The genre of horror was created in 1896 and set out to frighten the audience with induced feelings of terror and horror. The sub-genre of Vampires does this, but the way it induces these feelings has changed over time, with the two features of Male Vampires and Female Victims representing this change. Three movies that exemplify the aspect of change within the two features are, Dracula (1931) directed by Tod Browning, Fright Night (1985) directed Tom Holland and Twilight (2008) directed by Katherine Hardwicke.
These three movies represent the change in the genre and society itself. The film Dracula directed by Tod Browning is the story of legendary vampire Dracula. Dracula was the first ever vampire film and therefore the audience of 1931 was not desensitised to the idea of vampires being real, so Tod Browning had to be careful, with the strict laws on what violence was allowed to be shown on the screen, Browning had to induce feelings of horror without creating out cry.Browning did this through make Dracula a vampire of folklore, the epitome of evil that lived far away, in Draculas case it was Transylvania a country only really known by the public to be foreign.
This not only subconsciously connected to the audiences annoyance at foreigners, for taking jobs and space, and therefore gave them an escape to actually dislike them through Dracula, but also created fear within them with the idea that vampires may be real, but did not push so far over the edge of fear into distress because Dracula was foreign, and not in their own backyard.Also the fact that Dracula was injured by religion and the cross and there being Van Helsing who knew exactly how to kill a vampire meant that Browning had another safety netting in case audiences started to distress to much over the idea of being vampires. Dracula being injured by religion also gave the, majority religious, audiences of 1931 another subconscious reason to stay religious, or even become it.But even with these everyday protections just the idea of Dracula being real was enough to frighten audiences, with people said to have fainted while Dracula was first on screen.
This although changes with Fright Night and Twilight, with not as much protection for the audience needed. Dracula as a character though also taps into the audiences Xenophobia, with his character being foreign adding to the horror. Also the way Dracula is able to lure in his victims who seem powerless adds to the horror as they are like fly’s caught in a spiders web, hich is shown metaphorically by Dracula passing through the web without disturbing it while Renfield gets caught. The thought of being powerless against Dracula would create fear within the audience as everyone fears death.
Although Draculas violence is never shown only hinted at, with the biting of his victims never being shown, but his leaning in towards the neck to bite telling the audience what is going on and the idea of it happening was enough to frighten the audience as they were not desensitised to the idea of vampires.Even the death of Dracula, him being stabbed in the heart by Van Helsing, is not shown as it would be against the law and even though the violence is for good, with the audience not desensitised to violence it would be shocking for them rather than relieving since Dracula is dead, unlike in Fright Night and Twilight. As Dracula was the first ever vampire on sliver screen the fact that he existed frightened the audience as the majority were superstitious and would be extremely afraid of Dracula, audiences at the time enjoyed this fear and made Dracula a huge hit that sold 50,000 tickets sold in the first 48hours of release.The implications of Dracula’s success was that it paved the way for other horror movies to be created with Frankenstein being released the same year and desensitised the audience of the time to the idea that vampires were real and gave a new option for audiences to escape through, through concentrating on the unreal and being so shocked by what they are seeing that everything else falls away. This set the standard for other movies like Fright Night and Twilight. In Fright Night (1985) directed by Tom Holland, the male vampire, Jerry Dandridge, has changed the vampire from one of folklore to something that can live right next door.
Jerry is not like Dracula in the way that he is not a vampire of folklore but is still a demonic creature of the night, unlike in Twilight, with Jerry turning into a demonic creature when he becomes his true self and showing that at this time the vampire was still connected to the darkness of life. Also Jerry is not foreign, while Dracula is from Transylvania, Jerry is instead next door to Charley Brewster, can not be hurt by religion unless you truly believe it and there is no one like Van Helsing that knows how exactly to kill a vampire.This is because Dracula and its predecessors have desensitized society to what previously made their movies terrifying so Tom Holland had to make Jerry closer to home, placing him in suburbia, which had grown in popularity at the time and added to the terror because the idea that a vampire could live in a street very much like their own was terrifying. Also the fact that Jerry was not easily hurt by religion, because you had to believe in it for it to work, again added to the fear as people were not as religious as they were in 1931 and lacked that protection.There was even less protection without someone like Van Helsing who new all about vampires and how to destroy them and created more fear as they were an easier target. Violence being shown also helped this, with Jerry biting Amy being shown, unlike in Dracula, but Jerry biting Ed being hidden by Jerry’s coat, as shown in Fig 3, which shows how societies views affect the movies, because with a neck being such an intimate area, a man biting another man there it was seen by society to be to homosexual to be on television, but the bite of Ed is shown in the re-done version of Fright Night (2011) showing how societies views change the genre.
