Vampires on the Silent Screen

David Annwn Jones is author of Gothic Machine (2011), Sexuality and the Gothic Magic Lantern (2014), Gothic Effigy (2018), Re-Envisaging the First Age of Cinematic Horror (2018) and ‘Green Trends in Euro-Horror Films of the 1960s and 1970s’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (2020) ‘The Art of Ghostly Projections’ (2021) in The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins and ‘Cinematic Darkness’, in The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic (2021).

“Both are well written and open up what I recognise as a frustrating subject in a way that casts a light on the films and enables the student to expand their knowledge. The difference in definitions, the distinctive lenses the two use, means the books enhance each other rather than detract from them, enabling critical examination. Both authors bring new things to the table, and both should be commended.” (Andrew M. Boylan, Journal of Vampire Studies, Vol. 4, 2024)

• 1 From Time’s Beginnings.- 2 The Cinematic Vampire 1896–1922: Vampire Bats and Vamps and Thieves.- 3 The Vampire as Spirit of Fire: Leopold and Theodore Wharton’s The Mysteries of Myra (1916).- 4 Count Merlin and the Alchemy of Blood Lust: Alexander Korda’s Mágia/Magic (1917).- 5 The Blood-Demon and the Scientist: Erich Kober’s Lilith und Ly / Lilith and Ly (1919).- 6 Dreaming in the Madhouse Károly Lajthay’s Drakula halála / Dracula’s Death (1921).- 7 Counterfeits and Genuine.- 8 F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.