Celluloid Vampires : : Life After Death in the Modern World / / Stacey Abbott.

In 1896, French magician and filmmaker George Méliès brought forth the first celluloid vampire in his film Le manoir du diable. The vampire continues to be one of film's most popular gothic monsters and in fact, today more people become acquainted with the vampire through film than through lite...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Place / Publishing House:Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]
©2007
Year of Publication:2021
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (278 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
Introduction: A Little Less Ritual and a Little More Fun --
PART ONE. Bram Stoker’s Dracula from Novel to Film --
1. Dracula: A Wonder of the Modern World --
2. The Cinematic Spectacle of Vampirism: Nosferatu in the Light of New Technology --
3. From Hollywood Gothic to Hammer Horror: The Modern Evolution of Dracula --
PART TWO. The Birth of the Modern American Vampire --
4. The Seventies: The Vampire Decade --
5. George Romero’s Martin: An American Vampire --
6. Walking Corpses and Independent Filmmaking Techniques --
7. Special Makeup Effects and Exploding Vampires --
PART THREE. Reconfiguring the Urban Vampire --
8. New York and the Vampire Flâneuse --
9. Vampire Road Movies: From Modernity to Postmodernity --
10. Los Angeles: Fangs, Gangs, and Vampireland --
PART FOUR. Redefining Boundaries --
11. Vampire Cyborgs --
12. Vampires in a Borderless World --
Notes --
Selected Bibliography --
Filmography --
Index
Summary:In 1896, French magician and filmmaker George Méliès brought forth the first celluloid vampire in his film Le manoir du diable. The vampire continues to be one of film's most popular gothic monsters and in fact, today more people become acquainted with the vampire through film than through literature, such as Bram Stoker's classic Dracula. How has this long legacy of celluloid vampires affected our understanding of vampire mythology? And how has the vampire morphed from its folkloric and literary origins? In this entertaining and absorbing work, Stacey Abbott challenges the conventional interpretation of vampire mythology and argues that the medium of film has completely reinvented the vampire archetype. Rather than representing the primitive and folkloric, the vampire has come to embody the very experience of modernity. No longer in a cape and coffin, today's vampire resides in major cities, listens to punk music, embraces technology, and adapts to any situation. Sometimes she's even female. With case studies of vampire classics such as Nosferatu, Martin, Blade, and Habit, the author traces the evolution of the American vampire film, arguing that vampires are more than just blood-drinking monsters; they reflect the cultural and social climate of the societies that produce them, especially during times of intense change and modernization. Abbott also explores how independent filmmaking techniques, special effects makeup, and the stunning and ultramodern computer-generated effects of recent films have affected the representation of the vampire in film.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780292794696
9783110745344
DOI:10.7560/716957
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Stacey Abbott.