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Original Scholarly Essay
The media is an aspect of our lives that we will never be able to escape. It is a highly influential, forcible, controlling tool used to sway our opinions, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and values. It is a way in which we as humans are able to globally communicate, a route to us all being able to connect to one another. For the majority of people, we have been influenced by the media for our whole lives. The media itself can be influenced as well, with societal changes and human progression of acceptance. As humans have become a more open and less conservative species, the media has been able to become more raw and edgy. A genre that has become popular throughout societal progression is the horror genre, focusing on the sub-genre of vampires. Scholarly author Stephen Marche claims in his literary work entitled “What’s Really Going on with All These Vampires?” that we have popularized the concept of vampires because, “…vampires have appeared to help America process its newfound acceptance of what so many once thought strange or abnormal.” He believes vampires, an abnormal creature in of themselves, will help us accept other abnormalities in the world through the normalization of themselves in the world. To be put into a category of life, vampires fall into the category of monsters. What exactly is a monster? Is it the big, menacing creature with sharp teeth and scales we lead ourselves to believe exists in the depths of our closet or in the darkness under our bed? Is a monster simply a crude, disrespectful human being? The word “monster” holds many definitions, with the meaning behind it being unique to each who speak the word. Many film scholars agree on this idea that there can not be one set definition for a such a dependent word, so they accept the fact that they each have their own understanding of it. Film scholars Robin Wood and Noel Carroll use their knowledge of the horror genre to concoct a definition of what they believe a monster to be. To professional Robin Wood, a monster is “not just a villain, but the embodiment of repressed wishes, desires, and impulse which strive to return, but can’t be brought out into the light of day.” To scholar Noel Carroll, a monster is, “an impure, threatening creature that we do not believe exists, placed within a rational story world.” In the film Underworld (2003), the portrayed world is riddled with vampires and lycans. In my opinion, the vampires shown in the film follow Wood’s definition. They are creatures who are not simply villains, they have more substance than that. The vampire coven is representative of a familial community where they all truly care for one another. A villain is a selfish character, only looking out for their self. The vampires in the film embody repressed wishes, desires, and impulses. They have the innate impulse to destroy lycans due to their 1,000 year long blood war. As a film released fourteen years ago, it falls under film scholar Tim Kane’s Sympathetic Cycle. The Sympathetic Cycle is category that holds horror films from 1987 up until the present. Common characteristics that can be found in the Sympathetic Cycle include the vampire being the protagonist of the story, the vampires being merged into everyday life coexisting with human beings, the majority of vampire supernatural qualities/stereotypes no longer being portrayed, more action packed scenes within the film, and many more. We as the viewers see many of the common characteristics woven into the production of the film. For example, in the film Underworld, Selene, the protagonist, is a vampire and dominates a majority of the screen time. She, along with the rest of her coven, are somewhat coexistent with human beings, but not as much as the vampires in Twilight are, for example. The film does not call much attention to vampire stereotypes, leaving more attention to be called to the action packed fight scenes and intensity between characters.
Another key aspect within the Sympathetic Cycle is the common theme of genre mixing. Scholarly author Giles Hardie explains in his article entitled “Monster mash-ups Fusion films” that “Hollywood's latest solution is taking old tales - even true stories - in one hand, and previously discreet, defined genres in the other, then rubbing them together. Hey presto: popular stories with a twist. This super-genre has become known as “mash-ups”.” While it sounds as if Giles Hardie is accusing Hollywood of using a cop-out in order to earn more followers in their media, the use of mixing genres has proved to be very affective. In the film Underworld, we, the viewers, see a mixture between the horror subgenre of vampires and the genre of action. The straightforward conflict throughout the movie is the battle between the Vampires and the Lycans. The two do not share a peaceful battle, but rather, fight using physical combat and emotional pain as well. The viewers see this is the very beginning of the movie. The film opens up with Selene and two other Vampires stalking a few Lycans in order to determine what they are up to. When the Lycans discover them, an intense fight breaks out that involves heavy-duty weaponry and death. As a society, humans love action packed films, making the mixture of action and the very popular subgenre of vampires very enticing. An underlying theme throughout the film is forbidden love. In Underworld, Selene (who again is the protagonist and a Vampire) and Michael Corvin fall in love. Michael Corvin is a human who comes from a special hybrid bloodline of Vampires and Lycans. During the film, Corvin is bit by a Lycan, making him transform into one. Through the deep seeded hatred between the two species, the two are not supposed to love each other. While this rivalry holds true, the two cannot help but fall in love with one another and end up together at the end of the film.
