The vampire genre is a commercial shape-shifter that shows no sign of dying out
By N.A. | BRUSSELS
THE original vampires of medieval Slavic myths were described as mindless and decaying, almost pitiable sufferers of the curse they must endure. The popular image of the brooding, seductive and sartorial undead charmer was created in the name of entertainment. Over a century of cinema, this image has been revamped (as it were) many times: the hideous monster of F.W. Murnau's “Nosferatu”, still considered the gold standard by many despite being made in 1922; the sophisticated aristocrat of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula in 1931, followed by Christopher Lee’s dashing count in the Hammer Horror films of the 1950s and 60s; then a brief period in the 1970s when the vampire legend lurched from pastiche to parody.
Over the last 25 years, vampire films have become more stylish and hard-hitting, pushing the boundaries of the genre. In “Byzantium”, a new film directed by Neil Jordan, the bloodsuckers are a mother (Gemma Arterton, pictured above) and daughter (Saoirse Ronan) who have been on the run for centuries from a male brotherhood from whom the mother stole her vampire “gift”. Set in a crumbling seaside resort where they both kill to protect their secret, and struggle to maintain it, “Byzantium” takes the rotting grandeur of the aristocratic vampire legend and places it in an austerity-ravaged British coastal town. The story is as much about the struggles of a single-parent family (albeit one that survives on human blood rather than state benefits) as it is about the curse of the undead.
The turning-point towards the modern vampire flick was Joel Schumacher's stylish teen horror “The Lost Boys”, in 1987, which targeted a new audience by portraying vampires as good-looking, wise-cracking and street-savvy. Along with Kathryn Bigelow's visceral “Near Dark”,released the same year, vampire films became more violent and gory.
In the early 1990s the pendulum swung back to gothic decadence again, with Mr Jordan's “Interview with the Vampire” and Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker's “Dracula”. Both combined the aristocratic elegance of the 19th century vampire with the sex-appeal and savagery of more modern variants. “Francis made this sprawling romantic epic with Gary Oldman playing this tragic figure rather than a remorseless monster.” said Mr Jordan at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in April. It was followed by “Interview with the Vampire”, “which is full of catholic guilt and forbidden sexual urges and that was something cool and different too,” he added.
This new wave of vampire films was attracting the big budgets usually reserved for action movies, and the result was box-office success on a scale no vampire film had enjoyed before. Mr Coppola's epic was the ninth-biggest grossing film worldwide in 1992, making over $215m. Mr Jordan's film raked in more than $223m in 1994. Vampires were back—and suddenly bankable.
Some experiments with the genre worked—the “Blade” trilogy, starring Wesley Snipes as a tooled-up martial artist and vamp hunter, combined the action and horror genres to great effect. But, in a rush to bleed the genre dry, some outlandish concepts increasingly favoured style over substance. Computer-generated messes such as “Van Helsing” and the vamps-versus-werewolves mash-up of the “Underworld” series threatened to undo vampires’ credibility.
“I think all vampire movies are, by their nature, silly,” says Mr Jordan “The whole idea lends itself to ridiculousness. But without a strong hand or vision, they can become overblown and dire.” In “Byzantium”, Mr Jordan manages to combine the classic with the modern, telling the story of the characters’ corpse-strewn flight across the centuries while incorporating period-drama opulence and gritty, blood-soaked action.
The most successful vampire film franchise in recent years is the “Twilight” series, adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s teen romance books. Some purists have accused Ms Meyer of damaging the legend by “de-fanging” her vampires and subjugating her female characters. Mr Jordan is more optimistic: “So what if Stephenie Meyer has turned the vampire story into a metaphor for chaste adolescent relationships, that's okay, you can do that. I think the myth can handle it.” The numbers agree—individually, the saga's five films are the highest-grossing vampire movies of all time with a combined taking of more than $3 billion at the box office.
There is no doubt that “Twilight” has taken bloodsuckers to a new commercial level. Many fear that this success may lead to an even greater dilution of the legend. “Byzantium”, for example, shakes up a male-dominated order by placing two strong, independent female characters at its centre. And it has a more subtle and nuanced approach than previous CGI-heavy efforts to reboot the genre. But there is an inescapable feeling that film-makers are just prolonging the inevitable. Maybe vampire films have run their course? “I think it's time for a new monster,” Mr Jordan concludes, somewhat lamentably. “We've got vampires and we've got zombies—come on, we need something different. When you have vampires fighting werewolves, which in my opinion is a really bad idea, you know that the vampire legend is running on empty.” But isn’t he forgetting that vampires live forever?
"Byzantium" will be released in Britain on May 31st and in America on June 28th