Vampires in the Media
It seems that the topic of Vampires is seen everywhere in the media today, from books and movies to advertisements; you name it. It was recently found that so far since the beginning of the first quarter in 2009 one in every seven book purchases has been a Vampire book. It is just amazing how dependent our society’s interests are on films and literature.
While stories of Vampires have been passed around for countless centuries now, they were never as popular as they have become in our current time, though the descriptions and views of what Vampires are have been highly dramatized and changed over the years. What used to be a demonic and evil blood sucking creature of the night, has now become one primarily of romance and uncanny supernatural abilities.
The interest in this subject has increased dramatically this year alone due to the overwhelming response that one of the best Vampire movies ever made has produced; Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. Stephanie first published the first book in the Twilight Saga, Twilight in the year of 2005 and since has become one of the most promising new authors thanks to the publishing of this astonishing series. I have personally read the entire series thus far and have been thoroughly impressed with Stephanie’s ability to capture her audience the way she has with her approach to one of the most romantic and mysterious creatures of all time; the Vampire. If you have not had the chance to read through the Twilight Saga, I highly suggest picking up a copy at your local book store if you have any interest at all in Vampires as you will not be disappointed with the world the Stephanie has created for her readers.
The novel Twilight became a worldwide box office hit back during the end of 2008 when it became a Hollywood film directed by Catherine Hardwicke and produced by Summit Entertainment. The movie stars Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, and Kristen Stuart as Bella Swan, and it grossed over $382 billion dollars in the box office alone not even including DVD sales.
The sequel to the saga, “New Moon” is scheduled to be released in theaters November 20th, 2009. I personally am expecting the sequel to be even bigger than the release of the first movie “Twilight” with the HUGE response that has been created with the current filming of New Moon. Luckily for fans of Twilight, the current actors are all signed on for all of the movies in the Twilight film series. The release date of the third film based off the novel Eclipse in the series is scheduled to be released in June of 2010; not too long after the release of the sequel New Moon. The fourth and final film in the book series thus far, Breaking Dawn, is not scheduled to be released until sometime in 2013 as of right now but I will keep everyone updated on that as new information is released.
Along with Vampire authors like Stephanie Meyer’s, there is an author that has captured her audience in much the same manner with the release of “The Vampire Chronicles” that began being published back in 1976 and continued with the release of the series which ended with the final book in the series, “Blood Canticle” in 2003. Anne Rice is one of the handfuls of several talented Vampire novel writers that have been able to continually captivate her audience with the unique twists and turns that are depicted in each of the books in this series of ten novels.
Due to the high amount of praise Anne received on her first book in the series; “Interview with a Vampire”, Hollywood decided to make a film based on the book which starred Tom Cruise who played Lestat, Brad Pitt who played Louis, and Kirsten Dunst who played the role of Claudia. This movie quickly became a HUGE hit in the box offices and helped recreate the interest in Vampires again. Of course the film Interview with a Vampire was followed years later with the sequel to the series “The Vampire Lestat”, which was titled “Queen of the Damned” starring Stuart Townsend as The Vampire Lestat and Aaliyah as Akasha the Queen of the Damned. Both films carried with them a different version of the character Lestat as well as different actors for the character role itself. Still I did enjoy both films and am hoping that one day soon another movie will develop out of her Vampire Chronicles series that will captivate the audience just as her books have.
We have talked about authors Stephanie Meyer’s and Anne Rice so far, but I have yet to mention one of the oldest Vampire novelists by the name of Bram Stoker, who wrote the world famous book, “Dracula”, published in 1897. This novel was the key factor responsible for the vast popularity of Vampires and has been the inspiration for many vampire films and novels today. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, he creates a series of diaries and letters, which is how the story is told throughout the book. Although the book did not hit the top of the readers charts right away, the novel eventually took off and today has been recreated in several films; most recent being Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Keanu Reeves which was released in 1992, almost one hundred years after the publishing of the novel. As with the other vampire novel series we have discussed, Dracula also has a sequel titled “The Un-Dead”, which was actually written by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker. The novel has not yet been published but is in the works currently, as well as a film based off the novel which is scheduled to begin filming in June of 2009 with a release date that has not been disclosed at this point so keep checking back for more information on this.
As you can see, Vampires have made quite the name for themselves in history which has carried through today in films and literature and captivates audiences with pure magic and lust for their powers and abilities. While it is entertaining for the mind to take in all of these wonderful authors and producers views and recreations of the classic Vampire, it is also important to understand that these things are created as fictional entertainment only.