Eli Roth's History of Horror (2018) s01e06 Episode Script
Vampires
Vampires are about sex
and death.
When the vampire bites
[women gasping]
Women swoon
[gasps]
They're dangerous
because they're seductive.
What is seductive
is often bad for us,
is often dangerous.
[skin crinkling]
- [roars]
- [hisses]
It's not brutality
for the sake
of being brutal.
It's survival.
[rat squeaking]
[screams]
They are a drug addict,
a historian,
a serial killer,
a hopeless romantic
all at the same time.
[screeches]
It deals with the exchange
of fluids.
It deals with blood.
It's too late.
My blood is in your veins.
Vampires are supposed
to be awful
the stink of the grave,
his fetid breath.
It was supposed to be ugly
and nasty.
- [croaking]
- [screams]
And then
there was "Twilight."
[dark music]
What's good about
a "Twilight" movie is,
it makes everybody
who watches it
feel like a 13-year-old girl.
Vampires are the only ones
that you can really
make sexy and beautiful.
- [breathing heavily]
- We are immortal.
They've always been
since Anne Rice, anyway
allowed to be gay
or bisexual.
- This idea of
- Do you wanna do me now?
- The taboo
- [hollering]
- [growling]
- Darkness.
And, you know, if you're
gonna tangle
with the darkness
with the sexuality
- and all of that
- [screams]
Well, death
is all around you.
[vampires screeching]
[sinister music]
♪♪
[chain saw revs]
[foreboding music]
Naughty little girl.
- [screams]
- Over the last 25 years,
we've seen an explosion
of vampire stories.
♪♪
- [hisses]
- [growls]
- You're wrong.
- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
gave us bloodsucking bad boys
the heroine both detested
and desired.
"Underworld" and "Blade"
recast vampires
as action heroes.
[dramatic music]
[growls]
Art-horror films like
"A Girl Walks Home Alone
At Night"
and "The Addiction"
used vampires to tell
allegorical tales
about drug abuse.
The "Twilight" books
and films doubled down
on vampire romance
- [breathing heavily]
- While sex and splatter
dominated the teen drama
"The Vampire Diaries"
and the very adult series
"True Blood."
Modern vampires
come in many guises,
but they all address
a singular hunger.
It's bringing together
the two things
that media culture seems
to love the most:
sex and violence.
You know, it allows them
to coexist
in one figure.
Vampires have been
violent avatars of the erotic
going all the way back
to the king daddy
of bloodsuckers.
[dramatic music]
I am Dracula.
- I am Dracula.
- I
am Dracula.
[wood creaking]
Created in 1897
by novelist Bram Stoker,
Dracula is a true icon
of horror.
But Stoker's Dracula
was far more monstrous
than the polished aristocrats
we think of today.
[fire crackling]
I grew up reading "Dracula"
and reading about
the stink of the grave,
the graveyard earth
that the vampire was in
with the worms crawling in it,
about his fetid breath.
It was supposed to be ugly
and nasty.
Yeah,
he's the original stalker,
the original scary stranger,
you know,
the original serial killer.
[hisses]
- [exclaims]
- One of the reasons
that Dracula has persisted
for so long
as opposed to
the Frankenstein monster,
as opposed to the Wolfman
or the Mummy
was, he was a character.
He was a genuine
character.
[sinister music]
The first unauthorized
adaptation of "Dracula"
was the German silent film
"Nosferatu."
It was released in 1922,
four years after the end
of the First World War.
♪♪
The makers of "Nosferatu"
intended that vampire
to represent war itself
♪♪
War as a cosmic vampire
that had drained the blood
out of Europe.
And you watch
the original "Nosferatu"
- Yeah.
- It was terrifying.
And I thought it was so cool
that Tobe Hooper went
to that kind of vampire
in "Salem's Lot."
- [hisses]
- The bald vampire
with the teeth like that
always freaked me out.
[screeches]
♪♪
The first official
adaptation of "Dracula"
starred the incomparable
Bela Lugosi.
Listen to them.
The children of the night
what music they make.
We all know the story:
looking for new blood,
the undead Count Dracula
relocates from Transylvania
to England.
Once in London,
the vampire begins to feed.
[woman screams]
He takes a special interest
in corrupting a young woman
whom he wants
to turn into
his vampire bride.
In 1931,
which was the worst year
of the Great Depression,
Universal took a chance
on "Dracula"
and "Frankenstein."
We have this American public
that has just endured
the beginning
of the Great Depression.
They wanted to have some sort
of foreign presence
to go and blame
for everything
that was happening around them:
for losing their jobs,
for not being able
to feed their family.
People were on edge,
and "Dracula" was
the mysterious draining force
that was at everybody's door.
My blood now flows
through her veins.
I find it fascinating
that anybody
for years, decades to come
who wanted to imitate
Count Dracula
did it with a Hungarian accent.
- I am Dracula.
- Greetings.
It is I, the Count.
Welcome
to Hotel Transylvania!
I didn't know Bela Lugosi
was the name of a man.
I thought all
the horror film monsters
and all the actors
worked as a team
- [laughing]
- And the name of the team
was Bela Lugosi.
Lugosi was a hard act
to follow.
It took nearly three decades
for another Dracula
to make his mark.
But Christopher Lee
made the role his own.
Mr. Harker.
I'm glad
that you've arrived safely.
Count Dracula?
I am Dracula,
and I welcome you to my house.
Lee was both dapper,
aristocratic,
and terrifying.
[sinister music]
♪♪
[screams]
Very different
than Lugosi's count.
Bela Lugosi's Dracula
never had fangs.
They felt that fangs
would have been
too suggestive of penetration.
Well, Christopher Lee
not only did he have fangs,
but as he's approaching
these women,
who at first
are intimidated, they
start undoing their blouse,
and they're like,
you know, "Come at me.
This is awesome."
♪♪
It's so interesting,
the fear of female sexuality
that is so powerful
in "Dracula,"
the idea of a woman
after having had sex,
basically,
after having been bitten
and then transforming
into this ravenous
sexual creature.
[hisses]
[growls]
It's it's, like, so
it's great,
'cause horror allows you
to really express your fears
in a very obvious way.
[laughs]
You know, go to town on them.
Come.
Let me kiss you.
There have been
many Draculas since Lugosi
and Lee,
but one truly stands out
[foreboding music]
Gary Oldman
in Francis Ford Coppola's
epic 1992 adaptation.
♪♪
Gary Oldman,
who plays Dracula,
we have him being suave
and sophisticated and sexy,
and then the next minute,
he's transforming into a wolf
a large wolf.
And he is just maiming people.
He's vicious.
He's terrible.
And somehow, it works.
- [screams]
- [growls]
[eerie music]
I loved Coppola's "Dracula,"
just the level
of art direction,
just how creative that was
as a film
[speaking foreign language]
And what a mood it set.
[ominous music]
When he was doing
Dracula point-of-view stuff,
the way that he shot that
was so exhilarating.
- [growling]
- [screams]
[barking]
[glass shatters]
I think that helps paint
a pretty picture
[laughing]
Over the brutality of it all,
and I think that is specific
to the vampire genre.
We're strong in the Lord
and the power of his might.
[speaking Latin]
[screeches]
I bring you from shadow
into light!
I cast you out,
the Prince of Darkness!
We see this
extremely sympathetic Dracula
because he misses his
his wife, who was killed,
and then sees
sort of her reincarnation
in this modern-day gal.
That completely revolutionized
Dracula performances.
It changed the the filmic
Dracula mythos.
[dramatic music]
[snarls]
[growls]
And, in fact,
you could argue
that we're still riding
the wave from that film
- even today.
- [hollers]
Mina.
What Coppola did was,
he portrayed
a very tragic figure.
The guy just wants
to be loved.
I mean, that's what all of
the Universal monster movies
have in common
is that they're all just
male archetypes who want
the love and affection
of a woman
but because they're monsters,
they're sort of scorned
and rejected.
