An American Vampire in America

Just came across the site for this new film, definitely an independent though whether they're aiming for DVD distribution or putting it on the net I’m unclear of. In my “Vamp or Not?” piece, the rules of the game, I mentioned one category of vampire films – the believing you are a vampire category. This film certainly seems to fit into that.

The site has a teaser trailer on it, though what piqued my interest was the story and characters page, the page tells us:

Carl Weber, 26, was an ordinary college dropout and part-time grocery store stock clerk in small town America until he made a name for himself as a completely different kind of person: a vampire. Carl's bizarre claim was accompanied by an equally bizarre lawsuit:

Carl claimed that he should be allowed to work at night, despite the fact that his small town employer was only open during the day.

Now, this I found interesting and my mind went scurrying down the employment law line. We have a little piece of legislation in the UK called the “Disability Discrimination Act”. Now what if, as some movies depict, vampirism was a disease, could a company be expected to make reasonable adjustments to allow someone to work if they were a vampire?

Well to start off, the disease has to be a disability also and for that three criteria have to be met. It has to be a medically well recognized condition (okay we’re running on the premise that it is), the effects must last 12 months or longer (try eternity, my dear) and it must has a substantial effect on day to day activities (bursting into flames in the sun would certainly seem to qualify for that*)… Oh my… well, if nothing else this shows that my mind can work on some really bizarre levels.

As for the film, getting back to the point of the post, looks mighty interesting and has the potential to be a piece that could be truly politically and sociologically insightful. Whether it will meet that potential only time will tell.

*as an aside, I mentioned this to Ian, a friend of mine, who wondered whether the burning in the sun is actually SIC – spontaneous inhuman combustion.