I consider myself to be a rather big vampire buff. I have read all of Anne Rice’s vampire novels. I have written a few vampire characters based off of White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade. And I have played all but the very first Legacy of Kain video games. Not to mention the large amount of vampire movies I have seen, both good and bad. So when I saw a trailer of the first Twilight movie I was intrigued. I went to see it and my face drew up in a half sneer throughout the majority of the movie. I joined the mass of Twilight haters.
“These are not vampires!” I squealed with outrage. “These are sparkly emo fools!” I was pissed off to say the least. I had submerged myself in a world where vampires were cold, calculating killers. Where their years of immortality had molded them into wise and patient hunters. Intelligent yet ruthless individuals who could move humans around like pawns on a chessboard. They would only come out at night as the sun would surely make them…. sparkle??? Maybe it’s just me, but if I saw someone walk out into the sunlight and suddenly start to glitter the first thought through my head would not be “Omgooses! A vampire!” No, it would be more along the lines of this, “Whoa! That guy’s obviously coming out of the closet with some flare. You go girlfriend!”
So that was my general feelings towards the Twilight movie. Now I look around and see the hysteria taking the teenage and not so teenage masses by storm with the release of Twilight 2 New Moon all over again. It’s been interesting to see the rivalries that have come up in this new craze. I’m a big fan of the site My Life Is Average and since the Twilight Fever struck I’ve read snickering comments arise from the Harry Potter section. Stories are told of sordid glares between fan groups and infiltrators on both sides. It’s rather amusing to say the least. I feel like I’m witnessing a Geek Face Off with me giggling in the corner quoting Nicholas Cage, “I want to take his glitter…..off” complete with a glitter taking off hand gesture.
It got me thinking about how silly the rivalry is though. Two sides of the same coin. So where do I stand now? Yes I dislike the Twilight Saga but I’m sure way back when Interview With A Vampire came out it was the same sort of craze. At least I’m thankful that the masses are latching on to vampires again instead of some teeny pop star slut. I’m still sad that the vampires in this movie were just as feeble as the vampires say in Underworld. Ooh we have shiny guns pew pew pew! Unless we’re 1000 years old then we might have some strength. Bah!! I caught myself actually rooting for the Lycans in that one.
And that brings me to the other vampire movies.
The Blade Trinity: I liked the first one til the very end. Explody vampire bubble boy just didn’t do it for me as a conclusion. The second one however, will always be my personal favorite. There was the Elder intrigue, they didn’t sit around and whine about who they could or could not date. No! They had a plan! Lets get together and figure out how to make our race invulnerable! And then experiment! Yes!! That’s how I envision my vampires to act. The third one? Ugh.. seriously? That was Dracula? Some Predator looking guy without the skills? Why would he be running around leading Blade on with a friggen baby? Yeah, I could go on and on about the travesties in that one.
30 Days of Night: I avoided this one at all costs. I had heard some rumors that it was just a bad gore fest vampire film. I’m not really fond of those movies that portray vampires with no mental prowess and just blood thirsty animals.. yes John Carpenter I’m talking to you. So I did not see this in theaters. I had forgotten about it til one of my good friends said it was actually pretty good. What the hell I thought lets give it a go. OMGOOSES! I had seriously underestimated this movie. It was vicious and gory yes, but it was also filled with vampires that had a calculated plan. They knew what they were doing and it worked beautifully! I will rename this 30 Days of Awesome.
There are more that I could go on and on about. So I will just give a few more blurts to the ones I liked. Shadow of a Vampire was unique as it was creepy. Willem Dafoe is excellent in this movie. Underworld 3 Rise of the Lycans is much much better than the previous 2. Interview With A Vampire is still by far one of my favorites and even though I hated how they butchered Anne’s book Queen of the Damned, the soundtrack for that movie was amazing. I’m working on watching another vampire flick called Let the Right One In. Unfortunately it’s subtitled and while I don’t mind reading subtitles at all, its rather difficult to do with a 4 month old. Lets not forget the classics though, Nosferatu and Dracula both awesome by all accounts. But those are the standard horror vamps. I prefer my free thinking devious blood suckers any day.
So lets recap and pull this full circle back to the Twilight Craze. It’s all about a seemingly hot elf like vampire that struggles to be a vegetarian and deal with his dating woes. Sparkles or no it has successfully divided people into rooting for either the vampire side or the wolf boy side. I’ve been told they aren’t actually lycans but spirit wolves or something? Whatever they will be deemed lycans to me. So we have three giant factions Vampires, Lycans, and Harry Potter. I don’t know about you guys but I deem this a win for geeks everywhere.
P.S. Lestat would still kick the shit out of all of them!