Christian iconography

Very much connected to the ideas of vampirism and "sucking blood" is Christian imagery. Crucifixes, holy water, and sacred ground protects you from a soulless vampire's teeth.

Blood imagery is prevalent in Christian art, poetry, and hymns, "emphasizing the physicality of Christ's body" and his humanity. The concepts of stigmata, self-flagellation, and the Holy Communion (representing the body and blood shed from Christ) have been accepted in Catholic churches for hundreds of years. Not surprisingly, symbols of blood in this context have made their way from the church to the cinema.


The Eucharist

"This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:20).

Otherwise referred to as "Holy Communion," the Eucharist is a rite performed by most Christian churches. Surprisingly, wikipedia has a very illuminating article highlighting different congregation's beliefs surrounding the Eucharist. In short, participants eat bread and drink wine as symbles of God's grace, "Sacred Mystery," but most prevalently the Body and Blood of Christ. The consumption of His Blood is, most often, considered to be a tool for atonement of one's sins. Here, the concept of consuming blood is seen as a spiritual act rather than the view of vampirism, cannibalism, or the idea of "blood libel" as a violent and evil act.


Stigmata
From Wikipedia:

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus... The majority of reported stigmatics are female.

Stigmata is a particularly interesting phenomenon relating to Christian blood iconography--in this case, Roman Catholic iconography. Why are "stigmatics" mostly female? Perhaps it is a reflection of the idea of female suffering and weakness. Who knows. Obviously the most explicit film that uses this concept in the ultimate aim of horror and excitement is Stigmata.


Stigmata (1999)

The cinematography is vomitously 90s: high contrast, flashing lights, shaky cam, the whole nine yards, which in my opinion detracts from any real fear you can build up. The images of blood are obscured and crucifixion images are cut in again and again, leaving no mystery to any scene, and never lingering long enough on the blood to be gory. The seeming lack of gore makes the movie feel far too serious for its own good. I can't enjoy the shock or disgust when I am being hit over the head with religious metaphor...

Brief survey of vampires in film

Vampires are probably one of the more obvious vehicles for art about blood. As elements of superstition and folklore, vampires are difficult to define 100% clearly, but in general they are considered human undead who survive by feeding on the blood of living humans. Sometimes they wear capes, sometimes they fly, sometimes they are deterred by garlic... and so forth.

Anyway, vampires are highly attractive for filmmakers -- they're mysterious, sexy, and evil, all in one.


Nosferatu (1922)

Quite eerie - unfortunately to me, the title cards take away from the real spook factor.


the "same" scene from
Dracula (1931)

Delightful! That hungry look!


El Vampiro (1957)

High cheese factor, it's got everything: the fangs, the cape, the automatic coffin opener...


Blacula (1972)

And it just gets campier. Here we see a unique angle on the very Eurocentric vampire film genre.


Blood For Dracula/Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974)

This Dracula requires blood of virgins, not any old horror film hussy. This looks to be an excellent camp film and I intend on indulging in it sometime soon.


Rabid (1976)

Not really about the classic vampire, but about blood-suckingas a transmitted virus. Much like Cronenberg's other films it has elements of disease, transformation of the flesh, mutated genitalia...


Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)

A philosophical vampire. Here, Nosferatu is back to his hideous self -- he's not charmingly suave, and is somehow more animalistic than other iterations of the Dracula story, while having a more clear-cut "emotional" meaning... Here, his bloodlust is palpably painful as he quivers near the end of this clip.


Cronos (1993)

Cronos is in the same camp as Cronenberg's "Rabid" -- rather than one "master" vampire, we have a device which contains a vampire parasite in the end goal of immortality. Again, this is interesting. In many other movies, immortality is just an effect of becoming a vampire, and not truly a goal. We see, also, vampiristic bloodlust being satisfied by dead flesh, which significantly detracts from any "sensual" mood other movies have.


John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)

Here, rather than the simply "seductive" bite on the neck, Carpenter's vision of a vampire is outright erotic. The thing most illuminating here is trying to determine where horror and pain ends and pleasure begins (or vice versa).


Frostbiten (2006)

This video shows a collection of visual effects in the first (!) Swedish vampire movie. Very illuminating on just how much visual effects work is done in a movie like this. The content here is an interesting combination of the classic "master vampire" blood-sucking and the Cronenberg-esqe "disease" view if vampirism, as this mass of infections start after teenagers accidentally consume infected blood capsules.




There are countless other vampire films, television shows, and various portrayals of vampires. The folklore of vampires have been interpreted in many ways: the sensual and romantic view of the connection between a vampire and his/her "prey", the eroticism of bloodsucking [I didn't even delve here into the massive amount of porn films about vampires], the concept of bloodlust as a virus, the aspect of immortality... Through all this, blood represents a powerful substance of vitality that no other symbol has.


More information on vampires in modern culture can be seen in "Blood Read: The Vampire as a Metaphor in Contemporary Culture", which speaks often about their role in film today.

Women's blood/Men's blood

While women's blood suggests some representation fertility, Meyer suggests that men's is tied to the hunt. Women's blood "of life" and men's "of death" are in constant tension with one another, often seen in religious sacrificial rites to goddesses, and often toward the end goal of fertility.

Here, I could discuss years of war/cowboy/hero films, watching men spill their blood for a cause vs. the amazing amount of gore/pulp/exploitation films dedicated to fair maidens being shred apart a masked man. I've been struggling with how to fairly analyze the film world's portrayal of "blood sexism," but have found it highly difficult without a background in feminist analysis. Suffice it to say that film isn't the only place there is a strange imbalance of bloodshed.

Blood as fertility

The most widespread metaphorical trope attributes life-giving qualities to blood, both in terms of procreation and agricultural fertility.

Papua New Guinea, ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and so forth, all have literal and symbolic blood rites to promote fertility. The most obvious symbol here is that of menstruation. In her analysis, Meyer lingers quite long on the idea of menstruation and the sociology surrounding menstruation in many cultures. In the frame of reference of ancient culture, this is particularly fascinating--the ways in which many cultures dealt with menstruation (and, indeed, menstruating women) ranges from social quarantine to ritual cleansing to the deifying of menses.

However, as cultures have advanced, so has our relationship with menstruation. It has been sanitized and shifted to a hygienic routine rather than one of cultural significance. In the realm of modern cinema, then, there is not much to be said about menses per se: there is more to be seen in the representation of women's shed blood.


Carrie (1976)


Carrie is an interesting film in this context--it contains both blood of menstruation and of violence. The scene above is the opening of the film featuring Carrie's first period, her reaction, and reactions of those around her. Her primary gut reaction of extreme fear nearing rage is astounding, and it sets the frame for her viciously violent interactions with those around her by the end of the film, when it is no longer her blood showering down! The taunting of her classmates, too, sets a frame of reference of the commonplace relationship with menstruation in the 70s, with sanitary pads and tampons abounding. Her classmates' relationships with their menses is casual, and to see someone react so foreignly to her own blood is worthy of mocking. The third relationship to menstruation here is Carrie's mother, who brings in an element of religious fervor nearing the occult. Her insinuation here is even more extreme: that menstruation only comes as a repercussion of sin, particularly sex. Fertility in Carrie is not a positive thing, as it marks the beginning of her telekinetic powers. Carrie's "demonic" behavior should not reproduce, and she is told time and time again by everyone around her that she is not worth the gift of life.





The Dreamers (2003)

I'm trying still to find a clip or to upload one, but there are two important blood as fertility scenes. One is when American student Matthew breaks Isabelle's hymen and they share a bloody kiss. The other is when menstruates in the bathtub while they are bathing together. The first scene is one celebrating fertility, in a way -- Matthew passionately accepts the blood-soaked gesture. The second is the celebration of continuing fertility rather than new life--that is, Isabelle is not pregnant by the young man, and they can continue their affair.




A more thorough examination on both contemporary emotions surrounding menstruation and its representation in television and film is available online in an article "On the rag on screen: menarche in film and television" by Elizabeth Arveda Kissling.

CG blood

Zatoichi (2003)
Apologies for this clip being in German, but it's the best one to show of some of the effects scenes with blood... Those start ~3:10.



Zatoichi is a recent revival of a long-running series of Japanese films about a blind masseur/swordsman. While Zatoichi's duty is grim -- to protect village people from the Yakuza -- the film has quite a bit of levity in the form of a dance number. In addition, the violence is considerably less gory than one might expect. The gracefulness of the blind swordsman is highlighted by the very stylized use of the CG blood. Here, the red blood is set off by purposefully monochromatic scenes.


300 (2007)


Now, 300, as a mostly digital production, makes sense to use digital blood (rather than practical, shooting it against the green screen) for the same reason as Zatoichi -- it's more a stylistic choice than anything else. Here, the surreal amount of violence is turned into something like a dance by being slowed down with the blood spurting out gracefully. I'm not a professional on murderous rampages, so I can't know for sure that it's unrealistic -- but it's certainly not believably disgusting as you might expect from a "war film."



har har... Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)


Obviously this clip doesn't use digital effects, but I'd like to show it in comparison with the blood seen in the previous images. Here, the ridiculousness of the blood is for obvious comedic effect. In looking for tutorials on CG blood, one finds a lot of filmmakers forums with complaints that there is no way to make digital blood look real -- and perhaps at this point, that's true. But, indeed, stage blood seems difficult to wrangle with as well to make seem realistic. The stylistic and narrative intent clearly has a lot to do with the outcome of any blood effect.

The origins of blood symbolism

Blood has been used symbolistically far before the advent of film. Perhaps it is the simple fact that blood is something that all humans have, and therefore is a particularly potent symbol across all cultures. Indeed, all cultures across history have uses for blood in their rituals, art, and religion.

In Thicker than Water, Meyer also reminds us of anthropological findings findings in linguistics.

According to linguists, all languages use color terms that conform to the same evolutionary sequence: (1) black and white, (2) plus red, (3) plus green or yellow, (4) plus green and yellow, (5) plus blue ... The neurobiological basis for the universality of color perception and classification is the most important epigenetic rule for explaining the origins of blood metaphors.

I found this interesting as a designer interested in bloody films. Pure red is very often used in graphic design--its a go-to for its "eyecatching" and boldness. Maybe it is because of this "neurobiological" reaction that red is used so frequently. Stylized uses of blood in film seems to serve the same function, not necessarily to evoke strong repulsion or feelings about gore, but on another visual level.

This kind of blood stylization is seen a lot in giallo films or even in modern films using digitized blood effects (think 300, Sin City, Zatoichi... I'll discuss this in a future post). The sheer redness of blood is, at first glance, primary -- the violent nature of the scene comes later.

Thicker Than Water

Melissa Meyer's Thicker Than Water: The Origins of Blood as a Symbol is a scholarly investigation into blood symbolism in the ancient world. She takes a rather overt feminist stance on the subject, which upon reading the synopsis I did not expect. I found her repetition of menstrual blood throughout the book to be somewhat confining in scope, but it was overall a good base with which to look at more contemporary blood rituals, even in cinema.
Meyer has provided an abundance of primitive examples, and, while limited, I hope to discuss and draw from her overall thesis in future posts.