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The whole concept of genre is a fascinating one to film
theorists, a series of codes and conventions that transcend
individual film works and mark an unspoken understanding
between film-maker and audience. The audience has expectations
of genre works but also expects something new within a potentially
restricting framework, while the film-maker needs to have
an understanding of genre rules, if only to know how far
they can push them to create a work of some originality
and yet still connect with their target audience. If you
choose to work in a specific genre then you have to accept
that you are, to an extent, working in a creative straightjacket,
but many of cinema's greatest works have turned what seems
to be a restriction into an advantage. A modern audience
in particular is very genre aware, and there is a great
deal of mileage in playing games with expectations that
they will bring to the screening.
It
has been said that one man's genre is another's sub-genre.
Vampire movies are technically a sub-genre of the Horror
Film, but I would argue for their genre status on the basis
of their own specific codes and conventions, their very
singular use of subtext and the fact that they have their
own specific fan base. Vampire movies share with other horror
films a fascination with the darker side of human nature,
but also explored specific taboos in areas of sexuality
and disease long before mainstream cinema was even able
to hint at such things.
Ask
any even half aware moviegoer to define a movie vampire
and they will know the basics off by heart - they have fangs,
they suck your blood, they can't come out in the day, they
are afraid of garlic and crosses and you can kill them by
hammering a stake through their heart. Moreover they are
given to living in old castles, sleeping in coffins, terrifying
local villagers, dressing in black capes and speaking in
heavy Transylvanian accents. Of course, this all stems from
the most influential movie vampire of all, Dracula, and
more specifically, his incarnation at the hands of Hungarian
actor Bela Lugosi in Universal Studio's 1931 film of the
same name, a work that effectively defined the movie vampire
archetype for the next 50 years.
It
remains to this day the short cut to vampire definition:
recently on UK TV a (terrible) commercial promoting some
new debit or credit card represented the uncontrollable
spending of its idiot star by having a vampire bite on his
arm, and yes, he has slicked-back black hair, pointy fangs
and a black cape - a cartoon Lugosi Dracula. More amusing
is an episode of The Simpsons in which Millhouse
is questioned by Skinner about his new earring and ordered
to prove he is a gypsy - confusing vampires with gypsies,
he adopts a mock Lugosi pose and replies "I vant to
suck your blood!" in an exaggerated East European accent.
This is to be an ongoing article that will be regularly
updated and added to. We intend to examine key works of
the vampire genre, in part to trace the genre's development
from its earliest days to the cross-genre, pop culture infused
works of recent times, but also to examine individual works
in terms of their generic importance and influence. As this
is primarily a DVD site, we will also be looking at their
DVD incarnations, with the usual detail on the technical
aspects and extras.
Initially
we will be working in chronological order, and what better
place to start than with the first and perhaps greatest
vampire movie of all, F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu.
The vampire had its origins in the folklore of almost every
culture almost since records had began, from the Striges
of Ancient Greece, Babylonian Ekimmus and Roman Lemures
to the Chinese Ch'ing Shuh, Indian Baitals and African Asbanbosams.
But it was to be European literature that was to shape the
creature as it is known today. Three works in particular
were to prove influential: John Polidori's and Lord Byron's
The Vampire (1819), J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla
(1872) and, of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).
It was the last of these that was to cast a huge shadow
over the development of the genre for the first half of
the century, and Dracula remains the only vampire that just
about anyone you care to ask can name. A quick search on
the Internet Movie Database turned up 634 films with the
word 'Dracula' in the title. Oddly enough, this first major
adaptation of this seminal vampire story was not one of
them. Click the link below to find out more, and a little
bit about why the first Dracula film didn't even have a
character named Dracula in it.
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Nosferatu,
eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Director:
F.W. Murnau |
