In conclusion I would say that that the four films I have looked at show a clear development of how the vampire myth has become a representation of society’s fears and taboos. From the classical vampire figure of Dracula representing the tragic, lone figure endlessly searching for peace, we then have a distinct change when looking at the other film texts. While various theorists have argued that Bram Stoker’s Dracula puts across more than just this idea of a tragic Romantic figure I just cannot see any way whereby these concerns outweigh the film’s love story narrative. Simply, the character of Dracula is too easy to identify with, too easy to feel sorry for and sympathise with for it to represent any fear in society.
Furthermore, the very notion that Dracula must represent a fear in society must set up, in some respects at least, the idea that the audience will be repelled or afraid of Dracula himself and this simply does not happen anywhere within the text. The main reason we are neither afraid of nor repelled by Dracula is because everything he does is validated through his search for true love, the most righteous cause to exist, especially in the realm of cinema. Therefore, anybody doing anything at all in the name of real true love will always escape any idea that what he or she is doing is wrong or evil in any way. However hard you look, and no matter how cynical you are it would be near impossible to describe the idea of true love as evil.
The Lost Boys shows how the vampire can be manipulated to fit in with the society of the time in order to sell itself to an audience. We can clearly see a step away from the idea of the lone figure, as we are now presented with a gang. Through the characters and events in the film we then perceive a number of things occurring. First of all we are presented with a dangerous gang, thus we are given a challenge to the dominant order of society. However, with the ideas of true love removed from the text, the audience will not be able to justify siding with the vampire gang for very long. This is because any acts carried out by the gang are not justified in any way; they just do it because they want to.
This representation of the vampire through the gang allows what I believe is the dominant message of the film to come through. The audience, like the character Michael in the text, is allowed at first to consider the idea of rebelling and moving over to the vampire lifestyle. However, like Michael, the audience is likely to realise that the vampire gang’s life style is just too extreme and unacceptable to warrant moving away from the dominant ideology of forming the family unit. Instead it is likely to enforce an idea of a close escape from falling into danger, and so we must be careful not to do this in our own lives, rather than enforcing the idea that we should consider the vampire gang’s lifestyle as a realistic alternative to the dominant ideological view.
Blade then acts not only to remove all elements of romance and love from the narrative but also the identity of ‘the vampire’ as well. What we are presented with is the complete marginalization of the vampire through the ideas of science. The text is putting across the message that in a technologically advanced society, there is simply no room for the mythological and mysterious vampire to exist. Sooner or later science will find a way to explain any mystery away and once this has occurred any attraction towards the vampire lifestyle is removed. We are shown a ‘defective’ rather that an ‘alternative’ lifestyle neither as something dangerous nor appealing.
Blade completely reverses any notions of the vampire that we are shown in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. From being a lone, highly Romanticised, love driven figure, the vampire idea has developed into a many part, faceless parasite. The Tragic figure would not be able to raise the same level of fear around issues in society as a large, seemingly incredibly evil mass that just grows and grows like a plague. The message coming from the film is to embrace technology and science, another complete move away from the Romantic ideals of the character of Dracula.
However, Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case acts as a ray of light for the tragic vampire figure. What we are shown is a highly developed technological society that has simply gone too far, too quickly, without thinking about the consequences of its actions. What we see is that while Blade’s scientific premise is eager to completely destroy the vampire, if you follow the idea of progressing technology through, it simply ends up creating another form of vampire. Therefore, you could say that no matter what happens the tragic Dracula-like figure will always exist. The form may be changed but in the end something will always be created to replace it. Simply put, it is impossible to kill a vampire when they are searching for peace and their motivation is love because ‘true love never dies’.
Filmography
Blade (Norrington, US, 1998)
Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1993)
Cyber City Oedo 808:The vampire case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990)
Hunger, The (Scott, UK, 1993)
Lost Boys, The (Schumacher, US, 1987)
Bibliography
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (Film art an introduction, fifth edition, University of Wisconsin, US, 1997)
Crane, Jonathan Lake (Terror and everyday life, Sage publications, inc, 1994)
Dika, Vera (Games of Terror, Associated University Presses 1990)
Gelder, Ken (Reading the Vampire, London Routledge, UK, 1994)
Gordon, John and Hollinger, Veronica (Blood Read, The VAMPIRE as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, US, 1997)
Grant, Barry K (Planks of reason, N.J./London, the scarecrow press, UK, 1984)
Jordan, John. J (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism, 1999)
Pearce, Lynne and Wisker, Gina (Fatal attractions, Re-scripting Romance in contemporary literature and film, London, Pluto Press, UK, 1998)
Silver, Alain and Ursini, James (The Vampire Film, from Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire, Third edition, Proscenium Publishers Inc, New York, US, 1997)
Stoker, Bram (Dracula, Penguin, first published in 1897)
Storey, John (An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, Hemel Hempstead, UK 1993)
Storey, John (Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, A Reader, Hemel Hempstead, UK, 1994)
Twitchell, James (Dreadful Pleasures, Oxford, Oxford University Press, UK, 1985)
Wexham, Virginia Wright (Creating the couple, Love, Marriage and Hollywood performance, Princeton, Princeton University press 1993)
Monday 11 March 2013
Thursday 7 March 2013
Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 3: Everything Comes to an End Sometime?
Using the film Blade (Norrington, USA, 1998) and to a lesser extent the Japanese Anime Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990) I will show how the vampire has changed from being the idea of a transgressive gang, as seen in The Lost Boys (Schumacher, US, 1987) and also how Blade acts to almost dismiss the notion of the vampire as a tragic romantic figure as shown in Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992). Furthermore, the films show the idea of vampirism now being viewed as a disease while also setting up juxtapositions between the areas of both science and vampire mythology and also addressing issues surrounding fears around technology.
