kcbrett5

Personally I hate vampires that are afraid of crosses and garlic. How wuss-like can you get. I could be a vampire hunter if that was all it took.

Ginwen

I like things that change the lore, as long as they address/explain it (for example, crosses not working because of lack of faith of the person holding it, etc).

Groucho

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine the age of the above photograph.

dhmac

I liked the way the movie Blade portrayed a number of different vampire families from all around the world, with each type of vampires having different strengths and weaknesses. (This is elaborated much more in the extras on the DVD.) This was a good way to explain why parts of the world have different vampire lore.

spainlinx0

I'll agree with the other posters who say that I don't mind having the lore changed as long as it stays consistent within the film itself. I don't really know which line of lore I like more though, the vampire loses his soul when bit (Buffy), or becomes more of a tortured soul (Anne Rice/ Vampire: The Masquerade) I believe both have their positives and negatives.

However I really prefer the spiritual/demon explanation of vampires to the scientific one. I feel it just cheapens the mystique to have it be a curable blood disease.

wm lopez

Then it seems the only thing that Hollywood will allow to remain evil are Nazies.
SPAWN has a superhero coming from hell.
And now with HELL BOY coming out.
But for you under 30 crowd check out these vampire movies:
DRACULA (1931)
HORROR OF DRACULA (1959)
BRIDES OF DRACULA (1961)
THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)
DRACULA (1979)
FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)

And ask yourself after watching these movies how did our generation wind up praising evil.
Which seems to have started in the 1990's.

Verbal Gorilla

Interesting touch on the soul and the devil et al. Many (particularlly mediveal) theologians liken the fall of the devil to a dissasociation with God's will as apposed to the normal connotation of evil and souless. Anselm sees the Devil and other fallen angels are those which choose happiness instead of pursuing God's will for its own sake. He even thinks that Satan's fall was in pursuing to act "Good" in the manner of God, but there is a lot more to that. So, I see it as perfectly reasonable for vampires to be evil and still have feelings of love and even sympathy. We see this is murderers today.

It is also interesting that there seems to be no reason for Bram Stroker choosing Vlad Tepes as a model for his vampire. Dracula, his nickname, meens in Romanian, son of the dragon. Interestingly, there is debate amoung linguists as to weather the Romanian word for "the Devil" (also dracul) has its roots in the ways of Tepes or if it was a play on words ascribed to him because of his tortures ways...

reapersaurus

Oh - you mean like World of Darkness vampires?

And in Dracula 2000, the vampire wasn't Judas, as I remember.
It was the Roman soldier that struck Jesus and was cursed by him to walk the earth for eternity.

barndoor67

I Liked Embrace of the Vampire with Alyssa Milano...
The Vampire Makes no sense in three days he will die, Hes already dead.

Dimension X

1964


1966


1967


1971

fnordboy

The only reason "witches" were considered evil was because religious zealots couldn't grasp someone having a different idea of what is out there then there own.

Do you actually think the Salem "witches" that were burnt at the stake were out dancing in the forests at 11:11pm literally kissing the ass of Lucifer, Asmodeus, Beelzebub and the gang? Riding on brooomsticks down people's chimneys and sitting on the pure innocent village people's chest sucking the life out of them? No, they weren't. This was all imagery made up by the church and the villagers to get rid of the people they didn't like and to further control the masses through fear. "Convert or die!" mentality that christians were so well known for back in the day. There was no way for the "witches" to be in league with satan if he doesn't exist in their belief system.

Traditionally witches were nothing more than people who had a strong belief in nature and utilized herbs. When did this get twisted into being evil? Oh thats right when it was found out that they don't worship a man who lives in the clouds...

I forgot though, J. K. Rowling is merely an agent of Satan sent here to bring the children of this world into the dark underbelly of devil worship and satanism.

