Dryden Theatre sinks teeth into vampire films

with October series Fangs for the Memories Seventeen-film retrospective spans eight decades of filmmaking

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House presents Fangs for the Memories: A Vampire Movie Retrospective throughout the month of October, sinking its teeth into 17 vampire movies leading up to, and screening on, Halloween. The retrospective spans eight decades of filmmaking — with all screenings shown on archival film prints — featuring names like Bela Lugosi, Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, John Carpenter, and Francis Ford Coppola.

The films will be presented in single and double feature programs, ranging from the ridiculous — like the Dracula spoof Love at First Bite (screening on Oct. 8), to the iconic — Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula in the first sound version of Bram Stoker’s novel (showing with Mark of the Vampire Oct. 1).

There are four additional screen versions of Dracula on view as well: Nosferatu (Oct. 29), F.W. Murnau’s marvelously creepy unofficial adaptation; the Hammer Studios’ colorful Horror of Dracula (paired with Hammer’s bizarre Vampire Circus on Oct. 6), featuring Christopher Lee in his most famous role as the bat-morphing title character; Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish, star-studded 1992 effort, officially titled Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and Guy Maddin’s dreamlike Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (Oct. 27), inspired by a Royal Canadian Ballet production.

Contemporary American variations on the myth are represented by John Carpenter’s Vampires (Oct.15), which depicts a group of macho, modern-day Van Helsings in a storyline not unlike a classic Western; Neil Jordan’s big-screen version of Anne Rice’s bestseller Interview with the Vampire (Oct. 22), a movie (and book) fascinated by what it means to live forever; and Abel Ferrara’s philosophical indie The Addiction, doubled up with Kathryn Bigelow’s Southern-fried Near Dark on Oct. 18.

Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr (showing with the Lugosi B-movie Return of the Vampire on Oct. 4)

is a Danish take on the coffin-dwellers, and a certifiable arthouse classic. Vampirism meets lesbianism in the Eurotrash cult classic Daughters of Darkness, shown as part of this year’s ImageOut Festival on an Oct. 13 double bill with Dracula’s Daughter, which also explores the genre’s link with Sapphic love. 

The stake is hammered into the series on Oct. 31 with the Dryden’s top-drawing film so far in 2009, the creepily atmospheric, yet poignant Swedish teen vampire love story Let the Right One In, preceded by a thrilling selection of bloodsucker trailers. 

The films of Fangs for the Memories: A Vampire Movie Retrospective 

Thursday, Oct. 1 Double Feature

7 p.m. DRACULA (Tod Browning, US 1931, 75 min.)

8:30 p.m. MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (Tod Browning, US 1935, 61 min.)

Bela Lugosi stars in a double dose of horror from director Tod Browning. First, Lugosi brings to life his signature role of Count Dracula in the Universal Pictures classic, the first official screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. Then, in Mark of the Vampire, a remake of Browning’s legendary “lost” silent film London After Midnight, the two Lionels, Barrymore and Atwill, play a vampire expert and police inspector investigating a murder that may or may not have been committed by the mysterious Count Mora (Lugosi). Don’t miss the amazing twist ending! Two films for one admission price.

Sunday, Oct. 4 Double Feature

7 p.m. VAMPYR (Carl Th. Dreyer, Denmark 1933, 73 min., German/subtitles, 16mm)

8:30 p.m. THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (Lew Landers, US 1943, 69 min.) 

In Dreyer’s moody and dreamlike Vampyr, one of the most celebrated arthouse horror films of all time, a supernatural investigator learns of a vampire-witch, her victims, and her evil human accomplices. The Return of the Vampire stars Bela Lugosi as the title character in a weird amalgam of wartime propaganda and the horror film. The ending is a doozy! Two films for one admission price.

Tuesday, Oct. 6 Double Feature

7 p.m. HORROR OF DRACULA (Terence Fisher, UK 1958, 82 min.)

8:30 p.m. VAMPIRE CIRCUS (Robert Young, UK 1971, 87 min.) 

The first half of this double feature from the legendary Hammer Studios is a full throttle Technicolor™ retelling of the Bram Stoker classic that made international stars out of Christopher Lee (as the Count) and Peter Cushing (as Van Helsing). Hammer’s Vampire Circus is a highly unusual cult item about a 19th-century traveling show where all of the acts, even the animals, are members of the parasitic undead. Two films for one admission price.

8 p.m. Oct. 8

LOVE AT FIRST BITE (Stan Dragoti, US 1979, 96 min.) 

