My favorite horror romances

Ah love. Stupid, stupid love.

All the great stories are love stories. The passion and the pain all lie at the heart of immortal drama. Indeed, love is the engine that moves the heart of the world.

I've been thinking about love a lot lately. Maybe it's because of Valentine's Day, maybe it's because the snow brings me into an intimate frame of mind, maybe it's because I'm writing this while staying in my ex-girlfriend's apartment, but I'm in the mood to pontificate on the subject of love in horror films.

Back up. Horror and romance? Could those two emotions more opposed? Well, yeah, consider that the "heart" of all horror (if you'll pardon the expression) is the characters. Many horror movies tell surprisingly engaging love stories, even if they often don't end well. I've come up with a list of my favorite romances in horror. As always, feel free to add to this list.

The Monster and The Bride from Bride of Frankenstein



The classic fucked-up horror romance. Frankenstein's poor monster wants nothing more than a companion to share his horrible existence with. After a campaign of torment and brutality, Dr. Frankenstein capitulates and builds a bride for his monster. The Bride takes one look at her intended betrothed and screams in terror. For the damned creations of Frankenstein's madness, there is no relief from loneliness.

Tiffany and Chucky from Bride of Chucky



I always liked the Child's Play movies. For a series about a kickable doll, the movies were genuinely scary, mostly due to Chucky's amoral viciousness. Chucky always felt like a supernatural variation of one of those cross country spree-killers. With Bride of Chucky, Mickey finally got his Mallory.

Chucky and Tiffany are much like what I imagine Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate would be like. They're deeply passionate for each other, but that passion often turns violent. Tiffany in particular seems to be let down by the fact that Chucky isn't the man she made him out to be in memory. Their relationship make for some rich dark comedy and heaven help those who get between them.

Julia and Frank from Hellraiser



The horror genre is rife with cheatin' women.

Remember all those Tales from the Crypt stories where some woman conspires with her lover to kill her husband, only to have supernatural vengeance befall them. Hellraiser takes that trope to the farthest borders of sensation as it tells the story of Frank and Julia.

Julia and Frank fuck. Fucking is central to the Hellraiser mythology, as demonic S&M monsters offer unparalleled sensual delights to the hedonists who seek them. Frank had already crossed over into the Cenobite's perverse realm and reaches out to his former lover in an attempt to escape.

Julia spends most of the movie as a wicked stepmother, cold and aloof to her family. Frank's return reignites her passion and she follows him down the path to damnation. It doesn't work out in the end and there's betrayal and brutality, but few pairings match Frank and Julia for raw, twisted sexuality.

Kristen and James from The Strangers



I like to think of this one as a snapshot moment in a relationship.

Kristen and James were at a wedding. Romance was in the air and the two seemed like a happy couple. James pops the question. Kristen turns him down. They go back to James' parents house. James had decorated the place with candles and roses and other stuff to celebrate their unfulfilled engagement. The gesture, while sweet, makes everything more awkward after the rejection. While they're dealing with their emotions, a bunch of asshole kids show up. We have a movie.

I have been where James and Kristen have been. I've run up into those moments where I had to stop and consider what my relationship meant and whether or not it could survive. Their awkwardness and sadness resonated with me. They're not mad at each other, but you see them walking around in a daze, trying to put words to the things they are feeling.

We never learn why Kristen rejected James' proposal and their relationship comes to a very tragic ending, but I cared about them very deeply and I wanted them to make it. Too bad the Dark Gods of Narrative aren't as sentimental as I am.

Tina and Nick from Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood



This one may be a cheat.

We never see any obvious declarations of love between Tina, the troubled psychic and Kevin, the bad boy turned good. They never hold hands and watch the sunrise over Crystal Lake. But both of them are outsiders, neither of them fit into the respective groups that come visiting the lake. They do have some nice moments of connection before the mayhem starts. Kevin was one of the few males to survive a Friday the 13th movie and that has to mean something, right?

I like to think that, once the wounds are healed and the trauma is dealt with, the two of them could find some kind of peace with each other. Tina definitely deserves it. Bad News Krews certainly wasn't helping her out.