John J. Jordan argues that in Blade we are presented with the idea of the evil vampires representing everything that is based in mythology and superstition. (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism pages 4-15) My argument - surrounding Blade in regards to technology, is similar to Jordan’s. However, while Jordan sets the character of Blade up as a form of cyborg vampire, my argument does not take the idea of technology so far. Rather than suggesting that the character of Blade has become a scientific weapon, my viewpoint looks at Blade in representing the use of new technology in the fight against the vampires and what they represent, not the character of Blade becoming technology itself.
The mythological stand point of the vampires sets up a contrast with the good characters in the film who represent the idea of progress and technology, embodying the idea that the human race must keep evolving and moving forward in order to survive. For instance, all the weapons used in Bram Stoker's Dracula that are based in superstition are no longer effective against the vampire enemy within Blade. We are told that crosses and holy water are useless - weapons clearly based in the idea of religion and superstition rather than any realms of science.
Weapons that do work are presented to us in scientific terms, for instance the vampires’ intolerance to sunlight is explained as a reaction to ultra violet rays, while garlic is presented through its scientific name, “ allium setivum” and said to cause the vampires to go into shock. These things all help to position the viewer to see technology as the ‘good’ force and mythology as either ineffective or ‘evil’.
Throughout the narrative of Blade we are given constant positive enforcements of the idea of progressing technology. The most prominent example of this unsurprisingly comes at the very end of the film where we have the final showdown with Deacon Frost and Blade. As John J. Jordan’s piece highlights we have the ultimate weapon of the un-scientific force in the Blood God La Magra that comes up against Blade’s high-tech weaponry. However, all of Blade’s weapons are ineffective, arguably because they are all linked in some way to the superstitions of the vampire myth of the past. The fact that it is the new weapon developed by Doctor Karen Jenson which defeats the Blood God is the biggest enforcement in the film that science and technological advancement is nothing to be feared. It is needed for the survival of the human race, and thus we must destroy fears in our minds that rely on superstition and myth, in this case represented by the vampires.
Apart from Blade’s high-tech vampire killing weaponry there is also the serum that he must take in order to keep his vampire instincts suppressed. The idea of being able to keep these instincts at bay by using science shows two things to us. First of all we have an enforcement of science as being ‘good’ as without it Blade would be just like the other vampires. Secondly we are being shown that the idea of the vampire as something mystical and unexplainable is being overthrown. Instead, with the evolution of science we are now presented with the vampire, or more specifically vampirism at this point in the text, as nothing more than an incurable disease.
Blade acts to completely marginalize any ideas of mystery or notions of seeing the vampire as an exciting alternative to the normality of society as is presented within The Lost Boys. The ‘attraction’ of the vampire is completely taken away by the way science is used to sterilise and categorise everything within the text. For instance, in looking at Bram Stoker’s Dracula we see a text that shows the vampire as something ‘other’ and unexplainable, whereas in Blade the vampires are represented to us as nothing more than as described by Karen Jenson, a ‘Genetic defect’. This line clearly situates the representation of the vampire in the area of disease. This idea of the vampire being shown so blatantly as representing disease sets Blade apart from both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Lost Boy, where the links between the vampire and disease are both subtle and certainly questionable.
The vampire being used to represent disease also acts to enforce the underlying message of the film that science is necessary for the progression and survival of the human race. We are presented first with a ‘disease’ in the vampires, which is being spread by those contaminated with it. Furthermore, at the start of the film there is no apparent cure to this spreading disease. Even the character of Blade who the audience may see as a possible cure is shown to be fighting a losing battle; (a point again highlighted by John J. Jordan). This is enforced in the final sequence of the film where his weapons and his level of scientific development are not enough to defeat La Magra.
The enforcement of science as a positive force in terms of where the vampire as disease is concerned, comes in the form of Doctor Karen Jensen and the vaccine she develops to eliminate the ‘disease’ from the bloodstream. I would argue that this vaccine represents to the audience the notion of science bringing hope in the future. It suggests that though a disease may be incurable at the present time, a virus such as AIDS for instance, will be cured in the future if you look to the advancement of technology instead of superstitious beliefs not based in science.
It is the constant marginalizing of the vampires through science that sets the film apart from both The Lost Boys and Bram Stokers Dracula. In both Ford Coppola’s and Schumacher’s film the vampires are presented in a totally different way to in Blade. First of all the fact that we have the character of Blade being a vampire and also the clear cut hero, positions the audience firmly behind him and what he is representing within the text, and alienating us from any points which may make the lifestyle of Frost and his gang attractive. This is not true in the other two films. For instance, with the character of Dracula it is possible to view him as the ‘hero’ of the film and thus it can be argued that the audience can identify with his character.
The same notions can be argued in The Lost Boys with the vampire gang. Though we may not be able to identify with any individual in the gang, the gang does represent the notion of teenage rebellion and puts forward a number of attractions or positive aspects of the vampire lifestyle. This simply is not present with any of the vampire characters in Blade, even the character of Blade is shown as a mostly cold and inhuman character, simple concerned with destroying the threat of the ‘evil’ vampires with his array of scientific weapons. With Blade being shown as such a cold character and the arrival of Doctor Jensen into the text, Frost’s group of vampires are marginalized away from being anything more than a problem that science has to solve. Any individuality is removed from the vampire group just as all emotion is removed from the hero Blade. What this leads to is the enforcement of the idea that the text is showing us the concept of pure, cold science being developed and used to eliminate a faceless, characterless threat to the human race, whether that be disease or the belief in superstition over science. As the vampires are not believable in the realms of science they are merely removed from the human race’s field of vision. Science deems them either to be ridiculous or old fashioned to be able to exist in a technologically progressive society.
