Please forgive me for what I’m about to say. I can respect the current teenage fascination with the Twilight saga but this near abstinent exploration or treatment of the vampire myth isn’t for me.
Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire has exuded a seductive aura of erotic promise but the fundamental aspect of the vampire is the aspect of eternity interwoven with evil. Then there is the seduction, submission and domination. Now we have goody-goody vampires. What is up with that? I guess what appeals to me the most is the fact that most female leads in past vampire films make an effort to fight against the darkness and evil. In this new vampire fare, the Twilight series, the female lead -namely Bella Swan – has already submitted. Excuse the pun but there is no bite.
True vampire fans have seen Nosferatu and they have read Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. Everything else that follows Dracula is always going to be an imitation, adaptation and many reworkings that fail to grasp the original concept of the vampire, fall below the mark.
So this post is about my kind of vampire. The evolved, seductive and dark vampire with the devil may care attitude. After all, horror is about escapism. It doesn’t have to be good or have a Hollywood ending.
There is the classic film with Bela Lugosi, the 1930 film Dracula. There is no blatant eroticism in this film but Lugosi’s characterization doesn’t require overt sexual undertones. Below is a scene from this film with Lugosi uttering that classic line: “Listen to them. The children of the night. What music they make.”
Then there is one of my favorites, Christopher Lee as Dracula in the Hammer Production of The Horror of Dracula:
Then there’s Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot where he injects one of the scariest character types of all – creepy kids. In this case, kids who become vampires:
But I did promise the sex. Mind you, seduction doesn’t have to be sexual. Vampyres (1974) presents an orgy of blood:
Vampyros Lesbos (1971) is about bloodlust but it’s also about something more than that: a female vampire who lures other females to her lair:
Perhaps one of the more explicit 1070 Hammer vampire film is The Vampire Lovers:
Finally, some of the most seductive and visually stunning scenes can be found in Coppola’s Dracula:
You’re welcome to add to the list (with the exception of Twilight – it’s been done to, pardon the pun, death) in the comments below.
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