Blade II - Nostalgia Critic

I already mentioned Blade 2 in my 'Best Vampire films' page.



It was funny and gory and made by one of my favourite directors Guillermo Del Toro, it's not as amazing as the first. It was still enjoyable for the action and the actors especially for Guillermo's favourite actor Ron Perlman's performance!



It was only recently that I discovered that Donnie Yen was in this film! Yes the great HK Kung Fu guy is in this film! He doesn't speak though.



There's not much I can say about this film, I'll let the great Nostalgia critic do the honours once again.

TV Series Review: Castlevania 2

Castlevania (2018) (season 2) Directed by Sam Deats and written by Warren Ellis (Contains Spoilers)

After waiting a year the second season of the brilliant series Castlevania has arrived! The end of season 1 left many fans asking for more, and now fans got what was asked. Not only did we get more episodes (8 instead of 4) but also more gore, more action and more characters. The first season felt more like a prequel.

The story doesn't start really where we left off but introduces us to a flashback telling more of Lisa's tragic story. We see her as a successful doctor living alone in a house helping a sick old woman. She says that her husband is traveling. It is implied that some time has passed and that she is married to Dracula. She sent him out into the world to better appreciate humanity. Unfortunately the bishop and his men barge in her house and accuse her of witchcraft, despite her innocent pleas it is obvious these men will not listen to reason. As they take her away and burn her house, she warns them  that her husband will seek revenge and they should let her go for humanity's sake but it is too late and we all know from season 1 that she burns at the stake thereby dooming the human race.

Later after the events of season 1, we see Dracula as he has rounded up several vampire overlords and proclaims that humanity must be exterminated. He doesn't care how as he has fallen into a depression and is filled with anger. Dracula used to enjoy killing as we see in a gory flashback but he was tamed by Lisa. She was his tether to the human world and since he lost her, he has lost both his killing nature and faith in humanity. His intentions felt a bit confusing at first but later it becomes clearer what he wants.

The overlords agree to join him and we are introduced to new vampire characters.Many are from other countries such as India and Japan, I thought that was cool but they sadly don't speak at all.

Among the interesting vampire characters is Godbrand who  is a viking vampire and is voiced by the great Peter Stomare, so fitting as he is Swedish. The viking is keen to join Dracula but worries that if humans become extinct then the blood supply will be gone and vampires will be left to starve. The next vampire is Carmilla, she is of course inspired by the character from Sheridan Le Fanu's famous novella. She is voiced by Jaime Murray. Carmilla is manipulative and strategic, she has a massive army and her own agenda. She of course will betray Dracula.

While plotting with Godbrand, she reveals how she killed the vampire who sired her after he became old and mad, deeming Dracula has become the same and unfit to lead them. Godbrand agrees with her and states that Dracula is committing suicide by seeking humanity's destruction.

Dracula, much to the surprise and disgust of Godbrand, has hired two human men to help him. Hector and Isaac, who are both necromancers and share a hatred of humans. Hector is voiced by Theo James, a fitting role as he was last seen in the recent Underworld film. He has the power of resurrecting dead things and a habit of keeping undead, rotting animals as pets. He came from an abusive family and agreed to work with Dracula with the promise that there would be a humane cull of humans instead of a genocide. Dracula of course lied to him. Isaac is African and was once a slave who was saved by Dracula, he also possesses the power of raising dead things.

We  get to see more of Alucard or Adrian in action and how he fits in with the heroes who are bent on destroying Dracula his father. In one scene he easily kills the demonic vampire creatures with his magic sword. There's more information on the Belmonts as we are introduced to the estate and the hidden library where Sypha researches spells and Trevor gets a super sweet weapon: a new whip called the Morning Star. With that new weapon he destroys more vampire creatures in awesome action scenes.

The level of gore and violence is just as good as the first season. There's one particular scene where a group of vampire overlords led by Godbrand slaughter a village to feed and the Indian female vampire picks up the body of a headless woman and lets the blood trickle down her mouth.

There's an interesting scene where vampires talk about a certain weakness they may or may not have. It is implied that vampires cannot cross or come into contact with running water. A weakness that has been mentioned in many folklore but rarely touched upon.

The dialogues are great and the chemistry between characters such as Sypha and Belmont is good. There's no romance between those characters  but  maybe a subtle hint can be felt.

By the end the heroes are victorious, but the show doesn't end there. Episode 8 shows Adrian picking up the pieces in his father's castle and seeing memories of his childhood with his mother while Trevor and Sypha set off across the world to use their gifts to defeat evil. That was interesting as left the show open for possibly a third season as Carmilla is still around and Hector and Isaac as well.
I'm curious to see how Season 3 will be like.

Overall a good season, the first one was a great appetizer to the main course that is this season. Gamers and fans of the games where not disappointed. 

                                                   
                                                      Godbrand the Viking Vampire

              Carmilla

Eat Locals (2017) directed by Jason Flemyng. Starring: Charlie Cox, Freema Agyeman, Tony Curran, Vincent Regan, Eve Myles and Mackenzie Crook.

During my summer in France in 2017 I came across this film on Netflix and was intrigued by the stellar cast.  This is a vampire comedy horror with very well-known and talented from the UK that I’ve seen in many films and TV series.

Synopsis: Facing difficult times and with their glory days long gone, the eight undisputed British vampire overlords gather up for their semi centennial meeting, however before the break of dawn, there will be blood and corpses, lots of them.

First of all this film has a lot of dark humour and something called ‘gallows humour’, it is a form of humour about very unpleasant, serious or painful circumstances. Any humour that treats serious matters such as death, war, disease and crime, in a light, silly or satirical fashion.  

This might affect or be confusing to people unfamiliar with vampire and horror films.

The film starts off with the big eight vampire bosses meeting in a farm house far away in the countryside. Unfortunately a group of humans find out about this meeting and surround the farm with a militia. The rest of the film is violent, gory and hilarious, it should even be re-titled ‘Vampires vs Soldiers’. There are scenes very similar to a typical home invasion film with guns and killings. 

The vampires are trying to recruit a new member with the unsuspecting gullible Sebastian who Vanessa (Eve Myles) seduces and invites to the farm. She even picks him up in a car with a license plate that reads ‘Bram 1’, a funny little nod to Bram Stoker. The action and killing scenes are fun and the characters well developed. The vampires are all different and with their own personality and witty dialogue. There’s even an old lady named Alice  (Anette Crosbie) who uses her old age to trick the attacking soldiers and lure them as she slowly walks outside using a walker while one of Thatcher’s speech is playing in the background. There’s typical British humour and witty dialogue, the character of Vanessa explains that she likes her food ‘organic’.  To add more to the craziness of the film an Asian vampire attacks using Kung Fu moves!