Another major thing that Blade does through its clinical approach to the vampire myth is to change completely and separate the modern vampire from the Romantic image of the tragic figure portrayed in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Though The Lost Boys lessens the idea of the vampire and his search for love and to be at peace, Blade fails to even acknowledge any notion of this aspect of vampire mythology. I would argue that a possible reason for this is the idea that a tragic figure would represent something also unexplainable in the realms of science, that being the idea of true love. The film is so heavy with the ideas of science and everything being created to have a function that any themes of love just have no place in the text.
However, I would suggests this creates an uneasy situation within the film. What this suggests within the context of Blade is that love not only does not exist, but furthermore could possibly be read to be something evil. I say this because ‘good’ is wholly represented in the film by Blade and his allies, who in turn enforce science as the only thing that is truly righteous. Therefore, if these characters do not represent any form of the concepts of true love during the text, then not only does this marginalize love along with the vampires, I would argue it also suggests that love can be seen as dangerous as it transgresses the ideas of science so vigorously put forward to us.
Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case also deals with the same themes as Blade. However, what is put across is an almost completely different message. While Blade is putting forward ideas of technology and science as being the force of good needed to eliminate any threat to humanity, Cyber City turns this idea around and shows technology and science as the creators of the threats to humanity, rather than being humanity’s saviour. For instance, vampirism in both Blade and Cyber City is presented as a disease. However, while Blade shows technology as being needed to ‘cure’ the vampire disease, Cyber City presents the notion that it is technology that has created the disease of vampirism through experimentation with the aim to find a way of creating everlasting life.
Furthermore, whereas in Blade we see the absence of the Dracula-like tragic vampire figure, we have one very prominent example in Cyber city in the form of the girl Remi Masuda. At the start of the film we see a flash back of her first encounter with cyber police officer Ben-Ten started with a hand full of rose petals that float away on the wind. This sets the scene for a conversation where they talk about the alignment and beauty of stars and the star light. The scene ends when Remi states how ‘terrible it would be, to go on forever’ and then disappears after Ben-Ten responds ‘no, nothing goes on forever, everything has to end, even the light’. This conversation immediately raises the same sort of themes apparent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula around ideas of Romanticism and the idea of a tragic lone figure. However, the difference is, while Dracula becomes tragic by renouncing God, Remi is turned into a tragic figure by the same ideas of advancing technology that Blade sites as the saviour of mankind, which have been forced upon her.
What Cyber City uses the vampire characters within it to do is to portray a warning about taking technology too far without stopping to think about the consequences, a message that is not touched upon in Blade. What the two films show is that the vampire can be easily manipulated to represent whichever fear is most dominant at the time of the films’ creation. Thereby we can acquire two different texts both using vampires to represent different sides to the same argument. However, certain things must be removed from the vampire legend in order for this to occur. I would argue that if all the vampires in Blade where seen as tragic figures, then possibly the audience would turn against the technological side of the film. Instead the vampires must be made to seem even more inhuman than science itself in order that we find no grounds with which to identify with Frost’s gang.
To conclude I would say that what both Cyber City and Blade show is that in order to represent certain fears in society or put certain messages across, the vampire and the vampire legend must be made to evolve and change in order for it to still be effective. I would argue that the reason Blade removes all the ideas of tragedy from its text is because at the present time, and the time the film was released, the idea of the vampire being tragic and misunderstood rather than evil would be more prominent in the audience’s mind, due to the films which had preceded it. Therefore, the myth of the vampire has to be changed in order to get a response from the audience and give justification to Blade’s actions. But what the two films show most of all is that though vampires can be made to represent both the notions, disease and fears surrounding technology, they are so complex that it is not easy to see which side is the right side to be on, the vampires or those who set out to destroy them.
John J. Jordan argues that in Blade we are presented with the idea of the evil vampires representing everything that is based in mythology and superstition. (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism pages 4-15) My argument - surrounding Blade in regards to technology, is similar to Jordan’s. However, while Jordan sets the character of Blade up as a form of cyborg vampire, my argument does not take the idea of technology so far. Rather than suggesting that the character of Blade has become a scientific weapon, my viewpoint looks at Blade in representing the use of new technology in the fight against the vampires and what they represent, not the character of Blade becoming technology itself.
The mythological stand point of the vampires sets up a contrast with the good characters in the film who represent the idea of progress and technology, embodying the idea that the human race must keep evolving and moving forward in order to survive. For instance, all the weapons used in Bram Stoker's Dracula that are based in superstition are no longer effective against the vampire enemy within Blade. We are told that crosses and holy water are useless - weapons clearly based in the idea of religion and superstition rather than any realms of science.
Weapons that do work are presented to us in scientific terms, for instance the vampires’ intolerance to sunlight is explained as a reaction to ultra violet rays, while garlic is presented through its scientific name, “ allium setivum” and said to cause the vampires to go into shock. These things all help to position the viewer to see technology as the ‘good’ force and mythology as either ineffective or ‘evil’.
Throughout the narrative of Blade we are given constant positive enforcements of the idea of progressing technology. The most prominent example of this unsurprisingly comes at the very end of the film where we have the final showdown with Deacon Frost and Blade. As John J. Jordan’s piece highlights we have the ultimate weapon of the un-scientific force in the Blood God La Magra that comes up against Blade’s high-tech weaponry. However, all of Blade’s weapons are ineffective, arguably because they are all linked in some way to the superstitions of the vampire myth of the past. The fact that it is the new weapon developed by Doctor Karen Jenson which defeats the Blood God is the biggest enforcement in the film that science and technological advancement is nothing to be feared. It is needed for the survival of the human race, and thus we must destroy fears in our minds that rely on superstition and myth, in this case represented by the vampires.