[screams]
The story of Dracula
continues to resonate today.
[both breathing heavily]
But its fear
of female sexuality
is firmly rooted
in 19th-century England.
In the late 20th century,
novelist Anne Rice created
a new breed of vampire
suited for the modern world,
vampires as tortured heroes,
amoral villains, and avatars
of alternative sexuality.
Pretend to drink, at least.
[ominous music]
♪♪
Such fine crystal
shouldn't go to waste.
Anne Rice dominates
modern vampire fiction.
Her books turned the genre
inside out.
Rice's vampires
were beautiful monsters
with tortured souls.
As soon as I started to write
what's called fantasy,
I was able to touch reality.
I was able to talk
about my world.
I was able to talk
about good and evil
and guilt and pain
and suffering,
but I had to do it
in that context,
with that frame
of fantasy around it.
Rice's first novel,
"Interview with the Vampire,"
was made into a film
in 1994.
The story follows
the centuries-long
relationship
between the vampire Lestat
and Louis, a troubled
New Orleans aristocrat.
Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt
two of the biggest stars
of modern times
played the leads.
The Paris opera is in town.
We can try
some French cui cuisine.
Forgive me if I have
a lingering respect for life.
The Louis character
didn't want to be a vampire,
and he didn't like
the brutal killing aspect.
- [hollers]
- And then you have Lestat,
who just enjoys and revels
in all of it.
- Why do you do this?
- I like to do it.
I enjoy it.
There was a lot
of controversy
about casting Tom Cruise,
but between Tom Cruise,
Brad Pitt,
and Kirsten Dunst, I thought
they really nailed it.
I was surprised.
I went in skeptical
but came out a fan.
[tense music]
You see the old woman?
That will never happen to you.
You will never grow old,
and you will never die.
That goes down as one
of the great
child's performances.
Once in a while, it happens
that a kid can kick
so much ass in a movie.
You give her to me, Louis!
Do this before you leave me!
[crying]
Oh, God.
I love you still.
My dark angel,
when you are gone.
[somber music]
What do you think she is,
Madeleine?
♪♪
A doll?
♪♪
A child who cannot die.
[locket snaps]
And the child who did die?
Claudia's probably
the best part of the movie.
You know, the idea
of a vampire
being forced to age
in the body
of, what, a ten-year-old girl?
To see a character
that is granted immortality,
but the downside being
she never gets to grow up
to become a woman,
like, that's heartbreaking.
[tense music]
Anne Rice lost a daughter
at a very young age,
and Claudia in the novel
was an homage to that.
- Mama.
- Oh, shh.
Hush, now.
Don't cry.
- We'll find her.
- Mama.
Oh.
The vampires Lestat,
Louis, and Claudia
form a family of outsiders
headed by two fathers.
The arrangement
suggested gay marriage
years before that was accepted
by mainstream society.
One happy family.
The novel was intentionally
homoerotic.
Even though I think
they downplayed
a little bit
of the homoeroticism
that was in novel,
it was still there.
I've drained you
to the point of death.
Using it as a cultural link
with homosexuality
- Yes.
- Has been part
of the vampire mystique,
but I mean,
when you couldn't deal
with homo homosexuality,
you could deal with it
to some degree or another
in vampire movies,
even going back as far
as the '30s.
- Really?
- Yeah, "Dracula's Daughter."
I suppose you'll want these
pulled down, won't you?
Yes.
Probably the most famous
lesbian sequence
- Mm-hmm.
- In an American movie
made in the '30s.
Why are you looking at me
that way?
Won't I do?
Yes, you'll do very well
indeed.
The suggestion
of a female seduction
is just right there.
That's just it's just there.
It's not even subtext.
You are out of your mind.
[intimate music]
♪♪
It was commonplace,
particularly in the '70s
lesbians would, like, say,
"Oh, wow, I-I just saw
"this magnificent movie
"about these two women
that were in love, and it
"and it really played
the relationship
"for all it's worth.
I mean, they're vampires,
all right, but"
- "But" That's yeah.
- [laughs]
Well, this is one
of the cool things
about horror
is that historically,
it's always been able
to deal with taboo subjects.
[dark music]
In recent times,
the challenging of taboos
was taken to new levels
by the television series
"True Blood."
It cut open the veins
of vampirism
and let the pansexual
eroticism gush out.
[roars]
The many sides of vampires
the danger and the romance,
the threat and the fun
were all on full display
in the long-running
HBO series "True Blood,"
which debuted in 2008.
I
never thought I would be
having sex with you.
Who said anything
about sex?
[foreboding music]
♪♪
"True Blood" was based on
the Southern Vampire Mysteries
by Charlaine Harris.
Over seven seasons,
the series followed
its heroine,
Sookie Stackhouse,
as she made her way
through a world
where vampires emerged
from the shadows
and entered
mainstream society.
♪♪
The epicenter
of "True Blood"
is in Louisiana,
and, basically, vampires
have been around forever,
but they kind of come out
of the closet
or the coffin,
I should say
and they decide to live
amongst the living.
As you can see,
I did not burst into flames.
[scattered laughter]
It becomes a metaphor
for so many
different rights movements
and how they're both
ostracized.
When I started
on "True Blood,"
all we knew
about Pam at the beginning
was that she was
the lieutenant
to this vampire, her maker,
and that she cared
about nothing else.
I find myself doubting
whether you were ever
truly human.
Thank you.
Pam
objectifying,
murdering,
literally eating men
was one of
my favorite parts.
[roars]
I don't know a lot of men
who are aware
of where to park
in a parking lot
not next to a minivan,
to carry your keys
between your fingers;
when you're parking
at the airport,
to look for where
it's most lit.
It's just part
of a woman's life.
To be the top of the food chain
was so refreshing.
I'll give you 24 hours
to deliver that witch to me.
And if you don't,
I will personally eat,
[], and kill
all three of you.
[tense music]
I was never good
at the vampire teeth,
- and I never got better.
- [squeals]
Huh?
What what's that?
I-I can't understand you.
The thing I struggled with
the most was the teeth
talking with the teeth.
What do you expect
when you come into my house
and [] with me?
It's hard trying to act
with a piece of your body
that you don't normally have.
[hisses]
It's been a long time
since I've done this.
- A man?
- No.
A vampire.
"True Blood's"
often comic tone
masked its serious intent:
trying to make sense
of sexual identity
in the 21st century.
♪♪
My character
was mainly gay
There's vampire
in your cleavage.
♪♪
[gasps]
Okay, ew.
She just had it with men.
She came from a time
in early 1900
where women had
a very hard time.
- [hollers]
- That's right, whore.
[screaming]
Vampires just in general
kind of go both ways.
They're kind of bisexual.
They kind of whatever,
and so I love
that writers explored sexuality
in relationships
with characters that wouldn't
normally, I think, maybe have
a relationship like that.
It's appealing because
we live in the United States
and a culture
that is very sexual
and yet very
sexually repressive.
The idea of the vampire
as a kind of sexy monster
fits very well with
the United States' kind of
complicated relationship
to sexuality.
"True Blood" reflected
America's gradual acceptance
of gay rights,
but it made a point
of showing those rights
could be taken away
at any time.
Got to season six,
and it was about
the vamp camp
and how the vampires
were sort, of like,
being herded into these camps
because of who they were
and they were a threat.
[vampires hissing]
[all screaming]
And that directly correlates
just to social issues in life,
of just being minorities
in life that sort of
aren't feeling equal.
So you're not gonna
read me my rights?
You don't have any rights,
vampire.
I am sure that
there's a lot of people
in the "True Blood" audience
who would not vote
for equal rights
- in a lot of arenas
- [hiccups]
But because they were
just being entertained
I did not see
that [] coming.
That opens the opportunity
through entertainment
to go, "Well,
"you like this character,
"you're rooting for him,
and he sleeps with men
and women."
[both grunt]
"True Blood"
used the vampire metaphor
to explore the shifting sands
of adult sexuality,
but vampire stories
have also perfectly captured
the joys and agonies
of being a teenager.
