Kill Breed – A Look at the Many Species of Vampires
Steve Barton
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Vampire. Envision the creature. Do you picture the classic cloaked version? Or the frilly shirt-wearing kind? Or the feral? Or god forbid the sparkly ones? Vampires come in all shapes and sizes, and with Rigor Mortis coming to Blu-ray and DVD on July 8th, we decided to take a look at some of our favorites.
Ever since Bram Stoker brought us Dracula, filmmakers and storytellers have been modifying vamps and making them into all sorts of unique beasties. Some are pretty and some are really, really ugly… but they all drink blood and use humans like we use cattle.
Rigor Mortis features a very unique type of vampire, and it’s always fun to see a creature that expands the legend.
So let’s take a look at some of the coolest types of vampires that have come into our lives.
For starters, we’ll begin with the classic vampire. And what do we mean by “classic” vampire? Think back to those Universal films of the 1930’s and 40’s like Dracula with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr.’s Son of Dracula. These feature the classic version of the vampire. The caped, subtly fanged vampires that haunt these films were the original vampiric evolutions, the next step from Nosferatu. Then, from the late 1950’s through the mid-70’s, Hammer Studios and Christopher Lee brought the classic vampire back from the dead once again with films like Horror of Dracula and Dracula: Prince of Darkness. These films solidified the vampire as a well-dressed proper gentleman, but we all knew better. And it wasn’t long before other types of vampires came to our attention.
Vampires do indeed come in all shapes and sizes. It’s hard to believe that The Count teaching children their numbers on “Sesame Street” is technically of the same species as Dwight Renfield, the horrific black Skymaster airplane pilot from Stephen King’s story/film The Night Flier, but I suppose if Dr. Frankenstein’s monster and Herman Munster can be of the same ilk, then so can these vamps.
It is a very lucrative beastie, indeed, the vampire. Here is where we must make our obligatory nod to The Twilight Saga. As horror fans we tend to turn our noses up at these more subdued vampires, but you can’t argue with their value. The five Twilight movies brought in nearly $3.5 billion in revenue. And no, that “b” is not a typo (and that’s just the movies, not even counting book sales!). I think the reason Edward Cullen sparkled is because he was made out of gold. Maybe they’re not your favorite vampires (or maybe they are; the ladies did take a real shine to them), but however you look at them, the Twilight vamps certainly left their mark on the vampire legacy. The trailer is below… you know you’re gonna watch it. It’s okay; we still love you.
Completely switching gears, this brings us to my personal favorite kind of vampire: the feral, animalistic bloodsucker. Although they are not quite wild in 30 Days of Night, they do have animalistic tendencies, as they also do in films like Stake Land and Blade II (let’s not forget Blade II was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who brings his own vicious vamps to F/X in “The Strain,” and it also has a Norman Reedus sighting or two) and Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend. It’s sometimes nice to picture the vampire as a romantic vision of beauty, especially those sexy vampiresses (come on, ladies… we gave you Edward; give us our sultry lady vamps!), but there is something so terrifying about a vampire as an uncontrollable creature. You can have all the puffy shirted vampires you want; for my money a pack of wild fangers coming at you is always going to be a bad day.
That’s not to take anything away from those sexy vampires. They certainly do have their place and we love them as well. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt completely embodied the sexy vamps as Lestat and Louis in Interview with the Vampire, but most recently you can find no sexier vampires than in “True Blood.” Sure, the series might not be as strong as it once was, but you can’t argue the pure sexiness of characters like Eric, Pam and Jessica. Certainly a different vibe than the Interview with the Vampire or Twilight vamps, but for getting down and dirty, you can’t go wrong with the undead citizens of Bon Temps.
Then there was one notable vampire that embodies many of these characteristics and a couple more. When legendary actor Gary Oldman took on the role of Dracula in 1992 in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, he embodied a character that was fierce and loved when he was Vlad III the Impaler. And when he transformed into the vampire, Oldman not only creeped out audiences with his disturbing old man persona, but he also shape-shifted and completely embodied all aspects of the vampire legend.
From Twilight to Stake Land, from Alaska to Bon Temps, vampires have populated every part of our country and will continue to do so. And internationally vampires are also the things that nightmares are made of. Rigor Mortis proves that the vamp legend is alive and well in Hong Kong; be sure to check it out on Blu-ray and DVD on July 8th.
Release Details
Drawing on a range of influences from Hong Kong and Japanese horror-film tropes, pop singer-turned actor and first-time director Juno Mak references vampire myths worldwide for the eerie and chilling RIGOR MORTIS, debuting on Blu-ray, DVD and digital July 8 from Well Go USA Entertainment. A feast for genre fans, the film follows a depressed actor (Chin Siu-ho) who moves into an even more depressing apartment complex and attempts suicide, only to be rescued by Uncle Yau (Anthony Chan). Unfortunately, the suicidal actor has imbued the dark spirits who haunt the apartment with strength. And to add to their worries, one of the building’s residents has brought a man back from the dead… and he’s about to wake up.
Synopsis
A washed-up actor, desperate and suicidal, moves into a haunted apartment building where supernatural creatures, ghost hunters, Taoist exorcists, and the souls of the undead are among his neighbors. Rigor Mortis has a runtime of approximately 101 minutes and is not rated.
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