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.'

Book Review: Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures an Anita Blake novel by Laurell K. Hamilton

This book was published in 1993 and categorized as a horror mystery novel. This is the first book in a long series of novels with the character Anita Blake. The novels' events are set in a parallel modern world where supernatural creatures such as vampires, werewolves and other were-creatures live alongside humans. Anita is an 'animator' like a necromancer, she has the power to reanimate the dead in order to find clues while solving murders as she also works as a detective in hunting and killing creatures, usually vampires who broke the law. The vampires call her the 'executioner'.

Hamilton stated that she created the character after thinking that there was much gender inequality in detective fiction.

In this first novel of the series, Anita is hired as well as blackmailed by the vampires and their master Nikolaos, to solve a series of vampire murders.

At first I thought this would be an interesting read, the book is from the 90's and set in a world very similar to Charlaine Harris' southern mystery novels later adapted into the hit TV show True Blood.
The idea of a female vampire killer that predates Buffy seemed very appealing as well. Interestingly the name 'Guilty Pleasures' is actually the bar owned by vampires that Anita goes to. Vampires owning a bar? Wow! again with the True Blood comparisons.

Though the book was well written in a main character point of view and first person narrative, I felt bored.

Perhaps I was too hung up on True Blood but I felt that the story didn't go very far,I was left confused many times. The character of Anita is not very likeable. She's got attitude, she's tough but that's not enough to sympathize or connect with. She acts bitchy and is very judgmental towards other humans. Her features look extremely like the author Hamilton. Authors do tend to create characters that look like themselves.

She is at first asked nicely by the vampires and later quite brutally to solve the vampire murders. As she investigates it seems that she probably won't find the murderer, it somehow becomes unimportant and when the murderer is found it is not surprising.

The vampires are a little cliched and not romantic. The character of Jean Claude is very intriguing and looks sexy. There is a feeling of a pre-existing 'story' between Anita and him. Jean Claude isn't that very present in this novel. Anita and him have a bigger relationship in the other books.

This novel is more of a detective noire twist on the ambiance that Anne Rice created in Gothic literature. Perhaps Hamilton is making fun of the romantic erotic vampires of Anne Rice.

It is hard liking this novel now, but back in the 90's it was original and fresh, whereas now it is regarded as too cliche to us modern day readers.

To conclude I found this book boring and will not read the rest of the series.

There's also a graphic novel version.

TV series Review: Dracula

Dracula (TV series)

Created by Cole Haddon.

In this 10 episode series, the tale of Dracula the iconic vampire is rediscovered and reinvented. Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays the Count who arrives in Victorian London passing himself off as an American businessman. Working alongside him is Renfeild (Nonso Anozie) as his lawyer and accomplice and Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschman). 

As the American businessman named Alexander Grayson, he proclaims he has come to London to introduce a brand new revolutionary technology, this is actually a cover for Dracula to destroy a secret organisation called 'The Order of the Dragon'. Apparently the order who runs a lot of things in certain societies in Europe and perhaps the world murdered his wife  centuries ago and turned him into a vampire. He wants the new technology to thwart the Order's plan in controlling the oil industry, he also aims to destroy them from the inside. Dracula allies himself with Van Helsing because the doctor has also suffered under the evil ways of the Order, they murdered his family. During one of his presentations he meets Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker and Lucy Westenra. He is captivated by Mina's beauty because she is the 'reincarnation' of his lost love Ilona. He falls in love with her of course but cannot allow himself to be distracted and he cannot bring himself to 'simply take her' as Renfield suggests. Dracula answers that if he were to turn Mina 'that would be an abomination'.

At first the show seemed intriguing and interesting, I understood form watching the trailer that this would be a different version of Dracula, one with whom many vampire fans would sympathize with. I confess that the reason I got into this show was cause of the vampire genre and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I am a big fan and thought he would make a great vampire.

Everything is different in this show, the characters and the plot. Dracula is actually Vlad Tepes who was part of the Order a long time ago but because of some unmentioned crime, he was excommunicated, his wife burnt at the stake and him turned into a vampire. He is 'resurrected' by Van Helsing who forms an alliance with him to destroy the Order. Mina is not an assistant school teacher like in the novel, she is a medical student working under the tutelage of professor Van Helsing. Her fiancee Jonathan is a struggling journalist who doesn't approve Mina's career ambition and wants to marry her quickly so that she'll abandon her studies and become a good wife. Mina' best friend Lucy loves hanging out with her, even a little too much, Lucy has deep feelings for Mina and yes she is in love with Mina. Lucy is depicted as a lesbian. 

