From low-cut negligees to low-flying bats, from silver bullets to

wooden stakes, from the gender- bending disciples of Dracula to the

fans of Anne Rice, this entertaining, encyclopedic compendium of
vampirology answers such burning undead questions as:

—How did the folklore surrounding garlic, mirrors, wooden stakes,

and other eerie artifacts evolve?
—Why does Dracula's cape always have a big, stand-up collar?
—What accounts for the persistent cultural connection between
gays and lesbians and vampires?
—Why are bats the premier emblems of vampirism?
—What are the best vampire movies ever made? The worst?
And everything else you want to know about the fascinating, seduc-
tive, dark-cloaked creatures of the night.

V 18 FOR VflHIPIRE

David J. Skal is a respected scholar in all things macabre and the author of
Hollywood Gothic and The Monster Show. A frequent talk-show guest and lec-

many media appearances have included "The CBS Evening News,"

turer, his

"Joan Rivers," "Charlie Rose," and NPR's "All Things Considered."

 David J. Skal

18 FO
VflHlPIRE
The A-Z Guide
to Everything Undead

©
A PLUME BOOK
PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

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First published by Plume, an imprint of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

First Printing, September, 1996

10 987654321
Copyright © David J. Skal, 1996
All rights reserved

© I'l I.ISI IHlli I H \])l

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MAKh MAUI A Hi U'-.l R.V > \

Skal, David J.

V is for Vampire : the A-Z guide to everything undead / David J. Skal.

cm.
p.
ISBN 0-452-27173-8
1. Vampires. I. Title.
GR830.V3S57 1995
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Printed in the United States of America
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Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
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For Ron Borst, Jeanne Youngson,
and Lokke Heiss
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are in order to numerous individuals and institutions for their assis-
tance and advice in the research and writing of V Is for Vampire. First, I

want to gratefully acknowledge my dedicatees: Ron Borst, who, as usual, pro-

vided access to his unparalleled collection of visual materials; Jeanne Young-

son, founder and president of the Count Dracula Fan Club in New York; and
Lokke Heiss, physician and fellow traveler in the vampire realm, who has
demonstrated to me his nuanced mastery of both Nosferatu and Nuprin.
A special thank-you is due to my agent, Malaga Baldi, who liked the concept
and energetically marketed the proposal, and my editor at Plume, Peter K.
Borland, who acquired it.

Ron and Howard Mandelbaum of Photofest assisted my picture research

with their characteristic professionalism. Tom Weaver and Mark Martucci gen-
erously provided dozens of hard-to-find videotapes. Robert Eighteen-Bisang,
founder of the Transylvanian Press and vampire bibliographer extraordinaire,
helped fill gaps with his truly amazing database.
Institutional collections consulted included the Elmer Holmes Bobst Li-

brary of New York University; the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York
Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Margaret Her-
rick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the Free Library
of Philadelphia Theatre Collection; the Vernon Alden Library of Ohio Uni-
versity; and the Library of Congress.
Other individuals who offered courtesies, correspondence, conversation,
illustrations, advice, assistance, and simple enthusiasm include Sheppard Black,
the late Carroll Borland, Sam and Susan
Crowl, James V. D'Arc, Bernard
Davies, Norine Dresser, Geraldine Duclow, Robert Haas, Donal Holway,
Carla Laemmle, Robert James Leake, Scott MacQueen, Raymond T. McNally,
viii Acknowledgments

William G. Obbagy, Gary Don Rhodes, Laura Ross, Elias Savada, Johanne
Tournier, Dale Tucholski, Gordon Van Gelder, Delbert Winans, and Scott
Wolfman.
A final, special acknowledgment must be given to the memory of the late,

distinguished scholar of gothic literature, Devendra P. Varma. I met Dr. Varma

at the 1994 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, where we
had a long and stimulating conversation on the vampire in literature. I was
looking forward to renewing our dialogue when I learned of his death in Octo-
ber 1994. The loss of his impeccable erudition and boundless enthusiasm
leaves a void in the study of the fantastic that will not be easily filled.
 INTRODUCTION

Vampires, Descending
a Staircase

Did you ever notice how the best scenes in vampire movies tend to happen
on staircases? You know the picture: the draped, pallid figure with blazing
eyes and crimson lips posing majestically on an ancient, crumbling stairway that
somehow represents all human possibilities, our deepest hopes and fears. Capa-
ble of bestowing death or granting eternal life, the vampire can lead us up the
stairs to a transcendent superhuman real-

ity, or (as Poe might have put it) down,

down, inexorably down to our basest in-
stincts and animal desires. In the mirror
the vampire reflects nothing, yet in reality
it reflects everything. Sometimes the crea-

ture spreads its cape in a reflexive gesture,

assuming a stance that is a dark travesty of

crucifixion, for the vampire is both savior
and destroyer. It is on staircases that vam-
pires condescend to mingle with mortals,
on staircases that they greet and seduce
their victims, dispatch their enemies, de-
scend to commune with the lower realms,
the better to entice us with the promise
of a higher consciousness and destiny.

Bela Lugosi and Carroll Borland make thei

entrance in Mark of the Vampire (1935).

(Photofest)
x Introduction

My first impression of vampires came in 1959 with a television skit on The

Garry Moore Show which an American housewife (Carol Burnett) dis-
in

covered Count Dracula (Durward Kirby) hiding in her living room closet.
"Good evening!" he said, striking a rigid pose in evening clothes. She
slammed the door. I was seven years old, but even then knew that this meant
something. Once open to vampires, the closet door could never be slammed,
not really. I don't remember anything else about the broadcast, except that
my mother explained the basics. Vampires, she said, came out of coffins.
They bit you on the neck. They wore "fancy" clothes, and they always said
"good evening."
Soon after, vampires began pop up everywhere in the bedroom com-
to
munity of Garfield Heights, Ohio, where I grew up. While a third grader at

Garfield Park Elementary School, I can remember an older girl on the play-
— —
ground I'll call her Maxine who significantly deepened my appreciation of
things undead. Maxine was the classic kid of whom parents disapproved; she
was a rambunctious tomboy who "had ideas." Maxine was already free-falling
through puberty while the rest of us stood merely tottering at the edge of
the abyss. As a denizen of this scary, uncharted realm, Maxine was a wealth
of information on fascinating subjects. She knew about unpleasant medical
conditions of certain of our teachers. She could recount the details of fatal

amusement park accidents, knew what went on during an autopsy, and had a
pretty good idea what happened to rats after they ingested poison.
But most of all, Maxine knew about vampires. She had been reading up,
and she was the only one among us who had been to the Mapletown Theatre
where a film called The Brides of Dracula was a featured matinee. She elabo-
rated on the information first provided by my mother. Vampires, Maxine ex-
plained, were pale people who lived forever as long as they stayed out of
the sun and out of churches. The male vampires generally wore tuxedos, and
the female vampires long white gowns —
being undead, apparently, was a lot
like getting married. You could kill them by driving a wooden stake through

their hearts —
Maxine sharpened a Popsicle stick on the sidewalk to make the
point vivid.
Maxine would hold her vampire court every day in the most shadowy cor-
ner of the playground she could find, and soon she began bringing in the
most amazing magazines — illustrated publications with titles like Famous
Monsters of Filmland and Castle of Frankenstein. They were just the sort of
things parents and teachers and librarians loved to confiscate and destroy.
They were worse than Mad magazine, almost as bad as Playboy. Which, of
 Introduction xi

course, made them all the more interesting. And one day Maxine brought in

a magazine with a full-page, life-sized portrait of the male vampire from The
Brides of Dracula. The picture was printed with special instructions —you
were supposed to push thumbtacks through the back of the photo, just
where the monster's fangs were peeking out, then roll the magazine up and
whack yourself on the neck with it — thus simulating an "actual" vampire at-

tack. (I know anyone who actually tried this, but dares were made.)
don't
You may be wondering why on earth third and fourth graders in the early
sixties were so captivated by images of the walking dead. While researching
this period for my previous book, The Monster Show, I was surprised to dis-

cover that I had largely forgotten my real source of anxiety at the time — Cold
War atomic jitters, and the daily threat of mass death that fairly shrieked from
newspaper headlines as the world's supply of available megatons piled up, and
up, and up. Immortal monsters like Dracula offered an alternative to death,
or at least an imaginative one. There wasn't much difference, after all, be-
tween a vampire's protective crypt and a fallout shelter — both amounted to
fantastic bargaining chips with the unacceptable prospect of personal annihi-
lation. My own active interest in Dracula — the point at which I really became
a player, buying the fan magazines (or begging my parents to buy them for
me), assembling plastic monster model kits, even producing my own eight-
millimeter horror extravaganzas —coincided precisely with the Cuban Missile
Crisis in October 1962. I was amazed to find, on microfilm reels of old Bill-

board charts, that the number one pop song in America during the missile
crisis was Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash" — a highly appropriate

"dance of death" presided over by a mad scientist, with a full complement of

man-made monsters, werewolves, ghouls —and, of course, vampires.
We survived the missile crisis, and my interest in monsters metamor-
phosed. To a working-class kid with untraditional ambitions — but no realistic

models or expectations of socioeconomic escape —vampires came to repre-

sent a vague fantasy of class transcendence and power (Dracula, with his

evening clothes, aristocratic charisma, and apparently bottomless bank coffers,

is the "classy" monster par excellence). In my later adolescence, the ambigu-
ous eroticism of Bela Lugosi's seduction of Dwight Frye in the 1931 film ver-
sion of Dracula became a powerful focus of sexual possibilities I then found
frightening in the extreme.
My interest in vampires took a backseat to college and career issues for a
couple of decades, but returned with a sudden urgency in the late 1980s
when I researched and wrote my book Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of
xii Introduction

"Dracula" from Novel to Stage to Screen. It was not until after I had com-
pleted the book that I realized, with a bit of a shock, that I had essentially re-

peated the death-anxiety ritual of my childhood, immersing myself in vampire

culture as a largely unconscious response not to a nuclear threat but instead
to the AIDS epidemic, which had claimed literally countless friends and ac-
quaintances. In this book, I explore the AIDS/vampire connection deliber-
ately, along with the vampire's persistence as an ambiguous, shifting symbol
of alternative sexualities.

Vampires, obviously, know how to sneak up on us and are capable of pop

cultural transformations as fantastic as anything imputed to them in folklore.
The undead mean many things to many people, and I hope that V Is for
Vampire will provide an accessible overview of a vast and apparently inex-
haustible topic. This is not a formal encyclopedia, and I apologize in advance
to readers who feel I have slighted their favorite book, film, or personality.
The selections and opinions make no pretense of anything but subjectivity,

and I have frequently favored the odd and obscure over subjects that have
been covered extensively elsewhere. (For completists I have included several
book as a start-
lengthy checklists and a bibliography.) In short, consider this
you begin to climb and explore your own
ing point, not a final destination, as
vampire staircase. V Is for Vampire may send you soaring to your belfry or
—
scurrying to your cellar but, if I've done my job, you'll never look at vam-
pires in exactly the same way again.
18 FOR
VPPIRE
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Cinema, USA 1948. Charles T. Barton's postwar comedy proved the death
rattle of the original Universal Pictures monster cycle, reducing the beloved
boogeymen to proplike buffoons opposite popular forties comedians Bud
Abbott and Lou Costello. Dracula (Bela Lugosi, in his last role for a ma-
jor studio) attempts to transplant the brain of Costello into the Franken-
stein monster (Glenn Strange), but is thwarted by the efforts of the Wolf
Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and the machinations of a predictable script by
Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, and John
Grant. Lugosi's makeup is appallingly
overapplied; he looks more like a kewpie
doll than a bloodsucking fiend (a shiny

satin cape does nothing to alleviate the

overall circus clown effect). The film does

have some funny moments, most memo-

rably Dracula's cat-and-mouse game with
Costello as he prepares to emerge from
his box, and later, the hilarious closeup
of the eyes of one of the vampire's vic-

tims (Lenore Aubert) revealing flapping

bats instead of pupils. Abbott and Costello

Advertising art for Abbott and Costello Meet

Frankenstein. (Photofest)
 David J. Skal

Dwight Frye reacts to

Edward Van Sloan's

sudden offer of
wolfsbane in Dracula.

Meet Frankenstein is of some interest today for its superimposition onto

Dracula of both the vampire and mad scientist traditions; the time-
honored opposition of science and the supernatural settles down for a
cheerful codependency. While the film has developed an affectionate cult
following over the years, the original reviews were fairly caustic. Bosley
Crowther of the New York Times commented: "Most of the comic inven-
tion in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is embraced in the idea and
the title . . . get the most out of that one laugh while you can, because the
picture . . . does not contain many more." Or, as the Hollywood Citizen
News put it, "If you've never known whether to laugh or scream at an Ab-
bott and Costello epic, their latest screen adventure will leave you more
confused than ever." (Universal-International)T*

Aconite
Aconitum napellus is the Latin name for the perennial herb, which, under
the aliases of wolfsbane and monkshood, is also a perennial fixture in the
loreof werewolves and vampires. Its supposed antivampire properties may
derive from ancient medicinal uses as a heart and circulatory stimulant.
Aconite is also one of the most toxic herbal substances known and must be

"Film entries followed by the symbol T are available on home video.

 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 3

used in minute medicinal quantities; its potential to poison as well as to

heal probably helped to engender a certain aura of awe and magic over the
ages. The plant, which displays striking blue, bell-shaped flowers (hence
the name "monkshood"), is native to central and southern Europe, but is
cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere. In medicine, the plant's roots yield
the chemically active substance; in vampire folklore, the leaves are usually
enough to do the trick. See garlic.

Addiction
Vampire stories tend to assume the form of each generation's special fears
and afflictions. The rise of chemical dependency as a major social problem
in the late twentieth century has colored contemporary vampire stories
with the metaphors of addiction. Some of the correspondences are obvi-
ous: the vampire provides an easy metaphor for both pusher and addict,
enslaving or enslaved through vein puncturing and blood contamination.
The recent confluence between intravenous drug use and AIDS (q.v.) has

intensified the addict/vampire connection, since AIDS anxiety has had

much to do with the rise of vampire imagery and entertainment in the last

decade. There is probably also a more subtle link between the self- destructive

behavior of the addict and the ancient belief that suicide is one of the
surest routes to undeath.
In the film Dracula's Daughter (1936), Countess Zaleska's morbid
blood craving is presented as a psychological addiction potentially treatable
by science and psychiatry. In House of Dracula (1945), the count seeks
out a medical doctor for a cure for his compulsion; however, like many an
addict in need of a fix, he sabotages his treatment program. The implicit
themes of addiction in vampire movies became almost grotesquely literal in

1955 when actor Bela Lugosi, famed for his Dracula characterization,
publicly committed himself to a drug rehabilitation program. Soon after,
the controversial, cutting-edge comedian Lenny Bruce, no stranger to
drugs himself, introduced stand-up routines lampooning Lugosi -Dracula
as a pill-popping, reefer-puffing has-been. Barnabas Collins, the remorseful
New England vampire of the 1960s television soap opera Dark Shadows,
also sought treatment, which was only intermittently successful. Many films
and stories have placed vampires in blood banks or hospitals, a comedic
parallel to the real-life problem of drug pilfering by addicted medical per-
sonnel. The quasireligious overtones of many currently popular twelve-step
4 David J. Skal

rehabilitation programs reinforce the idea of addiction as a kind of demonic

possession. See also AIDS; ALCOHOLISM.

The Addiction
Cinema, USA 1995. A curiously reactionary film by Abel Ferrara, which
seems to equate intellectual modernism with living death. A New York Uni-
versity graduate student, Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor) spends so much time
reading existential philosophy and looking at concentration -camp photos
that she lacks the moral center to repel a female vampire (Annabella Sciorra)
when she is attacked on a Greenwich Village street. (In Nicholas St. John's
screenplay, the vampires always offer their victims the chance to just say no,
but of course they never do.) Gorgeously photographed in black-and-white,

The Addiction occasionally groans under unnecessarily pedantic philosophical

dialogue. With Edie Falco, Michael Fella, Paul Calderon, and, smarmy as

ever as a vampire who's seen it all, Christopher Walken. (October Films )

Advertising
As the ultimate symbol of consumerism, the vampire has frequently found
employment in consumer advertising. Legend has it that Bela LUGOSI was
once asked to endorse a product called "Dra-Cola," an abortive brainchild of
Royal Crown bottlers in the 1940s. I can vividly remember a 1960s televi-

sion commercial for Isodettes throat lozenges featuring actor Dennis

O'Keefe as "Count Sore Throat Pain," extolling the benefits of Isodettes' ac-

tive ingredient, the local anesthetic benzocaine. "When you contract a cold,
it relieves the minor pain in the throat," O'Keefe warbled in a mock Lugosi
accent. "It spoils all my fun." The Isodettes commercial came in the wake of
an early sixties monster boom, spurred by Universal Pictures' aggressive li-

censing of its monster characters for a staggering variety of products. The im-
age of Dracula was used to enhance the commercial prospects of such items
as T-shirts, toys, pencil sharpeners, bubble gum, and swizzle sticks. Dracula
has even been used as a public relations emissary for the Lutheran Church
("Are your kids learning about the power of the cross on the late, late show?
With all due regard to Hollywood, there's more to Christianity than stop-
ping vampires."). Folklorist Norine Dresser, in her 1989 study, American
Vampires, enumerates a wide range of vampire-driven advertising, including
but not limited to home security systems ("Protects you against uninvited
guests"), cat food, insecticide, pizza, and computer software. See also
ALCOHOLISM; LUGOSI, BELA.
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 5

AIDS
The earliest vampire superstitions were fueled in no small part by pre-
scientific peoples' frightened responses to poorly understood medical phe-
nomena. Plagues, wasting diseases, and invisible contagions were often
attributed to the wrath of the recently dead, giving rise to an increasingly
embellished mythology of fear and its attendant rituals of scapegoating
and purification.
The epidemic of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome gave the
modern world a primitive shot of fear in the 1980s and 1990s, and the
characteristics of AIDS itself weirdly echoed the classic motifs of vampire
legends. A blood-borne, wasting malady appears, each victim capable of
creating others through vein-puncturing or unconventional forms of sex.
Science is baffled. Self-appointed moral guardians come forth, waving reli-

gious talismans, insisting that the affliction is the work of the devil. None-
theless, the vampire seems unstoppable; in the streets, there is a steady
procession of coffins.
AIDS is the undeniable subtext of the explosive growth of vampire en-
tertainment in all media during the last decade; to the conscious mind, the
reality of AIDS can be almost too much to bear, but on the plane
of fantasy, the threat of AIDS death can be bargained with —defanged, as

it were.
Vampire entertainment also permits one of the few socially sanctioned

outlets for images of rape. The woman who entertains fantasies of vampire
rape is not doing so because she wants to be raped; she is more likely fright-

ened by the prospect of rape and controls the fear through a desensitizing

process of ritual fantasy, over which she has complete control. Similarly, the
vampire represents a complete control over mortality, a supernatural immu-
nity to death in an age of immune dysfunction. The mass appetite for Anne
Rice's vampire novels (they have all been major bestsellers) demonstrates
the need for transcendent images in a time of modern plague. Rice's vam-
pires are also powerfully androgynous beings, whose supernatural sexuality
can withstand any amount of blood contact. Not surprisingly, Rice has a
huge cult following among gay readers.
Stephen Jones' The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide (1993) lists nearly
150 vampire-related features released throughout the world from 1980-
1989, but over seventy from 1990-1992 alone, suggesting a major annual
increase in vampire media, at least during the first years of the current
6 David J. Skal

decade. Needless to say, the activity coincided with a cultural crescendo of

AIDS anxiety. Frank Rich of the New York Times discussed the AIDS-
vampire nexus in a splashy Sunday feature on the occasion of the release of
Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992):

The new blood culture is the bizarre pop byproduct of a national obses-
sion with all body fluids. It's a high-pitched, often hysterical acting out
of the subliminal fantasies, both deadly and erotic, of a country that has
awakened to the fact that the most insidious post-Cold War enemy is a
virus. AIDS, after all, actually does to the bloodstream what Commu-
nists and other radicals were once only rumored to do to the nation's
water supply. Its undiminished threat has made the connection between
sex and death, an eternal nexus of high culture, into a pop fixation, fi-

nally filtering down to the vocabulary of commercial images.

AIDS is not the first epidemic of modern times to find a reflection in

vampire literature and drama; the scourge of incurable SYPHILIS that cut a

wide swath through London in the 1890s left its shadow on the literary

conventions of Victorian vampirism: the obsession with blood contamina-

tion, the search for telltale lesions, the faith in antiscientific (read: quack)
cures, and the demonization of prostitutes. See also homosexuality.

Alabama's Ghost
Cinema, USA 1972. This blaxploitation flick, written and directed by
Frederic Hobbs, features a vampire rock band that hunts its prey on mo-
torcycles. With Lani Freeman, Pierre LePage, and the Turk Murphy Jazz
Band. (Ellman/Bremson International)

Alcoholism
Like creepy clockwork every Halloween, advertising agencies for major
beer, wine, and liquor companies invariably trundle out campaigns featur-
ing boozing vampires. "Welcome to our lite-mare" beckons a 1992 pro-
motion featuring a dissipated-looking Dracula and Draculette clutching
their cans of Miller and Miller Light in the window of a dank castle.
HURRY, sundown was the headline of a memorable Smirnoff's ad pushing
something called "The Vampire Gimlet." No doubt, the Bacardi Rum bat
logo has a certain subliminal significance for the seriously stewed. Just as
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 7

Halloween allows a ceremonial acknowledgment of antisocial impulses, so

too does holiday liquor advertising allow us a forbidden glimpse at the

dark side of drinking. Bloody Marys have long been a staple of vampire
humor, and characters like the eponymous antihero of Blacula (1972)
sometimes order the drink, if only to appear sociable.
The connection between vampirism and intemperate drinking predates
the modern media age by more than a century. Vampire historian Mon-
tague Summers cites the "frantic teetotal tract" Vampyre "By the Wife of (

a Medical Man"), published in 1858, and quotes the delirium ravings

of its central victim: "They fly —they bite —they suck my blood— I die.

That hideous 'Vampyre!' Its eyes pierce me —they red—they

thro' are are
bloodshot. Tear it from my pillow. I dare not lie down. It bites — I die!

Give me brandy — —
brandy more brandy."
A striking number of people creatively involved in major vampire films
and stories have histories of alcoholism, including director Tod Brown-
ing, actress Helen Chandler, producer Horace Liveright, actor Bela Lu-
gosi, and novelist Anne Rice. See also addiction; advertising.

Alucard
Dracula assumed name of the vampire
spelled backward. Originally the
played by Lon Chaney, Dracula (1943), it was later
Jr., in Son of
adopted by the character "Johnny Alucard" in Dracula A.D. 1972(1972).
"Lady Alucard" was the name of the female vampire portrayed by Betsy
Palmer Countess Dracula! (1979). As the head of a
in the stage play

program Dracula:
multinational corporation in the short-lived television
The Series, the vampire employed the name "Alexander Lucard." The use
of such an obvious pseudonym is usually evidence of the vampire's con-
tempt for the intelligence of the mortals with whom he or she must deal.
The contempt may be justified; audiences inevitably get the joke long be-
fore the slow-witted characters.

Alucarda
Cinema, Mexico 1975. Imagine the climax of Carrie if it had been set in a
convent instead of a public high school and you will have some idea of the
impressive fireworks that are to behold in this hard-to-find gem (the
American video you can locate it, is Sisters of Satan). Alucarda is
title, if

the borderline-psycho ward of a Mexican nunnery, circa 1865, meaning,

8 David J. Skal

of course, that a load of hysterically repressed sexuality, much of it involv-

ing LESBIANISM, is about to go off like a powderkeg. Alucarda latches on to
Justine, a convent newcomer; they soon start poking around crypts, play-

ing with gypsy charms, and making blood vows. Soon they're spouting
blasphemy in the chapel and attending Satan in the nude. Following an
attempted exorcism, Justine dies and becomes a vampire who sleeps in a
coffin filled to overflowing with human blood. The production values and
photography are commendable; I particularly liked the stylized nun's
habits, resembling nothing so much as mummy wrappings. Screaming
continues at a fevered pitch through one grotesquely satisfying set piece
after another at ear-splitting frequencies; I had to turn down the volume
on my VCR in order not to freak the neighbors. Directed by Juan Lopez
Moctezuma; with Tina Romero, Susana Kamini, Claudio Brook, and
Adriana Roel. (Proa/Films 75/Yuma Films)

American Vampires
Nonfiction, USA 1989. Norine Dresser's entertaining overview of modern
vampire mania from a contemporary folklorist's perspective illuminates the

diverse means by which the vampire reinforces popular values the quest —
for eternal youth and sexual magnetism, the escape from ordinary respon-
sibility and social constraints, etc. "Vampires have magically bypassed the

struggles that Americans face on a daily basis," Dresser writes. American

Vampires was the first mainstream book to examine the growth of blood
fetishism as a distinct subculture in the 1980s, when, for the first time,
people who are sexually aroused by the sight or taste of human blood be-
gan to romanticize their practices with the trappings of vampire films and
stories. The book includes a lengthy discussion of the vampire image in
advertising, and many revealing anecdotes, perhaps most memorably
the story of a Florida middle school which was overtaken by vampire panic
in 1988 when twenty-five percent of the student body was kept home
by concerned parents on the day a suicidal girl was expected to return
from the grave as "Samantha the Vampire." Despite police presence, 225
sets of parents in Panama City, Florida, decided they weren't taking any
chances.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE

Andy Warhol's Dracula

Cinema, Italy/France 1973. "My body can't take it anymore! The blood
of these whores is killing me!" Dracula has a problem. Changing sexual
mores in his homeland have depleted the supply of virgins, without whose
blood he cannot survive. In the mistaken belief that a Catholic country
like Italy will enforce chastity among its young women, the febrile count

(Udo Kier) migrates to a Mediterranean village where a family of down-

and-out aristocrats are all too eager to marry a daughter to an apparently
rich and dying degenerate. But when he nips their necks, their impurities
are revealed —Dracula suffers agonizing bouts of blood-vomiting. Warhol
superstar Joe Dallesandro is the handyman stud who services the daugh-
ters while lecturing the wheelchair- bound vampire with Marxist rants
delivered in deadpan Brooklynese. Kier plays Dracula like a young Peter
Lorre. Perhaps the most memorable sequence is the one which appears
under the opening titles, as the aged Dracula rejuvenates himself with
black hair dye, primping before a mirror like a drag queen, fangs discreetly
protruding through the lip gloss. The Andy Warhol title was concocted
for obvious marketing purposes in the United States; the title which actu-
ally appears on English -language prints of the film is Blood for Dracula,
and the original Italian title was Dracula ccrca sangue di vergine e . . .

mori di sete. Directed by Paul Morrissey, from his screenplay. With Arno
Juer-ging, Maxime McKendry, Milena Vucotic, Vittorio De Sica, and, in
an unbilled cameo, Roman Polanski. (CC Champion/Yanne-Rassam/
Bryanston) See also class warfare.

* Anemia
Literally, "without blood." Anemia
comprises a wide range of blood dis-

orders, including an overall loss of

blood, a deficiency of red blood cells,

and a lack of hemoglobin. It is a

Udo Kier in Andy Warhol's Dracula.

(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters)
1 David J. Ska I

cliche of vampire fiction that anemia is the first diagnosis of traditional

medical authority, which usually contributes to the death of the patient,
who then is resurrected as a vampire. Chastened by metaphysical negli-
gence, the doctors involved characteristically undergo a conversion to a
more fluid worldview. The distrust of modern medicine and the shaking
up of scientific certitude is a persistent subtext of vampire stories. See also
BLOOD.

Anemia
Cinema, Italy 1986. Alberto Abruzzese's comedy/allegory about a leader

of Italy's Communist party who becomes a vampire was dismissed by Va-

riety as "a cerebral in-joke without a punchline. . . . Though filled with
potentially amusing ideas, [the] film is of doubtful comprehension outside
Italy, and there only appreciable by of souls on the same
a narrow circle

wavelength." Abruzzese scripted as well With Hanns Zischler,

as directed.

Gioia Maria Scola, and Gerard Landry. (RAI-TV Channel 3).

Anno Dracula
Fiction, UK 1992. Kim Newman's delirious pastiche of the Dracula legend
presents an alternate Victorian universe in which Vlad Tepes has con-
quered England, married Queen Victoria, and affixed the head of Abra-
ham Van Helsing to a pike outside Buckingham Palace. Dr. Jack Seward,
Van Helsing's former cohort, is now Jack the Ripper; the whores of
Whitechapel are more than metaphorical vampires here. Vampirism is a

kind of reverse imperialism, with the "warm" population reduced to sec-

ond-class citizenship. Oscar Wilde has converted, Gilbert and Sullivan are
penning vampire operettas, and Bram Stoker's social-climbing wife hosts
vampire salons in Chelsea. The London Times called Anno Dracula "a
tour de force which succeeds brilliantly on several different levels — as a

minutely detailed social history which cleverly pastiches the conventions of

the 19th-century novel, as a Victorian Who's Who, and as a full-blooded
flesh-ripping yarn in its own right." Anno Dracula is an enormously satis-

fying read for vampire addicts. This devotee would ordinarily have gulped
it down in a single sitting, but I chose instead to spread the task over sev-
eral nights to prolong the pleasure. See also ARMADILLO.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 1

Anti-Semitism
This is a persistent subtext of vampire stories, no doubt an offshoot of the
ugly Christian blood-libel of Jews as a race requiring the blood of gentile
babies in its rituals. Although it is rarely commented upon, a long literary

tradition of villainous Semitic stereotypes informed Bram Stoker's 1897

conception of Dracula, originally presented as a horrific, hook-nosed
Shylock from Transylvania (and a close cousin of another mesmeric Jew-
ish predator of the literary 1890s — George Du Maurier's "filthy black He-
brew," Svengali).
The Shylock- Dracula nexus was explored only once on the screen, in
Max Schreck's Nosferatu
beak-faced impersonation of Dracula in
(1922). In a more ironic vein, comedian Lenny Bruce conflated Dracula
and Jewishness in a series of movie -monster comedy routines in the late
1950s. More recently, Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan stirred out-
rage and controversy when he refused to disavow the "essential truth" of
an associate's public description of Jews as "bloodsuckers." See also Ewers,
Hans Heinz.

Armadillo
This burrowing, bony-plated, nocturnal mammal indigenous to South
and Central America and the southwestern United States became part of
Hollywood vampire lore through the efforts of film director Tod Brown-
ing, who employed Dasypi novemcincti as bit players in not one but two
famous vampire pictures: London After Midnight (1927) and Drac-
ula (1931). For totally obscure reasons, Browning seems to have felt that
the peculiar, armored animals would lend an eerie ambience to deserted
houses and castles (they echo, in a sense, the medieval suits of armor that
decorate the gothic tradition); but their appearance in Dracula heralding
Bela Lugosi's descent down the crumbling staircase is usually regarded as
nothing more than camp in its highest Hollywood form. Oddly, Brown-
ing was not the first filmmaker to relate the armadillo to the vampire; a
record exists of a lost silent film called Vampire Bat and Armadillo
(1914), though this was most likely some kind of documentary curiosity.
In his immensely clever 1992 pastiche, Anno Dracula, novelist Kim
Newman describes the latest inhabitants of Buckingham Palace, following
Dracula's subjugation of England: "... an armadillo wriggled by her feet,
its rear parts clogged with its own dirt. Vlad Tepes had raided Regent's
1 2 David J. Skal

Park Zoo and had exotic species roaming loose in the Palace. This poor
dentate was merely one of his more harmless pets." Costume designer
Eiko Ishioka's armor for Vlad the Impaler in Bram Stoker's Dracula
(1992) was intended to be wolflike, but succeeded mostly in making actor
Gary Oldman himself look remarkably like an armadillo.
The next step in the ongoing dance of the armadillo and the vampire is
obvious, and is given here gratis to any filmmaker or novelist who might
like tomake use of it: a little genetic engineering could result in a vampire
with no need for a coffin of any kind, just a shady place to roll up into a
light-proof ball.

The Arrival
Cinema, USA 1990. An undistinguished addition to the vampire-from-
outer-space subgenre, better examples of which include Lifeforce
(1985), Not of ThisEarth (1957, remade 1988). It is nowhere near as

bad, however, as Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). Directed by

David Schmoeller. Screenplay by Daniel Ljoka. With John Saxon, Joseph
Culp, and Michael J. Pollard. (Del Mar Entertainment)

Astral Body
An ethereal counterpart to the physical human form described in many oc-
cult traditions, the astral body is believed to contain the spirit-self and
physically separates itself from the heavy body in the course of such phe-
nomena as astral projection (the out-of-body experience), bilocation, re-

mote viewing, etc. In certain explanations of vampirism, the corpse itself

does not reanimate, but instead sends forth an astral double which carries

blood back to the grave to replenish the vampire's physical body. In this

way, the incorporeal vampire can pass through doors, keyholes, and in
general pull off the shape -shifting tricks that are the vampire's stock in
trade. However, the theory does not explain how blood itself is demateri-
of the attack and later reconstituted in the grave. A con-
alized at the site
fusing sequence in John Badham's film version of Dracula (1979) seems
to toy with the idea of an astral double. The vampire Mina Van Helsing
exists intwo forms: one hideous and zombielike, and one plump and pink
and pretty. But since they are both killed independendy by physical means
(one by a stake and one by surgical removal of her heart), it is difficult to
know what, exactly, Badham was getting at.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 13

Atom Age Vampire

Cinema, Italy 1961. Mario Bava, the director of the vampire classic

Black Sunday (1960), is often erroneously credited as producer of Anton

Guilio Majano's spin on the theme of an obsessed doctor attempting to
woman's face. The cure, of course, involves the Erze-
restore a disfigured
bet BATHORY-style sacrifice of other young women. In this case, the cov-
eted substance is not blood but the secretion of a hitherto unknown gland
located somewhere in the victim's upper torso, easily accessible to the glan-
dularly challenged scientist and his scalpel (before making his midnight
rounds, the doc turns into a reptilelike monstrosity, the result of exposure
to various gland extracts). The disfigured woman is a blond stripper (her
opening exotic dance sequence is sometimes cut for television) who par-
tially hides her scars with a Veronica Lake hairdo. There is, in the English-
language version, a bizarrely inappropriate upbeat jazz accompaniment
to the scene in which the dancer first sees her injuries. Atom Age Vampire
is still campily entertaining; it would make a most interesting double bill

with Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1959), from which it borrows
heavily. The film's original Italian title was Seddok, Verede di Satana.
Screenplay by Majano, Piero Monviso, Gino de Sanctis, Alberto Befilac-
qua, and John Hart. With Alberto Lupo, Susanne Loret, Sergio Fantoni,
Roberto Berta, and Franca Paridi Strahl. (Topaz Films ) See also Bathory,
Erzebet.

Attack of the Giant Leeches

Cinema, USA 1959. Roger Corman and his

brother Gene produced this low- budget

item that posited a link between the use of
nuclear energy at Cape Canaveral and the
appearance of mutated blood-drinkers in a

Susanne Loret and Alberto Lupo

in Atom Age Vampire.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters)
1 4 David J. Skal

Florida swamp. Illicit white-trash sex dooms leads inexorably to abduction

by the leeches, who store their victims in a damp cave to drain at leisure.
The film contains only a few watchable minutes, primarily the grotesque
shots of plastic -suited "leeches" finishing off their victims to the accompa-
niment of rippling, rubbery sound effects. The credits strive, most unsuc-
cessfully, to imitate Saul Bass' impressive title graphics for films like Psycho,

Vertigo, etc. Otherwise, forget it. Directed by Bernard Kowalski. With Ken
Clark, Yvette Vickers, and Gene Roth. Also known as The Giant Leeches and,
in the UK, as Demons of the Swamp. (American- International Pictures)T

"Aurelia"
Short story, Germany 1819-20. A tale by E. T. A. Hoffman, written in re-

sponse to the immense popularity of John Polidori's "The Vampyre" (a

story originally attributed to Lord Byron). Hoffman employs a discussion

of "The Vampyre" as a way of introducing his own story to top it —the

tale of a young woman, Aurelia, who, having been driven mad by her
mother, shuns ordinary food and begins to feast on corpses. See also
GHOUL.

Autoexec.bat
The punchline to a riddle for computer wonks: What do you get when
you cross Lee Iaccoca with a vampire?

Auto vampirism
The drinking of one's own blood, for sexual pleasure or as an adjunct to
self- mutilation. See also blood fetishism.
 K
Baby Blood
Cinema, France 1990. A woman's uterus is invaded by a shape -changing
which requires male blood to be born. Guess how it gets it? Vam-
parasite,

pire and science fiction themes are stirred together in a dark comedy
directed by Alain Robak. With Emmannuelle Escourrou, Jean-Francois
Gallotte, and Christian Sininger. (Partners Productions/EX07 Productions)
See also fetus.

Back to the USSR

Cinema, Finland 1992. A political satire in which a suicidal worker meets
Lenin in the form of a vampire. Directed by Jari Halonen. See also CLASS
WARFARE.

Balderston, John L
American journalist, playwright, and screenwriter, John Lloyd Balderston
was engaged as a play doctor by the flamboyant Jazz Age publisher-
producer Horace LrvERiGFTT, who wanted Hamilton Deane's naive British
barnstormer Dracula (1924) revamped, as it were, for more sophisticated
Broadway audiences. Balderston reshaped the play almost line for line, and
with the Hungarian expatriate actor Bela Lugosi in the title role, the lurid
melodrama was a huge success in New York during the 1927-1928 season
and later on tour. (Both the Deane and Balderston versions of the play
have finally been published together in Dracula: The Ultimate, Illustrated
Edition of the World-Famous Vampire Play [St. Martin's Press, 1993],
where Balderston's contributions can be studied in detail.)
Following the success of Dracula, Balderston found himself in demand
1 6 David J. Skal

for similar horror projects; he rewrote Peggy Webling's British stage ver-
sion of Frankenstein for Liveright, who was unable to raise the money to
produce it on Broadway. Balderston and Webling then sold the script di-
rectly to Universal Pictures, who used almost none of it in their famous
1931 film version of the story, directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff
as the monster. Balderston reshaped the Dracula formula for Universal's
The Mummy (1932), adding his own firsthand knowledge of Egyptol-
ogy —he had been one of the journalists who covered the discovery of
King Tut's tomb in the 1920s. In 1934, Balderston sold a speculative
treatment of Dracula's Daughter
to David O. Selznick (the producer
had acquired the rights to the short story "Dracula's Guest" from Bram
Stoker's widow), but the storyline bore no resemblance to the film actu-
allyproduced by Universal in 1936. Balderston also penned a full-length,
unproduced sequel to Frankenstein for Universal in 1934; while the studio
junked his script, he was somehow able to negotiate a screenplay credit for
—
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) a film actually scripted by William Hurlbut,
with heavy input from director James Whale. Beyond his contributions to
the horror genre, he coauthored the romantic fantasy play Berkeley Square
(1926) with J. C. Squire and wrote screenplays for The Mystery of Edwin

Drood (1935) and The Prisoner ofZenda (1937), and coauthored Gaslight
(1944), which garnered an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. He died
in Beverly Hills, California, in 1954.

Ballet
The earliest example of a vampire-based ballet is likely Morgano by Paul
Taglioni and J. Hertzel, which premiered in Berlin in 1857. Rotta's II
Vampiro followed in 1861. In 1925, Aaron Copland and Harold Clurman
wrote an unproduced ballet, Grogh, based on the film NOSFERATU; some
of the music was later incorporated into Copland's Dance Symphony. In
the 1940s, playwright and screenwriter John L. BALDERSTON suggested
half- seriously that his stage version of Dracula might be successfully
adapted as a ballet by choreographer Agnes DeMille. In 1956, the West-
ern Ballet Theatre presented Vampaera, a ballet choreographed by Peter
Darrell, at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, England. The piece was originally
set to Debussy's "Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra"; however,
when permission for the Debussy music was withheld during rehearsals,
composer Michael Hobson substituted a "musique concrete" score con-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 7

The American Repertory Ballet

Company's production of Stuart
Sebastian's Dracula with Mark
Roxey in the title role. (Photo by
W. Warner, courtesy of the American
Repertory Ballet Company)

sisting of rhythmic, abstract

sounds. During the 1980s,
Les Royal Ballets Canadiens
toured a daring and highly
effective ballet by James Ku-
delka called Love, Dracula,
including nudity (a topless
Lucy) and animal skins. In
1992 the Dayton Ballet and
American Repertory Ballet
premiered a straightforward
adaptation of Dracula chore-
ographed by Stuart Sebastian
to an eclectic classical score.
The production drew freely on previous dramatic versions of the story and
had a particularly showy part for the dancer who played Renfield.

Bara, Theda
American actress (1890-1955). Born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati,

Ohio, Bara took a stage name concocted by publicists as an anagram of

"Arab Death" when she was selected to play the predatory sex villainess
in William Fox's 1915 film version of A Fool There Was, inspired by Rud-
poem "The Vampire," the Philip Burne- Jones paint-
yard Kipling's 1897
name for which it was written, and, more directly, by the
ing of the same
unauthorized and wildly successful Porter Emerson Browne stage play
that put all of America in a tizzy over the idea of devouring "vampire
women" out to destroy bourgeois family life. (The popular fantasy was
in many ways a backlash against the burgeoning women's suffrage move-
ment.) For five years, Theda Bara was filmdom's reigning "vamp," her real
identity hidden beneath a mountain of publicity stunts and shameless mis-
1 8 David J. Skal

information. But both the press and the public were more than willing to
go along with the gag. Bara held press conferences in darkened rooms
amid billowing clouds of suffocating incense; she posed for publicity pho-
tographs rearing over the stripped -clean skeletons of her male victims. In a
1950 reminiscence, Adela Rogers St. John recalled that "audiences were
torn between a fear of the Vampire and a wild desire to have some of her
strange power rub off on them. The head of a New York department store
pleaded with her, 'Please don't come in, Miss Bara. We'll send gowns to
your hotel, but we can't stand any more of these riots.' Mobs of women
had broken plate glass windows to grab a hat Theda Bara had touched, in
the hope that they, too, might be able to make men grovel."
Bara's film career ended almost as abruptly as it had begun, when the
vampire formula lost its appeal following World War I. In the 1920s she
tried the theater, with devastating results. Hollywood veteran Budd Schul-

berg recalled the Broadway opening of her melodrama Tin Blue Flame:
"Her opening on Broadway drew a sold-out audience laced with all the
reigning celebrities. The first time she opened her mouth, they laughed.
This was the irresistible vampire against whom the Church and an orga-
nized group of outraged wives had fulmi-
nated as a threat to the established order?
This was the Serpent Woman? Cleopatra
and Salome incarnate? At the
of her childlike piping, cruel laughter
first sound
&
ended Theodora [sic] Goodman's career."
In 1932, Bara's husband, Charles Bra-
-S&B j 9
bin, directed Boris Karloff and
in The Mask ofFu Manchu, in which Loy's
Myrna Loy
%
s^ -1
spiderish role as
owed much
Fu Manchu's daughter
to the screen tradition inau-
gurated by Theodosia Goodman in 1915.
i
Following her retirement from the stage
and screen, Bara became a Los Angeles
society fixture. She sold her life story to

Theda Bara
(The Free Library of Philadelphia Theatre Collection)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 9

Columbia pictures for a film to have been titled The Great Vampire, but
itwas never produced. She died of abdominal cancer in Hollywood on
April 7, 1955. See also Burne-Jones, Sir Philip.

Baron Blood
Cinema, Italy 1972. Jay Cocks, reviewing Baron Blood for Time, noted
that "Director Mario Bava has made a great many other films of this sort
. . . each displaying a formidable interest in interior decoration matched by
a lofty disregard for intelligence." Joseph Cotten plays a monster pat-
terned after Dracula prototype Vlad the Impaler; he returns from the
grave when his castle is renovated as a tourist hotel, and spends much time

in pursuit of Elke Sommer. After much carnage, the baron is sent back to
hell in a confusing climax. Bava, best known for BLACK SUNDAY, directed
from a script by Vincent Forte and William A. Bairn. With Massimo
Girotti, Antonio Cantafora, and Alan Collins. (American International )T

Baron Brakola, El

Cinema, Mexico 1965. Santo, the masked Mexican wrestler who made a
whole screen career battling vampires and other creepy beings, takes on an
undead baron and his vampire harem. The Santo films are hokey, to say
the least, but they effectively kept the undead alive in the imagination of
the Mexican public. Directed by Jose Diaz Morales. With Rodolfo Guz-
man Huerta (as Santo), Mercedes Carreno, and Antonio de Hud. (Filmica
Vergara/Columbia

Bat
The premier emblem and avatar of vampirism, the bat has a rich place in

world folklore. It is, of course, the image of the blood-drinking vampire

bat that forges the strongest link between the winged mammal and imagi-
nary vampires, but the bat has many other associations with darkness,
death, and the supernatural that reinforce its mythic reputation.
From a rational perspective, the reputation is undeserved, because bats
are an important part of the ecosystem and essential for the control of in-
sects in many regions. Bats are also much less exotic many people
than
would believe; it has been estimated that twenty percent of all living mam-
mals are bats. The vampire bat comprises a small category of the bat
world: the family Desmodontidae, indigenous to South and Central Amer-
20 David J. Skal

Bats of the world, from a

turn-of-the-century engraving.

ica. Like its fantastic counterpart, it at-

tacks its victims (far more likely to be

livestock than human) during sleep. The
vampire does not alight directly on its
prey, preferring to land at some distance,
making the final approach with a stealthy
hopping crawl. It seeks out a warm place
where the skin is unprotected and the
blood supply copious —the neck, the eyes,
the anus — and there painlessly opens the
skin with a pair of razor- sharp incisors.
The bat's saliva contains an anticoagu-
lant, which keeps the blood flowing for
the length of the meal (and sometimes longer, leading to debilitating
blood loss and infections). The feast is over in about twenty minutes, with
the bat often so bloated that it can barely fly.

One of the human encounter with the vampire

earliest descriptions of a
bat was written in 1565 by Benzoni, who made his observations in what is
now Costa Rica: "There are many bats which bite people during the night
. . . while I was sleeping they bit the toes of my feet so delicately that I felt

nothing, and in the morning I found the sheets and mattresses with so
much blood that it seemed that I had suffered some great injury. . .
." The
fact that bats are also common vectors for rabies did nothing to improve
the animals' image historically.
Bat-winged demons are a common fixture of religious and occult
iconography; such creatures were, of course, travesties of angels. The mo-
tif of wings grafted onto the human form is an ambiguous image, one that
(in the case of feather- winged angels) can represent man's highest aspira-
tions, or (in the case of the leathery bat-demon) divine presumption. The
idea of flight has always captured the human imagination in a double-
edged manner. Freud tells us that flying dreams are sex dreams; dreamlike
images of flying monsters, therefore, contain a distinct air of dangerous or
forbidden sexuality —a powerful component of the vampire mystique. The
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 2

bat is nocturnal, and night is associated with unknown forbidden realms,

not to mention death. In one Australian aboriginal variation on the Adam
and Eve myth, a woman is warned to stay away from a bat instead of an
apple; when curiosity gets the better of her, she approaches the bat and
frightens it away —only to learn that it was guarding the cave in which
death was hidden.
The first theatrical use of a batlike vampire cloak may have been made
by Dion Boucicault in in 1852. Bram Stoker's use
his play The Vampire
of the bat in Dracula (1897)
somewhat ambiguous; the shape-shifting,
is

winged thing that Dracula becomes is simultaneously described as resem-

bling a lizard or a bird. Perhaps the most important stabilizing factor in
the relationship between theatrical vampires and bats was the 1927 Broad-
way adaptation of Dracula, at which early audiences hooted the attempt
to depict the vampire in werewolf form with an unconvincing stuffed ani-
mal. The taxidermist's beast was summarily withdrawn, and it fell to the
bat to provide all the evening's animal pleasures —werewolves thereafter
became a separate horror category.
The first convincing on-screen bat transformation was accomplished by
Lon Chaney, Jr., in Son of Dracula (1943), and repeated by John Car-
radine in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula
(1945). Bela Lugosi, whose transformations in Dracula (1931) were
achieved discreetly off-camera, was seen fading up over a flapping bat in
Mark of the Vampire (1935), but only got the chance for full, frontal

transvection in the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

(1948), where the effect was treated like an animated cartoon. In his

screenplay for Horror

of Dracula (1958), Jimmy Sangster took pains
to let the audience know that the bat/vampire business was just folklore,
and indeed, Christopher Lee made no transformations. But by the time of
Hammer's sequel, Brides of Dracula (1960), the studio seemed to have
a change of heart, and the vampire Baron Meinster is twice seen flapping
about his One of my favorite bat sequences occurs in John
bloody rounds.
Badham's remake of Dracula (1979), when Frank Langella quite unex-
pectedly takes leave of gravity to attack a visitor on the stair of his lair.

The Bat People

Cinema, USA 1974. When a scientist (Stewart Moss) is bitten by a vam-
pire bat on his honeymoon, he ends up with more to worry about than
Erzebet Bathory, the original Hungarian Ingrid Pitt as Erzebet Bathory in Countess
blood countess. Dracula. (Photofest)

rabies. I'll leave it to psychoanalytically inclined readers to decode the

cave-exploration-on-the-honeymoon motif; the rest, of course, is pre-
dictable junk. Moss' bat-face makeup, created by Stan Winston, might be
regarded as a prototype for Greg Cannom's design for Gary Oldman's
bat-form in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Directed by Jerry Jameson, screen-
play by Lou Shaw. With Marianne McAndrew, Michael Pataki, and Paul
Carr. (American International)^

Bat Thorn
A fictional plant, similar to wolfsbane, offering protection against vam-
pires. Bat thorn made an appearance in the 1935 film Mark of the Vam-
pire, a last-minute replacement for the screenplay's original "wolf's claw."
The substitution may have been made out of MGM's concern that it
might be treading heavily on the wolfsbane in Dracula, to which rival
studio Universal held sole motion picture rights at the time. See also
ACONITE; FOLKLORE.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 23

Bathory, Erzebet
Given the legendary reputation of the Hungarian noblewoman Erzebet
(Elizabeth) Bathory for bathing in the blood of virgins to preserve her
youth, it is indeed disappointing to learn that the beauty treatments may
never have really taken place.
Born in 1540 into a powerful family (her cousin, Stephan Bathory,
would be prince of Transylvania and king of Poland), Erzebet was by
all accounts an intelligent, highly educated woman sometimes subject to

fits and rages, but otherwise exhibiting no hints of the homicidal maniac

she was soon to become. Following the death of her husband, Ferenc
Nadasdy, in 1604, her interest in disciplining peasant servants seems to

have made a quantum leap from the commonplace cruelty meted out to
peasants by nobles. One is tempted to conclude that the death of her hus-
band triggered some kind of psychotic break revolving, perhaps, around a
dawning awareness of her own mortality and an envious hatred of the
buxom virgins she chose as victims — but this is pure speculation from a
modern psychological perspective. Bathory's lurid crimes —she is reputed
to have beaten and butchered anywhere from dozens to hundreds of
women, depending on the account —have the prerational air of an ugly
fairy tale; archetypically evil, she seems to have committed the atrocities
largely because nobody stopped her. She was inordinately fond of letting
Leona Helmsley-style snits over housekeeping matters and petty thievery
escalate into ferocious bloodletting, abetted by a retinue of sadistic crones.
Her victims were usually beaten beyond recognition, often had their fin-
gers cut off with scissors, and were sometimes hauled naked into the snow,
there to be drenched with buckets of water and frozen to death. Even ill-
ness did not deter her murderous gusto: Bathory's 1611 trial transcript
contains descriptions of peasant girls being brought to her sickbed, the
better to have pieces of flesh bitten from their faces and shoulders. There
is no documentary evidence, however, that Bathory ever believed virgin

blood would actually rejuvenate her, but such stories were popularized in
nineteenth-century accounts of her life and were widely accepted as fact.

The best book on Erzebet Bathory is Dracula Was a Woman by Raymond T.

McNally, which draws judiciously on earlier texts. Film treatments have
included Countess 1970 Hammer Films production starring
Dracula, a

Ingrid Pitt that presented the rejuvenation theme literally, followed in

1971 by Daughters of Darkness, in which Bathory is depicted as a
24 David J. Skal

soignee vampire slinking around European resort hotels, looking for

young lives to corrupt and destroy. The Legend of Blood Castle (1972), a
Spanish/Italian coproduction, played up the sensationalism while retain-
ing much of the original story. Pablo Picasso's daughter Paloma played
Erzebet as a lesbian monster in Three Immoral Women, an anthology film
released in 1974. The story gave way Mama Dracula (1979),
to laughs in
starring Louise Fletcher. Perhaps the low point of Erzebet Bathory's film
homages was The Craving, a 1980 Spanish film which pitted her against a
revenant werewolf —and bombed at the box office. The Bathory legend
also provided a loose inspiration for / Vampiri (1956), photographed and
codirected by Mario Bava, and The Devil's Wedding Night (1973), which
featured a guest appearance by the ring of the Nibelungen. The Mysterious
Death of Nina Chereau (1988) seems to be a standard psychological

thriller until its climax, when a female murder suspect is revealed to be

the rejuvenated Bathory. A novel based on Bathory's legend, The Blood
Countess by Andrei Codrescu, was published in 1995.

Batman vs. Dracula

Cinema, USA 1964. Andy Warhol may have lent his name to the Ameri-
can release of Paul Morrissey's 1973 film Andy Warhol's Dracula, but
the only Dracula movie Andy directed himself was this one, starring Jack
Smith and Baby Jane Holzer. (Film-maker's Cooperative)

Baudelaire, Charles
The high priest of poetic decadence, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was
a major influence on the development of the femme fatale motif in all the
arts in the late nineteenth century. Two poems in Baudelaire's Flowers of
Evil, "The Vampire" and "Metamorphoses of the Vampire," deal explic-
itly with vampirism. Both were censored from the original 1857 edition.
Baudelaire's characteristic depiction of female sexuality in terms of PROSTI-
TUTION, vampirism, and rot is captured in Jackson Mathews' memorable
translation of "Metamorphoses":

When she had sucked the marrow from every bone,

I turned to her as languid as a stone
To give her one last kiss . . . and saw her thus:
A slimy rotten wineskin, full of pus!
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 25

Misogynistic or not, Baudelaire was a profound literary force, in many

ways the "modern" poet. He introduced the French-speaking world to
first

Edgar Allan Poe through his extensive translations, including, of course,

the vampirish story "Berenice."

Bauhaus
The (1979-1983) but seminal gothic-rock group whose first
short-lived
hit, its anthem and was featured on the
"Bela Lugosi's Dead," served as
soundtrack of the 1983 film The Hunger.

Bava, Mario
The celebrated director of Black Sunday, Mario Bava (1914-1980) be-
gan his career as a cinematographer in the late 1930s, assisting such direc-
tors as Roberto Rossellini, but developed a distinct knack for directing
when the nominal director of 7 Vampiri (1956), which Bava was lens-
ing, walked off the set. Bava stepped in and completed the directorial
chores on the stylish CinemaScope thriller. Following photographic as-

signments on films The Day the Sky Exploded (1958), Caltiki, The Im-
like

mortal Monster (1959), and Hercules Unchained (1960), Bava returned to

the velvety black-and-white shadow-world of I Vampiri to direct, co-
author and photograph Black Sunday (1960). The film would be recog-
classic of the genre, as was "The Wurdalak"
nized almost immediately as a
segment of Bava's Black Sabbath (1963) and Planet of the Vampires
—
(1965) perhaps the definitive cinematic treatment of extraterrestrial
exsanguination.

Benson, E. F.

See "Mrs. Amworth"; "Room in the Tower, The"

"Berenice"
Edgar Allan Poe's 1833 short story about a man's obsession with the teeth
of a beautiful, cataleptic woman is frequently discussed in relation to vam-
pire fiction, and with good reason. While the story is a tale of madness,
with no real vampires in sight, Poe manages to evoke, in just a few short
pages, an atmosphere of necrophilic orality more chilling than that of any
number of "classic" vampire stories:
26 David J. Skal

The teeth! —the teeth! —they were here, and there, and every where,
and and palpably before me; long, narrow and excessively white,
visibly

with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their
first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania,
and I struggled in vain against its strange and irresistible influence. In
the multiplied objects of the external world I had no thoughts but for
the teeth. For these I longed with a phrenzied desire.

Following one of her trance-seizures, Berenice is pronounced dead and

is buried. We learn, in the story's closing paragraphs, that her grave has
been violated, revealing Berenice not to be dead at all, but "a disfigured
body enshrouded, yet still breathing, still palpitating, still alive!" The na-
ture of her disfigurement is made clear when the distraught narrator,
stained with grave-mud and gore, drops a little box: "[It] fell heavily, and
burst into pieces; and from it, with a rattling sound, there rolled out some
instruments of dental surgery, intermingled with thirty- two small, white
and ivory-looking substances that were scattered to and fro about the
floor."

