How to Kill a Vampire

[DanaC]

Is the actual bona fide name of an upcoming lecture at the Royal Armouries.

a crash course in protection from the undead…
Jonathan Ferguson, Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, has a particular interest in the folklore and mythology of arms and armour as well as popular culture and the supernatural.

He will be talking about the various means of slaying vampires in both folklore and fiction, including the real story behind the mysterious vampire killing kits.

There will be a chance to see, up close, the kit recently acquired by the Royal Armouries - read more about the recently purchased Vampire Slayer Kit on our blog ›


“...a sacred bullet fired into the coffin will kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, or the cut-off head that giveth rest, we have seen it with our eyes.”
Professor Van Helsing, Dracula

PG 13+ Some content is not suitable for children under the age of 13 years.
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[toranokaze]

It is a very intresting histroy

[Lamplighter]

In my youth "horror" was the Wolfman (Lon Chaney), Dracula
(Bela Lugosi), and Frankenstein (Boris Karloff).
I've not followed this current vampire/zombie craze, which I guess
started with the now defunct TV series, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer.

But I'm wondering what will come along to kill off the current craze
the way Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein did
with humor and ridicule back in the 40's.

[DanaC]

Umm...Twilight did that I think :p

There's already a tongue in cheek teen zombie romance (ala twilight but with zombies): Warm Bodies

[morethanpretty]

That sounds like a very interesting lecture. I love folklore and the like.

[DanaC]

Doesn't it though?

[Sundae]

I wanna go! I wanna go!

Depends on the type of vampire, but it it was your traditional feeding one I think I'd be safe.
They smell disorders of the blood, so liver problems count.
The more modern rip off your head for no good reason vampire might be an issue.

How long before there is an exercise class themed around protecting yourself from the supernatural?
And I don't mean gymnastics, which I have long suspected to be a training programme.

[infinite monkey]

Well, there is already Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

I have no idea. I've seen them in the bookstore.

wiki say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_a...ce_and_Zombies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_a...d_Sea_Monsters

[Sundae]

I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Was good fun in its own way. Nothing startling.
Although Charlotte's story is actually far more poignant in this novel. Probably because it was written with a modern sensibility that echoed Charlotte's reality in Austen's society. Ooh! Get me!

It's better than Mr Darcy, Vampyre though.
Elizabeth doesn't work out Darcy is a vampire for a heck of a long time. Frustrating when we know just from seeing the title.

[glatt]

I thumbed through one in a bookstore. It was less amusing than you would think, but maybe they sold enough copies to make it worthwhile. I hope they did. I'd like to think they were a success.

[IamSam]

Well, they have fun covers, at least. When I was in a high school we had to read Sense and Sensibility for my 10th grade English class. All the other 10th grade classes got to read cool stuff like Lord of the Flies and Hamlet. But nooo... It was Jane Austen that made Mr. Peek's (real name ) heart go pitter pat. I'd have gladly taken Ms. Austen down to the nearest cross road and struck her through the heart with a silver dagger, and my whole class would have been right there with me with daggers of their own.

[glatt]

Lord of the Flies! Man, what a book. As we were early in the book, the teacher asked everyone which character they identified with the most. The hooligans in the class all loved the hunters and one of them even said that another kid in the class was Piggy. Then of course, the reveal at the end of the book, where everyone gets to feel weird about who they identified with. Because WTF?

[Sundae]

I read Lord of the Flies when I was too young to emotionally deal with it.
The darkness in the human psyche sickened me, like a glimpse of porn.

We read that when the other English Lit class were reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole!

I was glad we were able to watch the film.
I couldn't work out who was supposed to be who. They all looked the same to me.
I couldn't work out half of what was happening, it was too dark.
I couldn't make out all the dialogue, people keep shifting in their seats or squeaking their chairs.
It was an excellent preparation for cinemas and a life spent with slightly sub-standard hearing. Thank goodness for subtitles these days.
Anyway it took much of the fear out of the story.

To this day I can often disassociate from horror films because I spend much of them leaning my best ear forward, squinting or just frowning because I think I may have missed a pivotal point. I'm like an old giffer, "What was that? What did she say?"

Julie?

If'n it turns out that horror films were supposed to be educational films dealing with the supernatural, I'm toast. Then again, since when were educational films really educational?

Excuse me while I go read the manual.

[DanaC]

Ah man. Lord of the Flies. Yeah we did that at school. That and Macbeth. our English teacher was awesome. He also showed us the film of Equus. I remember the wildfire rumour prior to watching: Jenny Agutter goes full frontal! Oh the boys were all soooo excited.

I liked LotF. Was disturbed by it, but liked it. have you ever read any of his other stuff? I read Pincher Martin not so long after (because my big bro had read it ;p). That was some disturbing stuff too.

[Clodfobble]

Hmm... I'm pretty surprised to hear everyone talk about Lord of the Flies like it pushes the envelope of school appropriateness. I know Austin is a pretty progressive place to have grown up, but still. In addition to Lord of the Flies, we read Clockwork Orange, watched Dangerous Liaisons (with permission slips for the butt nudity, but nobody's parents refused,) and the theatre department actually performed Equus.