The actors are brilliant of course with the sexy and cute Charlie Cox as a ‘vegetarian’ vampire who only feeds on animals, somehow I suspect that was intentional to make fun of ‘Twilight’. ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Torchwood’ star Freema Agyeman and Eve Myles are perfect as deadly female vampires. While the other old vamps are arrogant assholes such as the great Tony Curran, not unfamiliar to vampire roles, given he was Markus in Underworld: Evolution.  Unfortunately these old vampires who are supposed to be at least thousands of year olds are not very smart when it comes to protecting themselves.

There is a serious lack of sex and nudity for a vampire film.

Overall the film is not super great but it is an interesting effort with the story in trying something different with the vampire genre and popular horror comedy tropes.  It remains a wacky funny and entertaining film.

TV series review: Castlevania

Castlevania (2017) Directed by Sam Deats and written by Warren Ellis (contains spoilers!)

To many gamers and fans of video games, the name Castlevania rings a bell as it is a game that is 28 years old. It first came out in 1989 in Japan from the game company Konami and was heavily inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula and the many recent film depictions of the vampire. The games were horror themed centering on a family of demon hunters called the Belmont and their quest to destroy Dracula. The first games heavily borrowed source material from motifs in iconic horror films and other Universal and Hammer film monsters. For example, the Mummy, the Wolfman, Frankenstein's creature, Medusa, the Grim Reaper and Count Dracula. Later on the games would include more mythological creatures. Funny note, the title is a merging of the words castle and Transylvania.

Since 2005 there were plans to adapt the game into a film, the director of the Resident Evil franchise Paul W.S Anderson was ready to work on the project but it was scrapped.

Judging from the many recent  dreadful video game film adaptations it is best to go with animation and so plans to do that were set.

Warren Ellis was hired 10 years ago to write the script and it was originally going to be directed as an animated film but as a trilogy and it would have been  straight to video. Ellis decided that the story was too vast for an 80 minute film so he conceived a trilogy. All three films were planned and when Netflix acquired the series they adapted the first in the trilogy for season 1. The following two parts will be released next year as an 8 episode season 2.

So I recently watched Castlevania season 1 on Ntflix and I was impressed, just a bit sad about how short it was. It was only 4 episodes and the episodes themselves were only 30 minutes. Plans on binge watching a vampire show all night long were shortened, but I still enjoyed it.

Let's talk about the show in details. Honestly I've never really heard of the game but hearing about the series and finding out it had vampires excited me and I checked it out.

As I mentioned previously this is a pretty good adaptation of a video game and a much safer challenge in doing it animated rather than live action. The script is quite solid and the characters are well developed.

The story starts out with a woman named Lisa entering Dracula's castle, by now it's pretty much established that Dracula is already well known and feared judging from the impaled skeletons in front of the castle. Dracula is already a vampire in the first scenes and introduces himself as Vlad Dracula Tepes. He appears quite gentlemanly and talks kindly to Lisa without threatening her too much. She states that she is a doctor and wants to learn more about science and the world. She knows that Dracula has a superior scientific knowledge and she wants him to share that with her. They fall in love and marry. Lisa (voiced by Emily Swallow, Amara from 'Supernatural') managed to tame Dracula in a way and to convince him that humans aren't a threat and he shouldn't be either. Sadly 20 years later Lisa is arrested and accused of witchcraft. As she is tied to the stake and dying she cries out, hoping that Dracula can hear, she begs him to not seek revenge and to let the people of the city live. Dracula hears of her death and devastated, decides to punish the humans. He gives the people one year to make their peace, to atone for the killing of his wife after which he will kill every human. A year goes by and the people are only celebrating the killing of the 'witch' and Dracula makes good on his promise.

The character of Dracula is more portrayed as a sympathetic figure here, having fallen in love with a human woman, swearing off being evil but as soon as she dies, in his grief  and anger he unleashes a hellish army of demons to kill everybody. You can't help but feel sorry for the guy, who lost faith in humanity as he sees them as corrupt and innocence is lost. He almost gets stopped by his and Lisa's son, a dhampir named Alucard but also known as Adrian Tepes. Dracula attacks his son.

Dracula is voiced by the great Graham McTavish, famous Scottish voice actor previously known as Dwalin the dwarf in 'The Hobbit' films. He is currently the Saint of Killers in 'Preacher'.
Alucard is voiced by James Callis previously famous from 'Battlestar Galactica'.

As the story progresses, Dracula is never heard of again and just disappears. His absence is not so bad as he will reappear later on because much like the game, he is the big bad boss that the hero must fight in the end.

We are introduced to the character of Trevor Belmont, a nobleman from a family of demon hunters who were excommunicated and exiled. Now Trevor is a destitute traveler who gets drunk in taverns and bar fights. He hears of the devastation of Dracula's armies and helps a group of travelling  wizard monks named speakers from being persecuted. Reluctant at first, he finally relents and helps them. He stands and fights the real enemy: the corrupt bishop.  Belmont is a very solid character, much like a Han Solo type of guy and brilliantly voiced by Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit films). The real evil is now the church and their inquisition-like ways, the bishop controls the population by blaming the demon attacks on the speakers. In one scene, the church is no longer a protection from evil as the demons easily enter and confront him. They state that because of his lies and manipulations, God has abandoned him. The demons even say 'we love you' to the bishop, they are impressed by how 'evil' he has become but they slaughter him anyway.

The ending is quite ambiguous as Trevor and a wizard girl speaker named Sypha find Alucard in a coffin deep in the catacombs were he has been asleep for a year healing from his wounds. Trevor doesn't believe the dhampir is the prophesied savior the speakers describe him to be. After a cool looking fight that is also pointless, Alucard offers his aid in destroying Dracula, he, Sypha and Belmont become allies and the show ends. After that scene I said 'That's it?', I need to see more, well we now have to wait a year.

The fight scenes were pretty good and very much like in the style of the game, it's very obvious and impressive, almost like an homage to the games. The characters and show are based on the game 'Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse.

As an animated show it works much better than live action because it is quite gory, thankfully not too much. It is done in the Japanese anime style and it works so well. there's blood, guts, even scenes were children are killed! This is definitely not for kids. It also has a lot of swear words in the dialogue. It's like watching an animated version of Game of Thrones. I think that from now on, video games should not be adapted into films anymore but into animated ones. Thank you Netflix and I can't wait for season 2.

 
                                            A poster for the 1990 third game in the series

                                                 The final 'boss fight' in the first game.

                                     Sypha, Trevor Belmont and Adrian 'Alucard' Tepes

Fim Review: Blade

This movie is often credited as being 'the first good Marvel
movie'. It is based from a Marvel comic book character but the movie is a stand
alone and does not belong to the MCU (Marvel Movie Universe) It can be seen and
labelled as both a 'Comic Book Movie' and a 'Vampire Movie'. I did enjoy
watching 'Blade' when it was available on DVD, the sequel was OK even if it was
directed by the very stylistic Guillermo Del Toro. The third one 'Blade
Trinity' doesn't even need to be mentioned here as it was completely rubbish,
even though it helped spark Ryan Reynolds career and allowed him to FINALLY do
a proper Deadpool movie. many years later.