This concept of forbidden love can also be seen in the film Twilight (2008). In Twilight, one of the main characters, Edward, is a vampire. As a vampire, one of his supernatural abilities is to read the minds of others. Once the other main character of the film, Bella, moves into town and starts attending the same high school as Edward and his “siblings”, he discovers that he cannot read her mind. This interests Edward to the highest degree and the two begin a strong connection. Eventually, the two fall in love. Edward feels a strong instinct to protect Bella from any harm. Despite the fact that Bella is a human, Edward’s passion and love for her allows him to control his desires. This situation is similar to that of the forbidden love in Underworld. Despite their differences, the forbidden love is achieved. We also see the connection between Underworld and Twilight through their feuds between Vampires and Lycans, or as they are called in Twilight, Werewolves. Forbidden love, unfortunately, cannot always be achieved. In the second episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer we watched as a class entitled “Innocence”, we see forbidden love that remains forbidden. In the episode, Buffy’s boyfriend Angel becomes a vampire. As a vampire slayer, it is her instinct to do her job and annihilate vampires. The two get into a physical fight that ends with her slaying her own boyfriend. The strength behind the forbidden love was simply too strong to conquer. The vampire subgenere is a powerful, swaying concept in the popular media. From twisting stereotypes to make us feel sympathy for vampires to getting caught up in the drama of their forbidden love and so much more, vampires in the popular media definitely influence us in more ways than we think.
Citations (Numbers before citations refer to the footnotes within the scholarly essay):
1 Marche, Stephen. "What's Really Going on with All These Vampires?." Esquire, vol. 152, no. 5, Nov. 2009, p. 66. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=44744501&site=eds-live.
2 Ross, Sara. “Lecture 3.” Vampires in the Popular Media. Online. Sacred Heart University. 24 May 2017. Online Lecture.
3 Ross, Sara. “Lecture 3.” Vampires in the Popular Media. Online. Sacred Heart University. 24 May 2017. Online Lecture.
4 Giles, Hardie. "Monster Mash-Ups Fusion Films." Sun-Herald, the (Sydney), 29 July 2012, p. 6. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=SYD-65X50TDKPLK4IHYEIR0&site=eds-live.
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Trivia Questions!
Many fun trivia games and questions attached to the link below!
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/movies/movies_u-z/underworld.html
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Popular Critical Review
It’s been fourteen years since Kate Beckinsale first starred as the deadly vampire Selene. The 2003 film fits perfectly with director Len Wiseman’s typical MO: he is known for films in the Die Hard franchise, and is no stranger to sci- fi and fantasy films either. The Underworld franchise is, of course, a hallmark of his career, as the original film spawned a cult following and multiple sequels. As the fifth film in the franchise was released January of this year, going back to the beginning is more relevant than ever. The premise of the film isn’t anything groundbreaking: a blood feud lasting centuries, men in power keeping secrets and covering up corruption, a poorly developed romance involving the female lead. Flashbacks are used throughout the film, but I found them to be jarring and misused, often adding more confusion than answering any real questions. By the end of the film, things have been wrapped up, however, it is hard to pay attention when so many allusions are being made that the audience has no frame of reference to understand. The film operates on the premise that the beginning of Vampirism and Lycans began with the Corvinus family line, a wealthy Hungarian family who’s patriarch Markus survived a plague that wiped out his entire village by a mutated version of the virus in his genes. Markus eventually had three sons. One became Lycan, one Vampire, and one Human. In the modern day, the human son’s descendant, Michael Corvin apparently carries the unique strain of the virus that would allow the Lycan scientists to blend Lycan and Vampire DNA, creating an all-powerful hybrid of bloodlines. There is so much that goes unexplained that what little the viewers do understand gets lost. For example, the vampire elders have some strange ability to drain themselves of blood and put themselves in hibernation, therefore allowing the three of them (Markus, Viktor, and Amelia) to rule in turn and, I assume, extend their lifespans? Chance of living?