The dark and mysterious 'Order of the Dragon' seems like an evil cult or society like the Freemasons, they are depicted as the villains of the story. They seem to be running things in the British Empire as well as being responsible for certain gory events of history, like Jack the Ripper. Their true endgame is not really mentioned, they want to control the oil industry and they'll do anything to achieve this aim, even murder. By now this is starting to sound like 'Dracula vs the Freemasons or the Illuminati or any villainous order from a Dan Brown novel'.  The series mixes what certain audiences today love: conspiracies and vampires.

However this does not work, in fact the whole show does not work. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is perfect and super sexy in this role, I watched the show all the way to the end so that I could see more scenes with him topless! As well as watching him do what vampires do best; biting and killing.

The story reminds me of the Coppola film adaptation with the whole Mina being the reincarnation of Dracula's true love, please! Dracula as the American businessman has to really pretend and act committed to his new technology in a Steampunk Victorian London, with his so called 'wireless electricity'. He looks for ways to walk in the sunlight. I see that they insult Stoker's novel some more by making him sensitive to sunlight. Van Helsing finds a serum to inject into Dracula after many experiments but it's not 100% effective. He 'sleeps with the enemy', with the Lady Jane who is part of the order and a Vampire hunter who does not suspect him at all.

Many questions are unanswered, such as: if Dracula was part of the order, why did they turn him into a vampire? How did they do that? Why did the order murder Van Helsing's family? 

A show that has a character that looks more like a mix between Citizen Kane and Howard Hughes and a conspiracy a la Da Vinci Code? No wonder this show was poorly received and was not picked up for a second season. 

Film review: Byzantium

Byzantium  directed by Neil Jordan. Written by Moira Buffini

Jordan dives again into the vampire genre, after his 1994 Masterpiece Interview With The Vampire comes this new and innovative film.

The story centers around Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother Clara (Gemma Artenton) who are both vampires. Their bond is strong, they have been travelling for many years and centuries, trying to escape the mysterious 'brotherhood' who wants to destroy them. Clara and Eleanor pose as sisters, Eleanor acts like the typical 16 year old and Clara brings the money by selling her body, something she does well and has always done even before her transformation. They come into a seaside town that Eleanor recognizes from her childhood.

As vampires, they are different to the typical creatures of the night that we've all encountered: they can walk in the daylight, they have no fangs, they are immortal and need to feed on blood still. The way they do that is with a fingernail that grows into a sharp talon to pierce the skin of their victims.
Clara feeds on men who pay to have sex with her or on pimps, thinking her actions are justifiable as the world would be better without men like them. Eleanor feeds on the old and dying, people who are asking for release. Like an angel she goes to them and says 'Peace be with you, may light shine upon you. Forgive me for what I must do.' Despite the vampires in this film not possessing the typical characteristics of common vampires, they still need to be invited into houses.

The vampire transformation is a very interesting one, it requires a human who is sick and dying to be approached by the 'brotherhood' a coven of only male vampires. They give directions to an abandoned island where the man must enter a small cave and emerge later as a vampire while the waterfall behind the cave turns blood red, signalling the success of the transformation.

Much like Louis from Interview with the Vampire Eleanor hates her existence and the life of a nomad, she starts to hate her mother for the job she does; setting up a brothel and picking up prostitutes off the street to work in it.  Eleanor longs for companionship and to tell her story, instead of finding a journalist like Louis, she writes into a diary and always rips the pages off. One day she meets Frank (Caleb Landry Jones) who has Leukemia and falls in love. She enrolls into the local college with him and for homework she must write her story, she writes everything about what she is and gives it to Frank. Her act is considered dangerous and foolish but somehow we viewers sympathize as she is bored and lonely and wants a change.

The film has many stylish flashbacks detailing the story of how Clara who as a young girl during the Napoleonic wars was forced into prostitution by Captain Ruthven (Johnny Lee Miller).

