#the family of the vourdalak

[see-arcane]

I wish for something Dracula as sort of post-apocalypse. Maybe killing him did not stop the infestation, maybe it emboldened other vampires and you have now 100 Ruthvens in his wake having turf wars, maybe his visit awakened legendary dormant ancient evils, maybe it inspired ambitious lords of the dying british/european aristocracy wanting to copycat him and make devil pacts and training in the mountains. And the survivors who experienced it all first hand dealing with it.

Honestly, it stuns me how little has been done with the 'Dracula technically leaving an open spot at the top of the vampire food chain' possibilities. I think Castlevania kind of touches on it, but overall there's just a whole lot of nothing going on in Dracula-adjacent media about it.

Though I will hand the other public domain vampires a pass because, to be honest, I think Count Dracula was the only vampire in literature who was ever concerned about Taking Over the World. Everyone else in the undead scene is just sort of doing the smart thing and. You know. Chilling.

Lord Ruthven wasn't out to conscript others. Dude went out of his way to kill his victims with knives and drink the red runoff, as if to explicitly avoid making other vampires.

Carmilla was out there romancing and drinking girls like an undead Casanova. The vampire who turned her first when she was Countess Mircalla might have been different! But we never find out who that vampire was; we just know about Millie and the growing list of broken/siphoned hearts left in her wake.

Clarimonde, the dead woman in love~, was so bad at making another vampire. Comically, tragically bad at it. All she could bring herself to do was construct a fantasy dreamscape to live in with her human priest crush while taking literally only a single pinprick's worth of blood from him to keep herself going. This, when the priest in question openly declared SHE COULD HAVE HIS ENTIRE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM if she wanted it!

Varney the Vampire was and remains just...terrible at being a vampire. In general.

Countess Dolingen and her undead village, along with Gorcha and the Vourdalak village, both seem to have the whole 'conscript everyone around me/all those I love' angle handled. Except neither group ever ever expands past the borders of their territory. Maybe it's a rule? Maybe they just ran out of people they felt like drinking? Either way, they stopped caring about collecting others and just tucked themselves in their graves to doze once their respective villages were turned.

In short, for somebody to take over Dracula's ~King of the Vampires~ role, we'd actually need an OC to step in. All the actual classic literary vampires, many of whom were kicking well before Dracula appeared on the scene, just are not interested in the undead tyrant game.

(Probably why Dracula had to go around recruiting in the first place. None of the other vampires returned his letters or carrier pigeons for centuries. No, they don't want to join his pyramid scheme vampiric onslaught campaign, thanks. Too busy minding their business and/or dealing with personal drama. Please lose their address.)

#Drac Attack Pack: 'Oh man oh no what if other vampires start vying for Dracula's spot and try to take over the world too?' #Other vampires: 'Oh shit someone killed Dracula? Send them a fruit basket.' Or: 'Zzzzzzzzz' #dracula #dracula's guest #the vampyre #the family of the vourdalak #clarimonde #carmilla #varney the vampire

[stheresya]

Aleksey Tolstoy's short story The Family of the Vourdalak offers the most sinister and my absolute favorite take on the vampire myth so far. In this story the vourdalak works as the slavic version of the vampire, but what differentiates it from its most known bloodsucking peers is that when a vourdalak comes back to life they seek primarily the blood of the people they used to love in their previous life. And I find that so fascinating because in early vampire stories like Dracula we see that a vampire retains their human memories but lose all human attachment to them and care only about feeding on anything alive, while the vourdalak is a vampire whose feelings of love gets twisted into one of hunger. You loved those people in life, you shall consume them in death because you loved them life.

#the family of the vourdalak #aleksey tolstoy #gothic fiction #lit 📚 #vampires

[vickyvicarious]

You know that thing early vampire fiction does sometimes for vampires, where they have a kind of hypnotic beauty/captivating presence, especially when they are actively hypnotising someone... but that attraction is intrinsically mingled with a feeling of instinctive repulsion/fear as well?

Yeah, that thing. I find it very cool.