Billy the Kid vs. Dracula

Cinema, USA 1966. Westerns and vampire movies are both perennial
American genres, so it's not surprising that they occasionally get together
forsome heavy necking. Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is an awful film, even
though John Carradine as Dracula valiantly stares his eyes out in a futile

attempt to convince audiences they are seeing something worthwhile.

Nonetheless, it must be admitted that both vampire stories and Westerns
are about the obsession with transcendence of boundaries, be they geo-
graphical or metaphysical, and their confluence is worth some degree of
cultural meditation. Directed by William Beaudine. With Chuck Court-
ney, Melinda Plowman, and Virginia Christine. (Embassy Pictures)T

Bite marks
Styles in vampire lesions have proved as changeable as hemlines. They mu-
tate not only in appearance but in location as well —throughout much of
the nineteenth century, the vampire feasted not at the throat but over the
heart, where it left a sickly, metaphoric bruise. As the traditional seat of
the emotions, if not the soul, the heart added poetic resonance to the
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 27

bloodsucking act. Vampires made breast incisions in such works as Sheri-

dan Le Fanu's "Carmtlta," first published in 1872. A similar bite strat-
egy can be seen in Philip Burne- Jones' decadent painting The Vampire,
unveiled in 1897. Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, published the same
year, marked a radical shift in bite dynamics; Stoker medicalrzed vampirism
to a large extent, choosing the jugular vein, perhaps, because it was the
logical, accessible place from which a copious quantity of blood could
be quickly quaffed. The anxiety which Stoker's characters exhibit over the
marks on the victim's skin can be read as an unintentional allegory of the
real-life terror inspired in Victorian society by the appearance of the signs
of syphilis, a major scourge of the time that was seldom addressed directly
in the arts.

The first visible bite marks in a motion picture appeared in the 1931
Spanish-language version of Dracula. The American version featured
much talk about the marks — "white, with red centers" —but never showed
them. In the Spanish version, the vampire stigmata, viewed through a

magnifying on the throat of actress Carmen Guerrero, resemble

glass
nothing so much as a snake bite. The punctures are closely spaced; it is ob-
vious from this evidence that director George Melford imagined Dracula's
damage to be inflicted bv frontal fangs in the ratlike style of 'Sosferatu
1 1922 ), a film which Universal had studied closely in preparing its English-
and Spanish-language versions of the film. (There is a certain contradic-

tion, it should be noted, between the "two-hole punch" style in vampire

lesions and the physical mechanics that would produce the same —the
slow, seductive love bite favored by filmmakers would leave upper and
lower bite marks. Two
holes would be left only if the strike was truly dart-
ing and snakelike; no doubt this would be a startling effect, though no
one to my knowledge has used it in a film.
Vampire wounds became increasingly ragged and realistic traumas with
the coming of color and explicit violence in the cinema, especially in the
blood-soaked oeuvre of Hanlmer Films. In The Brides of Dracula
(I960), they are treated as a symptom, "the seal of Dracula." which, if
treated with a cauterizing brand, will cure the disease. By the time of John
Landis' INNOCENT Blood (1992), discreet perforations —the kind that
could be easily hidden with a velvet choker or chiffon scarf- —were things
of the antique past; the vampire now ripped out huge chunks of flesh,
disguising all evidence bv blowing off the heads of her victims with a

shotgun. See also FANGS.

28 David J. Skal

The Black Room

Cinema, USA 1982. Released near the very beginning of the AIDS epi-

demic, The Black Room was one of the last films whose sexual content and
body -fluid imagery was not particularly colored by the metaphors of the
disease, and so has a certain nostalgic charm. A restless family man rents a
Hollywood Hills fuck pad from a decadent brother and sister; he doesn't
know that the brother suffers from a rare blood condition that necessitates
complete blood transfusions, drawn from a series of throwaway tenants.
They also lure the lessee's wife to the black room, and finally their children

are also drawn in. There is an interesting implied parallel between the
characters who use each other for sex and those who use each other for
blood, and the whole thing finally seems an acerbic comment on the cur-
dled state of heterosexual relationships following the swinging seventies.
Despite some strong atmosphere and a couple of real shocks, The Black
Room is not completely successful, and one wonders what a larger budget
might have done for the material. Directed by Elly Kenner, screenplay and
codirection by Norman Thaddeus Vane. With Stephen Knight, Cassandra
Gaviola, Jimmy Stathis, and Clara Perryman. (Ram Productions)

Black Sabbath
Cinema, Italy 1963. Boris Karloff, best known for his association with the
left-brain side of the horror formula (mad scientists, man-made monsters,
etc.) made his first and only appearance as a vampire —or more precisely, a

wurdalak, in Mario Bava's impressive and faithful adaptation of Alexei

Tolstoi's story "The Family of a Wurdalak," the most accomplished seg-
ment of this trilogy film. Karloff plays Gorca, a family patriarch who warns
his brood to shun him if he does not return from a hunt within ten days;
nonetheless, they take him back, not willing to believe he is a vampire who
will destroy them all. The film is one of the few examples of vampire cin-

ema that captures a common theme of European folklore: namely, that

the vampire primarily feeds on members of its own family. (Psychoanalytic
commentators often relate such beliefs to the guilty repression of incest.)
Bava deviates from Tolstoi in adding a far more downbeat conclusion, but
the grisly sense of closure serves the tale well. Bava directed Karloff, Mark
Damon, and Michelle Mercier in a screenplay by Marcello Fondato and
Alberto Bevilacqua. (American International )
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 29

Arturo Dominici
Black Sunday.
(Photofest)

Black Sunday
Cinema, Italy 1960. One of the all-time great vampire films, directed by
Mario Bava under the original title La maschera del demonio. This film
caused quite a stir on the playground, as I recall, and I can still remember

making notebook scribbles of Barbara Steele's staring eyes, gothic cheek-

bones, and flying hair instead of paying attention to Mrs. Kimball and the
multiplication tables (which I only learned imperfectly —
blame it on the
undead). The screenplay, by Ennio De Concini and Bava, is supposedly
based on Gogol's short story "The Viy," and recounts the story of
Princess Asa, a seventeenth-century Moldavian witch (Barbara Steele),
who has a spiked mask hammered onto her face before being entombed in
the supernatural equivalent of a nuclear garbage dump — a windowed crypt
with a highly visible cross that she must stare at for eternity. Eternity lasts
only a couple of hundred years, however, and Asa returns, drinking blood
and attempting to possess the soul of her great-granddaughter. The only
relationship the film bears to the Gogol story is the image of a witch rising
from her coffin, and one senses that the attribution to Gogol is just pre-
30 David J. Skal

tentious overreaching. But Black Sunday doesn't need to beg for re-

spectability — it's an unassailable classic, full of unforgettable set pieces and

masterfully sustained atmosphere. Upon its American release, Variety
noted with interest that Barbara Steele bore a "strong resemblance" to the
country's new first lady, Jackie Kennedy. The film has had a number of
Revenge of the Vampire and House of Fright. With
alternate tides, including
John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, and Arturo Dominici.
(American International/Galatea- Jolly)V

Black Vampire
Cinema, USA 1973. Originally tided Ganja and Hess (alternately, Posses-
sion, Black Evil, and Black Out), Gunn's low- budget, slow- moving
Bill

thriller is a kind of art-house version of Blacula. Gunn postulates an an-

cient African society of blood-drinkers, whose curse remains dormant in a

sacrificial knife —
until, of course, someone gets stabbed with it. The relent-

lessly laid-back dialogue can be quite unintentionally funny, as when a

woman is unfazed by her new lover's confession of vampirism. "Every-

body's some kind of freak," she says. "Everybody I know is into something,
you know? You're into horror movies. I can dig it. When it gets too heavy
and I can't cut it, believe me, you'll be the first to know." With Duane
Jones (star of Night of the Living Dead), Marlene Clark, Leonard Jackson,
and Bill Gunn (who also scripted). (Kelly- Jordan Enterprises)T

The Black Vampire

An obscure melodrama presented in Camden Town, London, in the late

1920s; of note only because Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, assumed it

was yet another plagiarism of Dracula. It wasn't.

Blackwood, Algernon
See "Transfer, The."

Blacula
Cinema, USA 1972. One wishes that this film was, somehow, much better
or much worse than it is, or that a wickedly satiric cross-cultural sensibility

was at work. Sadly, Blacula is just a formula vampire movie with a mostly
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 3

black cast, proving only that white fangs are indeed effective when dis-

played against dark skin, but little else. The most imaginative scenes are
near the beginning, when it is revealed that the original Count Dracula
(Charles MacCauley) once dabbled in the slave trade and put a vampire
curse on a certain African Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall), who is

locked in a coffin until a pair of gay interior decorators (grossly stereo-

typed) bring the box back to Los Angeles in a lot of Transylvanian an-
tiques. Marshall, a classically trained actor, is an imposing presence,
reading ridiculous dialogue with an authoritative, Othello-style rumble.
But nothing is surprising as Mamuwalde tries to woo the reincarnation of
his lost African love. The film reaches its climax in a sewage treatment
plant, just the sort of touch that compels critics to say rude things. With
Thalmus Rasulala, Denise Nicholas, Elisha Cook, Jr., Vonetta McGee, and
Gordon Pinsent. Directed by William Crain. Screenplay by Joan Torres
and Raymond Koenig. An uninspired sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream,
was released in 1973. (American International )
Blake, Edmund
Edmund Blake was the first actor to portray Dracula in the familiar

evening-clothes-and-opera-cape persona devised by playwright-producer

Hamilton Deane and unveiled in Derby, England, in 1924. Almost noth-
ing is known about Blake as a performer, except that he had a prominent
gold front tooth. He resurfaced briefly in 1927 to appear in a rival version
of Dracula commissioned by Bram Stoker's widow Florence when she
grew tired of paying royalties to Deane. The adaptation, written by Charles
Morell but owned by Stoker, was a complete flop, and Edmund Blake
thereafter seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.

Bloch, Robert
See cloaks and capes.

Blood
The ultimate human symbol, blood — like the vampire itself —has the
power to assume almost endless metaphorical forms. As the primarily vital
fluid, blood has been held in awe since prehistoric times, and is prominent

in the imagery of most religious and folk traditions. Blood is our physical
32 David J. Skal

connection to the ancient, atavistic past, as well as our immediate bond of

kinship and fealty. The ancient belief that there is no essential difference

between the physical reality of blood and the less tangible qualities of
spirit, courage, and purposeful consciousness —that "the blood is the life,"

quantifiable and transferable — is notably at the root of cannibalism,

blood sacrifice, and vampire legends in a wide variety of cultures. Blood, in

many traditions, is believed to absorb or transmit evil; the removal of

blood from the body, therefore, can often provide a cathartic cleansing.
An "The blood has flowed, the danger has passed," cap-
old Arabic saying,
dynamism of both animal and human sacrifice. Outside
tures the historical
of Voodoo, Santeria, and some Maori tribal rites, literal blood sacrifice is
now rare, but the torrential prevalence, in recent decades, of simulated
blood in popular culture is significant, less as a reflection (or cause) of real
life violence than as an exorcism of diffuse cultural anxieties in a postmod-
ern age of image and artifice. Next to the Catholic ritual of the mass and
the culture of AIDS (q.v.), vampire entertainment is our richest modern
repository of blood-related themes, ceremonies, and obsessions. See also
Catholicism; Christianity; folklore.

Blood Addiction
Theater, USA 1980. A company-developed play by the Iowa Theater Lab,
a touchy- feely homoerotic troupe headed by Ric Zank. Other Stages de-
scribed the piece thus: "Performed in a black void, Blood Addiction was of-

ten mysteriously, hauntingly illuminated by the guttering, fickle flames of

candles" providing "suggestive, allusive, intuitional impressions of the pri-
vate lives of the master vampires." See also homosexuality.

Blood and Roses

Cinema, France/Italy 1961. Roger Vadim's loose update of "CARMILLA"
was originally titled Et mourir de plaisir (And Die of Pleasure), but re-
leased in America only after its lesbian eroticism was significantly cut. The
film has a somewhat better reputation than it deserves, perhaps because of
Claude Renoir's accomplished cinematography. It received decidedly
mixed reviews upon its stateside release. Film Quarterly called it "the most
elegant and intelligent vampire film in decades, despite a few lines such as,
'What do you make of these marks on her throat, Doctor?' " Brendan Gill,
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 33

A masquerade costume covers the real

thing in Roger Vadim's erotic chiller
Blood and Roses. (Photofest)

writing in The New Yorker, begged

Vadim that Blood and Roses "be his
last crack at a supernatural thriller.

Vampires what they

just aren't
used to be; they seem to lack
the old — well, I guess you'd have
to call it spirit. The setting for
this preposterous farrago is, of all

places, Hadrian's Villa. It is beau-

tiful and will survive." With Mel
Ferrer, Elsa Martinelli, and Annette
Vadim. (Paramount/Les Films EGE
Documento)T

The Blood Drinkers

Cinema, Philippines 1966. I saw this film largely out of desperation; the
original Dracula was not shown on Cleveland television for most of the
—
1960s long before the advent of home video and I felt cruelly de- —
prived. I had to satisfy myself with any junk that came down the pike. The
Blood Drinkers had a nifty advertisement and I had high hopes when I
took the bus to downtown Cleveland for the fifty-cent matinee at the Hip-
podrome Theatre —the very place where the Lugosi film had premiered in

Cleveland thirty -five years before. Alas, none of the vampire mystique that
must have been contained in the Hippodrome walls rubbed off on The
Blood Drinkers. It had ever spent money on the
was the cheesiest movie I —
film was full of Filipino performers with bad skin and worse wardrobes: I

can almost swear that one of the vampires wore a polka-dot cape. The film
was so cheap that only part of it was in color —the rest was filled out with
tinted black-and-white sequences. My current research reveals that the
film was directed by Gerardo de Leon, and starred Amelia Fuentes, Ronald
34 David J. Ska I

Poster for The Blood Drinkers.

Remy, and Eddie Fernandez. I don't remember

who did what. But you know that ad still. . .

looks pretty good. (Hemisphere Pictures)

Blood Fetishism
Sexual gratification through blood drinking has
been a well-documented clinical phenomenon
since Richard von Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia
Sexualis (1892), but ithas only been in the last
decade that real-life blood drinkers have culti-
vated an identification with vampires of the
imaginary sort. A contributing factor to this
new phenomenon, no doubt, has been the mass
rehabilitation of the vampire image in Anne
Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and elsewhere;
the once villainous revenant is now more likely to be presented as a sensi-
tive outcast craving meaningful human contact. In the standard psycho-
analytic interpretation, the root of the "vampire's" alienation is his/her
arrested development at the oral/sadistic stage of sexual development.
Blood, as a potent symbol of human warmth and belonging, can also
become an erotic fixation for children in abusive families, where tangled
emotions of love, pain, power, and powerlessness (and, too often, the lit-

eral presence of blood) trap the child in a limbo-state of infantile rage and
insatiable hunger. For some blood fetishists, the gratifying act is wholly
masturbatory, involving self-bleeding or, in more extreme cases, self-

mutilation. For others, who share their practice, bloodletting/drinking is

a preferred way of establishing intimacy or trust. Since human teeth make

exceedingly crude instruments for opening veins, modern vampires tend
to use razor blades, knives, or syringes to make blood may
incisions; the
then be sucked directly or, more ritualistically, sipped from a chalice, cor-
dial glass, or other vessel.
The explosive growth of vampire literature, imagery, and entertainment
has given many blood fetishists, for the first time in their lives, a positive

sense of connectedness. Several books in the last few years have explored
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 35

Norine Dresser's American

this unsettling sexual netherworld, including
Vampires (1989), Rosemary Ellen Guiley's Vampires Among Us (1991),
and Carol Page's Bloodlust (1991). (My own 1993 book, The Monster
Show: A Cultural History of Horror, contains a detailed and, I hope, re-

vealing interview with a practicing California "vampire.") Richard Noll's

Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons: Twentieth-Century Reports in the Psy-
chiatric Literature (1992) recounts several of the more psychopathic
cases, including the notorious English "acid-bath" murderer John Haigh,
who killed nine people between 1944 and 1949 in order to drink a cup of
their blood. Haigh, before his trial and execution, was judged to be sane,
despite his claim that "I was impelled to kill by wild blood demons." He

assured his mother before his execution that "my spirit will remain earth-
bound for a while. My mission is not yet fulfilled."

It should be noted that mere fact of blood arousal does not necessarily
indicate a propensity for violence. While it is true that many serial killers do
drink blood, a more typical scenario involves consensual erotic play involv-

ing relatively mild forms of biting, cutting, and sucking. Neither is blood
fetishism necessarily correlated with satanism —many practitioners consider
their activities to be essentially pre-Christian, rendering satanic considera-
tions meaningless —though satanists are frequently attracted to the dra-

matic trappings of vampirism. See also psychoanalysis; sadomasochism.

Blood of Dracula
Cinema, USA 1957. The first of producer Herman Cohen's teen-monster
movies (7 Was a Teenage Werewolf'and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein were
next) established a now-familiar formula: take a troubled teen with a lot of
pent-up rage, stir in an unscrupulous authority figure and a dash of mad
science,and presto, all hell can break loose. Sandra Harrison stars as a girl
whose widowed dad has taken up with an expensive floozie. They ditch
her in a private girl's academy where a power-crazed science teacher
(Louise Lewis) plans, somehow, to upset the male-dominated scientific es-
tablishment with a Mr. Wizard-style chemistry set and a Transylvanian
amulet she twiddles in a darkened room. She only succeeds in turning the
impressionable Harrison into a small-time serial killer with really big teeth.

This movie is simultaneously awful and entertaining, and that chemistry

set can't be beat for low-budget shamelessness. Directed by Herbert L.
Strock, from a screenplay by Ralph Thornton. (American International)^
36 David J. Skal

Blood of the Vampire

Cinema, UK 1958. Light-years ahead of Dr. Christiaan Barnard, this better-
than- average costume piece posited a truly original means to revive a
him a heart transplant. Dr.
staked vampire: give Callistratus (played with

an enhanced Bela Lugosi visage by Sir Donald Wolfit, the over-the-top

Shakespearean actor who inspired the play The Dresser) is not a supernat-

ural vampire, but all this transplant/resurrection business has resulted in a

blood condition amounting to the same thing. Callistratus sets himself up

as the head of a nasty Victorian prison, where he can experiment with

blood however he pleases. Wolfit's icy portrayal evokes the death camp
doctors who were still in business the decade before this film was released.
it and makes some clever use of
Technically, the film has a rich look to
trompe Poeil painted backdrops. With Vincent Ball, Barbara Shelley, and
Victor Maddern. Henry Cass directed from Jimmy Sangster's Hammer-
style script. (Eros Films/Universal- International )
The Blood-Spattered Bride
Cinema, Spain 1972. Another soft-porn
lesbian spinoff of "Carmilla," though the
menage- a- trois theme suggests D. H.
Lawrence's "The Fox" more strongly than
it does J. Sheridan Le Fanu's story. The

film contains one of the most bizarre images

of a sleeping vampire in cinema history,
when the young husband finds the creature
(who will seduce his wife) supine beneath
the beach, her breasts and scuba goggles
peeking through the sand. Directed by
Vincente Aranda. With Alexandra Bastedo,
Maribel Martin, and Simon Andreu. (Mor-
gana Films)Y

Blood of the Vampire: Sir Donald Wolfit bats DONALD WOLFIT-BARBARA SHELLEY
VINCENT BALL- VICTOR MADDERN
Bela Lugosi eyes. (Photofest)
-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 37

Blood Ties

Television, USA 1991. "Wake up, blond and blue-eyed America!" wrote
television critic John J. O'Connor in the New York Times. "Those swarthy
types living down the street, the ones with the dark hair and smoldering
eyes, they're very likely to be vampires." This pilot, which, not surpris-
ingly, never took off, "sticks its neck out trying to be a parable of racism
and American assimilation of foreign blood," according to TV Guide. The
script actually included the following line of dialogue, self- righteously de-
livered without an ounce of intended humor: "We're Americans —and it's

time we came out of the coffin."

Borland, Carroll
American (1914—1994) and protegee of actor Bela Lugosi, best
actress

known Luna the bat-girl in Mark of the Vampire (1935).

for her role as
Borland's appearance in the film by director Tod BROWNING was an im-
portant contribution to horror iconography, standardizing the image of
the lank-haired, almond-eyed female vampire that probably influenced
cartoonist Charles Addams when he created his ghoulish "Morticia" char-
acter. Borland, who retired from acting in the late thirties, has given many
interviews about her relationship with Lugosi (she insists it was all pla-

tonic), especially her experiences working with him on stage in Dracula.

But beyond a letter from Lugosi asking her to try out for a condensed
vaudeville -circuit version of the play in late 1932, hard documentation of
her stage work is elusive. Borland had
brief appearances in the Universal se-
rial Flash Gordon (1935) and Sutter's
Gold (1936). She made a comeback,
of sorts, in the low-budget Scalps

(1982). Borland's manuscript Count-

ess Dracula (c. 1930), which had in-

terested Lugosi as a possible stage

Carroll Borland and Jean Hersholt in Marie

of the Vampire. (Courtesy of Carroll Borland)
38 DavidJ.Skal

vehicle, recently resurfaced and was published in 1994 by Magiclmage

Filmbooks.

Boucicault, Dion
Irish- born actor and playwright (1820?-1890) best known for The
Shautjhran, London Assurance, and Love in a Maze, Boucicault made his
London stage debut in 1852 in The Vampire: A Phantasm. Boucicault's
Vampire was the latest in a long string of theatrical adaptations of John
Polidori's "The Vampyre: A Tale" (1819), and was especially influenced by
Le Vampire (1820) by Charles Nodier. The Boucicault play substituted a
new vampire, Sir Alan Raby (a.k.a. "Gervase Rookwood"), for Polidori's
original Lord Ruthven, and rather audaciously set its action in three cen-
turies, past, present, and future. Boucicault later trimmed the third act and

presented the play in America as The Phantom. The vampire, resurrected by

"moonbames," forges his own will to reclaim his former castle, but is found
out by the too-recent watermark on the document. According to biogra-
pher Townsend Walsh, the acting chores fell to Boucicault himself when his
employer, the great nineteenth -century actor Charles Kean, "deemed 'vam-
pires' beneath his tragic dignity." The London Examiner noted that Bouci-
cault "enacted the 'monster' with due paleness of visage, stealthiness of pace
and solemnity of tone." Following is an excerpt from Boucicault's abridged
version, in which Alan Raby barnstorms his prey:

Alan. Thou lovest me, thy soul is mine. Come to my heart, thou can'st
not escape the spell my spirit has cast upon thine. Why do you
repulse
Ada. Because that breast upon which you press me, seems to be the
bosom of a corpse, and from the heart within I feel no throb of
life!

Alan. Ah! dost thou know me, then?

Ada. Away —phantom! demon! —thy soul dark, thy heart is is cold.
Alan. Ada— thy must pass into that
life heart.
Ada. Avaunt! — me! — my
leave —Edgar—oh! my voice
father is choked
with —avoid thee,
fear abhorrent
fiend! spectre!
[Retreats into room]
Alan. She is mine.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 39

The Vampire was not well received by the As the Examiner com-
critics.

mented, "If there is 'When things are at the

truth in the old adage that
worst they must mend,' the amelioration of spectral drama is not distant,
for it has reached the extreme point of inanity. ..." The Illustrated Lon-
don News complained that "much ingenuity has been thrown away on a
subject barren of interest, and, to some extent, disgusting." Boucicault's
acting, however, was roundly praised. The Era reported that he "looked
the Vampire to perfection. His deathy hue and rigid cast of counte-
. . .

nance, his high and bald forehead and spare figure, his measured accents
and grave demeanour, were all in keeping, and his 'make up' was in each
act quite a study."
Boucicault found a special fan in Queen Victoria, who attended the
benefit premiere and returned the following week to view the drama a sec-
ond time. She commissioned a watercolor portrait of Boucicault in the
role of the vampire and wrote in her journal (quoted by Boucicault biog-
rapher Richard Fawkes), "Mr. Boucicault, who is very handsome and has a
fine voice, acted very impressively. I can never forget his livid face and

fixed look. ... It quite haunts me." But upon her return visit, Victoria
found the play itself an ordeal. "It does not bear seeing a second time,"
she wrote, "and is, in fact, very trashy."
In its transatlantic incarnation as The Phantom, the play seems to have
fared better with the public. According to its original publisher, Samuel
French, the 1856 New York engagement at Wallack's Theatre "was
crowded to excess, and the enterprise netted ten thousand dollars in a run
of eleven weeks, unprecedented in the history of the New York Stage."

One interesting aspect of Boucicault's conception of the vampire is the

possibility that he may have been the first actor to incorporate the appear-
ance of a BAT into his performance. Odell's Annals of the New York Stage
cites Mrs. M. E. W. Sherwood's 1875 recollections of the play: "Then . . .

comes a vision of Boucicault playing the 'Vampire,' a dreadful and weird

thing played with immortal genius. That great playwright would not have
died unknown had he never done anything but flap his bat- like wings in
that dream -disturbing piece." See also theater.

The Brainiac
Cinema, Mexico 1961. An evil baron is burned on earth as a wizard, but he
returns from outer space 300 years later in a meteor, with the ability to
40 David J. Skal

metamorphose into a papier-mache monster with a brain-sucking pro-

boscis. Thus, he fits (somewhat uneasily and over- literally) into the cate-
gory of "psychic" vampires. This one has a camp following; if you're so
inclined, by all means track it down. With Abel Salazar (who also pro-
duced) and German Robles, who also teamed up for the Mexican fright
festsThe Vampire and The Vampire's Coffin. Directed by Chano Urveta.
Screenplay by Adolpho Portillo. (AIP-TV)V

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Cinema, USA 1992. A major disappointment. Francis Ford Coppola's $50
million vampire movie was just the latest in a long string of films that have
appropriated Stoker's title and characters for highly idiosyncratic exer-
cises in filmmaking. Therefore, it was not surprising that Bram Stoker's
Dracula would emerge as an essential subversion of the 1897 Stoker text;

what was surprising was the uncritical way that journalists and critics alike

swallowed the studio's laughable assertion that Coppola's film was the
first truly faithful adaptation of the Stoker
novel — a classic love story, no less.

Now, whatever Dracula is, it is not a love

story; it is difficult, in fact, to imagine a more

antiromantic narrative. Stoker's Dracula is a
cunning Darwinian superman; he does not
seduce —he seizes. While he grows younger
as he drinks blood, he never becomes attrac-

tive. The sexuality in Dracula is both rancid

and repellent. The story's nightmarish power
derives in large part from the tension
wrought by a highly "civilized" Victorian
surface narrative clashing with a raging sub-
text of unsublimated animalism.
Following a string of expensive flops, Cop-

Bram Stoker's Dracula: Cover of the paperback

movie tie-in edition of Stoker's novel.
(Courtesy of New American Library)
>»"—»' fr i«"*HZ)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 4

pola was ready to reestablish his credibility with the Hollywood main-
stream by producing an on-time, on-budget commercial film for a major
studio. James V. Hart's screenplay, originally tided Dracula: the Untold
Story, was stalled in TV-movie limbo when actress Winona Ryder brought
it to Coppola's attention. In one sense, Hart's script was indeed "un-
told" —by Bram Stoker, since Hart had replaced Stoker's ravenous monster
with a lovesick revenant seeking the reincarnation of his fourteenth -century
wife. On the other hand, the theme was extraordinarily derivative; it had
been used by screenwriter Richard Matheson in his 1973 television adap-
tation of Dracula, as an ongoing plot device in the sixties soap opera
Dark Shadows, and even in the blaxploitation flick Blacula (1972).
(Television's Saturday Night Live picked up on the Blacula connection
and ran an amusing skit lampooning Bram Stoker's Blacula the week be-

fore the Coppola film opened.) And the inspiration for all these reincarna-
tion tales was The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff pursuing a parallel
romance across the millennia.
Bram Stoker's Dracula was promoted like a steamroller by Columbia
Pictures (it had the most extensive merchandising tie-ins of any film before
Jurassic Park); as a result, there was almost no independent, intelligent re-

—
porting on the film's evolution just an avalanche of sycophantic puff
pieces and coffee-table books. In the major media, only Newsweek called
the film's bluff, going as far as to run parallel texts from the novel and the
screenplay to reveal the 180-degree switch in sensibility.
The casting, to say the least, was odd. Gary Oldman as Dracula is more
pixie-ish than princely; neither Winona Ryder nor Keanu Reeves as the
young lovers is convincingly British; Tom Waits' Renfield (like Oldman) is

often vocally incomprehensible; and Anthony Hopkins as a near- crackpot

Van Helsing seems manically adrift, almost undirected. The operatically

inclined costumes by Eiko Ishioka are on the whole very impressive — but
where is the opera? (Not every sartorial concept works, however; Lucy
Westenra's huge-collared dress was supposedly inspired by the anatomy of
a frilled lizard, but creates a far more bizarre effect: the Victorian virgin
served up as a white cheese pizza.)
The film operates like a broken, very expensive kaleidoscope, jamming
image atop precious image until the whole thing ends up feeling dis-
jointed and insubstantial. Of course, all the film's incongruities and flaws
and superficiality were applauded by Coppola partisans as evidence of a
brilliant "postmodernist" sensibility. The postmodernist defense, of course,
42 David J. Skal

is the last refuge for anything these days that has no point of view, bor-
rows egregiously, and finally makes no sense.
Coppola's real attitude toward Stoker may be revealed in his voice-over
commentary on the Criterion Collection laser disc of the film, when he
tells us, "Very few people have gotten through the book, if truth be known
. . . it's very hard going. . .
." For Coppola and company —obviously. (Co-
lumbia Pictures)T

Breasts
See DECOLLETAGE.

"The Bride of Corinth''

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 ballad "Die Braut von Korinth" sug-
gests a horror version of Romeo and Juliet, in which a family's opposition to

a burgeoning love affair is circumvented by the maiden's death and resurrec-

tion as a vampire to consummate her passion in blood. The ballad is usually
cited as one of the first "respectable" literary treatments of vampirism.
Goethe was later much impressed by John Polidori's 1819 story "The
Vampybe," which he (like much of Europe) attributed to Lord Byron.

The Brides of Dracula

Cinema, UK 1960. Hammer Films' first follow-up to its wildly successful
Horror of Dracula (1958) doesn't feature Dracula at all but instead re-

volves on a Suddenly, Last Summer-like premise: a dragon-lady baroness

(the peerless Martita Hunt) entices young women to her castle to provide
nourishment to Baron Meinster, her captive vampire son (David Peel).
Mom feels guilty about her son's predicament—somehow, she fostered his
vampirism by indulging his taste for decadent friends and unspecified but
"wicked" games. The Oedipal tension reaches a climax when the baroness

is finally The thinly veiled Freudian theme was

neck-penetrated by the son.
picked up by the reviewer for the London Evening Standard, who noted,
disapprovingly, that the golden-haired vampire "capitalises on current
fashion by resembling Oscar Wilde's Bosie with fangs." (Actor Peel may
have had more in common with another Wildean personage: at the age of
forty, Peel's ability to play a role half his age brings to mind The Picture

of Dorian Gray.) Reviled by many reviewers when it first appeared (the

London Observer called it "a ludicrous monstrosity"), The Brides of
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 43

"Bosie with fangs"? David Peel vamps

Yvonne Monlaur in The Brides of Dracula.
(Photofest)

Dracula is now widely considered

something of a minor classic, pre-
figuring the complex sexual themes
that have been more recently ex-
panded upon by Anne RlCE and
others. With Peter Cushing (as
Van Helsing), Freda Jackson, and
Yvonne Monlaur. Directed by
Terence Fisher from a screenplay
by Jimmy Sangster, Peter Bryan,
and Edward Percy. ( Universal-
International )T See also homo-
sexuality; Wilde, Oscar.

Browning, Tod
An American film director (1882-1962), who created one of the darkest,
most obsessive bodies of work in cinema history, Browning produced
three highly influential vampire films: London After Midnight (1927),
Dracula ( 193 1 ), and Mark of the Vampire ( 1935). London After Mid-
night was one of Browning's many successful collaborations with Lon
Chaney, Sr., featuring the actor as a razor-mouthed bat-man in a beaver
hat. Dracula is Browning's most celebrated film, but the extent to which

he actually directed it is a matter of some dispute (cinematographer Karl

Freund may actually have handled much of the directorial chores). Mark
of the Vampire was in many ways remake of both London After Midnight
a
and Dracula; it was one of Bela Lugosi's final Hollywood appearances as
a vampire in a noncomedic role. All three of Browning's vampire epics are

full of overlapping plot elements and visual references and are probably
best regarded as some kind of ongoing, "unfinished" film. Browning
loved unsavory topics —gangsters, con artists, sideshows — and his most
44 David J. Skal

Tod Browning, vampire-movie maven.

notorious effort was Freaks (1932), fea-

turing living sideshow oddities. Despite his
rigorous use of a well-defined set of themes,
Browning showed surprisingly little inter-

est in the technical aspects of filmmaking,

and many of his films have a slapdash feel
to them. Another of Browning's obsessive
motifs was castration, which has its own
curious and persistent relationship to vam-
pire stories. (Anne Rice, author of The
Vampire Chronicles, was interested enough
to write a major novel on the castrati of the
opera world, Cry to Heaven.) Following
the disaster of Freaks, Browning's career went steadily downhill; nonethe-
less, he retired in 1939 a wealthy man, living the rest of his days in a

strange, self-imposed seclusion.

Bruce, Lenny
Controversial "dirty mouth" comic of the fifties and sixties, Lenny Bruce
transformed American humor with his relentless assaults on the hypocrisy
and complacency of American culture in the Cold War era. Bruce forever
subverted the image of Dracula with a series of skits (most notably
"Beautiful Transylvania") which presented the vampire as a tired old Jew-
ish man with a nagging wife and a pill habit — a satirical jab at the odd me-
dia spectacle generated by actor Bela Lugosi who, in 1955, underwent a
well-publicized treatment for narcotic addiction. Bruce himself was no
stranger to chemical substances and died of an overdose in 1966.

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Cinema, USA 1992. Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula
was merely the central event in the 1992 plethora of body -fluid entertain-
ment; glomming onto its spillover publicity were scads of lesser efforts like

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is a Valley Girl cheer-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 45

leader destined by a forgotten bloodline to destroy a monster who feeds

on just exactly the kind of kids who hang out in shopping malls and see
the same movie more than once. The bloodsucker is the once-handsome
Rutger Hauer (favored, for a while, by Anne Rice as the ideal vampire Le-
stat), who has not aged well and here resembles nothing so much as Kurt
Vonnegut on a bad hair day. With Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens, and
Luke Perry. Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui from a script by Joss Whedon.
(Twentieth-Century-Fox)T

Bunnicula, a Rabbit-Tale of Mystery

Fiction, USA 1979. What excuse could there be for a children's story
about a vampire bunny rabbit who evaporates from his cage to suck the
juice from innocent carrots and tomatoes? Three million Bunnicula books
what. Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that kids pick up
in print, that's

on campy references to grown-up vampire stories in Deborah and

all the
James Howe's singular oeuvre, and suspect that it is primarily parents who
are driving the sales of these slim, lucrative volumes. Perhaps it affords
them a sanitized, guilt-free way to pass on to their children their own mor-
bid interest in things vampiric. But it still seems to me a lot like giving a
kid a coffin with training wheels. If we want to stretch things, I
really

guess it could be pointed out that rabbits, through their recent cultural
proximity to Easter, must embody some kind of death -and -resurrection
energy. Hare-raising stuff.

Bunston, Herbert
A British character actor (1870-1935) best known to readers of this book
for his portrayal of the ineffectual Dr.Seward in the 1931 film version of
Dracula, Bunston made his stage debut in London in 1897, the year of
DracuWs publication, and he acted at the Lyceum Theatre at the turn
of the century while it was still being managed by Bram STOKER. His fa-
vorite role was Cassius in Julius Caesar, though he was more usually cast
in bland administrative parts: magistrates, professors, ministers, and the
like. He originated the role of Dr. Seward in Horace Liveright's Broad-
way and roadshow productions of Dracula with Bela LuGOSi beginning in

1927, and repeated the part for the 1931 film. For fans who can't get
enough of the Bunston charisma, his Hollywood films from the early thir-

ties include The Last of Mrs. Cheney, Charlie Chan's Chance, The Monkey's
46 David J. Skal

Paw, Once a Lady, Almost Married, Clive of India, and others. He died at
the age of sixty-four, of a heart attack, in Los Angeles.

Burial Customs
Since a vampire is usually conceived to be a reanimated corpse, it is not
surprising that burial customs in a wide range of cultures evolved with the
implicit or explicit purpose of immobilizing the body after death. The
grave marker, in its most primitive form, is a stone meant to create a heavy
physical barrier against reanimation. A STAKE driven through the heart can
also effectively pin a corpse to its coffin, while simultaneously destroying

the body's blood pump. In their 1935 study, The Cassubian Civilization,
Lorentz, Fischer and Lehr-Splawinski recount the vampire -related burial
customs of the Cassubian Poles, many of which, they say, have persisted
even into the twentieth century:

In order to be protected against the doings of the vampire, care has to

be taken in the first place that the dying person receives the Eucharist. If
a little earth from under the threshold is put in his coffin, he cannot re-

turn to the house. Further, the sign of the cross is made on his mouth,
and the crucifix from a rosary or a coin is placed under his tongue for
him to suck. A brick is put under his chin, so that he may break his teeth
on it. Or a net is put into the coffin, all the knots of which the vampire
must undo before he can leave his tomb, and this lasts many years, for,
according to some, he can undo only one knot a year. Or a little bag full
of sea-sand or poppy-seed is placed in his coffin, or the way to the grave
is strewn with sea-sand or poppy-seed; the vampire must then count all

the grains before he is able to get out and return to the house, and this

likewise lasts a very long time, for, according to some authorities, he

counts but one grain a year. He is also laid in the coffin face downwards,
so that he may not find the way to the upper world, but descend deeper
and deeper into the earth.

See also folklore.

Burne-Jones, Sir Philip

Son of the celebrated decorative painter Edward Coley Burne-Jones,
Philip Burne-Jones (1861-1926) was also a painter, though distinctly
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 47

overshadowed by his father's reputation. His most famous canvas was The
Vampire, which created a scandal upon its exhibition in 1897, since the
monstrous female figure it depicted was unmistakably the actress Mrs.
Patrick Campbell, then the toast of theatrical London. The younger
Burne- Jones had been her frequent escort and, it was rumored, she had
thrown him over in favor of the noted Shakespearean actor Johnston
Forbes-Robertson. Philip's cousin, Rudyard Kipling, contributed some
immortal lines to the exhibition catalog, which the public took as an alle-

gory of Philip's relationship with the actress:

A fool there was and hemade his prayer

(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care)
But the fool he called her his lady fair
(Even as you and I!

It is almost a certainty that there was

never any romantic intimacy between Philip
and Mrs. Campbell, though Philip may have
had his illusions. The actress was likely far

more interested in cultivating a relationship

with his father and the rarefied world of the
Pre-Raphaelites he represented. Additionally,
while Philip may have been born into com-
fortable circumstances, he did not inherit his
handsome looks. He was
father's ethereally
somewhat froggy looking, and appeared
short,
dour and middle-aged while still a young
man. He suffered from mood swings and had
a viperish side when crossed. He also knew
how to hold a grudge.

Philip Burne-Jones' 1897 painting The Vampire was a

caustic comment on the painter's failed relationship
with the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
48 David J. Skal

Reviews of The Vampire were mixed, though it got plenty of attention.

The Westminster Gazette pronounced that "Mr. Philip Burne-Jones' dis-

agreeable picture of Mrs. Patrick Campbell as a 'Vampire' in a dirty night-

gown and a weird light, is uncommonly clever in many respects, but it is
hardly the kind of thing one would want to live with." The Daily Mail was
far more salutory:

In a moonlit room an eerie figure clad in the night costume that is

usually worn in the security of locked doors, sits on a couch and gloats
over the body of her victim, upon whose bare chest is an ominous

crimson stain. . . . One may cavil at Mr. Burne-Jones' predilection for

the gruesome; it is, however, evident that his style and draftsmanship
have improved steadily. . . . 'The Vampire' will be much talked about
during the coming season.

From 1902 to 1903, Phil took The Vampire to America, and, in a coin-

cidence suggesting a morbid farce by Noel Coward, he and Mrs. Pat

checked into the same Chicago hotel, where they each issued angry and
flustered pronouncements to the press about the painting and their rela-
tionship —or lack of one. The papers ate it up. Both the painting and the
Kipling poem had power in the public mind, and
considerable staying
their recognition value was tremendous asset when Porter Emerson
a
Browne opened his hit Broadway temperance melodrama, A Fool There
Was, in 1909. Browne's play was the basis for William Fox's 1915 film of
the same title, which instantly transformed Theda Bara into an inter-

national star and made "the Vamp" a household concept. Philip Burne-
Jones never painted anything again that matched the notoriety of The
Vampire; he never married and died in 1926. For her part, Mrs. Patrick
Campbell make a successful transition to the screen, though she
failed to
did have a few memorable Hollywood appearances in her dowager years
most notably as the old pawnbroker beaten to death with a poker by Peter
Lorre in Crime and Punishment (1935). In 1940 she died for real.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord

The leading figure of the Romantic movement, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
had a powerful influence on the development of the modern image of the
vampire as a brooding, sexy aristocrat, though he never wrote a major
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 49

piece of vampire literature himself.He touched on the theme in his 1813

poem "The Giaour" ("But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,/Thy corse
shall from its tomb be rent;/ And ghastly haunt thy native place, /And suck

the blood of all thy race . . ."). As part of his 1816 literary contest with
Percy and Mary Shelley (a challenge that produced Frankenstein), Byron
wrote a fragment of a tale about a man who vows to return from the
grave. He lost interest in the composition, but Byron's physician, John
Polidori, elaborated the fragment into the classic story "The Vampyre"
(1819) which, published anonymously, was widely taken as Byron's work
and adapted as a play and opera. Byron's legendary reputation as a seducer
and rake fit nicely with the image of the fatal Lord RUTHVEN of Polidori's
tale and continues to exert a shaping influence over vampire characteriza-
tions to the present day.
 e
Calmet, Dom Augustine
The first scholar to systematically examine vampire superstitions, the
Benedictine monk Augustine Calmet (1672-1757) was himself a contem-
porary of the vampire hysteria which swept central and eastern Europe in
the 1720s and 1730s. Near the end of his life, the celebrated French bibli-
cal scholar published a two-volume treatise on ghosts, vampires, and other
revenants; a century later, in 1850, it appeared in English as The Phantom
World: or, the Philosophy of Spirits and Apparitions. Calmet was essentially
skeptical about the existence of vampires (he snorted at claims that "the
dead have been heard to eat and chew like pigs in their graves"); nonethe-
less, Calmet dutifully recorded a wide range of vampire reports gleaned
from sources in Hungary, Moldavia, and Poland, which he then subjected

to analysis on both natural and theological grounds. He found particularly

troubling the physical implausibility of the vampire's nightly wanderings:

How a body covered with four or five feet of earth, having no room to
move about and disengage itself, wrapped in linen, covered with pitch,
can make its way out, and come back upon the earth, and there occa-
sion such effects as are related of it; and how after that it returns to its

former state, and re-enters underground, where it is found sound,

whole, and full of blood, and in the same condition as a living body?
this is the question. Will it be said that these bodies evaporate through
the ground without opening it, like the waters and vapours which en-
ter into the earth, or proceed from it, without sensibly deranging its

particles? It were to be wished that the accounts which have been given
us concerning the return of the vampires had been more minute in

their explanations of this subject.

52 David J. Skal

While Calmet wrestled with the paradox that the vampire was some-
how both an immaterial phantom and a physical entity, he ironically never
recognized the obvious analogy to the flesh/spirit dichotomies of his own
religious tradition. See also Catholicism; Christianity.

Candle
A favorite prop of vampires as they glide between subterranean vaults and
lofty tower rooms, the candle a classic symbol of human life and its finite
is

span, and simultaneously an emblem of survival and transcendence. Like

the vampire, the candle flame fascinates, consumes, and transforms. The
flame also represents spiritual illumination, faith, or esoteric knowledge.
Of course, the person who follows the vampire's way of knowledge soon
finds his or her own life flickering —and likely soon extinguished.

Cannibalism
Vampirism finds its prehistoric roots in cannibal practice: the ancient
belief that strength, courage, or other qualities could be transferred
from one being to another by eating and drinking flesh and blood is
central to the vampire mythos, as well as to the common rites of the
Christian tradition. The ghoul of oriental FOLKLORE is in many ways a

transitional figure between the cannibal and the vampire, feasting alter-

nately on the flesh of corpses as well as on living blood. The modern

movie zombie, as celebrated in the films of George Romero, shares
many characteristics of the pre-Romantic cannibal/vampire/ghoul. See
also Catholicism; Christianity.

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Cinema, UK 1974. Produced by Hammer Films as a television pilot, but
released theatrically when plans for a series fell through, Captain Kronos:
Vampire Hunter introduced several novel concepts, including vampires
that feed directly upon the youth and vitality of their victims rather than
on their blood, transforming buxom maidens into withered crones in the
twinkling of a bat. There is a distinct suggestion in the script that, had the
series come to fruition, all sorts of vampires — blood drinking, soul steal-

ing, and otherwise —would have been introduced to provide variety and
sustain viewer interest. The film is set in a pseudo- Regency period with
plenty of swashbuckling — they contrived a way to dispatch vampires with
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 53

swords instead of stakes, which are demonstrated to be highly unreliable.

A tolerable diversion. Written and directed by Brian Clemens. With Horst
Janson, John Carson, Shane Briant, and Caroline Munro. (Paramount)V

"Carmilla"
Novella, Ireland 1872. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's elegant tale of a female
vampire is one of the best and most influential vampire stories ever writ-

ten, rivaling only Dracula for the inspiration it has provided to genera-
tions of supernatural fiction writers, playwrights, and filmmakers. First

published in Le Fanu's collection In a Glass Darkly, "Carmilla" recounts

the tale of a beautiful vampire, apparently young but in reality 300 years
old, who insinuates herself into a household in remote Styria (a district of
Austria), there seducing and draining the story's narrator, a girl named
Laura. The lesbianism in the story is surprisingly pronounced, as the girls

spend languorous hours kissing, fondling, and gazing into each other's

eyes. At night Carmilla comes to Laura as "a sooty-black animal that re-
sembled a monstrous cat. ... I felt it spring lightly on the bed. The two
broad eyes approached my face, and suddenly I felt a stinging pain as if
two large needles darted, an inch or two apart, deep into my breast." The
dracu-puncture continues until Carmilla's true nature is discovered and
her living corpse is staked, beheaded, and burned.
"Carmilla" very nearly had its stage debut in 1928, when Hamilton
Deane, coauthor with John L. Balderston of the Broadway adaptation
of Dracula, dramatized the Le Fanu story in collaboration with his wife,
Dora Mary Patrick, as a bargaining chip with Dracula^ pro-
the actress
ducer Horace Liveright, who was waffling on his commitment to an
American tour of the Deane/Balderston play. If Liveright refused to tour
Dracula, Deane would tour his own version of "Carmilla" and corner the
American market for stage vampires. Liveright relented, and the "Carmilla"
adaptation was never performed.
In 1937, the earl of Longford presented a stage version of the tale in
Dublin and London. The notices were extremely mixed; the reviewer for
the London Daily Telegram called it "as boring a play as I ever sat through
in my life," while another daily appraisal conceded that "now and then it

undoubtably gives the sensitive spectator an eerie thrill." Apropos the

thick lesbian subtext, the Sunday Times admitted that it was "prepared to
spend an evening's playgoing in the company of such a fearful denizen of
54 David J. Skal

the charnel-house as a vampire without embarrassment. But this play . . .

causes discomfort by apparently giving bald statement to a theme which,

in the theatre at any rate, is usually treated with delicate insinuation." The
Observer called the play "picturesque," but noted that "since Horace Wal-
pole and Mrs. Radcliffe set the supernatural dancing, Freud has blown so
many gaffs that Carmilla is seen less in charnal trappings than in emotional
deshabille. As a heroine she seems to call for the attention of the psy-
chopathologist or a strict headmistress, rather than simple shudders."
"Carmilla" was given as a source of inspiration for Carl Dreyer's moody
1931 Vamptr, though the debt to Le Fanu seems extraordinarily
art film,

—
tenuous. The next film version an extremely loose, modernized adapta-
tion —
was Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses in 1960, followed by the first
The Vampire
straightforward dramatization for British television in 1966.
Lovers (1971) escalated the girlish groping of the original story into a
full-scale nude bedroom romp, and began Hammer Films' three-picture

foray into the Karnstein legend. The Hammer series continued with Lust
for a Vampire (1970) and culminated in Twins of Evil (1971). Mean-
while, across the Atlantic, New York's La Mama Experimental Theatre
Company produced a curiously stylized chamber musical based on "Car-
milla" in the fall of 1970, written by Wilford Leach. Owing to a knee opera-
tion undergone by the actress who played Carmilla, the staging was altered
to allow the vampire to remain seated throughout the performance on a
grandly carved Victorian sofa in which singers' faces protruded through
the curlicues like animated wooden masks. The piece toured internationally,
had its score recorded as an original cast album, and was given several re-
vivals,most recently in 1986.
The most recent adaptation of the story was produced in 1989 for ca-
ble television's Nightmare Classics series, with its setting imaginatively
transplanted to the antebellum South. Other films with female vampires
exploiting the Carmilla/Karnstein connection include Crypt of Horror
(1963) and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974).

Carpathian Mountains
A mountain range in central Europe, extending from the Czech -Polish
border into central Romania. The Carpathians achieved vampiric immor-
tality through Bram Stoker's use of them as the locale of Castle Dracula
in his 1897 novel.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 55

Carradine, John
A distinguished, if eccentric, American character actor who made a memo-
rable Dracula on numerous occasions, John Carradine was born Rich-
mond Reed Carradine in 1906, adopting his stage name after several years

in Hollywood —where he had bit parts in several horror/fantasy classics,

including The Invisible Man (1933), The Black Cat (1934), and Bride of
Frankenstein (1935). Carradine was a classically trained actor who claimed
to have taken the part of Dracula in UniversaPs House of Frankenstein
(1944) in order to subsidize his own Shakespearean theater troupe.
Though he was only in his late thirties, his cadaverous, white-haired, mus-
tached Dracula was a convincing approximation of the character as de-
scribed in the original novel. (Carradine also had a gaze so penetrating
that it almost obviated the need for FANGS —one suspected he could stare

holes in a neck.) He repeated the vampire role in House of Dracula

(1945) and, in the fifties, in stage and television adaptations. In the sixties,
Carradine once more donned the
Dracula cape for the beginning of a
long run of bad films, including Billy
the Kid vs. Dracula (1966), Blood
}
of Dracula s Castle (1967), Vampire
Girls (1967), Vampire Hookers (1979),
etc. Carradine appeared in nearly 200
feature films (including several Holly-
wood classics, like The Grapes of Wrath
of 1939), and countless television pro-
grams and, while cruelly crippled by
arthritis in his later years, never stopped
acting. (I saw him act, with great gusto,
in a summer-stock production of Ar-
senic and Old Lace with Sylvia Sidney
in the 1970s. Though his hands were
reduced by disease to useless knobs,
he somehow carried off all required

John Carradine in House of Frankenstein.

56 David J. Skal

stage business effortlessly and seemed to be enjoying himself hugely.) He

died in June 1990.

Castration
According to Sigmund Freud, our sense of the uncanny has much of its
roots in the castration complex, or primal fear of genital mutilation. On the
surface, castration would seem to have little to do with vampires, but the
links, once explained, are more reasonable than you might think. The argu-
ment goes like this: in the absence of functional genitalia, the vampire's
sexual energy is displaced in fantasy to an earlier, oral stage of erotic feel-

ing —the vision of the vampire's piercing, erectile fangs thus represent
a dreamlike eruption of a deflected sexuality. The ambiguous vampire
mouth — soft yet hard, simultaneously engulfing yet penetrating — is a sur-
passing evocation of the oldest castration symbol of all, the vagina dentata.
It should come as no two of this century's greatest
surprise, therefore, that
purveyors of vampire entertainment, film director Tod Browning and nov-
elist Anne Rice, have also been attracted to castration themes Rice explic- —
itly in her novel Cry to Heaven (1982), and Browning more obliquely in

psychosexual mutilation dramas like The Unknown (1927). Castration, of

course, resonates symbolically with other kinds of social powerlessness, ex-
ploitation, and victimization that are hallmarks of vampire culture. The
modern threat of AIDS (q.v.) — itself a powerful modern symbol of the
vampire —might be considered "castrating" in that it inhibits ordinary geni-

tal sex and forces compromised or sublimated forms. See also AIDS;
it into
CODEPENDENCY; FANGS; FELLATIO; FREUD, SlGMUND; PSYCHOANALYSIS.

Catalepsy
This is a state of suspended animation and muscular rigidity, sometimes
mistaken for death. In the days before routine embalming, cataleptics were
good candidates for premature burial. It has been frequently argued that
catalepsy gave rise to many stories of vampirism. Following the shock of
waking in a coffin —the naturally desperate clawing at the lid and the tear-

ing away of finger flesh, the frantic eating of the grave clothes, etc. —those
people unfortunate enough to have been buried alive would finally present
a grotesque postmortem appearance easily taken as "evidence" that the
dead are restless in their graves and very, very hungry. See also Isle of
the Dead.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 57

Catholicism
During the reign of Pope Innocent III in 1215, the Roman Catholic
Church formalized the dogma of transubstantiation the belief that the —
body and blood of Christ were physically present in the communion wafer
and wine used in the celebration of the Mass. Thus, the essential act of
vampirism —the literal drinking of human blood — is a central ritual in one
of the world's major religions. In my own informal but extensive observa-
tion, the vampire myth resonates with a particular strength with lapsed
and ex-Catholics —scratch a vampire buff, and it's more than a little likely
you'll find a Catholic school uniform bunched beneath the cape. The rea-
sons are complex and as varied as the individuals. To the rebellious, a vam-
pire fetish can seem to be a perverse badge of antiauthoritarian honor. To
the lapsed, the ritual aspects of vampire entertainment with their many
shadow- suggestions of the sacraments may, to some extent, fill a spiritual
void. And even practicing Catholics may find a reinforcement of their faith
in the traditional vampire story's emphasis on the dualistic reality of good
and evil, the mystical properties of blood, etc. The leading practitioner of
vampire fiction in our time, Anne Rice, is an ex- Catholic, as is her most fa-

mous creation, the vampire Lestat. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates, in a recent
essayon the 1931 film Dracula, commented on the ritualistic, priestlike
demeanor of the master vampire, which she likened to her own childhood
memories of the dark-robed priests intoning the Latin mass. See also
blood; Christianity.

Chandler, Helen
Wistful stage and screen actress of the 1920s and 1930s, Helen Chandler
(1906-1965) was the toast of Broadway in roles ranging from light com-
edy to Opheliain Hamlet, but she is remembered today for only one role:

Mina Seward in the 1931 film version of Dracula. Her Hollywood career
didn't last long, however; she destroyed her professional chances, as well
as several marriages, with pills and drugs, and sank into an obscurity bro-
ken only occasionally by a newspaper report of her commitment to a sani-

tarium or, in the early fifties, disfiguring burns suffered in a bedroom fire.

A rather bizarre story New

York papers in the mid-
was reported by the
thirties, when, while married to the actor Bramwell Fletcher, Chandler was

harassed by a man using the name "Bramwell Fletcher" and demanding

money by mail. Years later, the real Fletcher is said to have tried to visit
58 David J. Skal

Chandler in one of her sanitariums, only to be turned away by a woman

who no longer recognized him. Chandler died alone of complications fol-

lowing surgery; no obituaries appeared in the trade papers and no one has
ever claimed her ashes.

Children of the Night

"Listen to them —the children of the night. What music they make!"
Probably the most quoted and instandy recognizable line from the novel
Dracula, spoken by the count in reference to the wolves howling outside
his casde.The line appears in virtually all dramatizations of Bram Stoker's
novel, though more recent film adaptations added some irritating modi-
fiers
— "sweet music," or "beautiful music" —thus destroying the delicious
ambiguity of the original.

Children of the Night

Television, USA A made-for-TV movie about teenage prostitutes,
1985.
drawing its from DRACULA, thus making a contemporary link be-
title

—
tween the prostitute and the female vampire a common motif from the
Victorian era onward. See also prostitution.

