Are We in the Age of Comedy or Horror Vampires?
Both horror and comedy rest at opposite ends of the entertainment spectrum. Both have their own trappings and purposes that allow them to realise their genre. Comedies go out of their way to make you laugh, while horror flicks rely on the fear factor to entertain. They seem like polar opposites on the scale, with drama being the centre point.
So, it’s almost bizarre that the mythical creatures that are vampires are now being pulled between the two genres on the big and small screen. We’ve recently crawled out of a very different genre trapping for vampires that spanned many, many years and ultimately changed the perception of the beasts of the night. Now, comedy is pulling them towards one extreme while horror is vying to reinstate the fear factor of vampires.
The age of romanticised vampires
The most famous vampire of all, Dracula, does have a romantic angle to his tale, seeking eternal love and pining after his various love after moving to London. In the late ’00s, vampires became outright fixations for romance, with their power and eternal lives being idealised. Two smash-hit takes on the romantic vampire happened to hit at the same time. Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga were first published in 2001 and 2005 respectively, and both happened to be adapted for the screen in 2008, mere months apart. True Blood, adapted from The Southern Vampire Mysteries, was mature programming on HBO, while the Twilight movies sought to appeal to the primary audience of the novels – young adults.
Both seemingly completely changed the perception of the once-feared creatures. By 2011, other lines of entertainment were getting in on the game. This is when the popular slot Immortal Romance launched. Proving the longevity of the four-character, story-centric slot game with its different feature modes, it has also been converted into jackpot slots as part of the Mega Moolah title.
Are vampires funny or scary?
Modern vampires seem torn between the funny and the scary. Perhaps more naturally given the slide to romance and drama, many productions now paint vampires as objects of comedy. Nicolas Cage as Dracula in Renfield last year seemed to epitomise this trend, but easily the most revered production has been What We Do in the Shadows, which wraps up with its final season in October this year.
Joining the comedy slate, there was the action-comedy flick Day Shift with Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco bounty-hunting vampires for cash. Then there was the Marvel-Sony film Morbius, which probably wasn’t supposed to be a comedy, but absolutely was. On the flip side, there was a distinctly horror-centric The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which received average reviews from critics.
The miniseries Midnight Mass did much better with critics, telling of a charismatic vampire who is seen to be performing miracles. Truly marking the swing back to horror, though, is Nosferatu. There’s a lot of confidence in this Robert Eggers remake of the classic creepy silent film, with the return of vampires as truly horrifying beings.
Perhaps because vampires were pulled into the kind of middle-ground of genre with romance and drama, they’re now being utilised by creatives at both ends of the spectrum. It’ll take a bit longer to see which genre of vampire production companies are more willing to back, but 2024 will be quite telling.Are We in the Age of Comedy or Horror Vampires?