The romance between Michael and Selene is, again, almost comically underdeveloped. They spend most of their shared scenes fighting their way out of situations that leave little to no room for any conversation whatsoever. Seeing as Selene is a sexy, confident heroine squeezed into full body black leather and Michael is usually dirty and experiencing identity crisis, it doesn’t leave a lasting impact of romance.
This movie is dark, literally. Not much of actual vampire stereotypes are discussed in the way of garlic, crucifixes, or special powers but quite literally every scene is shot at night. Although we never see anyone actually sleep, it’s assumed that Vampires cannot go out into the sun. This creates a bit of a problem in the production of the film, due to the fact that every scene is almost required to look the same. There is very little variation of the scenes, even inside buildings, for example, even the coven’s mansion as dim lighting. The film demands the actors place any real meaning to how space is conveyed because of this lack of variation, they cannot rely on physical space to add any substance to the story or viewing experience. The camera work is not necessarily terrible or necessarily ingenious. It moves fast paced as one would expect from action sequences, which is fairly typical of Hollywood cinematography.
Overall, Underworld is not a terrible film. It is satisfactory, just not outstanding in any category. It is a fairly typical action movie with the added element of Vampires and Lycans. I’m not sure it deserves four sequels, but it’s a Hollywood cash cow from its action scenes and Kate Beckinsale’s admittedly impressive physique.
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Synopsis
1,000 years ago, during the reign of the oldest and most power vampire leader Viktor, the blood feud between Vampires and Lycans began. Lycans had been the enslaved guard dogs of the Vampires until their leader, Lucian, fell in love with Viktor’s daughter, who was burned to death in front of Lucian as punishment. Vampire Death Dealers kill Lycans off after the death of Lucian, until at present day it is believed they are all but extinct. Selene, a Death Dealer extremely dedicated to Viktor after the death of her family hundreds of years earlier, tracks two Lycans in a railway station and in the aftermath, discovers they were tracking a human, Michael Corvin. In her attempts to uncover the mystery behind the man, the two bond, however, Michael has been bitten by a Lycan, and when he turns, their union would be heresy according to Vampire law. As Michael slowly turns, Selene discovers the Lycans had been attempting to create a Vampire-Lycan hybrid, an all-powerful being, and Michael is the key to this hybrid. The vampire leader Kraven, famous for killing Lucian 600 years ago, frames Selene in an attempt to keep his association with Lucian a secret. Lucian and Kraven had struck a deal, and Lucian still lives to this day. Selene discovers that Michael is a descendant of the Corvinus family, the carriers of a mutated plague bloodline that birthed the first Lycan and Vampire. Kraven’s betrayal is discovered, and he and the Lycan scientist are killed, along with Viktor after it is revealed that he had Selene’s family killed, but spared her for her resemblance to his daughter. Selene escapes with Michael, the Vampire hierarchy still reeling from recent events.
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Cast and Crew List
Major Cast:
Kate Beckinsale (Selene)
Scott Speedman (Michael Corvin)
Bill Nighy (Viktor)
Michael Sheen (Lucian)
Shane Brolly (Kraven)
Major Crew:
Len Wiseman (Director)
Gary Lucchesi (Producer)
Tom Rosenberg (Producer)
Richard S. Wright (Producer)
Tony Pierce-Roberts (Cinematographer)
Martin Hunter (Film Editor)
Complete cast and crew list on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320691/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
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