Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Some Lesser-Known Vampire Fare

I have mentioned my lifelong love of all things vampire a time or two before. I am in heaven with all of the vampire shows and movies out now.

As I was watching the Vampire Diaries last night, I found myself remembering a few of the vampire movies I grew up on. The vampires of today are heavily influenced by writers and filmmakers who threw out some of the conventions.

Anne Rice created the soulful, brooding vampire who feels doomed to walk the earth preying on his fellow man when she wrote Interview with the Vampire. Her desire to buck some of the common vampire trends led many to play fast and loose with the vampire tropes. Here are some of the vampire “firsts” from my formative years.

Vamp
This silly comedy was one of the first times I saw a sympathetic vampire. Robert Rusler was unwittingly turned into a vampire, and he wasn’t ready to give up the partying college lifestyle he was used to.

Near Dark
Near Dark is the first time I rooted for the vampires. They were driving around the country bored, but the humans were just boring. Side note: This movie was also the first time I saw sensitive ponytail man from Singles (aka James LeGros).

The Addiction
This movie, shot in black and white and starring 90s indie-film fave Lili Taylor, was the first time I saw vampires who were able to walk in the daylight.

Forever Knight
This lynch-pin of CBS’ Crime Time after Prime Time line-up was the first time I saw a vampire working for good. Knight was a policeman working the night shift, solving crimes and kicking ass.

The daywalkers in Twilight and the Vampire Diaries, the synthetic blood swillers of True Blood, and the all-around sympathetic crime-fighting vamp of Blood Ties would probably never have been dreamed up without these vampire forefathers.

What about you? Are you so sick of vampires, you could just cry bloody tears? Or do you remember fondly the first time you saw a bloodsucker on-screen who didn’t scare the bejesus out of you? What were your favorite vampire shows or movies from days gone by?

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Tags: vampires

Uncategorized | Jennifer Roland | September 11, 2009 12:00 pm

2 Comments

By katie71483, September 11, 2009 @ 5:15 pm

Jen – I saw your post on TV gal but wanted to respond in more than 140 characters.
I feel the same way about Vampire Diaries, but I didn’t really have that high of a hope about it to begin with. I love vampire stories – heck, the Anne Rice books were a huge part of my middle school and early high school experience (I flirted with goth for awhile there). I tried to read the books a couple of years ago when the Twilight books came out and I just could not get into them. For a long time I couldn’t figure out why and then I realized – I really do not like Elena. At all.

An interview I read with Kevin Williamson sort of address this issue – he says they were trying to make her more likable and relatable and less of a “mean girl.” I think they may have succeeded with that for the tv show but I don’t think it was enough of a change for me to make it must see tv. And, as an appreciator of fictional bad boys, I was always more interested in Damon than Stefan.

I’m not giving up on it yet, but it has been relegated to my watch later on the tivo list.

ttyl

[Reply]
Jennifer Roland Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I will be interested to see how many of the first week viewers stick around.

[Reply]