What I enjoyed in this film was the action scenes and the
very '90s' vibe and feel that it had at the time.

I'll let the great and funny Nostalgia Critic do the review.

Film Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) By Ana Lily Amirpour

A Persian language American Horror film tagged as the 'first Iranian vampire western'. It was chosen to show in the 'Next' program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

The film is set in a ghost fictitious town supposedly in Iran called 'Bad City' and tells the story of several individuals who wander the streets, one in particular, is a lonesome girl who is a vampire and walks alone at night in search of prey.

Shot entirely in black and white, the film first introduces us to Arash played by Arash Marandi who dresses like James Dean and is described as the 'Iranian James Dean'. He lives with his dad (Marshall Manesh, yes, Ranjit from How I Met Your Mother!) who is a drug addict and a depressed widower who has amassed too much debt from a local pimp, Saeed (Dominic Rains) who bullies Arash and demands payment. The other characters are Atti, a miserable aging prostitute owned by Saeed who walks at night and the most enigmatic; The Girl who is a vampire and wanders wearing a long black chador.

The Girl (Sheila Vand), who remains nameless throughout the movie, spends her time walking at night and lying down in her room listening to hip music on vinyl while looking at posters of rock stars. Her first appearance is quite eerie, as she appears out of nowhere when someone looks behind. She looms over a shoulder and lingers, this is both menacing and visually iconic.
She preys on despicable men and even on the homeless. How she attacks is similar to most vampire films, she is invited into a home, looks around, waits for the man to come to her, plays hard-to-get and bites. In one scene that is quite gory and unexpected, she sucks a man's finger erotically and bites it off!

At one time she threatens a young street boy, bears her fangs and steals his skateboard, thankfully she lets him run off. The lonely vampire girl skateboards with her chador billowing behind her almost like a superhero or the classic cliche vampire cape. In another scene she stands on the skateboard, holding on to a wall for balance, her chador is so long and it hides the wheels. What's amazing here is that it gives the viewer the impression that she is floating like a ghost.

Do not expect a romance like Twilight here, for she can be dangerous and uncontrollable. A romance does happen when she meets Arash who stumbles out of a costumed party, high on ecstasy and ironically dressed as Dracula. The Girl takes pity on him and takes him home where he rests on her bed and they both listen to music. In the film's only tender and sexy moment, Arash and The Girl both dance together and cuddle. She could have bitten him but chose not to, they are both lonely and lost souls looking for solace.

Most fans would demand a sex scene but we do not see it, the clothes stay on.I didn't find this disappointing, but still sensual in its own stylistic way. I took into consideration that the film is Iranian so had to stay subtle because of the conservative culture.

 There is a great homage to cinema and classic films here, there is influence from Jim Jarsmusch's style to the Gothic atmosphere of classic vampire films and a perfect soundtrack. Ennio Moricone's score from the Dollars trilogy is heard, clearly an homage to the spaghetti westerns, no wonder this film is described as a 'modern western',

It is evident that this film is feminist and offers a fresh different twist on the vampire genre. Instead of the girl being the victim, despicable men are the victims and she is the predator.  The main theme that I've noticed here is the feeling of being trapped by circumstances- having to wander the streets at night to sell your body or feed yourself. The prostitute and The Girl are almost alike, both are lonely. The cliches and conventions of vampires; (is she scared of sunlight, garlic? ) are not mentioned and that's a good thing because they are not necessary. There is one scene though, where she refuses to eat a burger offered to her. She is attracted to Arash and tells him that she's done bad things but that does not phase Arash who is also 'bad' as he sells drugs and at one time steals jewelry.

Amirpour, the director is Iranian but was raised in America, she shot the film entirely in a small California town because due to Iran's strict government it was highly unlikely that she would be allowed to shoot this in her own country. Knowing that women in Iran must follow strict and quite oppressing rules, this film offers them a form of empowerment and revenge against the misogynistic patriarchal society. As mentioned previously the feminist theme is strongly felt.

Overall it is a masterfully directed and artistic film, the black and white style fit very well with the atmosphere and mood. It is not frightening  but still retains a sense of dread and eeriness. I enjoyed it very much.

                                              The Girl wandering at night looking for prey

Film Review: What we do in the shadows.

What We Do in The Shadows  (2014) Directed and written by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.

Jemaine Clement is mostly famous for appearing in in the popular and funny series 'Flight of the Conchords'. Taika Waititi is famous for directing a film called 'Eagle vs Shark' where he worked with Clement and a short film called 'Two Cars, One night'. These two friendly guys from New Zealand gave us a lovely treat. A mockumentary of modern vampire life in Wellington.

We the viewers are informed that a camera crew was hired to film a group of vampires who have promised to not 'eat' the camera crew. We first see a darkened room with a beeping alarm clock, a hand comes out of a coffin to slam down the clock, we are introduced to Viago, a German 18th century fop played by a very smiling and grinning Taika Waititi who also handles the German accent quite well. He proceeds to wake his housemates Vladislav, an 862 year old ladykiller who is busy having an orgy or some other sexual activity that Viago unintentionally interrupted. Vladislav (Jemaine Clement) is also called 'Vlad the Poker', which is a piss take on Vlad Tepes. Clement is perfect as the Slavic sounding sexual vampire who likes to keep it suave. There's Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) a former salesman, who likes to sleep hanging upside down in a closet dreaming of turning into a dog and having sex. He also has a human familiar or slave named Jackie, a woman who performs tasks for him such as getting victims, cleaning up after a feeding and mowing the lawn. The last housemate is Petyr (Ben Fransham) who is 8000 years old and looks like Nosferatu with a bald head, long claws for fingers and long sharp teeth. He sleeps in a stone tomb in the basement, does not speak, and hisses menacingly when woken up.

Viago has assembled his housemates in the kitchen for a flat meeting, what follows is a series of arguments and dialogue between what looks like regular roommates  but they are vampires. They squabble about cleaning the house and doing the washing up that has not been done in five centuries. The heroes are undead gentlemen from central Europe who have escaped problems and heartache in the old country to live in New Zealand.

