Post by GRWelsh on Oct 1, 2018 8:07:03 GMT -5
I just rewatched this and it's the first time I've rewatched the entire thing again since first seeing it in the theater in 1987. I remember it well since it made a big impression on me. I had the soundtrack on cassette tape and played it to death (seared into my memory... can't listen to it anymore). It was like the perfect movie for me at the time, since I was into vampires. In the summer of 1986, I bought a really nice hardback edition of DRACULA illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt and read it for the first time and loved it. A bit later I bought THE VAMPIRE LESTAT by Anne Rice which I also enjoyed, and she gets a lot of credit for the concept of old world monster getting modernized, although much of that was already in DRACULA (her later novels lost that same tightness of plot and atmosphere, but I still think INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE and THE VAMPIRE LESTAT are good). THE LOST BOYS did a movie version of what THE VAMPIRE LESTAT did by making vampires seem young and hip while still monsters. I remember thinking what a huge coincidence that was, or maybe not a coincidence... Watching it again now, you can see how a lot of the style and ideas found their way into BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, especially vampires that can appear alternately human or demonic, the balance of humor and horror, and how the horror can have a parallel to real life problems.
In terms of gaming inspiration, it made me think about how vampires could be more subtle at times, using their human appearance to infiltrate society and cause all sorts of trouble in non-standard ways. Usually they're just presented as "It's a monster, kill it!" or "He turned gaseous, we need to find his coffin." In THE LOST BOYS, one of the snippets of dialogue was how the entire cave they were lairing in was one big coffin, when they found the vampires hanging upside down like sleeping bats. But the head vampire (spoiler) runs a local business in town and has a normal, even slightly nerdy appearance.
In terms of gaming inspiration, it made me think about how vampires could be more subtle at times, using their human appearance to infiltrate society and cause all sorts of trouble in non-standard ways. Usually they're just presented as "It's a monster, kill it!" or "He turned gaseous, we need to find his coffin." In THE LOST BOYS, one of the snippets of dialogue was how the entire cave they were lairing in was one big coffin, when they found the vampires hanging upside down like sleeping bats. But the head vampire (spoiler) runs a local business in town and has a normal, even slightly nerdy appearance.
)