Carpe Noctem

To end this podcast series there was only one vampire film and television series that we could talk about. The most modern take on the vampire that includes pretty much every type of vampire and vampire lore possible. What We Do In The Shadows takes what we know, what we have discussed for seven other episodes, and incorporates it into a modern narrative and makes us feel that vampires are out there. Not only that, but that everything we know about them is true.

Over a decade old, True Blood and Vampire Diaries were two of the vampire shows that took over television at the height of vampire popularity. Both originated as a volume of thirteen novels, and both involve a love triangle, but despite the similarities, they are very much different from each other. My special guests and I break down these differences as well as the vampire lore adapted and created.

It is that time of year when any television station that can will play spooky films. Not every stations’ audience can handle all the blood and adult content that usually comes with your typical vampire film so what are kids channels suppose to do? You’ve probably seen it pop up in the TV guide, you might have only seen this film on tv during this time of year even. Yes, we discuss The Little Vampire. We explore the comet, the vampires, and the vampire hunters. We even talk about film locations, costumes, and the music and audio. But really we get into the casting. Enjoy the chaos.

Surf. Sand. Shirtless Saxophonist. This time we take a pay phone time machine to 1987 to visit the Murder Capital of the World. Santa Carla has a vampire problem and one family new in town is about to find out all about the hard way. While us viewers are entertained with old and new vampire lore in a ridiculously 80’s boardwalk setting. This time we take a bite at The Lost Boys. How do you like your maggots?

One has to agree that the popularity of Twilight brought more vampire related stories to the world. One also has to agree that there are two kinds of people: those who like Twilight and those who don’t. Well this episode is a civilised discussion involving both kinds of people as we break down the vampire lore in Twilight and where it comes from in other vampire stories, as well as answering the question: why? Just why?

Do you like vampires? Do you like musicals? Do you like German? Well have we got a vampire musical in German for you! In this episode, we spread the good word about Tanz Der Vampire with such classics as ‘Totale Finsternis’ (‘Total Eclipse [of the Heart]’) and ‘Carpe Noctem’. That’s right, you can learn about the origin of this podcast’s name. We go over the good, the bad, and the ugly in relation to all things Dance of the Vampires. You don’t have to know anything about it because we are going to educate you on all. Maybe contains a bit of spoilers for the story, but doesn’t take away from the musical.

Anne Rice’s novels introduced the world to a whole other perspective on the vampire and it paved the way for the modern vampire as we know them today. New ways of thinking about vampires as a community are brought to light and we examine their social structures. Her novels do well to cover many different character’s point of views, but ultimately a lot of focus was placed on Lestat, so we do our best to bring a balance to this by mostly focusing on Louis and Armand.

Everyone enjoys a good origin story and while the history behind vampires isn’t crystal clear, we discuss some key players in their development. We explore history, politics, science, travel, literature, film, television, and most importantly, Dracula.