Читать книгу Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse - Brad Steiger - Страница 32

In 1897, Bram Stoker wrote a novel that would forever change the way people regarded vampires. In 1920, F.W. Murnau tried to obtain the rights to film Stoker’s, Dracula. When his offer was refused, Murnau made the decision to film his own version (Nosferatu) with actor Max Schreck portraying Dracula as a loathsome bloodsucker, skittering about in the shadows with dark-ringed, hollowed eyes, pointed devil ears, and hideous fangs. With his long, blood-stained talons, his egg-shaped head and pasty white complexion, Schreck’s Nosferatu seems to embody the creature of the undead as revealed by the collective nightmares of humankind throughout the centuries. One can only wonder if it is just an interesting coincidence that Schreck in German means “terror” or “horror”? E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire, released on December 29, 2000, presented the unsettling premise that the monstrous Nosferatu (Willem Dafoe) who assumed the title role in the classic film by F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) was, in reality, actually portrayed by a real vampire, rather than an actor.

Although Nosferatu remains a silent film classic and holds true to the traditional appearance of the vampire, Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula as a sophisticated aristocrat owns the role in the minds of most Dracula aficionados. With a few close rivals—Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, Gary Oldman—Lugosi’s is the first image that comes to mind when one discusses the infamous count. Lugosi first put on Dracula’s evening clothes and cape on Broadway in 1927 for the popular stage play based on the novel. In 1931, he won the role for Tod Browning’s motion picture version of Dracula and forever altered the image of the vampire in the popular consciousness from that of a hideous demon into that of an attractive stranger who possesses a bite that, while fatal, also promises eternal life.

In the twenty-first century, the vampire has become a sex symbol. Audiences were repelled by the image of the monster in Nosferatu. Some women were said to faint or scream during showings of Dracula.

Today the screams of teenaged girls during vampire movies is not due to shock or fear but are prompted by the same frenzied hysteria as that earned by rock stars. The male vampires are buff and handsome; the female vampires are gorgeous and seductive. Who wouldn’t want to be bitten by these gods and goddesses and stay young and beautiful forever?

The zombie of today’s films, games, and books is gaining on the vampire as the most popular of the grotesque creatures who chase down human prey and eat their flesh. However, the zombie may be resurrected, but not as a sexy beast, buff, handsome or beautiful. And the victim of a zombie, once bitten, shuffles about with a gaping wound oozing blood that surely does not improve his or her physical attractiveness or prompt sexual urges.