Kevin's Watch

Just a subject that interests me. I myself collect vampire flicks and in general they fall into three categories: Gory, Erotic and Scary. The best belong in at least two categories and a very few manage all three.

Frankly, I like the erotic ones.

Bram Stokers' Dracula for example, or Interview With A Vampire were both very erotic to me (although the latter handled the idea far more subtly). Another, rather deleriously silly one at times, is Razor Blade Smile.

Mind you, I don't believe any film or story has quite tapped the full erotic potential of the vampire. Something about the whole seduction between predator and prey, about a fanged mouth fastening onto a bare throat, about eternal youth, about the place where pleasure and pain mingle.

And curiously, I'd say there has never been a really top-knotch lesbian vampire film--although the subgenre flourished among various low-budget movie-makers.

Initially, I didn't like the way Buffy handled the idea of vampires, because the eroticism seemed completely gone. Okay, I was proven wrong to some extent (can we say VampWillow???? ) but it still remains downplayed in the whole Buffyverse.

Anyway, I was wondering about your thoughts. Do you find vampires erotic? Why, do you think? If you had your druthers, how'd you like to see that eroticism explored in the Buffyverse? Or just plain movies or t.v.? Any actresses you'd really love to see sporting fangs?

Zahir wrote:Bram Stokers' Dracula for example, or Interview With A Vampire were both very erotic to me (although the latter handled the idea far more subtly).

Subtly?? I haven't read the book, maybe that's subtle. The movie wasn't.

I thought it was generally recognized that Rice's books are in the main glorified slash-fiction - that is, the homoeroticism is their main selling point. But of course, I might be misinformed (it has happened before).

Are there any non-erotic vampire stories? To my mind the vampire story is almost by definition a (usually badly) disguised theme of sexual predation.

Theo

Never was much of a fan of the erotic side of vampire fiction myself. Maybe that is because I have a really hard time believing that if you die and return as an undead you will suddenly develop an overactive libido.

Yeah I agree with the 3-point vampire movie categorisations.

Gory - Carpenter's Vampires, etc
Scary - Salem's Lot, etc
Erotic - Nude For Satan!!!!

Some ways I would categorize such...

Gorey This would include the Langella version of Dracula (unfortunately) along with From Dusk Till Dawn and Near Dark.

Scary Among these would be Fright Night, the little-known but excellent Lets Scare Jessica To Death and The Last Man on Earth.

Erotic I'd say the cheap but fun Vampire Journals, the overtly softcore An Erotic Vampire In Paris and the b&w flick from circa 1940 Dracula's Daughter are all quite erotic in ways.

Yet to be sure there are a lot of the best vampiric films are blendings of the three. Some people I know don't see vampires as erotic at all (my brother calls undead "human-shaped fleas"), but I think lots of folks--like me--do see them that way. And that's tied up with the fact that Halloween really seems the "sexual" holiday--note how there are erotic masquerade balls in major cities! Or how many lingerie shops have "costume" sections, while costume shops have "adult" areas?

I guess I just don't think of vampires that way. They've always come off to me as undead supervillans. Of course all of the goth crowd thinks they live in Buffy world so everthing is vampires including erotica.

Honestly, you haven't seen a classy erotic horror movie until you've seen Nude For Satan!

LOL .. I am not sure I get where you're going with this lol .. but I like SCARY-ass vampire movies .. you know with the warm blood sucking heartless killers vampires.

The Buffy is a warm blooded slayer gal .. and I dont see the Buffy show as erotica vampires genre .. rather a light-hearted slayer/vampire action fun category.

I like scary-ass and fun action vampire movies .. and some GOREY but not too gorey .. cos i cant stomach too much macabre .. even in fantasy

I dont think i've seen any of the 'erotica' vampire movies .. that you cited Zahir so i dont know if i'd like that genre or not lol

If anyone is interested (Zahir) in an erotic Vampire tale I would recommend "The Golden" by Lucius Shepard. It's a murder mystery set in an ancient castle amidst a clan of ancient vampires. The language and imagery are rich and the eroticism of the vampire culture is an ancillary theme.

Actually, I've read "The Golden" and I agree it is very good. There's another novel that's huge fun, "Anno Dracula" by Kim Newman. Its set in an alternate 1897 wherein Dracula won. Van Helsing's head is on a spike outside Buckingham Palace and the story is crammed with characters from Victorian fiction--Bill Sikes, Dr. Jeckyll, Inspector Lestrade, etc.

Not all or even that many Vampire stories relate with erotica.

Those that do, mainly contain succubi, who are sexual-female vampires/demons. Most of the time (except perhaps in movies) the stories are told in a gothic style.

Sorry for bumping this long dormant topic up.

Ok, these are not my ideas, BUT I know an entire cadre of fans in the Chicago area who are convinced beyond any arguments to the contrary, that the entire basis of modern literary vampire mythos is eroticism and sexuality. To expand their ideas and opinions, they would say the vampire to victim relationship is a subtextual coding for BDSM sexuality.

Lonely, desitute, emptiness of soul
Sundered from mortal coil
Cursed in limbo til rejoined
In death's clinging cold soil
Lives taken once freely owned
Plusing redness from heart's veins
Into darkness plunged to silenced wells
Depths of neither sound nor pain
Loving the night, hating the sun
To wish for it's warmth adn illumination
Only seeing within the depths of stars
Moonlight's vigils renewal begun
Cursed name and spited visage
Ugliness to man, beauty to beasts
Honored in Hell, dispised in Heaven
Hurt of the heart, none assauged
Roaming aimlessly though evening's veil
Seeking nothing, knowing everything
Lives reborn and deaths renewed
Eyes of crimson light and skin so pale
Stinging first kiss, cries of ectasy's fear
Cast wordlessly into darkness, a new life begun
Families are forgotten, friends are fodder
For upon this life, this long death must feed
Shedding remorse but never a tear.

copyright R.E.P. 2000

Awesome Seafoam... I love that.!

Zahir wrote:Just a subject that interests me. I myself collect vampire flicks and in general they fall into three categories: Gory, Erotic and Scary. The best belong in at least two categories and a very few manage all three.

Frankly, I like the erotic ones.

Bram Stokers' Dracula for example, or Interview With A Vampire were both very erotic to me (although the latter handled the idea far more subtly). Another, rather deleriously silly one at times, is Razor Blade Smile.

Mind you, I don't believe any film or story has quite tapped the full erotic potential of the vampire. Something about the whole seduction between predator and prey, about a fanged mouth fastening onto a bare throat, about eternal youth, about the place where pleasure and pain mingle.

And curiously, I'd say there has never been a really top-knotch lesbian vampire film--although the subgenre flourished among various low-budget movie-makers.

Initially, I didn't like the way Buffy handled the idea of vampires, because the eroticism seemed completely gone. Okay, I was proven wrong to some extent (can we say VampWillow???? ) but it still remains downplayed in the whole Buffyverse.

Anyway, I was wondering about your thoughts. Do you find vampires erotic? Why, do you think? If you had your druthers, how'd you like to see that eroticism explored in the Buffyverse? Or just plain movies or t.v.? Any actresses you'd really love to see sporting fangs?

My dear boy, you have some sick fanasties.

heh, I liked Willow as a Vampire... She's welcome to chain me up anyday.

P.S. I'm aware my post is a contradiction

Interview with the Vampire is an excellent book, and there does seem to be a slightly erotic theme running through it, particularly homoerotic for some reason, but Rice's vampires themselves apparently have no libido, as I recall.

Infelice wrote:Awesome Seafoam... I love that.!

Wekkum... long time no see dearie!