redfiona99 | Entries tagged with vampires

Which was complicated by finding things that at least 2 of the family would watch.

TV-wise we watched:

Jonathan Creek, 'The Judas Tree', which was pleasingly fiendish. I sort of guessed part of the resolution, I just couldn't figure out how they'd done it.

The Tractate Middoth - which was based on an MR James ghost story and was suitably terrifying.

Mark Gattis's documentary about MR James afterwards was interesting too. Admittedly I was amused by the bit where he thinks collecting gory saints's deaths is a bit odd and I'm like "you mean everyone doesn't do that?!" Apparently, no, not everyone collects gory saints's deaths.

Film-wise there was:

( Jane Eyre: The Mia Wasikowska version )

( The Mummy 3 - The Curse of the Dragon Emperor )

And ( Dracula (1958) )

And also, last night, ( Top Hat )

I'm watching England v France. There is a rumour there was another match on, but I've reached an agreement with a friend that, if I'm nice about England, he won't mention the other match. I spent the entire night tossing and turning having nightmares about Wales beating Ireland, and I wake up to find out I have remarkably prophetic dreams. If only I could dream up the lottery numbers.

A sign of how bad the recession is - the most recent Waitrose advert trying to rebrand Waitrose as a value retailer.

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The Much-Delayed Book Meme - Day 10 - Favourite Classic Book

With my usual complaints that this is a difficult question, and I'm also deliberately not giving one answer because I plan to use that book as an answer for a different question.

So I shall give another of my favourites as the answer to this.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Ignore all your preconceptions, because 9/10ths of what people who haven't read it imagine as being prototypically Dracula is from the Bela Lugosi film.

It's not a gothic horror, if anything it's the forces of late 19th/early 20th century engineering and progress versus old feudalism and superstition. For some unknown reason, very few of the adaptations play upon that.

And then you have the Count himself. While he does have a bit of a tragic line about being the last of his clan, it's also made quite clear that's because he's an agent of the devil who sold his soul / forfeited it at what basically amounts to a demonic seminary.

Also, it's quite clear that the reason he's in the state he's in is that the local peasants know how to protect themselves, and the only people he and the brides can attack are the aged and babies. This is not a heroic demon, he's a monster. The reason he wants an English country house is because the locals in England don't know the rules to keep him and his out, because one of the downsides of progress is that it consigns local knowledge to the dustbin of superstition without considering whether it might be useful.

It's very much of it's time but in a good way, and it's full of interest and it moves forward and the different character who write the different parts of it all sound different.

It's also quite a quick read if anyone's interested.

( The Other Days )

I've previously mentioned I don't pick up well on subtext, so this must be screamingly near text. In Vampire Diaries (in the first two episodes at least, I'm hopefully seeing the 3rd one tonight), if you like sex you are a bad person in some way. Of the human characters, the ones that have expressed any interest in sex are the junkie younger brother, the shallow attention seeking girl, the local bike, Vicki (if you pardon the phrase, and at least the show looks like it's actually going beyond that stereotype) and her loser, douchebag boyfriend.

Meanwhile, the good lead girl and her letter jacket ex (who is the the brother of the above Vicki) and her best friend, the witch - this show is not good with introducing characters so I know what their names are, and with the exception of Elena, Vicki and the vamps, I have no idea what anybody is called - who have none of the downsides of the previously mentioned characters are as pure as driven snow.

On the vamp side, the good guy vamp is interested in long walks and long, meaningful talk, while the bad vampire likes sex, blood and rock and roll.

It's a spectacular dichotomy.

Then again, I disturbed my housemate D by saying I was cheap and easy for Ian Sommerhalder, because apparently I'm a nice girl and we don't say things like that, so they might just be reflecting the bizarre biases of society and at least it's equally opportunistically anti-sex.

Then, contra that, it is Kevin Williamson who's doing the writing and I remember the Times running an article describing Dawson's Creek as being the vanguard of neo-puritanism so yeah.

Sorry for the radio silence, it's been a bit busy in rl, about which there will be a long post, later. But first, more fun things.

Films:

Before Sherlock Holmes there was a trailer for Iron Man 2. Other than being amused that villains still get lumbered with stock Russian accent number 2, I think Mickey Rourke's character could be really interesting.

The thing that really made me gleeful about the trailer was the bit where Tony Stark, about to make his big entrance in costume, goes 'a kiss for good luck,' so Pepper kisses the mask and throws it out of the plane.

I hope they give her more to do than just be jealous of Scarlet Johanson's character.

Comics and Manga:

Because I got paid the second half of my money for demonstrating, I went on a bit of a spree. I got the next three volumes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and a 2000 AD book, which I haven't read before, called Murder 101. Yay, Sinister Dexter, which is probably the one 2000 AD strip you could easily turn into a film.

TV:

Last week's Being Human was interesting, inbetween the exquisite awkwardness of Annie's plan (Oh George, how do you get yourself into these things.), the vampire shennanigans and the reveal.

The thing I really like about Being Human is that, you know that thing when you're watching something, and a character gets a choice between action a and action b and they're both equally valid if not morally then functionally, and you know that they'll go for b because it's the 'right choice'. Being Human doesn't do that, so it gets to do interesting things, see also Karl the vampire from episode 2.

What I will say, is that the start of episode 3 contains the funniest take you'll see on the banality and beaurocracy of evil for quite some time. And also deeply horrifying at the same time.

( Spoilers )

I still haven't seen this week's episode because Being Human has reached that pitch of where I want to see the next episode but am terrified by the horrible things they're going to do characters I like.

