Beau nearly had me shut off Underworld because he could not get over the concept of UV light bullets. He thought it was fucking stupid and that they could have invented another device that would kill vampires. Similarly, Beau couldn't hang with "Being Human" after he saw the vampire out in the daytime.

For some reason, the idea of UV bullets didn't bother me: I mean we are already in a movie world where werewolves and vampires have an epic battle, I'm not sure I need to get picky over UV bullets.

But I get that there are some things that just strain certain people's credibility boundaries such that it ruins enjoyment of a mythical time/place/set of creatures.

I have no problem with vampires who find and manage human blood alternatives, but I would have a problem with zombies who didn't feed on human beings. There are certain things I have in my head that are clear characteristics of vampires and they ways they can be killed or harmed. If they aren't menacing or if they sparkle - I'm out.

OK, but as was said uptghread Dracula could go out in Sunlight. He just had to avoid the exact moments of sunrise, sunset and (I think) noon. Also Dracula only had superpowers at night, so he was a creature of the night and avoided going out in daytime.

Also Zombies inherently feeding on people is again Hollywood. A major line of Zombie mythology was Zombies raised from the dead to serve as slaves. Zombies ate ordinary food, but you had to avoid giving them salt because if they tasted salted they would turn into angry killers (still not eating people though, just killing them). Or maybe the salt would make them remember who they were are and how they were enslaved and then they would turn on their masters. When you think about it turning on and killing their masters is a perfectly cromulent thing to do. Romero invented a whole new type of Zombie. There really is not reason writers should be expected to stick to his model.

I think vampire mythology is larger than Dracula at this point. It's been so long since I read Dracula, I'm not sure I even recall the original book.

It's like "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Cinderella." I'm not sure it matters whether Cinderella is wearing fur slippers (the original) or glass slippers (the bad translation that survived), but the we generally understand now she was poorly treated by her family and a prince fell for her. Maybe in 2030 it will be common for us to think of vampires walking around in sunlight, but I'm not there yet.

So if they make a Dracula movie, and Dracula walks around in the sunlight they will be doing it wrong, even though he could in the original book?

So Zombies were just a way for Hollywood to warn against high blood pressure?

if they make a dracula movie about dracula, based on the book, I think it should be faithful to the book.

vampire movies in general: I think having them out in sunlight is odd. I watch "Being Human", so this doesn't ruin my enjoyment, but I feel like vampires out in the sun is wrong. Like having a blond Superman.

Heh Megan. In all fairness I think horror comics were doing Romero style zombies (minus the brains thing) in the 40s and 50s. But the "slaves and don't feed them salt" thing was not Hollywood but a big default in written horror pre-hollywood. I can't remember Hollywood ever using the salt thing. I think Ray Bradbury did in a short story though. The "you must never feed zombies salt" was slipped in during the course of a short story. (I don't think they were called zombies.) And then as the very last line it was revealed that the wife of the owner of the zombies had felt sorry for them and slipped the poor things some salt peanuts to vary the monotony of their diet. Left to your imagination what happened next. The Bradbury version of an O'Henry twist.

Are we assuming the roots of zombies lie in voudoun? Because we lost that a long time ago, horror-wise, and I think that's for the best, considering the mess movies were making of the faith. While I'm sure it's not great for devotees to see zombies as insane killing machines, at least no one is butchering their rituals, instead depicting it as a self-sustaining infection.

Being Human is also dodgy with the staking--sort of a flip side to Buffy, where "heart" was a very loose term.

I happen to be reading the original novel Dracula right now (about halfway through -- Lucy has just died). The Count appears to have been seen at least once during the day, but by far most of his activities occur at night. Even very early on, when he's trying to act normal toward Jonathan Harker, he keeps Jonathan up all night and disappears during the day.

"Hm, I can be up all night and have amazing powers, or I can keep normal social hours and not be much more than the piddly humans. When shall I set my alarm clock for?"

I know which I choose.