For such a long time I've been fascinated with death and whether there is more to us beyond the grave. It all started when I was 17 and my Granny passed away suddenly during my first year of A-Levels. I remember being so angry that this wonderful lady was taken from me and how harsh it was not to have had more time with her. I was still going to church at this point and felt that God had betrayed me by snatching her away so cruelly. I wrote a lot of poetry about death, religion and love and it helped me to deal with my loss as well as expel all the teenage angst. I think as I've got older and sadly had to experience more deaths, it does become manageable and I don't feel as angry as I used to, just more sad that my Granny never got to see me graduate, go travelling by myself and work in my chosen field of publishing....I like to think that she's always with me in some way now, cheering me on. So, yeah, I think this was a strong factor in where my interest of the dark, macabre world of death comes from.
Also as a wild teen, I was completely obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (what teenager wasn't in the late 90's?!). I think this interested me because vampires are immortal beings and Joss Whedon created a clever, funny and dramatic world which seemed to appeal to the frustrated teenager. I believe that Buffy started the modern horror trend and cult following that we know (and love?!) today - e.g. True Blood, The Walking Dead, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, etc. Check out the Buffy episode "Hush
" which is the tenth episode in the fourth season. A brilliant and masterful piece of television that is genuinely terrifying - 'The Gentleman' are grinning, fairy tale creatures who take people's voices so that no-one can scream when their hearts are being carved out... watch if you dare! (It is brillaint though!)
My first love of vampires was Francis Ford Coppola's movie
Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. I was only 10 when this came out and saw it a few years later when I was a bit older. It really really scared me (the blood and gore, etc.) but that fear then became a real fascination with this vampire character. I have read Bram Stoker's novel copious amounts of time and watched the 1931 Universal film with Bela Lugosi in the title role more times than is sensible. I also became enamoured with Christopher Lee's interpretation made by glorious Hammer (see previous posts!) studios. I can't tell you how many other Dracula related films and books I have collected, but I always come back to the Coppola film because I'm a true romantic at heart and like to think that "Love Never (really) Dies". I think Gary Oldman's portrayal of the immortal lover is also amazing and the main reason why the movie is so good, other actors that play important characters maybe should have not, but we won't go there! Anthony Hopkins is also brilliant as the crazy Van Helsing, and seriously, who could not love the deranged portrayal of Renfield by Tom Waits (what a legend!).