Seldom did Walter quit Brunhilda's side: a nameless spell seemed to attach him to her; even the shudder which he felt in her presence, and which would not permit him to touch her, was not unmixed with pleasure, like that thrilling awful emotion felt when strains of sacred music float under the vault of some temple; he rather sought, therefore, than avoided this feeling.

--Wake Not The Dead, Johann Ludwig Tieck (1823)

I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling.

--Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1871)

As she said this, Sdenka looked so ravishing that my vague sense of foreboding turned into a strong desire to remain near her. A strange, almost sensual feeling, part fear, part excitement, filled my whole being.

--The Family of the Vourdalak, Aleksei Tolstoy (1884)

There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.

+

With a mocking smile, he placed one hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other, saying as he did so, 'First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet; it is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!' I was bewildered, and, strangely enough, I did not want to hinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that such is, when his touch is on his victim. 

--Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)

#vampires #i feel like lord ruthven for one inspires this kind of feeling too at least a little but there isn't exactly an equivalent passage #clarimonde also isn't on here #bc he pretty much has no internal hesitation/distress about her it's all external/mental rather than instinctive #there's probably some kind of succubus thing going on with this but i just find it fun

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: Lost in a hostile forest, the Marquis d'Urfé, a noble emissary of the King of France, finds refuge in the home of a strange family.

#the vourdalak (2023) #vampire #2020s #france #european movie #horror #movies #poll #more than 50% havent heard

[see-arcane-scribbles]

I am so ready for this!

A request: Dracula is the only horror I've read, the other classics I'm only familiar with via pop culture. What do you recommend so that I could appreciate the references you're going to make?

Hoo boy. Let me refer to the Stack (c). While I'm taking a lot of inspiration from general monster myth and folklore, some of the key classic horror stories I've been harvesting bones from include:

"The Vampyre," by John William Polidori

"La Morte Amoureuse," (or, in English, "Clarimonde") by Théophile Gautier

"The Family of the Vourdalak," by A. K. Tolstoy

"Carmilla," by Sheridan le Fanu

"Dracula's Guest," (Dracula's scrapped prologue!) by Bram Stoker

"Aurelia; or The Tale of a Ghoul," by E. T. A. Hoffman

Happy reading!

#me: I'm writing a horror novel for myself and others to enjoy :) #also me; slamming 100+ year old literature on all your desks: Here is the homework you'll need to do for maximum enjoyment :) #I kid #the context should be clear regardless when Certain Events and Characters happen #but reading some of the supernatural classics beforehand will provide a happy Easter egg feeling #literature #barking harker #dracula #dracula daily #my writing #jonathan harker #horror

[leer-reading-lire]

Sleepy readathon - week 3

I'm not doing as well as I'd like, but I've finished reading The Vampire by A. K. Tolstói. Although it was a bit confusing, I liked the author's way of writing.

Currently reading: The Family of the Vourdalak by A. K. Tolstói

#sleepyreadathon #currently reading #carmilla #sheridan le fanu #Alexei K. Tolstoy #john polidori #gothic horror #gothic literature #gothic lit #dracula daily #readathon #booklr #bookblr #leerreadinglire #books and reading #book community

[mask131]

Fragments of fright (8)

From Edouard Brasey's "The Great Encyclopedia of the Marvelous"

Vampires

Also called: Vampyrs, oupires (upirs), opyrs, nosferats, nosferatus, drakuls, vercolacs, vourdalaks (vurdalaks), strigoï (Romania), obours, grobkiks (Bulgaria), dhampirs (children of vampires in Serbia), cadaver sanguisugus, undeads, living deads

