This year, Nosferatu reached its centenary, which means that so did vampire cinema. Fitting then, for the release of this bumper, mostly visual, treasure trove of their history in the medium, courtesy of Christopher Frayling.
Vampire Cinema: The First Hundred Years functions as both a sweeping primer for the freshly bitten and illuminating biography of the creatures of the night for long-time fans. Beginning with the real, plague-induced fears that made them seem plausibly real centuries ago, Frayling lays the foundation for their transference into literature – the Byron-inspired Vampyre and Bram Stoker’s Dracula – before moving to stage shows and finally, film and TV, illustrated with a timeline of fantastic posters and stills.
For almost as long as there has been cinema, there have been vampires in cinema; one could argue you could use their history in film to chart the changing themes, styles and focal points of the art form itself, as well as audiences’ tastes: one of the most seismic – and divisive – shifts being their metamorphosis from hideous parasite to romantic anti-hero. From Blaxploitation to Twilight and back to Dracula, however, Frayling concludes that as long as we make real the things that scare us, vampires will forever be in our nightmares.
Vampire Cinema: The First Hundred Years, Christopher Frayling (Reel Art Press)
Price: £39.95. Info: here
words HANNAH COLLINS