Skip to content
1981
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1601-829X
  • E-ISSN: 2040-0586

Abstract

Abstract

Surveillance and/or voyeuristic viewing are central to certain horror productions and are often related to control and dominance. While such modes of looking are usually less obvious in the vampire film, the vampiric gaze nonetheless exerts a more definitive and immediate effect, causing its victims to fall prey to inevitable death and an extended afterlife. Although all vampire films tend to exploit these mesmeric aspects of Victorian culture, (1992), directed by Frances Ford Coppola, progresses the notion of 'supernatural surveillance'. Coppola uses numerous creative visual techniques to accentuate the attention to eyes, notably in scenes that are linked to sexual desire and promiscuity. If the original novel implicitly reflected contemporaneous fears of venereal infection, namely syphilis, then Coppola's film is preoccupied with AIDS. This essay argues that the film's attention to eyes and the gaze not only reflects the mesmerism associated with Victorian culture but also resonates with new forms of socio-cultural watchfulness emerging in the AIDS era of the twentieth century.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/nl_00002_1
2019-11-01
2025-01-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abbott, Stacey. (2007), Celluloid Vampires: Life after Death in the Modern World, Austin:: University of Texas Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Archerd, Army. (1992);, 'Coppola preps AIDS-themed pic'. , Variety, 4 May, https://variety.com/1992/voices/columns/coppola-preps-aids-themed-pic-1117862340/. Accessed 12 August 2019 .
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bacon, Simon. (2017);, 'To see and to be seen: Surveillance, the vampiric lens and the undead subject'. , in S. Flynn, and A. Mackay. (eds), Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves, London and New York:: Palgrave;, pp. 105-19.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bak, John. (ed.) (2007);, 'Bad blood; or, Victorian vampires in the postmodern age of AIDS'. , in Post/Modern Dracula: From Victorian Themes to Postmodern Praxis, Newcastle:: Cambridge Scholars Press;, pp. xi-xxii.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Berridge, Virginia. (2003);, 'AIDS and patient-support groups'. , in R. Cooter, and J. Pickstone. (eds), Companion to Medicine in the Twentieth Century, London and New York:: Routledge;, pp. 687-702.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Blomkamp, Neill., (2009), District 9, New Zealand, USA, Canada and South Africa:: TriStar Pictures;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Brown, Tim. (2000);, 'AIDS, risk and social governance'. , Social Science and Medicine, 50:9, pp. 1273-84.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Browning, Tod. (1931), Dracula, USA:: Universal Pictures;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Burton, Richard. (1885), The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Stoke Newington:: Kama Shastra Society;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Cordell, Sigrid. (2013);, 'Sex, terror, and Bram Stoker's Dracula: Coppola's reinvention of film history'. , Neo-Victorian Studies, 6:1, pp. 1-21.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Craft, Christopher. (1999);, '"Kiss me with those red lips": Gender and inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula'. , in G. Byron. (ed.), Dracula, New Casebooks, London:: Macmillan;, pp. 93-118.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Doane, Mary Ann. (1985);, 'The clinical eye: Medical discourses in the "woman's film" of the 1940s'. , Poetics Today, 6:1&2, pp. 205-27.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Evans, Marc. (2002), My Little Eye, UK, USA, France and Canada:: StudioCanal;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Fisher, Terence. (1958), Horror of Dracula, UK:: Hammer Films;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Flynn, Susan. (2017);, 'Medical surveillance and bodily privacy: Secret selves and graph diseases'. , in S. Flynn, and A. Mackay. (eds), Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves, London and New York:: Palgrave;, pp. 229-44.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Foucault, Michel. (1991), Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, London:: Penguin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Grimes, Hilary. (2011), The Late Victorian Gothic: Mental Science, the Uncanny and Scenes of Writing, London and New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Hallsor, Samuel. (2017);, 'A comparison of the early responses to AIDS in the UK and the US'. , Res Medica, 24:1, pp. 57-64.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Heffernan, Kevin. (2002);, 'The hypnosis horror films of the 1950s: Genre texts and industrial context'. , Journal of Film and Video, 54:2&3, pp. 56-70.