Vampires are undeads that leave their coffins or their graves at night to feed off the blood of the living, whose jugular veins they pierce thanks to their large canines. By doing that they extend their posthumous life, while condemning their victims to become vampires in turn. By this process, centuries after centuries, a "vampire bloodline" forms itself that might never stop. Collin de Plancy evoked "dead men, buried for several years, or at least several days, and that came back in body and souls, walking and talking as if they were alive. They infested villages, abused men and animals, and sucked the blood of their next of kin, exhausting them and causing their death. One could only be free from their dangerous visits and their infestions by exhuming their bodies, impaling it, cutting off their head, ripping out their heart, or burning them. Those that died from being sucked dry became usually vampires too." Vampires were said to drink human blood so greedily that the same blood spilled out of their mouth, of their nostrils and of their ears. When in the morning their returned to their grave, they could be found laying in a pool of blood. Collin de Plancy added that "It was said that these vampires, having a great appetite, devoured the cloth that surrounded them. It was also said that, when they left their graves at night, they went to their family or their friends, violently embracng them - sucking their blood while crushing their throat so they could not scream. Those that were sucked of their blood weakened so much, they almost instantly died. These persecutions never stopped at just one victim: vampires hunted down every member of their family, and every inhabitant of their village (because vampirism rarely appears in large cities). It is thus needed to stop this plague, by cutting the head or piercing the heart of the vampire. People found the vampire's corpse soft, flexible and fresh, even if the person had died for a very long time. Some people took the enormous amount of blood that poured out of these corpses, and mixed it with flour to make a bread - they pretended that by eating such a bread, they could protect themselves from the vampire."

How to recognize a vampire? The vampire usually has a corpse-like skin tone - but they can have red lips and red cheeks when they just gorged themselvs with blood. Their eyes are also red and burning-looking. Their canines are sharp, pointy and usually outgrow their lips. They are very hairy - with their eyebros joinign each other above the nose, and hair being found on their hands, even inside their palms (which is also a trait of the werewolves). Finally, vampires do not have reflections in mirrors, and do not have shadows when under a light. If they usually appear as human beings, they can turn themselves into animals (mostly bats), as well as into fog or smoke. Vampires can fly, and prefer going inside houses by using windows rather than doors - fortunately, they cannot access a place in which they weren't invited. They need a living being to invite them at least once into a given place for them to access it - afterward they can return there as much as they want.

How to become a vampire? Some are more predisposed to become vampires. Children born from the union between a priest and a nun, babies "nés coiffés", born "with a cowl", meaning born with the placenta over their head ; children born with teeth, children born with a birth-mark, children born with a harelip... Red-haired people are also vampire "candidates" (especially in Slavic countries), and so are seventh sons. Children dead without a baptism, or adults born in "state of mortal sin" or outside the sacraments of the Church can also become vampires. It is believed that if a pregnant woman is merely gazed at by a vampire during the three first monts of her pregnancy, then she will give birth to a vampire. But the most certain way to become a vampire is to be bitten by one, and to have your blood sucked by the monster.

Vampires in history: Greco-Roman Antiquity knew of vampiric entities, such as the lamias, but the explicit mentions of dead people (usually excommunicated) leaving their graves at night to torment their kin date back from 12th century England, in Walter Map's De Nugis curialium (1193), and in Guillaume of Newburgh's 1196 Historia rerum anglicarum. The only way to prevent the malevolent actions of those "cadaver sanguisugus" is to open their coffins, find their preserved and blood-filled bodies, and to pierce them with a sword before killing them. After a vampire epidemic of the 14th century which marked all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans (they were attested in Eastern Prussia, in Silesia, in Bohemia, in Moravia, in Serbia, in Poland, in Hungary, in Romania and in Greece), the next notable cases occured in the 18th century. One of such cases was Peter Plogojowitz, an Hungarian vampire accused of killing eight people in the village of Kzilova in 1725.

The next year, it was Arnold Paole who was accused of killing the cattle and the inhabitants of the Serbian town of Medwegya. The lieutenant Büttner investigated this case, which led to a document called "Visum et Repeum", published on the 7th of January 1732. A document which attracted the attention of the French duke of Richelieu, and of the French king Louis XV. The lieutenant wrote that Arnold Paole, member of the local nobility, had broken is neck five years before, falling from a hay cart. But Paole had said, before his death, that he had been the victim of a vampire near Cassoa, in Turkish Persia. To free himself from this evil, he had eaten the soil of the grave of a vampire, and had rubbed the same vampir's blood over him. Despite those attempts, Paole apparently returned beyond the grave to torment the livings as a vampire. His body was taken out of the earth - it was found perfectly preserved, the flesh of a reddish color, and the eyes filled with fresh blood. Blood also poured out of his ears and nose, staining his shirt and his shroud. Believing him to be a vampire, the villagers plunged a stake into his heart and burned the corpse.

