So, my story, “Survivor’s Guilt” is still available in an anthology from Wicked East Press. It’s about a young woman in Nazi-occupied Poland who is turned into a vampire, and then faced with a chance to protect her parents from German Soldiers.
I’ll be reviewing other, newer works soon, but until then here’s a list of movies and TV shows that inspired me to write about vampires.
5. Near Dark (1987): Long before she made The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow co-wrote and directed this classic horror film of the late nineteen eighties. Set against the lonely, arid backdrop of the South Central U.S., Near Dark follows a young man’s struggle to remain human after he is drawn into a gang of vampires. The thing is, the vampires in this movie are so much more compelling than the humans that you want him to just give in and go hematovore. Near Dark’s central weakness thus becomes it’s greatest strength, largely due to a solid cast. Lance Henriksen is reliably spooky as the vampires’ leader, but the real scene-stealer is a leather and spur-clad, gleefully violent Bill Paxton. I watched this movie with obsessive frequency in my early teens, which probably explains a lot about me.
4. Fright Night (1985/2011): When I first saw this movie, I wanted to be Jerry Dandridge, the sinister vampire next door played by Chris Sarandon. He strolled through the night presuming to rule all he surveyed, and it had a big impact on my socially awkward, 12-year-old psyche. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t age very well; what with its tinny special effects, stiff acting, and some tone-deaf casting (such as a romantic lead played by Amanda Bearse, better known as Marcy from Married with Children). Like Near Dark, Fright Night accidentally made its villain far more interesting than the hero but the remake, scripted by Buffy the Vampire Slayer veteran Marti Noxon, obliterates the original’s shortcomings. Colin Farrell gives Dandridge an aggressive sleaziness that is absolutely skin-crawling. By the end, you pray that the hero, played by Anton Yelchin, rescues his girlfriend and saves the day. David Tenant’s turn as a phony vampire hunter doesn’t hurt matters, either. The original Fright Night had a great feel and sense of atmosphere, which Noxon’s script fleshed out to its full potential.
3. True Blood (2008- ): I borrow a lot of vampire physics from this series: super speed and strength; sprouting fangs without changing any other facial features; immunity to crucifixes. Some of my own characters also bear resemblance to Pam De Beaufort, with her sullen disdain of humans. And with all due respect to Charlaine Harris’ skillful use of the first person, I prefer the multiple points of view that Alan Ball and co. employ to tell the twisted tales of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Has the series peaked after four seasons? Hard to say. Is the whole Sookie-Bill-Eric love triangle grating? It depends on who you ask (though I think so). But the beauty of the show is that if you don’t like one character, you can just focus on another. Personally, I’m hoping Season 5 has a little less Sookie and lot more Pam. Why? Find out here.
2. Let the Right One In/Let Me In (2008/2010): Both of these movies hew closely to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s story of a bullied young boy’s friendship with a vampire in the body of a young girl, but the original, Swedish version does a better job capturing the feel of the book. Granted, the American remake, Let Me In, can’t be faulted for being set in New Mexico instead of Lindqvist’s native Sweden, but Lina Leandersson strikes a perfect balance of cute and creepy whereas Chloë Moretz is almost too pretty as Eli’s American counterpart, Abby. Both filmakers mostly eschew the novel’s themes of pedophilia and genital mutilation, which would’ve alienated wider audiences, but each movie is suitably bleak in setting and adept at conveying the major characters’ longing for security. In terms of absolute quality Let the Right One In wins by a nose, but if you’re not one for foreign films, that’s okay. Let Me In will forever change the way you hear Blue Öyster Cult’s “Burnin' for You.”
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel (1997-2003/1999-2004): Watching these two overlapping series led me to believe there was nothing Joss Whedon and his crack team of writers couldn’t do. Serious, artistic drama? Check. Musicals and Puppets? Check. What about a willingness to not only jump the shark, but also openly mock it as you hover a few feet above the water? Check. Here’s the secret: Make clear rules, break these rules in a way that fits them in a broader context, turn reliable tropes on their head, kill off popular characters, and never, ever lose your sense of humor. I write about vampires, they have their own quirks, and that’s where my aspirations of Whedonosity hit the Joss ceiling. I would love to do what Whedon and co. achieved in these series: create worlds that are at once lucid, complex and flexible, conjure deep, crisply defined characters who constantly evolve, and tug at every conceivable emotion along the way. Buffy and Angel changed my life, and I am grateful. Because of them, I have the courage to say ‘screw it, I want to write about a vampire with PTSD.’
Post Script: Twilight (2008): I rented Twilight on December 6, 2009. Among other things, I witnessed a scene where a group of sparkly vampires played baseball. When one of the boy vampires scaled a tree to catch a pop fly, a girl vampire cooed, “That’s my monkey man.” Then I said to myself, 'This has to stop. The whole sparkly, sensitive vampires who fall in love with high school girls thing has to stop.' Then I decided to be fair and tried, and then failed, to get through the first book. Clearly, Stephanie Meyer has done something that resonates with a lot of people, and I respect that. Truthfully, I owe her a great debt. After that day, it still took months of research and hem-hawing to get myself to start writing, but Twilight edged my toes up to the line between thinking and doing.
