Although Pinochet’s shadow never seems to fade from this country, Pablo Larraín decided to review recent local history and add a mythical element to it to transform the dictator into a vampire.
In this way, Chile and the dictator join a long list of stories in film and television that distanced themselves from the traditional tale and gave their own twist to the European myth. There are for children and adults, to laugh and get excited, classics and some that are somewhat forgettable, although the former are, without a doubt, one of the most special.
Sensual Vampires: The Hunger (1983)
Bowie. Bauhaus. Deneuve. Susan Sarandon. With these four sexy and huge proper names participating in this film directed by the late Tony Scott, “The Hunger” was released to mixed reviews, although over time it became a classic, especially for the gothic subculture.
It is easy to understand why. The story of Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve), a vampire born in ancient Egypt, and her partner on duty, the cellist John (David Bowie), who between sensual outfits and dark parties decide to add gerontologist Sarah Roberts (Sarandon) to the The relationship develops with a lot of focus on form thanks to Scott’s effective work and the passionate violence that the two vampires leave behind. If we add to that the music of Peter Murphy’s band, the combination is peak of bloodsucking gothic sensuality.
Vampire for Yesterday’s Children: Count Patula (1988)
Created by Thames Television for Nickelodeon, the British Count Patula was born as a spinoff of “Danger Mouse” with a humorous twist: during the resurrection ritual, the enormous Nana mistakes bat-wing blood for ketchup. Result? A Drac… sorry, vegetarian Duck, nice and an offense to the long tradition of terrible Duck Counts, especially for Igor, the faithful butler.
That was the laughable premise of these cartoons that premiered in 1990 in Chile, and where the owner Pátula seeks fame and fortune in entertainment. And although the tender chicken Nana is everyone’s favorite, thanks to her innocence and ability to break down doors and walls of the castle, the series in general made people laugh thanks to the counterpoint between humor and terror, especially thanks to Doctor Von Patoven, winged version of the classic Van Helsing who, despite the harsh reality, insists that the harmless Count Patula is a threat.
Mechanical Vampire: Chronos (1993)
Faithful to a career full of subversions of horror and fantasy, the debut of Mexican Guillermo del Toro immediately launched him to stardom thanks to this story where the myth of the vampire is explained with a mechanical beetle that clings to Jesús Gris (Federico Lupi ) an antiques dealer who quickly discovers that his sexual stamina, vitality, and youth return to his body, as well as feeling an impulsive desire to drink blood.
Repeating the vampire manual but altering the origin, Del Toro delivered in “Cronos” one of the most applauded chapters of Latin American genre cinema. In addition to making the immortal Ron Perlman known and demonstrating that his ingenuity would have a long history in the cinema, the vampiric character of Lupi reflected a more human side of the mythical being, at the level of almost dying many times, resisting temptation and in a somewhat open ending, risk ending the Transylvanian curse forever via Mexico.
Russian Vampires: Night Watch (2004)
An age-old struggle between light and darkness takes place on Earth, whose representatives are the ancient wizards, sorcerers, and supernatural beings of yesteryear. And though a truce struck hundreds of years ago keeps the dark ones at bay, some bloodsuckers often party and kill humans. That is where the night watch comes in, beings of light that watch over the night, and the daily watch, nocturnal beings that watch over the day, maintaining a peace that a chosen one promises to break during modern times in Moscow.
This is how vampires were interpreted in Russian popular culture: first in the novel “Night Watch” and then in the eponymous film directed by Timur Bekmambetov, which blew the heads of several fantasy fans thanks to amazing special effects and action scenes. even imitated in Batman.
Vampire Girl: Let the right one in (2008)
Considered a children’s horror romance, the Swedish film “Let the right one in” was one of the big surprises at various European film and fantasy film festivals the year it was released. Directed by Tomas Alfredson -of the Millennium saga-, the film is based on the novel of the same name where a vampire girl makes friends with a young man who is bullied at school.
All very cute until the plot reveals how the girl survives: first, thanks to her adult partner who provides her with blood by murdering innocents, and then by defending her new friend from the bullies who beat him up. That, plus the wintery, snowy background and the drama of being hundreds of thousands of years old but looking like an 8-year-old girl, made this film one of the best modern vampire stories according to kingpin Roger Ebert.
Vampire for Today’s Kids: Adventure Time (2010)
Although Pendleton Ward’s popular animated series revolves around Finn the human and Jake the dog, since her debut in the fifth episode of the first season of “Adventure Time”, Marcelina the Vampire Queen has become one of her favorites. children and adults.
Why? Although she started out as mischievous and almost villainous, the character evolved into the rocker friend of the protagonists, although with a somewhat different code of behavior. According to her, because she is over a thousand years old, she “says she is not bad, but rather that she lost track of her moral code.”
To that he added being part of an objectively liberal series as he takes the honor of being one of the first openly LGBTIQ+ animated characters.
Decent Vampires: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Living half a world away and feeding on blood supplied by helpers, without the need to kill anyone, Adam and Eve – Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton – represent two lovesick vampires whose lives have revolved around art and music.
Depressing the first and hopeful the second, both enjoy their immortality in their own way until an emergency forces Eva to travel from Tangiers to Detroit, where Adam lives, a move that alters the couple’s plans to remain anonymous and live without committing crimes. This is how the story progresses, full of cultural references that reflect, in form and substance, the idea of director Jim Jarmush when it comes to capturing eternity in this acclaimed film.
Unplugged Vampires: What we do in the shadows (2014)
Inspired by classics like “Interview with a Vampire” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement decided to take the concept and humorously update it in their native Wellington, playing two of four vampires who spend their days living in the modern world. .
In the tone of a false documentary, the success of “What we do in the shadows” ended up generating a complete audiovisual saga, with a television show that is in its fourth season and the spinoff, “Wellington Paranormal”, both delivering humor and absurdity to the concept. classic of vampires and the supernatural.
And although the series expands the concept to New Jersey with other actors and a somewhat more traditional humor, especially after its first two seasons, it is the film that innovated with these classic vampires living in a world that they do not understand but accept.
Highway Vampire: Preacher (2016)
Part of a group of characters that stands out for its violent particularity, Proinsias Cassidy, an Irish vampire played by Joseph Gilgun in “Preacher”, is by far one of the most condemned on the list, not because of his bloodsucking condition but because of his own vices and a life full of trauma
Former Irish soldier, after the death of his friend he decides to defect to the independence army. It is at that moment that a vampire bites him and forces him to flee his native Ireland to the US, where he meets the incumbent Preacher -ex-thug Jesse Custer- and together they decide to go in search of God.
Tormented by alcohol and drugs, with Custer Cassidy he manages to achieve a kind of goal in life, demonstrating in the end, and despite the trail of blood he leaves behind, that “he is not a bad man, but a guy who careless, unconscious and terribly weak.”
Dictator Vampire: Other Weird Bloodsuckers From Film And Television