Kiss of the Vampire Media Language

Question 1

what are the connotations of the title?

Answer 1

the capitalised serif font link to the vampire genre with its wooden styling (linking to a coffin or the stake that kills them) and the blood dripping from the V’s fang.

Question 2

what are the connotations of the main image?

Answer 2

the use of a painted image is conventional of films of the period and links to Christopher Lee’s ‘Dracula’. The fact it’s in colour connotes that it’s a modern telling of an old story.

Question 3

what are the connotations of the colour palette?

Answer 3

the gloomy grey, black and brown colour palette reinforces the film’s dark scary conventions while the red draws attention to the attacking bats, the vampire and the blood - all key signifiers for the genre.

Question 4

what are the connotations of the stars?

Answer 4

conventionally, the stars are listed with the more highly paid male actors first and then in order of fame. Clifford Evans having starred in Hammer’s 1961 hit ‘Curse of the Werewolf’

Question 5

what enigmas are there?

Answer 5

suspense is created through enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires - emphasised by the ‘kiss’ and the fate of their 2 victims.

Question 6

how can Barthes’ semantic code be applied?

Answer 6

the images of the bats and their conventional association with vampirism and horror

Question 7

how can Barthes’ symbolic codes be applied?

Answer 7

horror, darkness and fear are widely reinforced through signifiers such as the moon and the male victims ‘submissive sacrifice’ gesture code.

Question 8

how can Levi-Strauss theory be applied?

Answer 8

there are binary opposites between the vampire and the victim, and almost a juxtaposition between the word ‘kiss’ which is romantic and ‘vampire’ - a monster