The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema (Short Cuts)

This introductory volume offers an elegant analysis of the enduring appeal of the cinematic vampire. From Georges Méliès' early cinematic experiments to Twilight and Let the Right One In, the history of vampires in cinema can be organized by a handful of governing principles that help make sense of this movie monster's remarkable fecundity. Among these principles are that the cinematic vampire is invariably about sex and the vexed human relationship with technology, and that the vampire is always an overdetermined body condensing what a culture considers other. This volume includes in-depth studies of films including Powell's A Fool There Was, Franco's Vampyros Lesbos, Cronenberg's Rabid, Kümel's Daughters of Darkness, and Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire.

Jeffrey Weinstock is professor of American literature and culture at Central Michigan University. He is the author of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2007) and Scare Tactics: Supernatural Fiction by American Women (2008) and is an editor for The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.