Tag: Film
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Issues with I Am Legend Adaptations in Film
I have read plenty of vampire books in my research, but none were more interesting than Richard Matheson’s 1954 I Am Legend. It is a literary landmark in vampire fiction as it takes the science fiction craze of the Post-war era and combines it with older, literary vampires to create something entirely new. As it…
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On Eras and Periodisation of Vampire Fiction
On of the things we do in history is group certain events or people into eras or periods. This is called periodisation, and it is to help the part of our brain that needs pattern recognition to better process the information we are receiving. Overall, periodisation is good for those getting into a topic in…
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Review: David Annwn Jones’ Vampires on the Silent Screen: Cinema’s First Age of Vampires 1897-1922
As I mentioned in my previous post on silent film, I was reading David Annwn Jones’ monograph which goes over the cinematic infancy of vampire film. I first came across this monograph when doing my research on American vampire film, and used the section on vamps to great effect. But now I have come back…
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Quick Thought: What About Porn?
Much like my post about anthologies, the question to include certain mediums of film in my research is always a constant debate. For instance, porn. I know that it is considered lowbrow entertainment, and that most would not dare prop up pornography to the heights of something like arthouse films. Skin flicks are a world…
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Continuing the Investigation on Silent Vampire Film
For some reason today, I want to travel back to that art deco and swing that exploded from the Interwar period. And thus, my attention is currently focused on the silent films of the 1910s – 20s, which in vampire film history is a pretty weird time. I’m going to go over what I’ve learned…
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Thoughts on Bathory and Her Representation in Film
Every time I look into these older interpretations of vampires, I am incredibly amazed by the sheer volume of history that lies in Eastern Europe and the Carpathians. When looking at historical figures like Vlad Tepes, it is important to discern the myth from the person. And no one does this apply to more than…
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On Anthologies: A Tricky Business
In my journey to catalogue all vampire films, I have come upon a serious problem in my investigations. Almost all of the lists I have seen include anthologies, that is, a collection of shorter films with little to no connection to one another. But the problem does not lie with the format of anthologies, but…
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Quick Thought: SINNERS and the Oscars
Everyone has already been talking about this recently, but I felt it would be an injustice for a blog called “The Western Vampire Scholar” to not at least mention the seminal Oscar wins for Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS (2025). It wasn’t till the 1990s that vampire films were even nominated for Oscar awards, let alone winning…
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Thoughts on the 1930s-1950s and Vampire Film
I am writing this down less as a formal post but more as a way to put some of my ideas out there and hopefully get some recommendations based off of my findings. I have seen a majority of the films that I have found from this era, what some consider the Golden Age of…
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An Introduction to My Work
This is hopefully the beginning of keeping track of my work on vampires, specifically in film. To be completely candid, I have no idea how to blog. But I hope that this public writing not only motivates me to do more in my research, but also connect and inspire others to look into vampirology as…