The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) by Academy Award winner Roman Polanski was a notable parody of the genre. Later films in this subgenre such as Vampyres (1974) became even more explicit in their depiction of sex, nudity and violence.īeginning with the absurd Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) the vampire film has often been the subject of comedy. The first of these, The Vampire Lovers, (1970), starring Ingrid Pitt and Madeleine Smith, was a relatively straightforward re-telling of LeFanu's novella, but with more overt violence and sexuality. More explicit lesbian content was provided in Hammer Studios Karnstein trilogy. The first of these was Blood and Roses (1960) by Roger Vadim. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these.Ī distinct subgenre of vampire films, ultimately inspired by Le Fanu's Carmilla explored the topic of the lesbian vampire. The first of these films Dracula (1958) was followed by seven sequels. While Lugosi had played a vampire in two other movies during the 1930s and 1940s, it was only in this final film that he played Count Dracula onscreen for the second (and last) time.ĭracula was reincarnated for a new generation in the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. Despite his apparent death in the 1931 film, the Count returned to life in three more Universal films of the mid-1940s: 1944's House of Frankenstein, 1945's House of Dracula and 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. A second sequel, Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr. ![]() The next classic treatment of the vampire legend was in Universal's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula.įive years after the release of the film, Universal released Dracula's Daughter, a direct sequel that starts immediately after the end of the first film. Nosferatu is the first film to feature a Vampire's death by sunlight, which formerly only weakened vampires. It would be painstakingly restored in 1994 by a team of European scholars from the five surviving prints that had escaped destruction. The Stoker estate sued the production and won, leading to the destruction of most copies of the film. Ī vampire features in the landmark Nosferatu (1922 Germany, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau), an unlicensed version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. On this account, in early American slang the femme fatale was called a vamp, short for vampiress. , describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star, the poem being used in its publicity. ![]() Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its refrain: A fool there was. These were derived from the writer Rudyard Kipling who was inspired by a vampiress painted by Philip Burne-Jones, an image typical of the era in 1897, to write his poem 'The Vampire'. Vignola), also co-written by Vignola, is the earliest vampire film. ![]() Christopher Lee portrayed Count Dracula in the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starting with Dracula in 1958.
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