What's happening to me, Star?
[sinister music]
The teenage years are filled
with big emotions
and raging hormones.
It's a time
when everything seems
like a matter of life
and death.
So when Joel Schumacher's
1987 film
"The Lost Boys" put vampires
and teenagers together,
a new kind of horror film
was born.
"Lost Boys" was great,
'cause who would imagine
of taking the legend
of Peter Pan,
of the boys who never grow up,
who are just kind of rowdy
rock-and-roll vampires?
[engines roaring]
The whole thing is set
to this kind of, like,
'80s rock-and-roll thing:
big hair; oiled-up,
shirtless saxophone players.
That's "The Lost Boys."
[dark music]
You've got a family
that moves to this town.
The older son,
A, falls for a girl
and, B, discovers
that the town is overrun
with some very dark things
that are happening.
♪♪
You had this incredibly dark,
sexy component
of, like, Kiefer Sutherland
and Jami Gertz.
Like, that was
they were beautiful.
I'm over here, Michael.
So it was sort of, like,
dark, glamorous, sexy
Be one of us.
And it was about kids
saving the day.
Hey, man.
Read this.
I told you, I don't like
horror comics.
Think of it more
as a survival manual.
We identified with it
because the two kids,
you know, hung out
at a comic book shop,
and they knew every rule
about how to kill monsters.
So that's what we were
all about.
Awesome monster bashers.
- The meanest.
- The baddest.
[all grunt]
Well, I-I based them
on Rambo.
I told them, "I want you
to be like little Rambos."
Okay, where's Nosferatu?
- Who?
- Prince of Darkness.
The night crawler.
The bloodsucker.
El vampiro.
For 13-year-old boys,
I mean, they were obsessed
with it.
[engines revving]
"The Lost Boys"
was vampire and horror
for the MTV generation,
so the way it was edited,
the way it was scored,
and the whole look
of the vampires.
I told you to stay off
the boardwalk.
Even when I was auditioning,
it was like,
"You guys are gonna be
riding Triumphs.
You're gonna have
leather jackets on."
Like, I thought I was gonna die
when I saw what he wanted me
to look like.
Marko.
Good night, Michael.
Bombs away.
I was, like, you know,
this scrappy NYU film student
from, like,
the Lower East Side.
I mean, who the hell else
was gonna get me
in 14-inch hair extensions?
But I did and I wore chaps,
you know?
So that tells you a lot about
wanting to keep Joel happy.
[engines revving]
[breathing shakily]
- Come on, Michael!
- [grunts]
I said to everybody
at Warner Brothers,
"Let's not make excuses
for this movie.
It's a teenage vampire film."
Come on!
Can we make the best one
that's ever been made?
We can die trying.
[shouts]
[grunting]
[engine rumbling]
I think Joel may or may not
kill me for saying this,
but I mean, the movie
it's "Rebel Without a Cause."
It's really a Nick Ray movie.
[tires squealing]
[engines roaring]
[dramatic music]
It's a straight-up
teen-sploitation,
burgeoning sexuality.
It's death, fear of mortality.
I mean, it gets into
all the things
that great vampire stories
get into.
They must have hidden
their coffins
around here someplace.
There's nothing here.
Let's go, guys.
- Jesus!
- [screams]
[dark music]
I end up getting staked
in the chest
by the two Coreys
Good night, bloodsucker.
- [hisses]
- No!
[roars]
[boys screaming]
And then die in a bath
of glittery glue blood.
[roaring]
[boys screaming]
So that's to not spoil
all of it for you,
that's basically my demise.
[hisses]
[pipes gurgling,
sinks rattling]
[both shouting]
[pipes clanging]
All right, not to get
too heavy, but obviously,
there's no way
it was lost on Joel
that the movie was made
in the in the era of AIDS,
when that was really exploding.
To date, the AIDS virus
has claimed
over 24,000 lives,
the majority homosexual men.
The stigmatizing
of the gay population for,
"Well, if you're gonna have
that kind of sex,
then you're gonna die"
That was very much in the news
and in writing
- at the time in the '80s.
- [hisses]
It's too late.
My blood is in your veins.
When the AIDS crisis hit,
there was suddenly
this renaissance
of vampire movies.
Vampires are metaphors,
clearly, for sex and death.
[screams]
I think it's a good example
of how a real-life trauma,
especially one that seems
uncontrollable,
is responded to by the creation
of horror entertainment.
[screaming]
If people just want to see it
as an entertainment,
that's fine.
If they want to read
other things in it,
that's fine.
And if they don't enjoy it,
well, that's a reaction too.
[spits]
[laughter]
Vampires remind us
that looks can be deceiving.
We never really know
what lies beneath
the surface of a stranger.
[distorted voice]
I love you too, Seth.
[roars]
Back, spawn of Satan!
[laughing]
[tense music]
My favorite thing, I think,
about horror and fantasy
and science fiction
is, you can make it up.
It's there are no rules.
Any genre,
every individual project,
you have to invent
your own rules,
so in some movies, vampires
can't be seen in a mirror.
In other movies, they have
to be killed with silver.
[flesh sizzling]
What about crucifixes?
Actually, I'm quite fond
of looking at crucifixes.
How about the old
stake-through-the-heart thing?
The vulgar fictions
of a demented Irishman.
You can follow the rules
of the genre
that have been placed down
by other movies
or other stories, or you can
kind of come up with your own.
[man singing in Spanish]
[rousing rock music playing]
This is my kind of place.
In "From Dusk Till Dawn,"
two violent criminals
take refuge
in a Mexican strip club.
[sultry music]
The main attraction
turns out to be the queen
- of the vampires.
- [grunts]
[screams]
♪♪
[skin crinkling]
[roars]
[dramatic music]
- [screams]
- Dinner
[distorted voice]
Is served.
[screeches]
I love the vampire makeup
in "Dusk Till Dawn."
That, for me, was one
of the coolest reinventions.
[man shouts]
Robert Kurtzman came up with
the original treatment of it.
His vampires did kind of point
in this weird direction
that I had never
quite seen before
for vampires.
They could take on
the shapes of humans,
like they do
in the Danny Trejo character,
but their true selves
were these bat-like creatures.
- [growls]
- [screams]
[hisses]
- [roars]
- I-I came up with
a few mythology things
that would be specific
to these creatures.
One was, okay, yeah, they could
definitely be killed
by a wooden stake
to the heart.
That still worked.
- Their blood was green
- [hollers]
And the reason I made
their blood green
is because I knew
there would be vampire blood
all over the place,
and it would be
the color red, in particular,
that would get you an X.
- NC-17.
- Yeah, an NC-17.
So if we made
the vampire blood green
You could spray it
all over the place.
We could spray it
all over the place,
and then the MPAA wouldn't be
so freaked out by that.
And that ended up
actually working.
[roars]
[flesh hissing]
"From Dusk Till Dawn"
reinvented vampires
as nightmarish creatures
that used sex
to lure in their victims.
[sinister music]
The horror masterpiece
"Let the Right One In"
is another
brilliant reinvention.
♪♪
The vampire here lives within
the classic boundaries
of only going out at night
and viciously feeding
on humans.
[body thuds]
But this is not a story
about sex.
It's about love and how much
we are willing to accept
in the name of love.
♪♪
"Let the Right One In"
is about a boy called Oskar
who is getting bullied
in school
and is a bit lonely.
And one day, he meets a girl
called Eli,
and then they became friends.
♪♪
What's special about
my character, Eli,
first of all
is that she's a vampire.
[eerie music]
She has lived
for a very long time.
♪♪
They cut off my lashes
and my eyebrows
to not make me so female,
and it's also not my voice
in the film.
They wanted a voice
that wasn't so feminine.
[speaking Swedish]
Vampires could be, like
they're, like, sexy
or dangerous
or something like that,
and she's, like,
the opposite, I think.
