The Vampire Cinema

The cult of the vampire, with its undertones of violent sexuality, has been an endless source of inspiration for film-makers from the earliest days of the silent cinema. Throughout screen history, the fair-skinned victims of Count Dracula have swooned with near-delight at his red-eyed approach. The black-clad figures of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, the most famous of all movie vampires, loom large in the success story of the popular horror cinema. David Pirie, film critic of the London weekly Time Out and a committed admirer of the Gothic strain in film and literature, examines the…