Queen of the Damned is a modern vampire film directed by Michael Rymer.

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Billal Kanafani

Ext. English

Queen Of The Damned

Queen of the Damned is a modern vampire film directed by Michael Rymer. This text takes aspects of the vampire myth and prior vampire texts and appropriates them into a modern context, which appeals to an audience of the current generation.

The vampire myth is a myth that describes a being that was once human and has been made into a vampire by another through the exchange of blood. The vampire is damned to forever walk the earth drinking the blood of others to survive.  Ideas of the vampire myth that are used in a modern context are predominately taken from the ideas of Eastern European folklore. These myths have been taken and appropriated by the composer to create a new vampire film.

The majority of the elements within this film support the myth. These aspects include the drinking of blood, immortality, and the idea of eternal loneliness.  However other aspects are subverted like the ideas of all vampires being evil, the idea of vampires having a fear of crucifixes and other religious symbols, and the idea of all vampires being harmed by the light.

The film’s composers have appropriated some of the aspects of this film from prior vampire texts including Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire”. The use of these aspects allows the audience to watch a film that contains the familiar convention and trappings of vampire mythology that have been enjoyed by them on prior occasions. This also allows for the composers to base their story on a pre-existing ledged where many of the features of this ledged are pre-established and therefore do not need to be created. This vampire myth has proven to be successful in the past and the composers could improve the popularity of the film by using tried and proven methods.

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Shadows, darkness, graveyards, coffins and other images of death are predominating features of the film’s set. Through the use of such imagery has been used to give the film a dark theme and heightens the theme of horror within the film. Other ideas that have their roots in vampire texts are those that decide the rules for vampires such as living for eternity, feeding on blood to live, and the passing of powers through blood. The sexual element of the vampire myth remains within this text, as does the vampire’s obsession with beauty. This particular aspect has been chosen and ...

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