Leon Hunt - Screening the Undead: Vampires and Zombies in Film and Television

Leon Hunt is Senior Lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Brunel University. His books include Kung Fu Cult Masters: From Bruce Lee to Crouching Tiger (2003) and Cult British TV Comedy (2013). He is co-editor of East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film (2008).

Sharon Lockyer is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communications at Brunel University. She is editor of Reading Little Britain: Comedy Matters on Contemporary Television (2010). She is also co-editor (with Michael Pickering) of Beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humour (2005, 2009) and (with Feona Attwood, Vincent Campbell and I. Q. Hunter) of Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge (2013).

Milly Williamson is Senior Lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Brunel University. She is the author of The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy (2005) and Celebrity: The Making of Fame (forthcoming).

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Copyright Editorial Selection and Introduction 2014 Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer and Milly Williamson

Copyright Individual Chapters 2014 Stacey Abbott, Costas Constandinides, Ian Cooper, Emma Dyson, Darren Elliott-Smith, Russ Hunter, Peter Hutchings, Steve Rawle, Jeffrey Sconce, Milly Williamson, Andy Willis, Nicola Woodham

The right of Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer and Milly Williamson to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

ISBN: 978 1 84885 924 1

eISBN: 978 0 85773 543 0

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Illustrations

Contributors

Introduction: Sometimes They Come Back The Vampire and Zombie on Screen

Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer and Milly Williamson

Part 1

The Mark of the Vampire Race, Place, Gender and Identity in the Modern Vampire Film

1 Manson, Drugs and Black Power: The Countercultural Vampire
Ian Cooper

2 Taking Back the Night: Draculas Daughter in New York
Stacey Abbott

3 Northern Darkness: The Curious Case of the Swedish Vampire
Peter Hutchings

4 Let Them All In: The Evolution of the Sympathetic Vampire
Milly Williamson

Part 2

Rewriting the Living Dead The Zombie in Popular Culture

5 Dead Metaphors/Undead Allegories
Jeffrey Sconce

6 Nightmare Cities: Italian Zombie Cinema and Environmental Discourses
Russ Hunter

7 Diaries of a Plague Year: Perspectives of Destruction in Contemporary Zombie Film
Emma Dyson

8 Death is the New Pornography!: Gay Zombies, Homonormativity and Consuming Masculinity in Queer Horror
Darren Elliott-Smith

Part 3

Hybrid Bloodlines

9 From Mexico to Hollywood: Guillermo Del Toros Treatment of the Undead and the Making of a New Cult Icon
Costas Constandinides

10 Nollywood, Our Nollywood: Resisting the Vampires
Nicola Woodham

11 The Ultimate Super-Happy-Zombie-Romance-Murder-Mystery-Family-Comedy-Karaoke-Disaster-Movie-Part-Animated-Remake-All-Singing-All-Dancing-Musical-Spectacular-Extravaganza: Miike Takashis The Happiness of the Katakuris as Cult Hybrid
Steve Rawle

12 Amando de Ossarios Blind Dead Quartet and the Cultural Politics of Spanish Horror
Andy Willis

Bibliography

Notes

1 Hammer films return to the vampire film: Let Me In (Hammer Films).

2 The zombie as pale vampiric beauty: Plague of the Zombies (Hammer Films/Studio Canal).

3 Vampire plague, zombie besiegement: The Last Man on Earth (Orbit Media Ltd).

4 The pathos and vulnerability of the lone zombie: Colin (Nowhere Fast Productions).

5 Dream sequence in The Velvet Vampire (New World Pictures).

6 A victim of Yorga feeds on her pet cat Count Yorga, Vampire (American International Pictures/MGM).

7 Nadjas pale face and cloak, reminiscent of Countess Zaleska from Draculas Daughter ( Nadja Kino Link Company/Siren).

8 City lights superimposed over Nadjas face, whose brain lights up like a big city ( Nadja Kino Link Company/Siren).

9 Nadja and Cassandra merge ( Nadja Kino Link Company/Siren).

10 What a totally uncool way to die death by garden gnome in Frostbite (Fido Film AB).

11 Elis companion incompetently trying to procure blood for her: Let the Right One In (Momentum DVD/Bavaria Media Group GmbH).

12 The ambiguous relationship between vampire Eli and human Oskar in Let the Right One In (Momentum DVD/Bavaria Media Group GmbH).

13 Bella learns that Edward is a vampire ( Twilight Contender Entertainment Group).

14 Bellas love for Edward transcends all boundaries (including life) and gives meaning ( Twilight Contender Entertainment Group).

15 Disfigured Hakkan letting Eli into his hospital room to drain him of blood and kill him ( Let the Right One In Momentum DVD/Bavaria Media Group GmbH).

16 Undead allegory: the shopping mall in Dawn of the Dead (Laurel Group/Arrow Video).

17 Underestimating the zombie horde: an unwise biker checks his blood pressure in Dawn of the Dead (Laurel Group/Arrow Video).

18 The living and the undead co-exist in zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead (Universal Studios).

19 Make-up designs in Nightmare City reminiscent of victims in the Seveso disaster (Blue Underground Inc.).

20 Environmental undead: the resurrected tramp Guthrie in The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Blue Underground Inc.).

21 Environmental horror: George attacks the agricultural machine in The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Blue Underground Inc.).

22 Apocalyptic zombie narrative comes to London: 28 Days Later (20th Century Fox).

23 A diary of cruelty? Jason Creed films the undead in Diary of the Dead (Optimum Home Releasing).

24 The scene of evisceration with Otto as a ravenous bottom: Otto; or, Up With Dead People (Jrgen Brning Filmproduktion/Existential Crisis Productions/New Real Films).

25 The rainbow as a queer symbol halos Otto: Otto; or, Up With Dead People (Jrgen Brning Filmproduktion/Existential Crisis Productions/New Real Films).

26 Near-identical arrival of the protagonists in The Devils Backbone (Optimum Home Releasing).

27 and Pans Labyrinth (Optimum Home Releasing).

28 Nollywood vampires: Armageddon King 1 (Finnu International Productions Ltd).

29 Vampires and 419 culture: Armageddon King 1 (Finnu International Productions Ltd).

30 Film poster for The Happiness of the Katakuris (Tartan Video).

31 The zombie dance in The Happiness of the Katakuris (Tartan Video).

32 Satanic rituals and the Knights Templar Tombs of the Blind Dead (Blue Underground Inc.).