James and Mary from Silent Hill 2



Considered by many to be the high point of the Silent Hill series, Silent Hill 2 set up most of the tropes that continued through the later entries, particularly the idea that Silent Hill is a purgatory for people haunted by their past.

The story centers around James, who receives a letter from his dead wife telling him to meet her in the fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill. As the story continues, we discover that James' wife suffered a long illness and he smothered her with a pillow, ostensibly to prevent her from suffering further. When he arrives in Silent Hill, manifestations of his guilt come alive to punish him for his actions. The player makes choices in-game that determine what kind of ending James gets. Most of them aren't good.

Silent Hill 2 is an amazing horror story. The visuals are genuinely chilling, and the story of lost love and crippling guilt is genuinely heartbreaking, framed by some of the most chilling scenes I've ever experienced in the genre.

Dracula and Mina from Bram Stoker's Dracula



I'm mostly including this as for nostalgia purposes. I can't stand this movie anymore.

Okay, let's be fair: Coppola can direct a pretty movie. The costumes are gorgeous. The performances are...memorable. And it's a fun movie to watch.

When I was a young goth kid, I took this movie sooooo seriously. The romance was soooo intense and sooooo beautiful and squee! isn't it romantic how he crossed oceans of time to find her?

Now I find it hackey and melodramatic and almost unbearably embarrassing to watch, probably the same way other people view Twilight. I can't say that young romantic in me doesn't still have a warm place in his heart for this movie, but it's an over-the-top bodice ripper.

Ana and Michael from Dawn of the Dead (2004)



There are three major relationships in Dawn of the Dead. One is between a guy and his infected pregnant wife, but that's about his fixation to bring something better than himself into the world. The other is between two stupid pie-eyed teenagers. The last is between Ana and Michael. It never quite blossoms into what it was meant to be, but there is such tenderness in the tension between them.

Michael is a genuinely good guy. He's smart, compassionate, sensible, and a born leader. While certainly capable, he never has the bluster or bravado of the other characters. Ana is very much his equal, as intelligent and capable as he is. While they're both practical people and the situation demands that they never let their guard down, we feel the intensity between them. We get the sense that, if the world were to once again stabilize, they could be very happy together.

Their relationship is cut short in one of the most heartbreaking ways I've ever seen in a horror film, but Michael even goes to his death with the kind of quiet brave dignity that is to be admired. In an era where most male heroes are rogues and brutes, Michael is the kind of guy I would like to be someday.


Candyman and Helen in Candyman



Wait a sec. Another overly romantic movie about a supernatural creature romancing a human?

Well, yeah, but unlike Bram Stoker's Dracula, the love isn't reciprocated. Candyman is essentially the story of a supernatural stalker. Sure, he's intensely charismatic and romantic, but he's also evil to the bone, and he completely destroys Helen's life in the pursuit of her. Like Dracula, he also invites Helen to be like him, but the process involves a death so horrible it would become legend. The course of true love never did run smooth.

Stephen and Francine from Dawn of the Dead (1978)



Stephen and Francine didn't hold up too well.

I always got the sense that Stephen and Francine would have eventually broken up if the zombies didn't take over. As it stands, there's a lot of unspoken anger between them, and Francine in particular seems often resentful that they've been thrown together. Even though Francine is pregnant, there's no sense of joy or togetherness about it. They seem to treat it as just another problem in a hellish world.

There's something vaguely sexist to Stephen's behavior. He gets irritated when Francine voices a contrary opinion, dislikes the idea of her flying the helicopter, and nearly gets her killed when he leaves her alone to have a manly adventure with the SWAT team boys. Even their lone romantic moment ends unhappily. One of my favorite shots in the movie takes place after the two of them have made love. Francine sits up, smoking a cigarette, looking past us. Stephen lies awake next to her, staring up at the ceiling. They no longer have anything to say to one another.

The most nightmarish image in the movie is when Stephen, now a zombie, goes after their safehouse. The movie often points out that zombies are compelled by unconscious desires, specifically to return to the mall. What if Stephen's unconscious desire is to hurt Francine?

Either way, it doesn't work out.

Marie and Alexa from High Tension



Oh, I'm gonna have to tread carefully with this one.

