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Cemetery Girls
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Vampires in Film |
Vampire films have been a staple since the silent days, so much so that the
depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in movies
throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been
from Bram Stoker's Dracula, with over 200 versions to date. Running a distant
second are adaptations of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The legend of Elizabeth
Báthory, the "Blood Countess" has also been an influence. By 2005, Dracula had
been the subject of more films than any other fictional character.
A genuine supernatural vampire features in the landmark (1922 Germany, directed by
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau). This was an unlicensed version of 's Dracula, based so closely on the novel that the estate sued and
won, with all copies ordered to be destroyed. It would be painstakingly restored in 1994
by a team of European scholars from the five surviving prints that had escaped
destruction.
The next classic treatment of the vampire legend was in Universal's Dracula (1931)
starring Bela Lugosias. Five years after the release of the film, Universal released Dracula's
Daughter (1936), a direct sequel that starts immediately after the end of the first
film. A second sequel, Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney, Jr. followed in 1943.
Despite his apparent death in the 1931 film, the Count returned to life in three more
Universal films of the mid-1940s: House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula
(1945) both starring John Carradine and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948). While Lugosi had played a vampire in two other movies during the 1930s and 40's,
it was only in this final film that he played Count Dracula onscreen for the second (and
last) time.
A link between the Universal tradition and the later Hammer style is the 1957 Mexican
movie El Vampiro that actually showed the vampire fangs (Lugosi did not) and
introduced other now common cliches.
Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation in the celebrated Hammer Horror series of
films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The first of these films Dracula
(1958) was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these. A
more faithful adaptation of Stoker's novel appeared as Dracula (1993) directed by
Francis Ford Coppola though also identifying Count Dracula with the notorious medieval
Balkan ruler Vlad the Impaler.
A
distinct sub-genre of vampire films, ultimately inspired by Le Fanu's Carmilla
explored the topic of the lesbian vampire. The first of these was Blood and Roses
(1960) by Roger Vadim. More explicit lesbian content was provided in Hammer Studios
Karnstein trilogy. The first of these, The Vampire Lovers, (1970), starring Ingrid
Pitt and Madeleine Smith, was a relatively straightforward re-telling of LeFanu's novella,
but with more overt violence and sexuality. Later films in this sub-genre such as Vampyres
(1974) became even more explicit in their depiction of sex, nudity and violence.
Beginning with the absurd Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) the vampire
film has often been the subject of comedy. The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) by
Academy Award winner Roman Polanski was a notable parody of the genre. Other comedic
treatments, of variable quality, include Old Dracula (1974) featuring David Niven
as a lovelorn Dracula, Love at First Bite (1979 USA) featuring George Hamilton and Dracula:
Dead and Loving It (1995 USA, directed by Mel Brooks) with Canadian Leslie Nielsen
giving it a comic twist.
Another development in some vampire films has been a change from supernatural horror to
science fictional explanations of vampirism. The Last Man on Earth Italy 1964,
directed by Ubaldo Ragona) and The Omega Man (1971 USA, directed by Boris Sagal),
both based on 's novel I Am Legend, are two examples. Vampirism is explained as a
kind of virus in David Cronenberg's Rabid (1976 Canada) and Red-Blooded American
Girl (1990 Canada, directed by David Blyth).
Race has been another theme, as exemplified by the blaxploitation picture Blacula (1972)
and several sequels.
A major character in most vampire films is the vampire hunter, of which Stoker's Abraham
Van Helsing is a prototype. However, killing vampires has changed. Where Van Helsing
relied on a stake through the heart, in Vampires 1998 USA, directed by John Carpenter,
Jack Crow James Woods) has a heavily-armed squad of vampire hunters, and in Buffy the
Vampire Slayer (1992 USA, directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui), writer Joss Whedon (who created
TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spinoff Angel) attached The Slayer, Buffy Summers Kristy
Swanson in the film, Sarah Michelle Gellar in the TV series), to a network of Watchers and
mystically endowed her with superhuman powers.Back to The Main Menu |
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