kiss of the vampire

Question 1

who was kiss of the vampire produced by?

Answer 1

Hammer film productions

Question 2

what films did Hammer productions already have success in?

Answer 2

other ‘monster movies’ e.g The Mummy and Frankenstein

Question 3

what events aided women’s sexual lib movement and are pieces of context?

Answer 3

introduction of contraceptive pill in 1960, equal pay act in 1963 and abortion act in 1967

Question 4

what are the two stereotypes of women shown in this poster?

Answer 4

‘older’ stereotype of women as passive victims of men and a more modern stereotype of women challenging male dominance

Question 5

what do the dress codes of the women show?

Answer 5

the light materials reinforce their femininity because they highlight the women’s curves and reveal flesh on their chest and arms

Question 6

what do the gesture codes of the active woman show?

Answer 6

more aggressive, submissive pose of the male she’s holding (on his knees and head back) represents her in dominant way, defys stereotypes of women at the time

Question 7

what do the male vampire’s gesture codes show?

Answer 7

seems fearful, arm thrown across body in defensive gesture, perhaps protecting himself from female vampire or bats

Question 8

how does Stuart Hall’s theory of representation apply to kiss of the vampire?

Answer 8

images of castle, bats, cape and blood actively encourages the audience to decode familiar iconography

Question 9

how does David Gauntlett’s theory of identity apply to kiss of the vampire?

Answer 9

female vampire could act as role model for women struggling against male oppression, or could be desperate to be seen as equal to men

Question 10

how does Van Zoonen’s feminist theory apply to kiss of the vampire?

Answer 10

female vampire (who we can assume is co-antagonist) is perhaps contributing to social change by representing women in non traditional roles, however passive female reinforces traditional roles

Question 11

how does Barthes theory of semiotics apply to kiss of the vampire?

Answer 11

suspense created through enigma surrounding the connoted relationship between female and male vampires, also could be applied to images of bats and their association with horror genre

Question 12

how are symbolic codes (Barthes) used in kiss of the vampire?

Answer 12

symbolic codes of fear,horror and darkness are reinforced through signifiers, e.g the moon and the male victims ‘submissive sacrifice’ gesture code

Question 13

how does Strauss’ theory of structuralism apply to kiss of the vampire?

Answer 13

texts are constructed through use of binary opposition, seen through opposing reps of vampires and their victims, connotations of ‘kiss’ opposed by ‘vampire’ in title

Question 14

what does the capitalised serif font of the title show?

Answer 14

shows it’s linked to vampire film genre, wooden styling, reflects vampire coffin or stake needed to kill him

Question 15

what does the use of a ‘painted’ main image show?

Answer 15

conventional of films in this period, links to the poster for Dracula, fact that it’s in colour shows it’s a modern telling of an old story

Question 16

what do the different colours on the poster show?

Answer 16

grey, black, brown- reinforces the films dark and scary conventions

red highlight colour- draws attention to the bats, vampire and the blood

all key visual signifiers for the genre

Question 17

what does the order of the actors names in the billing block show?

Answer 17

males are most important, highly paid male actors first and in order of fame (conventional) , Clifford Evans first name because starred in curse of the werewolf

Question 18

what could the bats flying around on the poster represent?

Answer 18

could represent chaos and anarchy within the narrative