Next week, I review a vampire story by Bret Easton Ellis. Who'da thunk it?
I’ll be reviewing other, newer works soon, but until then here’s a list of movies and TV shows that inspired me to write about vampires.
5. Near Dark (1987): Long before she made The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow co-wrote and directed this classic horror film of the late nineteen eighties. Set against the lonely, arid backdrop of the South Central U.S., Near Dark follows a young man’s struggle to remain human after he is drawn into a gang of vampires. The thing is, the vampires in this movie are so much more compelling than the humans that you want him to just give in and go hematovore. Near Dark’s central weakness thus becomes it’s greatest strength, largely due to a solid cast. Lance Henriksen is reliably spooky as the vampires’ leader, but the real scene-stealer is a leather and spur-clad, gleefully violent Bill Paxton. I watched this movie with obsessive frequency in my early teens, which probably explains a lot about me.
4. Fright Night (1985/2011): When I first saw this movie, I wanted to be Jerry Dandridge, the sinister vampire next door played by Chris Sarandon. He strolled through the night presuming to rule all he surveyed, and it had a big impact on my socially awkward, 12-year-old psyche. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t age very well; what with its tinny special effects, stiff acting, and some tone-deaf casting (such as a romantic lead played by Amanda Bearse, better known as Marcy from Married with Children). Like Near Dark, Fright Night accidentally made its villain far more interesting than the hero but the remake, scripted by Buffy the Vampire Slayer veteran Marti Noxon, obliterates the original’s shortcomings. Colin Farrell gives Dandridge an aggressive sleaziness that is absolutely skin-crawling. By the end, you pray that the hero, played by Anton Yelchin, rescues his girlfriend and saves the day. David Tenant’s turn as a phony vampire hunter doesn’t hurt matters, either. The original Fright Night had a great feel and sense of atmosphere, which Noxon’s script fleshed out to its full potential.
3. True Blood (2008- ): I borrow a lot of vampire physics from this series: super speed and strength; sprouting fangs without changing any other facial features; immunity to crucifixes. Some of my own characters also bear resemblance to Pam De Beaufort, with her sullen disdain of humans. And with all due respect to Charlaine Harris’ skillful use of the first person, I prefer the multiple points of view that Alan Ball and co. employ to tell the twisted tales of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Has the series peaked after four seasons? Hard to say. Is the whole Sookie-Bill-Eric love triangle grating? It depends on who you ask (though I think so). But the beauty of the show is that if you don’t like one character, you can just focus on another. Personally, I’m hoping Season 5 has a little less Sookie and lot more Pam. Why? Find out here.
2. Let the Right One In/Let Me In (2008/2010): Both of these movies hew closely to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s story of a bullied young boy’s friendship with a vampire in the body of a young girl, but the original, Swedish version does a better job capturing the feel of the book. Granted, the American remake, Let Me In, can’t be faulted for being set in New Mexico instead of Lindqvist’s native Sweden, but Lina Leandersson strikes a perfect balance of cute and creepy whereas Chloë Moretz is almost too pretty as Eli’s American counterpart, Abby. Both filmakers mostly eschew the novel’s themes of pedophilia and genital mutilation, which would’ve alienated wider audiences, but each movie is suitably bleak in setting and adept at conveying the major characters’ longing for security. In terms of absolute quality Let the Right One In wins by a nose, but if you’re not one for foreign films, that’s okay. Let Me In will forever change the way you hear Blue Öyster Cult’s “Burnin' for You.”
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel (1997-2003/1999-2004): Watching these two overlapping series led me to believe there was nothing Joss Whedon and his crack team of writers couldn’t do. Serious, artistic drama? Check. Musicals and Puppets? Check. What about a willingness to not only jump the shark, but also openly mock it as you hover a few feet above the water? Check. Here’s the secret: Make clear rules, break these rules in a way that fits them in a broader context, turn reliable tropes on their head, kill off popular characters, and never, ever lose your sense of humor. I write about vampires, they have their own quirks, and that’s where my aspirations of Whedonosity hit the Joss ceiling. I would love to do what Whedon and co. achieved in these series: create worlds that are at once lucid, complex and flexible, conjure deep, crisply defined characters who constantly evolve, and tug at every conceivable emotion along the way. Buffy and Angel changed my life, and I am grateful. Because of them, I have the courage to say ‘screw it, I want to write about a vampire with PTSD.’
Post Script: Twilight (2008): I rented Twilight on December 6, 2009. Among other things, I witnessed a scene where a group of sparkly vampires played baseball. When one of the boy vampires scaled a tree to catch a pop fly, a girl vampire cooed, “That’s my monkey man.” Then I said to myself, 'This has to stop. The whole sparkly, sensitive vampires who fall in love with high school girls thing has to stop.' Then I decided to be fair and tried, and then failed, to get through the first book. Clearly, Stephanie Meyer has done something that resonates with a lot of people, and I respect that. Truthfully, I owe her a great debt. After that day, it still took months of research and hem-hawing to get myself to start writing, but Twilight edged my toes up to the line between thinking and doing.
Next week, I review a vampire story by Bret Easton Ellis. Who'da thunk it?
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