Hollywood studios look to established stories for investing purposes. Here’s a suggestion for a remake: Dracula’s…

Lets Remake Mark of the Vampire

Hollywood loves remakes right now.  Never mind why. They do.  Given that, here is the first in a series of suggestions offered up into the aether.  I claim no credit.  Anyone who wants to use any of these ideas has my absolute, unfettered permission to do so with no requirements whatsoever. Mark of the Vampire…

Limited Edition Universal Monsters Coffin Box Collection Coming Soon

Awesome news for all of the fans of classic horror! An amazing limited edition collection of Universal’s most popular classic monster films is coming out soon in the US (it has already been released in the UK)! The collection is held in a deliciously spooky coffin shaped box, it contains 8 classic films in Blu-ray…

Vampires – An Avatar of Sin

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…

Crossovers

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…

Why Fangs?

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…

Make Believe

Shoulda Woulda Coulda… Make believe is fun. In fact without it this delightful thing we call fiction simply would not exist. So let us now make-believe–as in “let us create a belief”–some beloved or well-known characters to be undead. Why not? For one, Sherlock Holmes. Leaving aside that the physical description of him is perilously…