Handbook of the Vampire: Australia and New Zealand Vampires

Written for Palgrave’s Handbook of the Vampire by Ashleigh Prosser and Blair Speakman their chapter page can be found here. As the chapter title suggests it looks at antipodean vampires and whilst it does touch on indigenous myth, around Australia at least, it focuses on media representation of vampires both in literature and films/television.

When it comes to Australia, I was aware of the various films it touched upon and there is a very Gothic aspect to much Australian horror focused cinema. Where my interest lay, in this chapter, was around First Nation representation in vampire media and, of course the authors touched on the series Firebite and its depiction of post-colonial racism still institutionalised in Australian culture. What really did interest me, however, was the literature from First Nation authors and in particular the series Master of the Ghost Dreaming by Mudrooroo. A four-part series, apparently it is books 2-3 that make up a trilogy of vampire tales that merge Dreaming and Gothic horror. Book 2 (the first vampire one) is called Undying and I immediately purchased it and will feature it on TMtV at some point in the future.

The scope of Aotearoa New Zealand vampire media is a bit thinner but also tends to import colonial vampires into its narrative. The chapter touched on TVs It Is I, Count Homogenised and the film Perfect Creature but the most impactful Aotearoa New Zealand vampire vehicle was, of course, What we Do in the Shadows - where the vampires are all, of course, colonisers/immigrants into a recognisable Wellington. In fact, it was its spin-off, Wellington Paranormal, that contained Māori myth and a main Māori character in the form of Sgt. Maaka (Maaka Pohatu). These vehicles are, of course, comedy and that continues a thread through Aotearoa New Zealand vampire vehicles that also includes My Grandpa is a Vampire. If there was a missed opportunity here it would have been to touch on the spin-off TV What we Do in the Shadows - whilst that was, of course, US based it is in the same universe and, with characters from the film appearing on occasion, could have created an interesting reverse colonisation argument. Nevertheless, this was a great introduction to antipodean vampires.