Vampires: Dead & Loving 'Em
New Moon is coming! Between its release on November 20th, Christopher Lee's knighting ceremony this week (that's now Sir Count Dracula to you), and FEARnet's own 20 Days of Vampires, the children of the night are everywhere this month - and I, for one, could get used to the taste of blood.
What I like most about the vampire genre is that it has a very specific code (bloodsuckers sleep in coffins, share a distaste for garlic, stock up on sunscreen, you get the idea...), so it's always fun to watch how writers and directors play with it. Vampires are monstrous creatures that only leave their castles to feed, right? But what happens when they want to be accepted into society? We get True Blood. The classic vampire hunter is a man on a mission, but make him a 16-year-old girl and throw in the rollercoaster of emotions that escort teenage angst, and voila - Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
When we created our vampire series for FEARnet, we played with the genre too. While most vampire stories take place in cold, dark, Victorian settings, we placed The Dark Path Chronicles in the center of Hollywood. And while many vampires possess an aristocratic demeanor, we made our 30 Days of Night vamps cutting-edge and tech-savvy.
So what's your favorite vampire movie? Director Eric Stanze wrote of his love of Planet of the Vampires, while journalist Greg Burkart weighed in in favor of Herzog's Nosferatu. If I had to choose, I'd say Bram Stoker's Dracula because I adore Francis Ford Coppola. I'm also really enjoying The Vampire Diaries.
Are you looking forward to New Moon next Friday? Do you prefer your vampires romanticized, a la Edward Cullen, or brutal and animalistic, like in 30 Days of Night?
