Underworld First scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPH743Zd18Y

From the opening scene you see the first female character (Selene) there is a long shot of the back of the female vampire, you can tell staright away that the character is dark, mystierious and alone, as the shot is dark with low key lighting. The character is sitting on the top of a building in the pouring rain watching human characters walking below her.

As the scene starts the main character narrarates the story and the images are shown.

Video Research - "The Perfect Scary Movie" -2005 Channel 4

The perfect scary movie was a talk show about what makes up the a scary movie, and how things have changed to entertain the viewer. The first thing to be discussed was that the monster or monster's never die. And audiences become afraid of vampires (Dracula) and zombies because they were the 'undead' and that they were to be feared because of the unknown and mystery they possessed. The first movie to use a male vampire character (Dracula) was Nosferatu a silent German film made in 1922. The male character possessed animal like features, such as claws and teeth, and this facial features were rat like. This vampire creature was to be feared for this very look, as he reminded viewers of the Influenza that had occurred years before the film when 400 thousand people had died from the influenza carried by rats and decease. Also the coffins used in the film reminded viewers of the deaths of family and friends. In 1931 the Dracula film changes how the vampire is portrayed, the male vampire is seen to be appealing, and the audience is draw in to the appeal of the vampire which is unsettling, he's seductive and seems to portray sexuality and death as appealing to the viewer. Which is a lot different the the viewers first opinion of the vampire, were they were afraid of his appearance, from this point the change in the vampire films were apparent, and a more appealing and seductive form of the vampire was being introduced to its audiences.

In the late 1950's Hammer studios had something no other film makers had, and this was a breakthrough for the scary movie makers, which was colour films. This meant that for the first time blood could be seen, which made the appeal for the vampire movies even better, although after 20 or so years of blood and vampires on screen audiences started to withdraw from the success of vampire movies, and Hammer studios new it was time to update their films, and so The Vampire Lovers Directed by Roy Ward in 1970 was released, this was the first film of its kind to have lesbian vampires. The women's victims were always other women. And the main plot to the film was that the female victims never realised that they had been bitten until it was too late. This movie was the start of females becoming vampires rather than just males such as Dracula.

Questions for primary research

Topic: The role of females in vampire films

Questions:
1) Why do you think shows such as 'Buffy' were so popular?

2) Do you think vampire movies with female characters as the main role are more appealing than just male characters?

3) Do you think films such as 'Twilight' would be as succesful without the story being a book first?

4) Do you think that female characters ruin the role of the vampire? and if so why?

5) Do you agree with the statement that "female characters in vampire movies are only succesful because of their sex appeal"?

The Lure Of The Vampire...

Gender and Dracula are two of the most important factors for this question, 'what is the role of women in vampire films?' because Dracula is where it all began, and where the storys started to develop. Throughout the twentieth century Dracula (Bram Stokers novel) and many screen adaptations have had critical interpretations of vampires. A quote from The Lure Of The Vampires " Dracula it seems is a man's tale." it suggests that fear of the vampire stems from a mixture of love, hate and guilt.

Blade Trinity

(2004) has a completely different view on vampires and the vampire world. Blade ( Wesley Snipes) hunts and kills any vampire he comes across because he believes they are bad and not meant for this world and time. And the vampires are made out to be the evil which is completely different in Underworld were the vampires are killing ware wolfs and therefore saving man kind. Another main difference between these films are the roles of the female characters, in Blade the main female vampire character is Danica Talos (Parker Posey) and although she is the main female character of the vampires she doesn't take a staring role, Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) has a more active role through out the film being that her character is the daughter of 'Whistler' Blades accomplice and a non vampire. She helps Blade kill the vampires. This makes Danica's role more important as the main vampire as her coven rely on her to decide what happens.

Underworld

Underworld is my focus film, i have chosen this because the main female vampire, Selene is strong and interpendant, and she takes controle throughout the whole film. Her character is portrayed as being more male than female in the way that she thinks, and the way that she fights, however there are some more emotional times within the film that shows her more female side, when she finds out that the man she trusted for thousands of years has lied to her. Victor is an elder vampire of the coven and therefore should have a more starring role within the film, but Selene still manages to keep the focus of the film throughout, and by the end of the film she kills him, to save michael, who is now half vampire and half warewolf.

Books

The books that i am researching on are called The lure of the vampire by Milly Williamson and The Horror reader edited by Ken Gelder. I also have a video that might help with my reseach, called The perfect scary movie (2005) later on in the blog i will upload pages from the books that i've read and write how they help with my project with the role of female characters in vampire movies.