Once you realize
who this girl is
and how long
she's been around and
then it's very haunting
in the sense that, you know,
she's taken on this kid
as her companion.
And we already know
what's gonna happen to him.
♪♪
Probably the scariest
and most powerful sequence
in modern horror
is the final sequence
in "Let the Right One In."
A gang of bullies sees
a very vulnerable child
and shove him underwater.
And there is
a 2½ minute shot
of the boy's head
being held underwater,
and you're seeing him
desperately trying
to get back to the surface
and breathe.
♪♪
But meanwhile,
above the water
[sinister music]
This pipsqueak vampire,
who loves the little boy,
has turned up
♪♪
And is beginning
to butcher the bullies.
[muffled splash]
♪♪
What was beautiful
about that story
is that a monster
comes to the rescue
when humanity fails
this young man,
and who could blame him
for choosing the monster
when humanity was so horrible?
The title has
a double meaning.
It could mean
that you should let
the right person
get into your life,
or, as it is for Eli,
someone has to tell her
that she can come in.
[tense music]
♪♪
For me, the part
of the vampire legend
that has always remained
really powerful
is this idea that they have
to be invited in.
[scratching on glass]
Open the window, Mark.
[mimicking scratching]
"Let me in.
Let me in."
Let me in.
It's okay, Mark.
I'm your friend.
So many times
in people's lives,
you know,
whatever that thing is
that's draining them
of their life and vitality,
so often, they invited it in
♪♪
If it's drugs,
if it's alcohol,
if it's someone
who's just abusive,
you know, who's cruel to you.
A lot of vampire stories
are about
inviting in something
that you think
will bring you bliss
What's wrong, baby?
And that destroys you
instead.
Do you think,
with your crosses
and your wafers,
you can destroy me?
Me?
Traditionally, vampires
have split personalities.
They're both charming
and terrifying,
passionate and deadly.
But in the 21st century,
we've seen
the two halves separate
into the vampire
as monstrous killer
- [snarls]
- [whimpers]
And the vampire
as dreamboat boyfriend.
[dark music]
Vampires, ever flexible,
are being reshaped
to suit audiences
whose needs
are often overlooked,
like the millions of women
and teenage girls
who made "Twilight" the most
commercially successful
vampire film of all time.
[gasps]
[intimate music]
♪♪
Based on
the best-selling books
by Stephenie Meyer,
"Twilight" reimagines
the vampire story
as a teen romance
told from a young woman's
point of view.
The thing that's
kind of cool about "Twilight"
is, you have an ordinary girl
that moves
to this small town
in Washington.
She has to live with her dad
for a while.
She feels like a misfit,
awkward.
And first day of school,
she is kind of attracted
to this amazing
and strange kid, Edward.
Stephenie Meyer,
she had a dream
about this vampire.
When the vampire was out
in the sunlight,
instead of withering,
it did the opposite.
It glowed and glittered
and sparkled.
This is what I am.
[mystical music]
Well, my vampires
break a lot of the rules
if there can really be rules
about fictional characters.
Really, you can do
what you want.
Obviously it's a fantasy
[laughing]
That you're gonna have
the most handsome,
beautiful, amazing guy
in the world
that's madly in love with you
and will take care of you
and protect you.
[tires squealing]
- [gasps]
- [grunts]
I mean,
it's a great fantasy.
It's not,
"We shouldn't kiss
"because maybe won't
like each other
or maybe we're gonna make
someone else upset."
You're adding this element of,
"If I lose control,
I might kill you,"
which is so dark
and so dramatic,
but at the same time,
that's what it feels like
when you're young.
It feels like life and death.
Just stay very still.
I really thought it was
a fantastic challenge
to create that
emotional intoxication
- of first love.
- Don't move.
[intimate music]
I thought, "Can I show that
on-screen?
"Can I make people as crazy
"about a cinematic version
as the book
made people crazy?"
♪♪
And yeah, I think we did
make them pretty crazy.
[laughing]
[crowd screaming]
You can't dismiss something
that had such a giant hold on
on fandom.
I remember going
to Comic-Con a few years back
when the second
"Twilight" movie
was coming out,
and kids were camped out
on the lawn for 24 hours.
So obviously,
it had something to say.
♪♪
You don't know how long
I've waited for you.
I honestly find its gender
and sexual politics
pretty problematic,
but that being said,
I think it takes
women's desires seriously
in a way that most
Hollywood cinema does not,
most popular culture
in general does not.
The focus is more
on her desire for Edward,
on her attraction
to Edward
and at some points Jacob.
It's not about them
lusting after her.
[soft music]
[chimes tinkling]
There was a photo
of one kid at Comic-Con
when "Twilight" came out
there was, like,
some angry kid
with a huge placard that said,
- "Nosferatu didn't sparkle."
- Yeah.
And I was like, "That's me.
I'm that kid."
The whole vampire idea,
the romantic vampire,
has always been popular
with teens,
early 20s and things
particularly women
because it's seen
as almost, like,
no-fault sex.
And after all,
what's he really gonna do?
He's gonna give you
a great big hickey,
like on Lover's Lane.
[dark music]
But that's not the way
it's supposed to to be.
To my mind,
I'm a classicist, man.
[growling]
- [hissing]
- Hey! Stop!
- [hissing]
- Who are you people?
- [screeches]
- [grunts]
- [screams]
- [screeches]
"30 Days of Night"
took vampires back
to their dark
and vicious roots.
There are no sparkling,
romantic demigods here
- [screams]
- Just ancient
evil predators.
[vampires screeching]
[sinister music]
Well, in "30 Days of Night,"
my character is
is a sheriff
up in Barrow, Alaska.
And in Barrow, Alaska,
apparently, the sun is down
for almost a month
in the middle of winter.
Hence the "30 Days of Night"
title.
♪♪
Vampires have figured out
that this is
a really good place to go
and have a low-effort meal.
We have to cut off,
or they'll hear you.
The vampires close in
on the town
I'll call you back
when it's safe.
And then the rest of us
who are there
try to survive for a month.
- [loud bang]
- [gasps]
Jesus!
Christ!
[banging]
[engine revving]
- [yelps]
- [screeches]
We spend a lot of time
running away.
[laughs]
David Slade's
"30 Days of Night"
which was written
by Steve Niles
and based on
the graphic novel
that was
the complete antithesis
of what "Twilight" represented.
[hissing]
[suspenseful music]
With "Twilight,"
there was always
this friendly side.
They always managed to find,
like, a friendly human side
to the vampires.
When I was doing the scripts
for "30 Days of Night,"
I really tried to go against
what everybody else was doing.
[growls]
You had vampires returning
to their feral form,
almost Nosferatu-like
but something
completely different.
- [screeches]
- [hollers]
- [screams]
- These are land sharks
that will kill you, you know,
just as soon as look at you.
[sinister music]
- [screeches]
- By stripping the sexuality
out of the myth,
"30 Days of Night"
drilled deep
into the primal fear
at the heart of every
vampire story:
- the fear of death.
- [roars]
[dramatic music]
One of the most
beautiful things about
the horror genre
is that the stakes
are implicitly high,
because you're dealing
with life and death.
[hollering]
And that gives horror
a certain operatic quality
to it,
where there is no choice
but to survive and thrive
or be one of the body count.
♪♪
- [croaking]
- [screams]
Ultimately, the story
of the vampire
is the story
of our tenuous grip on life.
- I don't want to die.
- [screams]
The bite of the vampire
symbolizes
the hundreds of things
that could kill us
at any time,
no matter how healthy or safe
we think we are.
[screeches]
Your life force
will never be
steadily drained
by an implacable
supernatural foe.
[eerie music]
But some people
will face cancer
in their life.
- [screams]
- Fiction gives us
a safe playground
to consider
what it would be like
to be in
a life-or-death battle
with something draining us.
♪♪
Vampire stories
will remain powerful
as long as we are organic
and full of blood.
And the blood
can be corrupted.
- [gasps]
- So I think the fanged ones
will be around
for a while longer.