Helen Chandler with

David Manners in Dracula.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 59

Children of the Night

Cinema, USA 1992. Cult-camp actress Karen Black stars as a waterlogged
vampire who expirates an enveloping sleep-membrane. Her victims sleep
in bathtubs instead of coffins, with their lungs coughed up like flotation

devices. Give the producers credit for icky ingenuity, if nothing else. Di-
rected by Tony Randel. With Peter DeLuise, Ami Dolenz, and Garrett
Morris. (Fangoria Films)Y

Children of the Night

Fiction, USA 1992. Just the idea of a novel that links vampires with the
real-life plight of AIDS babies in Romania sounds tasteless and exploita-
tive in the extreme, but novelist Dan Simmons, one of the most gifted and
intelligent practitioners of commercial horror fiction, spins one hell of a
yarn in this page-turning thriller, which isn't afraid to suggest that our

contemporary on vampire entertainment has something to do

fixation
with another, more tangible blood horror. Horror novels don't get much
better than this, and I'll leave you to discover on your own the engaging
characters and imaginative medical premises with which Simmons weaves
his modern vampire tapestry.

Chocula, Count
A popular children's breakfast cereal that weirdly defangs the vampire's
unholy thirst, harnessing its hunger to stimulate ordinary appetites. The
name, of course, is a take-off on Dracula; a "ula" suffix is now used rou-
tinely and illiterately as a kind of marketing shorthand for "vampire" in
the same stupid way "gate" (as in Watergate) is now a universal suffix to
indicate "scandal." Thus, we have had Bearacula (a toy), Blacula, Bun-
NICULA, Gayracula, Japula, Rockula, Spermula, etc. The original Count
Chocula package, now a prized collector's item, featured a painting of
Bela LuGOSi as he appeared in the 1931 film version of Dracula; it was sup-
pressed after complaints that the vampire's six-pointed medallion looked
suspiciously like a star of David. A cartoon Chocula, sans offending amulet,
was substituted. See also anti-Semitism.

"Christabel"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished, but nonetheless influential gothic-
romantic ballad "Christabel" (1797) foreshadows many familiar motifs of
60 David J. Skal

vampire literature, particularly the female predator of "CARMILLA." In Cole-

ridge's poem, the tide character is ambiguously molested by her father's
new bride, a blue-eyed beauty named Geraldine:

Beneath the lamp the lady bowed,

And slowly rolled her eyes around;
Then drawing in her breath aloud,
Like one that shuddered, she unbound
The cincture from beneath her breast:
Her silken robe, and inner vest,
Dropt to her feet, and full in view,
Behold! her bosom and half her side
A sight to dream of, not to tell!

Oh shield her! shield sweet Christabel!

The precise nature of Geraldine's horrifying torso is not revealed in the

poem, though Mary Shelley (her father was a close friend of Coleridge's)
maintained that the specific deformity intended by the poet was "two eyes
in the bosom." (Filmmaker Ken Russell, in his 1986 film, Gothic, inter-

preted this as meaning eyes in place of nipples, with unintentionally hilari-

ous results — a sort of busty Muppet that Frederick's of Hollywood might

use for a Halloween window.) But given the repeated descriptions else-
where in "Christabel" comparing Geraldine to a snake, it is probable that
Coleridge had in mind the vampirelike Lamia of classical antiquity, often
envisioned as half woman and half serpent.

Christianity
The vampire in western tradition presents a paradox by simultaneously
perverting and reinforcing the images and rituals of Christianity. Blood-
communion, death, and resurrection are central to both the Christian faith
and the conventions of vampire belief. Author Clive Leatherdale, in his
critical study Dracula: The Novel and the Legend, devotes a fascinating
chapter to the ways in which the Dracula story in particular serves as
both a Christian parody and a Christian allegory:

It can be proposed that one of the basic lessons of the novel was to
reaffirm the existence of God in an age when the weakening hold of
Christianity generated fresh debate about what lay beyond death. The
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 61

marshalled diary extracts and letters are themselves endowed with the
status of scripture. Instead of the Gospels according to St. Matthew

and St. Mark, we find Gospels according to Mr. Harker and Dr. Seward.
Taken with Van Helsing's concluding remarks, "We want no proofs" . . .

they constitute a "revelation" of Dracula's existence, as the Bible offers

a "revelation" of Christ's. See also blood; Catholicism; Christmas;
cross/crucifix.

Christmas
Not a holiday usually associated with vampires and other monsters
at least not before Tim Burton's film The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993). It was, nonetheless, a belief in the Greek Orthodox tradition that
a child born on Christmas might have vampire tendencies, since its parents
must have been sporting carnally at the calendar time of the Immaculate
Conception. Such infants were called callicantzari, and often had their
feet and hands singed as a preventive measure. (Talk about coal in your
stocking. . . .)

Cinema
See Appendix A.

Class Warfare
The nineteenth-century metamorphosis of the vampire into a wealthy,
decadent aristocrat bleeding the local peasants made the monster an irre-
sistible symbol of class conflict and exploitation. It is perhaps not surpris-
ing that American culture —where class distinctions are officially denied,
and where everyone not living in a homeless shelter absurdly considers
him- or herself to be "middle class" —has most enthusiastically embraced
the vampire as a cultural icon. The vampire affords a forbidden acknowl-
edgment of the stubborn master-slave, parasite-host social dynamics that
thrive in even a supposedly egalitarian republic. The elegant, overdressed
bloodsucker leeching off his underlings' energies is a perfect working-class
cartoon of upper-class resentment. For vampires are, after all, classy (in

every revealing sense of the word), fancy-schmantzy, libidinous, and care-

free (just like those characters on Dynasty or Dallas) and, best of all, are
even above the human obligation to die — in short, everything we resent
and secretly desire. See also Andy Warhol's Dracula; Marx, Karl.
62 David J. Skal

Cloaks and Capes

Where would a vampire be without its black velvet cloak? This most evoca-
tive of garments represents concealment, darkness, the secrets and terrors
of the night itself. Spread wide, it suggests the wings of a bat, the promise
of an exhilarating flight from ordinary human constraints. Capes and
cloaks have been associated with theatrical vampires since the 1820s, when
the creatures first became stock figures of melodrama and opera. In this

century, the cape most closely associated with the character of Dracula is

an opera cloak lined in red satin, especially characterized by a big stand-up

collar. The collar 1924 by playwright Hamilton Deane
was introduced in

to facilitate a stage illusion; in order for Dracula to "vanish"on stage, es-

caping from the cloak through a trapdoor or secret panel, it was necessary
to fit the cape with a collar large enough to conceal the actor's head when
he turned his back to the audience. Such a collar had no real usefulness in
the movies, where trick photography could provide the illusion, but the
image was so striking and memorable that it became a permanent fixture
of vampire costuming in all media. One of the best-known fictional treat-

ments of the vampire cape can be found in Robert Bloch's 1939 short
story"The Cloak," in which a man looking for a Halloween costume finds
more than he is bargaining for in a cursed cape which transforms anyone
who it. Bloch reworked the story in 1971 as part of the anthology
wears
film TheHouse That Dripped Bloody changing the main character to a hor-
ror movie actor seeking the ultimate in vampire realism.

Codependency
A state of emotional parasitism and nonliving, a term originally used to de-
scribe the psychological dilemma of women trapped in relationships with
alcoholics, With its compelling evocation of vitality-draining, no-win rela-
tionships, codependency resonated strongly with the traditional idea of the
vampire, and exploded during the vampire -obsessed 1980s to encompass
the entire spectrum of unsatisfactory human relationships. Pop psychology
also aggressively promulgated the related concept of the tormented "inner
child," a true or genuine self trapped in a psychological limbo by codepen-
dent, "dysfunctional" family life. One of the most memorable characters in

Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles is the child-vampire Claudia; with an

angry adult mind trapped forever in a child's never-aging body, Claudia
provides a striking metaphor of the parasitic phantom child of the self-help
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 63

. 5
The vampire's protective chrysalis, as
illustrated in Varney the Vampyre.

'

:|§iB!^

fl Hal A^C-xv if 'v

p

PSf'*'r ?
manuals. See also addiction; al-
coholism.
i-^ ';j^^.j
jlil lSli*l\
nUM^Bfi Pf /?'illl ^K^£C~~^ r ^
Coffin
"j3| The coffin the vampire's tradi-
/ (f^wE| tional daytime
is

home. Aside from

sSli^F*

lbs%Jmm
JlBl its obvious utilitarian aspect, the
coffin has a number of symbolic
JlflF IwPIp meanings. Boxes of all kinds sug-
^KSesjjIJBra S§Pf^ gest secrets and the concomitant
K^fl promise of revelations (this con-
SRgJPi|~%|=r^}?S
togs?'?;
—J^JSUjiiy 'r—
.
E-* -^?
J.-i v- ~^- 1

5
- cealing/revealing characteristic is

also true of cloaks and capes). As

an enclosure of the human form, the coffin is also a womblike symbol of
the mysterious transitions between life and death. See also burial customs.

Collins, Barnabas
An immensely popular daytime television vampire of the late 1960s,
whose cult following has continued to the present day. See also Dark
Shadows.

Condom
A modern protective talisman, similar in size and shape to the Host when
wrapped, employed with great show to ward off a stealthy blood plague.
See also AIDS; cross/crucifix; garlic.

Count, The
A television show Sesame Street, pat-
puppet character on the children's
terned loosely on Deane/Balderston conception of Dracula. Ap-
the
propriately, the Count gives young viewers instructions in counting,
intoning "Vun! Two! Three!" in a mock-Transylvanian accent.
64 David J. Skal

Count Dracula
Cinema, Spain/West Germany/Italy 1970, This film caused a buzz of an-
with its promise to be a truly faithful rendition of Bram
ticipation
Stoker's novel, starring none other than the most celebrated screen vam-
pire of modern times, Christopher Lee. The buzz, which backfired, how-
ever, as Variety noted, prompted "those familiar with the novel looking
for discrepancies, of which there are plenty. Yelping German shepherd
dogs substitute for wolves, scenes are set in Budapest instead of England,
and not a string of garlic appears. . .
." Lee strongly resembles the monster
as Stoker described him, and Klaus Kinski makes a memorable Renfield,
the vampire's insect-eating slave. But the cheap production values and in-
differently lit location photography cancel out the performances. With
Herbert Lorn (as Van Helsing), Frederick Williams, Maria Rohm, and
Soledad Miranda. Directed by European horror maven Jess Franco, who
has done much better. Peter Welbeck (pseudonym for producer Harry
title was Bram
Alan Towers) scripted. The British Stoker's Count Dracula.
(Fenix/Corona/Filmar/Towers of London)

Count Dracula
Television, UK 1977. When people ask me which screen adaptation of
Dracula is most them in the
faithful to the original novel, I usually point

direction of this gem, with only a few caveats. Philip Saville's script
little

scupulously adheres to the book, and while actor Louis Jourdan is hardly
what Bram Stoker had in mind, he is so wonderfully unctuous and creepy
that you happily accept the discrepancy. Frank Finlay (who was Iago to
Olivier's Othello) is one of the best vampire hunters ever, and there are

countless moments that evoke the book to perfection (my favorite is

Mina's glimpse of Dracula neck- ravishing her friend Lucy in a church-
yard). The combined use of videotape and film cheapens the overall im-
pact, however, and some of the electronic special effects seem like a
psychedelic hangover from the sixties. Upon its second showing on Amer-
ican public television, a scene in which Dracula's vampire brides feasted on
a naked baby was trimmed. Saville also directed; the cast includes Susan
Penhaligon, Judi Bowker, Mark Burns, and Jack Shepherd. (BBC-TV)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 65

Count Yorga, Vampire

Cinema, USA 1970. Good junk movies — like this one — are useful for spot-
ting anxious cultural subtexts; they slip in precisely because the filmmakers
have no other aim than to grab the attention of a wide, nondiscriminating
audience with tried and true formulas. In the case of horror movies, these
formulas tend to be deep repositories of troublesome feelings about sex
that require periodic exorcism. In the case of Count Yorga, Vampire, the
anxiety is fairly straightforward: sexually active young people, reaping the
pleasurable benefits of the swinging sixties and seventies, are having trouble
dealing with a scarier kind of sex that keeps popping up —here represented
by Count Yorga, an elegant, older, unattached man who presides over a big
house full of antiques, wearing pancake makeup and sweeping dressing
gowns —the stereotypical "gay" cues are unmistakable. The straight kids'
dilemma: how to retain their bell-bottomed, back-of-the-van sexual pre-
rogatives intact while keeping the deeper polymorphous stuff from eating
them alive. Or something. The film had several working titles, including
The Loves of Count Yorga, The Abominable Count Yorga, and Vampire To-
day. Directed by Bob Kelljan. With Robert Quarry (majesterial as the vam-
pire), Roger Perry, Michael Murphy, Michael Macready, Donna Anders,
and Judith Lang. A sequel, The Return of Count Yorga (1971) is set in an
orphanage, where Yorga shows up at a Halloween party in full vampire
drag. "Where are your fangs?" asks one of the guests. "Where are your
manners?" the unflappable count replies. (Erica/American International)
T See also homosexuality.
Countess Dracula
Cinema, UK 1970. Not a very good film, but still the most elaborate
screen treatment to date of the Erzebet Bathory legend. Ingrid Pitt, the
breast-biting lesbian vamp of Hammer's The Vampire Lovers, returns as
the blood countess who discovers that a virgin a day keeps the wrinkles
away. Directed by Peter Sasdy. With Nigel Green, Sandor Eles, Maurice
Denham, and Lesley-Anne Down. (Hammer Films) T
Countess Dracula!
Theater, USA 1979. Like many a mature actress no longer in demand for
traditional film and stage roles, Betsy Palmer turned to horror in this

semi-spoof premiered at Buffalo's Studio Arena Stage and authored by

66 David J. Skal

Dr. Van Helsing

(Eduardo Arozamena)
subdues the
vampirically challenged
Eva (Lupita Tovar) in

the 1931 Spanish-

language version of
Dracula.

Neal DuBrock. According to Variety, "instead of the imposing cape, there's

a neckline cut all the way down Lady Alucard is the
to the corpuscles.
name she goes by, which shouldn't be hard toout for anyone who
figure
ever heard one of those old Serutan commercials." The trade paper was
particularly impressed by the special effects, "remarkable gasp-producers,"
including "a slumbering vampire which dissolves to a skeleton when im-
paled on the traditional stake." See also THEATER.

Cross/Crucifix
The symbol of Christ's crucifixion is one of the best known of all vampire
repellents, but the rules and regulations governing its use are sometimes
confusing and contradictory. As a symbol of the faith of the person using
it, the cross should, therefore, offer little protection to the unfaithful.
Nonetheless, in many films and stories the cross seems to contain its own
source of power, like a supernatural stun gun. A "real" cross isn't always
needed and can sometimes be effectively improvised. In the film Kiss of
the Vampire (1962), a man whose chest has been scratched by a vampire
quickly smears the blood into a cruciform and repels her. In Horror of
Dracula (1958) the vampire hunter Van Helsing jerry-rigs a cross from
two candlesticks to force the monster into a deadly ray of sunlight. In
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 67

Hammer's next vampire film, The Brides ofDracula (1960), Van Hels-
ing manipulates the vanes of a burning windmill to cast a crosslike shadow
on a fleeing vampire; it works just fine. In more recent vampire traditions,
such as the novels of Anne Rice, holy relics have no power whatsoever
over the vampire, who looks on such superstitions with amusement. In the
1979 film version of Dracula, for instance, actor Frank Langella causes
a cross to burst into flames with nothing more than a contemptuous
glance. See also Christianity; folklore; garlic.

Cushing, Peter
Hawk-faced British character actor (1913-1994) best known for his work
in the horror oeuvre of Hammer Films, where his recurring roles as Baron
Victor Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing earn
him a permanent place in our sepulchral pantheon. Cushing played Van
in Horror of Dracula
Helsing (or one of Van Helsing's descendants)
(1958),The Brides ofDracula (1960), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972),
Satanic Bjtes of Dracula (1973), and The Legend of the Seven Golden
Vampires (1974). Cushing's other vampire film appearances include In-
cense for the Damned (1970), The Vampire Lovers (1970), and Twins
of Evil (1971).
 1:

Dance of the Damned

Cinema, USA 1988. Katt Shea Ruben, a protegee of Roger Corman, di-

rected this offbeat tale of a suicidal stripper (Starr Andreef), who meets a
sexy male vampire (Cyril O'Reilly) who keeps her alive for a vicarious

glimpse of daylight reality. Of course, it's really a perverse redemption

story, in the time-honored tradition of A Christmas Carol, with a single
vampire taking on the functions of Halloween ghosts past, present, and
future. But what makes Katt Shea and Andy Ruben's entertaining screen-
play especially interesting is that Corman produced it again, from scratch,
as To Sleep with a Vampire in 1992 (with a scene-by-scene adaptation of
the original script credited to Patricia Harrington). Adam Friedman di-

rected, and (Ms.) Charlie Spradling and Scott Valentine reprised Andreef's
and O'Reilly's roles. The films, both successful on their own terms, are
sufficiently different in tone and technical execution that they speak vol-
umes about the interpretive possibilities of a single script — much like the
back-to-back English and Spanish-language versions of Dracula (1931).
(Concorde Pictures )
Dance of the Vampires
See The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Dark Shadows
Television, USA 1966-1971. As a last-ditch attempt to save his foundering

ABC-TV daytime gothic-opera Dark Shadows, producer Dan Curtis intro-

duced a 175 -year-old New England vampire named Barnabas COLLINS
and instantly brought the series back from ratings death. Housewives and
70 David J. Skal

Jonathan Frid and Grayson Hall

in Dark Shadows.

(Photofest)

other shut-ins warmed to

Barnabas' sangfroid, never
noticing how "supernatural"
plotlines (in which, for in-

stance, the vampire kept his

beloved victim locked in a
cellar) reflected ordinary do-
mestic problems. (As novel-
ist/critic Joanna Russ once
commented on gothic ro-

mance formulas, the unac-

knowledged story is often "someone's trying to kill me, and I think it's my
husband.") Over time the story expanded far beyond vampires to include
man-made monsters, ghosts, witches, reincarnation, werewolves, and even
time travel. The series ran for over 1200 episodes, and two decades later
still has a loyal following in syndication, on videocassette, and at fan con-

ventions, where surviving cast members regularly endure writer's cramp

signing autographs. As a reluctant, angst-ridden bloodsucker, Barnabas
Collins is an important transitional figure in the history of vampirism,
providing a popular link between the predatory evil of Dracula and
the introspective, conflicted vampires of novelist Anne Rice. The original
cast included Joan Bennett, Jonathan Frid (as Barnabas), Grayson Hall,
Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, David Selby, John Karlen, Louis Ed-
monds, and Alexandra Moltke (later the real-life mistress of Claus Von
Bulow). Dark Shadows generated two feature film spinoffs; only the first,
House of Dark Shadows (1970), employed the vampire theme.

Dark Shadows
Television, USA 1990. NBC-TV's ambitious attempt to revive Dark Shad-
ows, a la Star Trek, flopped badly, possibly because the cast included no
original performers from the first series, and the once-weekly format
couldn't possibly re-create the sense of day-to-day familiarity and involve-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 7

merit that the first audience derived from daily viewing. The production
values were perhaps too slick —much of the fun of the old series was
watching the sets shake, actors flubbing their lines or glancing not-too-
discreetly at cue cards, etc. Ben Cross new Barnabas was handsome
as the

but cold, and Barbara Steele —immortal alumna of the vampire classic
Black Sunday—was less than scintillating in her nonvampire role of the
doctor who attempts to cure the Collins curse. The show was canceled af-

ter nine episodes, and few mourners were noticed at the graveside.

Darwin, Charles
While we tend today to think of Dracula automatically in terms of

Freud's theories of sexuality and repression, it was another major figure

of modern science who likely influenced Bram Stoker in the composition
of his classic novel and the receptivity of the Victorian public to vampire
themes in general. Darwin's theory of evolution was a profoundly dis-

turbing notion to many people, and Dracula can be profitably read as an

anxious refutation or even a parody of Darwinian theory. The blurring of
distinctions between humans and lower species is at the heart of Drac-
ula\ creepy appeal; one of the book's most famous scenes, reproduced
on early cover designs, is a visual allegory of modern man's revulsion at
his relationship to the animal world. Dracula's visitor, high in an emblem-

atic tower, looks down in horror as his host reverses the evolutionary
process, descending the wall of his castle, crawling stealthily toward all of
our basest instincts and animal desires. Francis Ford Coppola, in his re-
cent film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) amplified the Darwinian as-
pect of the story by depicting one of the count's "werewolf" guises as
decidedly more apelike than lupine. Mass uneasiness with the implica-
tions of evolutionary science can of
also explain the frequent presence
apes and man-animals in mass-market horror and science fiction formulas.

Daughters of Darkness
Cinema, Beljjiuni/France/West Germany 1971. Erzebet BATHORY is resur-
rected as a soignee lesbian vampire who disrupts the seaside honeymoon
of a young couple, whose union is already doomed by the shadow of

homosexuality. The bridegroom (John Karlen, of the original Dark

Shadows cast) neglects to tell his wife that the person he calls "Mother,"
and to whom he is reluctant to divulge the fact of his marriage, is in fact an
72 David J. Skal

androgynous amalgam of Oscar WlLDE and Bela Lugosi. Meanwhile, the

blood countess Bathory (Delphine Seyrig), shimmering in a slinky art-

deco sheath and platinum bob, converts the bride (Danielle Ouimet) to
sanguinary Sapphism and brings the marriage crashing down in a scary ho-
moerotic vampire catastrophe. The politics are ambiguous, if suspiciously
homophobic, but the film contains a sufficient number of stylish set pieces

to have earned it the reputation of a minor classic. One of the visuals, fea-

turing a tuxedoed female vampire spreading her cape against a sunset, is an

absolute stunner. Directed by Harry Kumel. (Showking/Maya/Roxy/Cine
Vog)T See also homosexuality; lesbianism.

Davis, Bette
Vampires have often been linked to gender- bending, and in her perennial

was Bette Davis. But

role as a subject for transvestite impersonation, so
how many of her fans recall the night during World War II, when, at the
Los Angeles branch of the Hollywood Canteen, Davis blurred the bound-
aries between transvestites and vampires when she allowed makeup artist
Perc Westmore to transform her face into that of Bela Lugosi as Drac-
ula? According to family historian Frank Westmore, it actually happened.
(Any veteran who can provide a photograph will have an eternal place of
honor in the next edition of V Is for Vampire.)

Deafula
Cinema, USA 1975. Peter Wechsberg wrote and directed and starred in
the world's first and only horror movie for the hearing-impaired. Tran-
sylvanian accents, screams, etc. are, of course, totally beside the point in
Deafula, which is acted completely in sign language. A rarity, a print or
tape of which I was unable to locate anywhere. (Signscope)

Deane, Hamilton
Irish-born actor- manager, who, enamored of Bram Stoker's novel Drac-
ULA from an early age, secured the dramatic rights to the book from the
author's widow in 1924. It is Hamilton Deane who is most responsible
for our contemporary image of Dracula as the unctuous, immaculately
dressed foreigner wrapped in an opera cape — a vision radically opposed to
the repellent, cadaverous old satyr imagined by Stoker. Deane, however,
was making a canny dramatic choice — in order to conform to the conven-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 73

Hamilton Deane, original stage adaptor of Dracula.

tions of the drawing-room mystery melo-

drama, Dracula needed to be reimagined as a

sort of chap who might plausibly be invited

into drawing rooms to begin with. The for-
mula clicked, and Deane toured the British
provinces successfully for three years before
taking the play to London, where it defied
calumny and was a major hit. The
critical

American rights were purchased by the flam-

boyant producer-publisher Horace Liveright,
who enlisted John L. Balderston to com-
pletely rewrite Deane's script for Broadway.
Deane originally intended the part of Dracula
for himself, but opted for the character of Van
Helsing, who had far more stage time and much longer speeches. Deane
finally did play Dracula in London in a 1939 revival; strangely, no pho-
tographs of him in character seem to have survived. He died in 1958. See
also Dracula, The Vampire Play.

Dearg-due
A dread species of Irish vampire, which quite possibly informed the imagi-
nations of Ireland's greatest vampire authors, J. Sheridan LeFanu and
Bram Stoker. The name of the creature translates from the Gaelic as
"Red Blood Sucker." See also folklore.

Decolletage
The view of a woman's bosom is an essential component of modern vam-
pire iconography, especially prominent in the advertisement of films. From
a Freudian perspective, infantile oral appetites underly the psychology of
vampirism, and it is therefore not surprising that the neck bite in vampire
movies is often framed and photographed with a woman's plunging neck-
line and/or exposed breasts in the same field of vision. Sometimes a line of
74 David J. Skal

Christopher Lee and

Barbara Shelley in

Dracula, Prince of
Darkness. (Photofest)

blood is shown connecting the neckbite to the cleavage, diagrammatically

tracing the displacement. The bite wound itself —two reddish, circular
spots —may register in semiconsciousness as a kind of graphic shorthand for
nipples (or staring eyes — see "Christabel"). The advertising graphic for
the Frank Langella version of Dracula (1979) features the count ogling
a supine victim's neck, but our gaze is pulled instead to the undead uplift of
the woman's breasts — their levitation is the most supernatural thing about
the whole image, the breasts having been rendered in progressively larger
states of inflation for various posters, ads, book covers, etc. In more recent
films, such as Graveyard Shift (1987) and any number of vampire pic-

tures featuring lesbianism, the bloodsuckers tend to go for the breasts di-
rectly, avoiding the need for neck euphemisms. Incidentally, thereis no

on the breast is properly called a "Bra

truth to the claim that a vampire bite
Stoker." See also doppelsauger; Freud, Sigmund; psychoanalysis.

Deneuve, Catherine
See The Hunger.

Devil's Commandment, The

See / Vampiri.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 75

Dhampir
In gypsy tradition, a dhampir is the child of a vampire, blessed with special
powers to detect and destroy the undead. The term was adapted by Scott
Baker for the title of his freewheeling 1982 novel, Dhampire.

"Dinner with Drac"

TV horror-host Zacherley's 1958 novelty song "Dinner with Drac"
made the top- ten charts during a sick humor craze that coincided with the
release of classic Universal horror pictures to television, Lenny Bruce's
Transylvania skits, monster magazines, etc. "Dinner with Drac" consisted
largely of grisly limericks maniacally delivered by Zacherle to a downbeat
jazz accompaniment. My favorite: "For dessert, there was bat-wing con-
fetti / And the veins of a mummy named Betty. / I first frowned upon it

/ But with ketchup on it / It tasted very much like spaghetti!"

Doppelsauger
In German superstition, a weaned child who returns to the breast —
"double-sucker" — is likely to become a vampire. Interestingly, the belief
parallels the psychoanalytic theory of vampirism, linking vampire fantasies
to an inability to move beyond the infantile, oral stage of sexual develop-
ment. See also decolletage; Freud, Sigmund; psychoanalysis.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1857-1930)
made several literary forays into vampirism, including the stories "The Par-
asite" (1891), "John Barrington Cowles" (1894), and "The Adventure of
the Sussex Vampire" (1924), in which Holmes investigates a bogus blood-
sucker. "The Parasite" contains a classic literary example of the psychic
vampire, a deceptively passive woman who nonetheless drains a professor's
mental energy, driving him to acts of violence and crime. Sherlock Holmes
was teamed with a master vampire by novelist Fred Saberhagen for his
1978 pastiche, The Holmes-Dracula File, and Doyle himself was fictionally

paired with Bram Stoker (a real-life friend) for Simon Hawke's 1988 novel
The Dracuta Caper.
76 David J. Skal

Dracula
Fiction, UK 1897. The T. Rex of the vampire world entered our mortal
realm via the imagination of part-time Victorian novelist Bram Stoker,
who by day managed the affairs of the charismatic actor-producer Henry
Irving and his prestigious Royal Lyceum Theatre. By night, Stoker wrote
reams of melodramatic potboilers, none of which has had the staying
power of Dracula; nearly a century later, the book has never been out of
print and has inspired more film and stage adaptations than any novel in

history. The following notice in the Spectator encapsulates the plot and is

typical of the novel's initially favorable, yet somewhat guarded, reception:

Mr. Bram Stoker gives us the impression —we may be doing him an in-

justice—of having deliberately laid himself out in Dracula to eclipse all

previous efforts in the —

domain of the horrible to "go one better" than
Wilkie Collins (whose method of narration he has closely followed),
Sheridan Le Fanu, and all the other professors of the flesh -creeping
school. Count Dracula, who gives his name to the book, is a Transyl-

vanian noble who purchases an estate in England, and in connection

with the transfer of the property Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor,

visits him in his ancestral castle. Jonathan Harker has a terrible time of
it, for the Count—who is a vampire of immense age, cunning, and ex-
perience —keeps him as a prisoner for several weeks, and when the poor
young man escapes from the gruesome charnel-house of his host, he
nearly dies of brain-fever in a hospital at Buda-Pesth. The scene then
shifts to England, where the Count arrives by sea in the form of a dog-

fiend, after destroying the entire crew, and resumes operations in vari-

ous uncanny manifestations, selecting as his chief victim Miss Lucy

Westenra, the fiancee of the Honourable Arthur Holmwood, heir-

presumptive to Lord Godalming. The story then resolves itself into the
history of Lucy's protectors, including two rejected suitors —an Ameri-
can and a "mad" doctor — and a wonderfully clever specialist from Am-
sterdam, against her unearthly persecutor. The clue is furnished by
Jonathan Harker, whose betrothed, Mina Murray, is a bosom friend of
Lucy's, and the fight is long and protracted. Lucy succumbs, and, worse
still, is temporarily converted into a vampire. How she is released from
this unpleasant position and restored to a peaceful post-mortem exis-

tence, how Mina is next assailed by the Count, how he is driven from
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 77

England, and finally exterminated by the efforts of the league — for all

these, and a great many more thrilling details, we must refer our readers
to the pages of Mr. Stoker's clever but cadaverous romance. Its strength
lies in the invention of incident, for the sentimental element is decidedly
mawkish. Mr. Stoker has shown considerable ability in the use that he
has made of all the available traditions of vampirology, but we think his
story would have been all the more effective if he had chosen an earlier
period. The up-to-dateness of the book —
the phonograph diaries, type-
writers, and so on —
hardly fits in with the mediaeval methods which
ultimately secure the victory for Count Dracula's foes.

While Dracula is without question the most famous piece of vampire

literature in history, Stoker's ugly, animalistic conception of the count has
been stubbornly resisted by filmmakers and dramatists. Stoker was cer-

tainly aware of the romantic, Byronic image of the vampire that domi-
nated the page and stage in the early part of the nineteenth century, and
he deliberately went in another direction. His Dracula is a Darwinian su-
perman who blurs distinctions between humans and predatory animals;
the popularity of the novel reflected middle-class Victorian uneasiness with
the reductionistic message of evolutionary science. But the image of the
brooding, fatal seducer so dear to the Romantic sensibility lent itself far

better to dramatic adaptations than did Stoker's bestial bogeyman, and the
popular image of Dracula today is a distinct hybrid. In recent years the

novel has been the subject of countless critical studies, and the lack of a

firsthand account by Stoker of his intentions in its composition has fueled

a cottage industry of provocative speculation on the book's psychosexual,
scientific, and political subtexts.

Dracula
Theater, UK and USA 1924/27. See Dracula, The Vampire Play.

Dracula
Cinema, USA 1931. Perhaps the most influential bad movie ever made,
Dracula broke the long-standing Hollywood taboo against out-and-out
supernatural themes, thus awakening the American cinema to its dream-
like, fantastic possibilities (leading, of course, to the horror cycles of the
thirties and forties, the science fiction cycle of the fifties, and straight on to
78 David J. Skal

Never out of print since its 1 897 publication, Bram Stoker's Dracula has provided endless
inspiration to dust-jacket designers and illustrators. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borsr/Hollywood
Movie Posters, and Dr. Jeanne Youngson, The Count Dracula Fan Club)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 79

Bram Stoker: BRAM STOKER

Dracula
Ein Vampirroman

DRACULA 1
,.i!lC

^ 1

U:
1
it

I
80 David J. Skal

Bela Lugosi in an atmospheric publicity

photo for Dracula.

the Spielbergian blockbusters of the

present day). None would have hap-
pened in exacdy the same way had
Dracula not been produced by Uni-
versal in —
1931 Universal, in fact,
might have folded that year without
the significant revenue Dracula pro-
duced. The historical importance of
Dracula has, unfortunately, led to its
being grossly overrated from an artistic

standpoint. In reality, the film is stagey

(while paradoxically lacking most of
the theatricality of the stage play on
which it is based), badly paced and

edited, and watchable today primarily

for Bela LUGOSl's classic line readings and the manic scenery-chewing of
Dwight Frye as his lunatic helper. Tod Browning is the nominal director,
though according to cast member David Manners, the production was
held together by the efforts of cinematographer Karl Freund (which may
explain why Freund had so little time to show off the fluid, mobile camera-
work that had been his signature in Germany). This may sound like
heresy, but Dracula would be a far better film if tightened to an hour
from its present seventy-five minutes; all the cuts could come from the op-
pressive dead air that hovers in virtually every shot and scene after the first

two reels. Tod Browning, uncredited).

Screenplay by Garrett Fort (with
Also starring Helen Chandler, Edward Van Sloan, Frances Dade, Her-
bert Bunston, Charles Gerrard, and Joan Standing. (Universal)T

Dracula (Spanish-Language Version)

Cinema, USA 1931. The artistic shortcomings of Universal 's 1931 English-
language Dracula are vividly underscored by this fascinating Spanish version
shot on the same sets at night by a completely different producer, director,
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 8

cast, and crew. During the early days of talking pictures, Hollywood rou-
tinely shot dozens of foreign-language versions of its domestic films in
order to maintain the lucrative foreign markets, which had no interest in a
"dubbed" product —the novelty and excitement of talking pictures was
hearing actors speak in their natural voices. Most of these films are now
lost or forgotten, but the Spanish version of Dracula was in many ways a
rival production to the Tod Browning version — its associate producer,
Paul Kohner, had been frustrated in his attempts to bring an English-
language Dracula to the screen in collaboration with director Paul Leni
and actor Conrad Veidt in the title role. Made for a fraction of the cost of
the Browning film, producer Kohner and director George Melford (best
known for Valentino's The Sheik), upstaged the English version scene by
scene and shot by shot. The real star of the picture is cinematographer
George Robinson, whose mobile camera, dramatic lighting, and visual
effects frequently look a decade ahead of their time. The Spanish actor

Carlos Villarias (contract name: Charles Villar) proves a campy lookalike for
Bela Lugosi, and Kohner cast his bride-to-be, the photogenic Mexican
ingenue Lupita Tovar, as the female lead. Nearly every published account
of the film mentions Tovar's filmy negligees and plunging necklines (see
decolletage) as one of the film's great revelations, and I will not argue
otherwise. The film was beautifully restored in 1992 and released to home
video, where it made the best-seller charts and, I am told by insiders, did
better for MCA than the videocassette of Spartacus. Also starring Barry

Carlos Villarias in

the1931 Spanish-
language version of
Dracula. (Courtesy of the
Cinemateca de Cuba)
82 David J. Skal

Norton, Pablo Alvarez Rubio, Eduardo Arozamena, and Carmen Guer-

rero. An absolute must-see. (Universal)T

Dracula
Television, USA 1958. John Carradine starred in the first television adap-
tation of Bram Stoker's novel as part of NBC's Matinee Theatre series.

Sadly,no kinescope or videotape seems to have survived nor, apparently, —

even a script or production photos. Has anyone seen this curiosity? If any
information or pictures surface, I'd love to include them in a future edi-
tion of V Is for Vampire.

Dracula
Theater, UK 1964. Fifty years to the day after Hamilton Deane premiered
his version of Dracula in Derby, England, playwright Tudor Williams un-
veiled his own adaptation, with actor Paul Geaves in the title role. Accord-
ing to an unsourced clipping, "In a strange way it all seemed faintly

possible. The diagnoses and theorisings of Professor Van Helsing bore a

strong resemblance to those snap decisions at the foot of the bed that are
such an accepted convention of television hospital shows, and which we
have learned to treat with a kind of cowering respect."

Dracula
Television, UK 1969. Denholm Elliott was weirdly miscast as a chubby,
Friar-Tuckish vampire in a low- budget but often inventive spin on
Stoker. The characters of Renfield and Jonathan Harker, for instance,
were combined through a surprise plot twist —the nameless, fly-eating lu-
natic is revealed to be none other than Harker himself, who has returned
to England from Castle Dracula a psychotic mess. Elliott's neck penetra-
tion of heroine Susan George
is one of the kinkiest scenes of its kind I've

ever seen, and more surprising for sixties television the chubby
all the —
chomper gets down on his knees next to her bed (thus raising all kinds of
oral sex expectations). After some preliminary nuzzling, he draws back his
lips Nosferatu- style rat-fangs with which he snags
to reveal impressive
her jugular. kissing of the open wound goes on at
The sucking and
surprising erotic length, and Elliott's complete on-camera disintegra-
tion provides another unexpected thrill. Directed bv Patrick Dromgoole;
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 83

also starring Conn Redgrave, Suzanne Neve, Bernard Archard, and Joan
Hickson.

Dracula
Television, Canada 1973. Part of the Purple Playhouse series, this video-
taped dramatization featured actorNorman Welsh as a white-haired vam-
Bram Stoker's description. Nehemiah Persoff took
pire closely following
the role of Van Helsing while Blair Brown, later TV's Molly Dodd, pro-
vided the count with diversion and refreshment. Directed by Jack Nixon
Browne.

Dracula
Television, USA 1974. Dan Curtis, the producer of Dark Shadows, got
the scoop on Francis Coppola almost twenty years before Bram Stoker's
Dracula in his stylish production scripted by Richard Matheson (I Am
Legend) that was obviously a heavy source of inspiration for the Coppola
extravaganza. Matheson combined Stoker's original story with a motiva-
tional subplot in which Dracula (creepily portrayed by the spookily cheek-
boned Jack Palance) attempts to recapture his reincarnated love of five
hundred years past. There are many impressive sequences, including Drac-
ula's marvelously understated response to being discovered indulging his
habit in Mina's bedchamber. With Nigel Davenport, Pamela Brown, Fiona
Lewis, and Penelope Horner.

Dracula
Theater, UK 1974. A tongue-in-cheek dramatization by Ken Hill, replac-
ing Dr. Seward's asylum setting with a Victorian girl's school.

Dracula
Cinema, USA/UK 1979. John Badham's lush remake of the Deane/Balder-
ston stage vehicle was a box office disappointment when first released, but
holds up surprisingly well on video. In a sense, Frank Langella's Byronic
vampire — a role he originated on stage a few years earlier—ushered in the
age of Anne Rice's sexy, introspective bloodsuckers. Screenplay by W. D.
Richter. With Laurence Olivier, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasance, Trevor
Eve, Jan Francis, Tony Haygarth. (Universal) T
84 David J. Skal

Dracula
Theater, New Zealand 1982. Auckland's Mercury Theatre presented this
soft-rock musical adaptation, composed by Stephen McCurdy with book
and lyrics by Ian Mune. According to Variety, the story was "given a

Brechtian slant, so that the inhabitants of a small township, told that the
wealthy Count Dracula is interested in buying property, are greedily anx-
ious to exploit him, thus deserving the zombie fate that is theirs at the fi-

nal curtain."

Dracula
Theater, UK 1984. Actor DanielDay Lewis, who turned down the role of
the vampire Lestat in Neil Jordan's 1994 film of Interview with the
Vampire, may well have had his fill of vampires after portraying Count
Dracula in Chris Bond's 1984 adaptation for London's Half Moon The-
atre. Nonetheless, he seems to have been quite impressive in the part. The

Guardian noted that, "The first appearance of Daniel Day Lewis's superb,
stooping, spindle-shanked Dracula produces a genuine frisson, not least as
he runs his nose up Dr. Van Helsing's arm as if smelling her mortality."
(Yes, Van Helsing was a woman in this one.) The Financial Times re-

ported that Lewis "hobbles, crouches and snarls like a bleach- blond
bloodless Richard III," while Time Out described him as a "pincer-fanged,
black-cloaked Dracula howling like a werewolf, whirling across the heads
of the audience to carry off his prey." The fang-in-cheek script included
generous dollops of class warfare humor, as well as the use of cocaine to
momentarily revive a damsel running on empty.

Dracula
Theater, Scotland 1985. The Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead
wrote one of the most critically acclaimed Dracula adaptations of modern
American production. Though
times, a script that has yet to receive an
criticizing its length (three and Guardian called it "an
a half hours), the

astonishingly brave and ambitious piece of work," and praised Lochhead

for delving "deep beneath the psycho-sexual surface of Stoker's story in an

attempt to marry his imagery with modern ideas about women's sexuality;
its language is a daring and often highly successful mixture of domestic
naturalism and high melodrama, pun, alliteration, and pure poetry."
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 85

Dracula A.D. 1972

Cinema, UK 1972. Christopher Lee returned in the sixth installment of
Hammer's Dracula series, as the count is revived by hippie -satanic rituals in a
modern London and reels from a Carnaby Street hangover. Most novel mo-
ment: a vampire's death by running water — in this case, a shower, thereby
merging supernatural and Hitchcockian horror traditions. Directed by Alan
Gibson from a script by Don Houghton. With Peter Cushing, Stephanie
Beacham, and Christopher Neame. (Hammer/Warner Brothers)T

Dracula: A Modern Fable

Theater, USA 1978. Norman Bein's satire was presented off-off-Broadway
in midnight performances that capitalized on the concurrent popularity of
the FrankLangella Broadway revival of Dracula. Bein's play was set in
Hollywood: the heroine has flown to L.A. to bury her younger brother
who has suddenly died. He turns up, seemingly alive, explaining that his
"death" was just a publicity stunt for a Dracula movie. But we know bet-
ter. Drac himself shows up with a familiar chestnut —looking for the rein-

carnation of his lost love.

Dracula: A Musical Nightmare

Theater, USA 1978. Another late -seventies riff on Dracula, one that prob-
ably deserves more revivals than it's been given so far. With book and

lyrics by Douglas Johnson, and music by John Aschenbrenner, Dracula: A

Musical Nightmare is a concept show combining the story of a third-rate
English touring company and its production of Dracula with music hall

song and dance routines. The New York Theatre Review called the style

"very much in the mode of Cabaret, complete with a leering M.C. who
takes on the tide role. The music hall portions are fun and the play-within-
a-play presentations of segments of Dracula manage to be both sinister
and sensual ... [an] extremely stylish and remarkably entertaining
evening." The original Los Angeles production featured Hill Street Blues
regular Joe Spano as the vampiric master of ceremonies.

Dracula: A Pain in the Neck

Theater, UK 1981. The tide seems to sum up this obscure production,
which was described by Time Out: before the curtain, "the audience is in-

vited to wipe their feet on garlic impregnated Batmat. Fizzy blood and
86 David J. Skal

gingerbread crucifixes are served in the interval. . . . Dracula speaks like a

cockney sergeant-major pretending to be an Italian waiter. Mina is a bossy

girl who wears undignified face packs in bed. . .
." Get the picture?

Dracula and Son

Cinema, France 1976. Edouard France, the director who went on to much
better things, like La Cage auxfolles (1978), got his start with this report-
edly funny vampire spoof starring none other than Christopher Lee, but
the film is hard to evaluate in its English-language version, which wasn't
just dubbed but completely rescripted —atrociously. (Quartet Films)T
Dracula Blows His Cool
Cinema, West Germany 1979. This is a truly bizarre film. The vampire's
castle becomes a garish tourist trap, with the count reduced to providing
oral room service for paying customers looking for the thrill of a chill. The
idea of Dracula as a capitalist whore is an interesting idea, but this movie
isn't interested in ideas. Directed by Carlo Ombra, with Gianni Garko as

Dracula. (Lisa-Barthonia Film)

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Cinema, USA 1995. This must have sounded like a great idea on paper. A

companion piece to Mel Brooks' classic farce Young Frankenstein, this time
taking on the other great horror icon. But Dracula: Dead and Loving It is
mostly a mess. Leslie Nielsen's casting as Dracula is inexplicable, except for
the box office value of his name as comedy star (though it must be said he
has carefully studied Bela LuGOSl's vocal mannerisms, which is more than
most impersonators do). Unlike Young Frankenstein, there is no attempt
here to recreate the black-and-white world of the classic horror films, and by
aiming darts at every Dracula variation from Lugosi to Langella to Lee to
Coppola, Brooks ends up missing all targets. Peter MacNichol steals the

show with an inspired impersonation of Dwight Frye's classic Renfield,

and Anne Bancroft has a fun in a cameo as a pushy, crucifix-dispensing gypsy.
But the screenplay, by Brooks, Rudy De Luca, and Steve Haberman, is slug-
gish and uninventive. Still, one cannot suppress a smile at lines like "Yes, we
have Nosferatu." If only there had been more of them. With Steven Weber,
Amy Yasbeck, Lysette Anthony, Harvey Korman and Mel Brooks, as the
vampire's nemesis Van Helseng. (Columbia/Castle Rock)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 87

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Cinema, UK 1968. One of the original posters for Dracula Has Risen
from the Grave added the word "obviously" as a tag line to the tide, illus-

trated by a shapely neck sporting twin Band-Aids. The film itself, the third
Hammer entry featuring Christopher Lee, is free from such campy humor,
though the famous scene in which Lee pulls a stake out of his chest may
well provoke an ironic chuckle or two. Newsweek, in a Vietnam mindset,
had some trouble with the hero, "an atheist who refuses under any cir-
cumstances to flash the crucifix [to protect the heroine]. He loves her
though, and that's enough to save the day and night. Imagine a war being
won by a conscientious objector." Purists and sticklers beware: there is a
scene in which Dracula casts a reflection. Horrors! Directed by Freddie
Francis, from a script by John Elder. With Rupert Davies, Veronica Carl-
son, Barbara Ewing, and Barry Andrews. (Hammer/Warner Bros.)T

Dracula, or Out for the Count

Theater, UK 1985. Charles McKeown, coauthor of the surreal film com-
edy Brazil, seems to have reworked this material over a period of several
years. It was first performed in Manchester, England, in 1978, under the
tideDracula Is Undead and Well and Living in Purlfleet (not to be con-
fused with Dracula Is Dead and Well and Living in London the working —
tide for the film Dracula A.D. Time Out described the end result:
1972).
"You'll find no Hammer Horror here, no creepy, creaky casries or ghoul-
ish undead. Charles McKeown's Dracula is a 30's screen idol, complete
with entourage of Busby Berkeley vampiresses, who, against Roger Glos-
sop's stylishly elegant Art Deco set, elegandy dances and sings before sink-
ing his fangs into his willing victims' necks. It's a great idea and even a
greater shame it fails." Actor Tim Flavin, who played Dracula, lip-synched
nostalgic recordings in much the same manner popularized by Dennis
Potter in Pennies from Heaven.

Dracula, Prince of Darkness

Cinema, UK 1966. Having been sun-baked to ashes in Horror of
Dracula, Christopher Lee missed Hammer's first follow-up, Brides of
Dracula, but returned as an oddly mute king of vampires for Dracula,
Prince of Darkness, directed by Terence Fisher from a script by John San-
som. The lack of dialogue in this film supposedly had something to do
with Lee's salary and distaste for the original script. Dracula's resurrection
88 David J. Skal

is accomplished in a particularly grisly fashion — a honeymooning husband

is suspended and throat-slit over Dracula's powdery remains by his faithful

servant Klove, who stirs up the count like a satanic pot of Sanka. The Mo-
tion Picture Association of America objected to the Grand Guignol excess of
the resurrection scene as it was originally scripted: "The business of Klove de-
capitating Alan and the subsequent scene showing the torrents of blood
pouring into the coffin, together with Klove's throwing of Alan's head aside,
is simply too sickening to be approved," the association wrote. The British

censors also objected and the scene was toned down. But one scene from
Stoker's original novel, long avoided in dramatizations, is finally realized here
as Dracula suckles his victim with vampire blood from a wound he has
opened in his breast. Dracula, Prince of Darkness also contains a gruesome,
quasi-gang-bang involving a group of monks, a female vampire (Barbara
Shelley), a table, and a stake. (Hammer/Warner Bros.)V See also rape.

Dracula Rising
Cinema, USA 1992. This low-budget Roger Corman number was in-

tended to capitalize on the big-screen Dracula craze of 1992, but seems

to have been released primarily on video. It's the old Dracula-seeks-his-
reincarnated-love gambit again. A young art restorer (Stacey Travis) takes

an assignment in Transylvania, with predictable results. In flashbacks, she's

burned as a witch for carrying on with Vlad, the son of Dracula (Christo-
pher Atkins), who is trying to live down his heritage by becoming a monk.
The real problem, however, is another monk (Doug Wert), who seems to
want Vlad for himself. They both end up as vampires, with a nice under
current of homoerotic tension that would make Anne Rice proud. Di-
rected by Fred Gallo. Screenplay by Rodman Flender and Daniella Purcell.
(Concorde/New Horizons)T

Dracula: Sabbat
Theater, USA 1970. It was Manson- curdled climax of
inevitable, after the

the psychedelic sixties, that Dracula would form the basis for a piece of
ritual theater. Dracula: Sabbat, by Leon Katz and directed by Laurence
Kornfeld, received outstanding reviews when it was presented by the Judson
Poet's Theatre. George L. George, critic for Backstage, called it ". . .a quasi
sometimes unnerved audience under its
religious spectacle that holds the
spell for two tense unbroken hours ... a visually startling and mind-

expanding pageant, where the forces of evil fight for the possession of souls
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 89

as in the old Morality plays." Clive Barnes of the New York Times called the
piece "a mixture of the frankly repulsive and the eccentrically beautiful," and
Jack Kroll of Newsweek found it "... a work of absolute authenticity —with a
beauty, dignity, gravity and sensuality rare to the point of near-extinction in
any part of our contemporary theater." Kroll especially praised Crystal Field,
an actress "with the fructuous body of the Venus ofWillendorf and the face
of a Victorian maiden rapt by Heaven [who] gives a wonderful performance
as the girl metamorphosed into transcendental profanity by Dracula."

Dracula Sucks
Cinema, USA 1979. This is the inevitable title for the inevitable film. Porn
veterans Jamie Gillis, Annette Haven, and Serena starred in this reportedly

elaborate piece of erotica that got embroiled in producer/distributor law-

suits in the early eighties and now can't be found anywhere.

The Dracula Tape

Fiction, USA 1975. The much-maligned Dracula gets to tell his side of the
story in Fred Saberhagen's amusing novel. No one understands the count,
it seems. "Lucy I did not kill," he tells us. "It was not /who hammered
the great stake through her heart. My hands did not cut off her lovely
head, or stuff her breathless mouth- that mouth —with garlic, as if she
were a dead pig, pork being made ready for some barbarians' feast." What
about that notorious incident at the castle, with the baby in the bag, and
the mother devoured by wolves? It never happened, the count insists —in
fact, the wolves used their extraordinary hunting instincts to find the lost
child in the woods for a happy family reunion. The thing in the bag was a
calf, a late supper for the count's trio of brides. And so on. Whether you
will swallow the count's impassioned spin-doctoring is probably a matter
of individual taste, but Saberhagen sustains his conceit effectively, provid-

ing nasty chuckles on almost every page.

Dracula (The Dirty Old Man)

Cinema, USA 1969. Supposedly, this started out as a bottom- of- the -barrel
attempt at a "serious" horror film, but someone who realized what an
unholy mess it was tried to salvage it by overdubbing a completely new,
cornball soundtrack that only compounded the disaster. In addition to
Dracula, there is a werewolf and many, many breasts. The producers, per-
haps, thought nudity would make this watchable. They were wrong. Star-
90 David J. Skal

ring Vince Kelly and Ann Hollis. Written and directed by William Edwards.
(Boyd Productions)T

Dracula: The Story You Thought You Knew

Theater, USA 1983. Richard Sharp's acclaimed adaptation of the vampire
classic was a two-season Oregon Shakespeare Festival and won ad-
hit at the

ditional praise when downtown San Francisco church.

restaged in 1985 in a
The play's set drew most of the plaudits: designer Richard Hay created a
semicircle of gothic arches framing a monumental bas-relief of St. Michael
driving Lucifer into hell. Director Richard Geer employed a chorus of gray-
robed living-dead "statues" who provided a choreographic counterpoint to
the dramatic action, anchored in the San Francisco production by Dan Kern
as Dracula and John Astin (the ghoulish Gomez of TV's originalAddams
Family) as Van Helsing. The San Francisco Chronicle critic Bernard Weiner
commented: "The draw for this production is not a 'star' but the stunningly
original concept that makes this 'Dracula' seem fresh all over again and well
worth a visit. . . . —
The special effects are ingenious Bibles and crosses ex-
ploding, props moving on their own, a chair that seems to levitate, fluores-
cent veils, etc. The final effect, as a wooden stake is hammered into Dracula's
heart, is enough to blow you away. Rarely does a special effect earn an ova-

tion, but that's what occurred opening night —

what an ending!" (Needless
to say, if any reader witnessed this event, we'd love to hear the details.)

Dracula Unbound
Fiction, UK 1991. Acclaimed science fiction writer Brian W. Aldiss, who
cleverly applied time travel to the Mary Shelley legend in Frankenstein
Unbound (1973), here takes a similar approach to Bram Stoker, with
somewhat less successful results. Nonetheless, Aldiss' speculation on the
vampire's evolutionary link to the reptile world is brilliantly original and
carried off with the usual Aldiss flair. The positing of real vampires in
Stoker's England anticipates the alternate-universe gambit of Kim New-
man's kaleidoscopic novel Anno Dracula (1992).

Dracula, The Vampire Play

Theater, UK and USA, 1924-1927. Hamilton Deane and John L.
Balderston's efficient theatrical adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel is re-

two plays: Deane's original, which was the only version performed in
ally

England from 1924 to 1939, and Balderston's 1927 complete rewrite for
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 9

HORACE LIVER1GHT
PRESENTS Original handbill for Dracula: The Vampire Play.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)

Broadway. The Broadway version formed the

basis for the famous 1931 film version starring
Bela Lugosi and directed by Tod Browning
(though to cover all the bases, Universal Pic-
tures also bought film rights to the Deane
version and the original novel, plus a curious
and turgidly verbose stage adaptation Stoker's
widow had commissioned from playwright
THEWORLD FAMOUS Charles Morrell). The play is significant for its
VAMPIRE THRILLER introduction of the popular image of Dracula
as an unctuous seducer in evening clothes and
opera cloak —an appearance far removed from
Stoker's rancid satyr. The Deane/Balderston
Dracula is, in fact, a variation on the familiar
ha BBAM
image of a vaudeville magician, an appropriate
strategy given the play's frequent reliance on startling "magic" effects
bombs, fog, disappearing boxes, trapdoors, and the like. The play-
flash

wrights dropped the broad geographical sweep of the novel, leaving out
the Transylvania sequences entirely and setting the entire action in and
around the Seward Sanitorium. The play was greeted with critical raised
eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic, but it nonetheless was a huge
moneymaker, earning over two million dollars on Broadway and on tour.
The play has gone on to be a staple repertory item and is constantly re-
vived by regional theaters, colleges, and community groups. Dracula was
given a major revival on Broadway in 1977 in a stylish, intentionally campy
production with sets and costumes designed with macabre whimsy by Ed-
ward Gorey and directed by Dennis Rosa, with Frank Langella as the
count. To accommodate the star, dialogue was padded and expanded,
some of it lifted directly from the 1931 film ("I never drink wine," . . .

etc.). See also cloaks and capes; Liveright, Horace; theater.

92 David J. Skal

Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Cinema, Spain/West Germany/Italy 1969. This film is a dreadful mash of
monsters, including aliens, a mummy, and a werewolf, notable only for
being Michael Rennie's final film. Featuring Paul Naschy (who also wrote
the script) as the wolf-man. Directed by Hugo Fregonese and Tulio Demi-
chelli. Also known as Assignment Terror. (Prades/Eichberg/International
Jaguar)T

Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Cinema, USA 1971. A shameful cheapie, marking the ignominious career
ends of two veteran actors,J. Carroll Naish and Lon Chaney, Jr., as a mad

scientist and zombie hench-thing. Zandor Vorkov makes a sleazy, goa-

his

teed Dracula with a ray-gun in his ring, as if his legendary demonic powers
require some kind of technological boost. The fact that some of the origi-
nal electrical equipment from Universal's Frankenstein films was hauled
out of storage for the sets doesn't add interest; it just makes the whole
thing seem even more depressing. Also featuring Anthony Eisley. Directed
by Al Adamson. (Independent-International)V

Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Cinema, Spain 1972. You can't keep a good title down, apparently. But
Spanish horror maven Jesus (a.k.a. Jess) Franco failed to impress Vari-
ety's film critic, who pointed up the absurd inconsistencies of the story:
"... Franco never seems quite to decide when and where the scene is set.

