Werewolves

Here we go with werewolves! A quick look through the wikipedia article is always a good idea, and this one is much shorter than the article on vampires. It brings up some interesting points, such as: silver bullets are a relatively new idea, as are anthropomorphic werewolves (they used to just be either a person or a wolf). Wikipedia also mentions a book, which Google quickly verifies is one of the most cited books on werewolves: The Book of Were-Wolves. You can download it at that link in the little box on the side. If you ask for a custom PDF (what I did) you can tell it what kind of shape you want it (how big the pages should be, how much margin, etc) which should make it much easier to read. It's only about a hundred and fifty pages, which is pretty doable, I should think. I'll certainly read it, but if the two of you would like to have a stab at it at some point over vacation, that would probably be good too.

Underworld [2003]

We watched 'Underworld' today, it is a movie that i have seen before but had not thought about in terms of defining a vampire. Seeing it again was helpful to me because i was able to notice one big difference between it and other vampire stories. The difference is that in almost every other vampire movie we have seen, either the vampires are bad and out to kill (or turn) everyone or there is some other issue with what the vampires feed on. In 'Underworld' the vampires drink blood from crystal wine glasses and don't mention once where it came from. Instead, the focus is on their age old feud with the lycans. So, despite Nik's complaints about the script and the acting i think i can safely say this was an important part of our view on vampires.
One other thing is the hybrid species created towards the end of the movie; half vampire/half lycan. It is another thing we have not talked about because it hasn't really been brought up in other movies.

Interview With The Vampire [1994]

this movie was umm.. interesting. it had a lot of similar things that we have seen in other movies involving vampires and their reactions to sunlight and garlic and whatnot. the one thing that really came out in this movie (whether or not that was the point) that we have not seen in other movies (except twilight... which we haven't watched but all know of) was the whole gay vampire aspect. i'm not sure that that was what they were trying for, but it definitely came though pretty strongly. also, tom cruise is a gross vampire and should never have long blonde hair in a movie and in fact should just avoid movies all together as per his acting. nonetheless, while this was not the best movie we have seen, it was not the worst either. it showed a very interesting and unique representation of vampires that we have not really come across yet

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter [2001]

JP and MaryAnn missed out on this fantastic "B" movie. It had a bit of everything (Jesus, a Mexican-style wrestler, Mary Magnum, Vampires) while still discussing one of the common problems with new Vampire movies, namely, what's the deal? In this movie, it was discussed that Vampirism can be a virus, a bacteria, or even a fungal infection (with something quantum mentioned). It was also mentioned that the property of light which destroys Vampires may be the way light can act as either a wave of a particle. These Vampires were vulnerable to garlic ($.50 for extra garlic sauce considered worth it by Jesus), stakes, and sunlight. Crosses (at least makeshift ones formed by windshield wipers) seemed not to affect them. These vampires were able to hang around in daylight, however, as they had gotten skin grafts from normal humans (lesbians, in this case, but only because 'nobody would miss them'). However, not even these sun-tolerating Vampires could withstand the light of God, which shone out of Jesus when he was staked. All in all, this movie ranks up there with some of the best I have ever seen.

30 Days Of Night [2007]

ok so we finally finished watching this movie..it took a while but we finally did it. i need to retract what i said about the movie missing the point of the book because it actually got it a little. like i said, in the book the concept is that these young vampires decide to kill everyone in the town of barrow alaska during the 30 days of night that they experience there during the winter, and the elder vampires come along and they are mad at the others for this massacre because it has taken hundreds of years for vampires to slip from truth into legend. while this was not a predominant part in the film, they still made a point to touch on it.
overall, i think the movie was a pretty good representation of the book, aside from the parts that where the film took liberties in dramatization (but come on, what do you expect from a book made into a movie [especially when the movie has more minutes in it than the book has pages]).
anyhow. this was a new look at vampires for the class. we havent really seen any ones that are just blood-thirsty-messy-eaters. most of the ones that we have seen have been classy-tux-wearing-breast-biting-sip-your-blood-from-a-wine glass-vampires. so this was a good addition (i think) to our collection of vampires

Hellsing: Episode 01

I watched the first episode of "Hellsing" to see what it is like. What i gathered is that there is a Hellsing corporation that works to track down and kill vampires. Alucard (dracula...) is a vampire who despises most other vampires, he works for the Hellsing corporation, specifically for some woman with long white hair.
In "Hellsing" if a vampire drinks human blood, the human will then turn into a "ghoul," which is basically a zombie controlled by the vampire who drank their blood. Alucard uses silver bullets made from a melted down cross to kill vampires as they cannot be killed by regular bullets. I will probably watch a few more episodes and i will let you all know if i can get any other information from them.

The Hunger [1983]

I was randomly looking up some more movies and came across "The Hunger." Since it had David Bowie (!!!) in it, i had to watch a preview. It looks um *interesting* but since it's on netflix we could watch it. OR i will take some time to watch it and give you guys a review and run down of the vampires. It is based around the (anti)aging aspect of being a vampire. And the sexual aspect, too. It might be a little on the weird side, but we made it through "Vampire Lovers" so let me know what you think.

Let The Right One In [2008]

We watched "Let The Right One In" today. It is *Swedish,* not French, sorry everyone for telling you it was French.

Some basic ideas from the film were these: sunlight burns vampires very badly; a vampire will shake violently and bleed if [it] enters a space without being invited in first; it is not wonderful in any way to be a vampire (you don't sparkle); if a food victim is not killed he/she becomes a vampire within a short time after becoming very sick; once turned, a vampire will stay the same age until it is destroyed [implied]; vampires are very human in their feelings and actions; vampires have at least some control over their blood lust and can keep from killing someone if they wish to; cats hate vampires; vampires will throw up if you give them "people food"; vampires are very strong and can hurt you very badly if you mess with their cute little boyfriends; they are capable of love and affection.

If you have anything else to add, please do.

Meddling Kids: Mankind's Last Hope

Hellsing..

Just a thought... We could read a little Hellsing, i wouldn't mind doing it and i think i could find some somewhere... Max might have some of the books hidden somewhere or we could just watch an episode. They couldn't be that long. It is the anime version of Van Helsing fighting vampires and other such monsters.