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Heffernan, Kevin. (2004), Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968, Durham and London:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hitchcock, Alfred. (1960), Psycho, USA:: Shamley Productions;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Hooper, Tobe. (1985), Lifeforce, UK and USA:: Golan-Globus Productions;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hopkins, Lisa. (2005), Screening the Gothic, Austin:: University of Texas Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Jonze, Tim. (2017);, '"It was a life and death situation. Wards were full of young men dying": How we made the Don't Die of Ignorance AIDS campaign'. , Guardian, 4 September, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/sep/04/how-we-made-dont-die-of-ignorance-aids-campaign. Accessed 29 July 2019 .
    [Google Scholar]
  25. 'Killer in the Village'. (1983), Alec Nisbett. (dir.), Horizon, Season 19 Episode 23 (25 April, UK:: BBC;).
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Mason, James,, Noble, Gary,, Lindsey, Brian,, Kolbe, Lloyd,, Van Ness, Paula,, Bowen, Stephen,, Drotman, Peter, and Rosenberg, Mark. (1988);, 'Current CDC efforts to prevent and control human immunodeficiency virus infection and AIDS in the United States through information and education'. , Public Health Reports, 103:30, pp. 255-60.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. National Archives (1987);, 'AIDS monolith'. , http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1979to2006/filmpage_aids.htm. Accessed 4 September 2019 .
  28. Noar, Seth, and Kennedy, May. (2009);, 'HIV/AIDS prevention messages'. , Virtual Mentor, 11:12, pp. 980-87.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Norris, Clive,, McCahill, Mike, and Wood, David. (2004);, 'Editorial: The growth of CCTV: A global perspective on the international diffusion of video surveillance in publicly accessible space'. , Surveillance and Society, 2:2&3, pp. 110-35.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Pheasant-Kelly, Frances. (2014);, 'Reframing gender and visual pleasure: New signifying practices in contemporary cinema'. , in G. Padva, and N. Buchweitz. (eds), Sensational Pleasures in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture: The Phallic Eye, London and New York:: Palgrave;, pp. 195-214.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Pheasant-Kelly, Frances, and Russell, Natalie. (2017);, 'Revisionist vampires: Transcoding, intertextuality and neo-Victorianism in the film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula'. , in B. Poore. (ed.), Neo-Victorian Villains; Adaptations and Transformations, Leiden:: Rodopi;, pp. 325-44.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Reed, Thomas. (2010);, '"Belle et le Vampire": Focus and fidelity in Bram Stoker's Dracula'. , Literature/Film Quarterly, 38:4, pp. 289-310.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Reynolds, Siimon. (1987), Grim Reaper, Australia:: National Advisory Committee on AIDS;.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Roeg, Nicolas. (1987a), AIDS: Monolith, UK:: Central Office of Information for Department of Health;
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Roeg, Nicolas. (1987b), AIDS: Iceberg, UK:: Central Office of Information for Department of Health;.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Scott, Tony. (1983), The Hunger, UK:: MGM;.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Shamdasani, Sonu. (2003);, 'The psychoanalytic body'. , in R. Cooter, and J. Pickstone. (eds), Companion to Medicine in the Twentieth Century, London and New York:: Routledge;, pp. 307-22.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Sharratt, Christopher. (1993);, 'The horror film in neoconservative culture'. , Journal of Popular Film and Television, 21:3, pp. 100-11.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Street, John. (1988);, 'British government policy on AIDS: Learning not to die of ignorance'. , Parliamentary Affairs, 41:4, pp. 490-507.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Weinstock, Jeffrey. (1997);, 'Virus culture'. , Studies in Popular Culture, 20:1, pp. 83-97.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Winter, Alison. (1998), Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, Chicago and London:: University of Chicago Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Woods, Diana,, Davis, David, and Westover, Bonita. (1991);, '"American responds to AIDS": Its content, development process, and outcome'. , Public Health Reports, 106:6, pp. 616-22.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Pheasant-Kelly, F.. (2019);, 'Supernatural surveillance and blood-borne disease in Bram Stoker's Dracula: Reflections on mesmerism and HIV'. , Northern Lights, 17, pp. 9-24, doi: 10.1386/nl_00002_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/nl_00002_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): AIDS; Bram Stoker's Dracula; eyes; mesmerism; sexual activity; surveillance
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test