Though there's a blinking lab with plenty of electric current, the rooms
are inevitably lit with candles; sometimes we'll see a modern car following
a horse and buggy; the vampire's coffins are lit with a spotlight from the
ceiling; the wind whistles constantly, but nary a leaf ever moves upon a
tree. Make-up and thesping are best left uncommented upon." Also known
as The Screaming Dead.

Dracula Was a Woman

See Bathory, Erzebet.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 93

Dracula's Daughter
Cinema, USA 1936. Universal's long-awaited sequel to Dracula went
through own extended period
its of developmental hell: though they orig-
inally intended it as a starring vehicle for Bela Lugosi and Jane Wyatt (as
his daughter), the director James Whale and screenwriter R. C. Sherriff
found it impossible to get their original concept past the censors. Sher-
riff 's story featured a long Transylvanian flashback in which the cruel
count amused himself with elaborate palace games involving young lovers
and severed arms; a local wizard, fed up with the debauchery, interrupts
the revelries and casts a spell that turns the count's degenerate guests into
swine and Dracula himself into a vampire. Whale, Sherriff, Lugosi, and
even the character of Dracula were dropped from the production, which
was finally scripted by Garrett Fort and directed by Lambert Hillyer. Ac-
tress Gloria Holden made an austere, soignee Countess Zaleska, a reluc-
tant vampire who unsuccessfully seeks a psychiatric cure. She also has
distinct tendenciestoward lesbianism: her blood-seduction of a young
streetwalker(Nan Grey) is the film's most famous scene, and it still packs a
punch. Novelist Anne RlCE credits this film as a major early inspiration for
94 David J. Skal

her vampire novels; in Queen of the Damned, she paid it homage by nam-
ing a quasi-gay bar in San Francisco's Castro district "Dracula's Daugh-
ter." The film also starred Otto Kruger as the psychiatrist (a part originally

intended for Cesar Romero); Edward Van Sloan, reprising his role as Van
Helsing; and Irving Pichel as a Lugosi-esque servant who undermines his

mistress' recovery program for his own undead ambitions. (Universal)T

Dracula's Dog
Cinema, USA 1978. No, this is not a satirical vampiric counterpart to Tim
Burton's Frankenweenie, but rather a merely laughable horror film with a
canine twist: Dracula relocates to modern Los Angeles, with his hound
Zoltan standing in for the old-country wolves. Directed by Albert Band.
Screenplay by Frank Ray Perelli. (Vic/Crown)T

Dracula's Dragster
Marketed by Aurora Plastics in the early 1960s, Dracula's Dragster con-
flatedtwo then-current crazes in model kits: customized sports cars and
Hollywood movie monsters. The kit featured Dracula at the helm of a
souped-up coffin on wheels, wearing a jaunty driver's cap and toasting the
night sky with a martini glass sloshing with blood. I know this one from
the advertisements only; try as I could, I never found the actual kit in a
store —likewise for its contemporaneous counterpart, Frankenstein's Flivver.

Dracula's Widow
Cinema, USA 1988. Christopher Coppola, nephew of Francis, seems to
have directed this absurdist (or maybe just absurd) horror film as a kind of
film school in-joke. Sylvia Kristel, star of the soft-core classic Emmanuelle, is

surprisingly prudish here, dressed to the chin in the kind of severe, dress-for-
success outfits favored by scary female executives. She was evidently directed
to imitate the rigid wrist-flexing of Max Schreck in the 1922 Nosferatu,
generous clips of which are incorporated into the film. When Dracula's
widow attacks, she transforms into a gargoylish creature who rips her vic-
tims to shreds, leaving hands and eyeballs for the police to scrape off the
floor. A mess, it went straight to home video. With Josef Sommer, Lenny
Van Dohlen, Marc Coppola, Stefan Schnabel, and Rachel Jones. Script by
Christopher Coppola and Kathryn Ann Thomas. (DeLaurentiis)T
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 95

Dragula
A heavy-handed comic spoof that appeared in the National Lampoon in
the early 1970s, Dragula featured a gay vampire who could change into a
toothy French poodle, nipping his victims on the ankle, etc. A woman fi-

nally learns how to outwit him: "Sink your fangs into these, tooth fairy!"

she her breasts, which prove as effective as holy water. Done

cries, flashing

today, Dragula would be considered beyond the pale, politically speaking,

but for its time it still has a certain sophomoric charm. Dragula was also
the title of a 1973 gay porn film starring Casey Donovan. See also homo-
sexuality; LESBIANISM.

Drakula
Cinema, Hungary 1921. Little is known about this lost film, but it is spec-
ulated to be the first, unauthorized film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The director was Karoly Lajthay (1885-1945), and the cinematographer
was Lajos Gasser. Drakula's actors included Margit Lux, Paul Askonas
(who later acted with Conrad Veidt in The Hands ofOrlac), Karl Jotz, Myl
Gene, Elemer Thury, Lajos Rethey, Oszkar Perczel, Paula Kende, Dezso
Kertesz, Karoly Hatvani, Lajos Szalkai, Aladar Ihasz, and Bela Timar. We
can only speculate at this point that it was Askonas who first took the role of
Dracula, and that Lajthay 's production may have inspired F. W. Murnau's

Vilma Banky in a
vampirish scene from an
early Hungarian film.
96 David J. Skal

Atif Kaptan in Drakula Istanbulda.

(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters)

equally unauthorized adapta-

tion, Nosferatu, also filmed in

1921, but released the follow-

ing year. Drakula was filmed
in Berlin, like many Hungarian
films of the time, and used
German as well as Hungarian
performers (Askonas and Jotz
were German). Of some tan-
gential interest to Drakula is

the photograph, reproduced

here, of silent film actress
Vilma Banky in a decidedly

vampirish scene from an un-

identified Hungarian film from
the same period.

Drakula Instanbulda
Cinema, Turkey 1953. The first non- Western film adaptation of Dracula
starred Atif Kaptan as amalgam of the earlier Max SCHRECK
an interesting
(bald and fanged) and Bela Lugosi (evening wear and cape) interpre-
tations of the role. No print or video of this oddity has turned up in
America, but stills have been widely published, revealing the story to be
set in contemporary Istanbul. Directed by Mehmet Muhtar. Umit Deniz'

screenplay drew both from the Stoker novel and The Impaling Voivode
by Ali Riza Seyfi.

Dreyer, Carl
See Vamptr.
Elvira
Popular television horror movie hostess of the 1980s, portrayed by actress
Cassandra Peterson. The busty, Valley ghoul-accented Elvira, clad in slinky

black and topped by a bloodcurdling bouffant, is not exacdy a vampire,

but a creepy compromise on the theme by television producers who were
unable to negotiate character rights from the original TV horror hostess,
VAMPIRA. In addition to her television program, videocassettes, and prod-
uct endorsements, Elvira starred in her own feature film, Elvira, Mistress

of the Dark, a horror spoof released in 1988. See also decolletage.

Espionage
Would it surprise you to learn that the CIA resorted to dirty tricks involv-
ing vampires in the 1950s? According to Nathan Miller in Spying for
America: The Hidden History of U.S. Intelligence, Air Force Colonel Ed-
ward G. Lansdale, a major covert operator of the postwar era, launched a
two-tiered strategy to defeat insurgent Communist Hukbalahap guerrillas

in the Philippines. In addition to promoting land reform and social initia-

tives, Lansdale "also launched a campaign of dirty tricks to keep the Huks
off balance," writes Miller. "One ingenious operation played on the Fil-
ipinos' superstitious dread of vampires. Lansdale arranged for the body of
a Huk killed in an ambush to be punctured on the neck two places,
in

drained of blood and left at a crossroads. The Huks, as frightened of vam-

pires as anyone else, fled the area."
98 David J. Skal

Ewers, Hanns Heinz

This German writer (1871-1943), whose stories and novels frequently
dealt sensationally with the occult, published a moody symbolist book
called Vampir just about the same time F. W. Murnau was completing
his vampire film masterpiece, Nosferatu: Eine Stmphonie des Grauens.
Both works treated the vampire legend as a metaphor for the enervation
wrought on Germany by the First World War; in Nosferatu the symbolism
is fairly muted, but in Vampir, Ewer takes things right over the top. To il-

lustrate his point that the war came about because "humanity had become
stricken with a wild fever and had to drink blood to make themselves well
and young again," Ewers brings on German patriot Frank Braun (who
had, ten years earlier, figured in Ewers' novel Alraune, about a vampirish
laboratory-grown woman), who doesn't realize until the book's conclu-
sion that he himself is a vampire. In a perversely creepy anticipation of the
Hitler era, the story is resolved only when the half- Jewish mistress Lotte
Levi feeds the all-Aryan Braun "red milk" from her lacerated breasts, sacri-

ficing herself in much the same way as the heroine of Nosferatu. Upon the
book's English translation (as Vampire) in 1934, The New Republic noted
that Ewers finished this novel "several years before anyone took the Nazis
seriously. . . . Yet if 'Vampire' had been written under the Fiihrer's leader-
ship it could hardly have been more in tune with the theme songs of the
Nazis; its pages fairly drip with the mysticism, nationalism and symbolism
dear to their hearts." The Nazis themselves were confused by Ewers, who
was appointed to the new Dichter-Akademie in 1933, only to be de-
nounced as a purveyor of entarte kunst —decadent art — and drummed
summarily from his post. See also anti-Semitism.
 F
Fangs
While the vampire's telltale bite is an indispensable part of undead lore,
the use of animallike teeth in its production is distinctly a matter of liter-
ary, theatrical, and cinematic fashion. In Victorian fiction, the protagonists

in both Varney the Vampyre and Dracula were described as having

protruding teeth — though their contemporaneous lady colleague in "Car-
milla" showed no oral anomalies. (She did, however, produce a needlelike

sting when she fell upon her victim's breast —suggesting a chipped tooth,
at the very least.) Max Schreck, the Dracula-inspired vampire of Nosfer-
atu (1922), had frontal fangs patterned after a rat's teeth, a highly effec-
tive touch that has, strangely, not been much imitated. For London
After Midnight (1927), Lon Chaney sported fearsome dentures resem-
bling the uniformly filed and sharpened choppers of
But starting with Tod Browning's
a witch doctor.

M
m
JH
^^gg^^ DRACULA, the dominant approach to vampire teeth
^^^ m Hollywood was understatement, and virtually all
Jmkmk movie vampires of the thirties and forties relied on
jfl B
piercing stares as a kind of theatrical euphemism

j^f
'
I for oral penetration. The fashion for prosthetic,

I pointed canines made with modern dental tech-

1 j
niques began with HORROR OF DRACULA (1958),
m 7 in which Christopher Lee was afforded an un-
Bk precedented range of facial expression; the actor

The generic Halloween variety.

1 00 David J. Skal

made a memorable trademark of gradually curling back his upper lip to re-
veal the pearly frights. In Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), audiences
were treated to a quasi-clinical display of fang-buds sprouting in the upper
gums of the doomed Miss Lucy.
As elongated, penetrating objects, vampire fangs are textbook phallic

symbols, and in recent years increasingly liberated special effects technolo-

gies have made it almost de rigueur for vampire films to feature a semi-
pornographic "master shot" of vampire teeth as they thrust forward to
their full length and hardness. In the case of female vampires, a voluptuous
mouth filled with piercing fangs is usually interpreted as the most recent
cultural update of the classic vagina dentata and male castration anxi-
ety. A cursory glimpse at recent vampire films shows that the traditional,
minimalist representation of extended canines has lately given way to
more baroque concoctions, often based on exotic animal models —piranhas,
sharks, saurian carnivores, etc. See also bite marks; Freud, Sigmund.

Fangs, the Vampire Musical

Theater, USA 1993. An overly ambitious, critically panned piece of gay mu-
sical theater produced by New York's Wings Theatre Company, a kind of
hangover from the vampire media excesses of 1992. Written by Clint Jef-
feries and composed by Michael Calderwood, Fangs was set on the French-
German border during World War I —
an interesting place and period, of
course,what with its essential relationship to German Expressionism, Nos-
feratu, etc. But the promise of the piece was scuttled by a confused plot.
As the New Tork Native's critic L. C. Cole noted, "Wartime espionage,
vampire lovers, women's rights, religious homophobia, the joys of being a
—
funloving spy Jefferies tries to find time for them all. But his thematic for-
ays don't enhance each other; they merely leave us puzzled as to which plot
is number one."

The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me,

But Your Teeth Are in My Neck
Cinema, UK 1967. Roman Polanski's stylish, celebrated horror spoof, called
Dance of the Vampires in Britain, isn't half so funny today as it seemed on
its first release. The specter of Polanski's then-wife Sharon Tate and her

gruesome murder by the Manson "family" a year after the film's release
still haunts every frame in which the beautiful actress appears, lending
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 101

Sharon Tate and Ferdy

Mayne in The Fearless
Vampire Killers.

(Photofest)

the proceedings a gloomy,

haunting fatalism that sits

uneasily with the film's over-

all aspiration to slapstick.

On its first American re-

lease, The Fearless Vampire

Killers was so drastically cut
and reedited that Polanski
requested his name be re-

moved from the credits. It

has subsequently been re-

stored: the video disc cur-

rently available includes not
only the cut footage but two sets of credit sequences — Polanski's original,
and the animated cartoon added by MGM. The film has much to admire
(and perhaps a bit too much; Polanski's cut often feels interminable); I

especially liked how much Polanski himself resembles Gustav Von Wan-
genheim, the young hero of Nosfera tu (1922) in both costume and ap-
pearance. FerdyMayne as the evil Count Krolock is a masterful vampire, a
plausible amalgam of both the Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee tradi-
tions. (A bizarre detail I noticed only on a second viewing: one of the
revelers at the big bloodsuckers' ball is carefully made up to be a dead

ringer for Laurence Olivier as Richard III. There has to be a story behind
this.) With Jack MacGowran, Alfie Bass, Ronald Lacey, and Jessie Robbins.
Polanski coscripted, with Gerard Brach. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Fellatio

It may seem strange that black magician Aleister Crowley and born-again
Christian Anita Bryant have anything in common, but when it comes to
the subject of blowjobs, both seem to hear bat wings flapping.
The classic act of oral sex was frankly called "vampirism" by Crowley,
who understood that the unconscious mind makes no distinction between
1 02 David J. Skal

vital body fluids — blood, milk, or semen. Both fellatio and vampirism have
strong associations with HOMOSEXUALITY; the antigay crusader Anita
Bryant once explained to Newsweek magazine that "sperm is the most con-
centrated form of blood . . . the homosexual is eating life." Homosexual
practices, male and female, have been encoded in the decidedly oral trap-
pings of literary vampirism ever since J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla"
(1872) and Count Stenbock's The Sad Story of a Vampire (1894).
Homosexual or heterosexual, fellatio has always carried a certain air of
perversity, a "forbidden" practice all the more alluring for its exoticism.
Several commentators have noted the overtones of fellatio that color the
famous sequence in Dracula wherein the count's three vampire brides
attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker: "The girl went on her knees . . .

Lower and lower went her head ... I could hear the churning sound of
her lips and tongue. ..."
The erect penis consists primarily of blood —cocksucking, therefore, is

almost literal bloodsucking; blood provides the feast, the hardness, the
whole point and purpose. In Anne Rice's immensely popular vampire
novels, there are frequent descriptions of undead encounters in which hot
blood spurts sensuously against the back of the vampire's throat. While
real life blood drinkers do exist as a sexual minority, for the vast majority

of Rice's readers such descriptions resonate only in terms of their associa-

tion with memories or fantasies of ejaculation into the mouth. In Ray
Carton's audacious novel Live Girls, a young man becomes addicted to a
Forty-second Street peepshow where a vampire hooker sucks blood as well

as semen; he worries that the marks on his penis are the lesions of a sexu-
ally transmitted disease. It is interesting to note here the belief of many
Victorian medical specialists that loss of semen was tantamount to the loss
of blood, and for whom female sexuality generally took on many of the
qualities of vampirism. There is a long literary and artistic tradition linking

—
orgasm and death the "death" usually being that of the male.
Vampires who pig out on penises can be seen in films like Erotikill
(1973), Spermula (1976), and (with a crunchy, scrotum-shriveling sound
effect) in Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm (1988). Oral penile
contact, of course, is only to be expected in porn films with titles like

Dracula Sucks (1979) and Gayracula (1983). When correctly viewed,

even the stodgy 1931 film version of Dracula contains a few, um, jaw-
dropping surprises. Dracula's rabid servant, Renfield, has been bitten by
the count, but shows no marks, at least not on his throat. During the sea
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 03

voyage to England, there is a rather remarkable composition as Renfield

opens the vampire's coffin box; surely somebody noticed that, as Dracula
sits up, his face makes a bullseye for Renfield's pants — as if homing in hun-
grily on a blood -filled breakfast burrito. See also Freud, Sigmund.

Fetus
A modern variation on the vampire. In late-twentieth-century popular cul-
ture, in films ranging from Rosemary's Baby to It's Alive! to Alien, the un-
born are regularly depicted as something nearly undead — monstrous,
invading parasites, often the puritanical price to be paid by women for

sexual activity and/or sexual pleasure. In Victorian times, anxiety over

women's sexuality gave rise to the image of the female, fin de siecle vam-
pire; in our own time, the demonic fetus serves a similar function.

Fevre Dream
Fiction, USA 1982. George R. R. Martin's highly atmospheric meditation
on vampires and riverboats on the mid-nineteenth-century Mississippi is a

prime example of what might be called "Americana gothic" —a novel so

compellingly wrought and lyrically imagistic that it's hard to believe no
one has yet filmed it. The story concerns the Ahablike obsession of one
Joshua York, himself tainted with vampire evil, to destroy the blood-
drinking pestilence spreading down the Mississippi like river silt. The book
is filled with macabrely evocative echoes of Twain and Melville that irre-

sistibly bring to mind Leslie Fiedler's Love and Death in the American
Novel (1960) and its exploration of the gothic undercurrents of nine-
teenth-century American literature.

Folklore
The vampire belongs to the broad folklore category of revenant beings, in
particular those creatures who return from the dead to do harm to the liv-

ing for reasons of revenge, malice, or simple hunger. But a vampire is not
merely a malevolent spirit; to fully qualify as undead, a vampire must do

—
more than merely frighten or bedevil it must in some way drain the
BLOOD or vital essence from its victim. Blood is highly metaphorical in the
vampire world (as it is in ours); its loss is usually considered more than a
simple medical deficit —something of the soul or personality or innocence
is taken, too. Blood also suggests other —
vital fluids milk and
particularly
1 04 David J. Skal

semen, with all their tangled connotations of sexuality, familial bonds, and
oral dependency. These evocative, constantly shifting associations help
make the vampire a timeless mythological construct. The vampire draws
itspower from not meaning precisely anything, but suggesting everything.
Virtually every civilization has had some variation on the theme of the
vampire, though it is the eastern European model that has had the largest
impact on literature and popular culture. Psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, best
known as the biographer of Sigmund Freud, interpreted vampire folklore
in terms of sexual repression and the incest complex; his 1931 study On

the Nightmare argues that the classic incubus, or night-terror, is the

vampire's antecedent, its oppressive paralysis representing buried mem-
ories of incestuous assault or guilt over incestuous desire. Because a direct

acknowledgment of incest was taboo, the anxiety became fantastically

elaborated and objectified in vampire legends. (See also NIGHTMARE; PSY-
CHOANALYSIS.)
In general, the European vampire was a reanimated corpse, or a ghost
who ethereally transports blood back to its corpse a physical body is —
somehow replenished by blood in either case. The vampire is active at
night, when it can go about its business unobserved and prey on sleeping
victims —sunlight is not necessarily an impediment; it just makes things
difficult. (The destruction-by-sunlight theme was an invention of the
cinema, introduced in 1922 by F. W. Murnau in his landmark film, Nos-
FERATU.) According to various traditions, a vampire can be repelled or
kept immobilized in its coffin by a variety —
of means by crucifixes or holy
relics, or evil-absorbing botanicals like garlic or aconite. In some strains
of the legend, a vampire cannot cross running water, abide the thorn of a
wild rose, or enter any dwelling where it has not been invited (afterward,
of course, it can come and go as it pleases). Sometimes the vampire can be
confused or thwarted by obsessive -compulsive rituals —the liberal strewing

of poppy seeds, for instance, which the vampire must individually count
each night before leaving its grave. Heavily knotted cords can prove
equally vexing.
Vampires in western folklore are created in any number of ways. Sui-
cides, blasphemers, and other transgressors are likely candidates; so are
children born with cauls, hair, or teeth. Red-haired or left-handed children
are suspect in some cultures, witches and necromancers in most. Destruc-
tion of a vampire is accomplished by a range of mutilation rituals per-

formed on the corpse: burning, decapitation/dismemberment, or most

 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 05

Impalement by wooden stake is the classic,

cross-cultural method of destroying a vampire
pest. Illustration from Varney the Vampyre.

classically, impalement by a wooden

STAKE.
Vampires are prevalent in non-
Western folklore as well, where they of-

ten blur with spirit- beings of a more

generalized malevolence. Excellent, de-
tailed discussions of even the most ob-
scure vampire relatives can be found in
Matthew Bunson's The Vampire Ency-
clopedia (see bibliography).
See Appendix B for an alphabetical
listingof the names of vampires and
vampirelike creatures from folklore tra-
ditions around the world.

Fool There Was, A

See Bara, Theda.

Freud, Sigmund
The father of psychoanalysis had little to say directly about vampires, but
his insights into oral sadism, hysteria, phallic symbolism, and the death
wish have given vampire commentators their major critical compass over
the years.The Freudian prism yields its best results when applied to early
works like "Carmilla" and Dracula, which were created before Freud's
work had been popularized, and are therefore free of prior theoretical con-
tamination. Late -twentieth -century vampire entertainment tends to wink
endlessly at Freud and Freudian cliches and often has almost no uncon-
scious content to be excavated — it's all on the cynical surface. Freud him-
self appears as quasi-undead in Snoo Wilson's 1973 avant-garde play
Vampire, heart-staked in a casket as he endlessly drones on about his theo-

ries of sex and culture.

1 06 David J. Skal

Frid, Jonathan
See Dark Shadows.

Fright Night
Cinema, USA 1985. The first vampire
movie to spend one million dollars on
special effects, Tom Holland's Fright
Night is not entirely successful in find-

ing the proper balance between humor

and horror; nonetheless, the picture
is an entertaining eyeful, whether it is

scoring points with over- the -top visuals,

or more discreetly, with such touches
as having its vampire (Chris Sarandon)
nonchalantly whisding "Strangers in
the Night." Sarandon's teenage neigh-
bor (William Ragsdale) suspects the
worst and enlists the burnt-out host of
the local television horror movie show
(Roddy McDowall) to banish the evil
forever —or at least until the sequel,
Fright Night Part II (1988), which
featured a memorable sequence with a
vampire on roller skates. The makeup
in both films was elaborate and inven-
tive; the New York Post's "Phantom of
the Movies" dutifully noted that Fright
Nighfs heroine Amanda Bearse "sports
the champ vamp choppers of all time
stalactitic fangs gleaming from a crim-
son kisser that take up half her face."
Another Post critic, Rex Reed, was not
quite so taken. Of cinematic vampires,
Reed quipped, "Like bad filmmakers,
they're fearless, persistent pests, and
Fright Night: Chris Sarandon
hard to get rid of." Nonetheless, the undergoes a spectacular
final twenty minutes or so of the film transformation. (Photofest)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 07

everything after Sarandon intones "Welcome to Fright Night . .

."

constitute a wildly entertaining vampire Gotterdammerung that will keep

you gasping, and reaching for the rewind button. (Vistar/Columbia) T

From Dusk Till Dawn

Cinema, USA 1996. 1 loved the trailer's tag line: "No interviews. Just vam-
pires." No matter that it takes half the film before Mexican monsters turn a
nasty killers-on-the-lam story into an absurdly entertaining special effects
pig-out. Two brothers, one psychopathic (George Clooney) and one psy-
chotic (Quentin Tarantino) meet their match in a south-of-the-border
vampire/biker bar demurely called the Titty Twister. The dive is built atop

a buried Aztec ruin; presumably (it's never really explained) ancient blood
sacrifices had something to do with the present goings-on. But this isn't

the kind of film in which you try to explain anything, and director Robert
Rodriguez doesn't, probably to his credit. Tarantino wrote the script long
before Pulp Fiction, reportedly for spare change while working as a video
store clerk. The effects were created by the resourceful KNB EFX Group
(one partner, Robert Kurtzman, wrote the original story), but their most
inspired efforts seem to have been reduced to mere subliminal flashes in an
effort to secure an R rating; what we're left with are endless repetitive vari-

ations on gooey melt- downs and morphings. With luck, we'll see
the same
an unrated director's cut on video. With Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and,
in a memorable bit of comic casting, makeup effects maven Tom Savini as a
lovable psycho called Sex Machine. (Miramax)

Frye, D wight
American character actor Dwight Frye (1899-1943) was best known for
his role as the insect- eating madman Renfield in the 1931 film version of
Dracula. Previously a versatile stage actor, Frye nevertheless became
Hollywood horror roles (he followed Dracula with the part of
typecast in
the hunchbacked laboratory assistant in Frankenstein). Frye is often con-
fused with Bernard Jukes, the British actor who originated the Renfield
role in London and on Broadway in 1927; a memorable photo of Jukes
cackling maniacally is frequently misidentified as Frye (who never acted on
stage in Dracula until years after the film). Frye was a devout Christian
Scientist who kept a series of heart attacks a secret from his family until a
1 08 David J. Skal

final coronary killed him on a trip to the his young son,

movies with
Dwight, Jr. came on the eve of his be-
His death was especially tragic as it

ing cast in a good role in a major nonhorror film. Other Frye films perti-
nent to the theme of this book are The Vampire Bat (1933) and Dead-
Men Walk (1943). Shock-rocker Alice Cooper recorded a memorable
song, "The Ballad of Dwight Fry," misspelling his last name curiously —
reverting it to its original, pretheatrical spelling.
 3
Garland, Judy
According to critic Camille Paglia, the legendary singer and drug addict
Judy Garland may also have been a vampire. In her New York Times Book
Review appraisal of David Shipman's Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an
American Legend (1993), Paglia states: "The great stars are sacred mon-
sters, amoral vampires who drain those around them to feed the world." I

remember of one of Garland's front-row fans during one of

a description
her final tours, a young man who purportedly wrang his hands until they
—
bled whether Garland shook them or licked them, I don't know. But I
also remember a Cleveland lawyer in the sixties who waged a media cam-
paign against movie monsters, especially vampires, which he felt were de-
faming to Romania and Romanians. He specifically cited an appearance by
Judy Garland on Jack Paar's television show in which she made a joke
about her psychiatrist being "from Transylvania." Following her drug-
overdose death in 1969, Garland's coffin remained in storage, uninterred
for an unusual length of time. The circumstantial evidence mounts, inex-
orably. See also addiction; alcoholism.

Garlic
It's hardly surprising in our new age of body-fluid horrors and reawakened
vampire consciousness that the old reliable of bloodsucker repellents, com-
mon garlic, has reasserted itself as a popular folk remedy. In the age of AIDS
(q.v.), garlic sales have soared everywhere as vague quasi-medical claims
("the goodness of garlic") appeal to our free-floating sense of blood
contamination, encroaching death, and cultural dread. Garlic has, in fact,

been prized for centuries for its well-known (if poorly understood) blood-
purifying and immune -boosting properties; modem science points to garlic's
1 1 David J. Skal

high concentration of sulfurlike compounds which make it effective as both

an antibacterial and antifungal agent. It is easy to understand how prescien-
tific societies, which often superimposed evil spirits on disease, could extend
garlic's powers as a natural remedy into the supernatural realm as well. Ac-
cording to folklorist Wayland D. Hand, "... the communication of human
ills to trees is both ancient and widespread, as in the absorption of disease
and miasmas by such common plants as potatoes, onions, and garlic."

In vampire superstitions and stories, garlic affords protection against

the undead when worn wreathed around the neck, festooned on doors, or
rubbed around windows and entrances. In some traditions, when vampires
are killed by staking and decapitation, the mouth of the corpse is stuffed
with garlic as additional vampire prophylaxis. The superstition is often
played for laughs, as in the recent film Innocent Blood (1992), which in-

cludes a gag about the garlicky breath of a mafioso and its undead implica-
tions. Hamilton Deane's 1924 stage version of Dracula also contained
some tasteless ethnic/garlic humor; the least offensive bit was Dracula's
snarling explanation of his visceral response to the plant: "I lived too long
in Italy to care for the smell of garlic!" See also folklore.

Gautier, Theophile
Influential poet and novelist of the French Romantic movement, Theophile
Gautier (1811-1872) wrote an 1836 story, "La mort amoureuse," contain-
ing an especially erotic evocation of an undead courtesan, Clarimonda, who
bedevils a young The following excerpt is from a 1903 translation by
priest.

F. C. de Sumichrast, titled "The Vampire":

One day I was seated by her bed breakfasting at a small table, in or-
der not to leave her a minute. As I pared a fruit I happened to cut my
finger rather deeply. The blood immediately flowed in a purple stream,
and a few drops fell upon Clarimonda. Her eyes lighted up, her face as-
sumed an expression of fierce and savage joy which I had never before
beheld. She sprang from her bed with the agility of an animal, of a
monkey or of a cat, and sprang at my wound, which she began to suck
with an air of inexpressible delight. She sipped the blood slowly and
carefully like a gourmand who enjoys a glass of sherry or Syracuse
wine; she winked her eyes, the green pupils of which had become ob-
long instead of round. From time to time she broke off to kiss my
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 111

A turn-of-the-century illustration for Theophile

Gautier's story "The Vampire."

hand, then she again pressed the wound

with her lips so as to draw out a few more
red drops. When she saw that the blood
had ceased to flow, she rose up, rosier than
a May morn, her face full, her eyes moist
and shining, her hand soft and warm; in
a word, more beautiful than ever and in a

perfect state of health.

"I shall not die! I shall not die!" she
said, half mad with joy, as she hung
around my neck. "I shall be able to love
you a long time yet. My life is in yours, and
all that I am comes from you. A few drops
of your rich, noble blood, more precious
and efficacious than all the elixirs in the world, have restored my life."

The scene preoccupied me a long time and filled me with strange

doubts concerning Clarimonda . . .

Golden, The
Fiction, USA 1993. By the end of 1992, vampire novels were appearing at

the rate of nearly one a week, and needless to say, the general quality be-
gan to drop along the precipitous trajectory of a wooden STAKE. There-
fore, the appearance of Lucius Shepard's The Golden provided ample and
welcome evidence that the Great American Vampire Novel was alive and
well. And what, exactly, is a "Golden"? Shepard introduces the concept in
his brilliant first paragraph: "The gathering at Casde Banat on the evening
of Friday, October 16, 186 — , had been more than three centuries in the
planning, though only a marginal effort had been directed toward the cer-
emonial essentials of the affair, its pomp and splendor. No, most of that
time and energy had been devoted to the nurturing and blending of cer-
1 1 2 David J. Skal

tain mortal bloodlines so as to produce that rarest of essences, a vintage of

unsurpassing flavor and bouquet: The Golden." Shepard, previously best
known as a leading stylist of cyberpunk science fiction, brings both a self-

assured narrative voice and a virtuoso speculative imagination to this land-

mark opus, the delicious plot details of which I will allow you to discover
for yourself. A must-read if there ever was.

Graveyard Shift
Cinema, Canada 1987. What better cover occupation for a vampire than
driving a cab all night? Actor Silvio Oliviero makes a sexy, breast- biting
urban predator in Gerard Ciccoritti's more than passable monster movie.
A female video director suffering from cancer (Helen Papas) finds undeath
a viable alternative to chemotherapy —and thereby demonstrates the vam-
pire's larger contemporary function as a fantastic bargaining chip with death
anxiety. Director Ciccoritti scripted. Oliviero returned in Ciccoritti's sequel,
The Understudy: Graveyard Shift II (1988) (Cinema Ventures/Lightshow
.

Communications ) T

Guzla, La
The French playwright and poet Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) used
vampires as the subject of five dramatic ballads in La Guzla (1827):
"La Belle Sophie," "Jeannot," "Le Vampire," "Cara-Ali le Vampire,"
and "Constantin Yacoubovich." Merimee drew upon the work of Dom
Augustine Calmet for his vampire basics and capitalized on the craze for
vampire stories, plays, and operas that swept Europe in the aftermath of
John Polidori's 1819 Lord BYRON-inspired story, "The Vampyre." See
also THEATER.
 I
Hammer Films
An independent British film company, founded in the 1930s, Hammer fi-

nally found its goldmine in the 1950s when it inaugurated a series of low-
budget but lush-looking horror films beginning with Curse of Frankenstein
(1957) and Horror of Dracula (1958), both of which helped make a
horror superstar out of actor Christopher Lee. Vampires were central to
the Hammer formula, its films including The Brides of Dracula (1960),
Kiss of the Vampire (1963), Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966),
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of
Dracula (1969), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Lust for a Vampire
(1970), Scars of Dracula (1970), Twins of Evil (1971), Vampire Cir-
cus 1971 ), Dracula A.D. 1972 1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula
( (

(1973), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974), and Legend of the

Seven Golden Vampires (1974). Bright red blood and bountiful female nu-
dity were staples of the Hammer product—the nudity, often in the context
of vampire lesbianism, didn't debut until the 1970s, but after that, there
was no turning back. Hammer has been long dormant, but its complete
holdings of scripts and literary properties were recently purchased by
Warner Bros., which announced plans to film unproduced Hammer scripts
and remake certain Hammer classics.

Harker, Jonathan
The hero of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, Jonathan Harker was
named after Joseph Harker, a scenic artist at London's Lyceum Theatre,
which Stoker managed for the great Victorian actor-impresario Henry
Irving. According to Bernard Davies, cofounder of the London-based
Dracula Society, the novel Dracula is filled with obscure personal refer-
1 1 4 David J. Skal

ences and private jokes of this type. Harker, in the book, is a real estate

lawyer who travels to Transylvania to sell an English estate to Count Drac-

ula, only to be trapped in an evil web of vampirism. Dramatists and film
adaptors have sometimes found it useful to merge the character with that
of Renfield, Dracula's insectivore assistant, in an attempt to streamline
the sprawling narrative.

Highgate Cemetery
A mecca for aficionados of the undead, Highgate Cemetery in what was
then suburban London is generally believed to be the site chosen by Bram
Stoker when he created the restive resting place of the vampire Lucy
Westenra in his novel Dracula. Miss Lucy was buried in what the author
described as "a lordly death-house in a lonely churchyard, away from
teeming London; where the air is fresh; and the sun rises over Hampstead
Hill, and where wildflowers grow of their own accord."

Highgate was founded in 1839 as an alternative to the appalling con-

ditions of London's central graveyards, which included unsanitary over-
crowding, grave-robbing, and even body-snatching by medical schools in
search of cadavers. Highgate was conceived
as a sylvan retreat where death could be sen-
timentalized in the Victorian fashion —here
the dead weren't really dead, only sleeping.
In Dracula, Stoker literalized this Vic-
torian conceit almost to the point of par-
ody. Lucy Westenra barely has time to doze
before she's up and about, terrorizing stray
children with her terrible thirst. The scene
in which Professor Van Helsing and his
cohorts break into Lucy's tomb and destroy
her is Dracula's most horrific scene and a
benchmark sequence in vampire fiction.

Stoker's conception of this episode may

have been influenced in part by an actual

The crypts that inspired Bram Stoker.

(Photo by the author)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 1 5

incident at Highgate. The violation of Lucy's grave has a distinct reso-

nance with the notorious 1869 exhumation by the poet-painter Dante
Gabriel Rossetti (at one point a Stoker neighbor) of his wife, Elizabeth
Siddal. Lizzie had been buried seven years when Rossetti had second
thoughts about the notebook of his unpublished poetry he had buried
with her. According to popular legend, Lizzie was in a remarkable state of
preservation —an odd prefiguration of Stoker's undead Lucy.
Lucy's haunting ground today is a wildly romantic setting. Two of its
structures alone would give it claim to world-class moodiness. The Egyp-
tian Avenue, gated with massive obelisks, is a shaded lane of iron-doored
tombs, each bearing the ancient death symbol of the inverted, extin-
guished torch. The Lebanon Circle comprises an inner and outer ring of
catacombs in both the Egyptian and classical styles, sunk into the ground
around the base of a huge, centuries-old cedar tree. The older, western
part of the cemetery was closed in the mid 1970s and became badly over-
grown. However, through the persistent efforts of a volunteer group, the
Friends of Highgate Cemetery, it was declared a historic site in 1983. Fi-

nancial considerations make complete restoration impractical; instead,

Highgate is conserved as a managed wood-
land, not a landscaped park. The result is
stunningly atmospheric, and guided tours are
available most days.
The Highgate guardians aren't crazy about
the cemetery's vampire associations, but con-
cede that it is an important part of the place's
mystique and generates needed revenue. For
a fee, film and television crews have been
allowed to capture gothic effects that could
be approximated but never duplicated on a
soundstage. See also burial customs.

Homosexuality
Since vampire stories create tension and inter-
est through the presence of a sexual "out-

The Rossetti gravesite.

(Photo by the author)
1 1 6 David J. Skal

sider," it is not surprising that homosexuality, implicit or explicit, has been

employed in film and fiction to evoke aspects of vampirism. Curiously, the
image has vacillated wildly between negative stereotypes of the gay sexual
predator to glamorous evocations of a liberating pansexuality.
The persistent, pop- cultural interplay between images of homosexuality,
bisexuality, and vampirism date to J. Sheridan Le Fanu's quasi-lesbian 1872
novella "Carmilla." In Bram Stoker's Dracula the theme is soft-pedaled
but still palpable; the men in the story think they are saving Lucy Westenra's
life by repeatedly transfusing her, while in reality they are opening their own
veins and bodies to the invasive thirst of a male monster.
In the landmark 1931 film version of Dracula, director Tod Brown-
ing —who knew better than anyone how to pluck Freudian nerves in pop-
ular culture —staged the visit of Renfield to Castle Dracula as a distinctly
homoerotic seduction. Browning shot his interpretation of the scene over
the producer's objections: "Dracula should go only for women and not
men!" Carl Laemmle, Jr., scrawled on his copy of the shooting script. In
Browning's film, Renfield's unrequited love for Dracula becomes the only
compelling story line; the heterosexual hero and heroine are bloodless
ghosts by comparison.
The first follow-up to the Browning film, Dracula's Daughter
(1936) featured an austere, contralto-voiced heir to the Dracula curse.
Played by actress Gloria Holden, Dracula's Daughter displays decidedly
Sapphic tastes; in the film's most famous scene, Holden picks up a street-

walker on the pretext of using her as a model. The original script, which
called for nudity, was toned down considerably for filming, where the
mere sight of the girl's bare shoulder triggers a deadly vampire attack.
The 1960 The Brides of Dracula has a premise reminiscent
film
of Suddenly, Last Summer: a beautiful young man, overindulged by his

dragon-lady mother, somehow becomes a vampire. Mom (the great Mar-

tha Hunt) lures young girls to the castle to feed him; the thick Oedipal
tensions are resolved only when the mother is herself penetrated (i.e.,
bitten) by the son. "Would you believe we once had gay times here?" the
tormented baroness asks, in campy deadpan.
Vampirelike slurs against gays have been standard ammunition for the
religious right for quite some time. Consider Anita Bryant's charming as-
sertion that "the male homosexual eats another man's sperm. The homo-
sexual is eating life." Tangled blood themes also run beneath the surface
of gay clashes with the Roman Catholic Church over AIDS (q.v.) issues. It
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 1 7

was somehow appropriate that a 1989 demonstration at St. Patrick's

Cathedral specifically disrupted the communion service —the purest ritual

sublimation of the blood-drinking, "life-eating" impulse in Western civi-

lization. some parts of the world, the metaphors become deadly literal
In
in the West Indies, a favorite sport is the beating and even killing of gay
men, who are called (interestingly enough) "batty boys," and who are be-
lieved to be ghosts of Sodom and Gomorrah who actually drink the blood
of slum dwellers.
In an astute essay, "Children of the Night: Vampirism as Homosexuality,
Homosexuality as Vampirism," Richard Dyer examines the ways in which
"the languid, worn, sad, refined paleness of vampire imagery" intersects
with popular stereotypes of gay "decadence." Language filled with murki-
ness and mystery has traditionally informed the presentation of gay images.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Dyer points out, if a book "was called Women in
the Shadows, Twilight Men [or] Desire in the Shadows then it had to be about
queers. This imagery derives in part from the idea of decadence, people who
do not go out into public life, whose complexions are not weathered, who
are always indoors or in the shade. It may also relate to the idea that lesbians

and gay men are not 'real' women and 'real' men, [that] we have not got
the blood (with its very different gender associations) of normal human be-
ings." See alsoAIDS; Count Torga, Vampire; Daughters of Darkness;
Fearless Vampire Killers, The; fellatio; Garland, Judy; Interview
with the Vampire; lesbianism; Murnau, F. W.; Rice, Anne; Vampire
Lesbians of Sodom; Vampire Lovers, The; Wilde, Oscar.

"Horla, The"
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) published his terrifying story of a pos-
sessing, demonic "Horla" in 1887, four years before losing his own mind
to the ravages of syphilis. The story is routinely cited as an important
"psychic vampire" tale, but in truth it has more in common with Poe's el-

egantly crafted evocations of clinical paranoia. It is still worth reading, but

its relationship to vampire literature is perhaps more tenuous than gener-
ally supposed.

Horror of Dracula
Cinema, UK 1958. Released in New York City the same day as Alfred

Hitchcock's Vertigo, Horror of Dracula (called simply Dracula in the

1 1 8 David J. Skal

Christopher Lee and Melissa

Stribling. (Photofest)

U.K.) proved to be as influ-

ential to the vampire genre

as the Hitchcock film was
to the psychothriller. Made by
Hammer Films as a follow-
up to its The Curse of Fran-
kenstein (released the previous
year), Horror of Dracula for-
ever broke the monochro-
matic cobweb conventions of
earlier vampire movies with a

bright red swath of Techni-

color blood from which horror
films have never recovered.
The film was an astonishing success by any standard; it has been reported
that Horror ofDracula had the largest cost-to-profit ratio of any film ever
released in Great Britain. While hardly a definitive treatment, it is nonethe-
less a tight and satisfying adaptation of the Stoker novel and was pro-
—
duced on a budget of about $200,000 or, one two-hundredth the cost
of Francis Ford Coppola's far more problematic Bram Stoker's Dracula
(1992).
In keeping with the stage and film tradition linking adaptations ofDrac-
ula and Frankenstein, actor Christopher Lee, who played the monster in

The Curse of Frankenstein, was cast as Count Dracula, with a distinct Jekyll/
Hyde coloration. At one moment urbane and Oxford-accented, Lee could
shift effortlessly into animal-fanged fury (Lee was the first Dracula to sport
fangs since Nosferatu in 1922).
As usual, the script took many liberties with Stoker's story line, many of
them interesting. Jonathan Harker is introduced not as an innocent real

estate agent, but rather as a vampire hunter who obtains a position in

Dracula's employ in order to destroy him, but Harker is destroyed instead.

The story takes place not in England or Transylvania, but in a peculiar
European never-never land that embodies aspects of both. The part of
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 1 9

Renfield has been completely eliminated — a disappointment for purists

but the drama does move more swiftly without an encumbering subplot.
(Hammer Films) T See also Cushing, Peter; Dracula; Hammer Films;
Stoker, Bram.

House of Dracula
Cinema, USA 1945. John Carradine makes his second appearance as

Dracula in this entertaining finale to the Universal Pictures horror cycles

of the 1930s and 1940s. Here, there is an attempt to scientifically rational-

ize the monsters: Dracula, for instance, has a blood disease, the Wolf Man
(Lon Chaney, Jr.) suffers from pressure on the brain, etc. Both seek medical
treatment from Dr. Edelman (Onslow Stevens), who is also tinkering with

the comatose Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange). Carradine made the

most ambivalent vampire yet depicted on screen, constandy sabotaging his
treatment to nip on the side. There are some nice bat transformations and
an especially atmospheric scene in which the count hypnotically compels a
female pianist to play music she does not know. Directed by Erie C. Kenton
from Edward T. Lowe's script. ( Universal)

House of Frankenstein
Cinema, USA 1944. The first go-for-broke "house party" of the major
Universal Pictures monsters (minus, for some reason, the Mummy), the
episodic House of Frankenstein resurrects Count Dracula (John Carra-
dine) for its memorable first sequence. Boris Karloff is a mad scientist es-

caped from prison with Frankensteinian ambitions; he finds refuge in a

traveling carnival whose chamber of horrors contains the staked skeleton of
Dracula. Spike removed, the revived vampire agrees to do Karloff's bid-
ding, until he is once more reduced to dust by an ill-timed sunrise. Also

starring Lon Chaney, Jr., J. Carroll Naish, Elena Verdugo, Glenn Strange,
and George Zucco. Directed by Erie C. Kenton from a script by Edward T.
Lowe. ( Universal )
House of the Vampire
Fiction, USA 1907. George Sylvester Viereck's first novel foreshadowed
his later difficulties with the U.S. government, which imprisoned him for
his vociferous Nazi sympathies in the 1940s. House of the Vampire is stylis-

tically naive, but there is no doubt about the author's ideological leanings
20 David J. Skal

as he tells the story of Reginald Clarke, a modern-day vampire in Manhat-

tan, a man of letters who absorbs creativity instead of blood from a succes-
sion of male proteges. The result falls with distinct unease somewhere
between the worlds of Oscar Wilde and Friedrich Nietzsche (an instantly
identifiable portrait of Wilde, in fact, adorned the cover of the German
edition). Near the end of the book, the monster explains himself to the fe-
male friend of his latest victim:

"In every age," he replied, with great solemnity, "there are giants who
attain to a greatness which by natural growth no men could ever have
reached . . . But to accomplish their mission they need a will of iron
and the wit of a hundred men. And from the iron they take the
strength, and from a hundred men's brains they absorb their wisdom
. . . with Titan strides they scale the starsand succeed where millions
fail. In art they live, the makers of new periods, the dreamers of new
styles."

Viereck's book received dismissive reviews (The Nation: "Of course the
theme of the consuming power of greatness has been eternally inter- . . .

esting The difficulty with Mr. Viereck's treatment lies in his purely
. . .

melodramatic conception of character, an utter lack of subtlety in dealing

with the whole situation, and a distressing congestion of large words") but
he kept plugging away at the theme, rewriting the story for the theater (as

The Vampire) a few years later. Viereck also explored the vampire theme in

poetry ("The Singing Vampire" [1911]). One of his most notorious liter-

ary exploits was a 1905 hoax in which he suggested that Oscar Wilde had
faked his own death to avoid further humiliating public scrutiny after his
release from prison.

Hunger, The
Cinema, UK/USA 1983. Tony Scott's stylish adaptation of Whitley
Strieber's 1981 novel jettisons most of Strieber's quasi-scientific rational-

izations in favor of slick, sensuous visuals, and the gambit works. Catherine
Deneuve is a chic bisexual vampire named Miriam Blaylock, astonishingly
long-lived due to her pure and ancient vampire bloodline. Her longtime
companion (David Bowie) has less of a pedigree and begins aging rapidly.
Miriam seeks out a medical specialist in the aging process (Susan Sarandon)
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 121

Catherine Deneuve
and David Bowie in

The Hunger.

and ends up switching her affections, storing the crumbling Bowie in a

chained box in the attic. Sarandon's cold-turkey convulsions as she tries

unsuccessfully to shake off the titular Hunger are one of the best evoca-
tions I've seen of vampirism as addiction. This film is a lot of fun to
watch, especially the sex scenes — a close viewing of the lesbian action re-
veals that Deneuve employs a body double, while Sarandon alone bares
all. The Bowie aging several decades while sitting in a
best set piece has
hospital waiting room. My favorite line is Sarandon's, as she tries feebly to
explain to her boyfriend the nature of Miriam Blaylock's lavish attentions:
"She's that kind of woman. She's . . . European." Screenplay by Ivan Davis
and Michael Thomas. (MGM/UA) T

Huntley, Raymond
British character actor (1903-1990) best known for his stage and screen
portrayals of officious,haughty villains and bureaucrats, Raymond Hunt-
ley holds the all-time record for stage appearances as Dracula, a role he

played almost nonstop in England and America from 1926 to 1930. He

initially turned down the chance to play the role stateside in 1927, thus in-
advertently making a star out of producer Horace Liveright's second
1 22 David J. Skal

Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. Huntley

choice, the expatriate
came to America1928 to play the role on tour; his total
in

number of performances as Dracula was in the thousands, far

more than that of Lugosi (whom Huntley never met or even
saw in the stage production). I interviewed Hundey shortly
before his death, and he shared numerous amusing anec-
dotes about Dracula, notably that Hamilton Deane's orig-
inal production was so threadbare that he was required to
provide his own evening clothes for the role. Hundey was
always faintiy embarrassed by the role, which he felt in-

hibited his career; nonetheless, he worked steadily in

British film, television (
Upstairs, Downstairs), and on
stage until the year he died.

Raymond Huntley as Dracula.

/ Am Legend
Fiction, USA 1954. Like Jack Finney's frequently filmed The Body Snatch-
ers, Richard Matheson's masterful science fiction/horror thriller / Am
Legend also provides a subtextual commentary on the anxious underside of
American society in the fifties. Instead of the good life, Matheson gives us
unlife: a plague has virtually wiped out the human race, leaving the sub-

urbs and shopping centers inhabited by roaming, thirsting vampires. The

focal character, Robert Neville, stages an existential one-man stand against
the encroaching darkness —a theme echoed in his second SF novel, The
Shrinking Man (1956). I Am Legend has been filmed twice, first with Vin-
cent Price in The Last Man on Earth ( 1964) and later with Charlton Hes-
ton as The Omega Man (1971). George Romero's landmark zombie film,
Night of the Living Dead (1968), owes much to both the Matheson novel
and the 1964 film adaptation.

J, Vampire
Fiction, USA 1984. Science fiction writer Jody Scott uses the vampire as the
springboard for a tour de force of social satire in J, Vampire, which also
employs time-travel, aliens, and feminist LESBIANISM —the female narrator,
a 700-year-old Transylvanian vampire named Sterling O'Blivion (the name,
perhaps, a nod to another character of the same improbable surname in
David Cronenberg's film Scanners), is in love with a shape-changing alien
who assumes the form of Virginia Woolf. The plot is too twisty for a brief
synopsis, but Vampire brims with imagination and invention and
J, will

either delight or confound aficionados of both the gothic and SF tra-

ditions. The title /, Vampire was also used in 1990 by author Michael
Romkey for his more traditional novel of a contemporary vampire in Paris.
1 24 David J. Skal

Image of the Beast

Fiction, USA 1968. Philip Jose Farmer's notorious pornographic novel
opens with a scene that is hard to beat for complete repulsiveness, and for
its rather overliteral illustration of vampirism's psychological links to the
CASTRATION complex. A group of policemen watch a film of one of their
colleagues, Colben, meeting his very kinky end at the hands and mouths
of a pair of ersatz vampires: "Dracula cackled again, showing two obvi-
ously false canines, long and sharp. Then he bent down and began to
chew savagely on the penis but within a short time raised his head. The
blood and spermatic fluid was running out of his mouth and making
the front of his white shirt crimson. He opened his mouth and spit out the
head of the penis onto Colben's belly and laughed, spraying blood . .
." If

you need to read more, try finding a copy of the 1979 reissue by Playboy
Paperbacks. See also FELLATIO.

Incubus
This is a lewd male demon closely related to the oppressive nightmare,
believed to have sexual relations with immobilized sleeping victims. The
female counterpart of the incubus is the succubus. The concept of the in-
cubus crystallized in the Middle Ages, when outbreaks of incubation and
succubation were rife in cloisters and monasteries. Today, of course, we
recognize the phenomenon as a hysterical reaction to conditions of en-
forced celibacy rather than demonic predation. The modern image of the
sexually seductive vampire is a hybrid of the incubus/succubus and the
ZOMBIE-Iike bloodsuckers of European folk traditions. See also folklore.

Innocent Blood
Cinema, USA 1 992. John Landis, director of An American Werewolf in
London and Michael Jackson's Thriller video, was responsible for this al-
ternately very funny and very gruesome romp about a female vampire in
Pittsburgh (Anne Parillaud, the sexy assassin of La Femme Nikita) who has
on criminals and mafiosi. She miscalculates
sufficient scruples to feast only

an attack on mob boss Robert Loggia, who, instead of dying, returns as a

formidable vampire opponent. The film's most outrageous special effects
set piece involves the sunlight- disintegration of the blood-converted Don
Rickles in a hospital room. Anthony LaPaglia plays the cop who finds him-
self falling for the lady vamp. Script by Michael Wolk. (Warner Bros.) T
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 1 25

Interview with the Vampire

Cinema, USA 1 994. The sturm und drang accompanying the transference
of Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire (1977) to the screen has
all the makings of a grand opera bouffe —or at least a gossipy behind-the-

scenes book. The film rights were purchased ages ago, and at various times

performers like John Travolta, Jon Voight, and even Cher had their names
attached to the project in its various development incarnations as a theatri-

cal feature, a television mini-series, and even a Broadway musical. When

producer David Geffen announced that the film would finally be made,
with director Neil Jordan (
The Crying Game, The Company of Wolves) at
the helm, Rice and her fans rejoiced . until Geffen announced the de-
. .

cidedly against-type casting of Tom Cruise as the vampire Lestat.

Outraged, Rice took her case to the media, denouncing both the pro-
ducer and the actor, in advance, for ruining her book. Cynics might well
point out that surrounding the film with an air of controversy and antici-

pation for the better part of a year was a tremendous publicity bonanza for
both Rice and the film. After a while, the news value of Rice's umbrage
played itself out, but the novelist recaptured media attention when she
viewed an advance videocassette of the completed Interview, and promptly
fell in love with Cruise and everyone else involved with the film. Interview
with the Vampire opened in November 1994 and was an immediate com-
mercial hit; whether it is a completely successful adaptation of the book is
another matter.
On the positive side, Interview with the Vampire is a lavishly mounted
fever-dream, embellished with lurid cinematic set pieces — certainly one
of the most visually successful vampire movies ever produced, and a neces-
sary corrective to the garish frou-frou of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram
Stoker's Dracula. Sadly, the artfulshadow play of cinematographer
Philippe Rousselot was reduced to mere murkiness in most American the-
aters, where the money-grubbing practice of projecting at three-quarter

normal brightness (to save electricity) is now almost universal. Production

designer Dante Ferretti provided some stunning tableaux, notably at the
Parisian Theatre des Vampires with its honeycombed catacomb.

But the lead actors, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, while handsomely filling
their roles from a physical standpoint, lack the kind of classical vocal train-
ing needed to carry off a stylized costume picture — Pitt's drone is particu-
larly damaging in that he delivers voiceover narration as well as dialogue.
1 26 David J. Skal

(It occurred to me about halfway through the screening that Interview

would be immeasurably improved once it was dubbed into French. Please,
someone: send me a video when it happens.) Twelve -year- old Kirsten
Dunst, as the doll-like vampire child Claudia, strikes exacdy the right tone
of cloying creepiness in a part many feared would be played by an older ac-
tress to avoid a kiddy-porn mood.
Many Rice fans were anguished by rumors that the book's implied
homoerotic allegory was going to be sacrificed to avoid offending a main-
stream audience, or because Tom Cruise just said no. But in the end Cruise
cruises just fine, eyeing hunky Pitt hungrily through gauzy bed curtains,
and consummating their blood link with a sky-high vampire orgasm, of
sorts. It would be a dense audience indeed that didn't have some idea what
all the male-male sucking and suckling is really about. (See FELLATIO.) Syn-
dicated columnist Liz Smith asked a pointed question about the meaning
of such an elaborate celluloid closet: Why couldn't film characters just be
gay, instead of disguised as vampires? Rice answered Smith toward the end
of a rambling trade ad in which she reviewed the film. "Ms. Smith," she
wrote, "the gays are us. . . . There is no disguise. Gay allegory doesn't exist
apart from moral allegory for every-
one." See also HOMOSEXUALITY.

Isle of the Dead

Cinema, USA 1945. One of the
few nonderivative treatments of the
vampire theme to come out of Holly-
wood, produced by Val Lewton (Cat
People, The Body Snatcher), of the
Isle

Dead stars Boris Karloff as an au-

thoritarian Greek general who be-
gins to lose his sanity when faced
with an unstoppable plague. He be-
comes obsessed with an innocent

Isle of the Dead:

Boris Karloff and Katherine Emery. (Photofest)
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 1 27

girl, convinced that she harbors a vrykolaka, or vampirelike spirit of pesti-

lence —thus crazily reasserting his sense of control. The psychology is un-
up to Lewton's celebrated standards.
usually astute, and the atmospherics
With Ellen Drew, Mark Cramer, and Katherine Emery. Mark Robson di-
rected from Ardel Wray's screenplay. (RKO) T See also catalepsy.

