Vampires have been a bloody good staple of cinema for more than a century.
But throughout film history, Hollywood has given these creatures of the night a lot of
different looks and, perhaps more importantly, some dramatically different mythological backgrounds.
There are also a growing number of modern vamps who maintain an amazing amount of humanity
beneath all the fangs and fury.
In "Blood Red Sky," we meet Nadja, a single mother who's worked hard to keep her vampirism
in check for the sake of her son, but she has to make the difficult decision whether
to unleash the monster within once their plane is hijacked by terrorists who threaten to
destroy everyone on board.
Nadja's characteristics are quite unique in the film, but she's not the only bloodthirsty
being to have a conscience on the silver screen.
Let's take a look at the evolution of movie vampires and how their mythology has been
set up over the years.
Any trip into vampire history has to begin with the big guy himself: Dracula.
Though Bram Stoker wasn't the first author to pen stories about vampires, his classic
1897 novel "Dracula" certainly brought the creature into the mainstream for good.
More than a century later, the titular monster is still a mainstay of entertainment, with
dozens of movies giving new imagination to the character.
Dracula is the archetype around which much of vampire lore is based.
The 1922 silent horror film "Nosferatu" was one of the earliest, albeit unauthorized,
adaptations of "Dracula," and it became a pillar of vampire cinema.
The film featured Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a mysterious nobleman whose ﻿very name struck
fear into the hearts of Transylvanian villagers.
Orlok slept in coffins, sucked blood, and was eventually evaporated by sunlight -- traits
that are inseparable from vampire mythology.
Then, in 1931, there was "Dracula," starring Bela Lugosi in the title role.
It was an official take on the classic novel and gave the vampire a bit more of a refined
air, with improved societal status and a penchant for fashion.
"I am...Dracula."
This version of Dracula also drank blood and slept in coffins, but he had no reflection
in the mirror, could hypnotize others, and was susceptible to wolfsbane, sunlight, and
stakes through the heart.
Though Dracula has since been given several style changes in cinema, the visage of an
isolated, aristocratic vampire who sleeps in coffins has remained influential to the
subgenre.
That's particularly true in the so-called Hammer era of films, in which vampires were
purely villainous and devilish creatures.
Meanwhile, hunters like Van Helsing and the would-be victims who fought back against their
bloodthirsty attackers were the true heroes of these stories.
"We fight not one beast but legions that go on age after age after age, feeding on the
blood of the living."
Vampires may have arisen in pop culture as ungodly creatures whose sole goal is to survive
by feasting on blood, but over the years, the characters were given a whole lot more
nuance in films.
For one thing, they became even more overt conduits for metaphor, like sexuality, addiction,
and the rising fear of bloodborne pathogens.
And in many cases, movie vampires also became a lot more human.
"Peter.
Peter, wake up."
1987's "The Lost Boys" featured Jason Patric as a teen who worked to stop his transition
into a full-fledged vampire.
Its focus on the humanity of its vampire characters really helped set the bar for later films
to dive deeper into what made these creatures tick.
It also further positioned vampires as a prime metaphor for societal issues -- in this case,
peer pressure and addiction.
"Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael."
"You don't you don't have to, Michael.
"Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael."
"It's blood."
"Yeah, sure, blood."
And the 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" let its handsome bloodsucker
Louis, portrayed by Brad Pitt, tell his own story of a centuries-long life as a reluctant
member of the undead, who tried to subsist on the blood of rats and hated the impulse
to kill or turn people.
"I'm flesh and blood, but not human.
I haven't been human for two hundred years."
Films like these turned the tide, creating an understanding that while the monster inside
was powerful, it wasn't all-consuming, and films began to really run with the metaphor
of vampirism as an internal struggle.
Even in modern films where the action centered on vampire hunters -- like 1985's "Fright
Night," and "Blade" -- the creatures are far from one-dimensional.
In fact, one of the most recent trends in vampire cinema is for the monsters to carry
on meaningful relationships with people and try to survive without causing too much mayhem
to mankind.
Films like "Only Lovers Left Alive" featured vampires who were reluctant to bite people,
and in "Let the Right One In," while the main bloodsucker definitely had a craving for blood,
the creature had a real connection with the movie's human protagonist.
There are still films with vampires as near-mindless killers, but for the most part, that role
in horror now belongs to zombies.
Where zombies represent humanity's insatiable animal urges, vampires more often represent
the struggle caused by those urges.
A prevailing theme across vampire lore is that vampires usually don't want to be vampires.
The varying ways they deal with the curse is what feeds the genre's rich variety, allowing
everything from horror to comedy.
"I'm a vampire.
Kill me.
Kill me."
The "Twilight" saga went even further with the evolution of the vampire.
Here, the entire Cullen coven bonded over their choice to become so-called "vegetarian"
vampires, feasting only on animal blood.
That series also diverged from its predecessors in the genre in some significant ways, including
giving its vampires a very different reaction to the presence of sunlight -- that is, their
skin turned into a sparkly shell instead of dust.
The rise of vampires with the ability to love and restrain themselves was certainly a big
departure from the rote creatures of old, but it also gave room for the undead monsters
to really engage with society in some fascinating ways.
"Blood Red Sky" offers a bit of both worlds because at first, Nadja is able to control
her impulses with the help of medical injections, fully retaining her capacity for compassion
and a protection instinct for her child and other humans.
Once she taps into her inner beast by drinking human blood amid the flight crisis, however,
everything changes.
Her transition from a calm, loving, and self-sacrificing woman with an illness into a mindlessly bloodthirsty
monster is stunning, but it also encapsulates some of the elements that make vampire stories
so compelling.
Thanks for watching.
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