Oct 16, 2016
Welcome children of the night! This week, Brian, John, and Elaine regale us with the long and storied history of the vampire film and its place in horror cinema. We will try to answer some of the big questions associated with vampire movies, like how in less than 100 years we can go from blood thirsty, sex obsessed, gothic romantics to sparkly hipster vampires that simply "suck". So grab your holy water and sharpen your wood stakes as we crack open the crypt on the history of vampire films.
Movie News!
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Vampire Movies
Vampire History
Most of the cinematic vampires can be traced back to Bram
Stoker's Dracula.
Dracula was based on an amalgamation of different vampire myths and
legends dating back to the dark ages.
Vlad the Impaler
Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Vampires are based on a misunderstanding of how death and
decomposition works.
Vampires are also symbols of our feelings of lust, the sacred
nature of blood, fears of foreigners, fear of venlarial
disease.
Vampires at the Dawn of Cinema
Nosferatu (1922) an unofficial production of Dracula is
considered to be the first vampire film.
Murnau's Count Orlock terrified audiences with rat like
features and is far removed from the dashing count later
introduced.
Excellent example of German Expressionist filmmaking.
Universal Monsters of the 30's & 40's
Bela Lugosi's Dracula featured the first cinematic version of
the dashing romantic count.
Director, Todd Browning, based his film more on the broadway play
rather than the Bram Stoker book.
1931's Dracula is more of a filmed version of the play. There
really isn't a lot of variation in the cinematography. A lot
of wide angles and not a whole lot of movement within the
frame.
Interesting fact, the Spanish language version of Dracula features
more creativity in cinematography and visual effects for its
time.
Hammer Horror and the Rise of Blood and Sex
In the 1950's, the UK's Hammer Studios releases Horror of
Dracula, a Dracula film in color featuring a vampire that drinks
blood on camera and is far more sexual than previous
incarnations.
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing become the archetypes for Count
Dracula and Van Helsing respectively.
Exploitation Vampires in the 70's
The 70's saw the rise of exploitation vampire films with movies
like Blacula, Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula, George Romero's
Martin, and Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot.
Anne Rice Vampires are introduced. The vampire now is more of
a self reflective creature that contemplates their immortality
rather than just being a bloodthirsty monster.
Mixed Bag for The 80's
Vampires now had to compete with the popular slasher films
of the decade.
Goofy vampire movies became popular.
Once Bitten
Vampire's Kiss
My Best Friend's a Vampire
Vampire films reflected a more comedic tone due to the the
association of blood and the AIDS epidemic.
Vampires also took a much darker and bloodier turn, yet stayed away
from the gothic horror roots, with movies like The Lost Boys and
Near Dark.
1990's Buffy and the Return of Dracula
The 90's brought a new twist of the vampire myth with Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer film and tv series.
Notable for changing the role of a male vampire slayer into a female.
Gothic horror returned to the screen in 1992 with Bram Stoker's Dracula- Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Notable for being the first major film to be digitally
edited.
The film saved Francis Ford Coppola's production company, American
Zoetrope, from going out of business.
All effects were done in camera, no digital effects.
Led to a resurgence in gothic horror films with Frankens...