Chapter Four – Emerging Traditions p. 123-141
1)Hammer and the Victorian Psychology
-The release in 1958 of a new version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, called The Horror of Dracula, was very influential for the future of the vampire genre
-Lead played by Christopher Lee
-Financial success of the film led to emulation of the style and themes
-The Horror of Dracula introduced overt and emphatic, violent and sexual elements into the Dracula story
-This was in direct contrast with the earlier, black and white, neo-Gothic earlier Dracula films
-The Horror of Dracula, was the first Dracula film in color
-What would become the “Hammer style” (Horror was produced by Hammer Films) was an exploitation of the audiences susceptibility to fantasy and horror
-In Dracula, Brides of Dracula (1960) and Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965), director Terence Fisher employs shifting moods to elicit tension
-Anthony Hinds uses the Dracula form to explore the dichotomy inherent in the story (light-dark, living-dead, bestial-human, etc.)
-Hinds’ films go beyond the myth, and look into the conflict between the ego and the unconscious (represented by the violence and lust of the vampire)
-Hinds’ films reverse the traditional vampire roles; Dracula has a priest for a follower and his antagonist is an agnostic
-In 1970, Hammer released The Vampire Lovers, adapted from Le Fanu’s Carmilla
-this film showed that the erotic nature of the vampire was not at all limited to the male form
2)Mario Bava and the Baroque Image
-Mario Bava’s first vampire film was called Black Sunday (1960)
-Used Baroque imagery and heavy reliance on visual expression
-The world Bava conveys in his films is composed for constant shifting contrasts
-As a result, the characters are thrust into the middle ground between the real and unreal
-In Black Sunday, the protagonist is faced with the choice between a seductive vampire and a virginal young woman who happen to be identical in apprearance and can exchange souls
-Uses mists, clouds and shifting lights to highlight the ambiguity between the real and unreal themes of the story
Thanks Adam Klopp
1)Hammer and the Victorian Psychology
-The release in 1958 of a new version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, called The Horror of Dracula, was very influential for the future of the vampire genre
-Lead played by Christopher Lee
-Financial success of the film led to emulation of the style and themes
-The Horror of Dracula introduced overt and emphatic, violent and sexual elements into the Dracula story
-This was in direct contrast with the earlier, black and white, neo-Gothic earlier Dracula films
-The Horror of Dracula, was the first Dracula film in color
-What would become the “Hammer style” (Horror was produced by Hammer Films) was an exploitation of the audiences susceptibility to fantasy and horror
-In Dracula, Brides of Dracula (1960) and Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965), director Terence Fisher employs shifting moods to elicit tension
-Anthony Hinds uses the Dracula form to explore the dichotomy inherent in the story (light-dark, living-dead, bestial-human, etc.)
-Hinds’ films go beyond the myth, and look into the conflict between the ego and the unconscious (represented by the violence and lust of the vampire)
-Hinds’ films reverse the traditional vampire roles; Dracula has a priest for a follower and his antagonist is an agnostic
-In 1970, Hammer released The Vampire Lovers, adapted from Le Fanu’s Carmilla
-this film showed that the erotic nature of the vampire was not at all limited to the male form
2)Mario Bava and the Baroque Image
-Mario Bava’s first vampire film was called Black Sunday (1960)
-Used Baroque imagery and heavy reliance on visual expression
-The world Bava conveys in his films is composed for constant shifting contrasts
-As a result, the characters are thrust into the middle ground between the real and unreal
-In Black Sunday, the protagonist is faced with the choice between a seductive vampire and a virginal young woman who happen to be identical in apprearance and can exchange souls
-Uses mists, clouds and shifting lights to highlight the ambiguity between the real and unreal themes of the story
Thanks Adam Klopp
