Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Murray Leeder & Andre Loiselle the Chapter Page can be found here.
This chapter of the Handbook takes a look at vampire films, and some literature, coming out of Canada and recognises a comedic seam running through many of the films so that even the more obscure films perhaps not touched on, such as the Death of Alice Blue, do fit within that comedic seam. The authors capture a good proportion of the Canadian output, however, and suggests that traditional vampires are migrants to the country, which of course is a place of colonial settlement. There are, however, good examples of properly horror based Canadian vampire films, with David Cronenberg’s Rabid being a prime example (which, itself, was remade by the Canadian Soska Sisters).
It was interesting to discover that there are several soucouyant novels from Canadian authors and Leeder & Loiselle make the connection between the vampire and the Wendigo and also drew attention to Algernon Blackwood’s story, the Wendigo – one I will have to find and inwardly digest.
Murray Leeder always delivers a well-turned prose and this collaboration is no exception and offers the reader a grounding study of the vampire in Canadian film and literature.
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