If you have followed my writing for a while now then you already know that I am absolutely obsessed with vampire folklore, if you are new, then well, I love vampire folklore. One of our awesome readers sent us an email about how vampire fans need new and original movies, adding that he is sick of all the book adaptations, and it got me wondering – why not base a movie on an old vampire myth? So I dug up my old folklore posts and got to thinking about how rad it would be if someone made a big budget quality film about one of these old myths. Of course, I couldn’t pick just one myth, so here are my top three picks, the three myths I’d love to see on screen.
(Click titles for much more info on each one)
The Aswang
This vampire continues to be one of my all-time favorites, it’s just so bizarre and unique. The aswang is a Filipino vampire that was believed to be a sexy normal woman by day and an evil flying monster at night. She transforms into a large bloodthirsty bird at night and feeds upon her victims with her long needle-like tongue. It was also said that she could kill someone by licking their shadow. Can you imagine the crazy movie this could make? It would be so out there and unlike anything we’ve seen before. I imagine a story following the life off a gorgeous aswang women blending into the modern day world, keeping her secret from everyone. If I could pick the actress I would totally choose Mila Kunis, she is sexy as all hell and excellent at dark roles.
Hun and P’o
This one is much different than the one above. According to the Chinese, just like the universe consists of Yin and Yang, a balance of negative and positive, the same goes for people. The human personality consists of light and dark “souls.” There is a light soul, the Hun (also known as animus) and the dark soul, P’o (also known as anima), which are welded together during life and are separated at death. The hun soul is the good soul and consists of the best qualities of a person. The p’o soul on the other hand is the dark and evil part of a being. It was believed that after death the p’o was able to turn a corpse into the undead. For this vampire myth I picture a beautiful animated film. Yes, I know that sounds absurd. But in my fantasy world it’s a touching and breathtaking animation by Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke …etc. I think in his hands he could transform it into the most amazing and lovely of stories.
The Nachzehrer
I think that this particular vampire would make for a wonderfully dark and eerie horror film. This vampire feeds upon the blood of its own family members and then, once finished, it goes to the church and rings the bells. Anyone unlucky enough to hear the bells is doomed to die. It was believed that the nachzehrer transformed into a pig to feed on blood, however, in my movie fantasy that is left out and it’s just a scary corpse, not a pig. I can see this as a chilling thriller, staring someone like Adrien Brody or Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the sexy leads trying to survive the night.
What do you guys think? What vampire myths would you like made into a movie?
– Moonlight
There have been several movies about Aswangs. Me, I’d love to see a Lamia–the ancient greek vampire woman who is half-serpent the same way a centaur is half-horse.
I’ve seen the ghoul-like aswangs on screen before, but never the vampiric ones.
I love folklore, too! Hm, how about story about 18th century vampire hysteria,in Middle Europe, with folklore vampire – red-faced, perhaps fat – living in local graveyard?