[vampires hissing, growling]
and death.
When the vampire bites
[women gasping]
Women swoon
[gasps]
They're dangerous
because they're seductive.
What is seductive
is often bad for us,
is often dangerous.
[skin crinkling]
- [roars]
- [hisses]
It's not brutality
for the sake
of being brutal.
It's survival.
[rat squeaking]
[screams]
They are a drug addict,
a historian,
a serial killer,
a hopeless romantic
all at the same time.
[screeches]
It deals with the exchange
of fluids.
It deals with blood.
It's too late.
My blood is in your veins.
Vampires are supposed
to be awful
the stink of the grave,
his fetid breath.
It was supposed to be ugly
and nasty.
- [croaking]
- [screams]
And then
there was "Twilight."
[dark music]
What's good about
a "Twilight" movie is,
it makes everybody
who watches it
feel like a 13-year-old girl.
Vampires are the only ones
that you can really
make sexy and beautiful.
- [breathing heavily]
- We are immortal.
They've always been
since Anne Rice, anyway
allowed to be gay
or bisexual.
- This idea of
- Do you wanna do me now?
- The taboo
- [hollering]
- [growling]
- Darkness.
And, you know, if you're
gonna tangle
with the darkness
with the sexuality
- and all of that
- [screams]
Well, death
is all around you.
[vampires screeching]
[sinister music]
♪♪
[chain saw revs]
[foreboding music]
Naughty little girl.
- [screams]
- Over the last 25 years,
we've seen an explosion
of vampire stories.
♪♪
- [hisses]
- [growls]
- You're wrong.
- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
gave us bloodsucking bad boys
the heroine both detested
and desired.
"Underworld" and "Blade"
recast vampires
as action heroes.
[dramatic music]
[growls]
Art-horror films like
"A Girl Walks Home Alone
At Night"
and "The Addiction"
used vampires to tell
allegorical tales
about drug abuse.
The "Twilight" books
and films doubled down
on vampire romance
- [breathing heavily]
- While sex and splatter
dominated the teen drama
"The Vampire Diaries"
and the very adult series
"True Blood."
Modern vampires
come in many guises,
but they all address
a singular hunger.
It's bringing together
the two things
that media culture seems
to love the most:
sex and violence.
You know, it allows them
to coexist
in one figure.
Vampires have been
violent avatars of the erotic
going all the way back
to the king daddy
of bloodsuckers.
[dramatic music]
I am Dracula.
- I am Dracula.
- I
am Dracula.
[wood creaking]
Created in 1897
by novelist Bram Stoker,
Dracula is a true icon
of horror.
But Stoker's Dracula
was far more monstrous
than the polished aristocrats
we think of today.
[fire crackling]
I grew up reading "Dracula"
and reading about
the stink of the grave,
the graveyard earth
that the vampire was in
with the worms crawling in it,
about his fetid breath.
It was supposed to be ugly
and nasty.
Yeah,
he's the original stalker,
the original scary stranger,
you know,
the original serial killer.
[hisses]
- [exclaims]
- One of the reasons
that Dracula has persisted
for so long
as opposed to
the Frankenstein monster,
as opposed to the Wolfman
or the Mummy
was, he was a character.
He was a genuine
character.
[sinister music]
The first unauthorized
adaptation of "Dracula"
was the German silent film
"Nosferatu."
It was released in 1922,
four years after the end
of the First World War.
♪♪
The makers of "Nosferatu"
intended that vampire
to represent war itself
♪♪
War as a cosmic vampire
that had drained the blood
out of Europe.
And you watch
the original "Nosferatu"
- Yeah.
- It was terrifying.
And I thought it was so cool
that Tobe Hooper went
to that kind of vampire
in "Salem's Lot."
- [hisses]
- The bald vampire
with the teeth like that
always freaked me out.
[screeches]
♪♪
The first official
adaptation of "Dracula"
starred the incomparable
Bela Lugosi.
Listen to them.
The children of the night
what music they make.
We all know the story:
looking for new blood,
the undead Count Dracula
relocates from Transylvania
to England.
Once in London,
the vampire begins to feed.
[woman screams]
He takes a special interest
in corrupting a young woman
whom he wants
to turn into
his vampire bride.
In 1931,
which was the worst year
of the Great Depression,
Universal took a chance
on "Dracula"
and "Frankenstein."
We have this American public
that has just endured
the beginning
of the Great Depression.
They wanted to have some sort
of foreign presence
to go and blame
for everything
that was happening around them:
for losing their jobs,
for not being able
to feed their family.
People were on edge,
and "Dracula" was
the mysterious draining force
that was at everybody's door.
My blood now flows
through her veins.
I find it fascinating
that anybody
for years, decades to come
who wanted to imitate
Count Dracula
did it with a Hungarian accent.
- I am Dracula.
- Greetings.
It is I, the Count.
Welcome
to Hotel Transylvania!
I didn't know Bela Lugosi
was the name of a man.
I thought all
the horror film monsters
and all the actors
worked as a team
- [laughing]
- And the name of the team
was Bela Lugosi.
Lugosi was a hard act
to follow.
It took nearly three decades
for another Dracula
to make his mark.
But Christopher Lee
made the role his own.
Mr. Harker.
I'm glad
that you've arrived safely.
Count Dracula?
I am Dracula,
and I welcome you to my house.
Lee was both dapper,
aristocratic,
and terrifying.
[sinister music]
♪♪
[screams]
Very different
than Lugosi's count.
Bela Lugosi's Dracula
never had fangs.
They felt that fangs
would have been
too suggestive of penetration.
Well, Christopher Lee
not only did he have fangs,
but as he's approaching
these women,
who at first
are intimidated, they
start undoing their blouse,
and they're like,
you know, "Come at me.
This is awesome."
♪♪
It's so interesting,
the fear of female sexuality
that is so powerful
in "Dracula,"
the idea of a woman
after having had sex,
basically,
after having been bitten
and then transforming
into this ravenous
sexual creature.
[hisses]
[growls]
It's it's, like, so
it's great,
'cause horror allows you
to really express your fears
in a very obvious way.
[laughs]
You know, go to town on them.
Come.
Let me kiss you.
There have been
many Draculas since Lugosi
and Lee,
but one truly stands out
[foreboding music]
Gary Oldman
in Francis Ford Coppola's
epic 1992 adaptation.
♪♪
Gary Oldman,
who plays Dracula,
we have him being suave
and sophisticated and sexy,
and then the next minute,
he's transforming into a wolf
a large wolf.
And he is just maiming people.
He's vicious.
He's terrible.
And somehow, it works.
- [screams]
- [growls]
[eerie music]
I loved Coppola's "Dracula,"
just the level
of art direction,
just how creative that was
as a film
[speaking foreign language]
And what a mood it set.
[ominous music]
When he was doing
Dracula point-of-view stuff,
the way that he shot that
was so exhilarating.
- [growling]
- [screams]
[barking]
[glass shatters]
I think that helps paint
a pretty picture
[laughing]
Over the brutality of it all,
and I think that is specific
to the vampire genre.
We're strong in the Lord
and the power of his might.
[speaking Latin]
[screeches]
I bring you from shadow
into light!
I cast you out,
the Prince of Darkness!
We see this
extremely sympathetic Dracula
because he misses his
his wife, who was killed,
and then sees
sort of her reincarnation
in this modern-day gal.
That completely revolutionized
Dracula performances.
It changed the the filmic
Dracula mythos.
[dramatic music]
[snarls]
[growls]
And, in fact,
you could argue
that we're still riding
the wave from that film
- even today.
- [hollers]
Mina.
What Coppola did was,
he portrayed
a very tragic figure.
The guy just wants
to be loved.
I mean, that's what all of
the Universal monster movies
have in common
is that they're all just
male archetypes who want
the love and affection
of a woman
but because they're monsters,
they're sort of scorned
and rejected.
[screams]
The story of Dracula
continues to resonate today.
