Vampires on the Silent Screen

Cinema's First Age of Vampires 1897-1922

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by David Annwn Jones

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Horror

Keywords

vampire, silent cinema, horror

Publishing date

2023

Publisher

Palgrave MacMillan

Collection

Palgrave Gothic

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 242 pages
6 x 8 ¼ inches (15 x 21 cm)

ISBN

978-3-031-38642-8

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Book Presentation:
This book is the first study of the vampires in silent cinema, presenting a detailed academic yet accessible discussion of the films themselves and their sources. For the very first time, The Fire Elemental from the Wharton brothers’ The Mysteries of Myra (1916) is identified as cinema’s original vampire, his appearance initiating a rich and variegated period of film production that is currently missing from studies of horror cinema. Exciting and ground-breaking, Vampires on the Silent Screen also discusses Drakula Halála / Dracula’s death (1920), the first ever filmic female vampire in Erich Kober’s Lilith and Ly (1919), and the Dracula lookalike, Count Merlin in Alexander Korda’s Magic (1917) as well as many other productions. A socio-cultural framework with critical highlighting of eco-horror theory is used throughout to draw these unique discoveries together. This project is a must read for any horror enthusiasts out there.

About the Author:
David Annwn Jones is author of Gothic Machine (2011), Sexuality and the Gothic Magic Lantern (2014), Gothic Effigy (2018), Re-Envisaging the First Age of Cinematic Horror (2018) and ‘Green Trends in Euro-Horror Films of the 1960s and 1970s’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (2020) ‘The Art of Ghostly Projections’ (2021) in The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins and ‘Cinematic Darkness’, in The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic (2021).

Press Reviews:
"Both are well written and open up what I recognise as a frustrating subject in a way that casts a light on the films and enables the student to expand their knowledge. The difference in definitions, the distinctive lenses the two use, means the books enhance each other rather than detract from them, enabling critical examination. Both authors bring new things to the table, and both should be commended." (Andrew M. Boylan, Journal of Vampire Studies, Vol. 4, 2024)

See the publisher website: Palgrave MacMillan