The art-horror; horror writing Horror stories The nature of Horror, by Noel Carroll

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

Umbrage: The First Vampire (A Vampire's Tale) (Director: Drew Cullingham)

Umbrage, Drew Cullingham, Vampire films, Horror films, Vampire movies, Horror movies, blood movies, Dark movies, Scary movies, Ghost movies


Starring:

Doug Bradley
Rita Ramnani
Jonnie Hurn
Natalie Celino
Grace Vallorani



A dysfunctional family moves into a remote cottage and they find themselves at the centre of an old vampire feud. A deadly seductress, Lilith, the mythical mother of all vampires, has come to claim her vengeance on a cowboy vampire who loved and left her in the Wild West.

Gail-Nina Anderson: The Vampire's Own Alphabet

Gail-Nina Anderson, Halloween poem, Vampire poetry, Vampire poems, Dark Poems, Dark Poetry, Gothic poetry, Goth poetry, Horror poetry, Horror poems



A is Anatomised, cut up and pickled
B is for bruises, which shouldn't be tickled
C is Cadaver, greyish and greenery
D is the Devil's Gorge, Satan's own scenery
E will Eliminate, terminate, End
F is the Fiend oft disguised as a friend
G is the Ghost, wraith-like and liminal
H is the Hangman who waits for the criminal
I is the Incubus, riding your nights
J is the Jugular, throbbing for bites
K is the Kite flown to harness the lightning
L is the Lamia, lovely but frightening
M is the Mistletoe, sacred for Druids
N's Nosferatu, who'll sup on your fluids
O is for Orgasm (refer back to I)
P is the Poltergeist, making things fly
Q is the dusky-robed Queen of the Night
R stands for Runes which you never pass, quite
S is the Succubus, sin in your dreaming
T is the Terror that wakes you up screaming
U's the Uncanny you hardly dare mention
V is the Vampire, of sanguine intention
W's Werewolf, all bristling and lupine
X stands for Xena, who'll lay you out supine
Y is the YETI, who's not just illusion
Z signals Zero, and draws our conclusion.

David B Dickens and Elizabeth Miller: Michel Beheim, German Meistergesang, and Dracula

Journal of Dracula Studies 5 (2003)





[This article comprises two papers given at the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts in 2003. David B Dickens is Professor of German at Washington & Lee University, while Elizabeth Miller is the author of five books on Dracula.]




A. Beheim  and the Tradition of German Meistergesang (David B Dickens)

While  the name of Michel Beheim (1416-1472) is unfamiliar to most, the subject of one of his longer poems, a contemporary account of the atrocities committed by  the historical Dracula,  is widely known (and will be dealt with by Elizabeth Miller in the second part of this article). This section examines the poet himself as well as the age and the literary culture within which he worked, in particular the tradition known as  Meistergesang  (also Meistersang).
Beheim[1] was Germany’s most productive poet of the fifteenth century. In German literary history he occupies a controversial position between the courts of the late Middle Ages and the newer urban society that fostered Meistergesang. He was long considered an epigone, an extensive borrower, and even a hack, but more positive assessments of his work have been appearing in the past thirty years. Born in 1416 in the small town of Sülzbach near Weinsberg in southwestern Germany, he followed his father’s trade of a weaver until about 1439, when his local feudal lord, the Imperial Archchamberlain Konrad von Weinsberg brought him to his court, perhaps as a soldier. It  may be fortuitous coincidence that Konrad, earlier close to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (r.1411-1433), was a member of Nürnberg’s prestigious “Order of the Dragon,” which  had inducted Vlad Dracula’s father in 1431, the same year Vlad was born. Konrad was something of a humanist, a poet of some accomplishment, and a patron who also  encouraged Beheim’s own development as a poet.
When Konrad died in 1448, Beheim offered his services to Margrave Albrecht Achilles of Brandenburg and served  in his Heidelberg court from 1448  to 1454. He was court poet, to be sure, but also an emissary of sorts who traveled widely; thus, in 1450 he went to Norway and Denmark to attend the coronation of Danish King Christian IV as King of Norway. Beheim carried messages from Margrave Albrecht to the latter’s niece, now Queen of Denmark.
Beheim had many such aristocratic patrons and benefactors and knew many courts,[2] but perhaps the most significant period of his life was from 1459-1466, the time spent at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III (1440-93) in Vienna. He accompanied the Emperor on the “Bulgarian Crusade” against the Turks in 1460 and witnessed the popular uprising of the Viennese people against Friedrich and the siege of the Hofburg in 1461-62. He wrote about this in his Book of the Viennese (Das Buch von den Wienern), a 13,000-line chronicle in “ponderous” rhymed verse (McDonald, Song-Poetry 245-55) composed during the years 1462-66. In 1462-63 Beheim was a frequent visitor to the Abbey of Melk on the Danube, where he met the Franciscan monk Brother Jacob, a refugee who had fled Dracula’s cruelties. Beheim’s poem about Dracula was probably completed in late 1463 and presented at court during the winter of that year. A falling-out with the Emperor led to his dismissal in 1466 (when Beheim entertained at the Imperial Diet in Nürnberg) or 1467; he returned to Heidelberg, this time to the court of Friedrich I, Count Palatine of Wittelsbach (1425-76).

Dracula Untold (Director: Gary Shore)

Dracula Untold, Gary Shore, Luke Evans, Vampire films, Horror films, Vampire movies, Horror movies, blood movies, Dark movies, Scary movies, Ghost movies


Starring:
Luke Evans
Dominic Cooper
Samantha Barks



The fim explores the origin of Dracula, a hero in a tragic love story set in a dark age of war, weaving vampire mythology with the true history of Prince Vlad the Impaler.