Musings from the Crypt: Vampire Novels and the American Setting Pt 2

On continuing with my discussion on setting Supernatural stories in my home country of Australia, it seems I am not the only one discussing this right now. TV producers also have discussed this topic at a recent Annual Producers Conference, as to why Australian TV doesn't make shows similar to True Blood set here:

No Vampires In Australia

The producer mention that same could be said for Fantasy or Science Fiction. Is Australia so 'middle-class' and 'bogan' that it can't really have these sort of shows here. I am surprised as American vampire culture ie: True Blood and the Twilight Saga is quite popular here.

We have country towns like Bon Temps, Pamona up near Noosa for example. We have Hinterland up in Springbrook (South) and Maleny and Montville (North) where a Twilightesque setting could happen.

Like I said, Americans have True Blood, Vampire Diaries and other vampire shows all the way back to Dark Shadows. Recently the English have had Being Human, and before that Ultraviolet.

This is quite disheartening. What is so wrong with an Australian setting? Do Vampires and the Outback really clash?

Musing from the Crypt: My Love of Asian Vampire Pop Culture

With Everlost's recent article on the upcoming Japanese vampire film HIGANJIMA, it's resurrected my love for Japanese vampire cinema and other formats.

The trailer for this film looks amazing, and incredibly haunting. Based on a manga, the characters find themselves on a fictional Japanese Island looking for the protagonist's missing brother.

No hopping vampires here, and a big grin spread on my face when I saw the look of its malevolent vampires. Magnificent.

There is something about Japanese Horror that to me makes it stand apart from its Western counterpart. I honestly believe the Golden years of vampire cinema in Hollywood was in the 80's, with such films as The Lost Boys, Fright Night, Near Dark and Vamp and so on. Ever since then it's just been a mess with a few bright sparks here and there, trying to target a teen audience to buy up all the merchandise without really making something special.

I admit I haven't seen all of Asia's Vampire/Horror offerings, we only see a portion of their pop culture here, or at least the more popular ones like Death Note, The Grudge and the Ring for example. But what I have seen I have been impressed with moreso than what I have seen come from Hollywood.

Perhaps where the Western world has tried to modernise their vampires ala Twilight and Underworld, Asian Cinema still uses that old world European charm, still using capes, frills and coffins in their storytelling. Such films as the Twins Effect have a Western Vampire Duke as the villain, but still contain the trappings of cloaks, frills, Gothic Churches and coffins that appeal to me.

Gackt and Hyde's film MOON CHILD is a fabulous 'vampire' movie. Independantly made, the film shows the relationship between Gackt's human character from a child to adult with Hyde's immortal vampire. The pain of his immortality is shown quite beautifully in this film, but the film is more about exceptance, and how the humans embrace the vampire for what he is, even if he won't embrace this state himself.

Perhaps what I like about these Asian films is that the conflicts are more intra/interpersonal than antagonistic like in the Western ones. The heroes aren't really heroes per se, but ordinary people put in a position that is extraordinary and they have a slim chance of surviving it. Also their personal problems reflect the evil that they have to face.

These vampire films have a sense of majesty about them, and there seems to be more of an undercurrent of tragedy evident in these films. At the same time their vampire films can be hip and cool, without the use of teenage characters or actors, which is a big tick in the plus column for me.

Most Vampire Asian films have actors in their twenties or older, though they also tend to dip into the music business for actors, who seem to do a better job of balancing both crafts like Gackt, The Twins: Charlene and Gillain, Ekin Cheng and Hyde. I find teenage characters shallow and self-obsessed, which I find steals away from the story, and impedes character development.

The only vampire story that I think I enjoyed that included teenage characters was the fabulous manga and anime adaptation of Hino's Vampire Knight. Lasting two seasons, the anime explored Yumi's (front) tragic past with the death of her parents and the two men in her life that she loves, the Vampire Hunter cum vampire Zero Kiryu (left), who fights with his own nature while hunting down the vampire responsible for killing his family and marking him with the vampire's bite.

Second is Vampire Noble Kaname Kuran (right), who instigates the attempt at peace between humans and vampires by starting a night class at Cross Academy, run by former vampire hunter Kaien Cross, who is also Yuki's adoptive father. Kaname saves Yumi from a vampire attack at an early age, and watches over her protectively while hiding a deep, dark secret that only him and Kaien are privy too.

This show was set in modern times, and while it did have the annoying teen fan service of female students bleating over the pretty boy male vampire types, VK was a fantastic and tragic story that made it as great as the Vampire Hunter D tales in my opinion.