Jerry, like Dracula and unlike Edward, is the villain of the film but unlike Dracula, Jerry shows almost kindness in the beginning towards Charley, giving him the chance to walk away, when he doesn’t all ideas of Jerry being kind go and he is shown to be the evil creature of the night he really is, unlike Edward in Twilight. This showing of kindness again shows how societies views affect films with society at this time being able to handle the idea of vampires having some kindness in them, but with them still being evil creatures of the night in the end, while in 1931, society would not have been able to deal with that idea.Fright Night was a success with it grossing a total of nearly 24 million as shown on rotten tomatoes and had the implication’s of desensitising the audience to violence and the idea of vampires living close by, meaning the vampire genre had to do something new to create fear. The film Twilight (2008) directed by Katherine Hardwicke, with the male vampire Edward Cullen, has changed the vampire genre forever, with it becoming more romantic than horrific.This massive change is the result of horror movies soon after Fright Night becoming B-grade, because audiences had become so desensitized to violence, blood, gore and death, that things like vampires were no longer scary and therefore no longer popular.
So Twilight made the change to suit public demand, forbidden romance. A vampire falling in love with an average human spoke to teenage girls all over the world and brought vampires back into the spot light, but not as the things of terror, as the dark mysterious romantic.The male vampire, Edwards, change to become a vampire girls fell in love with resulted in the male vampire no longer drinking human blood, having a soul, a family, going to high school and protecting those he loves. But Edward still stayed true the horror movie genre by changing the male vampire into a creature that is not easily killed, like by stake in Fright Night and Dracula, instead he is more powerful than Dracula and Jerry, being super fast, strong and even mind reading abilities.Also Edward is much closer to home than even Jerry, with him going to high school with his Female Victim Bella and blending in with society to a larger extent. This was meant to induce feelings of horror, but instead these feelings were over ruled by the fact he uses them to protect Bella from harm, for example when Bella is about to be crushed by a car, Edward uses his super speed and strength to stop the car and save Bella, as shown in Fig 4.
This tells the audience that he does have true feelings for her, unlike Dracula and Jerry for their female victims, and this adds to the romance of the film.But fear is induced by another vampire James, who is not “vegetarian” like Edward. James is the evil vampire of the film and tricks Bella into a trap, and bites her, trying to turn her into a vampire, but Edward saves her by sucking the vampire venom out of her system. This is an act of true love and shows that unlike Dracula and Jerry, Edward does not want to change his Female Victim into a vampire because he truly loves her and is actually the hero of the film.This again takes away from the horror of vampires because although there is no-one like Van Helsing to protect people from vampires, there is now super vampires to protect us from other vampires.
This has had the implication of creating a grey area within the sub-genre of vampire’s, in the way that they are no longer necessarily evil creatures of the night, they could be good. This may be bad for keeping vampires in the genre of horror but has worked in the movies favour with Twilight grossing a total of nearly 400 million dollars as shown by tottentomatoes. om, because it has entered the world of teenage girl fandom and has made vampires extremely popular, but not because they’re scary but because they are romantic. This leaves the genre with the decision of heading along the road of vampires being good, or take a risk and stick with the old.
Female victim’s, unlike male vampires have not had such a dramatic change. In Dracula (1931) the Female Victim Mina is the representation of what a woman of the 1930’s should be. Mina did as she was told by the men around her, was quiet, un-opinionated and conservative.This all changed although when Dracula started to transform her into his mistress, she became the opposite of what a women should be and became instead sexual and went against the men around her.
Mina was a relatable character for the women in the audience and by her change into a sexualised controlling women being punished by the fact that she was turning into a vampire, told the women that if they become like Mina did when she was being turned they would be punished, not necessarily by turning into a vampire, but as long as they stayed good they were safe.This re-enforced the woman’s place and again links back to how societies views affect movies, because if Mina had been like Amy, she would be seen as a women who needs to be disciplined and therefore deserves what she gets, not as a female victim. Mina being attacked by Dracula induced feelings of horror within the women as the idea of being turned into vampires mistress was terrifying, but the knowledge that if they did as they were told and were what a women was expected to be then they would be saved, unlike Mina, gave them the ability to deal with the terror.The fact that Dracula was foreign also helped deal with the fear, and that were so many ways to protect yourself helped. Even so the idea was enough to be terrifying that Mina being bitten did not need to be shown, just Mina lying in what is now known as the stereotypical victim position, show in Fig 5 and Dracula leaning over her let the audience know what was happening, and induced feelings of fear.Mina could not save herself from Dracula and instead needed to be saved by the men in her life, showing how in the society at that women were seen as weak compared to men, as sexual equality was not even at that time and also told the women in the audience to stay with men for protection because the idea of being unprotected was terrifying.