[both breathing heavily]
But its fear
of female sexuality
is firmly rooted
in 19th-century England.
In the late 20th century,
novelist Anne Rice created
a new breed of vampire
suited for the modern world,
vampires as tortured heroes,
amoral villains, and avatars
of alternative sexuality.
Pretend to drink, at least.
[ominous music]
♪♪
Such fine crystal
shouldn't go to waste.
Anne Rice dominates
modern vampire fiction.
Her books turned the genre
inside out.
Rice's vampires
were beautiful monsters
with tortured souls.
As soon as I started to write
what's called fantasy,
I was able to touch reality.
I was able to talk
about my world.
I was able to talk
about good and evil
and guilt and pain
and suffering,
but I had to do it
in that context,
with that frame
of fantasy around it.
Rice's first novel,
"Interview with the Vampire,"
was made into a film
in 1994.
The story follows
the centuries-long
relationship
between the vampire Lestat
and Louis, a troubled
New Orleans aristocrat.
Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt
two of the biggest stars
of modern times
played the leads.
The Paris opera is in town.
We can try
some French cui cuisine.
Forgive me if I have
a lingering respect for life.
The Louis character
didn't want to be a vampire,
and he didn't like
the brutal killing aspect.
- [hollers]
- And then you have Lestat,
who just enjoys and revels
in all of it.
- Why do you do this?
- I like to do it.
I enjoy it.
There was a lot
of controversy
about casting Tom Cruise,
but between Tom Cruise,
Brad Pitt,
and Kirsten Dunst, I thought
they really nailed it.
I was surprised.
I went in skeptical
but came out a fan.
[tense music]
You see the old woman?
That will never happen to you.
You will never grow old,
and you will never die.
That goes down as one
of the great
child's performances.
Once in a while, it happens
that a kid can kick
so much ass in a movie.
You give her to me, Louis!
Do this before you leave me!
[crying]
Oh, God.
I love you still.
My dark angel,
when you are gone.
[somber music]
What do you think she is,
Madeleine?
♪♪
A doll?
♪♪
A child who cannot die.
[locket snaps]
And the child who did die?
Claudia's probably
the best part of the movie.
You know, the idea
of a vampire
being forced to age
in the body
of, what, a ten-year-old girl?
To see a character
that is granted immortality,
but the downside being
she never gets to grow up
to become a woman,
like, that's heartbreaking.
[tense music]
Anne Rice lost a daughter
at a very young age,
and Claudia in the novel
was an homage to that.
- Mama.
- Oh, shh.
Hush, now.
Don't cry.
- We'll find her.
- Mama.
Oh.
The vampires Lestat,
Louis, and Claudia
form a family of outsiders
headed by two fathers.
The arrangement
suggested gay marriage
years before that was accepted
by mainstream society.
One happy family.
The novel was intentionally
homoerotic.
Even though I think
they downplayed
a little bit
of the homoeroticism
that was in novel,
it was still there.
I've drained you
to the point of death.
Using it as a cultural link
with homosexuality
- Yes.
- Has been part
of the vampire mystique,
but I mean,
when you couldn't deal
with homo homosexuality,
you could deal with it
to some degree or another
in vampire movies,
even going back as far
as the '30s.
- Really?
- Yeah, "Dracula's Daughter."
I suppose you'll want these
pulled down, won't you?
Yes.
Probably the most famous
lesbian sequence
- Mm-hmm.
- In an American movie
made in the '30s.
Why are you looking at me
that way?
Won't I do?
Yes, you'll do very well
indeed.
The suggestion
of a female seduction
is just right there.
That's just it's just there.
It's not even subtext.
You are out of your mind.
[intimate music]
♪♪
It was commonplace,
particularly in the '70s
lesbians would, like, say,
"Oh, wow, I-I just saw
"this magnificent movie
"about these two women
that were in love, and it
"and it really played
the relationship
"for all it's worth.
I mean, they're vampires,
all right, but"
- "But" That's yeah.
- [laughs]
Well, this is one
of the cool things
about horror
is that historically,
it's always been able
to deal with taboo subjects.
[dark music]
In recent times,
the challenging of taboos
was taken to new levels
by the television series
"True Blood."
It cut open the veins
of vampirism
and let the pansexual
eroticism gush out.
[roars]
The many sides of vampires
the danger and the romance,
the threat and the fun
were all on full display
in the long-running
HBO series "True Blood,"
which debuted in 2008.
I
never thought I would be
having sex with you.
Who said anything
about sex?
[foreboding music]
♪♪
"True Blood" was based on
the Southern Vampire Mysteries
by Charlaine Harris.
Over seven seasons,
the series followed
its heroine,
Sookie Stackhouse,
as she made her way
through a world
where vampires emerged
from the shadows
and entered
mainstream society.
♪♪
The epicenter
of "True Blood"
is in Louisiana,
and, basically, vampires
have been around forever,
but they kind of come out
of the closet
or the coffin,
I should say
and they decide to live
amongst the living.
As you can see,
I did not burst into flames.
[scattered laughter]
It becomes a metaphor
for so many
different rights movements
and how they're both
ostracized.
When I started
on "True Blood,"
all we knew
about Pam at the beginning
was that she was
the lieutenant
to this vampire, her maker,
and that she cared
about nothing else.
I find myself doubting
whether you were ever
truly human.
Thank you.
Pam
objectifying,
murdering,
literally eating men
was one of
my favorite parts.
[roars]
I don't know a lot of men
who are aware
of where to park
in a parking lot
not next to a minivan,
to carry your keys
between your fingers;
when you're parking
at the airport,
to look for where
it's most lit.
It's just part
of a woman's life.
To be the top of the food chain
was so refreshing.
I'll give you 24 hours
to deliver that witch to me.
And if you don't,
I will personally eat,
[], and kill
all three of you.
[tense music]
I was never good
at the vampire teeth,
- and I never got better.
- [squeals]
Huh?
What what's that?
I-I can't understand you.
The thing I struggled with
the most was the teeth
talking with the teeth.
What do you expect
when you come into my house
and [] with me?
It's hard trying to act
with a piece of your body
that you don't normally have.
[hisses]
It's been a long time
since I've done this.
- A man?
- No.
A vampire.
"True Blood's"
often comic tone
masked its serious intent:
trying to make sense
of sexual identity
in the 21st century.
♪♪
My character
was mainly gay
There's vampire
in your cleavage.
♪♪
[gasps]
Okay, ew.
She just had it with men.
She came from a time
in early 1900
where women had
a very hard time.
- [hollers]
- That's right, whore.
[screaming]
Vampires just in general
kind of go both ways.
They're kind of bisexual.
They kind of whatever,
and so I love
that writers explored sexuality
in relationships
with characters that wouldn't
normally, I think, maybe have
a relationship like that.
It's appealing because
we live in the United States
and a culture
that is very sexual
and yet very
sexually repressive.
The idea of the vampire
as a kind of sexy monster
fits very well with
the United States' kind of
complicated relationship
to sexuality.
"True Blood" reflected
America's gradual acceptance
of gay rights,
but it made a point
of showing those rights
could be taken away
at any time.
Got to season six,
and it was about
the vamp camp
and how the vampires
were sort, of like,
being herded into these camps
because of who they were
and they were a threat.
[vampires hissing]
[all screaming]
And that directly correlates
just to social issues in life,
of just being minorities
in life that sort of
aren't feeling equal.
So you're not gonna
read me my rights?
You don't have any rights,
vampire.
I am sure that
there's a lot of people
in the "True Blood" audience
who would not vote
for equal rights
- in a lot of arenas
- [hiccups]
But because they were
just being entertained
I did not see
that [] coming.
That opens the opportunity
through entertainment
to go, "Well,
"you like this character,
"you're rooting for him,
and he sleeps with men
and women."
[both grunt]
"True Blood"
used the vampire metaphor
to explore the shifting sands
of adult sexuality,
but vampire stories
have also perfectly captured
the joys and agonies
of being a teenager.