I've heard some people say this movie carries strong homophobic undertones. Final Girl covered that subject better than I could and I'm inclined to agree with what she says on the subject. Here's my take:

I liked the twist ending. Sure, maybe it was a gimmick and maybe it doesn't really add anything more to the story, but I like kicking around the idea of an obsession so intense that it manifests itself in such horrific delusions. If the disgusting pig of a truck driver is how Marie sees her attraction to Alex, that speaks of a poisonous self-hate. I would like to see a remake done where we are aware of the split from the beginning. There's a really, really good horror movie here.

Shaun and Liz from Shaun of the Dead



I have a soft spot for stories about about losers who find their inner hero when crisis hits. I like to think I have a little Shaun in me.

Anyway, there's a bunch of stuff I really like about Shaun of the Dead. The romance is authentic. Shaun is a likable guy and you can see why Liz stays with him as long as he does. When they do break up you can see it's because the little things finally wore her down. Even then, there's still enough good memories to make the break up difficult. Finally, I liked the skeevy friend who constantly undermined Shaun and Liz's relationship so he could have a shot at her. I've known that guy. Once I was that guy. Either way, it was a nice touch.

The one thing that always threw me about the movie was the ending. After the zombie threat is brought under control, we see Shaun and Liz back on Shaun's couch. She now seems happy that they're doing all the stuff she hated doing before. Why the sudden change of heart? Does she now appreciate his habits more, or is she now simply grateful to be alive. Whatchoo think?

Oskar and Eli from Let The Right One In



Young love can be incredibly messed up, especially when you're in love with a violent blood junkie.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think Oskar and Eli are going to last in the long term. Sooner or later Oskar will get old and Eli will be as brutal and dismissive as "she" was to poor Hakan. There is something fundamentally stunted about Eli and the sort of affair they would have is truly doomed in the "One day I will have to be a serial killer to please you" sort of way.



Doing a quick look over this list, I see a lot of doomed romance. Love doesn't tend to do well in horror, mostly because people tend not to do well in horror. Horror is often about things falling apart, usually by worst-case scenario. Still, the grand passions are what gives us our humanity. They pull us out of the darkness and draw us close together. They warm us like campfires as the dark slowly circles us, drawing us in...

Bloody-Disgusting's Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade

As the first decade of the new millennium is winding down, all the blogs are doing their retrospectives of the best and worst of the past ten years. Mine's coming, but in the meantime, check out the one Bloody-Disgusting put together. You can find it here.

My Favorite Vampires

I've always wanted to do one of these.

Every Halloween, and probably now after every Twilight movie, damn near every entertainment website publishes a list of their favorite vampires. As a complete...um...sucker for these kind of light articles, I always wind up a bit disappointed afterward. The lists are basically the same. It's the guy from Near Dark, the guy from Lost Boys, Edward, the kid from Let The Right One In, and a bone thrown to Count Orlock from Nosferatu as the scariest vampire ever captured on screen. By and large, these vampires tend to fall into two categories: the tormented creature of the night and the overenthusiastic predatory date rapist.

Don't get me wrong, the lists are usually pretty good. But there are a lot of great vampires out there that don't get a lot of recognition. So, without further ado, here's my favorite vampires:

Dracula


My elementary school had a deal with Scholastic books where they sold tons of young adult books at discount. I'd bring their catalogue home and my parents, indulgent creatures that they were, bought me everything I wanted. Among the little treasures I picked up were kid-friendly versions of classic novels like Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula.

I loved those books. They introduced me to the fog-swept streets of Victorian England and the monsters that lurked among the cobblestone streets and tastefully-appointed drawing rooms. The books were wonderful gateways to imaginative fiction and classic literature. My favorite was, of course, Bram Stoker's immortal Dracula.

I loved the creepy Transylvanian Count, the decaying old keep on the mountainside, the sexy vampire women that inadvertently ushered me into puberty, the polite first meetings with the Count, Lucy wasting away, the chase across the mountains, and the exciting final battle between hero and monster. That shit was FUN.

The Count was cool. He was elegant and predatory and threatening. He hadn't been shellacked with that layer of romantic angst that vampires would pick up in the following years. Reading that book was a wonderful introduction to the character and it left a lasting impression on me. I have a copy of Dracula I picked up from my trip to Transylvania, I have a piece of masonry from Vlad Dracul's actual castle a few inches from me as I write this, and I've collected a bunch of goofy memorabilia. Dracula always was and will be the man.

