University at Albany, State University of New York Scholars Archive Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship Languages, Literatures & Cultures 2016 Revamping Dracula on the Mexican Silver in Fernando Méndez’s El vampiro Carmen Serrano University at Albany, State University of New York, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cas_llc_scholar Part of the Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, and the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Serrano, Carmen, "Revamping Dracula on the Mexican Silver in Fernando Méndez’s El vampiro" (2016). Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship. 29. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cas_llc_scholar/29 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Languages, Literatures & Cultures at Scholars Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholars Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AND TRANSCULTURAL MIGRATIONS AND TRANSNATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS Edited by Dorothea Fischer-Hornungand Monika Mueller UNIVI!RSITY PRI!SS OF MISSISSIPPI t JACKSON CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 Dorothea Fischer-Hornungand Monika Mueller PART 1: MIGRATORY TRANSFORMATIONS www.upre55.state.ms.us THE SMILING DEAD; OR, ON THE EMPIRICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF THAI ZOMBIES 21 Designed by Peter D. Halverson Katanyna Ancuta " " The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association uf SHE LOVES THE BLOOD OF THE YOUNG American Univcrsity PresSt!s. 11teBloodthirsty Female as Cultural Mediator in Laftadio Hearn's ·The Storyof Chilgorit 43 Copyright 0 2016 by University Pre55 of Mississippi Sabine Metzger All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ' OCTAV IA BUTLER S VAMPIRIC VISION First printing 2o16 Fledgling as a Tmnsnational Neo-Siave Narrative 61 Timothy M. Robinson Library of Congress Cataloging·in-l'ublication Data PART 2: NON/NORMATIVE SEXUALITIES Vampires and 1-nmbies: transculturnlmigrntions and transnational interpretations I etlitetl by Dorothea Fischer-Hornung,Munika Mueller. APPETITE FOR DISRUPTION pages em The Cinematic Zombie and Queer 11teory Bs Includes bibliogrnphical refercncL'S anti index. Rasmus R. Simonsen ISBN 978+4968-0474-7 (hardback) - ISBN (invalid) 978+4968-o475-4 (ebuok) 1. Vampires in mass media. I. Fischer-Hornung,Dorothea, 1949- ctlitur. ll. Mueller, Munika. 1960- VAMPIROS MEXICANOS ctlitor. Nonnormative Sexualitiesin ContemporaryVampire Novels ofMexico 110 1'96.V35V36 1016 Danielle Borgia 398�45-tiCl) 2015010155 HYBRIDITY SUCKS European Vampirism EncountersHaitian Voodoo in The White British library Cataloging-in·Publication Data available Witch of Rosehall 130 Monika Mueller VI CONTENTS 3: r PART CULTURAL ANXIETIES REVAMPING DRACULA ON THE MEXICAN SILVER SCREEN FernandoM�ndus El vampiro ·�9 Carmen Serrano THE REANIMATION OF YELLOW-PERIL ANXIETIES IN MAX ' BROOKS S WORLD WAR Z VAMPIRES AND ZOMBIES TimothyR. Fox PART 4: CIRCULATING TECHNOLOGIES " ' " DOCTOR! I M LOSING BLOOD! " " NONSENSE! YOUR BLOOD IS RIGHT HERE 1ht VampirismCarl of 1heodorDreyu's Film Vampyr 191 Johannes Weber DISRUPTIVE CORPSES Tales of the Living Dead in Horror Comicsof the 1950s and Beyond 113 Richard}. Hand UNDEAD AVATARS 1heZombie in HorrorVideo Games 229 Ewan KirkJand LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS INDEX 249 t MONIKA MUELLER Le Fanu,Sheridan.!18�) :zOOJ.uCarmiUa.•ln 7hr«Vampirt Tales, edited by Anne Williams, 86-148. Boston: Wadsworth. McNally, Raymond T.,and Radu FlorescU. I994·/n Stt�rchof Dracula: 1ht Historyof Dracula 11ndV11mpirtS. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Pifer, Drury. 1001. Hanging tht Moon: 7ht Rollins Rlst to Riches. Newarlc: University of Delawart Pn!SS. PART3 Rickels, Laurence A. 1999. 1ht Vampire LecturtS. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Riviert, Joan. lt9:Z9) 1000. "Womanlintss as a Masquende:Jn Psychoanalysis and Woman: A Rtder,edited by Shelley Saguaro. 70-78. Houndmills. UK: Macmillan. Rosenberg. Lealta Re de. :zoo7.Nationalism and tht Fomu�tion of Carib&tanLittraturt. New York:Palgnve. Signorottl. Elizabeth. 1996. •Repo55eS!iing the Body: Tnnsgn!SSive Deslrt in 'Cannilla' and Dncula-Vampirt Story Retold with Masculine Themes Added:' Criticism 38. CULTURAL Accessed November 1. 1011. http://findarticles.com /plartides/mi_mn:zo/ls_n4_VJ&/ ai_18981)86f. ANXIETIES Thune, Maziki. 1011. ·Reading Violence and Postcolonial Decolonization through Fanon: The Caseof Jamaica."Journal of Pan African Studies 4 (7): 75-94- "lhe White Witch of Jamaica.• 1011. Accessed Much :zs, 1011. http:/lscaryplace.com JJamaica.html Wisker, Gina. 1013. ·celebnting Dilfertnce and Community: The Vampirt in African­ American and Caribbean Women's Writing:"In !<hairand Hoglund. 