Vampires exude
sensuality just like a great marriage. The vampires’ bite can equal a human
kiss or simple touch by the right person that sends electricity through their
bodies. A supposedly forever binding moment is then shared between humans
called a wedding. Between vampires I call it the “transformation”. Both humans
and vampires are linked to each other for all eternity at that point. They are
also marked…vampires by bite marks and humans by their wedding rings (unless
you’re bad and take them off for the wrong purposes…shame on you…LOL). Vampires
have been the epitome of sexuality in movies since the silent films of the
1920’s Dracula to the present day Twilight. Vampires over the years have made
movies seductively enticing to watch.
Once the movie came on (and she was right,
the boys were hot!) I had nothing to worry about. With a cast like Jason
Patrick, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Alex Winters (Bill and
Ted’s dude!), Billy Zane, Diane Weist and Jamie Gertz…how could you go wrong?
This movie went on to become an iconic movie in vampire history and one in
which I compare all other vampire movies. It was a battle of good and evil with
a realistic portrayal of teen life with divorced parents and in a new town. My
favorite was the grandpa who provided the most humor in the movie with such
great quotes as:
“Lucy, you’re the only woman I ever knew
that didn’t improve her situation by getting divorced”.-Grandpa
“Well, now, let me put it this way. If all
the corpses buried around here were to stand up all at once, we’d have one hell
of a population problem”.-Grandpa
“Death by stereo.”- Sam.
“You’re one of them Mike. My own brother! A
god-damn blood drinking shit sucking vampire. You wait ‘till mom finds out!”
–Sam.
Even the every quirky “Frog brothers” get a
good one in:
“I think I should warn you all, when a
vampire bites it, it’s never a pretty sight. Some yell and scream, some go
quietly, some explode, some implode, but all will try to take you with
them”.-Edgar Frog.
“Great! The blood sucking Brady
Bunch!”-Edgar Frog.
And I can’t leave ya without one that sums
it all up from our favorite, David:
“Now you know what we are, now you know
what you are. You’ll never grow old and you’ll never die, but you must feed.”
The
next vampire movie I saw was Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Gary Oldman in 1992.
Irish born Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula published originally in 1897. Stokers
work has been thought of as the original interest in vampires in a publically
positive light. The story has survived over many decades and is still highly
popular today. It’s a well known tale of love, seduction, evil, horror and
adventure. For it’s time in the 1990’s, it was just the beginning of sexuality
on tv and in taking on such a huge role in movies. There was raw, unadulterated
sex between Lucy and what was Dracula. There was sexual tension between Mina
and the “Prince”. There was lesbianism between the vampire women at Dracula’s
castle and sex between them and Jonathan Harker. However, if you weren’t paying
attention, it was very subtle and you could miss most of it. The cast of
characters, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and of course the
aforementioned Gary Oldman as Dracula/Prince. Of course I’m liking this quotes
section so here’s a couple more:
“Absinthe is the aphrodisiac of the self.
The green fairy who wants your soul. But you are safe with me.”-Dracula
“I am the monster that breathing men would
kill. I am Dracula!”-guess who?
Another
vampire movie I saw early on (and that’s on my list) that greatly influenced me
was Interview with A Vampire in 1994. When it was first published that Tom
Cruise was playing a blonde Lestat, I too was like Anne Rice and was going to
boycott the movie. However, after her full page retraction I reluctantly agreed
to see it and he was fantastic. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst have also performed
their best roles for me in this movie. I’m sure you’ve all seen it but here’s
the basic rundown. It’s an epic tragedy about love, loss, guilt, death,
conscious, evolution and coming to terms with the narrator Louis’ own
immortality. He is given a “gift” by a stranger in a much needed time in his
life. Lestat, a vampire had big plans for Louis. They traveled as companions
until Louis longed for more. Lestat created a child vampire as another “gift”
to Louis. The two revolted against Lestat and left him a broken, nearly
destroyed vampire. The journey that
moviegoers were taken on was very much like the book and was phenomenal. I am
so glad I agreed to see it and it set a precedence for me in my life that I
should try things before judging them. It really hit home for me. More quotes I
enjoyed from this movie were:
“Claudia! What have we told you?” Lestat
demanded. “Never in the house? “ she responded innocently as she bled the
seamstress devoid of blood.
“Your body’s dying. Pay no attention. It
happens to us all.”-Lestat.
“Merciful death. How you love your precious
guilt.” Lestat.
A
movie I saw much later in life as it never appealed to me was From Dusk Till
Dawn, 1996. With stars like George Clooney, Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino and
Danny Trejo, it wasn’t until I found out that Salma Hayek was in it and a
little coaxing from hubby that I decided to watch it. I’m more into the pretty
vampires and this movie sure did not fill that category for me (that’s why I
didn’t want to watch it in the first place people-lol). Anyway, the plot was
very comedic…what plot there was and the attack scene at the end was good and
bloody. Now, on to the good stuff and the only reason to watch this movie. It’s
a well known fact (if you like Salma Hayek) that she is deathly afraid of
snakes. However, she does a scantly clad dance with this albino snake wrapped
around her that is so sensuous she’d have all the men in the room drooling and
the women in the room either drooling too or envious. Again with the quotes:
“Has anybody here read a real book about
vampires or are we just remembering what a movie said? I mean a real book.”