Meanwhile, also on a vampire tip, I am greatly amused by the Vampire Diaries. They are the epitome of the cheesy but fun. Also - Ian Sommerhalder.

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You think they wrote this for me or what?

I am not ashamed to say I have a vampire thing, and most people in RL know about it - the fantastic Dr. Stu even gave me his SFX Vampire special. So yes, this is going to be an interesting question to answer.

First of all, do they mean bitten or 'bitten' because while I have no idea what Bram Stoker intended (and yes, I know that Dracula wasn't the first vampire novel), enough other variants have played with the idea of feeding crossed with contact with what is both an intimate and erongenous zone.

( The next question becomes, what kind of vampire do I want to be? Because there are lots of different kinds. )

( What kind of person am I? Would I kill humans for my food? )

Of course, all that being said, it still leaves me with quite a lot of vampires. However, modern vampires, being weedy little emo vamps, seem to object to vamping other people. So I'd have to narrow it down to the vampires who would actually choose to turn people (which knocks out most of the Buffy vampires, certainly all the ones I'd actually want to have anything to do with). It also rules out Mitchell in either version of Being Human, although given the reason he turned Lauren (he has trouble separating feeding and sex and boy, do they enjoy using that one in that show), um, yeah. I'll just go with um, yeah. Then you get the problem of their intentions - so no, La Croix, I will not be used in your most recent attempt to wind Nick Knight up.

And then the consequences, certainly in the Blood Ties/Vicky Nelson/Tanya Huff books and TV show (damn you for cancelling it, whoever was in charge), you can't stand to be in the same town and vampires get very territorial, and I think, if I hadn't already ruled the Anne Rice vamps out on general principle, the same goes for them.

So I have a possible short list:

Dracula (Buffy version or Frank Lagella version), especially the Buffy version, Rudolph Martin is exceptionally attractive and his Dracula is nigh on unkillable.

Drake of Blade 3 fame.

Grampa from the Munsters, although it's possibly genetic in his case.

And of course, I can't leave out my favourite, who drinks/eats soap instead, but sadly I happen to know vampirism in that 'verse is genetic, plus Vlad is tiny and green but damn it, if I'm going to be a vampire, I want to be one with Vlad the Drac - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vlad-Drac-Ann-Jungman/dp/1903015227/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248735490&sr=8-1

BBC appear to be making TV designed to cater to my every whim again.

It's called 'Being Human' and there's a vampire and a werewolf, and the ghost haunting their new house and, while it sounds like the set-up for a sitcom, it's so much more. It's all about humanity, and what makes you human, and dignity and bravery and, with the exception of the vampires, I want to hug all the characters, and oh my God they made vampires evil and menacing again, in the same way that Ultraviolet did and did I mention every single one of my whims is being catered for.

Finally managed to watch Blink. In between the giggling at timey-wimey, the tearing up and the absolute terror, I enjoyed myself immensely. Well done that man Moffat. Thankfully the angels weren't quite as terrifying as the gas-mask children, but they were so fantastically well done. And some of us squeamish types did not need the repeated warning at the end ;)

Robin Hood actually left me speechless with glee at points, because yes, they finally seem to have gotten Crusades != good and Eleanor of Aquitaine = awesome (also Lynda Bellingham was both a great casting choice and good in it). Also = awesome was LaGrange and Little John and that the Queen was so regal and I'm sorry but Robin Hood has been upgraded from useless to fun.

And next week's preview looks so interesting from them casting Stephen Waddington as the Lionheart to the situation that's been set up. One does wonder what happened to Carter and to Lardiner. Although Carter turning up to rescue them would make my Christmas just that little bit more complete (finding out that he'd been killed would upset me though - this season's episode guests have been so much better).

Of course the big things was ( Great big squee causing spoiler )

Caught Blood Ties as well, which is my second favourite present vampire show, because they've done some interesting stuff and minimised the brooding angst that was starting to take over the genre. It's very much a case of come for the occult wierdness and vampires, stay for the most wonderfully balanced love triangle.

Must find and read the books it's based on.

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As for my favourite present vampire show, it would be 'Young Dracula' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876219/) it's pitched at the young teenage audience but is one of the most fun things on the show.

You've got Vlad who doesn't want to be a vampire (his Dad being the Count and his older sister being Ingrid (which I just love as a possible Ingrid Pitt reference). His best friend Robin wants to be a vampire. There's Renfield and the Van Helsings (father and son). The Elder Van Helsing teachs Vlad and Robin woodwork and has a pyschotherapist wife who thinks he's insane and they all know each other and it's the most genius thing on TV.

Even if it's part of Cardiff's plot to take over the world.

Which leads me on to the re-run of Charlotte Church's chat show which is possibly the worst programme ever to be shown on TV, but did feature the Manics and John Barrowman in one of the wierder guest line-ups ever. I love that they re-jigged 'Your Love Alone' for her and James's singing is still too high.

Given that this week I've also seen Jonathan Firth on Ghost Whisperer, it's been a good tv week, even if you count trying to terrify myself with ghost stories on the box, two so far, one a Dennis Wheatley adaptation with Julian Sands, Scott Handy (one of my favourite 'you know, thingy's) and the boy that played Cedric Diggory who did a marvellous job of someone slowly losing his mind.

Add that to an MR James ghost story tonight (and OMG I've found out that they did audios of all his stories voiced by Silver from Sapphire and Steel and I may have to buy them for Mother) and the angels and I may never sleep again ;)
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In case you haven't guessed by the overall tone, lame has been found so Mother will not murder me, for at at least.