With Japanese music now, besides the talented Gackt, who was a member of their previous incarnation Malice Mizer, I love the music and mystique of Visual Kei band MOI DIX MOIS. Formed by Mana who also formed Malice Mizer, he is also responsible for the large Gothic Lolita and Elegant Gothic Aristocrat movements in Japan (he is also a fashion designer), this band strikes a chord with its gothic/vampire sensibilities.

Even though their vampire image has lessened with every album (they still retain a Funeral Goth appearance), it was at its peak with their Malice Mizer album Bara no Seidou from the end of the Khala era. Their fantastic silent Dracula movie Bara no Konrei ~Mayonaka ni Kawashita Yakusoku (Bridal of Rose ~The Promise Exchanged at Midnight) is a pure Gothic Delight, and with their album Bara no Seidou playing in the background, it certainly is a must to watch. Those who are interested in watching it can find it on Youtube under "Bara no Konrei".

Mana has a dual personality in this band, wearing his designs of both GL and EGA, and while he isn't the singer (Mana doesn't speak in public) he is the guitarist and songwriter. Readers interested in listening to their music should listen to the songs Nocturnal Romance, Monophobia, Eternally Beyond and Deflower for a taste.

So readers, what are your favourite Asian Vampire movies/tv shows? I am interested in watching quality vampire movies that I have not heard about, and hope to experience.

Musings from the Crypt: Vampire Novels and The American Setting

I want to talk about the setting of the story in this post, which relates to my recent post of "head vs heart" when it comes to writing vampire fiction.

MOST vampire novels, and by that I mean modern, are set in America (some partly). This also includes other urban fantasy stories and most comics. Of course most authors that write these stories are American, but it gives me the impression that an American reader who is a fan of this genre will not read a vampire story that is primarily set outside America. By all means I am not being discriminatory towards Americans so let me give you an example:

The script for the Constantine/Hellblazer movie based on the Vertigo Comic created by Garth Ennis was floating around Hollywood for years. The script contained the proper setting and nationality of the story and characters. England (Liverpool) and John Constantine was Blonde and English. No-one was interested and it sat in limbo hell for a while.

Suddenly someone (the writer) has a bright idea (whether someone else [read: Producer] told them to or not I am not sure) to change the setting to America and make Constantine American (which totally fucks with the mythos and feel of the story anyways IMHO) and suddenly Constantine becomes a black-haired American played by Keanu Reeves and it's immediately green-lit with a huge budget and released in cinemas.

From IMDB trivia:

It is widely believed that the character of John Constantine was changed to an American so that Keanu Reeves could play the role. The truth is the original script retained his nationality but got no response from producers. So the writer changed him to an American and the script quickly gained attention.

That there is my point.  I have never been to America, I almost went to New Orleans in 2004 but ended up going to Romania on a Dracula Tour instead. So if in my vampire story I wanted to set it in Australia, England, or even a fantastical land/island would it be accepted? I feel I couldn't do the Aermican setting justice having never set foot on American soil, so why would I want to write about a real place I've never been to?

Furthermore let me state that the American cities of New York, Los Angeles and others as a constant setting for these urban fantasy horror novels has gotten so goddamn boring, repetitive and tedious. Doesn't anybody want to read about a vampire in Greenland or perhaps Scotland or Asia? I am not talking about films or manga/anime here, but I really think that the modern setting of vampires should be expanded upon. Let the Right One in had a setting in Sweden, but that is one of the rare examples.

Why would a centuries old creature always want to visit America? I've lived 35 yrs without really desiring to visit the place, and I am huge pop culture fan of American Comics. Why wouldn't a vampire want to settle in New Zealand or Indonesia?

So what are your thoughts on book setting, and the overuse of American locations real or fictional? Do you think it's necessary and part of 'connecting' with the audience, and for the audience to sympathise with the character who is caught in familiar surroundings to them, or do you really want to read about somewhere that hasn't been written about before so your imagination can really take off?

Fresh From The Crypt:

Written by good friend and  English Vampire blogger Andy Boylan, I got this book both as a PDF file (that I put on my iPhone to read at work), as well as the softcover that is coming from Lulu via post.

Synopsis: The Concilium Sanguinarius, the Council of Blood who rule the vampires with an iron fist and manipulate the mortal world from the shadows, with a deftness born of the countless centuries.

In New York, as the millennium moves and the twenty first Century dawns, a female vampire, Danaan, feels pangs of loneliness and begins to search the night for a companion.