“Well, it’s been one long goddamn hot
miserable shit-ass fuckin’ day every inch of the way.”-Earl
Now,
for the first of the Blade movie to be revealed in 1998 with Blade II in 2002
and Blade Trinity in 2004 (all on my list). Wesley Snipes should have made a
killing (get it? A ‘killing’? lol) at these movies. All but the second one did
really well and the second one did semi-well because people wanted to see the
follow up to the first one that kicked butt. People were more cautious about
the third one but with the cast and word of mouth after it came out it became a
success. Cast members like Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Dorff, Ron Pearlman,
Jessica, Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey, Triple H and Dominic Purcell all
helped push the movies to stardom. The Blade movies were also the first movies
with a black vampire superhero that actually. Come on people, don’t even go
there and say “Blackula” ‘cause you know it sucked. These movies were about one
vampire hybrids quest to exterminate the ‘bad’ vampires in town. He worked
alone as a haunted, solemn being until
the third movie when he got help whether he wanted it or not. There was
actually humor in the third movie which had been lacking in the other two but
with a character like Hannibal, you’re bound to have some fun. Some of my
favorite quotes by him are:
“God! See, one of the cool things you
fuckheads need to know about us Nightstalkers is that when you join our little
club, you get all sorts of groovy little door prizes. One of them is this nifty
little tracking node surgically implanted in your body.”-Hannibal King
“…and unlike typical vampires, her fangs
are located in her vagina.”-Hannibal King
“You’re human.”-Blade. “Barely. I’m a
lawyer.”-Kounen
“You give Frost a message from me. You tell
him it’s open season on all suckheads.”-Blade
Following
that is Dracula 2000 with Gerard Butler. The plot is simple and not on my list
of favorites or movies to see but worth a mention for the violence. Van Helsing and his apprentice in training
pose as antique dealers. Dracula then kidnaps Van Helsings’ daughter. The two
men spring into action and hunt Dracula from continent to continent. This was
supposed to be the “Millenium Dracula” but for me it fell short. The only up
side for me was that it was done by Wes Craven so it had that dark side that
suits him so well.
Next
we have a somber and sensual “Queen of the Damned” from 2002 (on my list) and
unfortunately it was Aaliyah’s last movie. It was her first starring role, as
she’d played bit parts in a few other movies. She was sadly taken from us in an
airplane accident when it crashed with her aboard. However, her role in this
movie with never be forgotten. This is a story of loyalty, pride, moral ethics
and self discovery. Lestat slumbers in
his tomb for decades as the world above him changes. He is drawn out by music
and finds he has a temptous voice. He decides to reveal himself as a Rock God
and a vampire to the world. A sentence of death by other vampires but the
attention of an ‘ancient’ vampire is caught and she keeps him safe. After he
realizes her plans to populate the world with only vampires, he breaks his
loyalty to her and helps the other vampires destroy her for all eternity. With
Stuart Townsend we see more of a sensual Lestat than a controlling Lestat like
we did in Interview with A Vampire. He’s very smooth, composed and debonair yet
very tormented as well. This movie was also based on one of the fabulous Anne
Rice books with the same title. A few favorite quotes:
“With all my black little heart.”-Lestat
“My children! It warms my blood to see you
all gathered plotting against me.”-the Queen
Next
comes the Underworld series (also on my list). The first Underworld came out in
2003 which was followed by Evolution in 2006 and Rise of the Lycans in 2009.
The first movie goes into some detail about this beautiful vampire warrior
woman who was saved by the ruler but she’s a little rebellious. She meets up
with a man that’s part werewolf and she falls in love as she fights the very
thing she’s fallen in love with. In Evolution, both Selene and Michael from the
first movie are trying to track down their bloodlines. They are in a rush to do
this as they are being chased for Selene’s killing of the ruler, his first
brother has awakened from his tomb and is awakening his second brother and if
he’s done and the information is not to them in time they will destroy everyone
and everything. In Rise of the Lycans, it goes back to before the first
Underworld and gives the back story. It explains who Lucian is and how he
became a Lycan, how the race was started, the beginning of the feud between the
bloodlines between the vampires and the Lycans who were once the protectors of
the vampires during the day. These are definitely good movies to watch (hence
they are on my list) but though they bounce around, watch them in the order
they were put out. Don’t screw around with it and try to watch the last one
first. It’s nice to have it all tied up in a pretty bow at the end for you.
With a cast of Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Tony
Curran and Rhona Mitra, it’s a must see.
Next,
we have Daybreakers in 2009 with Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill. It was kind of an
odd movie and went to DVD sort of quickly but I enjoyed their different point
of view. It was a vampire world and humans were only there as blood supply and
they were running out. The movie talked about what would happen, the Science
that was taking place to fix the problem and the Government that didn’t want
the problem fixed. The vampires looked all too real in this movie, just like
humans and I think brought it a little too close to home for many so that’s why
it didn’t do well. I just thought it moved too slowly (I like action movies) so
I was a little bored.
Finally,
we have what all the Twihards have been waiting for…The Twilight Saga. Ok. Show
of hands. How many actually sat down and read the books? I guessed as much. Probably
only us adults so we know how much better the books really are and how
sensationalized the movies were. It looks like each movie came out a year apart
and the last movie is being split in two, a year apart as well. I think the
casting was done very well…very hip and fresh which made the characters
identifiable with today’s youth since that’s who the producers decided to make
their target audience. For the most part, the movie stayed somewhat close to
the book, it’s just that they pulled out the innocence and sensuality and mixed
in some humor and action in an attempt to accommodate everyone. I dragged my
hubby to see all of them and he actually liked the third one, Eclipse the best.
I have a bunch of quotes I like from the movies:
“Well, I am hotter than you.” Jacob
to Edward
“Does it own a shirt?” Edward
“So the lion fell in love with the lamb.”
“What a stupid lamb.” “What a sick, masochistic lion.”-Edward and Bella
“You know, your mood swings are kinda
giving me whiplash.” Bella
“Wait! You’re not leaving, you’re coming
back right?” “As soon as you put the dog out.” Bella and Alice
“What is that god-awful wet dog smell?”
Alice
“Bella, would you please stop trying to
take your clothes off?” Edward
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