46-66. REVAMPING DRACULA ON THE MEXICAN SILVER SCREEN Fernando Mendezs El vampiro CARMEN SERRANO inematic representations of the monstrous and the supernatural are C an inextricable part of film history, and the vampire is among its in­ ternational stars. 11re Devils Manor (1896), by French film pioneer Georges Memes, is considered one of the firstfilms to play with the vampire theme. In it, a bat-like creature flies into a Gothic castle and then is trans­ formed into a sinister cloaked figure (see Abbott 2004, 12.). In 1922. direc­ tor F. W. Murnau made the critically acclaimed German expressionist film Nosforatu, which presents one of the most frightening versions of the aris­ tocratic vampire as described in Bram Stoker's novel Dmcula (1897). Since then, the vampire figurehas found numerous embodiments throughout the world and in various media. Like the vampire, the filmicimage is reborn,parodied, abused, and killed, only to resurrect again. Typically, the fear-instilling vampire films appear to satisfy popular taste for a while, but interest quickly subsides, resulting in par:odiessuch as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein(Charles Barton, 1948) and The Fearless Vampire Killers;or, Pardon Me, but Your Teeth Are in My Neck (Roman Polanski, 1967). Nevertheless, there is always a new group of spectators ready to consume the latest articulation of the vampire. This is exemplified in the recent Twilight saga film series (2oo8-2o12) based on Stephenie Meyer's series of novels with the same titles, which were extraor­ dinarily successful, especially among teenage girls. The popularity of these films alongwith the revenues generated inevitably led to the production of more vampire films, whichinclude, to name just a few, Daybrealcers(Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, 2oog), Dark Shadows (Tim Burton, 2012), Abra­ ham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Timur Bekmambetov, 2012), and Let Me In tSO CARMEN SERRANO RtvampingDracula on Mexican Scrrtn: Mindas Elvampi10 tSt (Matt Reeves, 2.010),which is the American remake of the Swedish film Let be described as low-quality parodies. For example, in El Santo contra las the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson,2008). mujeres vampiro-a real camp cia�-"El Santo" (a professional wrestler Prior to the latest renaissance of bloodsucking creatureson the big screen, who appeared frequently on television) overtakes and defeats the demonic, the appeal of the supernatural and the monstrous had been thoroughly ex­ albeit gorgeous, vampire vixens who plot to bring about the apocalypse by ploited by US filmstudios, which produced the firstAmerican horror film unleashing vampire monsters on earth. series between 1931 and 1939. Among the most famous terror-inducing film The vampire figure in the Mexican context might at first seem like an series of this era are Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931), Frankenstein (James unlikely appropriation of a foreign cultural symbol, yet there is a compli­ Whale, 1931),Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(Rouben Mamoulian,1931), and White cated and meaningful relationship between the vampire monster and the Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932.).Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, was a sensa­ vampire bat that draws on Mexican culture being negotiated in these films. tional success, selling over so,ooo tickets in just two days (see Phillips 2005, TheMexican vampire filmsillustrate how the vampire monster travels from 13). In the end, the film grossed more than twenty-fivemillion dollars,which place to place and is seemingly transformed in each context,thereby reveal­ is all the more remarkable given that the country was in the midst of the ing the circumstances in which it is produced. Because the vampire figure Great Depression {see Flynn 1992, 39). has appeared in literature and film in variouscountries, it is worth exploring These films were not only popular among US audiences; they were also how the vampire is recast in different national contexts. This underscores successful internationally,especially in Latin America.With the advent of the ways in which the vampire monsters destabilize specific constructions sound in 192.7and because the Hollywood studios wanted to maintain their of belonging and, most important, how these vampire films express anxi­ stronghold in Spanish-speaking countries,more than one hundredSpanish­ eties concerning national boundaries and citizenship at specific social and language films were made by Hollywood studios from 1930 through 1935 political crossroads.Here, I analyze the ways in which the articulation of the (see Pinto 1973, 474). The most famous of these Spanish-language film ver­ vampire in Mexico differs from the typical form of the vampire produced sions was Drdcula (1931), by the US film director George Melford.The