Apart from Blade’s high-tech vampire killing weaponry there is also the serum that he must take in order to keep his vampire instincts suppressed. The idea of being able to keep these instincts at bay by using science shows two things to us. First of all we have an enforcement of science as being ‘good’ as without it Blade would be just like the other vampires. Secondly we are being shown that the idea of the vampire as something mystical and unexplainable is being overthrown. Instead, with the evolution of science we are now presented with the vampire, or more specifically vampirism at this point in the text, as nothing more than an incurable disease.
Blade acts to completely marginalize any ideas of mystery or notions of seeing the vampire as an exciting alternative to the normality of society as is presented within The Lost Boys. The ‘attraction’ of the vampire is completely taken away by the way science is used to sterilise and categorise everything within the text. For instance, in looking at Bram Stoker’s Dracula we see a text that shows the vampire as something ‘other’ and unexplainable, whereas in Blade the vampires are represented to us as nothing more than as described by Karen Jenson, a ‘Genetic defect’. This line clearly situates the representation of the vampire in the area of disease. This idea of the vampire being shown so blatantly as representing disease sets Blade apart from both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Lost Boy, where the links between the vampire and disease are both subtle and certainly questionable.
The vampire being used to represent disease also acts to enforce the underlying message of the film that science is necessary for the progression and survival of the human race. We are presented first with a ‘disease’ in the vampires, which is being spread by those contaminated with it. Furthermore, at the start of the film there is no apparent cure to this spreading disease. Even the character of Blade who the audience may see as a possible cure is shown to be fighting a losing battle; (a point again highlighted by John J. Jordan). This is enforced in the final sequence of the film where his weapons and his level of scientific development are not enough to defeat La Magra.
The enforcement of science as a positive force in terms of where the vampire as disease is concerned, comes in the form of Doctor Karen Jensen and the vaccine she develops to eliminate the ‘disease’ from the bloodstream. I would argue that this vaccine represents to the audience the notion of science bringing hope in the future. It suggests that though a disease may be incurable at the present time, a virus such as AIDS for instance, will be cured in the future if you look to the advancement of technology instead of superstitious beliefs not based in science.
It is the constant marginalizing of the vampires through science that sets the film apart from both The Lost Boys and Bram Stokers Dracula. In both Ford Coppola’s and Schumacher’s film the vampires are presented in a totally different way to in Blade. First of all the fact that we have the character of Blade being a vampire and also the clear cut hero, positions the audience firmly behind him and what he is representing within the text, and alienating us from any points which may make the lifestyle of Frost and his gang attractive. This is not true in the other two films. For instance, with the character of Dracula it is possible to view him as the ‘hero’ of the film and thus it can be argued that the audience can identify with his character.
The same notions can be argued in The Lost Boys with the vampire gang. Though we may not be able to identify with any individual in the gang, the gang does represent the notion of teenage rebellion and puts forward a number of attractions or positive aspects of the vampire lifestyle. This simply is not present with any of the vampire characters in Blade, even the character of Blade is shown as a mostly cold and inhuman character, simple concerned with destroying the threat of the ‘evil’ vampires with his array of scientific weapons. With Blade being shown as such a cold character and the arrival of Doctor Jensen into the text, Frost’s group of vampires are marginalized away from being anything more than a problem that science has to solve. Any individuality is removed from the vampire group just as all emotion is removed from the hero Blade. What this leads to is the enforcement of the idea that the text is showing us the concept of pure, cold science being developed and used to eliminate a faceless, characterless threat to the human race, whether that be disease or the belief in superstition over science. As the vampires are not believable in the realms of science they are merely removed from the human race’s field of vision. Science deems them either to be ridiculous or old fashioned to be able to exist in a technologically progressive society.
Another major thing that Blade does through its clinical approach to the vampire myth is to change completely and separate the modern vampire from the Romantic image of the tragic figure portrayed in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Though The Lost Boys lessens the idea of the vampire and his search for love and to be at peace, Blade fails to even acknowledge any notion of this aspect of vampire mythology. I would argue that a possible reason for this is the idea that a tragic figure would represent something also unexplainable in the realms of science, that being the idea of true love. The film is so heavy with the ideas of science and everything being created to have a function that any themes of love just have no place in the text.
However, I would suggests this creates an uneasy situation within the film. What this suggests within the context of Blade is that love not only does not exist, but furthermore could possibly be read to be something evil. I say this because ‘good’ is wholly represented in the film by Blade and his allies, who in turn enforce science as the only thing that is truly righteous. Therefore, if these characters do not represent any form of the concepts of true love during the text, then not only does this marginalize love along with the vampires, I would argue it also suggests that love can be seen as dangerous as it transgresses the ideas of science so vigorously put forward to us.
Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case also deals with the same themes as Blade. However, what is put across is an almost completely different message. While Blade is putting forward ideas of technology and science as being the force of good needed to eliminate any threat to humanity, Cyber City turns this idea around and shows technology and science as the creators of the threats to humanity, rather than being humanity’s saviour. For instance, vampirism in both Blade and Cyber City is presented as a disease. However, while Blade shows technology as being needed to ‘cure’ the vampire disease, Cyber City presents the notion that it is technology that has created the disease of vampirism through experimentation with the aim to find a way of creating everlasting life.
