Handbook of the Vampire: Bloodsuckers from Beyond: Cold War Era Space Vampires of the Cinema

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Matthew Jones the Chapter Page can be found here.

This chapter of the Handbook looked into science fiction vampires that were contemporaries to, and analogous of, the Cold War, with a view to opening a discourse on, what Jones terms, “the elusive extraterrestrial film vampire”. With that in mind, though the Thing from Another World is mentioned in passing amongst other, famous, monster features, it is not studied within the essay as a vampire film with an extraterrestrial origin to its creature. Given that it was released early into the Cold War its absence is unfortunate. The text is also silent on such films as Brainiac, which has an alien aspect (the brain eating vampire was human but returns from a comet having become monstruous and the author could have entered into an interesting discourse between this Mexican offering and US fare).

My only other criticism regarding content was that, although It! The Terror from Beyond Space was included, I’d have liked to have seen more space dedicated to the film, but that is because it is one that I have a tremendous soft spot for. This chapter does start the discourse the author wished to, and generally there is plenty of room for more on these alien vampire films.

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.

Handbook of the Vampire: Introduction to the Handbook of the Vampire

This is my First post looking in an in-depth way at Palgrave’s Handbook of the Vampire, a monumental reference work that has an introduction and 97 chapters concerning all aspects of vampire study. It is published as an e-book with the chapters available through institutional logins and being published as a two-volume hardcopy. I am lucky enough to have provided two chapters for the handbook (which I won’t be writing blog posts on but you can find links to the Handbook pages for each chapter I provided on the Handbook Page I have set up).

This first post concerns the Introduction, written by editor Simon Bacon. Of course, the chapter is an editorial, it outlines the scope of the project and what the reader can hope to find within. He suggests that “So much more research and study are required to understand and recognise the full implications of what we are saying when we say ‘VAMPIRE.’”. This is fitting coming from Simon – he and I indulge in frequent correspondence and have collaborated a few times, but his output into the arena of vampire study is vast (as both editor and author) but his definition of vampire is wide also and it is this width that allowed him to catch a vast net to snare the cornucopia of treasures within the Handbook.

I also have to give a moment of thanks for the fact that one of my entries for the Handbook was actually cited within the introduction.

As I continue to look at the Handbook, I will point out interesting ideas, new sources of vampire media and even where I disagree with a proposition within a chapter. This project, to map each chapter, over time, here at TMtV will undoubtedly take a long time. I will read the chapters over time and then have to write the article and schedule it for posting, of course, but it is a journey I think will be worth taking.