Also in the city is Ymochel, outcast and distrusted, and eager for revenge on the Concilium and, more specifically, Danaan. Theirs is a history that crosses boundless centuries and a myriad taboos, but now their histories converge in the most violent of ways.

But do they act alone, or is a more sinister power at work? What occurs between them threatens the entire stability of vampire society.

I also got the free e-book "Behind the Masque" I will be reading and reviewing as well.

Musings from the Crypt: Today's Vampire Fiction

I have decided to expand this blog to not only write reviews, but to discuss my own musings and concerns of the Horror genre, perhaps even as some kind of daily diary. I have other blogs, though I don't delve into their genres as much, and other than horror I have my weekly comics, some of which are good enough to review. I personally find it heavy-minded to constantly write reviews for things I've read that I disliked.

I was thinking today in terms of writing vampire fiction, and whether "Gothic Horror" (GH) has a place in the vampire genre's modern incarnation. The reason I ask this is because it's my favourite kind of vampire fiction. Crumbling castles, haunted crypts, vampires who sleep in coffins under their castles, ghosts who haunt the cemeteries and werewolves who prowl the dark forest that border the castle on a full moon.

Recently I have read and reviewed some GH novels like Mr Darcy, Vampyre and I constantly love to rewatch my Hammer Horror and Subspecies films. But do I need to modernise my tastes? If I am to write a vampire novel, or any horror novel for that matter, does it now need to be set away from these GH traditions to be marketable? Do I have to honestly write some teen fluff or a vampire bodice ripper to have my work cross a publisher's desk?

Is GH in its truest form truly dead, and do today's readers of Horror care about black capes, Ravenloft-type settings and plot, or are we as amateur writers expected to bend to the trend of the current market and write teen angsty fluff with centuries-old vampires attending high school like the current popular vampire stories of Twilight, Vampire Diaries and the Evernight series?

Is there still a target audience for 30+ who grew up with Christopher Lee and Robert Quarry, or has this kind of classical vampire had his day? I still try and find GH novels in the vampire subgenre where possible. Though now they are becoming few and far between (in Australia anyway). Games Workshop have done some fantastic GH series with The Vampire Genevieve and Vampire Wars with the Von Carsteins. The Necroscope and Vampire World series from Brian Lumley are pure gold. The latest "official" Dracula Sequel from Dacre Stoker was pure dross and I didn't give The Historian much kudos either. I think their failing was concentrating on the human characters and hardly having "Dracula" appear at all, among other things.

Are Edward Cullen, Damon Salvatore and Bill Compton the new Princes of Darkness? I am a fan of the Sookie books, but they aren't "teenified", and funnily enough the Vampire Diaries show IS actually getting better, the producers are trying to make it more adult and marketable to both Twihards and TB fans.

The reason I am asking this mainly is that while there is a writers' 'rule' that you should write a book that you would love to read, and have fun while doing so, but I honestly believe you have to approach writing a book almost like a business model, study your target audience and the market and make wise decisions. I have misgivings about spending the next year writing a book only for it not to be marketable because it doesn't suit the current 'trend'.

So what will win out? The Head or the Gothic Heart?

Fresh From the Crypt:

Here I continue with these Jane Austen horror adaptations. The first mixes Austen's beloved novel with the current trend of Zombie movies, and a prequel has been announced for March, 2010 titled PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES: DAWN OF THE DREADFULS, which details how Elizabeth Bennett developed the skills of a seasoned zombie hunter that she displays in this first novel.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is a rewriting of the classic Austen novel with a subtle homage to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos added. Hopefully I'll find both entertaining.

To be honest I am not a big fan of Universal's Horror films. Sure they paved the way for Hammer Horror, which I am a big fan of, and I am only really a fan of Lugosi's Dracula followed slightly by it's sequel Dracula's Daughter.

The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Creature from the Black Lagoon and others I find terribly so-so, and while they were innovative for their time I really find no merit in them.

House of Frankenstein brings together Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange), Count Dracula (John Carradine [and not Bela dammit!]), and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr). In the middle is mad scientist (Boris Karloff, the original Frankenstein), who accidently resurrects Dracula and starts the terrible turn of events. So we will see if it stands the test of time in my book.

A Review from the Crypt: Mr Darcy, Vampyre

First let me state that I am in no way a fan of Jane Austen's novels. I saw parts of the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice on television starring Colin Firth, who my wife is a great admirer of, and funnily enough this short glimpse had me picturing him as a vampyre in my mind as I read this novel.

