Media Task

Task 2:

Q1.

  • The 1960s audience for this advert could be assumed to be familiar with the codes and conventions of ‘monster movie’ film posters – such as its composition, fonts and representations of ‘the monster’ and its (usually female) victims. Interesting intertexts for comparative study might include: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Blood From

The Mummy’s Tomb (1971).

  • Historically, 1963 saw the early stages of ‘Beatlemania’ and the so-called ‘swinging sixties’, the assassination of JFK and the Soviet Union launching the first woman  into space.

  • Produced by Hammer Film Productions and distributed by J. Arthur Rank and Universal, Kiss of the Vampire was intended to be the second sequel to 1958’s Dracula, although the film’s script actually makes no reference to Stoker’s character. This is perhaps to distance itself from unfavourable comparisons to the superior Christopher Lee who starred in the original film.

  • In addition to Dracula, Hammer had, by 1963, success with other ‘monster movie’ franchises such as The Mummy and Frankenstein. Distributers Universal also saw early success with films in this genre.

Q2.

During the 1960’s, the monster genre was popular because of the cultural shift in how fear was portrayed in the media. The decade served as a transitional period where the focus moved from external, fantastical threats to more phycological and socially-realistic horrors. e.g The birds (1963) and Psycho (1960). The significance of the Kiss of the Vampire was it’s representation of complex gender roles, reflecting the social change of the 1960’s and the slowly emerging feminist movement. The film and poster presented both traditional female victims and more powerful female vampires, creating a tension between older female stereotypes and the emerging female empowerment.

Q3.

The text uses many examples of media language to interest the reader into the film,

The illustration in the poster depicts a castle in the background that is being illuminated by the moon - This is an example of one of Roland Barthes codes known as the ‘Engima’ code as there is a certain mystery surrounding it making the reader question things such as “what could the castle relate to the story for?”. As well as the castle, there is also many bats in the poster which depicts an action scene - This attracts the attention of the reader as they begin to question the storys narrative, since the title is “Kiss of the Vampire” it does raise the question of ‘Why are bats shown on the poster of a movie about vampires?’

The capitalised serif font thats used in the title of the poster creates connotations linked to the vampire film genre with its wooden styling - this connotes the vampire’s coffin or the stake needed to kill vampires in the story; In addition to this, the blood dripping from the letter V relates to the vampire iconography of how vampires drink blood/human blood. (This also ties in with typography)

Conventionally,