In his "Magia posthuma" published at Olmütz in 1706, Ferdinand of Schertz wrote about a case of Hungarian vampires - collected by a certain "M. Of the Island of Saint-Michael". According to this testimony, a person attacked by a vampire in Hungaria, due to having their blood stolen, become exhausted and lose appetite - they lose weight at an alarming rate, and died after eight or ten days, fifteen at best, without any fever and any other symptoms than their body becoming skinnier and drier. The person struck by this "black melancholy" are said to have the spirit so "troubled" that they see a white spectre, a white ghost following them everywhere, the same way a shadow follows the body. The author explains that when they spent winter in Valachia, two horsemen of the company he was part of died of this very sickness, and many more (who were also sufering from it) would have died if the caporal hadn't healed "their imaginations" by performing a local folk-remedy. The author notes this ritual to be extremely peculiar - a young boy is selected, and he has to mount without a saddle a black horse. The young man and the horse are taken to the cemetery and walk among the graves. If the horse refuses to walk over a given grave, it is considered to be the vampire's grave. It is opened and if the corpse looks "as beautiful and fresha as an asleep man", then it is has its neck cut with a spade - and it is believed that from the cut neck will flow in large quantities a beautifully ruddy blood. Once it is done, the beheaded vampire is placed back in its grave, which is filled again with earth. Then, the disease stops and the victims slowly regain their strength.

Vampires in literature and cinema: Numerous treaties about vampires were published throughout the centuries. In 1746, Augustin Calmet published a "Treaty about the revenants in body, the excomunicated, the oupirs or vampires, the broucolaques of Hungaria and Moravia". But the vampires entered in the world of literature in the 19th century, with nglish Romanticism. It was Lord Byron's The Vampyre ; it was Coleridge's Christabel, it was Keats' Lamia... More recently, Anne Rice offered the character of Lestat in "Interviews with a vampire". The most famous vampire is however count Dracula, from the novel of Bram Stoker of the same name, which inspired numerous movies: F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu in 1922, Tod Browning's Dracula in 1931 with Belga Lugosi, the numerous movies with Christopher Lee, and Francis F. Coppola's 1992 Dracula. In fact, "Dracula" is the diminutive form of "Dracul", which means "devil" or "dragon" in Romania. Stoker took inspiration from the historical figure of Vlad Tepes (born in 1431, dead in 1476), the fourth voivod of Valachia, considered a national hero who set free his province (located at the frontiers of Romania and Hungaria) from the Ottoman invaders. But his bloodthirsty cruelty and his brutal methods (he liked to empale his enemies by the hundreds on battlefields) gave him the double nickname of "Vlad the Impaler" and "Dracula". Made prisoner by the Ottomans during his last military campaign, Vlad was beheaded. His headless body was buried near his castle, before mysteriously disappearing - feeding a legend which was then perpetuated by bram Stoker's novel.

Vamps and vampires: There is, in vampirism, a strong erotic connotation. As such, male vampires (such as Dracula or Murnau's Nosferatu) seem to be mainly attracted to the blood of young women, while female vampires feed off young men. With the notable exception of Carmilla, the 1872 vampire of Sheridan Le Fanu, a female vampire who drinks from the blood of other women. Carmilla and his victim, Laura, feel for each other a strange and ambiguous desire - Carmilla feeds of Laura's blood and haunts her, while clearly wanting Laura to be "hers", to "belong" to her and for the two to be united in eternity, while Laura is at the same time attracted and repulsed by the vampire (though the seduction wins it over the disgust). A similar ambiguous sentiment can be found in Théophile Gautier's La Morte amoureuse (The dead lover), in 1836 - in this story, the countryside priest Romuald falls for the venonous charm of the beautful and dangerous vampire Clarimonde - there are notably mentions of the vampire's cold body creating "voluptuous shivers" on Romuald's own, and him being overtaken by the desire of having his blood drunk so that his "love might enter her body".