What's happening to me, Star?
[sinister music]
The teenage years are filled
with big emotions
and raging hormones.
It's a time
when everything seems
like a matter of life
and death.
So when Joel Schumacher's
1987 film
"The Lost Boys" put vampires
and teenagers together,
a new kind of horror film
was born.
"Lost Boys" was great,
'cause who would imagine
of taking the legend
of Peter Pan,
of the boys who never grow up,
who are just kind of rowdy
rock-and-roll vampires?
[engines roaring]
The whole thing is set
to this kind of, like,
'80s rock-and-roll thing:
big hair; oiled-up,
shirtless saxophone players.
That's "The Lost Boys."
[dark music]
You've got a family
that moves to this town.
The older son,
A, falls for a girl
and, B, discovers
that the town is overrun
with some very dark things
that are happening.
♪♪
You had this incredibly dark,
sexy component
of, like, Kiefer Sutherland
and Jami Gertz.
Like, that was
they were beautiful.
I'm over here, Michael.
So it was sort of, like,
dark, glamorous, sexy
Be one of us.
And it was about kids
saving the day.
Hey, man.
Read this.
I told you, I don't like
horror comics.
Think of it more
as a survival manual.
We identified with it
because the two kids,
you know, hung out
at a comic book shop,
and they knew every rule
about how to kill monsters.
So that's what we were
all about.
Awesome monster bashers.
- The meanest.
- The baddest.
[all grunt]
Well, I-I based them
on Rambo.
I told them, "I want you
to be like little Rambos."
Okay, where's Nosferatu?
- Who?
- Prince of Darkness.
The night crawler.
The bloodsucker.
El vampiro.
For 13-year-old boys,
I mean, they were obsessed
with it.
[engines revving]
"The Lost Boys"
was vampire and horror
for the MTV generation,
so the way it was edited,
the way it was scored,
and the whole look
of the vampires.
I told you to stay off
the boardwalk.
Even when I was auditioning,
it was like,
"You guys are gonna be
riding Triumphs.
You're gonna have
leather jackets on."
Like, I thought I was gonna die
when I saw what he wanted me
to look like.
Marko.
Good night, Michael.
Bombs away.
I was, like, you know,
this scrappy NYU film student
from, like,
the Lower East Side.
I mean, who the hell else
was gonna get me
in 14-inch hair extensions?
But I did and I wore chaps,
you know?
So that tells you a lot about
wanting to keep Joel happy.
[engines revving]
[breathing shakily]
- Come on, Michael!
- [grunts]
I said to everybody
at Warner Brothers,
"Let's not make excuses
for this movie.
It's a teenage vampire film."
Come on!
Can we make the best one
that's ever been made?
We can die trying.
[shouts]
[grunting]
[engine rumbling]
I think Joel may or may not
kill me for saying this,
but I mean, the movie
it's "Rebel Without a Cause."
It's really a Nick Ray movie.
[tires squealing]
[engines roaring]
[dramatic music]
It's a straight-up
teen-sploitation,
burgeoning sexuality.
It's death, fear of mortality.
I mean, it gets into
all the things
that great vampire stories
get into.
They must have hidden
their coffins
around here someplace.
There's nothing here.
Let's go, guys.
- Jesus!
- [screams]
[dark music]
I end up getting staked
in the chest
by the two Coreys
Good night, bloodsucker.
- [hisses]
- No!
[roars]
[boys screaming]
And then die in a bath
of glittery glue blood.
[roaring]
[boys screaming]
So that's to not spoil
all of it for you,
that's basically my demise.
[hisses]
[pipes gurgling,
sinks rattling]
[both shouting]
[pipes clanging]
All right, not to get
too heavy, but obviously,
there's no way
it was lost on Joel
that the movie was made
in the in the era of AIDS,
when that was really exploding.
To date, the AIDS virus
has claimed
over 24,000 lives,
the majority homosexual men.
The stigmatizing
of the gay population for,
"Well, if you're gonna have
that kind of sex,
then you're gonna die"
That was very much in the news
and in writing
- at the time in the '80s.
- [hisses]
It's too late.
My blood is in your veins.
When the AIDS crisis hit,
there was suddenly
this renaissance
of vampire movies.
Vampires are metaphors,
clearly, for sex and death.
[screams]
I think it's a good example
of how a real-life trauma,
especially one that seems
uncontrollable,
is responded to by the creation
of horror entertainment.
[screaming]
If people just want to see it
as an entertainment,
that's fine.
If they want to read
other things in it,
that's fine.
And if they don't enjoy it,
well, that's a reaction too.
[spits]
[laughter]
Vampires remind us
that looks can be deceiving.
We never really know
what lies beneath
the surface of a stranger.
[distorted voice]
I love you too, Seth.
[roars]
Back, spawn of Satan!
[laughing]
[tense music]
My favorite thing, I think,
about horror and fantasy
and science fiction
is, you can make it up.
It's there are no rules.
Any genre,
every individual project,
you have to invent
your own rules,
so in some movies, vampires
can't be seen in a mirror.
In other movies, they have
to be killed with silver.
[flesh sizzling]
What about crucifixes?
Actually, I'm quite fond
of looking at crucifixes.
How about the old
stake-through-the-heart thing?
The vulgar fictions
of a demented Irishman.
You can follow the rules
of the genre
that have been placed down
by other movies
or other stories, or you can
kind of come up with your own.
[man singing in Spanish]
[rousing rock music playing]
This is my kind of place.
In "From Dusk Till Dawn,"
two violent criminals
take refuge
in a Mexican strip club.
[sultry music]
The main attraction
turns out to be the queen
- of the vampires.
- [grunts]
[screams]
♪♪
[skin crinkling]
[roars]
[dramatic music]
- [screams]
- Dinner
[distorted voice]
Is served.
[screeches]
I love the vampire makeup
in "Dusk Till Dawn."
That, for me, was one
of the coolest reinventions.
[man shouts]
Robert Kurtzman came up with
the original treatment of it.
His vampires did kind of point
in this weird direction
that I had never
quite seen before
for vampires.
They could take on
the shapes of humans,
like they do
in the Danny Trejo character,
but their true selves
were these bat-like creatures.
- [growls]
- [screams]
[hisses]
- [roars]
- I-I came up with
a few mythology things
that would be specific
to these creatures.
One was, okay, yeah, they could
definitely be killed
by a wooden stake
to the heart.
That still worked.
- Their blood was green
- [hollers]
And the reason I made
their blood green
is because I knew
there would be vampire blood
all over the place,
and it would be
the color red, in particular,
that would get you an X.
- NC-17.
- Yeah, an NC-17.
So if we made
the vampire blood green
You could spray it
all over the place.
We could spray it
all over the place,
and then the MPAA wouldn't be
so freaked out by that.
And that ended up
actually working.
[roars]
[flesh hissing]
"From Dusk Till Dawn"
reinvented vampires
as nightmarish creatures
that used sex
to lure in their victims.
[sinister music]
The horror masterpiece
"Let the Right One In"
is another
brilliant reinvention.
♪♪
The vampire here lives within
the classic boundaries
of only going out at night
and viciously feeding
on humans.
[body thuds]
But this is not a story
about sex.
It's about love and how much
we are willing to accept
in the name of love.
♪♪
"Let the Right One In"
is about a boy called Oskar
who is getting bullied
in school
and is a bit lonely.
And one day, he meets a girl
called Eli,
and then they became friends.
♪♪
What's special about
my character, Eli,
first of all
is that she's a vampire.
[eerie music]
She has lived
for a very long time.
♪♪
They cut off my lashes
and my eyebrows
to not make me so female,
and it's also not my voice
in the film.
They wanted a voice
that wasn't so feminine.
[speaking Swedish]
Vampires could be, like
they're, like, sexy
or dangerous
or something like that,
and she's, like,
the opposite, I think.
Once you realize
who this girl is
and how long
she's been around and
then it's very haunting
in the sense that, you know,
she's taken on this kid
as her companion.
And we already know
what's gonna happen to him.
♪♪
Probably the scariest
and most powerful sequence
in modern horror
is the final sequence
in "Let the Right One In."
A gang of bullies sees
a very vulnerable child
and shove him underwater.
And there is
a 2½ minute shot
of the boy's head
being held underwater,
and you're seeing him
desperately trying
to get back to the surface
and breathe.
♪♪
But meanwhile,
above the water
[sinister music]
This pipsqueak vampire,
who loves the little boy,
has turned up
♪♪
And is beginning
to butcher the bullies.
[muffled splash]
♪♪
What was beautiful
about that story
is that a monster
comes to the rescue
when humanity fails
this young man,
and who could blame him
for choosing the monster
when humanity was so horrible?
The title has
a double meaning.
It could mean
that you should let
the right person
get into your life,
or, as it is for Eli,
someone has to tell her
that she can come in.
[tense music]
♪♪
For me, the part
of the vampire legend
that has always remained
really powerful
is this idea that they have
to be invited in.
[scratching on glass]
Open the window, Mark.
[mimicking scratching]
"Let me in.
Let me in."
Let me in.
It's okay, Mark.
I'm your friend.
So many times
in people's lives,
you know,
whatever that thing is
that's draining them
of their life and vitality,
so often, they invited it in
♪♪
If it's drugs,
if it's alcohol,
if it's someone
who's just abusive,
you know, who's cruel to you.
A lot of vampire stories
are about
inviting in something
that you think
will bring you bliss
What's wrong, baby?
And that destroys you
instead.
Do you think,
with your crosses
and your wafers,
you can destroy me?
Me?
Traditionally, vampires
have split personalities.
They're both charming
and terrifying,
passionate and deadly.
But in the 21st century,
we've seen
the two halves separate
into the vampire
as monstrous killer
- [snarls]
- [whimpers]
And the vampire
as dreamboat boyfriend.
[dark music]
Vampires, ever flexible,
are being reshaped
to suit audiences
whose needs
are often overlooked,
like the millions of women
and teenage girls
who made "Twilight" the most
commercially successful
vampire film of all time.
[gasps]
[intimate music]
♪♪
Based on
the best-selling books
by Stephenie Meyer,
"Twilight" reimagines
the vampire story
as a teen romance
told from a young woman's
point of view.
The thing that's
kind of cool about "Twilight"
is, you have an ordinary girl
that moves
to this small town
in Washington.
She has to live with her dad
for a while.
She feels like a misfit,
awkward.
And first day of school,
she is kind of attracted
to this amazing
and strange kid, Edward.
Stephenie Meyer,
she had a dream
about this vampire.
When the vampire was out
in the sunlight,
instead of withering,
it did the opposite.
It glowed and glittered
and sparkled.
This is what I am.
[mystical music]
Well, my vampires
break a lot of the rules
if there can really be rules
about fictional characters.
Really, you can do
what you want.
Obviously it's a fantasy
[laughing]
That you're gonna have
the most handsome,
beautiful, amazing guy
in the world
that's madly in love with you
and will take care of you
and protect you.
[tires squealing]
- [gasps]
- [grunts]
I mean,
it's a great fantasy.
It's not,
"We shouldn't kiss
"because maybe won't
like each other
or maybe we're gonna make
someone else upset."
You're adding this element of,
"If I lose control,
I might kill you,"
which is so dark
and so dramatic,
but at the same time,
that's what it feels like
when you're young.
It feels like life and death.
Just stay very still.
I really thought it was
a fantastic challenge
to create that
emotional intoxication
- of first love.
- Don't move.
[intimate music]
I thought, "Can I show that
on-screen?
"Can I make people as crazy
"about a cinematic version
as the book
made people crazy?"
♪♪
And yeah, I think we did
make them pretty crazy.
[laughing]
[crowd screaming]
You can't dismiss something
that had such a giant hold on
on fandom.
I remember going
to Comic-Con a few years back
when the second
"Twilight" movie
was coming out,
and kids were camped out
on the lawn for 24 hours.
So obviously,
it had something to say.
♪♪
You don't know how long
I've waited for you.
I honestly find its gender
and sexual politics
pretty problematic,
but that being said,
I think it takes
women's desires seriously
in a way that most
Hollywood cinema does not,
most popular culture
in general does not.
The focus is more
on her desire for Edward,
on her attraction
to Edward
and at some points Jacob.
It's not about them
lusting after her.
[soft music]
[chimes tinkling]
There was a photo
of one kid at Comic-Con
when "Twilight" came out
there was, like,
some angry kid
with a huge placard that said,
- "Nosferatu didn't sparkle."
- Yeah.
And I was like, "That's me.
I'm that kid."
The whole vampire idea,
the romantic vampire,
has always been popular
with teens,
early 20s and things
particularly women
because it's seen
as almost, like,
no-fault sex.
And after all,
what's he really gonna do?
He's gonna give you
a great big hickey,
like on Lover's Lane.
[dark music]
But that's not the way
it's supposed to to be.
To my mind,
I'm a classicist, man.
[growling]
- [hissing]
- Hey! Stop!
- [hissing]
- Who are you people?
- [screeches]
- [grunts]
- [screams]
- [screeches]
"30 Days of Night"
took vampires back
to their dark
and vicious roots.
There are no sparkling,
romantic demigods here
- [screams]
- Just ancient
evil predators.
[vampires screeching]
[sinister music]
Well, in "30 Days of Night,"
my character is
is a sheriff
up in Barrow, Alaska.
And in Barrow, Alaska,
apparently, the sun is down
for almost a month
in the middle of winter.
Hence the "30 Days of Night"
title.
♪♪
Vampires have figured out
that this is
a really good place to go
and have a low-effort meal.
We have to cut off,
or they'll hear you.
The vampires close in
on the town
I'll call you back
when it's safe.
And then the rest of us
who are there
try to survive for a month.
- [loud bang]
- [gasps]
Jesus!
Christ!
[banging]
[engine revving]
- [yelps]
- [screeches]
We spend a lot of time
running away.
[laughs]
David Slade's
"30 Days of Night"
which was written
by Steve Niles
and based on
the graphic novel
that was
the complete antithesis
of what "Twilight" represented.
[hissing]
[suspenseful music]
With "Twilight,"
there was always
this friendly side.
They always managed to find,
like, a friendly human side
to the vampires.
When I was doing the scripts
for "30 Days of Night,"
I really tried to go against
what everybody else was doing.
[growls]
You had vampires returning
to their feral form,
almost Nosferatu-like
but something
completely different.
- [screeches]
- [hollers]
- [screams]
- These are land sharks
that will kill you, you know,
just as soon as look at you.
[sinister music]
- [screeches]
- By stripping the sexuality
out of the myth,
"30 Days of Night"
drilled deep
into the primal fear
at the heart of every
vampire story:
- the fear of death.
- [roars]
[dramatic music]
One of the most
beautiful things about
the horror genre
is that the stakes
are implicitly high,
because you're dealing
with life and death.
[hollering]
And that gives horror
a certain operatic quality
to it,
where there is no choice
but to survive and thrive
or be one of the body count.
♪♪
- [croaking]
- [screams]
Ultimately, the story
of the vampire
is the story
of our tenuous grip on life.
- I don't want to die.
- [screams]
The bite of the vampire
symbolizes
the hundreds of things
that could kill us
at any time,
no matter how healthy or safe
we think we are.
[screeches]
Your life force
will never be
steadily drained
by an implacable
supernatural foe.
[eerie music]
But some people
will face cancer
in their life.
- [screams]
- Fiction gives us
a safe playground
to consider
what it would be like
to be in
a life-or-death battle
with something draining us.
♪♪
Vampire stories
will remain powerful
as long as we are organic
and full of blood.
And the blood
can be corrupted.
- [gasps]
- So I think the fanged ones
will be around
for a while longer.
[vampires hissing, growling]