Keyboard Cuts: Twilight Coming, Me Want To Go Home

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I suppose it's inevitable that DS references will be cropping up in articles about the upcoming release of the vampire film Twilight. Check out: Keyboard Cuts: Twilight Coming, Me Want To Go Home
(Though I wouldn't necessarily take to heart everything this article says because I've seen other articles that have raved about the film...)

[jimbo]

Love song to a vampire

[Joy Collins]

I think it's appropriate that DS should be referenced, really. I mean, without Dark Shadows there never would have been a Twilight. Not that Twilight can hold a candle to DS, but... still.

I doubt I'll see the film, but I read the book. It's not bad - an enjoyable read, but I must have missed whatever it is that makes people go crazy over it. The only real similarities I see between it and DS is that the main vampire character is played to be sympathetic, romantic. Barnabas Collins has WAY more depth than Edward Cullen, though. (Hmm, I just now noticed how similar the last names are...)

[D_Friedlander]

It appears to me that these articles reveal a backlash against the whole "sympathetic, romantic" vampire story themes of the last 40 years, as well as the "feminine" (or perhaps, implicitly, effeminate?) fans of such entertainment.   Some people DO want (literally) "meaty" vampire tales, that is to say bleak, nihilistic stories where the critters are single-minded, diabolical consumers of human victims who are reduced to the level of (bloody) meat. 

(Oh, what a field day PETA would have with THAT association, eh?) 

To each his own, and yes, perhaps it IS a bit unfair to cater (or pander?) to one target market ("teenaged emo goth girls", to sum it up) without a rip-roaring, throat-ripping nod to the other big segment of horror fandom. 

With that trend of criticism in mind, what possible hope do you actually see for the planned DS film with Johnny Depp, particularly as directed by Tim Burton, who will, very likely, repeat his pattern of translating the material to what amounts to a loud, garish, ambiguous, live-action cartoon?  Such a film will, it seems, repel a significant portion of vampire movie afficionados, if these are any indication of reviews to come.

(Note to Tim B.:  Please leave your ketchup-spewing hoses from "Sweeney Todd" at home.  'Kay?)

Don't get me wrong, like pretty much everyone here, I like my vampires deep, angsty, and longing for some kind of human normalcy, with a great good dash of what it is that makes them scarey in the first place.  In short, a balance.  But it could be the mainstream media has been erring too heavily on the side of the lovelorn vampire.  Can a vampire film be good,  gorey and profitable?   Thoughts?

[Janet the Wicked]

And that is why I made you a necklace of red, red beads.
Heh, heh...

[GooberCollins]

I read Twilight. Thoroughly mediocre, at least in my opinion. Not a bad book, but not the "best book ever" that many proclaim it to be, and it left me with zero desire to read the sequels, though I may see the movie. I disagree with him on most everything, in particular his comments on Buffy. I do agree with him, though, in that there needs to be a bit more innovation. I greatly disliked Moonlight due to the fact that, mediocre acting and basic writing aside, it did nothing to differentiate itself from the rest of the pack; though Twilight is largely made up of (to borrow a phrase from Ain't it Cool News) "refried Anne Rice," I still thought that Twilight was more original than Moonlight. But I disagree with the article in general, as I said.

[Gothick]

I don't agree with Vasquez, and it sounds to me as if he should be playing video games, not reviewing movies.

In the original Lugosi Dracula film, he had those wonderful lines:  "To die... to be really dead ... that must be glorious!"  The theme of the reluctant vampire with a ruthless streak continued in the underrated Dracula's daughter, and one could recite a long litany of vampire films that have spun out the notion of the vampire's divided nature with endless juicy variations.

I do agree that there has been a lot of ripping off of Miss Rice in recent years.  IMO that's not necessarily a bad thing--I thought  the 1990s show Forever Knight showed that her ideas could be incorporated in a modulated form to produce compelling story-telling, and from what I heard from friends, many folks thought the same about Moonlighting.  I'm not familiar enough with the Buffy/Angel franchise to comment upon that.  Despite its excessively pretty lead actor, Blood ties struck me as an example of watered-down Rice that badly needed an injection of fresh inspiration. 

Critiques such as the one Vasquez is offering up are very thick on the ground in the blogosphere these days.  While amusing (perhaps) to read, they hardly do justice to the films and shows with which he's making free.

I am not up on the new "Twilight" book series and films, so am not really commenting on that.  The notion of vampires as mindless killing machines seems to owe more to "Night of the Living Dead" and its endless barrage of sequels than it does to traditional literary or folk images of vampires.  (It's worth noting that the Romero franchise has had a sweeping impact upon how people think of zombies these days--the old zombies of the Val Lewton films and 1950s and 60s "voodoo melodramas" are seemingly gone forever.  In their place, we have a rather dull army of flesh-munching robots with eyeballs on detachable springs.)

cheers, G.

[GooberCollins]

I don't agree with Vasquez, and it sounds to me as if he should be playing video games, not reviewing movies.

So one cannot do both? 

I do agree that there has been a lot of ripping off of Miss Rice in recent years.  IMO that's not necessarily a bad thing--I thought  the 1990s show Forever Knight showed that her ideas could be incorporated in a modulated form to produce compelling story-telling, and from what I heard from friends, many folks thought the same about Moonlighting.  I'm not familiar enough with the Buffy/Angel franchise to comment upon that.  Despite its excessively pretty lead actor, Blood ties struck me as an example of watered-down Rice that badly needed an injection of fresh inspiration.

Borrowing a few elements here and there is fine, but I felt like Moonlight (which I'll assume you meant, as I know that Moonlighting isn't about vampires) was comprised almost entirely of borrowed pieces. Parts of Anne Rice, parts of Forever Knight, parts of Buffy and Angel... I just didn't really like the show. Since it has such a dedicated cult following and won the PCA for Favorite New Drama, I guess I'll always be wondering if there's just something about it that I don't "get." It's essentially the same with Twilight.

It's worth noting that the Romero franchise has had a sweeping impact upon how people think of zombies these days--the old zombies of the Val Lewton films and 1950s and 60s "voodoo melodramas" are seemingly gone forever.  In their place, we have a rather dull army of flesh-munching robots with eyeballs on detachable springs

I watched a few Lewton films when TCM aired them a few months ago and found them interesting for that reason.