Furthermore, whereas in Blade we see the absence of the Dracula-like tragic vampire figure, we have one very prominent example in Cyber city in the form of the girl Remi Masuda. At the start of the film we see a flash back of her first encounter with cyber police officer Ben-Ten started with a hand full of rose petals that float away on the wind. This sets the scene for a conversation where they talk about the alignment and beauty of stars and the star light. The scene ends when Remi states how ‘terrible it would be, to go on forever’ and then disappears after Ben-Ten responds ‘no, nothing goes on forever, everything has to end, even the light’. This conversation immediately raises the same sort of themes apparent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula around ideas of Romanticism and the idea of a tragic lone figure. However, the difference is, while Dracula becomes tragic by renouncing God, Remi is turned into a tragic figure by the same ideas of advancing technology that Blade sites as the saviour of mankind, which have been forced upon her.
What Cyber City uses the vampire characters within it to do is to portray a warning about taking technology too far without stopping to think about the consequences, a message that is not touched upon in Blade. What the two films show is that the vampire can be easily manipulated to represent whichever fear is most dominant at the time of the films’ creation. Thereby we can acquire two different texts both using vampires to represent different sides to the same argument. However, certain things must be removed from the vampire legend in order for this to occur. I would argue that if all the vampires in Blade where seen as tragic figures, then possibly the audience would turn against the technological side of the film. Instead the vampires must be made to seem even more inhuman than science itself in order that we find no grounds with which to identify with Frost’s gang.
To conclude I would say that what both Cyber City and Blade show is that in order to represent certain fears in society or put certain messages across, the vampire and the vampire legend must be made to evolve and change in order for it to still be effective. I would argue that the reason Blade removes all the ideas of tragedy from its text is because at the present time, and the time the film was released, the idea of the vampire being tragic and misunderstood rather than evil would be more prominent in the audience’s mind, due to the films which had preceded it. Therefore, the myth of the vampire has to be changed in order to get a response from the audience and give justification to Blade’s actions. But what the two films show most of all is that though vampires can be made to represent both the notions, disease and fears surrounding technology, they are so complex that it is not easy to see which side is the right side to be on, the vampires or those who set out to destroy them.
Monday 4 March 2013
Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 2: It's Fun To Be a Vampire
Using The Lost Boys (Schumacher, US, 1987) I will look at how the idea of what the vampire represents has changed from the lone tragic Romantic figure into a group or gang of vampires and what message these now multiple vampires are putting across to us.
Compared to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992), The Lost Boys presents us with both a different presentation style of the film itself and a different presentation of the vampire. Obviously, there is a large difference between Transylvania and California but it is the style of the film that mainly sets it apart from Dracula. Where as a very Gothic and Romantic setting is apparent in Dracula, and the story which is centred on notions of everlasting love focused into what is basically a tragic love story, it is clear the same mechanics are not at work in The Lost Boys.
Instead, notions of the Gothic and Romantic are replaced with the bright and sunny surroundings of Santa Carla. The darkness is replaced with images of late night parties, music, and various forms of the style of the eighties. Basically, the film is aimed at a completely different audience to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Lost Boys is undoubtedly a teen film and as such tries to tap into what the teenage generation of the time wanted to see on the screen - and also what ideology should be presented to them through the text. While the film is definitely a commercial Hollywood product, produced to make money out of the MTV generation, this does not mean of course that certain enforcements of dominant ideology cannot be read into the text.
The film is set up so that it acts to portray the attractions of why perhaps certain groups of people would choose what is represented in this instance as the vampire lifestyle, but in a wider context can be seen as the wilder or more rebellious party lifestyle of the younger generation. However, as I intend to show, the film acts to only let the viewer have a passing interest in the ‘vampire lifestyle’ and presses upon them the idea that there is a need to mature and turn towards the dominant ideological set up of the heterosexual family unit.
In some ways this can be seen as a representation of Gramsci’s idea of hegemony, by which a ‘dominate class leads a society through the exertion of moral and intellectual leadership’ (Introductory Guide to Cultural theory and Popular Culture pg 118-123) In this instance we have the Hollywood system exerting moral leadership, and the presence of the vampires creating an oppositional or rebellious force against this. As such, when the vampires are slain the audience is shown that Hollywood’s morality is the ‘right’ morality.
One point that comes up when looking at films containing vampires is the idea of the vampire as a metaphor for AIDS. As Nicola Nixon states The Lost Boys ‘surfaced in a climate of AIDS paranoia’ (Blood Read pg115-128) It is not unreasonable to assume that a comment about AIDS is apparent within the text, and indeed Michael does become infected with the vampire disease after drinking David’s (Keifer Sutherland) blood. However, I would suggest that there are a number of key factors that undermine the idea that the film is showing us a warning about AIDS. First of all, and most obviously, at the end of the film Michael is cured of his vampire disease. I would say if the film were directly about concerns about AIDS Michael's survival would not have been possible.
Secondly, if Michael becomes a vampire, he is immortal, he will stay young forever and keep all of the strengths of youth, all be it only at night, but again if the film was directly about AIDS showing Michael in this way would not be suitable. If this was the aim I would suggest that themes surrounding becoming weaker after taking blood such as present in The Hunger (Scott, UK, 1983) would be apparent. Though this works on a literal level, I would agree this does become problematic if looking at the film from a metaphorical point of view. On a metaphorical level Michael would not need to die in order for a message about AIDS to be prominent in the text. Especially as the film works within the mechanics of Hollywood, where it is more common for the idea of a ‘happy ending’ and return to the ‘normal’ order to take prominence over reality.