IfJ The Terror From Beyond Space

Cinema, USA 1 958. The still effective prototype for the Alien films was set
on a spaceship returning from Mars with a scaly, shadowy, blood-drinking
monster lurking in the bulkhead. The noirish black-and-white photogra-
phy and well- sustained sense of menace has kept the film watchable and
scary. During production, the word "Vampire" was used in the tide in

place of "Terror." With Marshall Thompson (who starred the same year
in another film combining spaceships and blood drinking, First Man

Into Space), Shawn Smith, and Kim Spalding. Directed by Edward I. Cahn.
(United Artists) T
 J
Jewelry
"Do you like jewelry, Lily? This ring is very old, and very beautiful." So
progressed Gloria Holden's lesbian seduction of Nan Grey in the 1936
film Dracula's Daughter. Precious stones and their decorative settings
crop up repeatedly in vampire stories and films, possibly because jewels
connote a certain transcendent permanence that parallels the vampire's
immortality. Ostentatious jewelry also signifies class distinctions and the
vampirelike transference of energy that passes from the working classes
to their monied masters (see also class warfare). Notable examples of
vampire jewelry include the medallion and signet ring worn by Count
Dracula in the 1931 film version and its many imitations, and on the
protective side, the profusion
of silver crosses adorning the
necks of a multitude of active
and would-be victims.

Jonathan
Cinema, West Germany 1970.
This hard-to-find film has an
inflated reputation due to its

fascinating premise and simul-

Jonathan: Vampirism as political

metaphor. (Courtesy of Ronald V.
Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)
1 30 David J. Skal

taneous inaccessibility Jonathan, a retelling of Dracula as a parable of

fascism, never received an American release and is presendy only viewable
on boodeg videos from German television. Sadly, writer/director Hans
W. Geissendorfer's ambitions never congeal into a satisfying artistic state-

ment, and the film tries to trade on its intentions rather than its achieve-
ments. Some films should exist only in legend; Jonathan, sadly, is one of
them. With Jurgen Jung, Hans Dieter Jendreyko, and Paul Albert Krumm.
(Iduna Films)
 K
Karloff, Boris
The actor best-known as the Frankenstein monster nearly played the role
of Dracula in a faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel scripted for
him in the late 1950s, but never produced. According to producer
Richard Gordon, Karloff was enthusiastic about the project, which fell

through because of scheduling conflicts. His only concern: "Just so long

as I don't have to imitate Bela." See also Black Sabbath; House of
Frankenstein; Isle of the Dead.

Kerouac, Jack
The guiding light of beat writers was also a devotee of darkness in the guise
of the living dead; Kerouac's
autobiographical fantasy Dr. Sax
( 1959) featured a vampire named
Count Condu, an undead dream-
inhabitant of Kerouac's home-
town of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Kerouac also wrote program
notes on Nosferatu for the
New Yorker Film Society in

Kiss of the Vampire: Isobel Black

prepares to "initiate" Edward
DeSouza with something more
substantial than a smooch. (Photofest)
132 DavidJ.Skal

1960; because of his heavy nighttime drinking, a daylight Sunday screen-

ing was finally arranged in order for Kerouac to view the film sober. See
also ALCOHOLISM.

Kiss of the Vampire

Cinema, UK 1 963. A gem of a vampire picture from Hammer Films, Don
Sharp's atmospheric film concerns a pair of honeymooners in Bavaria (Ed-
ward DeSouza and Jennifer Daniel) who come under the malign in-
fluence of the undead Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman) and his white -robed
cult of blood-drinking acolytes. Kiss of the Vampire was thoroughly
butchered when the film was edited for television in the late sixties; every
shot of a vampire's FANGS, for instance, was censored, and the film was
padded with a newly shot subplot to fill out a two-hour time slot. The film
was aired under the title Kiss of Evil. Fans had almost given up hope of
ever seeing this film again when, in 1995, MCA Home Video uncovered
the original negative and released a pristine videocassette. Among the
film's revelations is a complex vampire psychology revolving around guilt,

disease, and self-delusion. Vampire hunter Professor Zimmer (Clifford

Evans) tells the endangered bride's husband how he lost his own daughter
to the corruptions of Dr. Ravna, joining his "smart set" in an unnamed
decadent city. "She came home eventually what was left of her came
. . .

home. She was riddled with disease. And she was a vampire." According to
Zimmer, the vampire deludes itself into regarding a "filthy perversion" as
"some kind of new and wonderful experience, to be shared by the favored
few." Kiss of the Vampire is one of the few films to associate vampires
explicitly with cultism. Script by John Elder (pseudonym for producer

Anthony Hinds). ( Hammer/Universal )

La-Bas
Fiction, France 1891. J.-K. Huysmans, one of the most influential nine-
teenth-century French decadents (his novel A Rebours [Against the Grain,
a.k.a. Against Nature] is thought to have been one of Oscar Wilde's in-

spirations for The Picture of Dorian Gray), created a sensation when he

published La-Bas (Down There), for the book contained graphic descrip-
tions of satanic rituals, blood sacrifice, and vampirism. The real-life, Sade-
like atrocities of Gilles de "Vampirism satisfies him
Raille are recounted:

for months. He pollutes dead children, appeasing the fever of his desires in
the blood smeared chill of the tomb. He even goes so far one day
. . . —
when his supply of children is exhausted as to disembowel a pregnant —
woman and sport with the foetus. After these excesses he falls into horrible
states of coma. . Huysmans paints an unforgettable portrait of a female
.
."

vampire of the —
succubus school Mme. Chantelouve, powerfully alluring
yet distincdy repulsive: "He undressed, casting a rapid glance at Hy-
acinthe's face. It was hidden in the darkness, but was sometimes revealed
by a flare of the red-hot fire. . . . Swiftly he slipped between the covers. He
clasped a corpse; a body so cold that it froze him, but the woman's lips

were burning as she silently gnawed his features."

Lair of the White Worm, The

Fiction, UK 1911; Cinema, UK 1988. Bram Stoker's final, lunatic novel is

not precisely about a vampire, but it echoes much of Dracula in its fever-

ish concern with fantastically blurred boundaries between women and ani-

mals. The book's sickeningly hallucinatory sex imagery may have been the
direct result of the syphilis thought to have been affecting Stoker's mind
in his final years. Lady Arabella March is a kind of lamia, or supernatural
1 34 David J. Skal

snake-woman, who prefers victims made of literary cardboard rather than

flesh and blood. Despite its crudities, the book is nonetheless a Freudian

field day. Filmmaker Ken Russell produced an extremely loose and campy

adaptation in 1988, incorporating some concepts from his unproduced

screenplay for Dracula. Amanda Donohoe played Lady Arabella, with
Catherine Oxenberg the object of her lesbian-lamia affections. T

Lake of Dracula
Cinema, Japan 1971. Highly Westernized Japanese women who wear
Mary Tyler Moore-style flips are besieged in this film by a
their hair in
HAMMER-style male vampire who accents his shadowy cape with a nifty
whitescarf. Despite his fashion sense, the monster is maladroit in his neck-

side manner and makes an excessive number of abortive

on his in- attacks
tended victim, from which she is With Mori
usually able to run away.
Kishida, Midori Fujita, and Osahide Takahari. Directed by Michio Ya-
mamoto. Screenplay by Ei Ogawa and Katsu Takeura. (Toho Films) T

Lamia
A female demon of classical antiquity, the lamia is a sexual predator
thought to be half woman and half serpent. The lamia is a clear prefigu-

ration of the modern female vampire and

has often been evoked in supernatural lit-

erature, from Bram Stoker's The Lair of

the White Worm to Whitley Strieber's The
Hunger. See also "Christabel."

Landau, Martin
An American actor (born 1931), perhaps
best known for his starring role in the 1960s
Mission Impossible television series, Landau
took the role of Dracula in a 1984 national
tour of the Edward Gorey-designed stage

Martin Landau as Dracula in a 1984 revival of the

Deane/Balderston stage play.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 35

revival of the Hamilton DEANE/John L. Balderston play. In 1994 he

scored a tour de force — and won an Oscar— in the role of the aged, drug-
addicted Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's outlandish biopic, Ed Wood.

Langella, Frank
An American actor (b. 1940), with dark eyes and sensuous face, under-
stated line readings and knowing glances tossed to the audience, Frank
Langella made a charismatic stage Dracula in the Edward Gorey-designed
Broadway revival in 1977, and repeated the role on screen for Universale
big-budget 1979 film. While Langella studiously avoided the traditional

Bela Lugosi mannerisms, the Deane/Balderston stage play was rewrit-

ten to give the star additional dialogue and stage time, incorporating fa-

mous lines from the Lugosi film ("I never drink . . . wine") that were not
part of the original play. Despite some guarded reviews, the revival had the
kind of success usually reserved for Broadway musicals, and Langella was
deluged with fan attention. As he later told the Washington Post, "The
crowds outside the stage door were uncontrollable and certainly the closest

I have ever come to knowing what it would be like to be a rock star."

Richard Eder of the New York Times called Langella "a stunning figure as

Dracula: tall, pale, Byronic, with an occasional prosaic reflex as if he were

mentally counting coffins." He was succeeded in the role by a string of ac-
tors including Jean LeClerc, Raul Julia, David Dukes, Jeremy Brett, and on
a 1984-1985 revival tour, Martin Landau. Langella's appearance was
about the only thing that linked the play and the film remake, which jetti-

soned the campy stylization of the stage production for elaborate location
settingsand a lush eroticism. In the long run, the Dracula role did not
seem to help Langella's movie career (as Bela Lugosi found before him,
Dracula is a very hard act to follow), though he has continued his distin-
guished work in the theater —most recently to high critical acclaim in
Austin Pendleton's 1994 biographical drama, Booth. See also theater.

Last Man on Earth, The

See I Am Legend.

Le Fanu, J(oseph) Sheridan

An Irish writer (1814-1873) of elegant ghost stories and gothic novels,

Le Fanu's most notably influential vampire tale was "Carmilla," pub-

1 36 David J. Skal

lished in 1872. "Carmilla" powerfully influenced Le Fanu's fellow Irish-

man Bram Stoker in 1897 novel Dracula; Stoker,
the composition of his
in fact, originally planned to set his story in Le Fanu's semi- imaginary

country of "Styria" instead of the now- familiar Transylvania. LeFanu had an

instinctive, pre -Freudian grasp of the underlying psychodynamics of vam-

pirism, and "Carmilla" is usually acknowledged as the first literary conflation

of same-sex love with vampirism. See also homosexuality; lesbianism.

Lee, Christopher
An elegant, commanding British actor (born 1922), best known as the
leading screen interpreter of Dracula in the post-LuGOSi era, Lee first

Hammer Films' stylish Technicolor remake Horror

riveted audiences in
of Dracula (1958), and returned to the role in Dracula, Prince of
Darkness (1965), Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), Taste
the Blood of Dracula (1969), Scars of Dracula (1970), Count
Dracula (1970), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of
Dracula (1973), and Dracula and Son (1976). He also played lesser
vampires in films like Uncle Was a Vampire (1959) and made a caped

cameo appearance in The Magic Christian (1969). Lee was the first Drac-

Christopher Lee in |

Dracula Has Risen I

from the Grave

 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 37

ula with real sexual magnetism, though his steely erotic purposefulness

makes him a virtual personification of rape — especially the male fantasy

that women who seem to resist really want to be ravished; throughout
Lee's Dracula series, there are repeated instances of frightened women
who nonetheless moan ecstatically at the moment of neck penetration.
The problematic attractiveness of surrender to cruel authoritarianism is
also a component of the Lee/Dracula mystique and much vampire culture
in general — if we're lucky, audiences respond to these films in order to
confront, entertain, and dispel persistent tendencies toward fascism.

Lesbianism
Long an undercurrent of classic vampire stories like "Carmilla," super-
naturalized sexual relations between women have become a common hor-
ror motif in recent decades, paralleling the cultural demonization of male
homosexuality, but without the particular overlay of disease imagery that
has colored male -male vampirism in the age of AIDS (q.v.). According to
Andrea Weiss, author of Vampires and Violets: Lesbians in Film:

Merging two kinds of sexual outlaws, the lesbian vampire is more than
simply a negative stereotype. She is a complex and ambiguous figure,
at once an image of death and an object of desire, drawing on pro-
found subconscious fears that the living have toward the dead and that
men have toward women, while serving as a focus for repressed fan-
tasies. The generic vampire image both expresses and represses sexual-
ity, but the lesbian vampire especially operates in the sexual rather than
the supernatural realm.

Lesbians made coy appearances from time to time in early vampire

films — take a look at Gloria Holden's seduction of the streetwalker in

Dracula's Daughter (1936). But the modern lesbian movie vampire

owes much of her popularity to HAMMER FILMS, which, beginning with
The Vampire Lovers (1970), found a goldmine in "Carmilla"-derived
horror films that fully exploited the seventies' new tolerance for onscreen
nudity and violence. The beasts- and- breasts formula continued happily at
Hammer with Lust for a Vampire (1970) and Twins of Evil (1971).
Daughters of Darkness (1971) was a particularly elegant Belgian effort,
imaginatively amplifying the lesbian aspects of the Erzebet BATHORY leg-
138 DavidJ.Skal

"Do you like

jewelry?" Countess
Zaleska (Gloria
Holden) vamps a
streetwalker in

Dracula's Daughter
(1936).

Andrea Rau and

Delphine Seyrig in

Daughters of
Darkness. (Photofest)

end. Perhaps the most celebrated of all lesbian vampire films is The
Hunger (1983), wherein the ageless Catherine Deneuve pursues the sex-
ually ambivalent Susan Sarandon without apology or pity. In literature,

author Jewelle Gomez created a full-scale historical epic of lesbian vam-

pirism in The Gilda Stories (1991). Like homosexual men, lesbian readers
and audiences have tended to embrace gay vampires as ironic role models,
responding to the vampire's romantic aspects of rebellion, alienation, and
social transcendence.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 39

The straight world reads the signals differently. Real-life lesbians threaten

the heterosexual male's sense of himself as the center of the sexual uni-
verse —not needing or wanting men's bodies, their disinterest is nonethe-
less seen as judgmental, an "unnatural" challenge to maleness. The lesbian's
sexual independence from men overlaps with the more generalized inde-
pendence extolled by feminism; it is therefore not surprising that the de-
monized image of the lesbian vampire became a stock image in popular
culture and soft porn during the feminist revival of the 1970s. Pam Kesey,
editor of the anthology Daughters of Darkness, cites twenty-six films deal-
ing with lesbian vampires; most appeared during this period of widescale
reappraisal of sex roles and sexual politics. See also "Christabel"; homo-
sexuality; i" Vampiri; Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.

Lifeforce
Cinema, UK/USA 1985. Colin Wilson's talky, cerebral science fiction novel
The Space Vampires (1976) was the basis for $25 million special -effects
this

disaster directed by Tobe Hooper, who had been at the notori-

previously
ous helm of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Instead of blood, the vampires
thrive on bioelectrical energy, leaving their victims withered husks. Some of
the effects are entertaining, such as a full-sized puppet of a mummylike vam-
pire which rises from an examination table to drain a hapless doctor. The

lead vamp, Mathilda May, walks nude around London, windows exploding
in her wake. With Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, and Frank Finlay. Screenplay

by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby. (Cannon/Tri-Star) T

Lilith

In the Hebrew tradition, Lilith is the first wife of Adam, who abandoned
her mate and the Garden of Eden to become the Queen of the Night. The
figure of Lilith has its roots in Babylonian legends and is echoed in various

guises throughout world mythology, often as a kind of sperm-vampire or

SUCCUBUS.

Little Shop of Horrors, The

Cinema, USA 1960. Audrey, Jr., a talkative blood -drinking plant, is the
centerpiece of Roger Corman's legendary low- budget horror spoof and
one of Hollywood's crazier variations on the theme of the vampire. Au-
drey's carnivorous petals probably represent some kind of vagina dentata,
1 40 David J. Skal

but the film is so funny on the surface that you overlook the deeper impli-
cations. Little Shop was adapted as an enormously successful off-Broadway
musical in the early 1980s and filmed anew in 1986 with a masterful,
Muppet-inspired Audrey II. The original film cost $27,000 and was filmed

in two remake cost $30 million and took over a year to com-
days; the
plete. Script by Charles B. Griffith. With Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph,

Mel Welles, and Jack Nicholson. (Filmgro up/American International) T

London After Midnight

Cinema, USA 1927. Director Tod Browning's first excursion into the
world of vampires has a special mystique because the film's negative and all

known prints have vanished from sight; the American Film Institute has
officially ranked London After Midnight as one of the most important
"lost" films of the silent era. Lon Chaney acted the dual role of a Scotland
Yard detective as well as a pop-eyed, razor-toothed monster in a costume
derived from Dr. Caligari —not a real vampire, it turns out, but part of an
elaborately theatrical ruse to catch a flesh -and -blood killer. Many film col-
lectors believe the film isn't really lost but in deliberate hiding, its owner
waiting for the MGM/Turner copyright
to expire sometime after the turn of the
century. Nonetheless, unsubstantiated
reports of London After Midnight's re-

discovery keep cropping up, like sight-

ings of the Loch Ness Monster. On these
occasions, the phone lines of film preser-
vationists and historians will burn fren-

ziedly from coast to coast, until the latest

close encounter is debunked as yet an-

other cruel hoax. Perhaps the most florid

of the recent rumors had a complete ni-

trate print of the film dangerously close

London After Midnight:

Edna Tichenor and Lon Chaney.
(Photofest)
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 141

to disintegration in a Jersey City refrigerator while its owner's mind un-

derwent a corresponding deterioration due to AIDS dementia. Screenplay
by Waldemar Young, from a story by Browning. With Henry B. Walthall,

Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Polly Moran, and Edna Tichenor (as the
kohl -eyed Bat Girl). ( Metro -Goldwyn- Mayer)

Lost Boys, The

Cinema, USA 1987. A cult favorite on college campuses, The Lost Boys re-
portedly went through a "development hell" from its original concept as
a wistful juxtaposition of Peter Pan and Dracula to its final form as a

demographically savvy alienated-teenagers-as-heavy-metal-vampires media

event. The film's advertising tag line said it all: "Sleep all day. Party all

night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." While The Lost
Boys is too slick by half, it does have its share of nice touches —including the
clawlike feet by which lead vampire Kiefer Sutherland clings to the rafters,
or the brilliant choice of The Doors' "People Are Strange" for the title

theme. Following several scripts and potential directors, Joel Schumacher

directed from an embattled screenplay by Janice Fisher, James Jeremias,
and Jeffrey Boam. With Jason Patric, Corey Haim,
Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Barnard Hughes,
Jami Gertz, and Corey Feldman. (Warner Bros.) T

Love at First Bite

Cinema, USA 1979. A completely corny but

nonetheless delightful Dracula spoof. George
Hamilton's pale, pale makeup is an instant parodic
comment on the actor's otherwise carcinogenically
suntanned playboy persona; Hamilton makes a
very funny vampire, coping with the cultural shock
attendant on his relocating from Transylvania to

Love at First Bite: George Hamilton makes do

without a suntan — for eternity,
(Photofest)
1 42 David J. Skal

the Manhattan disco scene. Actress Carroll Borland, protegee of Bela

Lugosi, once told me that Hamilton's performance was an uncanny ap-
proximation of Lugosi's original stage interpretation of Dracula (a perfor-
mance much muted in the 1931 film version). A sequel, Love at Second
Bite, has been announced repeatedly over the years, but as of this writing

has not yet materialized. Stan Dragoti directed, Robert Kaufman wrote.
With Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Arte Johnson,
and Sherman Hemsley. (Melvin Simon Productions/American Interna-
tional Pictures) T

Lugosi, Bela
Perhaps no other human being has had such an influence on our modern
concept of the vampire than Bela Ferenc Deszo Blasko (1880-1956), better
known as the actor Bela Lugosi. The Hungarian political expatriate arrived

in New York City in the early

1920s, establishing himself as a

dependable interpreter of "heavy"

parts (even though his extensive

stage experience in Hungary had

emphasized romantic roles and
comedy). When the British actor
Raymond Huntley turned down
the chance to play Dracula in
the original 1927 Broadway pro-
duction, Lugosi donned the flow-
ing velvet opera cape that would
follow him, quite literally, to the
grave. Hungry to repeat the role
in Universal's 1931 film version,
he accepted a ridiculously small
salary ($500 a week, a quarter of
the money paid to third-billed
David Manners) and thereafter

Autographed publicity illustration of

Bela Lugosi in Dracula.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 43

One giveth, one taketh away:

cultural icons collide as Bela
Lugosi's Dracula cuts cards with
Santa Claus for a seasonal photo
opportunity.

was never able to negotiate a lucrative Hollywood contract. Dracula was

the height of his Hollywood career, and also the beginning of its end.
Lugosi turned down the role of the monster in Frankenstein (1931), lead-
ing to Boris Karloff 's eclipsing him as movieland's most bankable horror
star. Part of Lugosi's difficulties came from his failure to completely master
English; on stage, and to a lesser extent in Hollywood, he learned his roles

phonetically, resulting in the peculiar vocal rhythms and intensity now

universally recognized as "Dracula." Dracula was Lugosi's most famous
role, though he only played him twice on film; as a display of his acting
ability, however, must take a distinct backseat to his inspired interpreta-
it

tion of Ygor, the demented monster-keeper of Son of Frankenstein (1939).

Lugosi's film career continued to slide throughout the 1940s and was
of Dracula in Universal's Abbott and
virtually finished after his reprise

Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). He never worked again for a

major studio, and in 1955 made headlines as the first Hollywood star to
go public with a substance abuse problem. Lugosi successfully ended a
decades-long addiction to prescription painkillers, but never made the
comeback he dreamed of. His final films were produced under the dubi-
ous direction of Edward D. Wood, Jr., notorious as "the worst filmmaker
of all time," for films like Bride of the Monster (1956) and Plan Nine from
Outer Space (1958). In the latter, Lugosi appeared posthumously in a few
scenes, a stand-in with a cape over his face playing the bulk of the role in-
tended for him. Bela Lugosi died in Hollywood on August 16, 1956, and
1 44 David J. Skal

was buriedin makeup and costume as Dracula, at his family's request. See

alsoBorland, Carroll; Browning, Tod; Landau, Martin; Mark of

the Vampire; Return of the Vampire.

Lugosi, Bela, Jr.

Los Angeles attorney (born 1938), and son of the late horror movie actor,
Bela Lugosi, Jr., brought significant legal attention to publicity and like-
ness rights retained by actors who create unique screen personas while
under contract to film studios and entertainment conglomerates. In a
lengthy court wrangle beginning in the 1960s, Lugosi claimed that Uni-
versal Pictures had exceeded the terms of his 1930 contract for the
father's
film Dracula by licensing the actor's image on a variety
for reproduction
of merchandise (toys, model kits, Halloween masks, etc.) that had nothing
to do with the direct exploitation of the film. The Los Angeles County Su-
perior Court initially ruled in favor of the Lugosi estate, but the opinion
was overruled on appeal to the California Supreme Court. More recently,
however, a California right-of-publicity ruling restored certain rights of
image exploitation to public figures and their heirs.

Lurking Vampire, The

Cinema, Argentina 1959. I have spent years obsessively searching for a
print or any photographs or information on this film, which, under its

original title, El vampiro acerca, received a flurry of attention in the early

sixties but absolutely no distribution in the English-speaking world. Mike

Parry, writing in the fan magazine Castle of Frankenstein in 1964, told of
viewing the film in Madrid, calling it "superbly done ranking with the
. . .

best of the Hammer efforts, and even superior to them," and including
"many nice expressionistic touches, reminiscent of the German horror
classics of the silent era." The film opens with a sadly revolving carousel

populated with carvings of monsters, witches, and ogres. A narrator in-

tones that "the struggle between good and evil, child and monster, con-
tinues eternally." The frightening merry-go-round becomes a recurrent
visual in a story that blurs the idea child mo-
of the vampire with that of a
lester who entices a young girlThe menacing stranger is
with lollipops.
played by German Robles, the Mexican actor best known for his striking
Dracula-style roles in The Vampire (1957) and The Vampire's Coffin
(1958). All indications are that The Lurking Vampire is a distinguished
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 45

picture deserving of revival and quite likely one of the major "lost" films of
the genre. Has anyone out there seen it? Even a picture from it? If so,
please scream.

Lust for a Vampire

Cinema, UK 1970. Jimmy Sangster directed Hammer's second "Car-
MiLLA"-derived flesh-fest cum blood-feast, set in a nineteenth-century girl's
finishing school. The erotic LESBIANISM went further than anything Ham-
mer had previously attempted, and the film was heavily censored for its

American release. Screenplay by Tudor Gates. With Ralph Bates, Suzanna

Leigh, Michael Johnson, Yutte Stensgaard (as Carmilla/Mircalla), and
Mike Raven (as the vampire Count Karnstein). (Hammer/MGM/EMI) T
 m
Mad Monster Party
Cinema, USA/UK 1967. A live -animation horror comedy with music (no,
The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't the first), Mad Monster Party fea-
tured a stop-motion Dracula in pursuit of a Barbielike victim. Boris
Karloff and Phyllis Diller contributed their voices. Written by Mad maga-
zine's Harvey Kurtzman and Len Korobkin, and directed by Jules Bass.
( Embassy /Videocraft International)Y

Mark of the Vampire

Cinema, USA 1935. Director Tod Browning was kept on a short leash by
Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer after the unmitigated disaster of his 1932 film
Freaks. Mark of the Vampire was, evi-
dently, considered a "safe" project,

<^y^ r
r*
C
-4&bJ^k
H
being
silent hit
a remake of Browning's 1927
London After Midnight.
V^ Once more, the story involved a po-
lice sting using phony vampires to
catch a killer. Bela Lugosi provided
terrific atmosphere in the mute role
of "Count Mora," gliding around a

Mad Monster Party: A stop-motion Dracula

suspends his animation to consider a
snack. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters)
1 48 David J. Skal

Mark of the Vampire: Bela Lugosi and

Carroll Borlandmenace Elizabeth Allan
and Henry Wadsworth.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters)

cobwebby castle in Dracula drag

with his lank- haired daughter
Luna (Carroll Borland) in tow.
The real star of the show, how-
ever, is cinematographer James
Wong Howe, who visually ele-
vates the material well beyond
Browning's pedestrian direction.
The haunted house atmospher-
ics are occasionally so heavily laid
on as to approach parody, but
the brief film (cut by the studio
from its original ninety minutes to an hour) is still fun to watch if only —
to count the instances of visual cribbing from Universal's Dracula, which
Browning also directed. (Also cut was the original intimation that Count
Mora and his daughter achieved their undead state through incest. Lionel )

Barrymore receives top billing as a Van HELSING-Iike professor; also with

Elizabeth Allan, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt. Screenplay by Guy En-
dore and Bernard Schubert. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)T

Martin
Cinema, USA 1976. George Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead
(1968), combined the traditional image of the supernatural vampire with
the trappings of real-life BLOOD FETISHISM in Martin, a film shot for under
$100,000 on sixteen- millimeter color film and enlarged to thirty-five milli-

meter for theatrical release. Romero originally also wanted the prints struck
in black-and-white, but the producer overruled him. Martin, the film's
eponymous blood drinker, sedates his victims with a hypodermic syringe
and opens their veins with a razor blade. The film would have been better
had Romero resisted the temptation to present the character as a super-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 49

natural monster rather than a psycho-sexual one. Screenplay by Romero.

Starring John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, and Christine Forrest. (Braddock
Associates/Libra Films/Laurel Group )T

Marx, Karl
"Capital is dead labour that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living
labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks," wrote Karl Marx in
Das Kapital. Interestingly enough, Marx is buried in HlGHGATE CEMETERY,
which probably has more vampire associations than any burial ground on
earth. See also class warfare.

Midnight
Cinema, USA 1988. Not a real vampire film, but of interest because of its
thinly disguised depiction of the 1950s television horror hostess Vampira.
As Midnight, Lynn Redgrave recites near-verbatim transcripts of Vam-
pira's original routines, but outside the television studio scenes, this film is

an unholy mess. The ultimate reasons that the producers were able to en-
tice performers Redgrave and Tony Curtis to get involved in such a
like

ghastly production may have something to do with the vagaries of tax-

shelter laws. Though a slew of sound technicians are credited, dialogue on
the video release is frequently garbled, swallowed, or otherwise just in-
audible. Directed by Norman Thaddeus Vane. With Steve Parrish, Rita
Gam, and Frank Gorshin. (SVS Films/Midnight Inc.)V

Midnight Kiss
Cinema, USA 1993. Joel Bender directed this formulaic vampire thriller,

distinguished primarily by the unnerving performance of Gregory A.

Greer as a monster seemingly strung out on the supernatural equivalent of
crack cocaine. Screenplay by John Weidner and Ken Lamplugh. With
Michelle Owens, Michael McMillen, and Robert Miano. (Midnight Hour
Productions )
Mirrors
The vampire's traditional failure to reflect in mirrors is, on the face of it,

simple evidence of a wraithlike inhumanity; on a deeper level, however,

the idea is more a matter of psychological denial —the reason we block out
the vampire's reflection is to avoid seeing our own face in the glass.
1 50 David J. Skal

Mora
Also known as the mara in Slavic and Scandinavian countries, this version

of the vampire is word nightmare, and is of-

entymologically linked to the
ten envisioned as an oppressive, crushing night demon. European Slavs
and Canadian Kashubes regard the mora as a blood drinker. Director Tod
Browning used the word for the name of the primary boogeyman, Count
Mora, in his 1935 film Mark of the Vampire. See also folklore.

"Mrs. Amworth"
Short story, UK 1923. E. F. Benson's oft- anthologized tale of a sweet old
lady, who just happens to float around at night in search of youthful
blood, introduced the theme of "the vampire next door," now a widely
utilized motif, but quite innovative for its time. "Mrs. Amworth" was
adapted for Canadian television in 1975 with Glynis Johns in the tide

role. See also "Room in the Tower, The."

Munster, Grandpa
A popular television character from the 1960s, an over-the-hill Jewish
Dracula portrayed by comedian Al Lewis on the CBS-TV series The
Munsters. The Munster family was composed of monsters who other-
wise behaved like a normal American sitcom clan. Grandpa Munster was
a sanitized popularization of the Lenny BRUCE conception of Dracula as a
drug-ridden old Jewish man with a nagging wife; The Munsters, however,
dropped the wife and all references to pill-popping. The idea of Dracula as
a cute ethnic cuddle toy is weird in the extreme, especially given the ugly
stereotype palpable in Bram Stoker's original concept of the vampire. See
also anti-Semitism.

Murnau, F. W.
A pupil and artistic associate of the great German stage director Max Rein-
hardt, FriedrichWilhelm Murnau (1888-1931) began directing films in
1919. Following two previous excursions into the macabre Der Januskopf
(1920), an early version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Conrad Veidt
and Bela Lugosi, and The Haunted Castle (1921 ) Murnau directed one of —
the most famous vampire films of all time, Nosferatu: Eine Stmphonie des
Grauens ("Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror"), an unauthorized version
of Dracula. Released in 1922, Nosferatu combined the theatrical shadows
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 5

and compositions of German Expressionism with natural light and location

settings, a startling innovation for the time. The result was a disquieting
juxtaposition of the fantastic and the familiar. Given larger budgets and
artistic autonomy, Murnau produced several masterpieces The Last Laugh
(1924), Faust (1926), and in Hollywood, Sunrise (1927), generally con-
sidered his finest achievement. His enormously promising future was cut
shortby a California traffic accident in 1931.
Murnau's well-known homosexuality has generated additional con-
temporary interest in his work, some of it intelligent and informative, and
some of it Filmmaker Stan Brakhage tried to make a case in a
bizarre.
highly speculative 1977 essay that Nosferatu was essentially a homosexual
exercise in "camp," an argument that perhaps revealed more of Brakhage's
homophobia than further insight into the film. Brakhage ended his essay
with the undocumented assertion that Murnau's automobile accident de-
mise was the result of a distractingly deadly act of oral sex performed by a
Filipino houseboy. See also fellatio.
 r
Nadja
Cinema, USA 1994. "He was like Elvis in the end already dead, sur-
. . .

rounded by zombies." The person, or un-person, thus described is Dracula,

whose highly photogenic daughter Nadja (Elina Lowensohn) sets up camp
in lower Manhattan, where she fits right in with the club set. The real star of

Michael Almereyda's film is the stunning black-and-white cinematography

(which cleverly employs the toy-camera process Pixelvision to provide a
vampire's-eye view of things). Peter Fonda nearly wrecks the film with a
campy, scenery- chewing turn Van Helsing. The film was generally over-
as

praised by the critics, none of whom noted how much of the plot was lifted
from 1936's Dracula's Daughter. Screenplay by Almereyda. With Jared
Harris, Martin Donovan, Galaxy Cruze, Susie Amis, Karl Geary and execu-
tive producer David Lynch, as a morgue attendant. (October Films) T

Near Dark
Cinema, USA 1987. Unassailably near the top of the heap of recent
vampix, Near Dark presents a terrifying vampire family of nihilistic white-
trash drifters. Director Kathryn Bigelow, who coscripted with Eric Red,
keeps the picture moving deftly and grandly blends two classic B -movie
genres: the vampire film and the road melodrama, conflating archetypal
American rootlessness with un death. The best sequence involves a motel
shootout, each wall-penetrating bullet creating a stabbing ray of sunlight
imperiling the night-creatures within. If you've overlooked this one,
you're missing a major chapter of your vampire education. With Jenny
Wright, Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton. (DeLauren-
tiis/Feldman-Meeker)Y
1 54 David J. Skal

Night Trap
An interactive video game parodying vampire movies, Night Trap became
the focus of tremendous media attention in late 1993 when a trio of U.S.
senators decided to score easy political points by vilifying the game as a
form of "child abuse" that taught small fry to "enjoy inflicting torture."
Unwilling to be confused by facts, Senator Joseph Lieberman provided
the press with a completely fanciful description of the game's object: "to
hang women on meat hooks." The video's producer, Tom Zito, re-
sponded to the kangaroo court tactic on the op-ed page of the Washing-
ton Post, calmly pointing out that the whole point of Night Trap was to
protect women from vampire assailants, not to torture them. But isn't it
nice that vampires have found their way onto the interactive info-highway
this early in the game?

Nosferatu
A meaningless word widely believed to be a Romanian term for "vampire,"
but which in fact does not exist in Romanian or any other language. The
mention of the word came in folklorist Emily de Laszowska Gerard's
first

1885 essay "Transylvanian Superstitions," which novelist Bram Stoker

consulted in his research for Dracula. After exhaustive research, I have
come to the conclusion that Gerard must have recorded a corrupted or
misunderstood version of the Romanian adjective nesuferit, from the Latin
"not to suffer." Vampires, obviously, are "insufferable," "intolerable," or
even "plaguesome," all of which are given as definitions of nesuferit in vari-

ous Romanian dictionaries. The word, however, has no supernatural con-

notations of any kind, and it is likely that Gerard simply mistook its

context, or encountered a localized coinage which somehow never came to

the attention of other folklorists or to Romanian lexicographers.

Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens

Cinema, Germany 1922. The earliest known film adaptation of Dracula
is also one of the best, and a far cry from later films inspired primarily by
the 1920s stage play rather than the original Bram STOKER novel. Directed
by F. W. Murnau, the film was unauthorized by the Stoker estate and

drew the wrath of the author's widow, who pursued a legal case against
the film for nearly a decade, trying to have the negative and every known
print destroyed (the full story of Florence Stoker's obsessive campaign
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 55

Nosferatu: Max Schreck

wakes up and smells the
coffin. (Courtesy of Forrest J

Ackerman)

against the film is thoroughly recounted in my earlier book, Hollywood

Gothic).The widow did not succeed, of course, which is why we still can
enjoy one of the classics of German Expressionist cinema.
Nosferatu enthusiastically embraced Stoker's concept of Dracula as a
physically repellent creature, exaggerating Stoker's descriptions into one
of the most hideous screen monsters of all As portrayed by actor
time.
Max Schreck, Count Orlock is a nightmare amalgam of a withered
corpse and a diseased rat, with hooklike fingernails that become progres-
sively elongated as the film unreels. The main characters of Stoker's

novel are recognizable, though freely adapted to a tightened, almost

fairy-talelike narrative. Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) is a young real

estate lawyer sent to Transylvania by his peculiar employer, Knock

(Alexander Granach, in the Renfield role) to close a deal for the myste-
rious Orlock. The basics of Stoker's plot are adhered to, though the Van
Helsing role is reduced almost to inconsequence. Nosferatu has a com-
pletely different conclusion from Dracula, finishing on a tragic note as
Hutter's wife Nina sacrifices her own life by keeping the vampire at her
bedside until daylight, when he is destroyed by the sun's first rays. (This
motif was an invention of the film; in previous stories, vampires could be
inhibited, though never killed, by light.) As photographed by Fritz Arno
Wagner, the image of the monster's shadow gliding up the stairs and
1 56 David J. Skal

reaching for its victim's door remains one of the most famous composi-
tions of the silent film era.
Nosferatu was conceived as a self-conscious "art" film, using the vampire
as a metaphor of the plaguelike destruction of Germany in World War I. The
film was, upon its first release, elaborately color-tinted and accompanied by a

modernist orchestral score commissioned from composer Hans Erdmann.

Following an injunction won by Stoker's widow in themid 1920s, the nega-
tive was ordered destroyed, and the film survived in a hodgepodge of various
prints until being definitively restored by German conservator Enno Patalas
in 1984. The Patalas restoration is not yet available on video outside Europe,
but an excellent parallel version was assembled by the American archivist

David Shepard for a 1992 videodisc release with a supplemental soundtrack

of astute critical commentary by Nosferatu scholar Lokke Heiss.
The full extent of Murnau's artistic control of Nosferatu is far from
clear; there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest, for instance, that
owed more to production designer Albin Grau
the film's overall concept
and screenwriter Henrik Galeen than to Murnau. Modern notions about
directorial control and intention may not be applicable in the case of Nos-
feratu, which was produced by a kind of experimental artistic collective
called Prana-Film. Original publicity stories about Nosferatu scarcely men-
tion Murnau at all —Grau, instead, is the dominant voice. Murnau never
mentioned the film in a published interview, even after his later success in
Hollywood, possibly because of the legal brouhaha over the Dracula
copyright. Murnau died in 1931, long before film scholarship became re-

spectable, and well before Nosferatu^ critical reputation was established,

so it is not surprising no one ever approached him for comment. But I

consider it almost a crime that no European film historian ever thought to

conduct an interview with actor Gustave von Wangenheim, who became a

prominent force in German theater and was still alive in the early 1980s.
Therefore, we are left to informed speculation about the details of Nosfer-
atu's genesis; in 1993, novelist Jim Shepard published an imaginatively
entertaining fictional account of the filming of Nosferatu in the literary
magazine TriQuarterly. Interest in Nosferatu as a central artifact of world
cinema has steadily increased over recent decades; the film is regularly re-
vived for appreciative audiences around the world, often with contempo-
rary live musical accompaniment.
With its indelibly haunting images of death —always a popular motif
during fin de siecle decades such as the present one Nosferatu reminds us
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 57

that the film medium itself is a kind of technological bargaining chip

against oblivion, allowing us a comforting illusion of perpetual life and
reanimation. Paradoxically, film's central mechanism —the
shadow also —
suggests the world of death. In a recent essay, Gilberto Perez comments
on the centrality of shadows to the dream-message of Nosferatu: "The im-
age in Murnau becomes charged with the emotional coloring of a shadow,
with a poignant and disquieting sense that what we watch moving on the
screen is the world's ghost." The death/rebirth fantasy of vampire myths
comes full circle in the cinema: light destroys the vampire's shadow, but in
motion -picture terms, simultaneously creates the shadows which bring
vampires to life in the first place.

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Cinema, West Germany/France 1979. The real horror of Werner Herzog's
homage to F. W. MURNAU, filmed in two simultaneous versions, one in
English and one in German, has nothing to do with the subject matter but
with its peculiar, almost Warholian execution. The film feels slack and shape-
158 DavidJ.Skal

less, utterly without a sense of pace or proportion — just one precious "im-
pression" of the Murnau film after another. Nonetheless, there are some
effective moments —
as the vampire, Klaus Kinski's predatory hovering over

his guest inspires genuine visceral revulsion, and the actor's muted line
readings manage to convey a bottomless loneliness that other interpreta-
tions of Dracula have only hinted at. Otherwise, the actors look to be
stoned. Herzog doesn't seem to have a particular purpose in mind, and the
whole thing seems like a poindess stunt. Perhaps the best thing about it are
the wonderful publicity stills, endlessly reprinted, of Isabelle Adjani's flaw-
less beauty juxtaposed with Kinski's pestilential beastliness. Twentieth
Century-Fox probably thought they were going to cash in big time on the
late-seventies cycle of Draculamania, but they found the English -language
version unreleasable and instead distributed the dubbed German version to
art houses. With Bruno Ganz. (Twentieth Century- Fox )Y

Not of This Earth

Cinema, USA 1957. A nifty science -fictional vampire film, produced and
directed by Roger Corman from a script by Charles Griffith and Mark
Hanna, Not of This Earth stars actor Paul Birch as a kind of sinister sales
man from outer space who pumps his valise full of earth people's red elixir

in an attempt to save his dying extraterrestrial race. He wears sunglasses to

hide his pupilless, Orphan Annie eyes, a direct glimpse of which will strike
you dead. An interesting little exercise in noirish fifties paranoia, remade,
quite unnecessarily, in 1988. With Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones, William
Roerick, and Jonathan Haze. (Allied Artists)T

Novels
See Appendix C.
Omega Man, The
See I Am Legend.

Once Bitten
Cinema, USA 1985. This film is only worth mentioning because of the un-
usual context in which I first saw it. While I was visiting Havana, Cuba, to
research missing footage from the Spanish version of Dracula in 1989,
Once Bitten was playing day and night on my hotel's cable service, and I

got to view parts of the picture more than once, in English with Spanish
subtitles. This is a very stupid movie. Centuries-old supermodel Lauren
Hutton needs to suck on a male virgin, and she picks teenager Jim Carrey
for the honors. What I found most interesting was the bowdlerization of
the American dialogue in the Spanish subtitles —as I recall, a gay charac-
ter's comment about "rough trade" was translated for Cuban consump-
tion as "jQue cosa!" Rent this one at your own peril. With Karen Kopins
and Cleavon Little. Directed by Howard Storm. (The Samuel Goldwyn
Company) T

Opera
Despite its estimable blood and thunder, Dracula has yet to be the sub-
ject of a professionally produced opera, but other vampires have warbled
their dark arias quite effectively over the past century and a half. The most
successful of all vampire operas is Heinrich Marschner's Der Vatnpyr, first

presented in Leipzig in 1828, with a libretto by W. A. Wohlbruck based

on John Polidori's story "The Vampyre" (1819), which had already had
inspired several stage plays in England and on the continent (see also the-
1 60 David J. Ska/

Title page of Marschner's opera Der Vampyr.

ater). The pleasantly melodic Marschner opera,

which recounted the exploits of the BYRON-based
vampire Lord Ruthven, was a standard fixture of
the German repertoire for years and is credited by lAlWilbriifk
musicologists as owing a distinct musical debt to in Wusik goetzl

Weber, while anticipating Wagner. Wagner, in fact,

saw its premiere production during his student MDimBUKBBBL

days, conducted the work himself a few years later,

and may well have taken from Der Vampyr some

measure of inspiration for his own opera on the
theme of eternal life as damnation, The Flying
Dutchman.
A second 1828 opera, also called Der Vampyr
and based on the Polidori tale and its derivative
stage melodramas, was composed by Peter Josef von Lindpainter with a li-
bretto by Casar Max Heigel, and premiered in Stuttgart six months after
the Marschner work's debut. The Lindpainter/Heigel work had a confused
story line, less musical interest and, while it had a good run for its time, has
not been considered worthy of a full-scale revival since. The Marschner
opera, however, was revived frequently through the turn of the century
and is still in Germany. The work received its Amer-
produced occasionally
ican premiere in a 1980 New
York production with an English libretto
by Michael Feingold. In 1992, the Marschner music was the basis for a
cleverly modernized BBC television production depicting the vampire as
Ripley, a playboy investment banker. Called The Vampyr: A Soap Opera,
the new libretto was written by Charles Hart, from a story by Janet Street-
Porter and Nigel Finch (who also directed).
 p
Paglia, Camille
The incendiary, politically incorrect intellectual of the 1990s, Camille
Paglia regards the female vampire as a powerful role model rather than a
misogynistic slur. In the introduction to her most recent book, Vamps
and Tramps (1994), Paglia contends that "Vamps are queens of the night,
the primeval realm excluded and repressed by today's sedate middle-class
professionals in their orderly, blazing bright offices. The prostitute, seduc-
tress, and high-glamour movie star wield woman's ancient vampiric power
over men." Paglia's Sexual Personae (1990) makes frequent references
to the vampire in the context of classical art and literature. See also GAR-
LAND, Judy.

Passion of Dracula, The

Theater, USA 1977. While Frank Langella's Broadway revival of Dracula
was doing standing-room business uptown, Bob Hall and David Rich-
mond's The Passion of Dracula did its own respectable business in the more
modest venue of Greenwich Village's Cherry Lane Theatre. Christopher
Birnau cut an impressive figure as Dracula in this otherwise not particu-
larly ambitious imitation of the Deane/Balderston stage play, one of
several produced in the vampire -redolent late seventies. See also theater.

Planet of the Vampires

Cinema, Italy/Spain 1965. Director Mario Bava, who proved himself a

master of traditional gothicism in Black Sunday (I960), was also responsi-

ble for this highly influential science fiction spin on the vampire theme, the
1 62 David J. Skal

influence of which can be immediately perceived in the SF megahit Alien

(1979). Barry Sullivan stars as the captain of a spaceship stranded on a
planet whose disembodied inhabitants take over the bodies of dead crew
members. The film is a nonstop procession of stunning visual compositions,
thanks to cinematographer Antonio Rinaldi, many accomplished through a
clever deep-focus mixture of miniatures and live action. The costumes,
which approximate a leather-fetishist's idea of scuba gear with Dracula-
style high collars appended, are particularly stylish. Not to be missed. Script

by Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Rafael J. Salvia, Antonio Roman, and Catillo

Cosulich. English -language adaptation by lb Melchior and Louis Heyward.
With Norma Bengeli, Angel Aranda, and Eve Marandi. (Italian Interna-

tional/Castilla Coopertiva/American International )

Poe, Edgar Allan
Poe's trademark erotic obsession with dead and dying women ("The
death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical subject in the world") has
a clear resonance with classical vampirism, and Poe's influence is palpably
felt in vampire stories whenever a bereaved hero begins pining for a dead
lover. See also "Berenice"; Tale of a Vampire.

Polish Vampire in Burbank, A

Cinema, USA 1983. It's probably significant that only a vampire movie
could be shot on Super- Eight film with a dubbed soundtrack and still earn
$500,000 on video and be offered on national cable. The sheer chutzpah
of this film makes it weirdly enjoyable to share the adventures of Dupah
(the Polish word for "ass"), a shy, reluctant bloodsucker trying to lose his
"virginity." Written, directed by, and starring Mark Pirro, with Lori Sut-
ton, Bibbi Dorsch, and Brad Waisbren. (Pirromount/Peacock Films)Y

Price, Vincent

With his imposing physical presence and mock-elegant manner, the late,

great horror actor (1911-1993) would have made a most charming Count
Dracula had anyone ever offered him the part in a straight adaptation of
the Stoker novel. Price did, however, get to play a Dracula- like vampire
for laughs on an episode of television's F Troop in the 1960s, starred in
an unusual hybrid of the Frankenstein and vampire formulas in Scream
and Scream Again (1970), and donned funny fangs for the 1980 British
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 163

Vincent Price plays a vampire for laughs

on the 1 960s comedy series F Troop.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood
Movie Posters)

comedy The Monster Club. Price also

lent his talents to the hour-long British
documentary Vincent Price's Dracula
(1982), known in America as Drac-
ula — The Great Undead. In the late

1980s, Price was one of the few living

people I was able to find who had ever
socialized with Bram Stoker's formidable widow, Florence. While studying
art in London as a young man (before his theatrical career), Price was in-

vited for tea by Mrs. Stoker, and recounted his impressions for my book
Hollywood Gothic. See also television.

Prostitution
The image of the vampire frequently blurs with that of the prostitute
both, of course, are "creatures of the evening," stereotypically predatory,
and especially in Victorian times, dreaded vectors of syphilis, a then incur-
able disease, which, like AIDS (q.v.) today, powerfully fed the notion of
vampirism as a form of sexual contagion. Like the vampire, the prostitute
is often presented in art and literature as part of a misogynistic virgin/
whore dualism. By the early twentieth century, the female vampire had
lost her supernatural trappings and was most often depicted as a semipros-
titute or golddigger, a persona most successfully exploited by the silent
film actress Theda Bara. A recent television movie about teenage prosti-
tutes was Children of the Night, inspired by a famous line from
titled

the novel Dracula. See also Burne-Jones, Sir Philip.

Psychoanalysis
Today, it is almost a cliche to think of vampire stories in terms of their
heavy resonance with Freud's theories of sexual repression, displacement,
and hysteria, but aside from the instinctive, perhaps semiconscious connec-
tions made by certain filmmakers (in the work of director Tod Browning,
64 David J. Skal

for example, or in Garrett Fort's screenplay for Dracula's Daughter),

the issue was addressed only twice prior to 1960 by serious psychoanalytic
commentators: first by Ernest Jones in his 1931 study On the Nightmare,
and perhaps more influentially in terms of its impact on popular culture
criticism, by Maurice Richardson in his 1958 essay "The Psychoanalysis of
Ghost Stories," which focused particularly on Bram Stoker's Dracula.
This essay is the essential prototype of the virtual avalanche of Dracula crit-

icism that has followed, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. "The starting
point," writes Richardson, is

Freud's dictum that morbid dread always signifies repressed sexual

wishes. In vampirism they become plainly visible. Here we enter a twi-
light borderland, a sort of homicidal where
lunatic's brothel in a crypt,
religious and psychopathological motives intermingle. Ambivalence is
the keynote. Death wishes all round exist side by side with the desire
for immortality. Frightful cruelty, aggression and greed is accompanied
by a madly possessive kind of love. Guilt is everywhere and deep. Be-
haviour smacks of the unconscious world of infantile sexuality with
what Freud called its polymorphous perverse tendencies. There is an
obvious fixation at the oral level, with all that sucking and biting, also a
generous allowance of anality. We are left in no doubt about the origin
of the frightful smell, compost of charnel house and cloaca, that at-

taches to the vampire.

Richardson memorably describes Dracula as "a kind of incestuous,

necrophilious, oral-anal-sadistic all-in wrestling match. And this is what
gives the story its force."
Of course, Freud's theory of therapeutic transference is in itself a

pointed metaphor of vampirism —the absorption of essential psychic en-

ergy by a controlling (and sometimes literally mesmeric) authority figure.

I cannot count the number of times, following a media appearance or

speaking engagement, that someone has approached me to suggest that I,

or somebody, ought to write a story about a vampire psychiatrist. They

never hang around long enough for me to probe the specific source of
their suggestion, but I have little doubt that it resides in their own un-
pleasant encounters with the ample shadow-side of the modern thera-
peutic mythos.
 ;

Quarry, Robert
See Count Yorga, Vampire.

Queen of Blood
Cinema, USA 1966. Curtis Harrington's visually stylish exercise in low-
budget sci-fi horror has some fun moments, especially Florence Marly's
green-skinned, eyebrowless, beehive -hairdoed bloodsucker from space
(who has a pesky habit of laying eggs here, there, and everywhere). Basil
Rathbone, who hated being associated with horror movies, does not ap-
pear to be enjoying himself at all in the role of an earthbound scientist.

Queen of Blood:
Florence Marly at her
hideous, futuristic

repast. (Photofest)
1 66 David J. Skal

(He died the following year after appearing in the nadir-busting Hillbillys
in a Haunted House.) The film was written by Harrington around special-
effects footage producer Roger Corman acquired from a Soviet space film,

and completed for a reported $65,000. With John Saxon, Judi Meredith,
and Dennis Hopper. (American International)Y

Queen of the Damned

See Rice, Anne.
 ii

Rabid
Cinema, Canada 1976. Director David Cronenberg originally wanted Cissy
Spacek to star in this high-tech horror film about a runaway plastic surgery
experiment that mutates a young woman into a vampire who drinks blood
through a fanged suction-penis in her armpit. Cronenberg's producers,
however, insisted on porn queen Marilyn Chambers for the role. Rabid is

a bleak, disturbing picture that foreshadows Cronenberg's larger- budget

exercises in literalized metaphor The Brood ( 1979), Scanners (1980), and
Videodrome (1982). The film's overall atmosphere of tightly controlled
chaos is uniquely Cronenbergian and still effective despite the limited bud-
get. Howard
Screenplay by Cronenberg. With Frank Moore, Joe Silver, and
Ryshpan. (Cinema Entertainment Enterprises/DAL Productions )T

Rape
I recently gave a lecture on vampires and other monsters at Bryn Mawr
College, the academically acclaimed and politically sensitized women's
school which had coincidentally displayed, in the student lounge just
outside the room where I was delivering my talk, an extraordinary wall
of student clippings and commentary called "Rape Culture," including
everything from fashion photography to advertising slogans to hard-core
porn. But conspicuously absent from the display was even a single image
of a male vampire bending over his swooning female victim, despite the
fact that vampire imagery now amounts to one of our largest — and most
ambiguous —cultural repositories of violent sex fantasy. The Bryn Mawr
students responded well to my lecture, posing many intelligent ques-
tions, but curiously made no connection whatsoever between vampire
1 68 David J. Skal

Rape: Vampire
destruction as ritual
gang-bang. From
Dracula, Prince of
Darkness. (Photofest)

culture and rape culture, despite the almost ridiculously transparent sym-
bolism of the neck-penetrating bedroom-crasher as the modern dream
essence of sexual assault. It is no coincidence that vampire imagery and

rape awareness emerged as twin popular obsessions during the sexually

traumatic 1980s and 1990s, as the AIDS epidemic and a puritan back-
lash engendered a deep distrust and general fear of sexuality.
Rape is a real evil in the world, deserving of every statutory punish-
ment, but the current cultural fixation on rape goes far beyond criminal
definitions into a twilight zone of invasion/pollution/end-of-innocence
fantasies, with a heavy patina of gothic horror. A striking feature of rape-
crisis feminism is the resurrection of Victorian cliches about female sexu-
ality and male predation integral to the nineteenth-century vampire
mystique. The model of womanhood presented by rape-crisis media
stars like Catherine MacKinnon recalls the listless virgins of Victorian
horror fiction, relentlessly stalked by thirsty male vampires and requir-
ing around-the-clock protection by reassuring authority figures who
provide wolfsbane in the form of censorship and repressive legislation.
This stunning retreat into sexless, doll-like passivity and the elevation
of victimization to an almost sacramental state is a striking reversal of
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 69

the women's movement's traditional emphasis on empowerment and

autonomy.
much of the current demonization of maleness is also tacitly les-
Since
bian,many heterosexual women these days may feel culturally stranded
between the mutually unwelcome attentions of the chauvinist Dracula
and his Sapphic daughter ("I believe in equal rights for women — but I'm
not a feminist!"). The classic swoon of the vampire's victim represents a
loss of consciousness analogous to the missing reflection in the mirror: a

refusal to acknowledge or accept personal responsibility for one's sexuality

or its consequences. A recent New Yorker cartoon by Gahan Wilson picked
up the undercurrents of date rape and responsibility transference in the
vampiric encounter: in evident compliance with Antioch College's strin-

gently authoritarian sexual consent regulations, Dracula hesitates over his

intended victim
— "May I bite your neck?" he asks warily, and perhaps a
little wearily. See also AIDS; lesbianism.

Reflecting Skin, The

Cinema, Canada 1990. An extraordinary film by Philip Ridley about an
eight-year-old boy (Jeremy Cooper) who is convinced that a reclusive

widow neighbor (Lindsay Duncan) is a vampire. The film is set in the early
1950s, when Cooper's older brother (Viggo Mortensen) returns from
military duty, not knowing he has been poisoned by exposure to radiation
from nuclear tests. He falls in love with the widow, and the boy takes his
brother's wasting symptoms and hair loss as proof positive of vampirism. A
stylishly produced, intelligent, and altogether original meditation on the
vampire theme. (Fugitive Films/Virgin/Live Entertainment)T

Renfield
"Rats! Rats! Rats!" The M. Renfield, the vampire's zoo-
character of R.
phagous henchperson DRACULA, is best known to the public
in the novel
through the persona of actor Dwight Frye, who made the role his own in
the 1931 film version of Bram Stoker's book. In the novel, Renfield was a
mental patient of about sixty, given to violent outbursts; in the 1922 film
Nosferatu, the character's name was changed to "Knock" and depicted
as a crazy old real estate agent whose appearance suggested a maniacal Dr.

