The Greatest Compliment

[tinhuviel]

There was a consensus, especially when I was growing up, that a Vampire was essentially this ugly creature of the night. Sure he was charming and could appear lovely but, when he was in full Vampire mode, he was this hideous creature. I personally never saw the Vampire in this way; rather, I thought of the Vampire as this beautiful being with the

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[teague]

I was talking to Deb last night about the new Fright Night movie, and she haaates Colin Farrell. I personally am not his biggest fan, but from the previews I have seen, I think he's going to do Dandridge properly. What I liked about the original story, and what I hope is preserved in the new one regarding Dandridge is that he's very modern. For a vampire he's incrediblty unpretentious. That doesn'r mean he lacks Glamour. It means he made a conscious choice to dial it back. To be a wolf in sheep's clothing. He woke up one evening laying on a pile of dead, beautiful people and said.. "I just can't do this any more.. I think I need to move to the suburbs..." If you watched the second one, featuring his "sister," you can probably see how that's true. She's definitely not a suburbs kinda vampire. She has a whole little coven of exotic beauties. He chose to bring one ghoul who looks like any attractive guy you might see in the neighborhood. Kinda wholesome looking in fact.



Her and her Coven



Him and his servant.

And it isn't like Near Dark where the vampires were pretty much just white trash to begin with, and made it their thing. You can tell he chose to embrace this. It's just so subversive. I love it.

[tinhuviel]

See I think Dandridge has much more natural Glamour than his sister or any of her subjects. The scene where he is seducing Amy and he just stops and is looking at her with this sublime sadness on his face? GLAMOUR. :D Whereas the sister is "glamourous," Jerry possesses the sorcery. Does that make sense?

[teague]

Oh, I do agree. I didn't mean to say he didn't possess Glamour. It's more he *chose* to adopt a facade of being ordinary. It's that conscious choice that is subversive, and amongst the movie vampires, he alone seems to really commit, or get it right. Not even the Twilight Twinkies made a home in a modest two story in Colonial Tractville. I get the sense that he was very old, and yes, very powerful, and he just wanted to retire as it were, even if only for a couple of decades. Being a ruthless preditory sex god was finally boring to him. He caught himself looking at Ikea catalogs, and feeling a weird need to be something he wasn't. The challenge he sought was to blend in, not be invisible. To wave at neighbors while he stood on his porch after sundown, observing the flowerbeds that his servant had carefully placed. To feel amusement at the antics of the neighbor's pets. Those were the things he couldn't naturally reach with his power. And yes, sister did seem only more powerful because she was still embracing her preditory state.

[tinhuviel]

Agreed. Alex (the sister) came across to me as a Vampire poser. Her harem did, too, for that matter. Zipping around on a skateboard in the middle of the night does not a Vampire make. ha ha! Most of the Goth rock musicians from the late 80s to present do not Vampires make; however, Barry, who has no truck with the Goth world, is wholly Vampiric. Gary Oldman's Dracula possesses that sorcery, but Bela Lugosi's does not, despite what most people's opinions are regarding that. I know he's an icon in this genre, but it's not how I see the Vampire or his world. I've been told I have a screwed up view of what is and isn't Vampiric, but I'm a Lord Ruthven kind of gal, subject to anything remotely aligned with the idea of Michael Nouri's very Dandridge-esque interpretation of the Dracul.

[teague]

David Bowie in The Hunger...

David Bowie, period.

[tinhuviel]

::nods:: yep!