Vampires and ecological exploitation

The article I chose to study is called ‘Earth bites back: vampires and the ecological roots of home’ written by Robin Murray and Joesph Heumann. This text is about how vampires are used in films to portray the ideology that environmental exploitation has effects on humanity. I chose to study this text as I was considering studying Hammer for my coursework project who are most well-known for their horror movies, because of this I searched for ‘horror’ in jump cut and this text was a result, when I read it I found it very interesting.

 

The text says how environmental exploitation is shown in different genres, however it is most effective in the horror genre:

 

“This same damaging connection of environmental degradation coming back to harm humans is explored in films from Mountaintop Removal Mining documentaries such as The Last Mountain (2012) to Post-Apocalyptic science fictions films like Tank Girl (1995), but it reaches terrifying levels in the horror genre.”

 

(The idea of scaring an audience through a horror film whilst showing how nature is coming back to harm humans makes the reality much more terrifying)

 

“In the horror genre, a direct relation between environmental exploitation and destructive nature comes to the fore in the vampire film, when the living dead literally arise from the grave.”

 

(Horror and the use of vampires scares the audience through showing them how they create this horror for themselves and what they do to nature will eventually come back to haunt them)

 

The text talks about two horror films, The Pack and Strigoi:

 

“A greed for resources, land, and blood separates humans from the natural world that provides their home. This separation from earth’s ecology and the home it represents has monstrous repercussions in these two films, transforming into horror the eco-trauma associated with a lost connection with nature and a shattered human ecology.”

 

This again shows how horror and vampires can reflect the idea that humans are causing this environmental destruction and putting the negative effects on themselves.