![]() ![]() Having recently watched all seven of the Christopher Lee Hammer Dracula films, I’m almost inclined to say that the Hammer writers were familiar with Summers’ writing on Vampirism, except we never really see the traditional pounding of a stake through the heart (like in Universal’s Dracula or a modern update with Carl Kolchak leaving waste to Janos Skorzeny) although there are some creative variations on the tried-and-true remedy for vampire elimination. Thirdly, does the spirit of the Vampire withdraw ectoplasmic material from his own body, which enables him to form more permanent corporeity by drawing yet further material from his victims? Or, is another body built up by the Vampire quite independently of the body which remains behind in the grave? Upon commenting on the “ethereal form” of the vampire he ruminates upon three hypotheses to be considered:ĭoes the body of the Vampire actually dematerialize and then re-integrate outside the grave? Summers further cites that the traditional way of killing a vampire -a stake through the heart, stemmed from the English practice up to the time of King George IV, to bury the bodies of suicides at cross-roads with a stake driven through the body in order to keep the ghost from wandering abroad. In the chapter The Traits and Practice of Vampirism in Montague Summers’ The Vampire: His Kith and Kin (re-printed 1960, University Books), Summers postulates that “all suicides might after death becomes vampires and this was easily extended to those who met with any violent or sudden death”. He’s never resurrected and his origin is not known, but we know he is the embodiment of evil. Christopher Lee’s Dracula first appears on screen atop a staircase in Dracula/Horror of Dracula (1958).
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