However, I believe the biggest thing that enforces the idea that the film is not about AIDS comes when Michael drinks David’s blood and begins to hallucinate, this coupled with a huge picture of Jim Morrison on the back wall of the vampire gang’s cave would suggest to me that what is being shown is more a warning about drugs and excess than any direct warning about diseases transmitted through the blood.
Certain other factors help to focus the film around themes concerning the use of drugs. For instance, after taking the blood, Michael gains the power to fly, and the notion of ‘flying’ after taking various drugs, most notable LSD, is certainly not a foreign concept. Furthermore, the head vampire, Max I would suggest can be read as a sort of drug dealer - he is the initial source of infection, which leads the vampires to be addicted to blood, he is the key corrupter in the text if you will. So it stands to reason that once the source of the addiction is cut off, anyone who has been ‘infected’ or who has become ‘addicted’ now without a source to get their metaphorical drugs from, will return to normal. As indeed Michael, Star and Laddie do.
Another reading of the text relates to Michael’s adolescence. There comes a point in the text where Michael must make a choice between turning into a full vampire or resisting this change. It has been suggested by Ken Gelder in commenting on Elaine Showalters brief account of the film that this is a choice between Michael turning towards homosexuality or heterosexuality. (Reading the Vampire 103-107) However, I would suggest that the choice can be more prominently read as a choice between accepting the world of wild excess and everlasting parties of David’s gang, or choosing Star and in doing so accepting the idea that it is ‘family’ that is the right decision, basically choosing between staying young forever or becoming, in the eyes of the dominant ideology, more mature. Furthermore, choosing Star is not only showing us that Michael has turned his back on the vampire lifestyle but also the idea of vampire ‘reproduction’ and creating future generations of Lost Boys.
However, I would suggest that this choice is complicated owing to the simple fact that even when Michael realises which choice he wants to make he cannot break free from his half vampire status, possible suggesting in a wider context that while he knows what is ‘right’ or the enforced choice, he is still unwilling to give in completely to the idea of maturity and notions of the family. This leads to the main focus of the film. By the end of the film we have, as Nixon suggests, two opposite families. A dysfunctional vampire family, and also a slightly more functional, human family. Thus in the closing stages of the film, Michael’s fight becomes a fight for the whole family. I would say this could be read as showing that with the support of a good strong family unit Michael will be able to break free from his addiction to a wild life style.
Further emphasis comes in the form of the pre-adolescent boys in the text and also Michael’s grandfather, all of which are not affected by notions of adolescence. The children represent a sort of innocence within the text. They are concerned with comic books and protecting the human family from the vampires, ideas of wild excess never enter into their consciousness throughout the film. Thus, because of their innocence and immunity to the vampire gang’s ‘charms’ they become an effective weapon against them and have a large part to play in saving Michael from the clutches of vampirism. There is however an exception to this, that being the child vampire Laddie. I would suggest that the fact that Laddie is dressed in a sergeant pepper outfit distances him from the rest of the pre-adolescents in the text. It shows us that he is part of the darker excessive vampire culture and not the more innocent comic book reading culture of the others, unable to regain his innocence until he is given a father figure, which appears in the form of Michael.
However, the character that actually saves the day is the grandfather figure. While the children may be immune to the lure of vampirism they are also shown to be powerless against the patriarchal figure of the head vampire Max. We are shown how powerless they are during the scene where Max is invited round for dinner; everything the children try in order to exposes Max as a vampire fails. Therefore, the only likely source who can rid Santa Carla of the vampire menace is the older patriarch. The grandfather figure as we find out at the end of the film is fully aware of the threat of vampires in Santa Carla, However, he is immune to them not only because he is past adolescence, but also, being older and wiser, he seems to have accepted that their lifestyle is not for him and thus, the vampires pose no real threat to him and seem more of an irritation rather than anything that poses any real danger and thus they can be easily dismissed.
Rob Latham raises another possible reading of The Lost Boys, and in doing so shows up another reason why it is the Grandfather that eventually saves the day (Blood Read 129-167). Latham looks at the possibility of the vampires as representing something that consumes youth, and in The Lost Boys there are instances where it is definitely possible to read this. Most notably, we have the head vampire Max. He owns a video store, and as such anybody who rents a film from him can be seen as then inviting him into his or her home. Thus Max is set up as a metaphor for capitalism and big business, feeding off the young generation. The idea of the video shop is important in terms of the Grandfather for one very clear reason at the start of the film we are told that he does not have a television. Thus the grandfather has not invited Max, or possibly capitalism, into his home. This can be read to show us why it is the Grandfather that saves the day - he is completely removed from the society where ‘vampires’ exist.
The idea of the vampire or Capitalism as feeding on youth can further be seen in David’s vampire gang itself. First of all the gang only seems to feed on teenagers, enforcing an idea of feeding on a youth market. Secondly, the gang is put across as the idea of eighties cool. Dressing in leather jackets and riding motorcycles was an effective way of reaching out to the youth market also.
Although the film may be perceived to warn against falling for this capitalist life style there is one huge flaw in this argument. The film itself is a mainstream product of the eighties. It is a planned film, styled towards a certain audience for its consumption. The look of the film coupled with the constant references to MTV and style of music within the film itself along with the tag line ‘Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.’, I would say would lead a youth market viewer to more or less embrace rather than reject the dangerous and excessive life style of the vampire. While I admit it is fairly unlikely that the film would have the same effect in the nineties and the new millennium due to even more stylish films being produced, in the eighties The Lost Boys had a much greater impact on youth culture.