It is recognized that there is a form of sexual vampirism, that does not involve blood, and consists in emptying the victim of its "life-fluid". In this approach, the vampire-woman becomes the character we know today as the "vamp". The Shorter English Dictionary describes a "vamp" as a woman who tries to charm and seduce men (often for dishonest reasons) by using shamelessly her sexual charisma. The vamp is a literal "femme fatale" whose love causes a death - either physical or mental. Sexual vampirism is the embodiment of the "wedding of Eros and Thanatos" - and a French movie-maker, amed Jean Rollin, deeply explored this motif by creating over several decades numerous small fantastic-styled vampire movies, mixing eroticism and surrealism. Le viol du vampire (The vampire's rape) in 1968, La Vampire nue (The naked vampire) in 1969, Le frisson des vampires (Vampires' shivers, in 1970), Requiem pour un vampire (Requem for a vampire, 1971), Lèvres de sang (Blood lips, 1974), La Nuit des traquées (The night of the hunted women, 1980), La Morte vivante (The living she-dead, 1982), Les Deux Orphelines vampires (The two vampire orphans, 1995) and La Fiancée de Dracula (The fiancée of Dracula, 2000). There is also a type of psychic vampires who, consciously or not, "exhaust" their victim by their mere presence. These parasitic beings usually ignore their own nature, and act out of innocence. One can recognize them because of how people are exhausted, discouraged, bored or despaired in their presence - and these feelings stop as soon as they leave.

How to get rid of a vampire? To expose the body of a vampire to broad daylight can be deadly, because these beings of the shadow fear the rays of the sun. Vampires can only cross bodies of water during high tide, or when the sea is still and flat, undisturbed. Vampires fear the crucifixes, the sacred host, and holy water. The use of garlic is tied to a local Romanian superstition. People also had the habit of burying a vampire with his body laying on its belly - as such, if they woke up and tried to dig their way out of the grave, they would go deeper in the earth instead. People also filled the corpses' nostrils, ears and eeyes with incense, when they didn't place garlic in its mouth and anus. But the best way to get rid of a vampire is to plunge a sharp wooden stake in the vampire's heart while it is asleep in its coffin - then, the head must be cut and the corpse burned. The corpse can manifest signs of life during the process - it can scream horribly when the stake is plunged, and blood can flow from the cut neck. Finally, the ashes must be scattered, in a river or into the wind.

#fragments of fright #vampire #vampire lore #vampire folklore #vampires

[apebook]

#Gothic #Grusel #horror #Schauerliteratur #Vampir

[tibidoxs]

Chapter 2. The Golden Sword

Fortochka

In Soviet architecture, a small ventilation window set within another window. Particularly useful in the cold winter months when opening a full window would be impractical.

“Don’t put your foot in your mouth around that one!”

In the original, Ninel refers to Tanya here as a “пальца в рот не клади” (literally “don’t put your finger in their mouth”). This expression, originally used to describe horses who chew through their bits, is now used to mean a person one must be careful around as they won’t hesitate to take advantage of one’s oversight or gullibility. I’ve substituted Ninel’s line with the closest approximate idiom and adapted the remainder of the paragraph accordingly.

Mile Long Stretch (Полтора Километра)

Literally “One and a Half Kilometers.” Not wanting to leave the Durnevs’ cantankerous dachshund with such an unwieldy name, and afraid that leaving Poltora Kilometra untranslated might obscure the humorous intention, I opted for adapting her name as “Mile Long Stretch.”

Portable garages (гаражей-ракушек)

Literally “garage-shells,” these collapsible metal garages have been very popular in Russia since the early nineties. Due to the lack of affordable parking options in Russia, these comparatively inexpensive “shells” quickly became the most common way for car owners to protect their vehicles. They are often illegally installed, however, and present a nuisance to other motorists. Since 2006, there has been a push by authorities to remove them, resulting in some public backlash.

Buckwheat

Per capita, Russia is the world’s largest consumer of buckwheat. It is usually prepared in a porridge called kasha, a staple of the Russian diet.

“Now I’ll only get a three for the quarter!”