The vampire roommates constantly argue and live together most likely for ever. It becomes very funny when the bloodsuckers prepare to go out, but being vampires they are unable to see their reflection, they try different styles such as 'dead but delicious' and draw sketches of each other. Compared to modern vampires they wear old and tattered clothing from their centuries. While outside in the streets of Wellington they seek to enter into nightclubs but must be invited in. They then demonstrate how to pick up women and bring them back to their house. The scene where Viago speaks to a young woman on the couch is hilarious as well as gross, he delicately places newspapers on the floor while the girl does not even find it weird and proceeds to bite her. Blood gushes out everywhere and the living room is filthy, Viago is distressed that he's going to have to clean the whole mess.  Jackie brings some 'guests' for dinner and the vampires bite a guy named Nick, who ends up being transformed and a new addition to the flat. That's where their problems start, Nick is extremely annoying and likes to brag about his new life and friends a lot and a bit too much for his own good. He brings along his friend Stu who's an I.T. guy, who hangs out with them with the promise of not being bitten.

It's funny and a bit weird that in terms of technology, the vampires are very behind. They look stuck in their ancient world. This works quite well rather than having them be 'modern' and 'connected' like in Twilight and Vampire Diaries. Their human friend Stu helps them by showing them the wonders of the computer and the internet. While they go out, the vampires like to go and exchange insults with a group of werewolves. Their leader and alpha-dog Anton, played wonderfully by Rhys Darby from Flight of the Conchords, like a manager, coaches his pack and admonishes them for swearing ("Werewolves not Swearwolves")

The film is hilarious with very witty clever dialogue and nods to 'The Lost Boys' and Coppola's Dracula. The idea of creating a vampire 'The Real World'  or 'Big Brother' was genius and it is so cool that it comes from New Zealand instead of America. In the end it's not just a vampire movie but more of a story about friendship, acceptance and embracing each other's differences. This film is definitely set to becoming a cult classic.

Vampire Roommates: Vladislav, Viago, Petyr, Nick, Stu (Human) and Deacon

                                                  Who's going to clean this mess?

                                              The wonderful and hilarious Jemaine Clement

Film review: The Hunger

The Hunger (1983) Directed by Tony Scott (Spoilers)

This erotic and stylish film based on the novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Miriam (Deneuve) is a beautiful bisexual vampire who falls in love with her consorts and bestows them with the gift of immortal life. But unlike her, the lovers age and transform into wrinkled desiccated husks. She keeps them in her cellar as part of a gruesome collection of lovers where she occasionally whispers affectionately to them. Miriam and her lover John are not typical vampires, they are more like immortals who must feed on human blood. They do not possess fangs and do not mind the sunlight, all other 'vampire killing weapons' are useless against them. In order to feed they use sharp pointed ankh pendants to stab at their victim's neck and then they drain them, making sure to burn the bodies and leave no trace behind. A typical hunt for the couple is seen at the beginning where John and Miriam are in a nightclub with loud rock music and flashing lights, a very stylized scene that depicts the nightlife of the decade. They invite a couple back to their home where they feed and dispose of the bodies. The ankh pendant symbolizes eternal life in ancient Egypt and Miriam's background.

The next day John (Bowie) notices that he is aging, he approaches a brilliant doctor Sarah (Sarandon) for help. She is experimenting with blood diseases and aging. She ignores John who ages so rapidly that despite him begging Miriam to kill him, she puts him in the cellar with her other lovers. Sarah tries to find John but meets Miriam and the two fall in love, in a very erotic and beautiful scene with 'The Flower Duet' in the background, Miriam and Sarah make love. Without Sarah noticing, Miriam bites her arm and injects her own blood into Sarah's vein. Soon Sarah notices the changes to her body and tries to fight the urge to feed and tries to fight miriam who wants to make her into another lover.

This film is very stylized and quite exquisite, the actors are perfect in it, I love the chemistry between Bowie and Deneuve. I also found the love scene between Sarandon and Deneuve quite gorgeous. The costumes and the cinematography are also stunning. I do agree that some plot points are sketchy and audiences are left a bit puzzled, in the end this film should be seen as a work of cinematic art. It is a sexual techno thriller with vampires.

Film Review:The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys (1987) Directed by Joel Schumacher

The famous tagline of this film is: 'Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire.'

The vampire movies of the 1980s seriously needed some reinvention, in this movie the vampires are transformed into punks. They were no longer scary monsters or blood devouring old men or too sexy. Before The Lost Boys and Buffy, vampires were solitary and rarely travelled in packs. For the first time the vampires are a band of stylized, leather clad, thrill seeking bikers, this was quite unique at the time and heavily inspired other films and TV shows later on.

Although the typical vampire cliches remain in this film, they work well. The vampires are allergic to holy water, they burn in the sun, the cliche of garlic was funnily destroyed in the film as the vamps don't mind it.

The film has some interesting parallels with 'Peter Pan', the title first all refers to Peter Pan and his friends, the tagline 'never grow old' is similar to 'never grow up'. The character of Lucy Emerson, the mother of the two boys Michael and Sam is wooed by the 'alpha vampire' Max and  nearly forced to be a 'mother' to the 'lost boys', much like Wendy.

The style of the vampires are very attractive for the decade, leather coats, punk, bleached hair, piercing, bikes and the 'no fear' attitude of punks that audiences loved.

Kiefer Sutherland's character of David kick started a new age of Gothic sexiness. Without him Joss Whedon wouldn't have created the iconic character of Spike and without the success of this film he wouldn't have created the hit show Buffy.

This film is not scary, it is more of a horror comedy with still a few scares and violent moments. I enjoyed watching it and will watch it again.

                                          These vampires had a 'killer style'

                                                            Biker vampires

Film Review: Near Dark

Near Dark (1987) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

(Warning: some spoilers below)

This film is unlike other vampire films, it's technically a Western with horror elements: vampires. It could be called a 'Vampire Western'.

Funnily enough, the word 'vampire' isn't uttered at all in the film, it's a bit like the 'Z-word' in zombie films.

The greatest thing about Near Dark is the concept of the dysfunctional family. In films today vampires aren't alone, they live in covens or families, ever since The Lost Boys. The family of bloodsuckers travels around, drinks blood and kill their victims in quite violent and gory ways. To them it's just like another family day out.

There's the tall skinny, sneering 'dad' figure of Jesse (a perfect Lance Henriksen), the 'mom' Diamondback played by Jenette Goldstein, the twisted sadistic Severen (an awesome Bill Paxton), the vamp boy-child Homer and the almost-angelic and innocent Mae. The boy-vamp is fascinating as well as creepy, he looks like an 11 year old boy but acts and speaks like a man.

These vamps are slightly different than other typical screen vamps, they don't have fangs, they can't fly, they can't transform and they aren't scared by crosses, garlic and stakes, they are however burned by the sun.

Blending romance with a plot involving an underclass of white trash nomads who are also vampires, Near Dark portrays in a weird sick sense, a world of misfits, how society sees them and how they treat others.

The misfits here being the vampires, they suck the life from all corners of straight society.

This pack is perhaps the nastiest mob of bloodsuckers on screen as they randomly pick fights, kill everybody in a bar and enjoy every moment of it. They leave a bloody mess everywhere they go, they thrive more on violence than on blood.

