Kiss of the Vampire Analysis

Question 1

1. What does the capitalised serif font with blood dripping from the ‘V’ in the title create connotations of?
2. What is the use of a painted main image highly conventional of?
3. What on the poster reinforces the film’s dark, scary conventions?
   - What does the red highlight colour draw attention to?

Answer 1

1. The vampire film genre.
2. Films of this period.
3. Gloomy grey, black and brown colour palette.
   - The attacking bats, vampire and blood - key visual signifiers for this genre.

Question 2

1. Which theory/code could be applied to the images of the bats?
2. _________ codes by ______ could be applied through _________ such as the _____ and the male victim’s submissive sacrifice gesture code.
3. What other theory could be applied to the opposite representations of the vampires and their victims?

Answer 2

1. Barthes’ Semantic Code.
2. Symbolic, Barthes, signifiers, moon.
3. Levi-Strauss’ Binary Oppositions.

Question 3

1. What theory could be applied to the women wearing pale dresses to reinforce their femininity?
2. What is the gesture code of the woman on the left?
3. What is the woman vampire presented as?
   - How is this stereotypical?

Answer 3

1. Laura Mulvey male gaze.
2. That of the stereotypical, passive female victim.
3. Unhuman.
   - Implies that any woman with power of a man is some ‘freak of nature.’

Question 4

1. What does David Gauntlett’s ‘theory of identity’ say that the female vampire is acting as?
2. What is the audience encouraged to decode?
   - Who’s theory is this?
3. What does Van Zoonen’s theory say about the female vampire?
   - What could this be contributing to?

Answer 4

1. Role model for women struggling against male oppression.
2. The familiar generic iconography on the poster.
   - Stuart Hall: Representation.
3. She has assumed a ‘co-antagonist’ role.
   - Social change by presenting women in non-traditional roles of power.