Back on topic:

Personally I like the different takes that different authors, scriptwriters, and directors bring to the subject. I like the fact that the idea of religion is stripped away from vampire lore. Why would only a crucifix harm a vampire and not a star of david or a pentacle or a TOPY cross? All that did was say that Xianity is the only truly good religion.

I like the idea that some people put across like that vampirism is a virus or disease. Poppy Z. Brite did this in her books, where vampires were able to create children (through the normal methods ) and if they did it with a human the child would be that much less vampire, and so on. It was a disease in the blood, that was able to be passed along. I like how it strips the romanticism away from the vampires and grounds them and makes them more real. Underworld didn't bother me so much since it was a similar take, they were a little too damn weak IMO, but that is ok it is just a different take on the subject.

Stu 17

So their clothing is undead too? That was my point.

wm lopez

But the concept of the vampire movies has always been that they were evil.
It would be like all of sudden making James Bond gay in upcoming movies or Jason from Friday 13th movies able to fly.
Stick & respect the rules of the way the character was created the same way you want a movie on dvd in it's O.A.R.

Giantrobo

While I understand you hostile feelings towards Christianity I think the point of many posters here is much like your beef with Christianity. That being there's room for other beliefs or changes in Vampire Lore. We don't all have to "worship" the same Vampiric storylines. So if someone wants their vampires to die under religious symbols then so be it. If another wants their Vampire cured by scientific mean then that's their thing.

wm lopez

I didn't like the change in rules the movies have made with vampires during the 90's and today.
How would you guys feel if all of sudden Jason of Friday the 13th becomes some christain monster only killing sinful people on earth.
I'm sure the reaction won't be the same as the ones who like the new rules for vampires.
Hmmm, I wonder why?

Jay G.

There's no "new rules" for vampires. Writers are free to write vampires with whatever characteristics they want, including making them evil. That some vampires are portrayed as less than 100% evil is not a sign of moral decay, but just a sign of wanting to do something different with a very, very old myth.

fnordboy

That is not a good example. That is taking one character and changing him. This is a discussion of vampires not just one vampire, let alone a popular character who is fully accepted by the horror community.

squidget

WTH??

Vampires are not real. Somebody made them up to be evil. There is no mold. Just because a certain way became popular does not mean that is the right way to do it every single time.
Jason is not real. However, Jason is one specific character. If someone decided to make Jason pretty with pink bows and sip tea, then yes that would be wrong. You are changing that one established character.
We are talking about Vampires in general, not one specific vampire character. There for, the rules can change with whoever picks up the pen or starts the cameras rolling.

dvd-4-life

My original question-was oops did they make a mistake and admit it later or they just decided that you could see dracula's reflection in water.Just wondering?Anyone an expert in hammer movies?

Draven

I thought he was already? He kills kids who have premarital sex and returns from the dead...though typically it takes longer than three days.

I prefer Buffy's take on vampires the best. But they struggled with the breath/undead thing as well (bleeding, getting drunk and drugged, etc.)

majorjoe23

I'm so sick of liberals imposing their vampire/witch lifestyles on my kids! I'm fine with people who want to believe that, but I don't think it should be imposed on my kids at school. Why can't movies and books just stick to the same all plots and themes that they've been using for years and years? Who wants to see something new?

It's a slippery slope, if we're sympathetic to vampires now, soon the zombies and werewolves will want to be shown in a positive light.

SilverScreen

I personally enjoy the various ways they are represented. Alot of the great vampire movies introduce them with a new twist and / or establish the rules as a part of the plot...

There is definitely a potential explanation for this... in the movies "Salem's Lot" and "Fright Night" there was a direct relation between the person's faith who held the religous artifact and the power / age of the vampire it was being used against. It is possible that if we make the assumption (or the film makes the assumption) that vampires have gained more power / aged while people in general have lost some of their faith that the artifacts wouldn't be effective...

Thrush

Dont forget about the Goblins.

greg9x

But the Goblins are born that way, it's biological !

Thrush

Nonsense, its learned behavior. If they wanted to be normal god fearing humans they could change.