Kiss Of A Vampire

Question 1

Who Produced Kiss of a Vampire?

Answer 1

Hammer films

Question 2

Who Distributed KOAV

Answer 2

Universal

Question 3

Sequel to…

Answer 3

Dracula

Question 4

Hammer copyright on monster movies

Answer 4

Hammer had rights to remake Universal ‘monster movies’ including The Mummy (1959) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Question 5

Codes and conventions - Font

Answer 5

Font: capitalized, serif, wooden (vampire genre connotations – coffin, stake)

Question 6

Hermeneutic Code

Answer 6

Hermeneutic Code – suspense created through enigmas to do with relationship between male / female vampires, connoted through composition and “Kiss” in title, and fate of victims

Question 7

Colour

Answer 7

Colour palette: gloomy grey, black and brown reinforcing film’s dark, scary conventions; red highlight colour draws attention to attacking bats, vampire, blood – visual signifiers of genre

Question 8

Billing block

Answer 8

Billing block: conventionally, stars listed in order of fame, more highly paid male actors first – Clifford Evans from Curse of the Werewolf (Hammer, 1961)

Question 9

Roland Barthes semantic code

Answer 9

Semantic Code – conventional association of bats with vampirism & horror

Question 10

Roland Barthes - Symbolic code

Answer 10

Symbolic Codes of horror, darkness and fear reinforced through signifier of the moon, gesture codes of victims

Question 11

History - 1963

Answer 11

1963: Swinging 60s, Beatlemania, Doctor Who, Marvel Comics, JFK assassination; Women’s liberation: Campaign against harassment; Contraceptive Pill on NHS (1961); US Equal pay legislation; First woman in space (Soviet Valentina Tereshkova)

Question 12

Hammer horror films

Answer 12

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Dracula (1958)
The Mummy (1959)
Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb (1971)

Question 13

Stereotypes

Answer 13

older ideas of Women as passive and vulnerable - victims

Modern ideas of male dominance being threatened by women’s increasing power

Question 14

Dress codes

Answer 14

women’s pale dresses of light materials highlight curves of bodies, reveal flesh of upper chests and arms (vulnerability, sexualisation)

Question 15

Gesture codes

Answer 15

left hand pair: passive female victim held by strong dominant man; right hand pair reverses gender with dominant woman

Question 16

Representation - Liesbet Van Zoonen’s feminist theory

Answer 16

Assuming ‘co-antagonist’ role, female vampire may contribute to social change by non-traditional representation (but passive victim reinforces)

Question 17

Levi’s Strauss structuralism

Answer 17

Binary oppositions in opposing representations of vampires and victims, romantic connotations of “kiss” opposed to stereotypical “vampire”.
Genre theory - Steve Neale

Question 18

Stuart Hall - theory of representation

Answer 18

Generic iconography of horror, culturally shared and decoded by audience (castle, bats, vampire’s cape, dripping blood)

Question 19

David Gauntlett’s theory of identity

Answer 19

Does female vampire act as role model for women struggling against oppression or demanding to be seen as equal to men?