One Vs. The Other: Anne Rice Vs. Bram Stoker

So welcome back to an all new installment of the series that got started in the earliest days of Hellinspace, the who is better segment... Or at this point, just One Vs. The Other to find out which one you think is better...

[caption id="attachment_2127" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, both genre defining prolific artists that helped craft the modern vampire novel![/caption]

And in this latest round it is, Bram Stoker Vs. Anne Rice, both writers, both writers of prolific, genre defining Vampire novels, and both have had their Vampire novels made in to movies... So the question is, Anne Rice Vs. Bram Stoker...

As for Bram Stoker, I will say this, his work on, 'Dracula' truly blazed a trail that has lead to not just the modern vampire novel, but also set the stage for what the Vampire fiction world in just about all it's forms still follow today, and the novel it's self was an amazing read that for me personally took the novel in a different direction... One that I truly believe may have inspired, 'Stephen King' when he was writing, 'Carrie' (1976)!

Now as for really the primary bad points, and one of them really doesn't involve him, but more his work... And these are 2 fold... 1. Even though he wrote other works of fiction in his day, they were all eclipsed by, 'Dracula' and have lost their importance in literary history... And 2: When the first adaptation of Dracula was in the beginning stages of being made, Stoker's widow fought so vehemently against the movie being made, that F.W. Murnau tried to get around it, and the world almost lost a true classic in the movie, Nosferatu (1922)... Fortunately it turns out a print was found decades later and the movie now enjoys international celebrity!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Bram Stoker, a man who live on through, 'Dracula' forever![/caption]

And now for, Anne Rice... Well the truth is, is her work on, 'The Vampire Chronicles' went on for many decades, and all in all, mostly great novels, the truth is, is her works beyond, 'The Vampire Chronicles' will live on pretty nicely in the other novels that she has written, including: Exit To Eden (a novel that was also made in to a movie,), the, 'Lives Of The Mayfair Witches' series, etc... And the fact that there has been rumors that one of the characters from, 'The Vampire Chronicles' may make a modern day appearance... (That series ended about a decade ago, with the release of the novel, 'Blood Canticle'.) Also her novels are so popular that at least one point, fans from all over the world would flock to her place in New Orleans decked out to look like Vampires from her novels!

Really the main problem that I have with her and her work, is that some how the studios just butchered 2 of her novels when they tried to make an amalgamation of the 2 novels for the movie, Queen Of The Damned (2002)!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Anne Rice, a truly brilliant writer![/caption]

In the end, I am going to have to give the title to Anne Rice... In the end Bram Stoker started the trend, but in the end I think Anne Rice modernized it.... What do you think?

The Story Behind Nosferatu

Dracula, the father of the modern movie Vampires! Now over the decades many people have played Dracula over the years, including people such as, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man), and even Bela Lugosi (Bride Of The Monster)!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Bela Lugosi as, 'Count Dracula' in Universal Pictures 1931 classic, Dracula![/caption]

And speaking of Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi can be said to be the father of the modern movie vampire due to his role as a Dracula in Universal's 1931 classic of the same name, and due to the legendary popularity of Lugosi's portayal of the legendary, 'Count', since then an entire industry was created with in the world of movies!

Now some people might think that Bela Lugosi's Dracula was the first Dracula movie that was ever released... Well Dracula (1931) may have been the first movie to have the name, 'Dracula', but it wasn't the first movie to have a story based on Bram Stokers classic 19th century novel of the same name!

The movie of course that I am speaking of is, Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)!

This movie which is most recognizably known as just, 'Nosferatu', was directed by: F.W. Murnau (Faust) and starred Max Schreck (Peer Gynt) in the role of the famous, 'Count', and had been filmed for the German production company, 'Prana Film' (As a matter of fact, it is the only movie that Prana Film ever made!)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Max Schreck as, 'Count Orlok' in F.W. Murnau's cult classic, Nosferatu: eine Symphony des Grauens  (1922)[/caption]

Prana Film when it was in pre-production for this movie went to the Stoker estate to try and gain the legal rights to make the movie based on Stoker's book (Dracula)! Unfortunately his estate would not grant the request to use Bram Stoker's original story.

So alot of key segments of the movie had been changed including, the fact that alot of the second string characters in the original novel had been taken out. The principle characters had been kept in this new movie, including, 'Count Dracula', (although the names of the characters had been changed.)

Also the locations and dates were changed from, Britain in the 1890s to Germany in the 1830s.

The last thing that I thought that I would mention here that I thought that you guys might find to be rather interesting is the fact that in Bram Stoker's original novel, that Dracula could be in daylight, but is weakened when he is in sun light. In Nosferatu, the count (who in this movie is called, 'Count Orlok') needs to sleep away from the day light.

The particular fact that in Nosferatu, that Count Orlok has to sleep away from the day light could be said to be the most prolific contribution to Vampire movies that Nosferatu could have made, due to the fact that since Nosferatu was released on March 15th, 1922, that having Vampires having to sleep away from the day light has been a common theme in both, 'Dracula' movies as well as, 'Vampire' movies as a whole!

For more information on this movie I thought that you guys would enjoy this trailer for, Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens:

http://youtu.be/N-DrKgjit4I