In just over 200 pages this book can be read in one day, and it begins on the morning of the joint wedding between Elizabeth to Darcy, and her sister Jane to Charles Bingley.

After the ceremony instead of having their wedding tour at the Lake District, Darcy surprises his new bride by taking her to Dover to board a ship to Paris.

Soon after the ceremony Elizabeth starts to notice odd things about Darcy. He has a look of torment on his face, and during their voyage to Paris they are attacked by privateers only to turn tail when Darcy walks on deck and Elizabeth feels an awful, malevolent dread emanate from her new husband.

Upon landing on the Continent, Darcy takes her on a whirlwind tour of Paris to meet his cousin, to the French Alps to visit his 'uncle' Count Polidori where they are eventually chased out by a mob, to Venice where she encounters a strange man who haunts her in life and in her dreams, and finally to Italy near Rome where she discovers Darcy's secret just in time for him to save her life from an ancient malevolent vampyre.

I found this story well written and engaging and at first I assumed it was a re-writing of Pride and Prejudice with vampyrism in as much as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was. It seems all these new 'horror' adaptations of Jane Austen's work are written by different authors, including the newer release Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which seems like a treat as it is mixed in with H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. But Mr Darcy, Vampyre is a fictional sequel, and while Amanda Grange takes her characters from Austen's original novel, unlike these other weird adaptations the story is totally original in its plotting.

In regards to vampyre lore, the vampyres here are mostly Draculaesque. The Vampyres' bloodline determined their weaknesses. For Darcy's line, he could not be outdoors during sunrise or sunset as its rays would make his body translucent and expose him to humans as something inhuman. This explains why everyday he would make excuses to disappear at these times. To become a vampyre one only has to be bitten by another and survive, and it seemed no classic blood exchange took place. Vampyres were immortal in as much as they were immune to ageing, but they could be crushed, dismembered or drowned.

Other weaknesses were no reflection (Count Polidori's bloodline), garlic, holy items and churches and so forth. All vampyres in this story could walk in daylight much like Dracula could, and also seemed to possess enhanced strength, eye mojo, power over storms and beasts and shapeshifting. In regards to holy items as a weakness, the artifact had to be older than the vampyre who shunned it, therefore a 3000 year old vampyre could not be banished by a crucifix and could enter churches, but a religious icon of his own time like a sun pendant or ankh could ward him off.

Unlike Interview with the Vampire and other current vampyre literature, the vampyre characters were not major characters nor was the plot centred on their vampyrism, and it was up to the reader, and the characters own freudian slips or name sakes (Polidori) that gave their inhumanity away. The vampyre action is more subtle throughout the novel, though when it appears it is a sudden though a delight. Darcy is more of a Byronic vampyre ala Louis de Pointe du Lac from Interview or Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows, where he finds his vampyrism to be a burden and curse, and struggles with his love for humans and the choice of turning Elizabeth into a vampyre.

For weeks during their wedding tour their marriage remains unconsumated as Darcy lacks faith in his own control of blood hunger, believing he will kill Elizabeth in the heat of passion, or worse make her one of the undead.

The rest of the vampyres, while mostly old (Sophia, Elizabeth's friend in Venice lets slip while showing off her collection of dresses that a certain one was worn when she met Marco Polo five centuries ago) they seemed to have taken on a more civilized form of existence, all feeding off animals and donors to hide their existence from man.

All of the vampyres except one, who is old and malevolent and never named (and I am still trying to figure out who he is supposed to be) never kill humans if they can help it either. Some were still morally grey, and Elizabeth does come up against some of Darcy's family who disfavour her and her marriage to Darcy, but at the end of the book this becomes a moot point when Darcy discovers a way to regain his humanity.

This is the only part of the book I found to be forced and rushed. Darcy is about to turn Elizabeth so they can be together without regret or harm, only for them to come home with a deus ex machina of a magical cure in a ruin that Darcy just happened to visit and remember when he was a boy. The book ended with Darcy making the right choice as what was 'true' in his life and his vampyrism and its tell tale bite marks are washed away. Where other stories have the male vampyre turn his love and they both snuggle up in his coffin at the end, this was a nice change but to say the least I was hoping for Elizabeth to be turned, which of course could be examined in a sequel.

All-in-all this book was engaging and well-written and the vampyre parts where a delight. The book hasn't made me rush out and read any of Jane Austen's straight works, but I now have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters on my radar. Once I finish Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter first.

My score is 7.5 Byronic Vampyres out of 10.