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VAMPIRES IN FILM    BY BILL HOLLOWAY

VAMPIRES IN LEGEND, MYTH, AND CULTURE

            Vampires have been around long before Hollywood found them with myths and legends dating back to ancient times, in all cultures from Europe, to China and India, to even Africa and Central and South America.  Typically, they were demonic creatures who attacked their victims at night, drinking their blood—and usually the victim then becomes a vampire also.  It was not until the Middle Ages when the plague hit eastern Europe, especially the Balkans, including the famous Transylvania that the legends took such monstrous proportions in their toll both in imagination and terror.  Many plague victims happened to be buried alive and would claw their way out of their graves—and were considered of the undead.  The Slavics of Eastern Europe gave us the origin of the name from their Wampyr, became anglicized to Vampyr and later Vampire.  The significance to film is that any such myth or legend affects its culture and in turn its literature; besides some ancient and the Balkan tales, the Western culture adopted the Vampire as a tragic romantic figure as in Lord Byron's vampire in "The Giaour" and John Polidori's, "The Vampyre" in the early 1800's.   It wasn't until the romantic period of European literature that the blockbuster classic Dracula not only established a whole new genre of fiction but also defined and set in motion the whole film history of "The Vampire."                                     (Guilley, 393)

THE GENEALOGY OF THE VAMPIRE IN FILM

Vampires in Film more than most in the “Horror” genre, take their cue directly from literature, and not just from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  According to John L. Flynn in his thorough filmographic text, Cinematic Vampirs, the French Director/Producer/Writer Georges Melies, filmed the first Horror film ever, called “Le Manoir du Diable.” (The Devil’s Castle) in which the 2 minute ‘moving pictures’ invention created by two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere’s, le cinematique—much akin to Edison’s kinetiscope— showed the story of the demon/vampire Mephistopholes who did battle with a crucifix yielding hero.   The character/demon, Mephistopheles, was directly stolen from Faust—and Melies’ film even predates the publication of Stoker’s Dracula by one year. This production is significant in that this type of cinema is where the term ‘moving pictures’ came from—for the images were not on film but on ‘pictures’ that flipped in sequence as you either ‘cranked’ the machine or after depositing a coin, a small electric motor would flip the pictures.  The final significance to this ‘moving picture’ is the fact that the Vampire film as seen as a sub-genre today, actually began the Horror genre one year before the Stoker’s celebrated Vampire novel was even printed.  A film actually based upon his work would not appear for nearly two decades.  Thus begins the genealogy of the ‘sub-genre’ of the Vampire film and the start of the Horror genre in the ‘moving pictures, movies, and eventually the film industry itself.  (Flynn, 11,12)  Flynn continues to separate the subgenre into further delineations such as:

	·         The Traditional Vampire film, e.g. all Dracula movies and others like “The Night Stalker”(1972), “Fright Night’s I and II” (1985,1989), and “Salem’s Lot” (1979); these have been the most successful, both in popularity and in profits for the studios.
	·          The Alternate Species films such as David Bowie’s “The Hunger” (1983)  These contain many avant garde movies that appeal to the modern Gothic fans
	·          The Deranged, Psychotic film, much less known such as “Martin” (1978) and “Fade to Black” (1980), where the Vampire is a sociopathic individual.
	·          The Man-made Vampire film, where the usually a scientist or physician either purposefully or accidentally creates a blood thirsty monster (most ‘B’ films)

·           The Alien Vampire film where the vampire is an alien from outer space, e.g.—“Demon Planet” (1965) and “Queen of Blood” (1966) among many other ‘B’ rated productions.   (Flynn, 7)

Other than these categories, other forms of the sub-genre have developed such as the Vampire comedies or spoofs, teen Vampire movies and TV series, the Television soap opera—“Dark Shadows,” and “Buffy-The Vampire Slayer,” and even Vampire porn. Flynn proceeds in his text to review, critique, and catalogue many of the movies that have been filmed about Vampires ever since the aforementioned “Devil’s Castle” and continuing until the 1979 release of “Interview With A Vampire” based also upon the literary achievement of Anne Rice.  Since a full genealogy would be too extensive, one website lists alphabetically, nearly 700 Vampire films made world-wide since the first coin-operated, “Devil’s Castle.” (http://www.netaxs.com/~elmo/vamp-mov.html)  Because of the sheer numbers, only the English (USA & Britain) will be considered.  In the following pages of this research project the most important, most impacting, and especially those with literary ties will be documented with short summaries, review, and documented sources--those movies that are considered "B" movies will be given just passing notice, since they were considered cheesy, exploitive, and low budget movies that did not recieve much if any critical or popular acclaim.   This project will be dedicated to establishing the common threads they all have in theme, plot, characters, settings, and style.  In doing so the films will be approached in the following fashion:

Early Beginnings and the Silent Film Era—“The Nosferatu Period”

“Dracula” (1932) and it’s many “B” film imitators—“The Dracula Period”

The Vampire genre during the 60’s and the Advent of TV—“The Dark Shadows Period”

“The Exorcist” (1972) and its impact on the Horror genre and the Vampire sub-genre

The Modern Vampire period-“The Stephen King/Anne Rice Period”

Finally in conclusion to this research project, the effort will be made to reflect on the age-old issue of whether art reflects society or vice versa by considering psycho/sociological importance of the Vampire in Film and what it represents, how the Vampire legend fits into our culture and especially our literary fabric, and the significance Hollywood affects these considerations when factored in with the studio’s main purposes—to make money.  This treatise will be but a glancing overview and not an exhaustive reference, only to illustrate the impact of a particular genre of film, its significance in ‘meaning’ on society, and how Hollywood has either manipulated the subgenre or has adapted the genre to meet the viewing public’s demands.   However the most important goal of this research project will be to illustrate the impact and influence the Vampire in literature has had on evolvement of the Vampire in film—showing how the mystique and imagination of the supernatural creature represented by ‘the Vampire’ has been indelibly implanted in the social and cultural psyche in such a way as to be expressed in written literature and even the newest form of literature—the modern film.

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