Mina was helpless and the movie created fear within the women by telling them they would be helpless like her.The implications of Mina being the way she is was that it created a basis of what Female victims were supposed to be, helpless, and paved the way for Female victims to change with the times. Through the Female victim you can se societies expectations in what women should be. In Fright Night (1985) the female victim changed into a more self sufficient women, that did not always do as she was told by the men.Amy, Charley’s girlfriend, unlike Mina and Bella was not controlled by men and seemed as if she could protect herself, but this theory was disproven when like Mina she had to be saved by the man in her life as she could not save herself. Also like Mina, when Jerry’s hold became stronger, she became more sexual, telling woman in the audience that if they are not sexual they will be safe from attracting vampires, giving them some protection.
Because even though societies views on women had changed and become more equal, it was still seen as wrong for a women to use her sexuality to try and control a man, because at this time, men were still above women. Women although had become desensitised to the idea of there being a chance they could fall under the spell of a vampire, so Amy whenever she was near Jerry comes under a spell and has no choice but to be attracted to Jerry and cannot say no to him, this hold only becomes stronger when he bites her.This control re-iterates to the women that they are helpless and need a man there to protect them. But the fact that Amy’s man, Charley, is not controlling her like Bella and Mina, represents the society at the time, because feminism was strong at the time as women had been given equal rights with men in 1975, so Amy had to be like a women of the time so she was relatable and the audience could feel the emotions she was portraying, like Mina for the audiences of 1931.The implications of Amy making the Female Victim stronger as a women, meant that female victims could be stronger in other movies and paved the way for characters like Buffy to be created, who actually defeated vampires and saved male victims as well as female victims. But it didn’t mean that all female victims grew stronger.
In Twilight (2008) Bella Swan is the female victim who unlike both Amy and Mina was not a victim to the main male vampire. Instead of being a victim to the main male vampire, Bella fell in love with Edward and actually pursued a relationship with him, rather than having one forced like for Mina and Amy.When Bella first met Edward she was instantly attracted, like Mina and Amy, but unlike previous female victims instead of being afraid of him when she found out he was a vampire, she loved him even more because, him telling her meant he was opening up to her. This was a massive change for female victims, because originally their main purpose was to be afraid of the main male vampire, so fear was created within the audience, but now there is romance instead of fear, taking the film away from the horror genre.
Edward was able to control his blood lust and have a relationship with Bella, which was another massive change in the genre as this did not induce fear with the audience; another vampire was used for that. Bella, like Mina, was controlled by men, but unlike Mina, she went against what she was told to do to save her mother. This was a trap and Bella was attacked by another vampire, James. This is done to subconsciously tell the women in the audience that they should do as they are told, because men know best.Saying this out right would be seen as wrong because women are now mans equals.
Bella is only saved by Edward drinking the vampire venom out of her blood so she won’t make the change. This is done with Bella lying in the same stereotypical position as Minas, as shown in Fig 6, which exemplifies a change in both Female victims and Male vampires and the genre itself, with Mina lying in that position with Dracula trying to turn her into a vampire, changing to Bella lying in that position and Edward trying to stop her turning into a vampire.Showing that male vampires have stopped trying to hurt their female victims and are now trying to save them. The fact that Bella needs a man around and is so helpless, much like Mina, was affected by the fact that the author Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon so does not has the same views on women being so strong minded as others. The implications of Bella falling in love with Edward and not being his victim is that because “her character is so non-descript” as described by film scholar Miss Abbott, anyone can pretend they are her and feel the love Edward has for her is for them.
This is what made the movie so popular with teenage girls, but took away the horror that is supposed to come with being near vampires, leaving the sub-genre at a place where vampires are no longer being seen as scary and are therefore slowly not becoming apart of the Genre of Horror. The sub-genre of vampires has changed over time as shown through the three movies Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning, Fright Night (1985) by Tom Holland and Twilight (2008) by Katherine Hardwicke.The change of the feature of male vampires going from evil creatures of the night to the romantic heroes, and the change of the feature female victims, from helpless women terrified of vampires to still reasonably helpless women who are now in love with a vampire, has resulted in the subgenre of vampires no longer being seen as scary, making it move away from the genre of horror itself.
