A Very Basic Evolution Of The Vampire Movie (Minus That One!)

Partial Education Presents:

A Very Basic Evolution Of The Vampire Movie (Minus That One!)

Featuring Partially Educated Reviews of:

Nosferatu

The Lost Boys

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Blade

and

Let The Right One In

It's become a sore point for me: the arrival of a new vampire film is often greeted by little more than a groan from the masses due to a virulent case of over-saturation. Of course, the problem is rooted in perception towards the Twilight series, but this is not going to be one of those cornucopias of Twilight digs as I've only seen one of them and so don't feel overly qualified to comment on it. Instead, after several weeks of negativity, I decided to force my grumpy-arsed soul away for getting too bitter and look back at some of the more influential vampire films of all time. That's not to say that they're categorically THE most influential, as that would involve various versions of Dracula and a whole slew of others. Nonetheless, these are five very notable, although not always decent, ones

First things first, if you're one of those people who turned off The Artist because there was no talking, bad news: Nosferatu was made in 1922. However, if that puts you off, then you are missing out on one of horror's most influential masterpieces. Nosferatu is basically the story of Dracula, with names changed (Dracula becomes Count Orlock, Jonathan Harker becomes Thomas Hutter, etc.) in an attempt to circumvent the studio being unable to acquire the rights. The thin disguise almost didn't work though, as plagiarism charges from Bram Stoker's estate led to nearly all copies of the film being destroyed. Fortunately, at least one survived. Now, the obvious question: is the effect of the film still the same as it was back then? Of course not. In that respect, it serves more as a document of what would scare audiences back then and endless imitations of the style has reduced the effect considerably. Where it still succeeds is in it's transference of the absolute finest of theatrical melodrama to the screen, complete with actors throwing the back of their hands across their foreheads and frequently demonstrating literal wide-eyed horror. The pinnacle is Max Schreck as Count Orlock, still retaining a relative creepiness 90+ years on. He rarely shifts from a cold dead stare, as this is all he needs to retain his position as a true dark force. Also, the film is not without it's wit and many of the jokes still work today. Some have inevitably dated, but I defy anyone not to at least let out the slightest guffaw at Count Orlock's "complement" towards Hutter's wife. Most of all though, Nosferatu stands up as (and I do not say this lightly) the most important vampire film of all time. Without it, nothing that followed would exist in the form that it does today. To recommend it to everyone would be foolish, as some just won't want to watch silent films and others won't be able to get over the technical deficiencies (the film doesn't have missing frames, it has missing chunks). However, it an essential watch for film and horror fans and anything that still carves out an influence so long after first being released deserves it's place in immortality.

FIVE out of five

In the pantheon of awful directors, a name that often gets mentioned is Joel Schumacher. It is, in my opinion, a little unfair to completely destroy his career by throwing him in with the likes of Uwe Boll, but the wounds inflicted by Batman & Robin still rear their ugly heads from time to time. In that respect, The Lost Boys is worrying, displaying some early hints towards the style he would inflict upon the Batman franchise. Yet, despite those hints, the hideously dated dialogue and moderately hammy acting, The Lost Boys still manages to be bloody brilliant. It helps that the film doesn't care how it's being perceived, as long as people are having fun. It's achingly 80's and thus comes from a decade that has aged more than most, but as soon as the opening theme of Cry Little Sister kicks into gear, fun is exactly what you start to have. The plot is fairly predictable, a mother and her two sons move to a beachside town in California, only for the two sons (Jason Patric and Corey Feldman) to discover that the place has a bit of a vampire problem. There's also a twist that you will guess fairly quickly, despite the film's admirable but not very successful attempts to steer you away from it. Where The Lost Boys really stands the test of time though is in just how instrumental it was in bringing vampires into the modern world. As much as I'm about to fly the flag for Joss Whedon, I don't think Buffy would exist (at least not in the same way) without The Lost Boys, in which vampires are removed from the idea of relics from a forgotten age and turned into a vision of the youth that would serve as a hefty portion of the audience. There are some who will despise The Lost Boys and balk at it's inherent cheesiness, but it's proven track record of influence stands in it's favour and when you finish a film with a grin on your face, deficiencies become a much lesser issue.