Most schools in Russia employ a five-point grading scale rather than a letter grade system. Ones are almost never given out, reserved mainly for students who fail to show up for exams. A three is an average grade, equivalent to getting a C.

Labor colony

Corrective labor colonies are the most common type of prison in Russia. These forced labor camps have been highly criticized by former inmates and human rights activists for their inhumane living conditions.

The Armory Chamber

Founded in 1806, the Armory Chamber is one of the oldest museums in Russia. The collection originated from the private treasury of the tsars dating back to the 14th Century, and today holds more than four thousand priceless art objects including ceremonial weaponry, state and church regalia, ten Fabergé eggs, and numerous other historic and cultural treasures.

Irina Vladimirovna

Students in Russia address their teachers by their given name and patronymic, the polite or formal way of addressing anyone other than close friends, family members, and children.

Five-ruble coin

Converted to US currency, five rubles would have been worth roughly thirty cents at the time of the novel’s original publication (or around fifty cents today, adjusting for inflation).

Genka Bulionov (Генка Бульонов)

Bul’on (бульон) means “bouillon.”

Vourdalak (вурдалак)

A type of Russian vampire that must drink the blood of its loved ones and convert its family. The earliest known appearance of the word is in an 1836 poem by Alexander Pushkin, though it was Aleksey Tolstoy’s novel The Family of the Vourdalak, published three years later, that established the creature’s mythos. The word is often romanized as “wurdulac,” but I have opted to use Tolstoy’s spelling instead.

Pavlik Yazvochkin (Павлик Язвочкин)

Yazvochka (язвочка), literally “little ulcer,” is used colloquially to describe someone who is malicious and irritating. An apt name for a class clown.

The two-pood ring

A pood is a now mostly obsolete Russian unit of measurement roughly equivalent to 36.11 pounds or 16.38 kilograms. I could not find a source for the legend the museum guide relates, so it may simply be an invention of the author.

Lieutenant Colonel Chuchundrikov (Подполковник Чучундриков)

Chuchundra (чучундра), from the muskrat character in Rudyard Kipling’s short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, is used in colloquial Russian to mean “chump” or “fool.”

#Tanya Grotter #The Golden Sword #translation notes

[memoriesman49]

The Family Of The Vourdalak

Night With A Vampire-The Family Of The Vourdalak https://horrortales.libsyn.com/talesofhorror  and http://oldtimeradiodvd.com

Check out this episode!

[see-arcane]

We need more non-Dracula classic vampires adaptations so the guy doesn't become an amalgamation of all!

It's come to the point that "a vampire" and "a dracula" are interchangeable

They really deserve their own spotlight!

"The Vampyre" has potential to be a film or a series if the right script fleshed out Ruthven's other victims outside of Aubrey and his loved ones. A good gothic horror romp that looks like it'll be your classic Romantic Dark Noble Vampire at the start...until Ruthie takes off the safety and goes full torturous undead serial killer monster mode.

"La Morte Amoureuse" is probably one of the best, if not the best, classic representation of a morally ambiguous (leaning towards progressive in her hedonism, considering the staunch and starched dry contrast she beckons Romuald away from) but genuinely loving vampire. She's romantic, she's powerful, she's bawdy, and the story never demonizes her for it. At the same time, the tragedy of it and of how her own slowburn attempts to be with the priest leads to the sad end and her heartbroken departure... God, that would work deliciously today. Begging for an opulent Filme.

"The Family of the Vourdalak" lands perfectly in the middle, painting a vampire's love as immediately, inescapably dangerous. If you are loved, you Will be turned, no allowances made for dithering or silly things like consent. If you are not loved, you're slaughtered. It's a vampire type that acts in terrifying extremes. Doubly so for how frighteningly durable they turn out to be while not subscribing to Sexy Bloodsucker appeal, instead becoming full greyed-out sentient eternal corpses. I could see a24 jumping on this in a heartbeat to really sell the whole 'There Are Fates Worse Than Death' aspect.

#the studios will catch on someday I hope #but I won't hold my breath for a good adaptation considering classics' track record #the vampyre #la morte amoureuse #clarimonde #the family of the vourdalak #dracula

[meoriesman49]

The Family Of The Vourdalak

Night With A Vampire-The Family Of The Vourdalak https://horrortales.libsyn.com/talesofhorror  and http://oldtimeradiodvd.com

Check out this episode!