Louis and Lestat


The whole romantic vampire thing started here. After Interview got published, vampires became less about monsters and more about power fantasies. Still, I have a lot of fondness for the silly, soppy little vampires of Anne Rice's tales.

I first encountered Lestat and Louis during my freshman year in high school, when I was all Gothic and susceptible to flowery prose. Until that point, vampires were undead soulless things, but getting to see history and morality from a vampire's point of view was fascinating.

I empathized more with Louis when I was younger. While all the superpowers and glamor sounds fun, I would have shared his distaste with hurting people. As time went on and my morality crumbled like a sand castle in a tsunami I came to love Lestat's "gentleman death" vibe. I didn't stick with the series long enough for him to become a Jesus allegory and I have come to understand that Anne Rice has since renounced her earlier work after her return to Catholicism. But I still greatly enjoyed both Interview and The Vampire Lestat.

Morbius The Living Vampire


Among my many nerdy obsessions, I was a huge comic book geek. I started reading during the late eighties, when dark-tinged supernatural heroes like Ghost Rider were big. Marvel, seizing on the popularity of the character, created a crossover series called Midnight Sons, reintroducing classic horror heroes into their own series. The best of all these books focused on Spider-Man's former vampiric nemesis Morbius The Living Vampire.

Morbius was unique in that he was not a supernatural vampire. The product of a botched medical experiment aimed at saving him from a life-threatening disease, Morbius developed powers and limitations suspiciously similar to a traditional vampires. While compelled to kill by a near-overpowering thirst, he was horrified by his actions.

One of the things I liked about Morbius was how intensely he struggled with his need for blood. Vampires are often a metaphor for addiction, though many romantic vampires jettison this aspect of the mythos. Morbius was a good man brought down by his curse, and the only way he reconciles himself with his needs is to prey on killers and other urban scum. He straddled the line between morality and damnation, and was pretty damn entertaining because of it.

Alucard


Do you guys remember the third Castlevania game? In it, you could pick up one of three allies in your quest to take down Count Dracula. The most useful one was undoubtedly the wall-climbing pirate guy, but if you were willing to to cross the map you could enlist the assistance of Alucard, Dracula's estranged vampire son.

I loved the notion of playing a vampire. Sure, he didn't really do much beside change into a bat, but it was still a cool idea. Konami later expanded Alucard's role into a full game, the cult favorite Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Alucard was elegant and cool, and the notion of a son slaying his father for the greater good made for some interesting drama.

Drusilla


I'm not the world's biggest fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but they did get some things right. One of them was Drusilla, the mad seer vampire.

I loved Drusilla. She was gorgeous, she wore clothes and hairstyles from a different age, she spoke in delusion-fuelled poetry, and unlike most of the Whedonverse's vampires she never stopped being a nasty piece of work. Many of Whedon's vampire antagonists eventually came over to the light and often became diluted and boring but Drusilla remained a monster. She's one of those characters I'd like to transport into other horror stories because she shines a dark little light whenever she appears.

Cassidy


Garth Ennis's Preacher series, a cross-genre Vertigo series about a supernaturally-gifted preacher's search for God, gave us Proinsias Cassidy, Irish uprising volunteer turned vampire. He was one of the richest characters in comic history. Cassidy avoided the classical tropes of vampire. He didn't have fangs, he wasn't particularly elegant, and he was selfish and irresponsible. Unlike ninety percent of vampires-both good and bad-he was defined by who he was rather than the rules he had to live by.

I really liked Cassidy's backstory, particularly his involvement in the 1916 Easter uprising and his chance meetings with several historical and literary figures of Ireland and America. Vampires have the advantage of immortality and have the opportunity to witness history in the making. Most writers treat this aspect of vampirism in a very glib, shallow manner, but Cassidy's experiences are all cleverly filtered through his hard drinking, party-boy lifestyle. His wry observation on Brendan Behan's drinking and social habits are worth the price of admission alone.