FOUR out of five

Not for a second am I going to sit here and pretend that the film version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a masterpiece, nor can it hold a candle to the brilliance of the TV series. It's flaws are numerous and obvious: shockingly bad acting, scene transitions that jerk rather than flow, David Arquette. The list goes on. Even Joss Whedon's script leaves a lot to be desired, although does show early blinks of the elements people would come to love him for. Also, we can thanks the Gods that Kristy Swanson's performance as Buffy was only for the film and not the series (I'm not citing Sarah Michelle Gellar as the greatest actor, but when placed next to Swanson, she may as well be). However, the film is the start of what would become a minor revolution, not just for vampires, but for the realisation of a female hero that could exist without rampant objectification. It's got some solid moments, but they're all smothered in errors impossible to ignore. The flaws here send The Lost Boys' flaws into insignificance. The glimmers of hope are there though, with Whedon's spiky, sarcastic humour making the odd appearance and the simple concept being adhered to, without a need to fall into annoying subplots or pretentious metaphor. Girl is picked to kill vampires, girl kills vampires. That's all you need. Buffy The Vampire Slayer becomes more understandable when taken as the starting point for the greater things that followed and this helps the tolerance levels, but it's legacy may lead some in with a false sense of security.

TWO out of five

Blade is one of those films that I was dying to see when I was younger, but couldn't due to my failure to yet reach puberty. Unlike the likes of Scary Movie though, when I finally got round to it, this one didn't disappoint. It didn't matter that I already knew the whole plot. I loved every second of it. So, I received a nasty surprise last week when I sat down to re-watch it. I'm not about to say it's rubbish. It's not. It's still great. Sadly though, it's starting to age and I think it's going to be a rapid process. The effects now look fairly dodgy, even when compared to some films that came out before it, the emerging of Wesley Snipes' ego is much easier to spot and the gore (a shallow selling point, yes, but I'm sticking with it) now seems fairly tame in a world that has experienced the likes of the Saw and Hostel franchises. What helps to keep it great though is the story, a simple yet unashamed fight between the antihero half-vampire and the none-more-evil vampire who wants to firmly entrench himself as the baddest of the bad. With Stephen Dorff relishing the chief villain role and Kris Krisotfferson as Blade's grumpy mentor Whistler, they're more than enough to counteract the minor issues in the script and major deficiencies in Snipes' modesty. Where Blade will always hold relevance though isn't in it's influence as a vampire film, but the fact that it made comic book adaptations viable again. If X-Men made them a big deal again and Spider-Man made them huge, then Blade did all the hard work, something that needed to happen in the wake of a certain George Clooney film that may or may not have already been mentioned. Far more than any other film can claim to, Blade took the comic book adaptation and made it relevant, edgy and just plain decent again. For that alone, it deserves to be remembered, perhaps more than it actually is.

FOUR out of five

I'm afraid this involves another Twilight mention, as the release dates between the first film of the series and Let The Right One In were mere months apart, allowing …Right One to serve as the beacon of hope to those despairing at the sparkly things that were besieging their screens. Crafting a tender beauty from an overcast fog of murkiness and brutality, director Tomas Alfredson doesn't focus on the vampirism of young in body vampire Eli. Instead, he appears to acknowledge that his audience is already well-versed in the mythology and slightly exhausted of it and uses her tortured soul as more of a, still captivating, side plot. The focus is on her relationship with bullied Oskar, a social misfit with a decent heart and well-meaning spirit. As the two young characters, Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are stellar, managing to be ever likeable and sympathetic despite their distant personalities and, in Eli's case, blind thirst for blood. The way they are treated by others is believable and at times you can see how Oskar has become the easy prey, but he's so likeable that revulsion is the only acceptable response to the relentless bullying that he receives from his schoolyard tormenters. Adult characters don't shine through anywhere near as much as the young cast, but their performances are still solid and the far more interesting characters are the one's that hold the focus of the film. If you don't like reading, then tough tits, it's in Swedish. You can feel free to go watch the deeply inferior American remake. Let The Right One In is too young a film to be able to stand up in the same ways as the others here when it comes to influence, but give it a few years and I guarantee you that will have changed. It is a modern masterpiece; a story that may be using mythological creatures, but couldn't be more human.

FIVE out of five

Next Time (17th July)

Boredly going...