Caligari. In the 1924 and 1927 stage versions by Hamilton Deane and
1 70 David J. Skal

Bernard Jukes (center) as Renfield in the original

Broadway production of Dracula (Courtesy of Ronald V
Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)

John L. Balderston, the character was recon- ^>

ceived as a scenery-chewing "repulsive youth."
For the 1931 Universal film, the character was
conflated with that of the novel's hero, Jonathan
Harker, enabling Renfield to travel to Transyl-
England under Dracula's ma-
vania, returning to
lignant influence as the vampire's servant and
protector.
Renfield is arguably the showiest part in Drac-
ula adaptations, one always coveted by actors. It

is in Renfield that we see one of the book's major

themes personified —namely the Victorian era's
anxieties about Darwin's theory of evolution and a general cultural obses-

sion with the idea of degeneration. Renfield's mad desire to eat his way up
the evolutionary ladder — starting with flies and spiders, then rats, etc.

was enacted on stage by the British actor Bernard Jukes (d. 1939), who
played the role thousands of times in England and America (photos of
Jukes in the role are frequently misidentified as Dwight Frye). In Roger
Vadim's unproduced adaptation of Dracula, the Renfield part was imag-
inatively reinterpreted as a woman. Film director Joe Dante {Gremlins,
The Howling) calls his production company, based at Universal, "Renfield
Productions."

Return of Dracula, The

Cinema, USA 1 958. "I hope he likes cheese sauce and asparagus," says the
Carleton, California, housewife, who has no inkling that the man upstairs
posing as a political expatriate cousin Count Dracula. Nonethe-
is really

less, she enjoys the idea of feeding him: "Why don't you go up and ask

Cousin Bellac if he wants some pie?" she asks a bit later, after he starts his
rampage. Actor Francis Lederer makes a smarmy vampire king who dis-
penses with the usual politeness vampires affect in these kind of films. The
dumb host family just chalks it up to cultural differences. This must be the
first film in which Dracula gets to ride in a convertible. For the original re-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 7

lease, the black-and-white film contained a color insert of a stake being

driven through the heart of one of Dracula's female victims. Directed by
Paul Landres. Screenplay by Pat Fielder. With Norma Eberhardt, Ray
Stricklyn, and Jimmie Baird. (United Artists)

Return of the Vampire, The

Cinema, USA 1943. Actor Bela Lugosi could not convince Universal Pic-
tures to cast him as Dracula when the studio revived the character for
three films in the mid- 1940s, choosing Lon Chaney, Jr., and John Carra-
dine instead. But Columbia Pictures did not hesitate in contracting for

Lugosi's services for The Return of the Vampire. Universal refused permis-
sion for Columbia to use the word "Dracula" in the script, but could do
nothing about the fact that Lugosi in evening dress and an opera cloak
looked just like you-know-who. As the vampire Armand Tesla, Lugosi en-
tertained wartime audiences with a story set during the London blitz
Nazi bombs both open his grave and send him back to it again. Actress
Nina Foch, who made her film debut in The Return of the Vampire, re-
called in 1994 that her strongest impression of Lugosi during the produc-
tion was his breath reeking of sulfur water, a popular but odiferous health
tonic. One can see why Universal may have passed the actor over —he
looks puffy and aged, though his line readings are as priceless as ever.

a -w As
'
tant,
Tesla's

(looking
werewolf
Andreas, Matt Willis
more like
assis-

a Scot-
tish terrier than a wolf)
gives some of the stiffest
line readings you'll ever
encounter in a major stu-

dio film of the period. But

The Return of Dracula: Francis

Lederer travels to America in

his ingenious mobile home.

(Photofest)
1 72 David J. Skal

Nina Foch seems to smell the sulfur as Bela Lugosi

approaches in The Return of the Vampire.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)

it's still a load of campy fun. Directed by Lew

Landers from a screenplay by Griffin Jay. With
Frieda Inescort, Miles Mander, and Ottola
Nesmith. (Columbia Pictures)^

Rice, Anne
The publishing world's reigning Queen of the
Night has reached the problematic stage in

her career where she can accommodate auto-

graph requests by limiting them to "signa-
tures only," as a sign at a recent bookstore appearance warned would-be
supplicants. Anne Rice is the most successful vampire novelist in history,
her total earnings undoubtedly eclipsing even a century's worth of Drac-
ULA's profits. I will, therefore, assume that any reader of V is for Vampire
who has gotten this far is already fully, numbingly aware of Rice's undead
oeuvre —her "Vampire Chronicles" series of novels, Interview with the
Vampire (1976), Tlie Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned
(1988), The Tale of the Body Thief'(1992) and Memnoch the Devil (1995)—
and I therefore will be excused from encapsulating their plots in detail.
Suffice it to say that, following the first book, in which he appears as a sup-
porting character, "The Vampire Chronicles" is primarily concerned with
the unlife and times of Lestat de Lioncourt, otherwise known as the Vam-
pire Lestat, following his progress from eighteenth-century France to
nineteenth-century New Orleans to twentieth-century America. One of
the first book's most compelling and memorable characters is a child vam-
pire named Claudia, unconsciously patterned (by the author's own later

acknowledgment) after Rice's first daughter, Michele, who died of leuke-

mia at the age of six. As a woman supernaturally imprisoned in a child's
body, Claudia uncannily anticipated the rise of "the inner child" concept
as an axiom of pop psychology in the 1980s and 1990s — a seething adult

sensibility stunted and immobilized by childhood abuse. All of Rice's

vampire books, in fact, tap deftly into various Zeitgeist motifs, which no
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 173

doubt accounts for their wide popularity. The growing visibility of HOMO-
SEXUALITY in culture during the 1980s and 1990s against the grim back-
drop of the AIDS (q.v.) epidemic is consciously transformed in Rice's
novels into a kind of supernaturalized male eroticism that survives death; it

should come as no surprise that Rice has a vast and devoted gay male read-
ership — not an insignificant market in literary publishing. (Lesbians, how-
ever, seem fairly indifferent to Rice; the introduction to a recent collection
of lesbian vampire stories, Daughters of Darkness, fails to mention her
even in passing in its introductory overview.)
The third book of the series, The Queen of the Damned, takes on radical

feminism, arguing to spare male sexuality from a final solution as a con-

clave of politically self-assured vampires gathers in a mountain retreat to
decide the fate of the world a la Atlas Shrugged. Like Ayn Rand, Rice is,

for a woman writer, rather extraordinarily preoccupied with male sexuality

and male prerogatives and privilege. A hypothetical leftist critique of Rice
might well accuse her of collaborationist tendencies, but no such screed
has yet appeared. It may be that Rice's simple power and visibility as an
icon of the successful "woman writer" somehow protects her against fem-
inist attack. For instance, when Rice publicly defended Brett Easton Ellis'

allegedly misogynist novel American Psycho from assaults by feminist cen-

sors, not a peep was raised against her. Nor has
Rice's sideline identity as the sadomasochistic
pornographer A. N. Roquelaure (The Claiming
of Sleeping Beauty, etc.) prompted any visible

feminist debate about the political implications of

eroticized sexual domination (see also rape).

jM^k Vampires, of course, have the uncanny ability

to deflect and displace and defang all kinds of

mfm^m scary sexual issues. Take, for instance, the striking

lm preponderance of obese women drawn to horror
^^^m^^m I literature, gothic music, and Anne Rice in partic-
f / ular. Don't take my word for it: check out the

The dust jacket of Katherine Ramsland' 1991

biography, Prism of the Night.
(Courtesy of Dutton/Penguin USA)
1 74 David J. Skal

marathon- length lines for Rice's next autograph signing (or any other
"gothic" event) and come to your own conclusions about displaced oral
aggression, the relationship between vampirism and eating disorders, and
the curious gratification presumably straight women (commonly, if un-
charitably, known as "fag hags") derive from fantastically neutered depic-
tions of male-male sex. The plunging necklines and corpse-white makeup
these women typically affect for their moment of communion with Anne
Rice says it all: "I want to be sexual, but my sexuality is dead."
All this said, Interview with the Vampire is still one hell of a good read;
while more ambitious in scope, the three (so far) follow-ups each seemed
to take about a hundred pages to get rolling, as if the author was doing
finger exercises and her publisher was too intimidated by all the money
pouring in to even bring up the subject of editing. Rice rankles a lot of
critics with the trademark against-the-grain ripeness of her prose, but by
eschewing the fashionably anorectic style of much literary fiction today,
Rice (like Stephen King) manages to attract a silent majority readership
that may well avoid fiction approved by the critical establishment because
it seems, well, vampirized of texture, emotion, and color. The results, of-

fered to readers long starved for nourishment, can prove addictive. Hu-
morist Garrison Keillor produced an extremely funny 1994 Prairie Home
Companion skit about a man on a date with a woman who can't stop talk-
ing about her passion for Anne Rice (with inspired droning patter along
the lines of: "I know people say Anne Rice, vampires, ick, but I know if
they just read her books I know they wouldn't feel that way, I've read all

her books ten times, she's the only writer I even bother to read anymore,"
etc., etc., etc.).

Rice is the subject of an informative, though perhaps overly worshipful,

1991 biography by Katherine Ramsland, Prism of the Night. Ramsland's
book may well demonstrate some of the built-in dangers of authorized bi-
ographies, but its Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous emphasis on the details
of Rice's contracts, advances, and real estate acquisitions shows that Anne
Rice may have become herself embalmed in the vampire mystique. Her
enviable success and unimaginable earnings blur in the minds of her fans
with the vampire's traditional appeal as a symbol of power, privilege, and
transcendence — if not from literal mortality, then at least from the stag-

nant economic death-in-life that awaits more Americans than not at the
millennium.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 75

Robles, German
A foxy-faced Mexican actor, Robles became Mexico's answer to Bela Lu-
GOSI with his inspired impersonation of a caped, medallioned bloodsucker
inThe Vampire (1958) and The Vampire's Coffin (1959), and related
The Lurking Vampire (1960) and the vampirish camp classic
roles in

The Brainiac (1959). Evidently, he's still working. Has anyone seen him
recently?

"Room in the Tower, The"

Fiction, UK 1912. E. F. Benson's classic short story has been widely an-
thologized, and with good reason: its chilling evocation of the vampire's
primal roots in nightmares is almost without parallel in the horror genre.
A young man's recurrent, shape -shifting dream of being a house guest led
to a terrifying room in a tower leads to an unforgettable real-life encounter
with a female vampire. The story still has the power to induce gooseflesh
in broad daylight — trust me. Read it at night in an empty house at your
own peril. See also "Mrs. Amworth."

Ruthven, Lord
The seminal vampire in English literature, inspired by Lord Byron but re-

alized by Byron's physician John Polidori in his 1819 short story "The
Vampyre," Lord Ruthven (pronounced RUH-ven) is the very prototype
of Romantic male vampirism, his image of brooding seduction casting a

long shadow over nineteenth-century literature, opera, and THEATER.

When Bram Stoker penned his novel Dracula in 1897, he sought to
create a new kind of vampire icon, more a literal than figurative lady-killer,
a repulsive creature who wasted no time with social niceties. Although
Stoker's novel has been one of the century's longest- running literary sen-
sations, Ruthven has nonetheless won out — almost all stage and film adap-
tations of Dracula have discarded Stoker's Darwinian animal and reached
back to Ruthven for their characterizations of the count. Ruthven has
more recently lent his name to the Lord Ruthven Assembly, a special in-

terest group of the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts,

comprised of writers and academics with a special interest in revenant fig-

ures in literature and the arts.

 D
"Sad Story of a Vampire, The"
Short Story, UK 1894. An evocative tale by Stanislaus Eric, Count Sten-
bock, "The Sad Story of a Vampire" might be considered a gay-pederast
counterpart to the protagonist of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire
story"Carmilla." Both are set in the literary vampireland of Styria
(where Bram Stoker, in fact, first intended to set his novel Dracula,
before settlingon Transylvania). Stenbock introduces the mysterious
Count Vardalek, whose attentions and kisses drain and destroy a beauti-
ful boy named Gabriel. The family is singularly obtuse and at no point

even questions why the count kisses the child on the mouth, feels his
pulse, somehow looks so much younger himself after spending time with
his youthful friend, etc. The story is an interesting demonstration of how
the denial or repression of homosexuality can rebound negatively as
vampire fantasy. See also lesbianism.

Sadomasochism
The sizable overlap between vampire fans and S & M
aficionados is due in
no small part, I suspect, to Anne Rice's dual influence as best-selling vam-
pire author and best-selling sadomasochistic pornographer. S & M, often
romanticized by its practitioners as a renegade activity, is in reality a de-
pressingly status-quo fantasyland where real-world power imbalances are
erotically celebrated and thereby reinforced and perpetuated. But it's

probably not surprising, in this age of increasing economic disparities and

a creeping master-slave corporate ethos, that vampires and other ritual fig-

ures of domination/exploitation should be so culturally potent. See also

BLOOD FETISHISM; CLASS WARFARE.
1 78 David J. Skal

'Salem's Lot
Fiction, USA 1975. Owen Wister, the best-selling turn-of-the-century
novelist whose most famous book was The Virginian, announced about
1902 that he was writing an American vampire epic to rival Dracula.
Wister, of course, never wrote his book, and it was left to Stephen King to
finally exploit the Dracula formula in a completely American context. Like

Bram STOKER in 1897, King in 1975 introduced his undead evil into
a completely recognizable contemporary setting: in this case 'Salem's

(Jerusalem's) Lot, the postcard-perfect evocation of a classic small town in

New England. The book was adapted as a four-hour television movie in
1979, directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul, James Mason,
Lance Kerwin, and Bonnie Bedelia. Paul Monash's script was fairly faithful
to the book, but opted to transform the main vampire, Barlow, from a
human-seeming antique dealer to an over-the-top NosFERATU-'mspircA
bogeyman. T
The book's cinematic ripples continued, less successfully, with Larry
Cohen's A Return to 'Salem's Lot (1987).

Satanic Rites of Dracula

Cinema, UK 1973. The Hammer series of Dracula films starring
Christopher Lee dead-ended in this strained studio attempt to prolong
the vampire's life. Peter CUSHING, as a descendant of the original vampire
hunter Abraham Van Helsing, exposes Dracula's updated identity as a
corporate tycoon dabbling in germ warfare. At the climax, tangled in a
vampire -repelling hawthorn bush, Lee sports a Christlikecrown of thorns
and stigmatalike wounds —the kind of would
isolated, inspired detail that
have been better used in a better picture. Directed by Alan Gibson from a
script by Dan Houghton. (Hammer/Warner Bros.)V

Scars of Dracula
Cinema, UK 1970. A one-shot attempt by Hammer Films to produce a
Dracula film with no Lee ve-
story connection to the other Christopher
hicles. It seems a litrie him flogging a ser-
beneath Dracula's dignity to see

vant or stabbing a victim with a knife, but Lee does what the script calls
for. Perhaps the most interesting historical point of Scars of Dracula is its

first time ever depiction of one of the most memorable scenes in Bram
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 79

Max Schreck, the original movie Dracula in Nosferatu,

seen here without his horrifying makeup.
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)

Stoker's novel —the sight of Dracula crawling

headfirst down the wall of his castle like a lizard
or a bat. Directed by Roy Ward Baker. Script
by John Elder. With Dennis Waterman, Jenny
Hanley, and Christopher Matthews. (Hammer/
MGM/EMI)T

Schreck, Max
German stage and screen actor, born in Berlin in

1879, Max Schreck is best known for his imper-

sonation of the unforgettably verminous Count
Orlock in F. W. Murnau's 1922 film classic
Nosferatu. Schreck —the name means "terror" in German — gave up con-
ventional business aspirations to train for the stage and was a member of
Max Reinhardt's celebrated repertory ensemble before entering films. He
continued working on stage and screen until the year of his death; his final

film was Dieletzten Vier von Santa Cruz in 1936. He left a widow, the ac-

tress Fanny Normann. His name (which, despite its horror connotations,
was his real one) is occasionally appropriated, winkingly, for outlandish
characters in fantasy and horror films; most recently, Max Schreck was the
name of the slimy tycoon played by Christopher Walken in Tim Burton's
Batman Returns (1992)

Son of Dracula
Cinema, USA 1943. Lon Chaney, Sr., who died on the eve of being cast in

Universal's original Dracula, might made an unusual and in-

well have
teresting vampire count, but his son Creighton, better known as Lon
Chaney, Jr., is excruciatingly miscast in this otherwise well-produced entry
in the wartime Universal horrorcycle. As Count Alucard (yeah, groan;
but, hey, was the first time) Chaney has a painted expression on his face
it

throughout most of the film, atmospherically photographed by George

Robinson, gifted cameraman of Universal's 1931 Spanish-language version
1 80 David J. Skal

Lon Chaney, and Louise Albritton in

Jr.,

Son of Dracula. (Photofest)

of Dracula, Dracula's Daughter

(1936), Son of Frankenstein (1939),
and many others. One of the eeriest se-
quences has Alucard standing in his

open coffin, which floats across a foggy

bayou toward his undead bride-to-be.
Directed by Robert Siodmak, from a

screenplay by Eric Taylor based on a

story by Curt Siodmak. With Louise

Albritton, George Irving, and Robert
Paige. ( Universal )
Stake, wooden
The classic instrument for destroying vampires is a stake, usually driven
through the heart. (A curious variation on the time-honored stake shows
up in the 1960 film Black Sunday, where a sharpened twig is used to
penetrate the vampire's eye.) On a literal level, the stake is a physical

means of pinning the vampire to its grave; on a more metaphorical

plane, the stake is an unmistakable phallic symbol which makes clear the
displaced, transformed sexuality of vampire beliefs in general. The vam-
pire, in other words, is a kind of symbolic sex itch that can be de-
stroyed/dispelled by a symbolic act of sexual penetration. If you're
having trouble with kind of analysis, the next time you read Drac-
this

ula, try thinking of the band of vampire-killers as a Mad Hatter's party

of dangerously hysterical Victorian men, stalking their virginal prey with
croquet mallets and sharpened dildos, and see if that doesn't make
things a tad more transparent.

Stoker, Bram
The world-famous author of Dracula remains a tantalizing enigma for
—
modern literary commentators while Bram Stoker wrote voluminous
quantities of popular fiction (not to mention business correspondence), he
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 181

revealed almost nothing about his own personality or the thematic inten-
tions of his novels. His friend Hall Caine, himself a best-selling novelist, re-
called in 1912 the "big, breathless, impetuous hurricane of a man who was
Bram Stoker had no love of the limelight. . . . He took no vain view of his
efforts as an author." As his biographer Harry Ludlam put it, Stoker "shrank

from personal publicity as his vampire creation hid from the sun ." . .

Therefore, the writer has ended up a kind of blank canvas on to which crit-
ics (including this one) are tempted to project all manner of their own

obsessions.
As for the facts of Stoker's life, he was born in Dublin, Ireland, in
1847, the third of seven children, and suffered from a long, peculiar, and
possibly even hysterical paralysis which, by Stoker's account, left him com-
pletely bedridden until the age of seven (but somehow did nothing to
prevent him from developing later into an accomplished athlete). Stoker
was educated at Trinity College, was active in the Trinity Philosophical
Society (where he sponsored the membership of his friend Oscar Wilde),
and became a devoted, public partisan of Walt Whitman, to whom he
wrote long, passionate missives: "How sweet a thing it is for a strong
healthy man with a woman's eyes and a child's wishes to feel he can speak
to a man who can be if he wishes father, and brother and wife to his soul."
Stoker's susceptibility to male charisma reached a climax in his profes-
sional association with the actor Henry Irving, who rescued him from
the life of a Dublin petty-clerk and part-time
theater critic, ensconcing him as second-in-
command of his company at the Royal Lyceum
Theatre in London. The critical moment be-
tween the men seems to have occurred in
1876 when Stoker, then twenty-eight years
old, had a hysterical fit following one of
living's intensely emotional dramatic recita-
tions. The actor likely sensed that Stoker's
rapt response to his art, coupled with his love
of the theater and general business acumen,
would be useful in helping establish his the-

Bram Stoker
1 82 David J. Skal

atrical dominion over London. Stoker devoted his life to Irving for three
decades, writing melodramatic fiction as a sideline; Hall Caine later wrote
that "I say without hesitation that never have I seen, never do I expect to
see, such absorption of one man's life in the life of another . . . with living's
life, poor Bram's had really ended." The vampirelike dynamics of Stoker's
relationship with Irving have been widely commented upon as having in-

fluenced the composition of Dracula; indeed, Stoker himself revealed to a

Chicago theater critic at the turn of the century that he intended Dracula
as a composite of Irving characterizations and tried vainly to convince the
actor to play the role (One wonders whether Stoker would have
on stage.
liked to appear on whether he would be most drawn
stage with him, and
to the role of Renfield, Jonathan Harker, or the vampire -destroyer
—
Abraham the full form of "Bram" Van Helsing.) Though snubbed by
Irving as a theater vehicle, Dracula found a wide popular audience and is

the only one of Stoker's books to have remained steadily in print. But his
royalties could not really sustain him after Irving's death in 1906 and the

dissolution of the Lyceum company. Stoker died, semi -impoverished, six

years after Irving; his death certificate lists the main cause of death as "lo-

comotor ataxia," a polite medical description of tertiary syphilis. Stoker's

second biographer (and great-nephew) Daniel Farson caused some con-
sternation among Stoker's descendants with this revelation, and his specu-
lation that the infection was contracted from a prostitute.

Farson didn't, however, speculate on the putative prostitute's sex. For

a long time, even after some groundbreaking psychoanalytic criticism be-
ginning in the 1950s, critics approached Stoker's imagination with the
strictest heterosexual presumptions —odd, indeed, for a subject so thor-
oughly consumed by the theater, so enamored of Walt Whitman, and
whose life was tangled with personal and professional connections, paral-
lels, and rivalries to Oscar Wilde (see my book Hollywood Gothic for their
complete enumeration). Stoker had, by some accounts, a cold and ulti-

mately sexless marriage to Wilde's former female heartthrob, and one

must wonder about the degree to which his fascination with her over-
lapped with a fascination for Wilde himself (see Stoker, Florence).
Dracula, at the very least, evinces an explosive hatred of anything but a
theatrically decorative female sexuality; the real business in the story is by,
for, and among the men, who use women's bodies as a kind of glory-hole
graveyard wall for their essentially male-male transactions and transfusions.
(It is perhaps significant that the single, outstanding line of dialogue Stoker
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 83

set down in his initial working notes for Dracula was "This man is mine!")
A turning point in Dracula criticism occurred in 1984 with the publica-
tion of Christopher Craft's essay "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips: Gender
and Inversion in Dracula" wherein the author brilliantly argued that the
surface heterosexuality of the novel was indeed but a veneer. After Drac-
ula\ publication, Wilde's friend and once-lover Robert Ross named his
London showcase for homosexual artists the Carfax Gallery —the only
artistic appropriation of the name "Carfax" in late Victorian London other
than one of Dracula's English haunts in Stoker's novel. Raymond Hunt-
ley, the English actor who most successfully played Dracula in England
and America, eclipsing even Bela Lugosi's total number of performances
during the 1920s, told me in 1989, with one eyebrow raised, that it was
"news to me that Bram Stoker had ever married," when I brought up the
subject of his wife Florence. Huntley died shortly afterward, before the
possible implications of his comment had dawned on me. But Huntley's
association with dozen years after Stoker's death,
Dracula began only a

when the author's memory would have been still quite alive in theatrical
London. (In contemporary terms, the burly, bearded Bram is the perfect
embodiment of the modern homosexual type known as a "bear";
physical
I don't, however, know whether London's "Uranian" circles of the 1890s
compartmentalized men quite so strictly.)
While finishing Hollywood Gothic, I spent several frustrating months
trying to verify a story that had originated in a prominent gay Hollywood
circle; namely, that Stoker, during one of his last American tours with the
Lyceum company (during which he kept discreetly separate lodgings),
had become infatuated with the youngest son of a prominent American
theatrical family, much to the family's horror. Did the young actor re-

ciprocate the older man's attentions? If he did, were the later infant
deaths of not one but two of the actor's children and his own later pa-

ralysis related in any way to the syphilis that likely killed Stoker? Had his

legendary actress sister, in a fatally promote the

misguided effort to
young man's theatrical career, unwittingly pimped her baby brother to
Dracula? The story got nuttier and nuttier as I pursued it, and I was never
able to conclusively place the men together (or, for that matter, apart).
But whether or not the story is true is almost beside the real point:

Stoker's literary imagination, epitomized in Dracula but palpable in

other works as well, is a bleeding bottomless pit of bisexual ambivalence.

The "truth" of this material is likely beyond the purview and discipline of
1 84 David J. Skal

documentablc biography . . . but just think what a film director like Ken
Russell could do with it.

Stoker, Florence
The beautiful, real-life bride of Dracula was Florence Anne Lemon Bal-
combe of Clontarf, Dublin, who discouraged the romantic attentions of a
near-penniless Oscar Wilde and waited instead for a proposal from Os-
car's Trinity College friend Bram STOKER, who was simultaneously plan-
ning a professional elopement with the actor Henry Irving. Florence
seems to have been a most decorative society hostess and a distinct asset to

Stoker's social climbing (as was he to hers), but most biographical ac-

counts of her are cold and unflattering. Daniel Farson, in The Man Who
Wrote Dracula, describes her as frigid, so repulsed by sex after giving birth
to her only child that she may have driven Bram into the arms of the extra-
marital SYPHILIS that killed him. In Harry Ludlam's early book, A Biogra-
phy of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker, written in cooperation with
the Stokers' son Noel, she never emerges as more than a walk-on, her
striking absence from the narrative perhaps reflecting the quality of her re-

lationship with her only child. My own delving into Florence Stoker's life

began with her obsessive, eight-year-long legal battle to suppress and de-
stroy all prints and negatives of the 1922 German film Nosferatu —a pla-
giarized adaptation of her husband's book, the unpredictable royalties of
which had become very nearly her only source of income. The single-
minded, take-no-prisoners ferocity of her attack on the celluloid vampire
may, in retrospect, speak volumes about the fanged she-demons Bram
Stoker perceived lurking behind demure Victorian femininity. The late Vin-
cent Price, who met Mrs. Stoker in 1935, told me she was "still quite beau-
tiful" in her old age. Good bone structure may have had something to do
with it, but given the centrality of vampires in Florence Stoker's later life,

one must wonder about more supernatural forms of preservation as well!

Subspecies
Cinema, USA/Romania 1990. The first feature film shot in Romania after

the downfall of Nikolai "Dracula" Ceaucescu was, appropriately, a vampire

picture. Subspecies is distinguished by some evocative location photography
which gives the impression of a much bigger budget, and some wonderful
Nosfera TV- style slithering- shadow visuals. But the good vampire/bad
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 185

vampire dialectic has been cropping up too frequently elsewhere in recent

years to seem at all fresh. The "subspecies" themselves — unintentionally

whimsical stop-motion imps who guard a powerful "bloodstone" —seem
grafted on from some other movie. Directed by Ted Nicolaou. Script by
Jackson Barr and David Pabian. With Michael Watson, Laura Tate, and
Anders Hove. (Full Moon Entertainment/Paramount Home Video)T

Succubus
The female equivalent of the INCUBUS, a sexually draining night-demon
that is a prototype of the modern vampire. The word never fails to get a
titter out of audiences, no doubt because it starts out with a homophone
for "suck."

Summers, Montague
An English scholar (1880-1947), Montague Summers was best known for

his groundbreaking book-length histories of vampires, werewolves, and

witchcraft. Although their overall reliability is a bit questionable (they

sometimes strive to impress with big chunks of untranslated Latin, etc.),

The Vampire, His Kith and Kin (1928) and The

Vampire in Europe (1929) are often reprinted
and are still frequently cited for their detailed
accounts of eighteenth-century vampire hysteria
(which he treats as fact, not superstition). Sum-
mers affected clerical robes and attitudes, but
does not seem to have ever gotten further than a

deaconship, possibly because of his membership

in the quasi-Masonic circle of Victorian homosex-

uals known as the Order of Chaeronea. Summers,

therefore, provides yet another link in the histori-
cal, thematic correspondence between vampires
and HOMOSEXUALITY.

Montague Summers.
1 86 David J. Skal

Syphilis
The venereal scourge of Victorian times, syphilis was the AIDS epidemic
of its time and, like AIDS, fueled much of the era's fascination with vam-
pires and dangerous, fatal sexuality. A story like DRACULA can be read as

an almost transparent syphilis parable; its images of wanton women, con-

taminated blood, telltale skin lesions, and pseudoscientific "cures" res-
onating powerfully with widespread panic about sexual contagion, the
demonization of prostitutes, and the attendant rise of blood -purifying
quack doctors. One of Draculpfs more memorable scenes, in which the
men take turns transfusing the vampire -tainted Lucy Westenra, is a ritual
enactment of the anxiety described by Elaine Showalter in her pertinent
book Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Steele: "The pros-
titute's body was the vessel in which men discharged and mingled pollut-

ing fluids . . . hostility toward the prostitute could be generalized to apply

to all women." Lucy's transfusions are significantly followed by savage
hostility meted out by the same group of men: a sexually charged mutila-
tion by hammer, stake, and knife as overwrought as any of Jack the Rip-
per's prostitute predations. (One theory of the Ripper's crimes suggested
that the killer himself had contracted syphilis from a prostitute.) It is es-

pecially fascinating that a straightforward dramatic treatment of syphilis,

such as Ibsen's Ghosts (1891), met with public outrage over its suppos-
edly indecent subject matter, but the same theme, veiled only slightly by
penny-dreadful fantasy trappings, was considered harmless popular enter-
tainment. See also prostitution.
Tale of a Vampire
Cinema, UK/Japan 1992. All those undead overtones in Edgar Allan
Poe's stories and poems about necrophilish lady-loves are stylishly recy-
cled into a thoroughly modern melodrama with Poe himself as a vampire
in search of his reincarnated love. (Since the character finally revealed to

be Poe doesn't resemble him in the slightest, I'm not really giving away
much here.) Julian Sands turns in his usual, dependably geeky perfor-
mance; the neck-guzzling is so convincingly simulated that the film teeters
at the edge of being porn for the hardcore blood fetishism crowd. Instead
of a coffin, the vampire favors an ornate, gauze-draped bed. Shimako Sato
With Suzanne
directed his feature debut, coscripting with Jane Corbett.
Hamilton and Kenneth Cranham. (Tsiuburaya Eizo/State Screen)T

Tale of the Body Thief, The

See Rice, Anne.

Taste the Blood of Dracula

Cinema, UK 1969. "You you drink the filth!" Lines like that make Taste
the Blood of Dracula especially wonderful. A group of hypocritical Victorian
men — the kind who hold their wives and daughters to all manner of strait-
laced regulations while spending all their own spare time sniffing around
brothels —seek out increasingly kinky kicks and end up devil-worshiping,
playing games with Dracula's cape and a packet of his powdered blood, with
the results you'd expect. The most egregiously overprotected daughter gets
to ram a stake through her father's heart before it's all over, and you'll
cheer, too. Directed by Peter Sasdy; screenplay by Anthony Hickox and
188 DavidJ.Skal

John Burgess. With Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford, Linda Hayden, and
Peter Sallis. (Hammer/Warner Bros.)T

Television
The great technological vampire of modern times, television rests in a box
and is especially active at night, when it mesmerizes us with a baleful gaze.
Like a vampiric encounter, television is about living vicariously in a dead-
ened trance state. In his against- the -grain book, Four Arguments for the
Elimination of Television (1978), Jerry Mander lists typical phrases used by
Americans to describe their relationships with the tube: "I feel hypno-
tized," "Television sucks my energy," "My kids look like zombies when
they're watching it." Recalling his own experiences, the former advertising
executive wrote,

Even if the program I'd been watching had been of some particular
interest, the experience felt "antilife," as though I'd been drained in

some way, or I'd been used. I came away feeling a kind of internal
deadening, as if my whole physical being had gone dormant, the victim
of a vague soft assault. The longer I watched, the worse I'd feel. After-
ward, there was nearly always the desire to go outdoors or go to sleep,
to recover my strength and my feelings.

In the early 1950s, as television invaded America the way Dracula

wished he could have invaded England, vampires of the bloodsucking vari-

ety began to turn up regularly on

the airwaves, like sprites or famil-
^^ggp
iars. The original television horror
movie hostess was Vampira, whose
cartoony persona kept her fans
glued to their sets. Bela Lugosi
himself appeared on You Asked for
It at the request of a California

Denholm Elliott displays his wares in the

1969 BBC adaptation of Dracula.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 89

Bob Denver on Gilligan's Island. Tiny Tim on Love, American Style

housewife — for whom newfangled awakened a nostal-

television, perhaps,

gia for low-tech leeching of the Lugosi kind. Dracula

itself was produced

as an NBC Matinee Theater episode starring John Carradine as the count.

I have already recounted my own memories of Durward Kirby and Carol

Burnett bringing vampires into the homes of millions via The Garry Moore
Show in the introduction to this book. In the 1960s, The Munsters comedy
series featured a half-vampire family of prime-time monsters, and home-

makers with nothing better to do weekday afternoons began to eagerly con-

sume images of living death on ABC-TV's Dark Shadows. Popular sixties
series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, and F Troop found ways

—
to feature vampires even Gilligan's Island's Bob Denver found an excuse
to don a cape and widow's peak.
By the 1970s, vampires were appearing everywhere: the excellent tele-
vision appendix to Stephen Jones' The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide
lists over forty entries for the seventies alone. The most influential pro-

duction of this period was probably ABC's vampire-in-Vegas-themed

The Night Stalker 1971 ), which broke all ratings records for a made-for-
(

television movie when it first aired. The Night Stalker spun off a series,
1 90 David J. Skal

Ben Cross the Dark Shadows

revival. (Photofest)

and in 1974, a second TV vampire fea-

ture. Notable tele-vampires of the eighties

and nineties include the TV movie Nick
Knight (1989) and its spin-off series For-
ever Knight (1992), the Nightmare Clas-
sics adaptation of "Carmilla" (1989), the

made-for-cable horror comedy Nightlife

—
(1989) in which Ben Cross' vampire role
seems to have had something with his be-
ing cast as Barnabas Collins in NBC's ill-

fated 1990 revival of Dark Shadows and —

the BBC's clever updating of Marschner's
1827 OPERA Der Vamfyr as The Vampyr:
A Soap Opera (1992).

Theater
Since the Romantic ferment of the early 1800s, the vampire has been dear
to the heart of theatrical melodrama; John Polidori's 1819 story "The
Vampyre" inspired at least seven stage adaptations and two operas during
the 1800s. The first and most influential was Le Vampire (1820), by the
French Romantic writer Charles Nodier, which was reworked in English
by James Robinson Planche The Vampire, or the Bride of the Isles
as

(1820). Two Parisian burlesques of Nodier, one by Martinet and the

other by Scribe and Melesville, also appeared in 1820, creating a virtual
vampire mania on the Parisian stage. (Readers of Anne RlCE will recognize
here the seeds of one of her most memorable settings, Le Theatre des
Vampires, wherein vampires like Lestat present themselves semi-openly to
postrevolutionary Parisian audiences as metaphors for aristocratic oppres-
sion.)Other vampire dramas and farces of this period include Les Trois
Vampires ou le clair de lune (1820) by Brazier, Gabriel and Armand;

Cadet Buiteux, vampire (1820) by Desaugiers; and George Blink's The

Vampire Bride, or the Tenant of the Tomb (c. 1820).
 VIS FOR VAMPIRE 191

The basic Polidori/Nodier plot was adapted and revived in France and
England in 1851 by Alexandre Dumas and Dion BouciCAULT, respec-
tively; Boucicault later shortened his play and toured it to America as The
Phantom (1856). But aside from occasional revivals, new vampires were
largely absent Hamilton Deane's 1924 stage adapta-
from the stage until

tion of Dracula, American audiences by John L.

later rewritten for

Balderston. Dracula: The Vampire Play was an enormous transatlantic

success; adapted to the Cinema in 1931, it inaugurated the modern hor-
ror film —a vast, influential genre. The bulk of vampire theater since has, in
fact, been Dracula- derived., in addition to the Deane/Balderston script,

there are dozens of alternate adaptations now

One, Count Drac-
available.

ula by Ted Tiller, enjoyed a great popularity in American regional theaters

in the 1970s. The 1977 Broadway revival of the Deane/Balderston play,
with whimsical sets by Edward Gorey and a commanding title perfor-
mance by Frank Langella, was the most successful and lucrative vampire
event ever mounted in the theater. More recent efforts, such as Charles
Busch's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (1985), tend to be campy comedies.
Beginning in 1993, a Grand-Guignolesque series of kinky, in-your-face
vampire playlets were presented to overflowing midnight audiences by a
New York company called the Commedia del Sangue. See also cloaks
and capes; Countess Dracula; Dracula: A Musical Nightmare;
Dracula: A Pain in the Neck; Huntley, Raymond; Lugosi, Bela;
Opera.

To Sleep with a Vampire

See Dance of the Damned.

"Transfer, The"
Short story, UK 1912. Algernon Blackwood's imaginatively original story
features not one but two "vampires" —the first, a psychic sponge named
Mr. Frene:

... a man who drooped alone, but grew vital in a crowd . . . He vam-
pired, unknowingly, no doubt, everyone with whom he came in con-

tact; left them exhausted, tired, listless ... he took your ideas, your
strength, your very words, and later used them for his own benefit and

aggrandizement. Not evilly, of course; the man was good enough; but
Dorothy Peterson and Terrence Neill
the original Broadway production of

*P5^s^^"

Daniel Day Lewis in Chris Bond's stag*

adaptation of Dracula.

Christopher Birnau in The

La Commedia del Sangue:
Shaunte Dawn Steele and Troy Ac
>: Tina Colui

David Wurst and Bonnie Mcleod in Ohio

Iniversity's 1971 production of Dr

(Courtesy of Ohio University Archi

1 94 David J. Skal

you felt he was dangerous owing to the facile way he absorbed into
himself all loose vitality that was to be had. His eyes and voice and
presence devitalized you. Life, it seemed, not highly organized enough
to resist, must shrink from his too near approach and hide away for fear
of being appropriated, for fear, that is, of —death.
Mr. Frene's rival vampire and comeuppance is a barren patch of earth
in an old rose garden, itself hungry for vitality. When Mr. Frene strays too
close, the starved earth devours him and is transformed into a lush and
verdant plot, "very strong, full-fed, and bursting thick with life." Black-
wood's story resonates by its identification of the vampire with identifiably
predatory aspects of human psychology and the larger, devouring image of
nature and its cruel and inescapable interdependencies.

Transylvania
Its name meaning "across the forest," Transylvania is now one of the ma-
jor regions of Romania, formerly of Hungary. Bram Stoker, in research-

Dracula, apparently drew upon folklorist Emily Gerard's

ing his novel
1888 book The Land Beyond the Forest in selecting Transylvania as the
home of his vampire warlord (see also Nosferatu). (During Stoker's
time, Transylvania was a Hungarian province; Dracula, in fact, refers to
himself at one point as a Szekeley, even though the name "Dracula" is Ro-
manian in origin —see Vlad THE IMPALER.) At some point in Dracula' s
composition, Stoker switched the name of
homeland from his Dracula's
earlier choice, Styria —an old region of Austria
had previously been that
the setting of Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and Stenbock's "Sad
Story of a Vampire." The word "Transylvania" is certainly the better
choice: the region's name connotes the sense of a journey, transition, or
initiation involving a descent into, or encounter with, wildness. In the past
century, of course, Transylvania has become a pop culture dumping
ground for just about every monster under the sun —not just vampires,
but just as frequently Frankensteins, mummies, werewolves, etc. The lo-

cale is, nowadays, typically evoked for comedy, as in the movie spoof titles
Transylvania Twist (1989) and Transylvania 6-5000 (1985).
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 1 95

Twins of Evil
Cinema, UK 1971. Hammer's final installment of its three-part exploration
of the "Carmilla" The Vampire Lovers (1970)
story, previously including

and Lust for A Vampire (1970) This film continues Hammer's exploita-
.

tion of LESBIANISM as a profitable horror formula and mixes vampire con-

ventions with the trappings of Puritan witch hysteria. Peter Cusheng is

memorable as the hypocritical witch-finder, Gustav Weil, whose pious fa-

naticism thinly covers his own, nonsupernatural form of bloodlust. John

Hough directed Anthony Tudor's screenplay. With Madeleine and Mary
Collinson (as the twins), Kathleen Byron, and Dennis Price. (Hammer/
Universal )T
 u
Uncle Was a Vampire
Cinema, Italy 1959. Iam mentioning this film for two reasons: first, it
features actor Christopher Lee in a DRACULA-parodying role; and second,
because there is nothing else to fill out this alphabetical listing. The ori-
ginal title of was Hard Times for Vampires, which pretty much
this film

—
sums up the letter U and the film itself. Directed by "Steno" (Stefano
Venzina) from a script by Edoardo Anton, Dino Verde, and Alessandro
Continenza. With Renato Rascel as the nephew. (Maxima Film/Cei Incom/
Montflour Film)
 1

Valley of the Zombies

Cinema, USA 1946. The most interesting thing about this cheapie is the
presence of actor Ian Keith as a vampire named Ormand Murks, who takes
— and then thoughtfully replaces with embalm-
the blood of his victims it

ing fluid. Keith lost out at the eleventh hour to Bela Lugosi for the role of
Dracula not once but twice — both Tod Browning's 1931
in well film as
as the1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Keith,
well known for his Shakespearean stage roles, here demonstrates some
eye-popping histrionics (aided by shameless under- the -chin lighting). If
you squint, you might get a murky approximation of the Dracula-that-
almost-was. Anticlimactically, it takes but a normal bullet to dispatch him.
McGowan and Stuart Mac-
Directed by Philip Ford. Screenplay by D.
Gowan. With Robert Livingston, Adrian Booth, and Thomas Jackson.
(Republic Pictures)

Vamp
Cinema, USA 1986. Amazonian disco diva Grace Jones embodies vora-
cious, phallic femininity that nerdy college guys find both scary and hot
all the hotter because of the scariness. A trio of frat brothers go to the big
city looking for a stripper to bring back for a campus party. They find
Jones instead, a zillion-year-old Egyptian vampire who has party ideas all

her own. For a formula teen comedy, this is pretty passable. Directed by
Richard Wenk, from his own screenplay based on a story by Donald P.

Borchers. With Chris Makepeace, Sandy Baron, Robert Rusler, and Gedde
Watanabe. (Balcor Films/New World Pictures)T
200 David J. Skal

Maila Nurmi reprised her "Vampira"

characterization in Plan Nine from
Outer Space (1959), the celebrated
"worst movie of all time."
(Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/
Hollywood Movie Posters).

Vampira
The original television horror host-
ess, Vampira slinked her way into
cult- camp legend with her Charles
Addams-inspired persona and pat-
ter that struck a morbid chord for
Southern California audiences in

1954. Vampira was played by actress/model Maila Nurmi (niece of the

famed Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi), a wasp-waisted beauty who provided
corny commentary during commercial breaks in grade- Z (as opposed to
B) horror movies, a formula later widely imitated by television stations
across the country. Vampira's fame got a grim boost following the death
of her friend James Dean —scandal magazines absurdly painted her as

Dean's "Black Madonna," who dabbled in witchcraft and hexes and some-
how contributed to Dean's untimely demise. But Vampira's greatest pub-
lic exposure was to come from a most unlikely place: her mute appearance
in a film by Edward D. Wood, Jr., Plan Nine from Outer Space (1959), a
movie so dreadful that it has achieved a paradoxical pop culture immortal-
ity. Famed Vampira came out of retirement in the
for her reclusiveness,
1980s for a legal battle TV
horror hostess Elvira over alleged in-
with
fringement, pointing out similarities between the characters. Rather than
accept a settlement that would have relinquished all rights to the Vampira
character, Nurmi dropped her suit. In the 1988 film Midnight, Lynn
Redgrave played a television personality based loosely on Vampira; the
character (played by Lisa Marie) was directiy resurrected by filmmaker Tim
Burton for his 1994 extravaganza Ed Wood. See also television.

Vampire
The word vampire (or vampyre) entered the English language in 1732, ac-
cording to The Oxford English Dictionary, perhaps derived from the Turkish
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 20

word for witch, uber, and transformed in Slavic languages as upior, upir,
upyr, and, penultimately, vampyr and vampir. Matthew Bunson, author of
The Vampire Encyclopedia, suggests that another source may have been
the Lithuanian wempti — "to drink."
Vampire, The
Cinema, Mexico 1957. A lovingly wonderful fifties update on the Universal-
style vampires of the thirties and forties, right down to the widow's peak,
and hypnotic medallion sported by Mexican actor German Robles as
cape,
Count Lavud, whose corny bat transformations, accomplished with the
simplest reverse -angle editing, are indescribably delightful in their low- tech
inventiveness (and bring to mind all the opportunities for childish wonder
and belief-suspension that make movies so attractive in the first place). Fer-

nando Mendez directed. Screenplay by H. Rodriquez and Ramon Obon.

With Ariadna Welter, Abel Salazar, and July Danery. Rosario Solano's cob-
web-sensitive cinematography deserves special commendation. The film
was followed within a year by an equally entertaining sequel, The Vampire's
Coffin. (Salazar/Cinematografica ABSA/American International )
Vampire and the Ballerina, The
Cinema, Italy 1960. You won't believe the "rehearsals" that transpire
when a troupe of showgirls are billeted in a vampire's castle, surely the
nuttiest fantasy on dance training outside of Dario Argento's Suspiria
(1977). We never see the actual performance, just the jazzercise warmups
but the dead remain cool to the come-ons. There's a nifty sex-reversal of
Bela LUGOSl's classic staircase bit when the visitors encounter an undead
countess, and the climactic sunrise vampire meltdown is heavily influenced
by Horror of Dracula (1958). The some truly insane mo-
film contains
ments (such as a vampire who apparently infects a female victim just so he
can have someone to stake), and the papier-mache mask of the main villain
is one of the most unconvincing vampire visages ever devised for human

consumption. All in all, a film that expects you to be in, well, the proper
mood. It also amounts to a kind of deja-vu bookend for The Playgirls
and the Vampire, which also featured two of its lead performers. Directed
by Renato Polselli. Script by Polselli and Ernesto Gastaldi. With Walter
Brandi, Maria Luisa Rolando, and Helene Remy. (ACIF Consorzio/
United Artists)
202 David J. Skal

Vampire at Midnight
Cinema, USA 1987. It had to happen —psychobabble goes gothic! Imag-
ine a vampire shrink insisting he is "empowering" his victims to "break
through limits" and insisting on their "capacity to change." The ambience
is, ahem, drop-dead chic —instead of coffins, we get high-tech sculptural
black pallets surrounded by incense burners and bubble lights. This stuff is
smart and funny, and speaks volumes about the malignant undercurrents
of pop psychology and therapeutic predation. Directed by Gregory Mc-
Clatchy. Screenplay by Dulany Ross Clements. With Jason Williams, Gus-
tav Vintas, and Lesley Milne. (Key Video/Skouras International )
Vampire Bat, The
Cinema, USA 1933. The low- budget outfit Majestic Pictures filmed this
little charmer on the Universal backlot, and if you listen carefully, you will

hear at least three soundtrack bites from UniversaPs Dracula and

—
Frankenstein a wolf, dogs, carriage sounds, etc. Dwight Frye, Dracula's
memorable Mr. Renfield, here pushes the Renfield bit over the top as
Herman Gleib, a village halfwit scapegoated by the locals for the actual
blood -crimes of Dr. Otto van Niemann (Lionel Atwill). Fay Wray is the
female lead, though she doesn't display anywhere the lung-power she
brought to bear on King Kong and Mystery
of the Wax Museum. And while you listen
to the burgomeister (Lionel Belmore) wax
rhapsodic on vampire lore, ponder the fact
that Belmore himself once had a wonder-
connection to the most famous
fully direct

vampire promulgator of all time while a —

member of Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre
company, Belmore had his paychecks signed
by none other than Irving's devoted man-
Bram STOKER. With
ager, Dracula's creator,
Melvyn Douglas and Maude Eburne. Di- LIONEL /
rected by Frank Strayer. (Majestic Pictures )T ATWILL /
fAYWRAYV
The Vampire Bat: Advertising art for the 1933 filn
MtlVIN DOUGLM
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 203

Vampire Circus
Cinema, UK 1971. The Circus of Nights comes to town, but the townsfolk
are incredibly stupid —they keep coming back night after night to watch
circus performers turning literally into (acro)bats and were-panthers, but
somehow never connect this to the blood plague that is destroying their
village. Vampire Circus nonetheless conjures evocative metaphors of vam-
pirism as a dark carnival, alternately a kingdom of terror and a realm of
gaudy fascination. Directed by Robert Young. Screenplay by Judson Kin-
berg from a story by George Baxt and Wilbur Stark. With Adrienne Corri,
Laurence Payne, and Thorley Walters. (Hammer Films) T

Vampire Hunter D
Cinema, Japan 1985. Futuristic horror with all manner of graphic grue-
someness, and a mysterious vampire bounty hunter in the impassive, Clint
Eastwood mold. Definitely worth a look, especially if you haven't been ex-
posed to the stylized charms of Japanese animation. This ain't Count
Duckula. Directed by Tayoo Ashida. (Epic/Sony/Streamline Pictures)

Vampire in Brooklyn
Cinema, USA 1995. The less said about this the better. Released within a
few weeks of another lame spoof, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Vam-
pire in Brooklyn demonstrates that some ideas ought to stay buried. Di-
rected by Wes Craven from a screenplay by Charles Murphy, Michael
Lucker, and Chris Parker. With Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem
Hardison, and Zakes Mokae. (Paramount) T

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom

Theater, USA 1 985. Vampires are known for longevity, as playwright/per-
former Charles Busch proved with this cult comedy classic, which ran for
years off-Broadway. Two rival succubi of antiquity (one originally played
by Busch) set up shop in Hollywood, chewing necks and scenery in the
best drac-queen tradition. La Condesa, the elder succubus, shows off
Busch's peerless flair for bitchery in a characteristic speech:

Now you've really gone too far. You imagine yourself quite the cunning
vixen. You have delusions that you can conquer me. Hollywood is my
204 David J. Skal

town. For centuries, you have been an albatross around my neck. . . .

did I chose revenge? No. And why? because I am a great lady. I conduct
myself with dignity and grandeur whilst you roll in the gutter. You've
got as much glamour as a common street whore, and now, madame,
you have gone too far. I am the queen of the vampires and I shall never,

never, relinquish my hold on Hollywood!

" 'Impersonator' is too feeble a word for Mr. Busch," the New York
Times opined, "the female roles he creates are hilarious vamps, but also
high comic characters . . . the audience laughs at the first line and goes
right on laughing at every line to the end, and even at some of the
silences." See also homosexuality; lesbianism; theater.

Vampire Lovers, The

Cinema, UK 1970. The first of three adaptations of "Carmilla," The
Vampire Lovers marked a landmark move by Hammer Films from sexual
insinuation into overt eroticism. Polish-born beauty Ingrid Pitt is particu-
larly striking as a topless, deathless lesbian-vamp. The New York Times
took note of the film's unblinking Sapphism: "Sure, she entices and de-
stroys a couple of guys, but only because they're in her way en route to
those gorgeous girls. Miss Pitt, specifically, is a luscious brunette, who is

exposed in a nude scene and prowls about the rest of the time in a di-

aphanous shift that leaves little to the imagination. And her willing victims
... are just as nobly endowed. Vampirism, which has become a silly busi-

ness on the screen, is, at least, easy on the eyes in this case." Directed
by Roy Ward Baker. Screenplay by Tudor Gates. With Madeleine Smith,
Peter Cushing, Pippa Steele, George Cole, and Dawn Addams. (Hammer
Films) See also Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan; lesbianism.

Vampirella
A buxom, comic-book character, created in 1969 by Forrest J
scantily clad
Ackerman, best known as founding editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland

magazine. Inspired by the French comic character Barbarella, Vampirella

is a denizen of the dying planet Drakulon, where blood, rather than water,

is the basic element. Vampy's exploits on the blood-planet earth formed

the basis for the longest-running vampire comic book in history, with 112
issues in its original series (which ended in 1983). In the 1990s, Vam-
pirella continues to thrive in reprints and new graphic adventures. The
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 205

runner-up for vampire comic longevity is Marvel's Tomb of Dracula series,

which had a 70-issue run from 1972 to 1979.

Vampire's Kiss
Cinema, USA 1989. A landmarkfilm for two reasons: first, the lead actor
(Nicolas Cage) eats a live water bug on camera, carrying the quest for Ren-
FlELDesque realism to dizzying new heights; and, second, for being the first
film to deal with vampirism as a kind of metaphor for sexual harassment at
the office. Cage plays Peter Loew, a creepy literary agent who gets creepier
when he begins to believe that he's been bitten by a you-know-what. This
gives him the permission he needs to behave abominably toward his secre-

tary (Maria Conchita Alonso), the first move in a self- destructive binge that
ends with his sleeping under an overturned sofa and having his heart

spiked. Cage's performance here can make you itch, which may or may not
be a compliment. Directed by Robert Bierman. Screenplay by Joseph Min-
ion. With Jennifer Beals, Elizabeth Ashley (as the vampire's shrink), Kasi
Lemmons, and Bob Lujan. (Hemdale Pictures) T
Vampiri, I

Cinema, Italy 1 956. Director Mario Bava, best known for Black Sunday,
got his teeth wet on vampires while serving as cameraman for this moody
spin on the Erzebet Bathory legend; the nominal director, Riccardo
Freda, walked off the set in midproduction and Bava ended up directing as
well as lensing. Bava's black-and-white CinemaScope compositions are of-
ten quite beautiful and evocative of earlier classics; one setting in particu-

lar, a hallway full of billowing curtains, immediately brings to mind Paul

Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927). Screenplay by Piero Regnoli and
Rik Sjostrom. With Gianna Maria Canale, Antoine Balpetre, Paul Miller,
and Carlo D'Angelo. (Titanus/Athena Cinematografica)

Vampyr
Cinema, France/Germany 1931-1932. I'm not sure that Carl Theodor
Dreyer's Vampyr is quite the cinematic masterpiece many people believe it to
be — although it is, without question, one of the most evocatively dreamlike
films ever made. Vampyr was financed by a rich German baron, Nicolas de
Gunzberg, who also acted in the film as David Gray, a young man pulled into
the ambiguous vampire realm. The film's most famous sequence features
Gunzberg watching his own funeral (the camera assuming his place in the
206 David J. Ska I

Vampyr: Two frame enlargements from

Carl Theodor Dreyer's moody meditation
on the vampire theme.
(Courtesy of Scott MacQueen)

coffin) and the sudden, unsettling ap-

pearance of an ancient female vampire
who peers down at him, and us. The
film was shot silent, with a sparse dia-

logue track added later in French,

German, and English. J. Sheridan Le
Fanu's "Carmilla" is often cited as
Vampyr s source of inspiration, but
1

other than the fact that both works

deal with vampires, the connection is,

to say the least, obscure. Dreyer had

previously received high critical praise

for The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928),

but Vampyr (like NOSFERATU at the
time of its first American release) was
roundly snubbed. New York Times critic
C. Hooper Trask was typical in his dis-

missal of the film, which he called "pe-

culiarly irritating" and "one of the worst

pictures I have ever attended," though
admitting that "there were some scenes that gripped with a brutal directness."
Trask attributed this not to Dreyer but to the actors, whom, he speculated,
grew into their roles over the uncommonly lengthy production period —over
one year. Although the release date of Vampyr is usually given as 1932, I

found an illustrated review of the picture in a Portuguese film magazine dated

January 1931, suggesting a much earlier production than is generally sup-
posed. Screenplay by Dreyer and Christen Jul. With Julian West (Gunzberg),
Maurice Schutz, Sybille Schmitz, and Rena Mandel. (Tobis-Klangfilm)Y

'Vampyre, The"
Short story, UK 1819. John Polidori's elaboration of Lord Byron's 1816
fragment of a horror story (part of the informal literary competition be-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 207

tween Byron, Polidori, and the Shelleys which ultimately produced

Frankenstein) is, with "Carmilla" and Dracula, one of the most influ-
ential pieces of vampire literature in English. In many ways it overshad-
ows Dracula, as evidenced by the modern tendency to dramatize Bram
Stoker's novel by recasting Dracula's repellent monster in a seductive,

Byronic mode. It's interesting that both "The Vampyre" and Dracula
were written by authors who had tangled professional relationships with
flamboyant, demanding (and, by extension, draining) men: in Stoker's
case, it was the actor Henry Irving; in Polidori's case, it was George

Gordon, Lord Byron, whom Polidori served as physician, traveling com-

panion, and amanuensis. Recent films and books about the Byron/
Shelley/Polidori menage have imaginatively explored the homoerotic
currents of domination and submission in Polidori's and Byron's rela-
tionship; in the film Haunted Summer (1988) Polidori is depicted
frankly as Byron's compliant boy-toy. (See also my entries on Bram
Stoker and homosexuality for some further speculation on why major
works of vampire literature — from Polidori to Anne Rice—so often have
male-male ambivalence, tension, and rivalry at their cores.) Polidori, in

any event, did write "The Vampyre" after a nasty falling-out with Byron,
and it is tempting to read the tale as his conscious attempt to further
skewer the Byron mystique — Byron's former lover Lady Caroline Lamb
had already done the deed in her 1816 novel Glenarvon.
Polidori's vampire was the rakish Lord Ruthven, a name taken direcdy
from the Lamb novel (her character's full name was Ruthven Glenarvon).
name, however, was "Lord Strongmore." In
Polidori's original character
the memorable opening lines of the story, in which Polidori introduces
the first Byronic vampire to a hungry world, he also seems to intuit the
vampire's perennial function as a sociocultural vacuum pump, a bottom-
less metaphor capable of drinking all the attention we care to feed it:

Ithappened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon a Lon-

don winter, there appeared at the various parties of leaders of the ton a
nobleman, more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank. He
gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein.
Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention,
that he might by a look quell it, and throw fear into those breasts where
thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could
not explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye,
208 David J. Skal

which, fixing upon the object's face, did not seem to penetrate, and at

one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart, but
fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it

could not pass. His peculiarities caused him to be invited to every

house; all wished to see him, and those who had been accustomed to
violent excitement, and now felt the weight of ennui, were pleased at
having something in their presence capable of engaging their attention.