Their family life is somewhat disrupted when Mae falls in love with the human Caleb (Adrian Pasdar from Heroes), bites him and tries to initiate him into the family, unfortunately Caleb refuses to drink blood.

This film is really good, I enjoyed watching it. It has a sense of uniqueness, it is part Western and part psycho-sexual thriller with a touch of the decade's love for realistic splatter effects.

The film was the first one to include a 'cure' to vampirism, Caleb undergoes a blood transfusion and is human again, he has Mae undergo the same procedure so that they can be together. It's interesting because it's something other filmmakers, fans and writers never thought about, vampirism was like a terminal illness, it's irreversible, but not in this film.

Overall it is a good film from the 80s and still remains a cult classic today.

Film Review: Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) Directed by Neil Jordan (Spoilers)

This film was released nearly two decades after the publication of the novel by Anne Rice during a resurgent interest in the vampire genre was emerging. It became the highest grossing vampire film and it was the highest budgeted vampire film at the time. With a stellar cast of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirtsten Dunst it is an erotic, visually stunning film and still a cult classic.

The vampire Louis (Pitt) narrates his tale to the journalist (Slater) and the scene immediately changes to the exotic and gothic setting of Louisiana. Louis, a human who mourns the loss of his family, is attacked by the vampire Lestat (Cruise) In this scene, the vampire bites and they fly up into the rigging of a ship, the events become fantastic and the underscore Wagnerian.

The transformation scene of Louis is almost dreamlike, as the audience is able to see what Louis can see with  his 'vampire eyes'. The colors are different, statues seem to move.

Now in a complicated relationship with a companion Louis dislikes, he must feed on blood. Louis refuses to drink human blood and drinks from rats instead. Lestat tries his best to convince Louis to drink from humans but allows his friend to drink rats instead of letting him starve.

Lestat transforms the little Claudia (Dunst) into a vampire daughter for them, he did it so that Louis wouldn't leave. Claudia connects more with Louis and sleeps in his coffin: 'she slept in my coffin at first, curling her little fingers around my hair.' The scene shows them nestled together.

Lestat enjoys feeding and killing men, women and even children, Claudia shares the same hunger. She rejects her 'father' Lestat, she is so infuriated by her unending childhood that she kills him.

Claudia loves Louis like a father and also like a lover: 'Louis, my love, I was mortal till you gave me your immortal kiss'. She whispers this to Louis.

Louis and Claudia flee to Paris where they meet the Parisian coven of 'vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires.' This coven owns a 'Grand Gignol' like theatre called Le Theatre des Vampires where they perform shows almost like a snuff movie today. Their leader is Armand (Banderas).

 Louis and Claudia watch a performance where a young helpless woman is tormented and attacked despite her pleading to an audience who think they are only actors. The woman is stripped, Armand appears on stage and in a comforting mesmerizing tone says 'No pain'. The woman surrenders and is somewhat 'devoured' by a horde of animalistic vampires. The scene is pitiful but clearly portrays the activities of the Parisian coven.

The rest of the film becomes more dramatic as Armand falls in love with Louis and Claudia senses it, she is ready to let her 'father/lover' go if he makes a 'mother' for her, the doll shop owner Madeleine. Unfortunately  They are abducted by the coven and in a very tragic scene, Claudia and Madeleine are executed, as they are burnt by the sun, they embrace like a mother and daughter. Louis who was locked in a coffin and freed by Armand, finds them as ash statues frozen in agony, as he touches them they crumble to the floor like dust. This scene is quite shocking and it's almost impossible to not feel the sorrow Louis feels.

The next scene is violent and gory as Louis burns down the Theatre and cuts off any attacking vampires with a scythe, ironically the scythe that the vampire actor Santiago was using in a previous performance while portraying the angel of death.

Time goes on and Louis travels back to America where he assimilates with 20th century life, seeing his first sunrise on a big screen in a cinema.

I have watched this film countless times and still love it, it's got gore, blood, violence and tragic moments. It is a a good adaptation of Anne Rice's novel. Jordan incorporates the ideal elements to a stunning Gothic film.

                            One happy vampire family

                                A 'performance' at the Theatre des Vampires in Paris

Film Review: Dracula Untold

Dracula Untold  2013 by Gary Shore

The title says it all, this is a film about Dracula. I had heard about the production many years ago, they were thinking about getting Sam Worthington for the role! I mean he's brilliant but not sexy enough to play the most legendary vampire ever. This film tells the origin story of the world's most famous vampire.

A bit of Literature and history


It is interesting to note that in Bram Stoker's novel the origin and history of the Count is never really explained. In the novel the Count only recounts tales of his great family lineage. He explains that he is a Szekely, a subgroup of Hungarian people who were great warriors defending their land from the Ottomans. He also states that he is a descendant of Attila the Hun. He lives in a castle in the Carpathian mountains. Unlike the decaying undead living corpses which vampires are portrayed in Romanian folklore, Dracula is an aristocratic man. While conversing with Harker, he reveals that he is proud of his boyar heritage, a high born member of Bulgarian society, much like a baron or prince. He talks of his nostalgia of the past times, which he admits are only stories of heroism, honor and valor in modern times.

Though the rest of his story is obscure, it seems Dracula studied the dark arts, took up arms as a high ranking general or voivode, leading troops against the Turks across the Danube. Van Helsing states that for the Count at the time to have defeated so many Turks he must have been more than a man. He was spoken of as very brave, clever and cunning. He died and was buried but returned from the dead as a vampire. (Dracula, Chapter 18)

This proves that Bram Stoker did do an extensive amount of research in Eastern European folklore and the life of the famous Prince Vlad Tepes III.

Many readers of Dracula believe that the Vampire Count is Vlad Tepes Dracul. The Coppola film, the short lived TV series and this new film are trying to convince us that it is the case. Bram Stoker only suggests in the novel that Dracula is a descendant of the prince Vlad Tepes,



The real Vlad Tepes III of Wallachia, was called Vlad Dracul, this name was a derivative from the secret fraternity and order of knights called the Order of the Dragon. The men in the family belonged to that order and they were tasked with protecting Christianity and defend the land from invading infidels such as the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul father of Vlad III was called Dracul (dragon) because of his bravery against the Turks, thus his son was often called Dracula (son of the dragon) and his symbol or crest was the dragon. He was of course, not a vampire. It was believed that due to his extreme forms of torture and execution on his enemies, he was unable to reach Heaven and became a monster after death. He was known as Vlad the Impaler because he would impale the Turks on long spikes, reveling in the spectacle and even dining in front of executions. Despite his sadism and ruthlessness he is still seen as a national hero in Romania today.

Stoker read many books on Romanian history and came across the name and chose it for his main villain. This theory is still debatable by many scholars today.

                                            Vlad Tepes III  Prince of Wallachia

                                                            His favourite past time.


