Play ‘Van Helsing’ and Kick Dracula’s Ass!

Every now and then I come across something that makes my inner child giggle with glee, like today, when I discovered Van Helsing, a board game from Mayfair Games. Ooh yeaah, an old school board game! Maybe not as sweet as a vampire video game, but hey, any type of game with vampires in it…

Who Should Play Vampirella?

J. Forrest Ackermann, or “Uncle Forry,” had many claims to fame within the annals of horror. Apart from his magazine, the tours of his memento-brimmed home up until his death, his ownership of both the Dracula and Mummy rings, he also created an iconic character who wanders in the imaginations of countless fans. She of…

Young Dracula

The year 2006 saw the best vampire television series so far debut for a run far, far too short. No, not “Blood Ties” wonderful as that show was. Nor was it “Ultraviolet,” another lamented program that left the airwaves too soon. “Young Dracula.” Sounds like a children’s show, doesn’t it? Well, yes and no. The…

The Man Who Was Dracula

Actually giving birth to legends about oneself is no small feat. Yet Bela Lugosi (1882-1956) managed it. Much of the stories told about him are wrong, which coincidentally gives him something in common with Vlad the Impaler — there’s a lot about him treated as gospel but which are either untrue or at least disputable.…

The Secret Life of Abraham Van Helsing

Last year I was discussing possible casting choices in “Dracula” with a friend. My choice for Professor Van Helsing caused her to do a take. Michael Gambon, she said, was too old. Then I did a take. Van Helsing of course is indeed an elderly man. She didn’t realize that, and was shocked at the…

The Very Many Faces of Mina Murray

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…

Why Lesbian Vampires?

For all practical purposes, the trope Vampire Lesbian emerged with Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s novella “Carmilla.” Eventually, with the rise of a new medium–motion pictures–an adaptation of that story appeared. “Crypt of the Vampire” became one of the still-relatively few such. The trope, however, could be seen in “Dracula’s Daughter” as well as the eerie “Vampyr.”…

Night of the Vampire Puppets

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?…

Vampire Characters: More than Adventurers with Fangs?

Table top role-playing games are most often recognized in the form of Dungeons & Dragons, even amongst individuals who are regularly involved in this form of gaming and role-playing.  It often includes high fantasy adventure with Lord of the Rings-esque plot-lines and characters, involving the fate of the world, a kingdom’s destiny, or a princess…

What to do with Dracula?

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,…