 I find the choice of character name very interesting here. Perhaps it is an homage to the iconic vampire and sexual fiend from Polidori's novella The Vampyre. Polidori's character was modeled on Byron. Another homage to a great literary vampire is when Clara goes under the alias 'Carmilla' from the famous Le Fanu novella. As well as reinventing the vampire genre, this film contains wonderful homages and references to the first vampires of Gothic literature. In her essay, Eleanor mentions the word 'soucriant' which is the name of a vampiric creature from Trinidad, Guadeloupe and Dominica, there is no reference to Caribbean mythology in the movie itself and the vampires' origin is hinted as pre-Christian European. Eleanor befriends an old man who quickly notices what she is as he has picked up her diary pages that she was throwing to the wind. He talks of a story he heard as a boy about the 'neahm-mhairbh' or revenants, creatures neither dead nor alive. Upon research of that word I came across a reference to a story in Irish Folklore about Abhartach who was an evil dwarf and sorcerer who always rose from the dead and drank human blood. This story may have inspired Bram Stoker.

 Clara became pregnant with Eleanor and gave her away, she later 'turned' her daughter and they began their life on the run.

The actors are perfect and beautiful, especially Sam Riley as Darvell the new member of the brotherhood who always pitied Clara. Gemma is magnificent as a prostitute and mother as ferocious and protective as a mother lion. Saorsie is also superb as the teenage vampire stuck in this young body. Her hatred and how she lashes out at her mother, reminds me of the scenes of little vampire Claudia from Interview with the Vampire. The typical child who despises her 'parents'. Except that Eleanor is more calm. The setting and scenes of the seaside town, which is set in Hastings, gives off a very beautiful and melancholic vibe, all this is filmed perfectly.

The film is solid, impeccably acted and full of suspense.

Book Review: Fevre Dream

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (some spoilers below)

I am a big fan of 'Game of Thrones' sadly I am not interested in reading the 'Song of Ice and Fire' books, I was interested in finding other books by Mr. Martin and stumbled upon 'Fevre Dream', as soon as it mentioned 'vampire novel on the cover, I knew I had to read it.

In 1857 a steamboat captain Abner Marsh is offered a partnership with the mysterious Joshua York. They will both captain a steamboat on the Mississippi and Captain Marsh begins to suspect that there is something strange with his new friend. His suspicions are correct when the wealthy Joshua York is revealed to be a vampire and is waging a war with an evil vampire lord.

For a standard vampire novel George R. R. Martin changed a few things in this novel, it is not like the other great Gothic classics, it does not contain dark castles in Eastern Europe or red-eyed beasts. The story is mainly set on a steamboat named 'Fevrre Dream' as it works its way along the Mississippi river.

The atmosphere of the novel is strong and well described, the glamour of the steamboat compared to the oppressive heat of the ship's boiler room, and the rich plantations in the surrounding environment.

Like other fantasy novels of Mr Martin, Fevre Dream has a feeling of being a historical fiction, there are plenty of references to the upcoming civil war, the slaves and the abolitionist movement. This shows that just like the 'Fire and Ice' novels though set in a fictional world, Martin did an extensive amount of historical research. It works because every descriptive detail allows the reader to picture the events and environment of the novel.

The vampires are a little different in the novel, though they need to drink blood and are burnt by the sun they are a different species. The idea that humans have about vampires is destroyed in the story, they are not supernatural creatures or undead but a different predatory species. York explains that he was born a vampire and never bitten, vampires in the novel cannot bite, give blood and create others like them.

The novel's central idea revolves around the strange relationship between Abner Marsh and Joshua York. Captain Marsh is described as gruff, tough, ugly and fat. What he eats at mealtimes is excessively described and proves the point. Despite this trait, he is a fair, kind and smart man. Joshua is elegant, an aristocrat and mysterious, just as we vamp fans like it. Many readers would see him as the eponymous Anne Rice character. The other vampire and rival of Joshua is Damon Julian, it is funny that this character has the same name as the character from the show 'The Vampire Diaries', it is only a coincidence of course.

The novel contains some good action, the vampire attacks are scary as well as exciting, some sections are quite shocking but that wouldn't be too surprising to fans of 'Game of Thrones' when it comes to shock value. My only nitpick is the use of too much description, it made me feel like being on an actual boring boat ride on a long river. Overall it was an entertaining book and I wish to read more of Martin's works.

We ask ourselves 'why did George R.R. Martin chose to write a vampire novel?' The answer is: George R. R. Martin  in an interview mentioned that he was fascinated by steamboat history and saw a dark romanticism when linked with vampires. He also picked a very good location; the Mississippi river and New Orleans that is considered a hot bed for vampire lore in many other literature, TV shows and films.