Origin story

Looking at the origin of Dracula is not often done in film. Francis Ford Coppola decided to explore the origin and connected it with Vlad Tepes in his 1992 film 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. In his film the character of 'Vlad' is the brave prince of history with a loving wife who kills herself after having been misinformed that her prince has died. When he discovers her corpse he renounces God and becomes a vampire. Centuries later he sees a photo of Mina and believes her to be the reincarnation of his lost princess.

This detail was similarly used in the short lived and awful TV series 'Dracula' with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. In this TV series, Dracula is the Vlad Tepes of history who was excommunicated by the Order and turned into a vampire. Coming to London as an American billionaire, he meets Mina and also believes her to be a reincarnation of his love that was killed by the Order.

After those stories I though looking at the origin of Dracula was a bad idea and should be left alone. Then I heard of this film and thought, let's hope it's a better take.

                                         Gary Oldman as Vlad/Dracula in Coppola's 1992 film

                               Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the short lived 2013 TV series



The Film

Without spoiling too much, the story begins as such: Vlad (Luke Evans) is the prince of Wallachia, for many years his nation and the Turks have been in conflict. He is a respected ruler, a husband and father. He was given by his father as a royal hostage to the Turks, (this is true historically). He was a brave soldier and later became prince. His image o Vlad the impaler is something he's rather not talk about and leave behind him. He has made a deal with the Turks and pays them tribute to keep the peace. One day the Sultan (Dominic Cooper) demands one thousand boy soldiers from his land as well as his son as a royal hostage. Unable to agree to those terms Vlad seeks the help from a vampire (Charles Dance) who lives in the mountain. The creature agrees to help him by giving him his blood to drink. Vlad does so and becomes a super strong man with incredible powers but with a few weaknesses that he must hide from his wife (Sarah Gaddon) and people.

Firstly, the actors are brilliant. Luke Evans is very convincing and handsome. He plays the loving father, husband and leader facing a difficult choice perfectly. He fits the bill of film vampires by being brooding and charming. Evans stated that this approach- showing how the man becomes the myth is a fresh spin on the centuries old tale.

The vampire who bestows the powers to Vlad is wonderfully played by Charles Dance (that's right people Tywin Lannister himself!) Though this is the second time Dance portrays a vampire, he had a very small role in the forgettable 'Underworld: Awakening' where he didn't do much. This time he gets to be scary and that is effective. According to some pre-production notes I read before, his character is supposed to be the Roman Emperor Caligula. So we're supposed to believe that the emperor of debauchery, sadism and sexual predator eventually became a vampire? OK makes sense.
Another note I read was that the famous witch of Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga was going to appear in this film, thank goodness they did not go with that because it would also have been too much or ridiculous I think. I still wonder if they were going to portray her as flying on her pestle or living in her house on top of giant chicken legs?

The scenes where Vlad awakens with new powers feels like watching Clark Kent discovering his super powers and learning how to fly. Clumsy at first but learning quickly, Vlad becomes used to his super strength and his ability to turn into a swarm of bats. That effect was cool, I quite liked that and how he could control them as well. This power is very 'handy' (pun intended, you'll get it if you've seen the film) when destroying the Turkish army when he takes them on by himself.

The battle scenes are well shot and fast but a bit all over the place and hard to follow. In one scene the assault on the Turks is seen in the reflection of a sword to a point of view of the soldier holding said blade. It seems original at first but still a bit messy, kudos to the idea and effort though.

The other small problem is the cliches or overdone tropes. So Vlad has weaknesses, OK we get it, every powerful being has a weakness. In this film it's silver and sunlight. I'm still annoyed at the sunlight thing, as I've mentioned in the article about tropes, according to folklore sunlight never burned vampires. I thought that if this film is set in Romania, they'd at least follow the folklore, but no. I also thought that him being the 'first' of his kind, he'd evolve and be immune to sunlight. In the end it adds to the drama and story I guess. The other problem is the lack of fangs and biting from the man himself, this only happens by the end of the film and briefly. This film is only PG 13 and not gory, I wish it was gory and scarier.


The film portrays Dracula as a sympathetic creature, a good man turning into a dark creature. It feels like a superhero movie except that the main character is a super villain. I've studied super villains and they always start out as being good people who through outside forces, madness, injustice, dark pasts and after obtaining powers, be it money, weapons or superpowers they seek to do harm as full fledged villains. It's a recurring trend these days, from the sympathetic vampires of Anne Rice, to Twilight and in the fairy tale world with "Maleficent'.

In the end I enjoyed it, though the story was very predictable, at least I liked it better than the Coppola film and the shit TV series.

Film Review: Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch

Known for his interesting style of cinema with inspiring minimalism and upturning traditional genres, Jarmusch decides to tackle the vampire genre. Known mostly as a filmmaker in the 'Indie' world, Jarmusch has given us great films such as 'Dead Man', 'Coffee and Cigarettes' and 'Broken Flowers'.

This film 'Only Lovers Left Alive' is an unconditional love story between a man and a woman aptly named Adam and Eve, oh and they're vampires.  They are mostly portrayed as archetypal outsiders, bohemians, extremely intelligent and sophisticated and in full possession of, well vampiric animal instincts. Cultured and well traveled, having experienced so many things, they chose to live in hiding, in the shadowed margins of society.

Adam and Eve, like most vampires need human blood to survive, but living in the 21st century, where scientific progress and forensics are everywhere attacking people proves to be too dangerous. They must be careful. Plus there's the fear of infected and ruined blood with drugs and diseases. So they need pure clean blood, the only place to get that is at the hospital. Adam often dresses up as a doctor and casually walks in to the nearest hospital where he pays a crooked lab worker for some bags of blood. It's easy and it doesn't draw attention. The scenes where they drink blood are stunning and well shot because they enter a state of divine pleasure and euphoria, the blood is like a drug for them. Blood being a metaphor for drugs.

Speaking of metaphors according to Jim Jarmusch vampires are metaphors for humans- being fragile and endangered.

They are very old, it's uncertain how old they are, maybe 200 or 300 years old. They have lived so long and traveled so much. It's as if this film is showing us how immortal life is becoming boring. Maybe it's the 21st century that's just not working for vampires.

In the film, the character of Adam, played perfectly by a very hot and emo Tom Hiddleston (I'm a Hiddlestoner all the way), is depressed. He sees humans as 'zombies' even calling them that way.

'It's the zombies- the way they treat the world,'

'It's the zombies I'm sick of, and their fear of their own fucking imaginations'

These are his words as he lives in Detroit and composes music.He hates the humans of today and in general, though he admires the famous scientists of history and their great achievements. His character is almost like a Hamlet/emo/tortured artist/recluse type. Which works so well because it's Tom Hiddleston and he's a vampire. Vampires like being lonely. He has a human boy Ian (Anton Yelchin) who helps him distribute his music and running errands for him. Adam has been living in Detroit for a long time away from Eve who's been living in Tangier.