Another point about The Lost Boys I would suggest is that Max and his video store can possible be read to show an attack on the romanticised notion of the cinema system itself. Whereas in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we have the characters framed in front of a film screen to enforce an idea of Romanticism, The Lost Boys message would seem to be, ‘who needs the cinema when you can just go to the video shop?’ This idea is of course problematic as The Lost Boys was shown in the cinema, and as such would both be enforcing and attacking the idea of cinema at the same time, which would just set the film in a very messy area of self-contradiction.
To conclude, I would say The Lost Boys puts forward dominant ideological ideas surrounding the importance of a functional family. It also definitely raises a few questions surrounding areas of the idea of the consumption of youth by capitalism. However, I feel the biggest message coming from the text is a definite warning of the excess of adolescent teens and the danger of drug addiction, with other issues being secondary. However, above all things The Lost Boys always will be, and always has been, a film that was made to make as much money as possible, and a film that is clearly trying to attract the youth market by showing an alternative and dangerous life style and as such, any reading of the text criticising capitalism are extremely contradictory and problematic. What this means of course is that while Bram Stokers Dracula is of course a commercial film produced to make money, it does not do this by exploiting the idea of the vampire. Instead it is sold primarily on the premise of being a love story and on the concept of romance. In The Lost Boys, it is vampires that are used above all to sell the film through the way they are presented as youthful rebels and it is this that sells the film to its audience.
Compared to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992), The Lost Boys presents us with both a different presentation style of the film itself and a different presentation of the vampire. Obviously, there is a large difference between Transylvania and California but it is the style of the film that mainly sets it apart from Dracula. Where as a very Gothic and Romantic setting is apparent in Dracula, and the story which is centred on notions of everlasting love focused into what is basically a tragic love story, it is clear the same mechanics are not at work in The Lost Boys.
Instead, notions of the Gothic and Romantic are replaced with the bright and sunny surroundings of Santa Carla. The darkness is replaced with images of late night parties, music, and various forms of the style of the eighties. Basically, the film is aimed at a completely different audience to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Lost Boys is undoubtedly a teen film and as such tries to tap into what the teenage generation of the time wanted to see on the screen - and also what ideology should be presented to them through the text. While the film is definitely a commercial Hollywood product, produced to make money out of the MTV generation, this does not mean of course that certain enforcements of dominant ideology cannot be read into the text.
The film is set up so that it acts to portray the attractions of why perhaps certain groups of people would choose what is represented in this instance as the vampire lifestyle, but in a wider context can be seen as the wilder or more rebellious party lifestyle of the younger generation. However, as I intend to show, the film acts to only let the viewer have a passing interest in the ‘vampire lifestyle’ and presses upon them the idea that there is a need to mature and turn towards the dominant ideological set up of the heterosexual family unit.
In some ways this can be seen as a representation of Gramsci’s idea of hegemony, by which a ‘dominate class leads a society through the exertion of moral and intellectual leadership’ (Introductory Guide to Cultural theory and Popular Culture pg 118-123) In this instance we have the Hollywood system exerting moral leadership, and the presence of the vampires creating an oppositional or rebellious force against this. As such, when the vampires are slain the audience is shown that Hollywood’s morality is the ‘right’ morality.
One point that comes up when looking at films containing vampires is the idea of the vampire as a metaphor for AIDS. As Nicola Nixon states The Lost Boys ‘surfaced in a climate of AIDS paranoia’ (Blood Read pg115-128) It is not unreasonable to assume that a comment about AIDS is apparent within the text, and indeed Michael does become infected with the vampire disease after drinking David’s (Keifer Sutherland) blood. However, I would suggest that there are a number of key factors that undermine the idea that the film is showing us a warning about AIDS. First of all, and most obviously, at the end of the film Michael is cured of his vampire disease. I would say if the film were directly about concerns about AIDS Michael's survival would not have been possible.
Secondly, if Michael becomes a vampire, he is immortal, he will stay young forever and keep all of the strengths of youth, all be it only at night, but again if the film was directly about AIDS showing Michael in this way would not be suitable. If this was the aim I would suggest that themes surrounding becoming weaker after taking blood such as present in The Hunger (Scott, UK, 1983) would be apparent. Though this works on a literal level, I would agree this does become problematic if looking at the film from a metaphorical point of view. On a metaphorical level Michael would not need to die in order for a message about AIDS to be prominent in the text. Especially as the film works within the mechanics of Hollywood, where it is more common for the idea of a ‘happy ending’ and return to the ‘normal’ order to take prominence over reality.
However, I believe the biggest thing that enforces the idea that the film is not about AIDS comes when Michael drinks David’s blood and begins to hallucinate, this coupled with a huge picture of Jim Morrison on the back wall of the vampire gang’s cave would suggest to me that what is being shown is more a warning about drugs and excess than any direct warning about diseases transmitted through the blood.
Certain other factors help to focus the film around themes concerning the use of drugs. For instance, after taking the blood, Michael gains the power to fly, and the notion of ‘flying’ after taking various drugs, most notable LSD, is certainly not a foreign concept. Furthermore, the head vampire, Max I would suggest can be read as a sort of drug dealer - he is the initial source of infection, which leads the vampires to be addicted to blood, he is the key corrupter in the text if you will. So it stands to reason that once the source of the addiction is cut off, anyone who has been ‘infected’ or who has become ‘addicted’ now without a source to get their metaphorical drugs from, will return to normal. As indeed Michael, Star and Laddie do.