The perennially tan George Hamilton incongruously stars as the alabaster Count Dracula, who, evicted from his Transylvanian castle, relocates to New York City in order to woo a flighty model (Susan Saint James) he has long admired. Richard Benjamin co-stars as a psychiatrist who utilizes every possible vampire killing ritual and then some to fend off his romantic rival.

Tuesday, Oct. 13 “ImageOut of the Archives”/Double Feature

7:30 p.m. DRACULA’S DAUGHTER (Lambert Hillyer, US 1936, 70 min.)

9 p.m. DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS  (Harry Kümel, Belgium/France/West Germany 1971, 100 min.) 

First, Gloria Holden stars as Dracula’s Daughter, who, disavowing her daddy’s evil ways, turns to a doctor to help cure her “in the blood” vampirism. Then, in the cult classic Daughters of Darkness, arthouse legend Delphine Seyrig plays a mysterious and decadent woman who may or may not be Elizabeth Bathory, the countess who murdered scores of virgins for their blood centuries before. No Take-10 tickets or passes.

8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16

JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES  (John Carpenter, US 1998, 107 min.) 

The director of Halloween and The Thing focuses on the creatures of the night. A group of macho, modern-day Van Helsings (led by James Woods) scour the American Southwest for a vampire who is close to finding a way to exist in daylight. Great action sequences, sardonic humor, and Carpenter’s arresting visuals (and music) make for a kick-ass entertainment. 

Sunday, Oct. 18 Double Feature

7 p.m. THE ADDICTION (Abel Ferrara, US 1995, 82 min.)

8:30 p.m. NEAR DARK (Kathryn Bigelow, US 1987, 95 min.)

In the intellectually intriguing The Addiction, Lili Taylor stars as a philosophy grad student who, appalled by the atrocities of history, becomes an unstoppable devouring vampire. Director Ferrara gets the most out of beautiful black-and-white cinematography and a cast that includes Christopher Walken. Near Dark, from The Hurt Locker director Bigelow, shows what happens when a country boy (Heroes’ Adrian Pasdar) falls in with a predatory group of hillbilly vampires (led by Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton) who date back to the Civil War. Two films for one admission price.

8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1992, 123 min.) 

Never has there been a more fashionable and elegantly coiffed Dracula than Gary Oldman in Coppola’s version of the oft-told tale, co-starring Winona Ryder as Mina, and Keanu Reeves as her fiancée, Jonathan Harker. Oldman manages to make the Count a sympathetic grieving lover, and visual style pours out of every frame. Anthony Hopkins plays Dracula’s arch-nemesis Van Helsing, and Tom Waits appears as the bug-eating Renfield.

8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22  

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (Neil Jordan, US 1994, 122 min.) 

This blockbuster adaptation of Ann Rice’s bestseller begins when 200-year-old Louis (Brad Pitt) recalls the story of his unsatisfying life as a vampire to a writer (Christian Slater). Louis’s story is intertwined with that of the more decadent Lestat (Tom Cruise), the bloodsucker whose bite brought Louis to the world of the undead. Director Jordan (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa) brings style to spare and the supporting cast includes Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea, and Kirsten Dunst. Members admitted free.

8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27 

DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY (Guy Maddin, Canada 2002, 75 min.) 

Cult Canadian director Maddin has taken a Royal Winnipeg Ballet version of Bram Stoker’s classic with music by Gustav Mahler, and turned it into a black-and-white horror show that resembles no other vampire movie ever made. Maddin, inspired by late silent and early sound era movies, keeps his story moving along with plenty of gothically ornate melodrama, costumes, and production design. 

8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 

NOSFERATU (F.W. Murnau, Germany 1922, 81 min.) 

Murnau, an undisputed master of German expressionist cinema, tells the screen’s first feature-length adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Eerily symbolic, memorably horrific and unsettling, it remains the most imaginative, stylized, and hypnotic of all vampire movies. Live piano by Philip C. Carli.

Saturday, Oct. 31 Halloween Special

7 p.m. Vampire Trailers!

8 p.m. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden 2008, 113 min., subtitles) 

Plagued by school bullies, 12-year-old Oskar finds a friend and his first crush in Eli, a seemingly young girl who lives in his working-class apartment block. What Oskar doesn’t know is that his protective new friend is an ageless vampire, and an ongoing murder spree is the result of her thirst for human blood. Director Alfredson’s scary—and surprisingly touching—new genre hybrid has already developed a considerable international fanbase, and won several awards at major film festivals around the world. This screening will be preceded by an hour of trailers for various vampire films from the 1940s to the present. Two programs for one admission price.

Dryden admission is $7 general admission/$5 students and members. Full descriptions are online at dryden.eastmanhouse.org.