[vickyvicarious]

Have you read any of the books on the Pre-Dracula Vampire Literature Masterpost that you liked?

Yeah, I've read a bunch of them! And I'm gradually working my way through others that I can find, as well.

My personal favorite stories from this list would be Wake Not the Dead, Clarimonde, The Family of the Vourdalak, The Vampyre (Polidori), and Ligea. The Black Vampyre is a fun read too, though lots of it reminds me more of Varney the Vampyre (which I'm currently reading) in writing style, and thus feels less serious/creepy than the above ones.

As for poems, I quite like the second stanza of Der Vampir (Ossenfelder), and Lenore is great (and as a bonus Dracula quotes it so DD enjoyers will probably like that).

.

I just reblogged the second list as well, so I'll share my favorites of those too.

In terms of prose: Obviously Carmilla and The Horla, they're absolute classics for very good reason. I also really like Good Lady Ducayne, and enjoyed The Parasite. What Was It? is a short but kinda wild read, funny and sad at different points. The Castle of the Carpathians isn't really a vampire story in my mind but I do like it. Similarly, The Cold Embrace feels moreso like a ghost story than a vampire one, but I enjoyed it.

Poems: The Vampire (Baudelaire) The Vampyre (Meredith), The Vampire (Dahn)

#vampires #anonymous #replies #i've read maybe half of each list #but these are my favorites of the ones i have read #most of them are pretty short reads too #aside - it's so annoying looking up older vampire poems and stories because SO MANY are just called 'the vampire' haha

[noctilucent-wip]

June 5th 2022

Hi! I got back from a short trip the other day and haven’t done much since but I have figured out what the next stage of working on this project means for me. 

I finished the first draft of the first book in December 2021 and since then I have been outlining the other two while figuring out some character / plot / setting details as well. On top of that, I have done some research to help me with that but I realise I’m going to need to research some more but about how I want to write this rather than what I want to write. 

To do that, I’m looking into some vampire literature I hadn’t heard of or read before. I read Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy‘s The Family of the Vourdalak. It has an interesting take on vampires  - they are a fusion of vampires and werewolves which is supposedly in line with Serbian lore about vampires. As a modern reader, they seemed more like a combination of zombies and vampires but still an interesting representation of vampires. I have to say Sdenka was, by far, the most fascinating character. I don’t think I will be implementing the vampire lore or borrowing the style of this novella in any way but there was a quote I really liked that I could use in some way. 

That’s all for now though! Slow but steady progress. 

[fearsmagazine]

A.K. TOLSTOY'S A TASTE OF BLOOD

DISTRIBUTOR: Cleopatra Entertainment

SYNOPSIS: Based on Aleksey Tolstoy’s 1839 story “The Family Of The Vourdalak”, takes place in the uncertain hours after a vampire hunt when it’s unclear if the hunter himself has been turned into a creature of the night. Will his family find out in time, or will their sentiment make them easy prey for the novice nightwalker?

REVIEW: If you are a genre aficionado of a certain age you might remember Mario Bava's 1963 trilogy ‘Black Sabbath,’ in which Boris Karloff, also the host of the film, played Gorca in the third segment, "I Wurdalak.” That was also based on the Tolstoy novella.  Argentine filmmaker Santiago Fernández Calvete, who was the co-writer on the film “The Exorcism of God,” writes and directs his interpretation of Tolstoy’s tale.

The narrative feels like a period piece given the visuals of the  location and lack of certain things like electricity, which precludes certain other elements. When the daughter head’s into town we discover that it is a more contemporary setting as the local bar has a flat screen television and her boyfriend owns a cell phone. It becomes clear that this is the choice of the patriarch of the family to keep the family isolated. When the daughter returns with her boyfriend and tells the tale about her encounter with a stranger the father takes a photo album from the attic and reveals the family history and the mystery of the vourdalak. By doing so he transports the legend to Argentina. Another interesting interpretation he makes is by transforming the creature's ability to “charm” his prey into a creature that is able to deceive his prey. It is a convincing liar. The narrative presents contrasting views between the daughter and her boyfriend against her brother and his wife. Understandably the couple have a daughter so they are more interested in leaving. The younger daughter believes she can save her father. Overshadowing their conflicting views is the mysterious circumstances surrounding the father’s return.