Another reading of the text relates to Michael’s adolescence. There comes a point in the text where Michael must make a choice between turning into a full vampire or resisting this change. It has been suggested by Ken Gelder in commenting on Elaine Showalters brief account of the film that this is a choice between Michael turning towards homosexuality or heterosexuality. (Reading the Vampire 103-107) However, I would suggest that the choice can be more prominently read as a choice between accepting the world of wild excess and everlasting parties of David’s gang, or choosing Star and in doing so accepting the idea that it is ‘family’ that is the right decision, basically choosing between staying young forever or becoming, in the eyes of the dominant ideology, more mature. Furthermore, choosing Star is not only showing us that Michael has turned his back on the vampire lifestyle but also the idea of vampire ‘reproduction’ and creating future generations of Lost Boys.
However, I would suggest that this choice is complicated owing to the simple fact that even when Michael realises which choice he wants to make he cannot break free from his half vampire status, possible suggesting in a wider context that while he knows what is ‘right’ or the enforced choice, he is still unwilling to give in completely to the idea of maturity and notions of the family. This leads to the main focus of the film. By the end of the film we have, as Nixon suggests, two opposite families. A dysfunctional vampire family, and also a slightly more functional, human family. Thus in the closing stages of the film, Michael’s fight becomes a fight for the whole family. I would say this could be read as showing that with the support of a good strong family unit Michael will be able to break free from his addiction to a wild life style.
Further emphasis comes in the form of the pre-adolescent boys in the text and also Michael’s grandfather, all of which are not affected by notions of adolescence. The children represent a sort of innocence within the text. They are concerned with comic books and protecting the human family from the vampires, ideas of wild excess never enter into their consciousness throughout the film. Thus, because of their innocence and immunity to the vampire gang’s ‘charms’ they become an effective weapon against them and have a large part to play in saving Michael from the clutches of vampirism. There is however an exception to this, that being the child vampire Laddie. I would suggest that the fact that Laddie is dressed in a sergeant pepper outfit distances him from the rest of the pre-adolescents in the text. It shows us that he is part of the darker excessive vampire culture and not the more innocent comic book reading culture of the others, unable to regain his innocence until he is given a father figure, which appears in the form of Michael.
However, the character that actually saves the day is the grandfather figure. While the children may be immune to the lure of vampirism they are also shown to be powerless against the patriarchal figure of the head vampire Max. We are shown how powerless they are during the scene where Max is invited round for dinner; everything the children try in order to exposes Max as a vampire fails. Therefore, the only likely source who can rid Santa Carla of the vampire menace is the older patriarch. The grandfather figure as we find out at the end of the film is fully aware of the threat of vampires in Santa Carla, However, he is immune to them not only because he is past adolescence, but also, being older and wiser, he seems to have accepted that their lifestyle is not for him and thus, the vampires pose no real threat to him and seem more of an irritation rather than anything that poses any real danger and thus they can be easily dismissed.
Rob Latham raises another possible reading of The Lost Boys, and in doing so shows up another reason why it is the Grandfather that eventually saves the day (Blood Read 129-167). Latham looks at the possibility of the vampires as representing something that consumes youth, and in The Lost Boys there are instances where it is definitely possible to read this. Most notably, we have the head vampire Max. He owns a video store, and as such anybody who rents a film from him can be seen as then inviting him into his or her home. Thus Max is set up as a metaphor for capitalism and big business, feeding off the young generation. The idea of the video shop is important in terms of the Grandfather for one very clear reason at the start of the film we are told that he does not have a television. Thus the grandfather has not invited Max, or possibly capitalism, into his home. This can be read to show us why it is the Grandfather that saves the day - he is completely removed from the society where ‘vampires’ exist.
The idea of the vampire or Capitalism as feeding on youth can further be seen in David’s vampire gang itself. First of all the gang only seems to feed on teenagers, enforcing an idea of feeding on a youth market. Secondly, the gang is put across as the idea of eighties cool. Dressing in leather jackets and riding motorcycles was an effective way of reaching out to the youth market also.
Although the film may be perceived to warn against falling for this capitalist life style there is one huge flaw in this argument. The film itself is a mainstream product of the eighties. It is a planned film, styled towards a certain audience for its consumption. The look of the film coupled with the constant references to MTV and style of music within the film itself along with the tag line ‘Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.’, I would say would lead a youth market viewer to more or less embrace rather than reject the dangerous and excessive life style of the vampire. While I admit it is fairly unlikely that the film would have the same effect in the nineties and the new millennium due to even more stylish films being produced, in the eighties The Lost Boys had a much greater impact on youth culture.
Another point about The Lost Boys I would suggest is that Max and his video store can possible be read to show an attack on the romanticised notion of the cinema system itself. Whereas in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we have the characters framed in front of a film screen to enforce an idea of Romanticism, The Lost Boys message would seem to be, ‘who needs the cinema when you can just go to the video shop?’ This idea is of course problematic as The Lost Boys was shown in the cinema, and as such would both be enforcing and attacking the idea of cinema at the same time, which would just set the film in a very messy area of self-contradiction.
To conclude, I would say The Lost Boys puts forward dominant ideological ideas surrounding the importance of a functional family. It also definitely raises a few questions surrounding areas of the idea of the consumption of youth by capitalism. However, I feel the biggest message coming from the text is a definite warning of the excess of adolescent teens and the danger of drug addiction, with other issues being secondary. However, above all things The Lost Boys always will be, and always has been, a film that was made to make as much money as possible, and a film that is clearly trying to attract the youth market by showing an alternative and dangerous life style and as such, any reading of the text criticising capitalism are extremely contradictory and problematic. What this means of course is that while Bram Stokers Dracula is of course a commercial film produced to make money, it does not do this by exploiting the idea of the vampire. Instead it is sold primarily on the premise of being a love story and on the concept of romance. In The Lost Boys, it is vampires that are used above all to sell the film through the way they are presented as youthful rebels and it is this that sells the film to its audience.
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