Book Review: Interview with the Vampire

The Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.

Anne Rice's novel merged together a medley of elements that are now associated with vampires. Set in the tradition of the Southern Gothic, the novel portrayed a mixture of a very lush romantic view of the old South and of historical Europe as a decadent, bloody place filled with a bittersweet sadness. The novel grabs at a predominant teenage sensibility which  perseveres and remains in the genre of vampire fiction today.

Interview with the Vampire, expresses the transgressive alternative or uncertain sexuality, uncomfortable ragged emotions of a teenager and transforms it into a sinister grown up form of the vampire.

The compelling antagonist Lestat is technically dead but he possesses a significant vitality, an enthusiasm for life or 'joie de vivre' that is a metaphor for the vampire's need for blood. People die around him but Lestat bears it.

The glamour of the Gothic is everywhere in the novel, the vampire itself, the dark atmosphere, the velvet, the times when Gothic was beginning to be fashionable and sexy. Readers can't get enough of the night world thrill and Rice's novels take the readers back in time.

The novel contains the brooding antihero of Louis who opens up and confesses and opens up to the readers and a charismatic villain. What is more appealing is the psychological aspect. The male protagonist of classic Gothic fiction is sinister, aloof and troubled, just like a Byronic hero. Louis, despite his sexuality and moody behaviour is the tormented male lead: charismatic, fascinatingly dangerous and in need of redemption perhaps. Lestat possesses similar traits but is more vicious and sadistic.

Lestat represents the 'sexy bad predator' side of a vampire, who kills without thinking and relishes in it, he unlike Louis does not whine and seek answers to questions about the existence of vampire kind. The novel becomes quite philosophical at times when Louis enters an existential state of mind, trying to understand where vampires come from, and if there are others out there.

Like a good meal, this novel is delicious and filled with all sorts of spicyness. It's got interesting characters, superb descriptions, gore and tragedy. This is the first novel in a saga of mesmerizing vampire tales, philosophy and history.

Book Review: Queen of Kings

Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

Set in the mystical ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs, the novel tells the story, with a supernatural twist of queen Cleopatra. One of the most iconic queens in history has had many portrayals in films, comic books, plays and cartoons.

 In this novel the queen has lost the war with Octavius, her lover Mark Antony is dying, distraught and desperate to stop the conquest of Octavius, she looks for divine intervention, any magical help however dark it might be. She is given by her servants a spell that allows her to call upon the gods. She performs the spell and calls upon the fierce lion-headed goddess Sekhmet. The angry goddess takes over the body of Cleopatra in return for bringing back Mark  Antony to life. Things go terribly wrong as Mark Antony revives only to die moments later and Cleopatra becomes a servant to the blood thirsty goddess. Now a powerful immortal creature, she must feed on blood and seeks to destroy Octavius. She struggles to maintain her humanity as the goddess possessing her begins to slowly take over.

The first question on my mind and probably other fans' minds was 'Is this one of those bad monster novels like Pride and Prejudice and zombies or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter?' Fortunately it is not like those cheezy novels, it is way better.

Headley wrote an exciting and frightening novel with a character that every reader sympathizes with. All of us Interview with the vampire fans would understand. Cleopatra committed a desperate act and finds herself in a terrible and horrifying situation.

What is great about this novel is the connection between Ancient Egypt mythology and vampirism which are themes that are fascinating and that I love. In The Hunger it is mentioned that Miriam is from Egypt and in Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice the source of vampirism begins in Egypt with the queen Akasha. The themes go well together. Some people might say that it feels like a rip off of Anne Rice's novel but it's not.

The novel cleverly mixes together historical details with parts of the vampire mythos. Cleopatra is not technically a vampire but still possesses the abilities and weaknesses of a vampire that most readers are used to. For example, she is craves human blood, cannot stand sunlight and is burned by silver.

The novel later takes another great turn into fantasy as Octavius, fearing Cleopatra's wrath surrounds himself with sorcerers. There seems to not be a great level of violence in the novel, there is violence but it is watered down. It seems that Headley does not want Cleopatra to be seen as a villain or monster.

Overall the novel proves to be an exciting page turner with well described elements of vampirism and Ancient Egypt mythology.