Cassidy's lifestyle of overindulgence, fuelled by his body's ability to take whatever punishment life can throw at it, made him into a selfish, immature, weak person. He betrays his friends, sinks into drug addiction, hurts the people who care about him, and leaves a trail of ruined friendships in his wake. After burning every bridge and pissing away any shot at redemption, he reaches out to his last friend, trying to dig his way out of a very human damnation. Cassidy was a shit, but he's one of the best characters I've ever spent time with.



Bunnicula


Hm. I was a little kid. I like vampires. I like bunnies. Just ask Professor Demon Bunny.

Therefore, I loved Bunnicula.


Blade


Remember that scene where the guy winds up in a strange dance club underneath a meat warehouse? He's in a weird crowd, enticed by a mysterious girl, and suddenly blood pours from the sprinklers. He screams, everyone cheers, and he realized they're all vampires. He runs away in terror, stumbles to the floor, crawls to safety, and just when all hope is lost...

Blade.

Another one of Marvel's Midnight Sons characters, Blade really came into his own after he got into the movies. His world was dark and exotic, full of hedonistic vampires and the trappings of extreme wealth. Blade and his blue-collar operation wreck havoc on the vampire's ordered little world. It's all muscle cars and shotguns and harsh language, a far cry from Van Helsing's genteel efforts.

Invincible super-killers tend not to interest me, but Blade has some depth to him. As the series goes on we get the sense that Blade's quest borders on the fanatical He's at war with his predatory nature, he hates the vampire community yet he doesn't seem to like humans all that much. He exists in a terrible outsider state, orphaned and alone, turned cruel by his quest. Even when he's reunited with his supposedly dead father figure, the coldness Blade shows to the man while trying to figure out if he's turned reveals just how disconnected he is. It's a lonely life and Blade struggles to get by. He's just plain cool, and he is the obvious inspiration for Blacula Hunter Jefferson Twilight from The Venture Bros.



Eli


I have covered Let The Right One In at length before, in one of my better articles. The same stuff still holds true. I loved Eli's relationship with Oskar, I loved the weird combination of regret and viciousness that characterized Eli's personality. I loved the savage brutality of Eli's feeding, which is about a million miles away from any sexy neck nibbling. Like Cassidy, Eli works primarily because he/she is a great character. I am absolutely terrified about how bad the upcoming American remake will be.

Vampire: The Masquerade


There are two articles sitting on my blog dashboard that I haven't figured out a way to complete yet. One is on chilling Slave Labor Graphic mini-series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and one on the now-defunct White Wolf RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. Both works had a tremendous impact on my adolescence.

V:tM is a game about secret societies of vampires operating beyond human awareness. You create a vampire and attempt to negotiate the Byzantinian politics of supernatural society, committing evil deeds while attempting to hang on to their last shreds of humanity.

V:tM worked because it covered every possible variation on vampirism. There were elegant vampires, thuggish vampires, exotic vampires, saintly vampires, devil vampires, and everything else in between. You could have a lot of fun creating an alternate persona for yourself. The system wasn't perfect and the mythology crumbled under its own weight, but it was a fun world to game in.

Nothing


Back in the harsh and angst-ridden years of my mid-adolescence, I got involved in the Goth scene. My entire wardrobe went black, my music became much more down-tempo, and my hair got longer and very multi-colored.

I went to a small-town high school without much access to a counter culture, so me and my few "babybats" had nothing but the internet, some CDs, and old copies of Propaganda and Carpe Noctem magazine. We passed these little items back-and-forth between us and they lead us to the work of Gothling writer Poppy Z. Brite.

At the time, Poppy Z. Brite was famous in the Goth scene for writing Lost Souls, a vampire novel full of Goths, violence, New Orleans, and gay sex. Lots and lots of gay sex.

Seriously. Lots.

Obviously, this isn't a bad thing. Reading Poppy Z. Brite definitely broadened my mind. Once my frail little Catholic boy brain recovered from the shock, I found a really great story. Nothing, the moody protagonist, mirrored the isolation and impatience I felt from being a little odd in a square community. His slow awakening into his vampire heritage is fascinating to watch, and Brite is very good at painting Southern Gothic decay. It's a great book and writing this blog post has compelled me to re-read it.



Anyway, those are some of my favorite vampires. I hope you dug this list, and I'm sure I'll come up with a few more right after I publish this. In the meantime, enjoy the deluge of vampire romance.