Polidori introduces a young gentleman named Aubrey, who accepts

an invitation from Ruthven to tour with him abroad, but is appalled
at Ruthven's licentious ways, in particular his predilection for ruining
women. Continuing his travels alone in Greece, Aubrey meets and falls in

love with a peasant girl named Ian the, whohim to vampire folk-
introduces
tales and is summarily killed by a vampire herself. Aubrey falls into a fevered

delirium, waking to find Ruthven once more at his side. They reconcile and
continue their tour, but are attacked by highwaymen and Ruthven is mor-
tally wounded. His dying wish is that Aubrey not tell anyone of his death for

a year. Aubrey swears, and Ruthven dies, but his body disappears after being
laid "in the first cold ray of the moon" at Ruthven's request. When Aubrey

returns to England, he is horrified to discover that his beloved sister is en-

gaged —to Lord Ruthven, who has somehow returned from the dead. Para-
lyzed into inaction by his solemn oath, Aubrey begins to lose his mind and
cannot prevent the vampiric conquering of his sibling. On his deathbed he
breaks his oath and tells his story, but it is too late
— "Lord Ruthven had dis-

appeared, and Aubrey's sister had glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE!"

Polidori's story was first published in The New Monthly Magazine under
Byron's name and, even after the ensuing controversy and revelation of the
true writer, was widely believed to be Byron's work (even Goethe was taken
in by the hoax). Highly successful theatrical and operatic adaptations were
mounted throughout Europe (see also opera; theater). Polidori didn't
live to see much of the theatrical activity generated by his story; he died in
1821 at the age of twenty-five, possibly a suicide. But "The Vampyre" has
lived on, the cornerstone of a vast and deathless literary and theatrical genre.

Vampyr, Der
See opera.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 209

Van Helsing, Abraham

The nemesis of Dracula, created by Bram Stoker in his 1897
fictional

novel, Abraham Van Helsing is a Dutch medical specialist in obscure dis-

eases who leads a successful battle against the vampire count after setting

conventional, rationalist medicine on its head with his packets of wolfbane,

crucifixes, garlic wreaths, wooden stakes, etc. On one level, Van Helsing
represents a kind of reactionary patriarchal authority, just the kind of moral
force many Victorians felt would help stop the rising tide of homosexual-
ity (as represented by Stoker's college friend Oscar Wilde), prostitution,
SYPHILIS, women's independence, and other scary, disruptive cultural devel-
opments. On another level Van Helsing represents the modern tussle be-
tween science and superstition, rationality and religion, etc.

It has been suggested that Stoker patterned Van Helsing after the
Hungarian scholar Arminius Vambery, an authority on orientalia and ex-
otic lore who had been the guest of Stoker and Henry Irving at the
Lyceum Theatre's Beefsteak Club (and is at one point directly referred to
by Van Helsing as "my friend Arminius"). Frankly, I think this is a bit of a
stretch; the similarity of "Vambery" and "Van Helsing" is, after all, quite

slight, compared to the obvious and exact correspondence between

Stoker's full first name — —

Abraham and that of Van Helsing, who cer-
tainly acts as Stoker's authorial mouthpiece in the novel. Since Stoker in-

tended Dracula as a possible staged role for Irving, one of the most
important players in Stoker's life, it would be more than interesting to
know the extent to which Stoker may have projected himself into the Van
Helsing persona. The first actor to play Van Helsing was the Lyceum per-
former Tom Reynolds, in Stoker's 1897 staged reading of the book;
Hamilton Deane followed in his own 1924 adaptation of the novel; the
American version of the stage play gave steady employment to Edward
Van Sloan in 1927; he reprised the role in the 1931 film version as well as

in Dracula's Daughter in Van Helsings

1936. Other memorable screen
have included Peter Cushing (the record holder), Frank Finlay (in the
BBC miniseries COUNT DRACULA, opposite Louis Tourdan), Laurence
Olivier (opposite Frank Langella in the 1979 film), and most recently,
Anthony Hopkins in the 1992 Coppola film Bram Stoker^s Dracula. In
recent years, the role of Van Helsing in stage productions has increasingly
been the focus of nontraditional casting choices and has been successfully
interpreted by women and minority performers.
2 1 David J. Skal

Edward Van Sloan as the master vampire hunter

Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula's Daughter.

Van Sloan, Edward

A San Francisco-born character actor
(1882-1964), Edward Van Sloan is

best known for his interpretation of the

Van Helsing role in Dracula, begin-
ning with the 1927 Broadway play and
reprised in the 1931 film version —both
opposite vampire arch-actor Bela Lu-
gosi. Van Sloan was selected for the
part by the publisher-producer Horace
Liveright, who had seen him play a
psychiatrist in a New York production
of Hans WerfePs drama Schweiger. Van
Sloan had little hope for a long run in Dracula. "I had been in five plays,

none of which had lasted more than three weeks." He went into Dracula,
"figuring it would at least buy cakes and ale" for a fortnight. Instead he
played Van Helsing on stage for nearly two years, before repeating the
role in Tod Browning's classic film. Van Sloan appeared in several other

—
macabre films in the 1930s and 1940s usually in professorial or medical
parts —including Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932), and re-
turned to the Van Helsing role in 1936 for Dracula's Daughter.

Varney the Vampyre, or The Feast of Blood

Fiction, UK 1847. An absurdly long (850 pages; the author was paid by
"penny dreadful" novel by James Mal-
the typeset line), crudely written
colm Rymer which nonetheless found a wide Victorian readership and
of literary vampirism for future horror writers
stabilized the conventions
most notably Bram Stoker. Lord Francis Varney is a bloodsucker in the
Lord Ruthven mold, who is regularly roused from death by the power
of moonlight to further his feasting at the throats of virtuous virgins. The
following celebrated passage is typical of the campy prose style that per-

meates the book:

 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 2 1 1

The figure turns half-round, and the light falls upon the face. It is per-
fectly —perfectly bloodless. The eyes look polished the
white like tin;

lips are drawn back, and the principal feature next to those dreadful
eyes the teeth — the
is -looking teeth —projecting
fearful those of like

some wild animal, hideously, glaringly white, and fang-like. It ap-

proaches the bed with a strange, gliding movement. It clashes together
the long nails that literally appear to hang from the finger ends. No
sound comes from its lips. Is she going mad — that young and beautiful
girl exposed to so much terror?

Apparently in order to increase the verbiage, Rymer's vampire pauses at

regular intervals on his way to his inevitable bed-supper, hypnotically fasci-

nating his victim with dead, yet glittering, eyes. "The figure has paused
again,and half on the bed and half out of it that young girl lies trembling.
Her long hair streams across the entire width of the bed. As she has slowly
moved along she has left it streaming across the pillows. The pause lasted
about a minute —oh, what an age of agony." And finally:

With a sudden rush that could not be

foreseen —with a strange howling cry
that was enough to waken terror in
every breast, the figure seized the long
tresses of hair, and twining them
her
round bony hands he held her to
his

the bed. Then she screamed Heaven —

granted her then power to scream.
Shriek followed shriek in rapid succes-
sion. The bed-clothes fell in a heap by
the side of the bed —she was dragged
by her long on
silken hair completely
to it again. Her rounded
beautifully
limbs quivered with the agony of her

Varney the Vampyre: Illustration from

James Malcolm Rymer's penny-dreadful
extravaganza.
212 David J. Skal

soul. The glassy, horrible eyes of the figure ran over that angelic form
with a hideous satisfaction — horrible profanation. He drags her head
to the bed's edge. He forces it back by the long hair still entwined in
his grasp. With a plunge he seizes her neck in his fang-like teeth —
gush of blood, and a hideous sucking noise follows. The girl has
swooned, and the vampyre is at his hideous repast!

After 209 weekly installments (later published in book form), Lord

Varney decided he was "tired and disgusted with a life of horror," and
flung himself into the mouth of Mount Vesuvius, where no moonbeam
could resuscitate him. But one question remains. Why, given the story's

over-the-top theatricality, hasn't anyone tried to reanimate Varney as a

scenery-chewing, blood -and -thunder melodrama a la Sweeney Todd?.

Vlad the Impaler

The sobriquet given to the Wallachian warlord Vlad Tepes (1431-1476),
also known as Dracula, means "Son
of the Devil" or "Son of the Dragon"
in Romanian. (Tepes' father had been
called Dracul.) Vlad's nickname de-
rives from his favorite method of dis-
patching his enemies —by impalement
on wooden stakes. On one atrocious
occasion, 20,000 Turkish captives
were exterminated in this manner and
displayed in a mile-long semicircle
outside Dracula's capital city, Tirgov-
iste, ward off oncoming enemy
to
troops. (It worked.)By all accounts,
Vlad reveled in the death agony of
his victims and often dined in the

shadow of their writhing, rotting

Vlad the Impaler, from a

sixteenth-century woodcut.
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 213

bodies. Other victims were boiled, or hacked apart "like cabbages," ac-
cording to one account.
While ruthless, sadistic, and undoubtedly psychopathic, Vlad Tepes is

nonetheless a hero of Romanian history, who successfully protected the

country against foreign incursions. Sometime in the early 1890s, Bram
Stoker came cross a reference to the Voivode (Prince) Dracula in William
Wilkinson's 1820 book Account of the Principalities ofWallachia and Mol-
davia and decided to use the name for the vampire villain of a novel he
had begun to outline (his original choice had been "Count Wampyr").
Thus, Vlad the Impaler did not inspire Stoker to write Dracula (as is often
assumed), but provided historical verisimilitude to a story Stoker had al-

ready conceived. Other than an account of Vlad dipping bread in the

blood of a victim, and the coincidence of the wooden stake motif, there is

no historical correspondence between the bloody voivode and traditional

vampire FOLKLORE. The life and times of Vlad the Impaler have been ex-

documented by historians Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T.

tensively
McNally in two books, In Search of Dracula (1972) and Dracula: Prince
of Many Faces (1989).
 i
Werewolf
In European folklore, the images of the vampire and werewolf often
blur, but in the twentieth century they have evolved into discrete entities.

Some of this had to do with the migration of Dracula from page to

stage; in Bram Stoker's novel, Count Dracula transforms himself into
a bat or a wolf with equal ease, but when the effect was attempted in
British and American stage versions of Dracula during the 1920s, the
clumsy provoked wolf-howls of audience laughter; thereafter, bats
results

became the animal transformation of choice. Werewolves have tended to

attach themselves more to the Jekyll/Hyde formula than to the vampire
tradition.

Whitby
If you're planning a vampire holiday, I have no better destination for you
than the English seaside town of Whitby, North Yorkshire. It was in
Whitby, while on vacation in 1890, that Bram STOKER began taking notes
for the novel that was to become DRACULA. Not only did he do research in

the Whitby library (where he discovered, in a book, Vlad Dracula the Im-
paler —the source of the master vampire's name), but he also set some of
Dracula'% most thrilling scenes in the town of Whitby itself— it was in

Whitby that the vampire wrecked a Russian schooner which he had super-
naturally commandeered in transit, killing the crew to eliminate all witnesses
to the importation of his coffin boxes.
Whitby, long the home of fishermen, whalers, and shipbuilders, is lo-

cated on two headlands deeply bisected by a picturesque harbor formed

2 6
1 David J. Skal

Commemorative plaque at the Bram

Stoker memorial seat.
(Photo by the author)

by the mouth of the River

Esk; the facing halves, known
as the East Cliff and the West
Cliff, both figure prominently
in Dracula.
Your exploration properly
begins at the Bram Stoker
Memorial Seat, dedicated in
1980 as a joint project of town
officials and the London-based Dracula Society. The seat a wood-and- —
iron bench in the traditional Victorian style —
is located at the south end of

Spion Kop, West Cliff, a grassy bluff rising above Pier Road, directly facing
Tate Hill Pier. Dracula Society cofounder and president Bernard Davies
explained that the site of the bench has a panoramic view of every Whitby
site mentioned in Dracula. Not surprisingly, Stoker himself once took

rooms at a nearby visitor's house with the same view, and the perspective
undoubtedly provided a visual framework for his fictional imagination as
he developed his novel's plot.
Facing east from the Stoker Seat, Whitby harbor looks remarkably like

it did at the turn of the century when its traditional industries were being
augmented by a bustling resort economy. While the red-tiled waterfront
buildings have become highly commercialized, very little modern con-
struction is evident. Straight before you is the jutting Tate Hill Pier, the
site Stoker chose for his vampire -driven ship to ground itself. Immediately
following the wreck, a huge, wolflike creature — Dracula, of course, in ani-

mal guise — leapt from the vessel and bounded in the direction of the dra-
matic stone steps that curve up the wall of the East Cliff toward St. Mary's
churchyard and the brooding abbey.
Stoker's young heroines, Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra, spent the
summer in a guest house in the East Crescent, the curving row of houses
visible just over your right shoulder from the Stoker Seat. A close reading
of the book indicates that Stoker combined features of the East Crescent
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 217

with the grander Royal Crescent and gardens nearby; it is the smaller
semicircle, however, that would have afforded Mina the view, which
Stoker describes, of a huge bat winging its way across the harbor toward
the shadows of the churchyard and abbey.
The next portion of your tour will trace Mina's footsteps on the moon-
lit night she followed the sleepwalking Lucy to a rendezvous with the

vampire. Rather than tearing breathlessly through the town, as Mina did,
in a nightgown covered with a shawl, the visitor will find it far more enjoy-
able to follow the route leisurely in more sensible attire.
Walk north along East Terrace (just behind the Stoker Seat) until it in-
tersects with North Terrace overlooking the open sea. This is the spot
from which Mina, trembling under her wrap, looked out at the East Cliff
and spotted the entranced Lucy seated on their favorite bench in St.
Mary's churchyard, a dark, menacing figure bending over her. (We will
forgive Stoker here for stretching credulity for dramatic effect —given the
considerable distance between the cliffs, he evidently imputed to Mina an
almost telescopic gift of night vision.)
The road down to the harbor will take you past a monument to Captain
James Cook, the celebrated explorer who traveled the world in ships built
in Whitby. Heading south toward the river bridge, you will find it hard
to miss "The Dracula Experience" (9 Marine Parade), a theme-parkish re-
creation of ten bloodcurdling scenes from Dracula in life-sized, partially
animated tableaux. If you put aside expectations of Disney-style effects, you
will enjoy the old-fashioned, wax museum-style dioramas all the more.
Among the most effective is the depiction of the ship's dead captain, lashed
to his wheel, the deck rocking to the sounds of a storm amid a profusion of
chemical mist. Dracula's final decapitation is also created, albeit a bit clum-
sily (and bloodlessly). One of Christopher Lee's cloaks, this one from the
1966 film Dracula, Prince of Darkness, is also on display. Entering and
exiting the exhibit, you will pass through a vestibule shop offering a wide
range of Dracula souvenirs: postcards, plastic fangs, squeeze tubes of
blood, rubber bats, and other essentials.
Continue in Mina Murray's footsteps across the harbor bridge and
north on Church Street. At the intersection of Tate Hill (at the pier) and
Henrietta Street, you will find the base of the winding stone steps — all 199
of them —
which Mina had mounted in her desperate effort to reach her
("The time and distance seemed endless
friend. my knees trembled . . .

and my breath came laboured as I toiled up the endless steps to the

21 8 David J. Skal

The cemetery
where Dracula
took refuge.
(Photo by the
author)

The abbey
immortalized
in Dracula,
as it appears
today. (Photo
by the author)

Abbey. . . .") Less frantic climbers will be considerably less daunted

there are landings at regular intervals and stunning views of the harbor.
At the head of the steps is a churchyard so atmospheric it seems to be
the fanciful work of The wind-eroded tombstones of St.
a set designer.
Mary's churchyard are uncommonly eerie; where their surfaces haven't
been blackened with age, salt gales have cut so deeply into the stones that
many resemble nothing so much as coral formations. Stoker carefully tran-
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 219

scribed epitaphs from these markers as part of his research for Dracula;
they appear in the book as part of the amusing commentary of a retired

old salt, Mr. Swales, who befriends Mina and Lucy before he is killed by
the vampire.
Brooding down on the churchyard and church is the magnificent ruin
of Whitby Abbey, now maintained as a landmark by English Heritage (the
popular name for the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for
England). The original monastery was founded by the abbess (and later
saint) Hilda in the year 657, only to be sacked by the Danes in 867. The

present structure was built during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies — a splendid example of the early Gothic architectural style that has

been a staple ingredient of scary entertainment ever since Horace Wal-

pole's novel The Castle ofOtranto in 1764.
Stoker's Dracula never took up residence in the abbey —he spent his

week and a half in Whitby hiding in the nearby grave of a suicide. (Come
form of a
to think of it, an abbey like this one, laid out traditionally in the
huge might not be the most comfortable resting place for a vam-
cross,
pire.) But in tribute to the sheer evocative power of the Whitby ruin,

—
Dracula's prime English residence an unassuming house in Purfleet
called Carfax in Stoker's book —
was eventually transformed into "Carfax
Abbey" for the 1931 film version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and
directed by Tod Browning.
Whitby Abbey may be a ruin, but it's a ruin meticulously maintained;
visitors expecting eighteen-foot spiderwebs and mountains of dust will be

sorely disappointed — the lawns surrounding the old stone walls are impec-
cably manicured. Entrance is via a thoroughly modern giftshop/informa-
tion center. There is no official acknowledgment of the structure's links to
Dracula in the printed tour guides, booklets, or signage; visitors must
bring any such associations with them.
The grounds lend themselves to leisurely strolling, and the whole struc-

ture takes on strikingly different moods depending on the viewer's per-

spective. The east transept, facing the moors with its narrow lancet
windows, is the building's most-photographed aspect, and deservedly so.
There is an ancient legend, which Stoker alludes to, that the Abbess Hilda
herself appears from time to time in the abbey windows, a ghostly figure
shrouded in white.
For maximum effect, you may wish to visit Whitby during August, which
coincides with the dates in the novel. I took along a copy of Dracula,
220 David J. Skal

which I reread from start to finish in my guest house room. If you're as

lucky as I was, you'll get a storm, too — just like the one that blew in the
count.

Wilde, Oscar
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is often overlooked in histories of vampirism,
but his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is a brilliant fin de siecle
update on the theme. Its tide character, a decadent Victorian dandy,
makes a devilish pact with his own portrait, achieving a monstrous trans-
ference of the life force: as Dorian's evil deeds compound, they register
only on the canvas, which instead of a beautiful young man shows the in-
creasingly hideous, leering face of an ancient satyr. Dorian has, in effect,

been dead since he sold his soul, and when he finally stabs the painting, it

is himself he kills —instantly aging in the manner of a traditional vampire

whose heart has been ritually pierced.
Bram Stoker evidently had Dorian Gray in mind when he was pre-
paring DRACULA; his working notes for the book show him toying with
the notion that "painters can't make a

likeness of him —however hard the artist

tries, the subject always ends up look-

ing like someone else." (Stoker's notes
indicate that he originally considered a
painter as a secondary character,one who,
no doubt, would have explicitly played out
the Dorian Gray-like dynamics only im-
plicit in the finished novel.) In my book
Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of
"Dracula" from Novel to Stage to Screen,
I enumerated the many intriguing corre-
spondences between Stoker and Wilde,
both personal and professional:

CKorgj6mflerAScrcdfi
Das Haus des
Oscar Wilde as vampire: cover design for
Viereck's Das Haus des Vampyrs (1 907) Vsmpyrs
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 22

Wilde and Stoker present a fascinating set of Victorian bookends,

shadow-mirrors in uneasy reciprocal
Both were Dubliners, both
orbits.
attended Trinity College, and were steeped in literature and theatre. At
Trinity, Stoker sponsored Wilde's membership in the Philosophical So-
ciety. Wilde's parents were favorably impressed with Stoker, and once
even entertained him at their home on Christmas Day after Oscar had
matriculated at Oxford. Both young men were devoted admirers of
Henry Irving and at an early age both would approach him in the

hopes of advancing their careers (only one would succeed). Both ideal-

ized Walt Whitman— and on separate occasions both made repeated

pilgrimages in America to meet him. Both would write a masterwork
of macabre fiction portraying archetypal tide characters who remain su-
pernaturally young by draining the life force from Victorian innocents.
Both were attracted to literary themes of doubles, masks, and bound-
aries in general.

Given the foregoing, it is probably not surprising that they both fell in

love with the same woman, though only Bram was able to forge a mar-
riage (see Stoker, Florence).
The image of Wilde in the popular press of the 1890s frequentiy
echoed the evolutionary anxiety that is highly evident in Dracula and
which informed the Victorian concept of the vampire: Wilde was repeat-
edly cartooned as a developed ape (or even, in one celebrated instance,
a dinosaur), described explicidy as a slug, sea-creature, etc. Vampirism,
homosexuality, and general "decadence" were thus popularly conceptu-
alized as a kind of horrid evolutionary backsliding.
After Wilde's death from the vampire-redolent disease of syphilis
(which, in a final parallel, most likely killed Stoker as well), a bizarre hoax
was launched in the pages of the Critic, insinuating that Wilde was not dead
after all but, like Dracula, Jesus, or Elvis Presley, had transcended death and
still walked among the populace. The writer George Sylvester Viereck went
so far as to quote what he claimed was a suppressed passage from the origi-
nal German translation of "De Profundis": ". . . as a revenant, in the French
phrase, as one whose become gray and distorted with pain [I re-
face has
turn]. Terrible as are the dead when they rise from their graves, the living
that come back from the grave are far more terrible ." (Though deli- . .

ciously Wildean, the epigram does not appear in any English edition I have
read.) "Was not this brilliant lover of the paradoxical capable of making his
222 David J. Skal

very life and death a paradox . . . was not the Unexpected, the Sensational,
the element in which he loved to move in life and art? And would it not be
quite in accordance with his character to carry to the last point of consis-
tency the Christ pose, blasphemous perhaps . and from his tomb to roll
. .

the stone and rise from the dead?" In 1907 Viereck published a bizarre
novel, House of the Vampire, a delirious love note to the ghosts of Wilde
and Nietzsche, in which art was presented as the vampiric province of a cre-

ative master race. Most of the reviews were pretty bad, but Arthur Symons
called House of the Vampire "a really impressing story" that "rather suggests
Wilde, but Wilde would have spoilt it by decoration and left it vague in the

end." The cover of the German edition sported an unmistakable portrait of

Wilde. When the book was dramatized, the actor Warner Oland (in the role
of the vampire's victim) was made up and costumed to resemble Wilde.
In the original script for Francis Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's
Dracula, there was a wonderful moment when Dracula encountered Os-
car Wilde in an absinthe bar and exchanged some witty repartee. For some
unaccountable reason, the scene was cut. Too bad.

Wolfsbane
See aconite.
 X
Xenophobia
The fear of foreigners is a steady undercurrent of vampire literature,

stereotypically represented by the mysterious, continental aristocrat who

insinuates himself (or herself) into British (or American) society, the bet-
ter to spread vampiric evil. Alok Bhalla, in his provocative study Politics of

Atrocity and Lust, makes the argument that Victorian vampire stories rep-
resent the guilty flip side of British imperialism. The fact that Dracula
fails to reflect in mirrors is, in effect, the inability of England (during the
year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee) to recognize the darker aspects
of its own expansionism.
 Y
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn
American novelist (b. 1942), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was originally a sci-

ence fiction writer (of a characteristically dark sensibility) whose work has
gravitated to the horror genre, and more specifically to vampires. Her out-
standing creation is Rakoczy, comte de Saint-Germain, an alchemist-
turned-vampire based upon an actual (though nonvampiric) historical
character of eighteenth -century France. Far from a bogeyman, Saint-
Germain is intelligent, accomplished, seductive, and compassionate, with
interests ranging well beyond blood -feeding. Adhering to the traditional
requirement that a vampire can't stray too far from its native soil, Saint-

Germain has a brilliant solution: he lines his footwear with the needed
and so can come and go wherever he pleases. Yarbro introduced
dirt,

Saint-Germain in Hotel Transylvania (1977), the first of a popular Saint-

Germain The Palace (1978), Blood Games (1979), Path of
series including

the Eclipse (1981), Tempting Fate (1982), and a short story collection, The

Saint-Germain Chronicles (1985). Yarbro has also expanded her vampire

universe with a series of spin-off books set in colorful historical periods: A
Flame Byzantium (1987), Crusader's Torch (1988), A Candle for
in
D'Artagnan (1989), and Out of the House of Life (1990), in which Saint-
Germain returns. Yarbro's books blur the distinction between horror nov-
els and historical romances, and thus have significantly increased the
overall readership for vampire stories. See also novels.
 :•:

Zacherley
America's most popular television horror host, Zacherley came to promi-
nence in Philadelphia and New York in the late 1950s when Universal Pic-

tures released its Shock Theater package of classic horror films to local TV
stations. Zacherley derived his name from that of his portrayer, John
Zacherle, a former disc jockey with no particular interest in monster
movies, but possessing a great flair for sick humor and a sepulchral laugh
that would become his inimitable trademark. The Zacherley character was
a kind of undertaker-turned-vampire who parted his hair in the middle,
sported a DRACULA-style medallion (see jewelry), and leered out over the
airwaves through cadaverous greasepaint. Zacherley made several novelty
records in the late fifties and early sixties, frequently utilizing vampire

Television's most
celebrated horror
host, Zacherley,
performing his mini-

opera / Vampiri on the

air in 1958. (Courtesy
of John Zacherle)
228 David J. Skal

themes. The most successful was "Dinner with Drac" (1958). He also
once performed an on-air opera spoof, / Vampiri, presented in install-

ments during commercial breaks in the old Universal horror pictures. Still

active as a radio personality in New York, Zacherley frequently makes

guest appearances at fan conventions in his full horror host regalia.

Zombie
A mindless, animated corpse, or living person dehumanized and enslaved
by black magic, and originally a fixture of Haitian FOLKLORE, the image of
thezombie has migrated widely into popular culture, notably in the influ-
of George Romero, beginning with Night of the Living Dead
ential films

(1968). The characteristics of the cannibal-zombie overlap considerably

with that of the traditional vampire — they both rise from the grave to bite

the flesh of the living, who subsequently become infected with the curse of
living death themselves. The popular association of vampires and zombies
was reinforced by Hollywood when Bela Lugosi appeared as a Dracula-
like zombie master in White Zombie (1932). The 1946 film Valley of the
Zombies was, despite its title, a vampire picture.
Zombies in Haiti appear to have less to do with black magic than with
neurotoxic folk poisons (and their corresponding antidotes) used by witch
doctors to simulate death and resurrection, thus effectively establishing
social fear and social control. Ethnobotanist Wade Davis recorded his
search for "zombie powder" in his 1985 book The Serpent and the Rain-
bow, later filmed by John Carpenter. In 1988 he expanded his study of the
pharmacological basis for zombie belief in Passage of Darkness: The Ethno-
biology of the Haitian Zombie. The misdiagnosis of catalepsy as death,

therefore, can be considered an important feature in the development of

both the Caribbean zombie and traditional European vampire. See also
CANNIBALISM.

Zotz
The ancient Mayan word for "bat." According to John E. Hill and James D.
Smith in their book Bats: A Natural History, the "Zotziha" or bat house,
was "one of the regions of the underworld through which a dying man
had to pass on the way to the depths of the earth. This kingdom of dark-
ness was inhabited by the Vampire Bat God or Death Bat called 'Cama-
zotz' who decapitated his victims ..." The bat deity Zotz also symbolized
 V IS FOR VAMPIRE 229

a month on the Mayan calendar. According to Hill and Smith, worship of

Zotzlike gods persists today; they cite a large cave in Veracruz where preg-
nant women make offerings to vampire bats to ensure the safe delivery of
their children. See also FETUS.
 APPENDIX A

Cinema

The motion picture, which got rolling as a public amusement just about the
time Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, was condemned by no less a

critic as Maxim Gorky for creating a disturbing world of dead-alive phan-

toms. Appropriately, the cinema was attracted to the vampire as a subject

from the industry's infancy; Dracula was considered for production by Uni-
versal Pictures as early as 1915, the year of the studio's founding, and the
unauthorized German version of Dracula, Nosferatu, released in 1922, is a

classic of the Expressionist screen.

The following checklist of vampire films includes all feature films in which
vampires appear, be they supernatural, scientific, extraterrestrial, or only figu-
rative (e.g., silent films trading on the words vampire or vamp, featuring
predatory women who drain their victims sexually or financially). Following
the main listing is an enumeration of films which feature vampires only in

cameo appearances, for comic relief, etc., as well as a list of pornographic

films grouped by sexual orientation. Bulleted titles are discussed at greater
length under separate entries. As in the main entries, the symbol T indicates
availability of the title on home video.

1896
The Haunted Castle (FRANCE; George Melies; orig.: Le manoir du diable;
a.k.a. The DeviTs Castle, The Devil's Manor, The Manor of the Devil)

1909
Vampire of the Coast (usa)
232 Appendix A: Cinema

1910
The Vampire's Trail (USA)

1911
The Vampire (USA; Selig)

1912
In the Grip of the Vampire (FRANCE)
The Vampire Dancer (DENMARK; Ingvald C. Oes; a.k.a. Vampyrdanserinden,
Vampyr tanzerinnen, Danse vampirisque)
Vampyrn (SWEDEN; Mauritz Stiller)

1913
The Vampire (USA; Robert Vignola)
The Vampire of the Desert (USA)
La Vampira Indiana (ITALY)
The Vampire (uk)

1914
Vasco, The Vampire (USA)
The Vampire (FRANCE)
Vampire Bat and Armadillo (USA)
The Vampire's Tower (ITALY; A. Ambrosio; orig.: La torre dei vampiri)

Vampires of the Night (USA)

The Vampires of Warsaw (POLAND; orig.: Wampiry Warszawy)

1915
The Devil's Daughter (USA; Frank Powell; production titles: The Vampire, La
Gioconda)
The Exploits of Elaine (USA; Louis J. Gasnier and George B. Seitz; serial fea-

turing an episode called "The Vampire")

A Fool There Was (USA; Frank Powell; production title: The Vampire)T
Kiss of the Vampire (USA)
Saved From the Vampire (USA)
The Vampire (USA; Alice Blache)
The Vampire of the Desert (USA)
The Vampire's Clutch (USA)
 Appendix A: Cinema 233

The Vampire's Dance (USA)

Was She a Vampire? (USA; Al. Hale)

1916
Ceneri e vampe ( ITALY)
Mr. Vampire (usa)
A Night of Horror (GERMANY; Arthur Robinson)
A Vampire Out of Work (USA)
The Vampires, The Arch Criminals of Paris (FRANCE; Louis Feuillade; orig.:

Les vampires)
A Village Vampire (USA; Mack Sennett)

1917
The Beloved Vampire (FRANCE; Melies?)
Magia (HUNGARY; Alexander Korda)
The Vamp of the Camp (USA; Allen Curtis)
Vamping Rueben's Millions (USA; Dick Smith)

1918
The Vamp (USA; Jerome Stern)
The Vamp Cure (USA; Eddie Lyons, Lee Moran)

1919
Vamps and Variety (USA; Gilbert Pratt)

1920
The Great London Mystery (UK; Charles Raymond; serial)

The Vampire (usa)

1921
•Drakula (HUNGARY; Karoly Lajthay)
Vamps and Scamps (USA; Jimmie Davis)

1922
• Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror (GERMANY; F. W. Murnau; orig.: Nosferatu:
Eine Symphonie des Grauens; a.k.a. Nosferatu the Vampire, The Twelfth
Hour, Die Zwoelfte Stunde, eine Nacht des Grauens)V
 234 Appendix A: Cinema

1923
The Blond Vampire (USA)
Vamped (usa)

1925
Vampires of Warsaw (POLAND; orig.: Wampiry Warszawy) Same as 1914
version?

1926
Vamping Babies (USA)

1927
'
London After Midnight (USA; Tod Browning; production tide: The Hypnotist)

1928
I Bevitori di Sangue (italy/germany)
Vamping Venus (USA; Eddie Cline)
The Vampire (USA)
Vampire a du Mode (FRANCE)

1931
'
Dracula (USA; Tod Browning)T
•
Dracula (USA; Spanish-language version; George Melford)T
•
Vampyr (france/germany; Carl Dreyer)T

1933
»
The Vampire Bat (USA; Frank Strayer)T

193S
Condemned to Live (USA; Frank Strayer)
»
Mark Vampire (USA; Tod Browning; production
of the title: The Vampires of
Prague)W

1936
• Dracula's Daughter (USA; Lambert Hillyer)T
 Appendix A: Cinema 235

1939
The Return of Dr. X (USA; Vincent Sherman )
1940
The Devil Bat (USA; Jean Yarbrough; a.k.a. Killer Bats, Devil Bats)T

1941
Spooks Run Wild (USA; Phil Rosen)

1943
Dead Men Walk (USA; Sam Newfield)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (UK; compilation, including sequences from
Dreyer's Vampyr)
•The Return of the Vampire (USA; Lew Landers)T
•Son ofDracula (USA; Robert Siodmak)V
Tiger Tangs (USA; Sam Newfield)

1944
•House of Trankenstein (USA; Erie C. Kenton; production tide: The DeviVs
Brood)T

194S
The Crime Doctor's Courage (USA; George Sherman)
•House ofDracula (USA; Erie C. Kenton; production tide: Destiny)Y
• Isle of the Dead (USA; Mark Robson)T
The Spider Woman Strikes Back (USA; Arthur Lubin)
Le Vampire (FRANCE; Jean Painleve)
The Vampire's Ghost (USA; Lesley Selander)

1946
Devil Bat's Daughter (USA; Frank Wisbar)T
The Race of Marble (USA; William Beaudine)
• Valley of the Zombies (USA; Philip Ford)

1948
• Abbott and Costello Meet Trankenstein (USA; Charles Barton; production title:
The Brain of Trankenstein; UK title: Abbott and Costello Meet the Ghosts)W
 236 Appendix A: Cinema

1951
Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (UK; John Gilling; a.k.a. Vampire over Lon-
don, King Robot; USA 1964 release: My Son, the Vampire)T
The Thing from Another World (USA; Christian Nyby and [uncredited]
Howard Hawks )T
La Traite du Vampire (FRANCE)
Le Vampire (FRANCE; misleading tide about fighter planes)

1953
•Drakula Instanbulda (TURKEY; Mehmet Muhtar)
El vampiro negro (ARGENTINA; Roman Vinoly Barreto)

1956
• The Devil's Commandment (ITALY; Riccardo Freda, with Mario Bava; orig.: I
vampiri; a.k.a. Lust of the Vampire, The Vampire of Notre Dame)
Kyuketsuki Ga (JAPAN; Nobuo Nakagawa)
Pontianak (MALAYA; B. N. Rao)
Super Giant -2 (JAPAN; a.k.a. Spaceman contro vampiri della spazio)
i

• The Vampire (MEXICO; Fernando Mendez; orig.: El Vampiro)T

1957
• Blood ofDracula (USA; Herbert L. Strock; a.k.a. Blood Is My Heritage)^
Castle of the Monsters (MEXICO; Julian Soler; orig.: El castillo de los monstruos)
Dendham Pontianak (MALAYA; B.N. Rao)
• Not of This Earth (USA; Roger Corman)T
The Vampire (USA; Paul Landres; television title: Mark of the Vampire)
The Vampire's Coffin (MEXICO; Fernando Mendez; orig.: El ataud del vam-
piro; a.k.a. El retorno del vampiro, El ataud de la muerte.yW

1958
• Anak Pontianak (MALAYA; Raymond Estella)
•Blood of the Vampire (UK; Henry Cass)T
• Dracula (usa/tv)

Man Into Space (UK; Robert Day)

First
• Horror of Dracula (UK; Terence Fisher; orig.: Dracula)W
• It! The Terror From Beyond Space (USA; Edward L. Cahn)V

• The Return ofDracula (USA; Paul Landres; a.k.a. Curse ofDracula [tv], The
Fantastic Disappearing Man [uk])T
Sumpah Pontianak (MALAYA)
 Appendix A: Cinema 237

19S9
'Attack of the Giant Leeches (USA; Bernard Kowalski; a.k.a. The Giant Leeches,
Demons of the Swamp [uk])T
Curse of the Undead (USA; Edward Dein)
1

The Lurking Vampire (ARGENTINA; orig.: El vampiro aecheca)

La nave de los monstruos (MEXICO; Rogelio A. Gonzales)
Onna Kyuketsuki (japan; Nobu Nakagawa; French release tide: Vhomme
vampire)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (USA; Edward D. Wood, Jr.)
1

Uncle Was a Vampire (ITALY; Stefano Vanzina; orig.: Tempi duri per i vam-
piri; a.k.a. Hard Times for Vampires)

1960
1

Mack Sunday (ITALY; Mario Bava; orig.: Le maschera del demonio; a.k.a. House
of Fright, Mask of the Demon, Revenge of the Vampire)W
The Blood of Nostradamus (MEXICO; Federico Curiel; orig.: La sangre de
Nostradamus)
1

The Brides ofDracula (UK; Terence Fisher )T

Creature of the Walking Dead (MEXICO; Federico Corte [Fernando Cortes])
The Genii of Darkness (MEXICO; Frederico Curiel; orig.: Nostradamus, el Genio
de las tinieblas)
"Little Shop of Horrors (USA; Roger Corman)T
Mill of the Stone Women (italy/france; Georgio Ferroni; orig.: // mulino
delle Drops of Blood, Icon)W
donne di pietra, Le moulin des supplices; a.k.a.

The Monsters Demolisher (MEXICO; Federico Curiel; orig.: Nostradamus y el

destructor de monstruos)
The Playgirls and the Vampire (ITALY; Piero Regnoli; orig.: L'ultima preda
del vampiro; a.k.a. Curse of the Vampire)
'The Vampire and the Ballerina (ITALY; Renato Polselli; orig.: Vamante del
vampiro)^
The World of the Vampires (MEXICO; Alfonso Corona Blake; orig.: El mundo
de los vampiros)

1961
>Atom Age Vampire (ITALY/FRANCE; Anton Giulio Majano; orig.: Seddok,
Verede di Satana; a.k.a. SeddokyW
The Bad Flower (SOUTH KOREA; Yongmin Lee; orig.: Ahkea Khots)
 238 Appendix A: Cinema

Blood and Roses (FRANCE; Roger Vadim; orig.: Et mourir de plaisir)V

The Brainiac (MEXICO; Chano Urveta; orig.: El baron del terror.)Y
La Casa de los Espantos (MEXICO; Alfredo B. Crevenna)
Curse of the Crying Woman (MEXICO; Rafael Baledon; orig.: La maldicion de
la llorona)

Frankenstein, el Vampiro y cia. (MEXICO; Benito Alazraki)

Goliath and the Vampires (ITALY; Giacomo Gentilomo & Sergio Corbucci
orig.: Maciste contro il vampiro)
The Vampire of the Opera (ITALY; Renato Polselli; orig.: // mostro delTopera,
a.k.a. // vampiro delVopera)

Hercules in the Haunted World (ITALY; Mario Bava; orig.: Ercole al centro

della terra; a.k.a. Hercules in the Center of the Earth)

Invasion of the Vampires (MEXICO; Miguel Morayta; orig.: La invasion de los

vampiros)
The Naked Witch (USA; Andy Milligan)
Samson vs. the Vampire Women (MEXICO; Alfonso Corona Blake; orig.: Santo
contra las mujeres vampiras)
Vampiresas 1930 (SPAIN; Jesus Franco; a.k.a. Vampiresas)

1962
The Bloody Vampire (MEXICO; Michael Morata; orig.: El vampiro sangriente,
a.k.a. El conde Frankenhausen)
Fantasmagorie (FRANCE; Patrice Molinard)
La Huella Macabre (MEXICO; Alfredo E. Crevenna)
Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters (MEXICO; Roberto Rodriguez; orig.:

Capurcita y Pulgareito vs. los monstruos)

Slaughter of the Vampires (ITALY; Roberto Mauri; a.k.a. Curse of the Blood
La strage dei vampiri)
Ghouls; orig.:
Vampire Woman (HONG KONG)

1963
»
Black Sabbath (ITALY; Mario Bava)V
Castle of Blood (ITLAY; Antonio Margheriti [Anthony Dawson]; TV title: Castle

of Terror; orig.: La danza macabra)

Cave of Living Dead (west germany/yugoslavia; Akos Von Ratony;
the

orig.:Der Fluch der Gruenen Augen)

Crypt of Horror (italy/spain; Camillo Mastrocinque)
 Appendix A: Cinema 239

Insomnia (FRANCE; Pierre Etaix; orig.: Insomnie)

• The Kiss of the Vampire (UK; Don Sharp; TV title: Kiss ofEvil)T
Pontianak kembali (MALAYA; Ramon Estellia)
El Pueblo Fantasma (MEXICO; Alfredo E. Crevenna)
Vampires D'Alfama (FRANCE; Pierre Kast)

Los Vampiros de Oeste (MEXICO; Juan Ortega)

1964
•Batman vs. Dracula (USA; Andy Warhol)
Devils of Darkness (UK; Lance Comfort)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (UK; Freddie Francis)
The Last Man on Earth (ITALY/US; Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona; orig.:

Vultimo uomo della terra)T

Pontianak gua musang (MALAYA; B. N. Rao)
The Secrets of Dracula (PHILIPPINES; orig.: Mga manugang ni Drakula)
Sexy Probitissimo (ITALY)
Sexy-Super Interdit (FRANCE)
Le Vampire de Dusseldorf (france/italy/spain; Robert Hossein; a.k.a. El
asesino de Dusseldorf)

196S
•El Baron Brakola (MEXICO; Jose Diaz Morales)
Blood Thirst (philipplnes/usa; Michael du Pont)
Bring Me the Vampire (MEXICO; Alfredo E. Crevenna; orig.: Echenme al vampiro)
Charro de las Calaveras (MEXICO; Alfredo Salazar)
Incubus (USA; Leslie Stevens; in Esperanto)
Nightmare Castle (ITALY; Mario Caiano [Allen Grunewald]; orig.: Amanti
d'oltretomba)
•Planet of the Vampires (ITALY/SPAIN; Mario Bava; orig.: Terrore nello spazio;

a.k.a. Terror en el espacio, Demon Planet, Planet of Blood)V

A Vampire for Two (SPAIN; Pedro Lazanga Sabater; orig.: Un vampiro para
dos)

1966
•Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (USA; William Beaudine)T
Beast of Morocco (MOROCCO/UK; Fredric Goale; a.k.a. The Hand of Night)
Blood Bath (USA; Jack Hill & Stephanie Rothman; a.k.a. Track of the Vampire)
• The Blood Drinkers (PHILIPPINES; Gerardo de Leon; a.k.a. Vampire People)
 240 Appendix A: Cinema

Blood Fiend (UK; Samuel Gallu; a.k.a. Tloeatre of Death)

La Bonne Dame (FRANCE; Pierre Philippe)
Carry on Screaming (UK; Gerald Thomas)
The Devil's Mistress (USA; Orville Wanzen)
'Dracula, Prince of Darkness (uk; Terence Fisher) Y
The Eye of Count Flickenstein (USA; Tony Conrad)
El Imperio de Dracula (MEXICO; Federico Curiel)
Island of the Doomed (spain/west GERMANY; Mel Welles [Ernst von Theu-
mer]; orig.: La isla de la muerte, Das Gebheimnis der Todeninsel; a.k.a.
Blood Suckers [uk], Man Eater of Hydra, Island of Death)
Munster, Go Home! (USA; Earl Bellamy)
'Queen of Blood (USA; Curtis Harrington; a.k.a. Planet of Blood)W
The Wild World of Batwoman (USA; Jerry Warren; a.k.a. She Was a Hippy
Vampire)

1967
Blood Demon (west GERMANY; Harold Reinl; orig.: Die Schlangenrube und
das Pendel; a.k.a. Blood Demon, Castle of the Walking Dead, The Torture
Chamber of Dr. Sadism)
Blood ofDracula's Castle (USA; Al Adamson & Jean Hewitt)
Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horror (USA; David L. Hewitt; a.k.a. The Blood Suckers;
TV Return from the Past)
tide:

Dracula's Wedding Day (USA; Mike Jackson)

* The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Tour Teeth Are In My Neck
Roman Dance of the Vampires) *
1

(uk; Polanski; orig.:

Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (SPAIN; Henry Egan [Enrique L. Eguiluz]; a.k.a.
The Vampire of Dr. Dracula, Hell's Creatures [uk]; orig.: La marca del
hombre lobo)

The Killing Game (FRANCE; Alain Jessua; orig.: feu de massacre)

»
Mad Monster Party (USA/UK; Jules Bass)T
The Naked World of Harrison Marks (UK; Harrison Marks)
A Taste of Blood (USA; Herschell Gordon Lewis; a.k.a. The Secret of Dr.
Alucard)
The Vampire Beast Craves Blood (UK; Vernon Sewell; a.k.a. The Blood Beast
Terror, Deathshead Vampire, Blood Beast from Hell)
The Vampire's Rape (FRANCE; Jean Rollin; orig.: Le viol du vampire, La reine
des vampires)
Vampirisme (FRANCE; short subject)
Vij (RUSSIA; a.k.a. Viy)
 Appendix A: Cinema 24

1968
Dracula Meets the Outer Space Chicks (usa)
• Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (UK; Freddie Francis)T

Fangs of the Living Dead (spain/italy; Amando de Ossorio; a.k.a. Malenka;

La nipote del vampiro)
orig.:
The Fear Chamber (mexico/usa; John [Juan] Ibanez; orig.: La camara del
terror; a.k.a. Torture Chamber, The Torture Zone)
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (JAPAN; Hajime Sato; orig.: Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro)
Night of the Living Dead (USA; George A. Romero )T
Sangre de virgenes (MEXICO; Emilio Viegra)
Santo y el Tesoro de Dracula (MEXICO; Rene Cardonna; a.k.a. El vampiro y el sexo)

Tower of the Screaming Virgins (germany/france/italy; Leo Joannon

[Francois Legrand]; orig.: Der turm der verbotenen Hebe, La tour de
The Sweetness of Sin)
Nesle; a.k.a.
Upior{The Vampire) (POLAND; Stanislaw Lenartowicz; short subject)
Las Vampiras (MEXICO; Federico Curiel)
A Vampire's Nostalgia (YUGOSLAVIA)
Yokai Daisenso (japan; Yoshiyuki Kuroda)

1969
Assignment Terror (spain/west germany/italy; Hugo Fregonese and Tulio
Demichelli; orig.: Dracula jagt Frankenstein, Los monstruos del terror,
a.k.a. Dracula vs. Frankenstein)^
Blood of Dracula's Castle (USA; Al Adamson)
•Dracula (uk/tv; Patrick Dromgoole)
• Dracula The Dirty Old Man) (USA; William Edwards) Y
(

Drakulita (Philippines; Consuelo P. Osorio)

Hiroku kaibyoden (japan; Tokuzo Tanaka)
Men of Action Meet Women of Dracula (PHILIPPINES; Artemio Marquez)
The Nude Vampire (FRANCE; Jean Rollin; orig.: La vampire nue)
Santo and Dracula's Treasure (MEXICO; Rene Cardona; orig.: El vampiro y
el sexo)

Santo Contra los Cazadores de Cabezas (MEXICO; Rene Cardona)

Santo y Blue Demon vs. los monstruos (MEXICO; Gilberto Martinez Solares;
a.k.a. Santo y Blue Demon contra los monstruos)
Tales of Blood and Horror (ITALY; Maurine Dawson)
• Taste the Blood of Dracula (UK; Peter Sasdy)Y
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (CZECHOSLOVAKIA; Jaromil Jires; orig.:

Valerie a tyden divu)

 242 Appendix A: Cinema

A Vampire's Dream (brazil; Ibere Calvacant; orig.: Urn sonho de vampiros)

La Venganza de las mujeres vampiro (MEXICO; Federico Curiel; a.k.a. Santo en
la venganza de las mujeres vampiro)

1970
Bloodsuckers (UK; Michael Burrowes [Robert Hartford -Davis]; a.k.a. Incense
for the Damned)
• Count Dracula (spain/west GERMANY/ITALY; Jess Franco; a.k.a. El conde
Dracula, Nachts Wenn Dracula Erwacht, II conte Dracula, Bram Stoker's
Count DraculayW
• Count Torga, Vampire (USA; Bob Kelljan)T
• Countess Dracula (UK; Peter Sasdy)T
Cuadecuc Vampir) (SPAIN; Pedro Portabella)
(

Curse of the Vampires (PHILIPPINES/USA; Gerardo de Leon; orig.: Dugo ng

vampira; a.k.a. Creatures of Evil)
The Devil's Skin (SINGAPORE)
Dracula's Vampire Lust (SWITZERLAND; Mario d'Alcala; orig.: Dracula's Lus-
terne Sex-Vampire)
Garu, the Mad Monk (USA; Andy Milligan)
Guess What Happened to Count Dracula (USA; Laurence Merrick)
Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (TURKEY/USA; Ray Danton, Julio Salvador;
orig.: La tumba de la isla maldita, a.k.a. Crypt of the Living Dead, Vam-

pire Woman, Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.)

The Horrible Sexy Vampire (SPAIN; Jim Delavena and Arthur Davidson [Jose
Luis Madrid]; orig.: El vampiro de la autopista)
Horror of the Blood Monsters (USA; Al Adamson; a.k.a. Creatures of the Prehis-
toric Planet, Creatures of the Red Planet, Flesh Creatures of the Red Planet,
The Flesh Creatures, Horror Creatures of the Prehistoric Planet, Space Mis-
Vampire Men of the Lost Planet)
sion to the Lost Planet,
House of Dark Shadows (USA; Dan Curtis)T
The House That Dripped Blood (uk; Peter Duffell)V
•Jonathan (west Germany; Hans W. Geissendorfer; a.k.a. Jonathan, Vampire
Sterben Nicht)
Love — Vampire Style (west GERMANY; Helmut Foernbacher; orig.: Beiss Mich,
Lieblingl; a.k.a. Bite Me, Darling!)
•Lust for a Vampire (UK; Jimmy Sangster)T
The Murder Mansion (spain/italy; Francisco Lara Polop; orig.: La mansion
de la niebla, Quando Marta urlo dalla tomba)
 Appendix A: Cinema 243

The Night of the Vampire (japan; Michio Yamamoto; orig.: Chi o suu ning To;
a.k.a. The Vampire Doll)

Le sadique aux dents rouge (BELGIUM; Jean-Louis van Belle)

Scars ofDracula (UK;Roy Ward Baker)T
Scream and Scream Again (UK; Gordon Hessler)T
Sex and the Vampire (FRANCE; Jean Rollin; orig.: Les frisson des vampires;
a.k.a. The Vampire's Thrill)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (CZECHOSLOVAKIA; Jaromil Jires; orig.:

Valerie a Tyden Divu)

The Vampire Lovers (UK; Roy Ward Baker)T
El vampiro de la autopista (SPAIN; Jose Luis Madrid)
Vampyros Lesbos die Erbin des Dracula (west GERMANY/spain; Franco Manera
[Jesus Franco]; a.k.a. El signo del vampiro, Las vampiras)
Web of the Spider (italy/west germany/france; Anthony M. Dawson
[Antonio Margheriti]; orig.: Nella stretta morsa del ragno, Dracula im
Schloss des Schreckens, Prisonnier de Varaignee)
Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (SPAIN/WEST GERMANY; Leon Klim
(Klimovsky); orig.: La noche de Walpurgis, Nacht der Vampire; a.k.a. Blood
Moon, Shadow of the Werewolf)

1971
Blood Pie (SPAIN; Jose Maria Valles; orig.: Pastel de sangre)
Blood Thirst (PHILLIPINES/USA; Newt Arnold)
The Blue Sextet (USA)
The Body Beneath (usa/uk; Andy Milligan)
Caged Virgins (FRANCE; Jean Rollin; orig.: Requiem pour un vampire; a.k.a.
Requiem for a Vampire, Vierges et vampires, Virgins and Vampires, Caged
Virgins, Crazed Vampires)
Chantoc Contra el Tigre y el Vampiro (MEXICO; Gilberto Martinez Solares)
The Curse of the Vampire (SPAIN; Joseph de Lacy [Jose Maria Elorietta); orig.:
La llamada del vampiro)
Daughters of Darkness (belgium/france/west Germany; Harry Kumel)T
Dracula vs. Frankenstein (USA; Al Adamson; a.k.a. Blood of Frankenstein,
Satan's Blood Freaks, Blood of Ghastly Horror)W
Hanno Cambiato Faccia (ITALY; Corrado Farina)
Jupiter (FRANCE; Jean-Pierre Prevost)
1

Lake ofDracula (JAPAN; Michio Yamamoto; orig.: Chi o Suu Mee; a.k.a. Japula)
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (USA; John Hancock)T
 CFv f

Wm

Klaus Kinski in Nosferat

German Robles and Ariadne Welter

Vamr
 246 Appendix A: Cinema

O Macabro Dr Scivano (BRAZIL; Raul Calhado & Rosalvo Cacador)

The Night Stalker (usa/tv; John Llewellyn Moxey)T
The Omega Man (USA; Boris Sagal)T
El Retorno de los Vampiros (SPAIN; Jose Maria Zabalza)
The Return of Count Yorga (USA; Bob Kelljan)T
The Time of Vampires (YUGOSLAVIA; Nikola Majdak; orig.: Vrijeme Vampira)
Tombs of the Blind Dead (spain/portugal; Armando de Ossorio; orig.: La
noche del terror ciego; a.k.a. The Blind Dead)
• Twins of Evil (UK; John Hough )
Vampire Playgirls (belgium/italy; Jean Brismee; orig.: La plus longue nuit
du diable, La notte piu lunga del diavolo; a.k.a. Devil's Nightmare, The
Devil Walks at Midnight, Castle of Death, Succubus)
• Vampire Circus (UK; Robert Young)V
The Vampire Happening (west GERMANY; Freddie Francis; orig.: Gebissen
—
Wird nur Nachts Happening der Vampire)
The Velvet Vampire (USA; Stephanie Rothman; a.k.a. The Waking Hour^W

1972
•Alabama's Ghost (USA; Frederic Hobbs)
Angeles y Querubines (MEXICO; Rafael Corkidi)
•Baron Blood (ITALY; Mario Bava)V
•Blacula (USA; William Crain)T
• The Blood-Spattered Bride (SPAIN; Vincente Aranda; orig.: La novia ensan-
grentada; a.k.a. Till Death Do Us PartyV
Capulina contra los Monstruos (MEXICO; Rene Cardona)
Capulina contra los Vampiros (MEXICO; Rene Cardona)
II cavaliere costante nicosia demoniaco ovvero Dracula in Brianza (ITALY; Lu-
cio Fulci)
The Deathmaster (USA; Ray Dan ton)
Dracula's Great Love (SPAIN; Javier Aguirre; orig.: El gran amor del conde
Dracula; a.k.a. Cemetery Girls, Dracula's Virgin Lovers, Vampire Playgirls)
•Dracula A.D. 1972 (uk; Alan Gibson)T
Grave of the Vampire (USA; John Hayes)
La Invasion de los Muertos (MEXICO; Rene Cardona)
Invasion of the Blood Farmers (USA; Ed Adlum)
The Legend of Blood Castle (SPAIN/ITALY; Jorge Grau; orig.: Ceremonia san-
griente; a.k.a. The Female Butcher, Blood Ceremony)
Lips of Blood (france/spain; Ken Rudder [Alejandro Parti Gelibert & Pierre
 Appendix A: Cinema 247

Chevalier]; orig.: Le sang des autres, Les chemins de la violence, El segretto

de la momia, Perversions sexuelles)
The Mystery in Dracula's Castle (usa/tv; Robert Totten)
Night of the Devils (italy/spain; Giorgio Ferroni; orig.: La notte dei diavoli,
La noche de los diablos)

Orgy of the Vampires (SPAIN; Leon Klimovsky; orig.: La orgia nocturna de los
vampiros, La noche de los vampiros; a.k.a. The Vampire's Night Orgy)V
Saga of the Draculas (SPAIN; Leon Klimovsky; orig.: La saga de los Dracula;
a.k.a. The Dracula Saga, Dracula — The Bloodline)
Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula y el Hombre Lobo (MEXICO; Miguel M.
Delgado)
The Screaming Dead (spain/france; Jess Franco; orig.: Dracula contra
Frankenstein, Dracula le prisonnier de Frankenstein; a.k.a. Dracula vs.

Frankenstein, Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein)

Vampire Kung-Fu (HONG KONG; Li Fai Mon)
Voodoo Heartbeat (USA; Charles Nizet)

1973
Andy Warhol's Dracula (italy/france; Paul Morrissey and Antonio Mar-
gheriti; orig.: Dracula cerca sangue di vergine e . . . mori di sete; a.k.a.

Blood for Dracula)Y

Black Vampire (USA; Bill Gunn; a.k.a. Ganja and Hess, Blood Couple, Double
Possession, Black Evil, Black Out, The Moment of Terror)^
Curse of the Devil (spain/mexico; Carlos Aured; orig.: El retorno de Walpurgis)
The Daughter of Dracula (FRANCE/PORTUGAL; Jesus Franco; orig.: Lafille de
Dracula, La hija de Dracula)
Dead People (USA; Willard Huyck; a.k.a. Messiah of Evil, Return of the Living
Dead, Revenge of the Screaming Dead)
The DeviVs Plaything (SWITZERLAND; Joe Sarno)
The Devil's Wedding Night (ITALY; Paul Solvay [Luigi Batzella]; orig.: II ple-

nilunio delle vergine)

Dracula (canada/tv; Jack Nixon Browne)
Erotikill (france/belgium/portugal; J. P. Johnson [Jesus Franco]; orig.:
La comtesse noire, La comtesse aux seins nus, Les avaleuses; a.k.a. The Bare
Breasted Countess and The Loves ofIrina)W
Der Fluch der Schwarzen Schwestern (SWITZERLAND; Joseph W. Sarno)
Geek Maggot Bingo (USA; Nick Zedd; a.k.a. The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain)
The Ghastly Orgies of Count Dracula (ITALY; Ralph Brown [Renato Polselli];
orig.: Riti magie nere e segrete orge del trecento; a.k.a. Reincarnation of Isabel)
 248 Appendix A: Cinema

Horror of the Zombies (SPAIN; Armando de Ossorio; orig.: El buque maldito)

Legacy of Satan (USA; Gerard Damiano)
Lemora, The Lady Dracula (USA; Richard Blackburn; a.k.a. The Legendary
Curse ofLemora, Lemora, a Child's Tale of the Supernatural, Lady Dracula)
Night of the Sorcerers (spain/portugal; Armando de Ossorio; orig.: La noche
de los brujos)
Pepito y Chabelo vs. los Monstruos (MEXICO; Jose Estrada)
Return of the Evil Dead (SPAIN; Armando de Ossorio; orig.: El ataque de los

muertos sin Attack of the Blind Dead)

ojox, a.k.a.

'Satanic Rites of Dracula (UK; Alan Gibson; a.k.a. Count Dracula and His
Vampire Bride [us], The Rites ofDraculafT
Scream, Blacula, Scream (USA; Bob Kelljan)
Son of Dracula (UK; Freddie Francis; reissue tide: Young Dracula)
Tenderness of Wolves (west GERMANY; Ulli Lommel; orig.: Die Zartlichkeit der
Wolfe)
Los Vampiros de Coyoacan (MEXICO; Arturo Martinez)
The Vault of Horror (UK; Roy Ward Baker; reissue tide: Tales from the Crypt LI)

1974
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (UK/FRANCE/AUSTRALIA; Bruce Beresford)
»
The Bat People (USA; Jerry Jameson )
Blood (USA; Andy Milligan)
•
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (UK; Brian Clemens)Y
'Dracula (usa/tv; Dan Curtis)V
The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (HONG KONG/UK; Roy Ward Baker;
a.k.a. The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula)W

Night of the Walking Dead (SPAIN; Leon Klimovsky; orig.: El extrano amor de
los vampiros; a.k.a. Strange Love of the Vampires)
Le nosferat ou les eaux glacees du calcul egoiste (BELGIUM; Maurice Rabi-
nowitz)
Old Dracula (UK; Clive Donner; orig.: Vampira)
Quern Tern Medo de Lobisomem (BRAZIL; Reginaldo Faria)
Tender Dracula (FRANCE; Pierre Grunstein; orig.: La grand trouille, Tendre
Dracula)
Three Lmmoral Women (FRANCE; Walerian Borowczyk; orig.: Contes im-
moraux; a.k.a. Lmmoral Tales)
The Thirsty Dead (PHILIPPINES; Terry Becker; a.k.a. Blood Cult of Shangri-La)
Those Cruel and Bloody Vampires (SPAIN; Julio Perez Tabernero; orig.: Las
alegres vampiras de vogel)
 Appendix A: Cinema 249

Vampyres: Daughters of Dracula (UK; Joseph [Jose] Larraz; orig.: Vampyres;

a.k.a. Blood Hunger, Satan's Daughters)

1975
1

Alucarda (MEXICO; Juan Lopez Moctezuma; a.k.a. Sisters of Satan, Innocents

from Hell)*
1

Deafula (USA; Peter Wechsberg)

The Evil ofDracula (JAPAN; Michio Yamamoto; orig.: Chi O Suu Bara)
Eljovencito Dracula (SPAIN; Carlos Benpar [Carlos Benito Parra])
Kathavai Thatteeya Mohni Paye (INDIA; M.A. Rajaramann)
Leonor (spain/france/italy; Juan Bunuel)
Levres de Sang (FRANCE; Jean Rollin)
Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (MEXICO; Juan Lopez Moctezuma)
Mrs. Amworth (uk/canada/tv; Alvin Rakoff)
Spermula (FRANCE; Charles Matton)
Terror Beach (SPAIN; Armando de Ossorio; orig.: La noche de las gaviotas;
a.k.a. Night of the Seagulls, Night of the Death Cult)

1976
Bloodlust (SWITZERLAND; Marijan Vajda; orig.: Mosquito der Schaender)
Dead of Night (USA; Dan Curtis)
'Dracula and Son (FRANCE; Edouard Molinaro; orig.: Dracula, pere etfils)Y
'Martin (USA; George Romero)T
El Pobrecito Draculin (SPAIN; Juan Fortuny)
'Rabid (CANADA; David Cronenberg)T
Tiempos Duros Para Dracula (SPAIN/ARGENTINA; Jorge M. Darnell)
The Vampire (AUSTRIA; Karin Brandaner)

1977
Blood Relations (netherlands/france; Wim Lindner; orig.: Bloedverwan-
ten, Les vampires en ont ras le bol)

>
Count Dracula (uk/tv; Philip Saville)
Doctor Dracula (USA; Al Adamson & Paul Aratow)
Dracula (usa/us/tv; Dan Curtis; a.k.a. Bram Stoker's Dracula)Y
Hyocho No Bijo (japan/tv; Umeji Inoue)
The Incredible Melting Man (USA; William Sachs)
Lady Dracula (west Germany; Franz- Joseph Gottlieb)
McCloud Meets Dracula (usa/tv; Bruce Kessler)
Le Rouge de Chine (FRANCE; Jacques Richard)
 250 Appendix A: Cinema

1978
Dawn of the Dead (USA; George A. Romero)T
A Deusa de Marmore —Escrava do Diablo (brazil; Rosangela Maldonado)
La Dinastia Dracuta (Mexico)
Dracula's Dog (USA; Albert Band; a.k.a. Zoltan . . . Hound of Dracula)W
'Nightmare in Blood (USA; John Stanley; a.k.a. Horror Convention)
Tame re Champo ne Ame Kel (INDIA; Chandrakant Sangani)

1979
Dracula (uk/usa; John Badham)T
Dracula Blows His Cool (west Germany; Carlo Ombra; orig.: Graf Dracula
in Oberbayern)
Fascination (FRANCE; Jean Rollin)
Vampire Dracula Comes to Kobe: Evil Makes Women Beautiful (JAPAN; Ha-
jime Sato; orig.: Kyuketsuki Dorakyura Kobe ni arawaru: Akuma wa onna
wo utsukushiku suru)
'

Love at First Bite (usa; Stan Dragoti)T

Mama Dracula (BELGIUM; Boris Szulzinger)
Nightwing (USA; Arthur Hiller)T
Nocturna, Granddaughter of Dracula (USA; Harry Tampa [Hurwitz])
'
Nosferatu the Vampyre (west GERMANY/FRANCE; Werner Herzog; orig.: Nos-
feratu: Phantom der Nacht)V
1

'Salem's Lot (usa/tv; Tobe Hooper)V

Thirst (Australia;Rod Hardy)
Vampire (usa/tv; E. W. Swackhamer)
The Vampire Hookers (vmiAvriNES; Cirio H. Santiago; a.k.a. Sensuous Vampires)

1980
Les Chariots Contra Dracula (FRANCE; Jean-Pierre Desagnat)
The Craving (SPAIN; Jack Molina [Paul Naschy]; orig.: El retorno del hombre
lobo)

Deadline (CANADA; Mario Azzopardi; a.k.a. Anatomy of a Horror)

Dracula (japan; Minori Okazaki; animated feature)
Dracula's Last Rites (USA/FRANCE; Domonic Paris)T
The Games of the Countess Dolingen ofGratz (FRANCE; Catherine Binet; orig.:

Lesjeux de la comtesse Dolingen de Gratz)

The Monster Club (UK; Roy Ward Baker)T
Wolnyoui Han (KOREA; Kim In Soo)
 Appendix A: Cinema 251

1981
The BlackRoom (USA; Elly Kenner)V
Krvava Pani (Czechoslovakia; Viktor Kubal; Animated)
The Munsters' Revenge (USA; Don Weis)
Saturday the 14th (USA; Howard R. Cohen )
Vengeful Vampire Girl (KOREA; Kim In Soo; orig.: Huphyokwi yanyo)

1982
Buenas Noches, Senor Monstruo (MEXICO; Antonio Mercero)
Dracula Rises From His Coffin (KOREA; Lee Hyoung Pyo)
Ferat Vampire (CZECHOSLOVAKIA; Juraj Herz; orig.: Upir zferatu)
One Dark Night (USA; Thomas McLoughlin; a.k.a. Entity Force)

1983
The Beastmaster (USA; Don Coscarelli)
La Belle Captive (FRANCE; Alain Robbe-Grillet)
Dracula Tan Exarchia (GREECE; Nikos Zervos)
The Hunger (uk/usa; Tony Scott )
A Polish Vampire in Burbank (USA; Mark Pirro; a.k.a. A Polish Vampire)1
Pura Sangre (COLOMBIA; Luis Ospina)
The Trail (HONG KONG; Ronny Yu; orig.: Pao Dan Fei Che)

1984
Bloodsuckers From Outer Space (USA; Glen Coburn)T
Came de tu Came (COLOMBIA; Carlos Mayolo)
Curse of the Wicked Wife (HONG KONG; Wong King-Fang)
Evils of theNight (USA; Mardi Rustam; a.k.a. Space Monsters)
Haunted Cop Shop 1 (HONG KONG; JeffLau)
I Married a Vampire (USA; Jay Raskin)
Lust in the Fast Lane (USA)
Mutant (USA; John "Bud" Cardos; a.k.a. Night Shadows)

198S
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (uk; Alan Clarke)
Blue Lamp in a Winter Light (hong kong; Yao Funa)
Day of the Dead (USA; George A. Romero )T
Dragon Against Vampire (hong KONG; Lionel Leung; a.k.a. Dragon vs.

Vampire)
Santo Contra o Dracula.
Bela Lugosi in The Return of the Vamp
 254 Appendix A: Cinema

• Fright Night (USA; Tom Holland )

Hello Dracula (HONG KONG; Henry Wu-Leung)
I Like Bats (POLAND; Grzegorz Warchol; orig.: Lubie nietoperze)
• Lifeforce (UK/USA; Tobe Hooper)T
Loves of the Living Dead (hong KONG; Ho Menga; a.k.a. Heaven Wife, Hell
Wife)
Mixed Up (hong kong; Henry S. Chen)
Mr. Vampire (hong KONG; Lau Kun Wai)V
• Once Bitten (USA; Howard Storm )
The Tomb (USA; Fred Olen Ray)T
Transylvania 6-5000 (USA/YUGOSLAVIA; Rudy De Luca)T
• Vampire Hunter D (JAPAN; Tayoo Ashida; animated feature )
Vampires in Havana (cuba/spain/west GERMANY; Juan Padron; a.k.a. Vam-
Habana!; animated feature)
piros en la
Who Is Afraid of Dracula (ITALY; Neri Parenti; orig.: Fracchi contra Dracula,
Frachia vs. Dracula)

1986
•Anemia (ITALY; Alberto Abbruzzese)
The Close Encounter of the Vampire (HONG KONG; Yuen Ping)
The Devil Vendetta (thailand/hong kong; L. Chang-Xu)
Haunted Cop Shop 2 (hong kong; Jeff Lau)
Kung Fu Vampire Buster (HONG KONG; Xen Lung Ting; orig.: New Mr.
Vampire)
• Little Shop of Horrors (uk/usa; Frank Oz)T
The Mark ofLilith (UK; Bruna Fionda, Polly Gladwin, Islling Mack-Nataf; ex-
perimental short)
The Midnight Hour (usa/tv; Jack Bender)
Mr. Vampire II (hong KONG; Sung Kan Shing)
Red and Black (CHINA; Andrew Kam Yuen Wah)
The Seven Vampires (brazil; Ivan Cardoso; orig.: Assete vampiros)
• Vamp (USA; Richard Wenk)T
Vampire's Breakfast (HONG KONG; Wong Chung)

1987
Elusive Song of the Vampire (TAIWAN; Takako Shira)
Graveyard Disturbance (ITALY; Lamberto Bava; orig.: Dentro il cimitrio)
• Graveyard Shift (CANADA; Gerard Ciccoritti)V
 Appendix A: Cinema 255

Jonathan of the Night (USA; Buddy Giovinazzo; short subject)

• The Lost Boys (USA; Joel Schumacher)
Love Me, Vampire (HONG KONG; Irene Wang)
The Monster Squad (USA; Fred Dekker)T
Mr. Vampire III (hong KONG; Wong Kee Hung)
My Best Friend Is a
Vampire (USA; Jimmy Huston )
• Near Dark (USA; Kathryn Bigelow)T
One Eyebrow Priest(HONG KONG; Mason Ching; orig.: New Mr. Vampire II)
A Return to Cohen )T
'Salem's Lot (USA; Larry
Toothless Vampires (HONG KONG; Lee Hun Yu)
The Wicked (AUSTRALIA; a.k.a. Outback Vampires)
• Vampire at Midnight (USA; Gregory McClatchy)T
Vampire Knights (USA; Daniel M. Peterson)
Vampires Live Again (HONG KONG; Kam Yoo Tu; comedy video feature)

1988
Because the Dawn (USA; Amy Goldstein)
Beverly Hills Vamp (USA; Fred Olen Ray)T
Chillers (USA; Daniel Boyd)
•Dance of the Damned (USA; Katt Shea Ruben)T
Dinner With the Vampire (ITALY; Lamberto Bava)
•Dracula's Widow (USA; Christopher Coppola)T
Fright Night Part II (USA; Tommy Lee Wallace; French release tide: Vampire?
Avez vous-dit vampire?)V
Howl of the Devil (SPAIN; Paul Naschy; orig.: El aullido del diablo)
The Jitters (canada/usa/japan; John M. Fasano)
The Kiss (usa/ CANADA; Pen Densham)T
• The Lair of the White Worm (UK; Ken Russell)T
• Midnight (USA; Thaddeus Vane)T
Mr. Vampire TV (hong KONG; Law Lit)
The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau (usa/belgium; Dennis Berry)
Nosferatu in Venice (ITALY; Augusto Caminito; orig.: Nosferatu a Venezia;
a.k.a. Vampire in Venice, Vampires in Venice)

• Not of This Earth (USA; Jim Wynorski)T

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf'(USA; Ray Patterson; animated feature)
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (USA; Anthony Hickox)
Teen Vamp (USA; Samuel Bradford)
To Die For (USA; Deran Sarafian)T
 256 Appendix A: Cinema

The Understudy: Graveyard Shift II (CANADA; Gerard Ciccoritti)T

Vampire Princess Miyu (JAPAN; Hirano Toshihiro; animated feature )
Vampires (USA; Len Anthony; a.k.a. Abadon)
Vampires on Bikini Beach (USA)
Vampires Strike Back (HONG KONG; Kam Yoo Tu; video feature)
Waxwork (USA; Anthony Hickox)T

1989
Daughter of Darkness (usa/tv; Stuart Gordon)
Fright House (USA; Len Anthony; incorporating Vampires [1988])
The Lost Platoon (USA; David A. Prior)
Magic Cop (HONG KONG; H. Ching; a.k.a. Mr. Vampire V)
Mom (USA; Patrick Rand)
Nick Knight (usa/tv; Farhad Mann)T
Nightlife (mexico/usa/tv; Daniel Taplitz)T
Pale Blood (USA; V.V. Dachin)
Spirit Zombi (taiwan/hong kong; Yao Fenpan)
vs.

Spooky Family (HONG KONG; Law Lit)

Transylvania Twist (USA; Jim Wynorski)T
Vampire's Kiss (USA; Robert Bierman)T

1990
The Arrival (USA; David Schmoeller)
Baby Blood (FRANCE; Alain Robak)
Bandh Darwaza (INDIA; Tulsi Ramsay and Shyam Ramsay)
Banglow 666 (india)
Crazy Safari (HONG KONG; Lo Weng-Tung)
Dawn (UK; Niall Johnson; video feature)
Defby Temptation (USA; James Bond III)
Encounters of the Spooky Kind II (hong KONG; Sammo Hung)
First Vampire in China (hong KONG; Yam Chun-Lu)
Howling VI: The Freaks (USA/UK; Hope Perello)T
I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (UK; Dirk Campbell)
La Maschera del Demonio (ITALY; Lamberto Bava)
Red Blooded American Girl (CANADA; David Blyth)
1

The Reflecting Skin (usa/canada; Philip Ridley )T

Rockula (USA; Luca Bercovici)T
Streets (USA; Katt Shea Ruben)
 Appendix A: Cinema 257

• Subspecies (usa/romania; Ted Nicolaou)Y

Vampire Buster (hong KONG; Norman Law and Stanley Siu)
Vampire Cop (USA; Donald Farmer)
Vampyre (USA; Bruce G. Hallenbeck; video feature)
Witchcraft II: The Kiss of Death (USA; R. L. Tillmann)

1991
Blood-Suckers (RUSSIA; E. Tatarskiy; a.k.a. Those Feed on Blood)
Demon Cop (USA; Rocco Karega)
Doctor Vampire (hong KONG; Q. Xen Lee)
The Malibu Beach Vampires (USA; Francis Creighton)
Moon Legend (hong kong; Joey Wang)
My Grandpa Is a Vampire (NEW ZEALAND; David Blyth; a.k.a. Moonrise,
Vampire)W
My Lovely Monster (GERMANY; Michel Bergmann)
Spooky Family 2 (hong KONG; Law Lit)
Trilogy of Fear (USA; Richard L. Fox, Jr.)
Ultimate Vampire (HONG KONG; Andrew Lau)
Undying Love (USA; Greg Lambertson)
Valerie (USA; Jay Lind)
Vampire Trailer Park (USA; Steve Latshaw)
Vampire's Embrace (USA; Glen Andreiev)
Vampires Settle on Police Camp (hong KONG; Lo Wei Lang)
Waxwork II: Lost in Time (USA; Anthony Hickox)T

1992
• Back to the USSR (FINLAND; Jari Halonen)
Bloodlust (AUSTRALIA; Richard Wolstencroft and John Hewitt)
Bloodthirsty (USA; Robert Guy Barrows)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (USA; Francis Ford Coppola)T
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (USA; Fran Rubel Kuzui)T
• Children of the Night (USA; Tony Randel)Y
• Cronos (mexico; Guillermo del Toro)T
Darkness (USA; Leif Jonker)V
• Dracula Rising (USA; Fred Gallo)T
Dracula's Hair (RUSSIA; Vadim Prodan)
• Innocent Blood (USA; John Landis)T
In the Midnight Hour (USA; Joel Bender)
 258 Appendix A: Cinema

Project Vampire (USA; Peter Flynn)

The Reluctant Vampire (USA; Malcolm Marmorstein)
Sherlock Holmes: The LastVampyre (uk; Tim Sullivan)
Sleepwalkers (USA;Mick Garris)Y
• Tale of a Vampire (UK/jAPAN; Shimako Sato)T
To Sleep with a Vampire (USA; Adam Friedman )
Un vampire au paradis (FRANCE; Abdelkrim Bahloul)
The Vampire's Rope (RUSSIA; Nikolai Gibu)
The Vampyr: A Soap Opera (uk/tv; Nigel Finch)T

1993
Bloodlust: Subspecies III (USA; Ted Nicolaou)T
Bloodstone: Subspecies II (USA; Ted Nicolaou)T
• Midnight Kiss (USA; Joel Bender) Y
Robo Vampire (HONG KONG; Joe Livingstone)

1994
•Interview with the Vampire (USA; Neil Jordan)
• Nadja (USA; Michael Almereyda)
The Vampire Conspiracy (USA; Geoffrey De Valois)

199S
The Addiction (USA; Abel Ferrara)
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (USA; Mel Brooks)
The Nosferatu Diaries (usa)
Vampire in Brooklyn (USA; Wes Craven)

1996
From Dusk till Dawn (USA; Robert Rodriguez)

Documentary Films
Fangs! (usa 1992; Bruce G. Hallenbeck)
In Search of Dracula (romania/sweden 1971; Calvin Floyd)
Lugosi: The Forgotten King (USA 1985; Mark S. Gilman and Dave Stuckey)Y
Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook (USA 1991; Ted Newsom)
Bela Lugosi: Hollywood's Dark Prince (USA 1994; Kevin Burns)
 Appendix A: Cinema 259

Fleeting Visitations
Films in which vampires make brief cameo appearances, usually for purposes
of comedy or comic relief:

Abbott and Costello meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (USA 1953; Charles Lemont)
The Candidate (UK 1964; Robert Angus)
Chappaqua (USA 1966; Conrad Rooks)
Edward II uk 1991; Derek Jarman)
(

Escala en hi-fi (SPAIN 1963; Isidoro Martinez-Ferry)

Every Home Should Have One (UK 1970; Jim Clark)
Fade to Black (USA 1980; Vernon Zimmerman)Y
Fools (USA 1970; Tom Gries)
Games (usa 1967; Curtis Harrington)
Gandy Goose in the Ghost Town (USA 1944; Mannie Davis; animated short)
The Gong Show Movie (usa 1980; Chuck Barris)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (USA 1990; Joe Dante)
The Horror of It All (UK 1964; Terence Fisher)
Linda Lovelace for President (USA 1976; Claudio Guzman)
Madhouse (uk 1974; Jim Clark)
The Magic Christian (UK 1969; Joseph McGrath)Y
The Maltese Bippy (USA 1969; Norman Panama)
Mickey's Gala Premiere (USA 1933; Walt Disney animated short)
Midi -minuit (FRANCE 1970; Pierre Philippe)
Mighty Mouse Meets Bad Bill Bunion (USA 1945; animated short)
National Lampoon's Class Reunion (USA 1982; Michael Miller)
One More Time (UK 1969; Jerry Lewis)
Paris When It S*'zz/w (usa/france; 1964)
Parque de juegos (SPAIN 1963; Pedro Olea)
Rendezvous (USA 1973; Cortlandt B. Hull; short)
The Romantic Agony (NETHERLANDS 1973; Guido Peters, a.k.a. Vaarwhel)
Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (USA 1988; Howard R Cohen)Y
Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (USA 1985; Ken Kwapis)
Sex Express (UK 1975; Derek Ford)
Shinbone Alley (USA 1971; John David Wilson; animated feature)
Sons of Satan (USA 1973; Lancer Brooks)
Sturmtruppen (ITALY 1977; Salvatore Samperi)
Sweet Hunters (panama 1969; Ray Guerra)
The Supergrass (UK 1985; Peter Richardson)
Three Men and a Little Lady (USA 1990; Emile Ardolino)Y
 260 Appendix A: Cinema

Train Ride to Hollywood (USA 1975; Charles Rondeau)

Transylvania 6-5000 (USA 1963; Chuck Jones; animated short)
The World of Abbott and Costello (USA 1966)
The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy (MEXICO 1965; orig.: Las luchadoras
contra la momia)

Erotica

Heterosexual films wity vampires:

Bite! (USA 1991; Scotty Fox)T
Blood Lust (UK 1990; Russell Gay)
Dracula Exotica (USA 1981; Warren Evans)
Dracula Sucks (USA 1979; Philip Marshak; a.k.a. Lust at First Bite, Dracula's

Bride)
The House on Bare Mountain (USA; R. Lee Frost)
Lust in the Fast Lane (USA 1984; "Adam")
Kiss Me Quick (USA 1967; Peter Perry and Max Gardens; a.k.a. Dr. Breedlove,
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love)W
The Lust of Dracula (USA 1971
Lust ofBlackula (USA 1987; Barry Morrison)
Muffy the Vampire Layer (USA 1993)
Out for Blood (usa 1990; Paul Thomas)
People (USA 1979; Gerard Damiano)
Sexandroide (FRANCE 1987; Michel Ricaud)
Star Virgin (usa 1979; Linus Gator)
Suck Me, Vampire (FRANCE 1975; Maxime Debest)
A Touch of Sweden (USA n.d.)
Trampire (USA 1987; C.C. Williams)
The Vampire's Bite (USA 1972)
Vampire Lust (USA n.d.)
Wanda Does Transylvania (USA n.d.)

Homosexual films Willi vampires:

Bite! (usa 1992 )
Disconnected (usa 1992)T
Does Dracula Really Suck? (USA 1969)
* Dragula (usa 1973)
 Appendix A: Cinema 26

Gayracula (usa 1983; Roger Earl)T

The Vampire of Budapest (USA 1995; Kristen Bjorn)V

Ronald V. Borst, who contributed immeasurably to the com-

Special thanks to
pletenessand accuracy of this appendix. Grateful acknowledgment is made to
Borst's landmark vampire filmojjraphy in the fan magazine Photon and to

Donald C. Willis' three-volume Horror and Science Fiction Films (see Bibli-
ography). DJS
 APPENDIX B

Names of Vampires and

Vampirelike Creatures

Bulleted entries are discussed in separate, main listings.

ASWANG (Philippines) DOPPELSAUGER/

ASANBOSAM (Ivory Coast, DUBBELSAUGER
Ghana, Togo) (Germany)
ALGUL (Arabia)
ALP (Germany) EMPUSA (Greece)
ADZE (Southeastern Ghana) ERETICA (Russia)
ESTRIE (Hebrew)
BRUXSA (Portugal)
BRAMAPARUSH (India) GAYAL (India)
BLUTSAUGER (Germany) GHOUL
BIBI (Gypsy)
BEBARLANGS (Philippines) HANNYA (Japan)
BHEAN SIDHE (Ireland)
BAITAL (see VETALA) IMPUNDULU (Africa)
B A JANG (Malaysia) 'INCUBUS
BHUTA (India)
JARACACAS (Brazil)
CALLICANTZARO (Greece)
CHORD EWA (Bengal) KOZLAK(Dalmatia)
CHUREL/CHURAIL (India) KRESNIK/KRSNIK/KRUVNIK
CIVATATEO (Mexico) (Slovenia)
KRVOIJAC (Bulgaria)
DAN AG (Philippines) KUANG-SHI (China)
•DEARG-DUE (Ireland) KUDLAK (Dalmatia/Slovenia)
'DHAMPIR (Gypsy) KUKUDHI (Albania)
264 Appendix B: Names of Vampires

LAMIA PIJAVICA/PIJAWICA
LAMPIR (Bosnia) (Slovenia/Croatia)
LANGSUIR (Malaysia) PONTIANAK (Malaysia)
LEANHAUM-SHEE (Ireland)
LIDERC/LUDVERC (Hungary) STRIGOII/STRIGOICA (Romania)
LOBISHOMEN (Brazil) SUCCUBUS
LOOGAROO (West Indies) SWAWMX (Myanmar)
LUGAT (Albania)
TLACIQUE (Mexico)
MANDURAGO (Philippines)
MARA (Scandinavia; see also UBOUR (Bulgaria)
MORA) UPIOR/UPIER (Poland)
MASAN/MASANI (India) UPYR (Russia)
MATI-ANAK (Malaysia) USTREL (Bulgaria)
MORA (Slavic)
MORMO (Greece) VAMPIR/VAMPYR (Eastern
MOROII (Romania) Europe)
MOTETZ DAM (Hebrew) VEDOMEC
MULLO/MULI (Gypsy) VETALA (India)
MURONI/MURONY/ VOLKODLAK (Slovenia)
MURONUL (Wallachia) VOPYR (Russia)
VOURDALAK/WURDALAK
NACHZEHRER (Silesia, (Russia)
Bavaria) VRYKOLAKAS/VROUKALAKAS/
NELAPSI (Solvak) VRYKOLATIOS (Greece)
NOSFERATU (Romania) VXJKODLAK (Serbia)

OBAYIFO (West Africa) WIESZCZY (Poland)

ODOROTEN (Russia)
OHYN (Poland) XLOPTUNY (Russia)

PENANGGALAN (Malaysia) ZMEU (Moldavia)

 APPENDIX C

Novels

The function of the traditional gothic novel has largely been eclipsed by
the motion picture, but the gothic subset of the vampire novel is alive and
well, as the following chronological checklist should amply attest. Bulleted ti-

tles are further discussed under separate, main entries.

1847 1894
Varney the Vampire, or, The Feast of The Fair Abigail
Blood Paul Heyse
James Malcolm Rymer (uk)

1897
1870
1

Dracula
Vikram and the Vampire Bram Stoker (uk)

Richard Burton (uk)

1907
1

House of the Vampire

1891
George Sylvester Viereck
1
Ld-Bas
Joris-Karl Huysmans
1909
The Picture of Dorian Gray The Lady of the Shroud
Oscar Wilde (uk) Bram Stoker
 266 Appendix C: Novels

1911 19S4
1
The Lair of the White Worm The Feasting Dead
Bram Stoker John Metcalfe

1926 '
I Am Legend
Moon/lowers Richard Matheson
Margaret Peterson (uk)
1960
1927 Blood and Roses
The Demon Lover Robin Carlisle (uk)

Dion Fortune
The Brides ofDracula

1928 Dean Owen

London After Midnight
Doctors Wear Scarlet
Marie Coolidge-Rask
Simon Raven

1933 1961
The Unmeasured Place Some of Tour Blood
John Lambourne (uk) Theodore Sturgeon

193S 1964
The Three Coffins The Shiny Narrow Grin
John Dickson Carr Jane Gaskell (uk)

Vampires Overhead 196S

Alan Hyder (uk) Progeny of the Adder
Leslie H. Whitten
1937
Fingers of Fear To Kill a Corpse
J. U. Nicolson Eugene Ascher (uk)

1946 1966
The Dark World Dark Shadows
Henry Kuttner Marilyn Ross*

*Using the pen name Marilyn Ross, William Edward Daniel Ross wrote 32 Dark Shadows
novella-length paperbacks for Paperback Library between 1966 and 1972, nearly all chroni-
cling new adventures for daytime television's favorite vampire, Barnabas Collins. Given the
repetitious nature of the series (The Peril of Barnabas Collins, The Secret of Barnabas Collins,
etc.), Ihave omitted individual tides from this checklist.
 Appendix C: Novels 267

The Disoriented Man Night of the Vampire

(a.k.a. Scream and Scream Again) Raymond Giles
Peter Saxon
Secret of the Pale Lover

Queen of Blood Clarissa Ross

Charles Nuetzel
1970
So What Killed the Vampire? The Adult Version ofDracula
Carter Brown Anonymous

The Torturer
Blood Moon
Jan Alexander
Peter Saxon (uk)

The Vampire Affair

House of Dark Shadows
Marilyn Ross
{The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #6)
David McDaniel
One More Time
Michael Avallone
1967
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
The Vampire ofMoura
John Burke (uk)
Virginia Coffman

1968
Vampire's Kiss
'
Image of the Beast
Sonny Barker
Philip Jose Farmer

Vampire's Moon
The Orgy at Madame Dracula's
Peter Saxon
F. W. Paul

The Vampires ofFinistere

The Vampire Cameo The Guardians #4)
(
Dorothea Nile Peter Saxon (uk)

1969 1971
Blown Countess Dracula
Philip Jose Farmer Michel Parry

Dracutwig The Dracula Archives

Mallory T. Knight Raymond Rudorff(uK)
268 Appendix C: Novels

The Feast of the Wolf Red Wine of Rapture

Thomas Blackburn Margaret Worth

Lust for a Vampire The Vampire Women

William Hughes Victor Samuels

The Scars ofDracula The Vampires

Angus Hall (uk) John Rechy

The Vampire Curse 1974

Daoma Winston Children of the Night
(a.k.a. Dracula's Children)
1972 Richard Lortz
The Bloody Countess
Valentine Penrose (uk)
The Death box
Errol Lecale (uk)
Vampires of Venus
KarlMannheim (uk)
Dracula and the Virgins of the

Undead
The Werewolf vs. the Vampire
Etienne Aubin (uk)
Woman
Arthur Scram
Dracula's Lost World
Robert Lory
1973
Dracula Returns
Robert Lory
The Drums ofDracula
Robert Lory

Dracula 3s Brother
Robert Lory An Enquiry into the Existence of

Vampires
Dracula's Gold Marc Lowell
Robert Lory
Our Lady of Pain
The Hand
ofDracula John Blackburn
Robert Lory
The Vampire Contessa: From the

The Night Stalker Journal ofJeremy Qiientain

Jeff Rice Marilyn Ross
 Appendix C: Novels 269

The Vampires and the Witch Dracula Began

(
The Phantom #12) Gail Kimberly
Lee Falk
In Memory of Sarah Bailey
The Witching ofDracula Louise Cooper (uk)
Robert Lory
Interview with the Vampire

1975 Anne Rice

The Blood Countess ( The Avenger #33)
The Monster Club
Kenneth Robeson
R Chetwynd- Hayes
Challenge to Dracula
Sandworld
Robert Lory
Richard A. Lupoff

'
The Dracula Tape
The Space Vampires
Fred Saberhagen
Colin Wilson

Dracula's Disciple
The Vampires ofAlfama
Robert Lory
Pierre Kast (uk)

'
'Salem's Lot The Vampire ofMons
Stephen King Desmond Stewart

Vampirella #i: Bloodstalk

1977
Ron Goulart Count Dracula
Gerald Savory (uk)
Vampirella #2: On Alien Wings
Ron Goulart Count Dracula's Canadian Affair
Otto Fredrick
Village of Blood
Ian Dear The Dance of Blood
Stewart Farrar (uk)
1976
Blood Summer Dracula Unborn
Louise Cooper Peter Tremayne (uk)

Count Manfred Dracula's Daughter

Miranda Seymour Carl Dreadstone (uk)
270 Appendix C: Novels

Frankenstein Meets Dracula 1979

Don Glut (UK) Blood Games
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Hounds of Dracula
Ken Johnson Blood-Thirst
Mark Rouson (uk)
Martin
George Romero and By Blood Alone
Susan Sparrow Bernhardt Hurwood
J.

The Vampire Tapes The Blooding

Arabella Randolphe William Darrid

1978
Bloodthirst
The Black Castle
Mark Ronson (uk)
Les Daniels

Dracula, Go Home
Dracula's Cat
Kim Piatt
Jan Wahl

Dracula in Love
The Holmes-Dracula File
John Shirley
Fred Saberhagen

Hell's Bitch
Hotel Transylvania
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Anonymous

The Palace Lust for a Vampire

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro William Hughes (uk)

The Revenge of Dracula Nitjhtworld

Peter Tremayne (uk) David Bischoff

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula Nosferatu, the Vampyre

Loren D. Estleman (uk) Paul Monette

Tabitha Fffoulkes An Old Friend of the Family

John Linssen Fred Saberhagen
 Appendix C: Novels 27

The Silver Skull World Enough, and Time

Les Daniels James Kahn

The Vampire Chase 1981

Stephen Brett Blood County
Curt Selby
Village of Vampires
Steven Otfinoski Blood Shift
Garfield Reeves-Stevens (CANADA)
1980
1

Bunnicula Citizen Vampire

Deborah Howe and James Howe Les Daniels

Dracula, My Love Crimson Kisses

Peter Tremayne (uk) Asa Drake

The Intrusion Death-Angel

David Combs J. N. Williamson

Night Whispers Death-Coach

Charles Veley J.N. Williamson

The Partaker The Demon Lover

R. Chetwynd- Hayes Maria Valdemi

Sabella: Or the Blood Stone Doctor Who and the State of Decay

Tanith Lee (uk) Terrance Dicks

A Taste for Power Dracula Sucks

Muriel Dobbin Maxwell Kearny

Thorn Flowers of Evil

Fred Saberhagen Robert Charles (uk)

The Vampire Tapestry The Hunger

Suzy McKee Charnas Whidey Strieber

Vegas Vampire The Journal of Edwin Underhill

Jory Sherman Peter Tonkin (uk)
272 Appendix C: Novels

The Keepsake Dracula's Diary

Paul Hudson Michael Corby and Michael Geare

Ludlow's Mill Dhampire

R. R. Walters Scott Baker

Death-Doctor
Moonlight Variations
J. N. Williamson
Florence Stevenson

Death-School
New Blood
J. N. Williamson
Richard Salem (uk)
• Fevre Dream
Path of the Eclipse George R. R. Martin
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Miranda
Vampyr Edylne Bond
Jan Jennings
The Soft Whisper of the Dead
They Thirst Charles L. Grant

Robert McCammon
Tempting Fate
1982 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Blood Will Have Blood

Linda Barnes
Time's Dark Laughter
James Kahn

The Curse of the Vampire

1983
Karl Alexander
The Awakening
John Russo
The Dark Angel
Meredith Ann Pierce
The Dracula Murders
Philip Daniels
The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of
theVampire Life The Dragon Waiting
Michael Talbot John M. Ford

Dominion The Ice Maiden

Fred Saberhagen Marc Behm
 Appendix C: Novels 273

The Nursery Fright Night

William W. Johnstone John Skipp and Craig Spector

1984 In the Drift

Blood Sport Michael Swanwick
(Dark Forces #74)
Last Rites
R. C. Scott
Jorge Saralegui

Dracula Is a Pain in the Neck

The Saint-Germain Chronicles
Elizabeth Levy
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Erebus The Vampire Lestat

Shaun Hutson (uk) Anne Rice

The Fellowship 1986

Aden F. Romine and Mary C. Romine In Hot Blood
Petru Popescu
'I, Vampire
Jody Scott Legacy ofLehr
Katherine Kurtz
Myth-ing Persons
Robert Asprin The Lord Count Drakulya
P.C. Doherty (uk)

Prisoner of Vampires
Necroscope
Nancy Garden
Brian Lumley (uk)

The Spy Who Drank Blood

The Prince Drakulya
Gordon Linzer
P.C. Doherty (uk)

Vampire Junction Tloe Light at the End

S. P. Somtow John Skipp and Craig Spector

1985 Yellow Fog

Blood Autumn Les Daniels
Kathryn Ptacek
1987
Dinner at Deviant's Palace Blood Hunt
Tim Powers Lee Killough
274 Appendix C: Novels

Blood Mist 1988

Robert James Black Ambrosia
Elizabeth Engstrom
Bloodthirst
{Star Trek #37) Blood Farm: An Iowa Gothic
J. M. Dillard Sam Siciliano

A Flame in Byzantium Bloodlinks

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Lee Killough

The Goldcamp Vampire, or, the Crusader's Torch

Sanguinary Sourdough Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Elizabeth Scarborough
The Dracula Caper
The Devouring (
Time Wars ##)
F. W. Armstrong Simon Hawke

Dracula's Children The House ofCaine

R. Chetwynd- Hayes (uk) Ken Eulo

How Dear the Dawn In Silence Sealed

Marc Eliot Kathryn Ptacek

The House of Dracula Lifeblood

R. Chetwynd -Hayes (uk) Lee Duigon

Live Girls Monastery

Ray Garton Patrick Whalen

The Lost Boys Natural History

Craig Shaw Gardner Joan Perucho

Sweet Silver Blues Necroscope II: Wamphyri!

Glen Cook Brian Lumley (uk)

Timefall The Queen of the Damned

James Kahn Anne Rice
 Appendix C: Novels 275

Raw Pain Max A Matter of Taste

Dean Andersson Fred Saberhagen

This Rough Magic Monday's Child

Heather Graham Pozzessere Patricia Wallace

Those of My Blood Necroscope III: The Source

Jacqueline Lichtenberg Brian Lumley (uk)

Those Who Hunt the Night Night Brothers

Barbara Hambly Sidney Williams

Vessel The Night Prophets

John Tigges Paul F. Olson

1989 Nightshade
Blood Legacy Jack Buder
Prudence Foster
Sunglasses After Dark
Blood of the Impaler Nancy A. Collins

JefFerey Sackett
Vampire Nights
Blood Thirst Timothy Moriarty
L. A. Freed
1990
Carrion Comfort The Bargain
Dan Simmons Jon Ruddy

A Candle for D'Artagnan Blood Alone

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Elaine Bergstrom

Dark Souls Blood Circle

Barry Porter P. N. Elrod

Dreamspy The Blood of Roses

Jacqueline Lichtenberg Tanith Lee (uk)

In Hot Blood Bloodlist

Petru Popescu P. N. Elrod
 276 Appendix C: Novels

Blood Lust Vampire Notes

Ron Dee Robert Arthur Smith

The Empire of Fear Vampire Winter

Brian Stableford Lois Tilton

The Gift Vampire$

Scott Edelman John Steakley

* I, Vampire 1991
Michael Romkey Art in the Blood
P. N. Elrod
Lifeblood
P. N. Elrod Blood on the Water
P. N. Elrod
Midnight Mass
F. Paul Wilson Blood Rites
Elaine Bergstrom

Necroscope IV: Deadspeak

• Dracula Unbound
Brian Lumley (uk)
Brian W. Aldiss

Nightblood
Fire in the Blood
T. Chris Martindale
P. N. Elrod

Nightmare People
• The Gilda Stories
Lawrence Watt- Evans
Jewelle Gomez
Out of the House of Life
The Hunt
Chelsea Quinn Yarbo
T. Lucien Wright

The Stake
Lot Lizards
Richard Laymon Ray Garton

Tempter Necroscope V: Deadspawn

Nancy A. Collins Brian Lumley (uk)

The Twelfth Child Night Thirst

Raymond Van Over Patrick Whalen
 Appendix C: Novels 277

No Blood Spilled Dark Dance

Les Daniels Tanith Lee (uk)

Obsession Daughter of the Night

Lori Herter Elaine Bergstrom

Out for Blood Kiss of the Vampire

John Peyton Cook Lee Weathersby

Vampire Beat Less than Human

Vincent Courtenay Gary Raisor

Vampire Blood Liquid Diet

Kathryn Meyer Griffith
William Tedford

The Vampire Diaries

Lost Souls
L. J. Smith
Poppy Z. Brite

The Vampire Memoirs

The Need
Mara McCuniff and Traci Biery
Andrew Niederman
Vampires Anonymous
Jeffrey M. McMahan
A Question of Time
Fred Saberhagen

1992
The Season of Passage
Blood Brothers
Christopher Pike
Brian Lumley (uk)

Soul Snatchers
Blood Brothers
Michael Cecilione
T. Lucien Wright

Bram Stoker's Dracula Sweet Blood

James V. Hart and Fred Saberhagen Pat Graverson

• Children of the Night A Taste of Blood Wine

Dan Simmons Freda Warrington (uk)

Dance of the Dead Thirst of the Vampires

Christie Golden T. Lucien Wright
278 Appendix C: Novels

Valentine Domination
S. P. Somtow (UK) Michael Cecilione

Young Blood Forever and the Nig

Brian Stableford (uk) Linda Lael Miller

1993 • The Golden

Afterage Lucius Shepard
Yvonne Navarro
I Am Dracula
Bats Dean C. Andersson
William W. Johnstone
Insatiable
Dark
Better in the David Dvorkin
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

/, Strahd: The Memt

Blind Hunger
P. N. Elrod
David Darke

King of the Grey

Blood
Richard J. Knaak
Ron Dee
Knights of the Blood
Blood Feud
Scott MacMillan
Sam Siciliano

The Last Aerie

The Book of Common Dread
Brian Lumley
Brent Monohan

Cold Allies The Making of a Monster

Gail Petersen
Patricia Anthony

Darker Jewels McLendon's Syndrome

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Robert Frezza

The Darker Passions: Dracula Night Blood

Amarantha Knight Eric Flanders

Darkness on the Ice Nighthag

Lois Tilton Michael David
 Appendix C: Novels 279

The Night Inside: A Vampire Thriller Vampire of the Mists

Nancy Baker (uk) Golden
Christie

The Perfect Kiss The Vampire's Apprentice

Amanda Stevens Richard Lee Byers

Personal Darkness Warhammer: Genevieve Undead

Tanith Lee (uk) Jack Yeovil (uk)

The Phallus of Osiris The Winter Man

Valentina Cilescu (uk)
Denise Vitola

Shadows After Dark 1994

Ouida Crozier Among the Immortals
Paul Lake
Shadows in Their Blood
Marian Babson (uk)
Bitter Blood
Karen E. Taylor
Shadow Sisters

Stephen Markley (uk)

Blood and Chrysanthemums: A
Vampire Novel
Some Things Never Die
Nancy Baker
Robert Morgan

Blood Secrets
Suckers
Karen E. Taylor
Anne Bilson (uk)

Blood Work
The Summoning
Bentley Little
Fay Zachary

Twilight Memories Bloodletter

Maggie Shayne Warren Newton Beath

Twilight Phantasies Bloodwars

Maggie Shayne Brian Lumley (uk)

The Vampire Journals Cold Kiss

Tracy Bieri Roxanne Longstreet
280 Appendix C: Novels

Countess Dracula: A Novel Love Bite

Carroll Borland Sherry Gottlieb

Covenant with the Vampire Midnight Kiss

Jeanne Kalogridis Nancy Gideon

Cursed Be the Child Midnight Kiss

Mort Castle Rebecca York

A Dance in Blood Velvet Midnight Temptation

Freda Warrington (uk) Nancy Gideon

Darkness Mina
Tanith Lee (uk) Marie Kiraly

Dark Obsession Near Death

Amanda Stevens Nancy Kilpatrick

A Deeper Hunger Nosferatu

Sabine Kells Karl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne

Drakulya: The Lost Journals ofMicea Of Saints and Shadows

Drakulya Christopher Golden
Earl Lee
Progeny of the Adder
The Fangs of Morning Leslie H. Whitten
Leslie H. Whitten
Seance for a Vampire
For All Eternity Fred Saberhagen
Linda Lael Miller
The Secret Life ofLaszlo, Count
Gideon Dracula
Stephen Laws (uk) Roderick Anscombe

Hunter's Moon Sexand Blood

Dawn Stewardson Ron Dee

Kiss of Darkness Sex and the Single Vampire

Sharon Brondos Nancy Kilpatrick
 Appendix C: Novels 28

Shade The Blood Countess

David Drake Andrei Codrescu

Shattered Glass Blood Ties

Elaine Bergstrom Karen E. Taylor

Shrines and Desecrations The Blood Red Baron

Brian J. Hodge Kim Newman

Sins of the Blood

Caravan of Shadows
Kristine Kathryn Rusch Richard Lee Byers

Succumb
Children of the Vampire
Ron Dee
Jeanne Kalogridis

This Dark Paradise

Circus of the Damned
Wendy Haley
Laurell K. Hamilton

Throat Sprockets
Death Masque
Tim Lucas
P. N. Elrod

Twilight Illusions
Desmodus
Maggie Shayne
Melanie Tern

Vampire Lover
Charlotte Lamb Diary of a Vampire
Gary Bowen
The Vampire Papers
Michael Romkey Dream Lover
Katrina Vicente (uk)
Vampire's Kiss
Robert S. Hichens Glittering Savages
Mark Burnell (uk)
199S
Angel Souls and Devil Hearts Empire of the Night
Christopher Golden Amanda Ashley

Baroness of Blood Eye Killers

Elaine Bergstrom A. A. Carr
282 Appendix C: Novels

Midnight Surrender Tap, Tap

Nancy Gideon David Martin

Necrose ope: The Lost Tears These Fallen Angels

Brian Lumley (uk) Wendy Haley

Night Feast Traveling with the Dead

Tony Richards (uk) Barbara Hambly

Night's Immortal Touch Vampire Diary

Cherlyn Jac Robert Weinberg

Nightwing Vampire Lover

Lynn Michaels Charlotte Lamb

Out of the Darkness The Vampire Viscount

Lynn Erikson Karen Harbaugh (uk)

Prince of the City The Vampyre

Keith Herber Tom Holland

Prince of Dreams Vanitas

Susan Krinard S. M. SomtOW (CANADA)

Rulers of Darkness Vivia

Steven Spruill Tanith Lee

Special thanks to Robert Eighteen -Bisang for

his assistance in compiling this checklist.
 """"

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the genre. Lot. (New American Library)

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(Courtesy of Robert Eighteen-Bisang)
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following bibliography includes books, articles, and essays discussed

or quoted, as well as especially pertinent works for further reading. Individual
newspaper reviews cited throughout the text are omitted; they are drawn pri-

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Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and
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Nonfiction
Auerbach, Nina, Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago: University of Chicago
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Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality. New Haven
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Beckson, Karl. London in the 1890s: A Cultural History. New York and Lon-
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Bojarski, Richard. The Films o/Bela Lufjosi. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1980.

Borst, Ronald V. "The Vampire in the Cinema," Photon, nos. 18, 19, 21.

Bunson, Matthew. The Vampire Encyclopedia. New York: Crown, 1993.

Carter, Margaret L. Dracula: The Vampyre and the Critics. Ann Arbor and
London: U.M.I. Research Press, 1988.

ed., The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography. Ann Arbor

and London: U.M.I. Research Press, 1989.
286 Bibliography

Craft, Christopher. "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips: Gender and Inversion in

Dracula.'" Representations & (Fall 1984).

Deane, Hamilton, and Balderston, John L. Dracula: The Ultimate, Illus-

trated Edition of the World-Famous Vampire Play, David J. Skal, ed. New
York: St. Martin's, 1993.

Dresser, Norine. American Vampires. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989.

Dijkstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle

Culture. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Farson, Daniel. The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker.
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Fawkes, Richard. Dion Boucicault: A Biography. London, Melbourne, and

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Radu R., and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces.

Florescu,
Boston/Toronto/London: Little, Brown, 1989.

Gerard, Emily de Laszowska. "Transylvanian Superstitions." The Nineteenth

Century XVIII (July 1885).

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Vampires Among Us. New York: Pocket, 1991.

Hill, John E. and Smith, James D. Bats: A Natural History. Austin: Univer-
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Jones, Ernest. On the Nightmare. New York: Liveright, 1951.

Jones, Stephen. The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide. London: Titan, 1993.

Leatherdale, Clive. Dracula: The Novel and the Legend. Wellingborough:

Aquarian, 1987.

-. The Origins of Dracula. London: William Kimber, 1987.

Lorentz, Fr., Fischer, Adam, and Lehr-Splawinski, Tadeusz. The Cassubian

Civilization. London: Faber & Faber, 1935.
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Ludlam, Harry. A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker.

London: W. Foulsham, 1962.

 Bibliography 287

McNally, Raymond T. Dracula Was a Woman. New York: McGraw-Hill,

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and Florescu, Radu. In Search of Dracula, rev. ed. Boston and New
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Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead.

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Molin, Sven Eric and Goodefellowe, Robin. Dion Boucicault, The Shaugh-
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Noll, Richard. Vampires, Werewolves and Demons: Twentieth-Century Reports

in the Psychiatric Literature. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1992.

Page, Carol. Blood Lust. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily
Dickinson. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990.

. Vamps and Tramps: New Essays. New York: Vintage, 1994.

Ramsland, Katherine. Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice. New

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Richardson, Maurice. "The Psychoanalysis of Ghost Stories." Twentieth Cen-

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Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle.

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Silver, Alain, and Ursini, James. The Vampire Film. New York: Limelight, 1993.

Skal, David J. "Blood-Borne Monster," Out, December-January 1993.

. "Dracula's English Haunts," New York Times, November 15, 1992.

. Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of "Dracula" from Novel to Stage

to Screen. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990.
. The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. New York: W.W.
Norton, 1993.

Summers, Montague. The Vampire. New York: Dorset, n.d.

Turner, Dennis C. The Vampire Bat: A Field Study in Behavior and Ecology.
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.
288 Bibliography

Westmore, Frank. The Westmores of Hollywood. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1976.

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Wolf, Leonard. A Dream of Dracula: In Search of the Living Dead. New

York: Popular Library, 1972.

Anthologies
Brite, Poppy Z., ed. Love in Vein. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Dalby, Richard, ed. Dracula's Brood: Rare Vampire Stories by Friends and
Contemporaries of Bram Stoker. New York: Dorset, 1991.

Datlow, Ellen, ed. Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism. New York:
William Morrow, 1989.

. A Whisper of Blood. New York: William Morrow, 1991.

Frayling, Christopher, ed. Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula. London

and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1991.

McCammon, Robert R., ed. Under the Fang. New York: Pocket, 1991.

McNally, Raymond T., ed. A Clutch of Vampires. Greenwich, Conn.: New

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Preiss, Byron, David Keller, and Megan Miller, eds. The Ultimate Dracula.
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Ryan, Alan, ed. The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories. New York: Penguin, 1988.

Shepard, Leslie, ed. The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories. Seacaucus,
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Varma, Devendra P., ed. Voices from the Vaults: Authentic Tales of Vampires
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Weinberg, Robert, Stefan R. Dziemanowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg, eds.

Weird Vampire Tales: 30 Blood-chilling Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps.
New York: Gramercy, 1992.
 —

his compulsively readable, informative, and entertaining pop-culture

reference covers all aspects of vampirism —from the infamous lore

I about mirrors and wooden stakes to anecdotal essays on major works

iscinating descriptions
Following his
of little-known books and films on the subject.
Hollywood Gothic, hailed as "the ultimate book on Dracula"
(
Newsweek), Skal's encyclopedic, A-to-Z look at the dark creature that has
recaptured the imaginations of millions covers hundreds of topics related to
vampires. From Andy Warhol's Dracula to Zombies, from Bela Lugosi to
Barnabas Collins,V Is for Vampire answers such tantalizing questions as:
Why do vampires hate garlic? What is the connection between communion
wine and vampirism? What do Rudyard Kipling and Abbott and Costello
have to do with Dracula?
Like the lure of the vampire itself, this all-encompassing, delightfully
engrossing, must-have vampire reference is irresistible.

Praise for David Skal's Hollywood Gothic:

"Tracks Transylvania's most popular vampire with dry wit and the skill of a
fine detective." — New Tork Times
"An enthralling chronicle... with a novelist's flair for vivid scene setting and
characterization. .outstanding."
. Booklist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David J. Skal is a respected scholar in all things macabre and the author of
Hollywood Gothic and The Monster Show. He frequently contributes to the
New Tork Times and the Boston Globe and has appeared on CBS Evening
News, NPR's "All Things Considered," and Charlie Rose. He lives in New
York City.