I enjoyed the rustic production designs. The location has a bunch of angles that allows for shadows and phantoms. The costumes add a period feel to the film and that assists the viewer to be lulled into the story. It captures a feel of both the novella and the Bava film. I appreciated the simple, but effective, makeup design for the vourdalak. There are different views on that word as Tolstoy’s story was written in French and translated into Russian. The word might refer more to werewolves than vampires, and the makeup here is a bit of a hybrid.

I liked Santosh Logandran's score for the film; it added mood and atmosphere. In contrast, mixed into the film are thirteen songs that are gothic, techo, and metal. Those songs show up mostly around the younger daughter and it feels like a homage to Tony Scott’s 1983 film “The Hunger” that opens with the Bauhaus number “Bell Logisi is Dead,” as well as a couple other songs from that period mixed in with a traditional score.

A TASTE OF BLOOD features an engaging ensemble cast. I felt everyone was on the same level with their performances. Actress Alfonsina Carrocio carries the majority of the film as the character Natalia, the younger daughter who leaves and then returns with her boyfriend after her encounter with the vourdalak on the road. Germán Palacios is the patriarch of the family. He is this moody, secretive older man who does a nice job creating a multifaceted character.

I had some issues with the stories. For the most part, Santiago Fernández Calvete does an impressive job adapting the narrative to a new location and finds a clever way to contemporize it. A few times the dialogue seems to go off script, but those moments are rare. The prologue telegraphs the epilogue a bit and I was able to guess Natalia’s final line before she said it. That final felt awkward. I’m not sure how I felt about the contemporary songs blended with the score. I think there might have been too many. I thought the blend of dubbing and subtitles was interesting. The younger characters mostly dubbed in English, while the adults and older spoke Spanish, I believe.  A TASTE OF BLOOD is yet another impressive film to come out of Argentina this year, and given the genre films to come out of Central and South America last year, clearly demonstrates the caliber of films that these filmmakers can present that deserve their place on the world marquee. A TASTE OF BLOOD is a somber and wicked genre treat well worth the view.

CAST: German Palacios, Tomas Carullo Lizzio, Naiara Awada, Lautaro Bettoni, Alfonsina Carrocio and Carmela Merediz. CREW: Director/Screenplay - Santiago Fernández Calvete; Based on the novella "Sem'ya Vurdalaka" by Aleksei Tolstoy; Producers - Martin Aliaga, Justin Deimen, Roxana Ramos & Abhi Rastogi; Cinematography - Manuel Rebella; Score - Santosh Logandran; Editor - Mariana Quiroga; Costume Designer - Vanesa Casado; Makeup Special Effects - Sebastian Molchasky; Special Effects - Piromania FX; Visual Effects Supervisor - Martin Aliaga OFFICIAL: N.A. FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/mVQnOMl6n8I RELEASE DATE: May 10th,2022, on Blu-ray and Digital!

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

#film review #movie review #a taste of blood #A.K. TOLSTOY'S A TASTE OF BLOOD #cleopatra entertainment #santiago fernández calvete #german palacios #Alfonsina Carrocio #horror #vampire #werewolf #blood lust

[leer-reading-lire]

Sleepy readathon - week 5

Finished books:

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Carmilla by John Sheridan Le Fanu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Vampire by A. K. Tolstói ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Family of the Vourdalak by A. K. Tolstói ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Vampyre by John W. Polidori ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ongoing:

Dracula by Bram Stoker: Jonathan Harker's Journal, June 30

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins: chapter three

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry: chapter six

Thanks for hosting, @myonetruebook​!

#sleepyreadathon #dracula daily #dracula daily 2023 #emily henry #people we meet on vacation #readathon #bookblr #booklr #book community #reading community #currently reading #books and reading #books #leerreadinglire