Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [9]
As a film and television character, only Sherlock Holmes has made more fictional appearances than Dracula, with IMDb.com listing over 50 productions that cite Bram Stoker in some writing capacity. Secrets of House No. 5 (1912) is generally accepted as the first vampire film, with F. W. Murnau’s silent black-and-white Nosferatu marking the first cinematic depiction of the Count a decade later, in 1922. However, it was Tod Browning’s Dracula with the erotic, tuxedo-clad aristocrat played by Bela Lugosi that became the hallmark of vampire movies and literature, as well as the first talking film to include a vampire. Based loosely on Bram Stoker’s short story “Dracula’s Guest,” Dracula’s Daughter came to screens in 1936 as a sequel to Dracula.
But it was the Hammer Horror series starring Christopher Lee that breathed new life into the vampire franchise, starting in 1958 with Dracula, then followed by seven sequels (of which Lee appeared in five), remarkable even by today’s standards. The series re-emerged in 1970 when lesbian antagonists were featured in The Vampire Lovers, which was based on Carmilla. The genre further diversified in 1972 when the blaxploitation film Blacula offered viewers their first African American Dracula, leading to a host of other horror/blaxploitation films such Blackenstein, Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, Ganja and Hess, and Sugar Hill.
In 1979, film returned Dracula to his monstrous roots with Klaus Kinski’s portrait in Werner Herzog’s remake Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, and again in the television miniseries Salem’s Lot, made in the same year and based on the novel by Stephen King (the movie was remade in 2004). For a wild ride, set aside a day and drink up this cinematic cocktail: Murnau’s Nosferatu, followed by Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, followed by Shadow of the Vampire — a fictional retelling of Murnau’s relationship with Max Schreck during the filming of the original Nosferatu — capped off with Herzog’s documentary My Best Fiend, which details his working relationship with Klaus Kinski who played the second Nosferatu. It’s enough to make your head spin, but worth the trip!
Showing no signs of ill health, it’s unlikely our insatiable craving for vampires will die soon, as evidenced in the rise of vampire franchises, including the Blade trilogy, based on the vampire-hunter of Marvel Comics; Joss Whedon’s cult show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and spin-off Angel); Van Helsing; the female-fronted Underworld series; Stephenie Meyer’s film-adapted Twilight series; Blood Ties, featuring the illegitimate (vampire) son of Henry VIII; Being Human, which features a vampire, werewolf, and ghost; The Vampire Diaries, based on L. J. Smith’s series; our beloved True Blood; and, in the works, an adaptation of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.
Even the short-lived soap opera Port Charles, the spin-off of General Hospital, featured a vampire, Caleb Morley, who was so popular with fans, he literally would not die, written back into the story arc after he’d already been offed — twice. Vampires are starting to appear more frequently in international productions as well, including Sweden’s adolescent vampire drama Let the Right One In; Russia’s blockbuster Night Watch; and Korea’s Thirst, winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Vampires have evolved from the stuff of demonic legends to magazine heartthrobs, making stops along the way as existential monsters and pop culture superheroes. They’ve been played by some of the biggest names in Hollywood — Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt — responsible for elevating foreign imports to the status of North American gods — Alexander Skarsgård and Robert Pattinson — and left a most indelible mark on the career of actors whose contributions to the vampire canon were shaped in part by the eternal hold of an immortal myth — Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. Even Martin Landau’s career got an unexpected boost when he won an Oscar for portraying Lugosi