Category Archives: Critical thoughts

Prince Lestat: A New Era for the Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

Leigh McLennon reviews Anne Rice’s return to The Vampire Chronicles with Prince Lestat, asking how Rice has adapted her vampires to suit the changed social conditions since the series began.

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Barry Forshaw ‘Sex and Death: Vampires from Coleridge to Hammer’

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

Instructive extract from Barry Forshaw’s British Gothic Cinema on the vampire theme in Gothic fiction from Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’ through ‘Carmilla’ and dracula to its incarnation in cinema.

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How our zombie obsession explains our fear of globalisation

Posted on 19th March 2015 by William the Bloody

Jospeh Gillings in a thoughtful piece that sees the current appeal of zombie fiction in the context of the helplessness felt in the face of the lawless nature of present-day capitalism. I would want to qualify the use of ‘globalisation’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phantasmagoria : The Dark Side of the Light

Posted on 19th March 2015 by William the Bloody

A fascinating short film with Mervyn Heard on the spooky spectacle of the late eighteenth-century/early nineteenth-century phantasmagoria and its uncanny foreshadowings of cinematic thrills. If this whets your appetite, come to the OGOM Company of Wolves Conference in September–we will … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Grandma, what a long history you have! The origins of “Little Red Riding Hood”

Posted on 19th March 2015 by William the Bloody

An interesting account by Tom Jacobs of the origins and dispersal of the Red Riding Hood tale. This is probably not such new and startling news as it proclaims, but that’s newspapers for you. And it begs a few questions … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Happy 18th, Buffy!

Posted on 10th March 2015 by William the Bloody

My interest in vampire fiction and subsequent exploration of the genre of paranormal romance was initially aroused by the now-classic TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is eighteen years old today. Created by Joss Whedon and combining wit and … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dragon lovers: extract from Julie Kagawa’s Rogue

Posted on 2nd March 2015 by William the Bloody

One of the things that fascinates me while researching paranormal romance is the insight into the creation development, and interaction of genres. This genre itself is a mating between the monstrous (masculinised?) genre of Gothic horror and the feminine romance … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vampire Queen Anne Rice and the Sympathetic Vampire (23 Feb 2015) By Ms Leigh McLennon

Posted on 27th February 2015 by William the Bloody

A thoughtful and well-researched blog article on the sympathetic vampire, acknowledging the lesser-known precursors before Anne Rice and noting the shifts from those vampire lovers of the 1970s to their descendants in contemporary paranormal romance by Leigh McLennon, PhD candidate … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts, Resources | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Finding the Gothic in Mary Poppins

Posted on 20th February 2015 by Sam George

“When I’m writing for kids …I’m always assuming that a story, if it is loved, is going to be re-read. So I try and be much more conscious of it than I am with adults, just in terms of word … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts, Generation Dead: YA Fiction and the Gothic news | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Werewolf News

Posted on 6th February 2015 by firekrank

Two things popped up on my Google search this week. The first was a spoof trailer for the video game featuring werewolves called The Order: 1886. (Apparently the programmers don’t like you calling it a werewolf video game). The spoof … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment