Response to: Interview with the Vampire

While it is impossible to be unfamiliar with the vampire within our culture; the place I pulled most of my knowledge of how the vampire should be from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Not that I had much of a standard from that; I had seen the movie about two years ago and I remember that it was fairly fantastic. Had you asked me to recall much from the movie it wouldn’t be much, but having read Interview with the Vampire I feel that there is the are similarities: from the time period of the stories and the fanciness of the vampires. I will need to re-watch that.

But about Interview with the Vampire, I enjoyed it. At times I felt it to be very slow at some points but equally forced me to read on. When Louis and Claudia went to Europe was a very exciting portion. When they finally reached a village where they saw evidence of other vampires only to be let down time and time again by lowly creatures that were only hollow shells of what Louis and the others were.

I remember knowing time and time again that Lestat had not been killed, as Louis said he assumed Lestat was dead, but didn’t know for certain, this foreshadowed it. It certainly didn’t surprise me when he showed up in Paris.

Well, the characters were developed quite well. All being unique and dependent on each other in some part, whether or not they liked it.

What I did notice, and what was mentioned in class: was the sexual neutrality that flows within the story. While I could regurgitate what was said in class, I put off writing this for to long. What I noticed as far as the vampires sexual life was the master slave relationships they had or described. Lestat being on top, and Louis in the only other spot left; but the vampire would seem to lack most sexual desire, replacing them with blood sucking. That is not to say it’s still a curious notion to some of them, especially if the died at the age of five and never experienced sexual interaction of any sort. Claudia asked Louis once on the matter when they were in Paris, mentally she was well along in her adult life, naturally she would want to know but she can’t find out for herself.

Love triangles, Louis is the damsel in distress, the other two points are divided at times between Lestat, Claudia, and what’s his name the leader of the vampires in Paris. Immortality is complicated I guess.

Audition (1999)

I enjoyed it. It took its time to get to the thrill of the film.

The Lost Boys (1987)

Watched it, vampires, 80's movie...

Not that I don't like 80's movies, Surf Nazi's Must Die is a classic.

I think campy is the work I'm looking for.

Night of the Living Dead

As the title suggests, I have finished watching it.

Once, last year, on a netflix or hulu zombie movie binge I had started it, never finished. I can check it off the list. As far as other zombie movies worth watching, I've seen half of them on that list now.

Response to: Monster Island

Monster Island was an incredible story. If I described myself as not being a fan of the zombi-apocalypse I probably would be lying to myself. I have seen a wide range of what pop-culture has to offer as far as movies and games go, so the general plot line of Monster Island wasn't anything new to me.

What was new to me, and what excited me the most was Gary. That is not to say that one person in un-life controlling the undead is anything new to the multiverse that zombies exist in. Gary's entry into un-life, for this story, brought an opportunity to explain most of the behavior of the zombies in Monster Island. In my experience, most stories don't and can't go into the psyche of zombies because zombies are stupid in almost all cases. You certainly don't normally have a main character be a zombie (at least not for the whole story, they should all be zombies in the end or at least zombie food).

I did read all of it, and I enjoyed all of it. I’m not sure what I have to say about it, but I’d like to try to relate it to what I know. Gary reminds me of Arthas for the Warcraft universe, there, I said it. Mael is Ner’zul, the warlock/lich mentor who calls Arthas. The two eventually merge, Arthas becomes the lich king and Gary becomes not only the smartest zombie but also the leader of all the zombies in New York. When Arthas/Gary dies, Bolvar/Dekalb takes their place. Last but not least, everybody else things that Bolvar/Dekalb died, but they didn’t they are both in un-death.

That is what I was thinking while reading Monster Island, I was thinking about Warcraft. Rightfully so, both have amazing stories with amazing characters. Both have undead, and close enough for compassion plotlines.

The last of the last things I can think to comment about is this: the Egyptian mummies? Maybe I missed it somehow, but I don’t get why they got thrown into the mix. I would guess they are only there because Mael is there, and he was a mummy as well. I almost feel it could have worked well without the mummies, but I guess, who would have held off the undead throngs while the survivors escaped? /shrug

Conventions of Horror

night time setting; lightning; creepy caretaker; nightmares; mysterious noise; secret rooms; protagonist and female accomplice; crazed individuals; monster or monsters; death; living dead; no escape, quarantined, cut off; laboratory; castles, churches, or graveyards; crazed science, science gone wrong; BRAINS!

A New Post

I had a class back in freshmen year with Dr. Steiling, here's to this one being just as good! *toasts*