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The
sub-genre took a leap forward with the Joel Schumacher
film The Lost Boys (1987) which deftly blended the vampire
myth with hipper-than-thou teen culture. Set in Los
Angeles, the box office hit has been regarded as a touchstone
of 80s cinema and a seminal teenage vampire film, said
to inspire films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
and also the Twilight series. Hollywood also tried reinventing
the traditional vampire film for more mature audiences
with Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire
(1994), an adaptation of the Anne Rice novel of the
same time starring two of Hollywood’s hottest
actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt- though that was only
met with moderate success.
If
there was too much soap opera in Interview with the
Vampire, then Stephen Norrington’s adaptation
of the Marvel Comics character Blade (1998) drained
that all out. One of the most notable attempts at creating
an action film with vampires, the story of a half-human,
half-vampire who protects humans against vampires in
modern-day Los Angeles was successful enough to spawn
two sequels- Blade II (2002) and Blade Trinity (2004).
It also inspired the Underworld franchise, the Russian
Nightwatch series, as well as other vampire action-horror
films such as Ultraviolet (2006), 30 Days of Night (2007)
and Rise: Blood Hunter (2007).
The Romantic Vampire
Vampires
may have crossed over from horror into action and comedy,
but it is only recently- in fact the past two or three
years- that they have finally and definitively made
the leap into romance. Perhaps the first film to do
so was the Swedish vampire horror Let the Right One
In (2008) based on the novel of the same name. The story
of a 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship and subsequently
a romance with a vampire child in a suburb in Stockholm
received widespread acclaim and has won numverous awards
at film festivals around the world.
But
the notion of the romantic vampire is probably best
known in the Twilight series, where the teenage girl
Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart) moves to the
town of Forks, Washington and falls in love with a 104-year
old vampire named Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson).
One can probably never over-estimate the popularity
of the series. The four Stephenie Meyer books in the
series have sold over 100 million copies worldwide as
of March 2010. And just with two films- Twilight and
New Moon- the Twilight films have grossed over US$1
billion in worldwide receipts.
Thanks to the Twilight saga, other
similar stories of vampire-human romances have grown
substantially in popularity. Just two weeks ago, HBO
premiered its third season of True Blood, based on the
Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine
Harris to 5.1 million viewers, 38% more than the season
two premiere garnered. Another such television series,
The Vampire Diaries (also adapted from a novel) attracted
the largest audience of any series on the CW network
when it premiered and has since been renewed for a second
season this fall.
Indeed,
it’s safe to say that with the success of the
Twilight saga, the impression of the romantic vampire
will forever be immortalised in cinema. Whether that
proves as durable as the traditional notions of Dracula
or even the urban vampire remains a tale time will tell.
Meanwhile, the vampire genre should cheer for a definite
record-breaking opening weekend that will surely Eclipse
all other vampire movies that have come before, or for
that matter, all other movies in history.
If
You Missed Part One of "Vampire Evolution: From
Dracula To Twilight"...
The
Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens in theaters 1 July 2010
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The
Lost Boys (1987)
Interview
With The Vampire (1994)
Balde
Trinity (2004)
True
Blood
The
Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
The
Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
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