The film alternates between these two fantastic cities. The city of Detroit represents a great city with a rich architecture and prosper industrial era, but now it's crumbling and abandoned.. Almost like the immortals, the vampires. It's nearly depopulated. The character and director couldn't have picked a more depressing city. Detroit represents a post-industrial America and now the decline of the American Empire.

Adam hides out in a very old and derelict house, Detroit is presented here as an urban America, with destitute and dilapidated buildings, showing that cops aren't doing anything and the government doesn't care. I see it more as a representation of America today facing the economy crisis.

Eve (the ethereal beautiful Tilda Swinton) however hides out in Tangier where the culture is very rich and there is a mix of traditions and breaking of traditions as well. As she walks through the streets at night she is constantly bothered by men who tell her 'I have what you need!' They obviously want to sell her drugs, if only they knew what could satisfy her. She meets up with the one and only Christopher Marlowe who is a vampire of course. Considering that his death was mysterious and never solved, him becoming a vampire is perfectly accepted. Portrayed wonderfully by the great John Hurt, he has strong and funny opinions about a certain Mister Shakespeare.

Eve longs for Adam and calls him, she decides to go and visit him. A couple of days later, her sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) crashes at their place. She's a bad girl and like a teenager behaves badly, Adam can't stand her.

Between Adam and Eve there's a beautiful love story and representation of how opposites attract. For example Adam, being depressed, wears black that matches his black hair and Eve wears white that matches her white bleached hair. There's a ying yang, light dark approach here, the most beautiful love story is the one where lovers accept their counterpart for what they are do not wish to change them.

The film is a surreal stylish treat, with amazing hypnotic music and beautiful actors. When talking about cliches I have a little problem with the film taking place at night all the time, OK so we've established that they are sunlight sensitive or just sleep during the daytime. Like I've mentioned before this cliche becomes boring. However the scenes shot at night in Tangier are mesmerizing and beautiful compared to the depressingly bleak view of Detroit at night. There's a very interesting take on blood in this film where Eve gives Adam some popsicles made with blood, genius!

When I first heard of this film, I did a happy dance, Tom Hiddleston, who will forever be known as the best villain ever, Loki, is a vampire! And the beautiful Tilda Swinton who was a witch, an angel and has worked many times with Jarmusch is a vampire. I immediately expected romance and an erotic thriller much like Tony Scott's 'The Hunger' and that's exactly what I got.

                              Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as Adam and Eve

A romantic night out in a bar

                                         Mia Wasikowska as Ava, the rebellious sister of Eve and
                                         Anton Yelchin as the oblivious boy/human servant Ian.

                                                               Blood popsicle anyone?



For more info and reviews: Sight and Sound Magazine March 2014 Vol 24 Issue 3

Film Review: Kiss of the Damned

Kiss of the Damned ( 2013)  by Xan Cassavetes.

Xan Cassavetes, daughter of John Cassavetes directs this ambitious low budget, out-there vampire flick and presents it to us as a new stylish erotic thriller. With it's slow pace, stark violence and raw sexuality, it's a nice grim and gritty film that is so different from the super-commercial realm of Twilight.

In the film Paulo (Milo Ventimigilia) is a successful screenwriter who one night meets the pale hauntingly beautiful Djuna (Josephine de la Baume) in a video store. They instantly connect, but she pushes him away citing a skin condition, later she reveals to him her secret; she's a vampire.

After she's shown him what she is, Paulo doesn't mind as he has already fallen madly in love with her. So Djuna immerses Paulo in her world of awesome sex, heightened senses, drinking blood and partying with other vampires. The beautiful Anna Mouglalis stars as one of Djuna's entorage.

Unfortunately their dream life is suddenly interrupted by Djuna's sister Mimi (Roxane Mesquida) who comes to live in their house for a week. Now Mimi is a 'naughty girl', she is impetuous and likes to break the rules. She and Djuna clearly don't get along and things  begin to get ugly. Plus there's Paulo's concerned agent who comes knocking.

I really felt a sense of 1960's and 1970's European horror after watching this film. It explores the theme of female empowerment, fear, sex, relationships and sisterly love/rivalry. There's also a vibe and feeling of other early great modern vampire films like 'The Hunger' and 'Interview with the Vampire'. These clearly inspired Xan.

The perfect casting of French actresses Josephine de la Baume, Roxane Mesquida and Anna Mouglalis helps in creating  very sensual, sexy, beautiful as well as dangerous female vampires.

The vampires in this film are the typical nocturnal predators who drink and kill their prey. Djuna, chooses to hunt animals instead and her friend Xenia (Anna Mouglalis) has found a blood substitute.
Despite choosing alternative lifestyles, they cannot fight their nature and they give in to their urges just as they should always be. Though they are powerful beings, with wealth, beautiful clothes, houses and the power to kill, they really are fragile creatures. They are incapable of integrating into our world, they are outsiders as they are unable to walk during the day.

Despite the cliches in this film, I still enjoyed it for it's eroticism and violence.

Book Review: Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot by Stephen King published 1975

After countless frightening and suspenseful masterpieces the master of horror Stephen King tackles the vampire genre in this scary novel.

The town of Jerusalem's lot, somehow changed to 'Salem's Lot by the locals is a very small town set in rural Maine. A town so small and insignificant almost, a very remote location with very small-minded people. King portrays the citizens as kind and welcoming but not all the time and not everyone is nice. The people are quite rotten and flawed; from an adulterous couple to a mum who beats her baby, the locals are not good humans. The locals also know a lot about their neighbors, but they overlook it, ignore it and sweep the sins under the rug.

The town has dark secrets that come from a big house on top of a hill called the Marsten House. Inside lived an ex mobster who was rumored to dabble in devil worship.This house haunted the novel's hero Ben Mears since he was a boy. After 25 years he has returned to the town where he grew up and in order to exorcise his demons after a traumatic experience as a boy in the house, plans to write a novel about Salem's Lot.

This is a horror novel about a town that is destroyed from the inside out. The vampire arrives in the town and decides to live in the scary house on top of the hill. This vampire is called Barlow and like many vampires in horror fiction is from Eastern Europe. A major fan of 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker, King wrote this novel as an 'unofficial homage to that classic vampire novel'. Compared to Dracula, Barlow is really evil, despicable and a great formidable being. I guess we could say he's ten times more evil than Stoker's vampire Count. The vampire only needs to bite a very small number of people and the infection spreads quickly after that.

Stephen King works well with the familiar conventions of  vampire lore, from stakes, coffins, crosses, garlic and even the Holy Host. Mr. King also adapts and puts some interesting  spins on the vampire myth. He has updated the pop culture monster from the E.C. comics and camp B movies.
When the threat is uncovered the main hero and the other characters go through interesting and philosophical dialogue to fully comprehend what is happening and to ensure that they are not going mad. Those passages are brilliant.

