RIP Ingrid Pitt

Ingrid Pitt (1937 - 2010)

Thanks for all the screams, Ms. Pitt.

Obituary: Ingrid Pitt (at LA Times)

Dracula's Hometown, in Pictures

Just to redirect your attention to the Huffington Post pictorial article about Sighosoar, Romania, the purported home of Dracula.

(if you haven't seen it already)

Happy Birthday, Bela Lugosi

(20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956)

Born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, Lugosi was a Hungarian born actor who is most famous for his portrayal of the legendary vampire, Dracula, on stage and in Universal's Dracula (1931). He went on to co-star with Universal stalwart Boris Karloff in a few films, including the often underrated The Black Cat (1934).

(which, for the record, has very little to do with Edgar Allan Poe's tale despite advertising to the contrary)

Saving Dracula from the Twilight-Tweakers

Tired of all the squeaky, emo-teen vampires? Need your monsters to be, well, monsters?

"Well, one university is taking an academic trip down memory lane with a conference dedicated to "relat[ing] the undead in literature, art, and other media to questions concerning gender, technology, consumption, and social change." Sub-topics for the event include "teen vampire/zombie fiction," "identity politics," and "celluloid vampires: adaptations and incarnations.""

Sounds like fun.

Read the rest of the article.

In the Footsteps of Dracula

From the Sacramento Bee...

In the Footsteps of Dracula Author tracked down sites linked to Dracula and Vlad the Impaler

Monster-a-Day: Dracula

A native of Hungary, Bela Lugosi (born Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó) was nearly 50 years old when he played the iconic count in Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula. Dracula at All Movie

Dracula at IMDb

Read Dracula by Bram Stoker (for free) thanks to Project Gutenberg

or, listen to the book (also thanks to Project Gutenberg)

Castlevania: The Greatest Classic Monster Video Game

When the original Castlevania game was released for the NES in the mid-80s, classic monsters found their way to console gaming in a big way.

One quick look at the boss line up for the original game, and you know this is the one:

Stage 1: Giant Bat (foreshadowing Dracula in Stage 6?)
Stage 2: Medusa
Stage 3: The Mummies
Stage 4: Frankenstein and Igor
Stage 5: Death (yes...that Death, The Grim Reaper)
Stage 6: Dracula


Thanks to the Nintendo Wii, fans of the original game (one of the best in the the long-running series), can play Castlevania without the NES console.