BloodViolet: Perfect Evolution (and the Buried Soul): What this year's four vampire-hybrid films have in common is an overcoming of our oldest fear.
Quote: >>Pop quiz: Which 2006 film depicts a sexy vampire, skilled at swordplay, gunplay, and/or martial arts, stuck in the middle of a war over half-vampire hybrids? Trick question - four films this year do: in order of their release, BloodRayne, Underworld: Evolution, UltraViolet, and, coming at the end of the year, Perfect Creature. The vampire novels of Anne Rice and the comic-book-inspired Blade movies were no doubt big motivators for creating the current crop - but the particular emphasis all four of the movies place on hybrids- and the possibility of war over genetic purity - suggests that something more than old-fashioned vampirism makes these films resonate with early-twenty-first-century audiences - or rather with the producers who green-lit the projects. In a culture increasingly defined by our ability to mix and match at will - blending pirated elements of old songs to create "mash-ups," blending DNA from different plants and animals, blending elements of various subcultures, eras, and ethnic groups - vampires have clearly ceased to be villains and have become one more exciting style to adopt. Sure, dressing like a vampire is fun for the goths, and rooting for vampires (they kill people, but they have such lovely angst) is a blast for Rice fans - but a true mix-and-match era should hold out the promise of actually being a vampire.<<
Link
posted by johannes,
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
[The Archives]
.
.
.
.
.
|
.
.
.
|