The vampire Barlow is almost unseen but when he appears it is to demonstrate his evil power and nature. Just like Dracula, he remains hidden, his 'plague' and servants spread the rest of his evil.

Like all his other great novels, this one terrifies and excites.

This is what Stephen King said in the Introduction of his novel:

'One of the ideas I had in those good old days was that it would be perfectly possible to combine the overlord-vampire myth from Bram Stoker's Dracula with the naturalistic fiction of Frank Norris and the EC horror comics I'd loved as a child... and come out with a great American novel. '

'I liked the idea of my vampire novel serving as a balance for Stoker's which has to go down in history as the most optimistic scary novel of all time. Count Dracula simultaneously feared and worshiped in his dark little European fiefdom of Transylvania, makes the fatal mistake of taking his act and putting it on the road. In London, he meets men and women of science and reason by God- Abraham Van Helsing who knows about blood transfusions, John Seward, who keeps his diary on wax phonograph cylinders. Mina Harker, who keeps her in shorthand and later serves as secretary to the fearless vampire hunters. 
Stoker was clearly fascinated by modern inventions and innovations and the underlying thesis of his novel is clear: in a confrontation between a foreign child of the dark powers and a group of fine upstanding Britishers equipped with all mod cons, the powers of darkness don't stand a chance. Dracula is hounded from Carfax, his British establishment, back to Transylvania, and finally staked at sunset. The vampire hunters pay a price for their victory- that is Stoker's genius- but that they will come out on top is never in much doubt.'

'When I sat down to write my version of the story in 1972- a version whose life-force was drawn more from the nervously jokey Jewish American mythos of William Gaines and Al Fedstein than from Romanian folk tales. I saw a different world, one where all of the gadgets Stoker must have regarded with such hopeful wonder had begun to seem sinister and downright dangerous. Mine was the world that had begun to choke on its own effluent, that had hooked itself through the bag on diminishing energy resources and had to deal not only with nuclear weapons but nuclear proliferation. I saw myself and my society at the other end of the technological rainbow, and set out to write a book that would reflect that glum idea. One where, in short where the vampire would end up eating the fearless vampire hunters for lunch.'

'Given my dim view of small New England towns (I had grown up in one and knew what they were like), I had no doubt my version of Count Dracula would emerge completely triumphant over the puny representatives of the national world arranged against him. What I didn't count on was that my characters weren't content to remain puny representatives. Instead they came alive and began to do things sometimes smart things, sometimes foolishly brave things- on their own. More of Stoker's characters are around at the finish of Dracula than at the end of 'Salem's Lot', and yet this is - against its young author's will- a surprisingly optimistic book.'

'I'm glad, I still see all the nicks and dings on its fenders, all the scars on its hide that were inflicted by the inexperience of a craftsman new at his trade, but I still find many passages of power here. And a few of grace.'

'Second Coming was the first title but was changed because my wife Tabby said that Second Coming sounded like a sex manual and then to 'Salem's Lot.'

'I think Salem's Lot, for all its flaws, is one of the good ones. One of the scary ones.'

In the afterword of the novel Stephen King says this:

'Dracula was my first encounter with the epistolary novel as well as one of my earlier forays into adult fiction, and turned out to be comprised not just of letters but of diary entries, newspaper cuttings and Dr. Seward's exotic 'phonograph diary' kept on wax cylinders. And after the original strangeness of reading such a patchwork wore off I loved the form. There was a kind of justified snoopiness to it which exerted tremendous appeal. I loved the form, I loved the story too.'

'There were plenty of frightening sections- Jonathan Harker's growing realization that he has been imprisoned in the Count's castle, the bloody staking of Lucy Westenra in her tomb, the burning of Mina Murray Harker's forehead with the holy wafer- but what I responded to most strongly was the intrepid band of adventurers which takes off in blind, brave pursuit of Count Dracula, hounding him first out of England, then back to Europe, and finally to his native Transylvania, where the issue is resolved at sunset.' 

'I reencounted Dracula in 1971, when I was teaching a high school English class called Fantasy and Science Fiction. I came back to it with some trepidation, knowing that a book read- not just read but studied even at a high school level- at twenty-four looks a lot different than one read at the age of nine or ten. Usually smaller. But the great ones only get bigger and cast longer shadows. Dracula although created by a man who never wrote much else of lasting worth in his life, is one of the great ones. My students enjoyed it and I'd say I enjoyed it even more than they did.
One night, the second time through the adventures of the sanguinary Count, I wondered out loud to my wife what might have happened if Drac had appeared not in turn-of- the century London but in the America of the 1970s. 'Probably he'd land in New York and be killed by a taxicab', I added, laughing'.
'My wife who had been responsible for all of my greatest success did not join my laughter. 'What if he came here, to Maine?' she asked. 'What if he came to the country? After all isn't that where his castle was? In the Transylvanian countryside?'
'That was really all it took. My mind lit up with possibilities some hilarious, some horrible. I saw how such a thing could operate with lethal ease in a small town; the locals would be very similar to the peasants he had known and ruled back home, and with the help of a couple of greedy kiwanis types like real estate agents, he would soon become what he had always been; the master. 
I saw more, as well: how Stoker's aristocratic vampire might be combined with the fleshy leeches of the E.C. Comics, creating a pop-cult hybrid that was part nobility and part bloodthirsty dope, like the zombies of Romero 'Night of the Living Dead.' And in the post-Vietnam America, inhabited and still loved, I saw a metaphor for everything that was wrong with the society around me, where the rich got richer and the poor got welfare... if they were lucky.'

'I also wanted to tell a tale that inverted 'Dracula' in Stoker's novel, the optimism of Victorian England shines through everything like the newly invented electric light.
Ancient evil comes to the city and is sent scatting (not without a struggle, it is true) by thoroughly modern vampire hunters who use blood transfusions and stenography and typewriting machines. My novel could look through the other end of the telescope, at a world where electric lights and modern inventions would actually aid the incubus, by rendering belief in him, all but impossible.'

'My characters turned out to be stronger than I had expected. It took a certain amount of courage to allow them to grow toward each other as they wanted to do, but I found that courage. If I ever won a single battle as a novelist, that was probably it. Writers have found it so much easier to imagine doom in the years since World War 2 (and especially in the years since Vietnam), easier to imagine characters who grow smaller as a result of their trials rather than bigger. Ben Mears, I discovered wanted to be big. Wanted, in fact to be a hero. I let him be what he wanted to be. I have never been sorry.'

'Salem's Lot, I still like it well enough to number it among my favorites. I like the picture it draws of a small New England Town; I like its sense of deepening menace; I like its strong, intended echoes of Dracula and of the E.C. Comics.'