#I think Bedelia would also be a vampire

[erwinsvow]

omg omg hi lovie!! I really loved your fic about secret bf rafe! I was wondering if you have a continuing part? If not Im literally on my hands and knees BEGGING for one!

oh my goodness this is so so so sweet!! you are SOOO nice thank you so much. i loved that lil fic so much :') i imagine they have lots of other encounters before that and also where they're almost caught.. & i think it's super goofy after everyone finds out. in my head one of the boys (i feel like jayj but maybe pope) also have a lil crush on her so it might be fun writing some stuff with rafe getting jealous/the boys getting jealous... what do you think!!!!!

yes of course of course of course. please let me know what else you'd like to see... for now i present how i imagine they met :) eee!

౨ৎ

The first time Rafe sees you, he's guiding Wheezie through the aisles of the library children's section.

"You know, Leah's mom lets her read Twilight. She said it's so good, she was up all night reading it."

"Yeah, well, Leah's mom also drinks too much wine at the club and probably forgot what that garbage is about. Find something here." Rafe glances through the books on the shelf, settling on a bright pink cover. "How's this? Strawberry Shortcake and the Sleepover?"

Wheezie makes a face at him.

"That's for, like, five year olds."

"Look, the pages are scented," he replies, ignoring her and flicking through the sheets to inhale the smell. He holds it over Wheezie's head, trying to entice her into picking it so they can get the hell out of here.

"No, Rafe, that's for little kids!"

"You're a little kid, incase you forgot."

"I'm not five anymore. I need to read what the big kids read. I bet they have Twilight here-"

"No way, Wheeze-" He's interrupted by the girl stocking the books on the shelves down the aisle.

"Excuse me?" you ask. It's quiet, like you don't want to impose.

At first, he's a little annoyed. You are imposing, because you're speaking over him trying to make sure Wheezie's childhood isn't getting destroyed by whatever the hell could be in those vampire books. But then he turns to answer you, and his snarky response dies in his throat. 

Rafe’s seen you before. He’s seen you on the beach and at the bonfire, nose in a book, sipping on a drink and keeping one eye on those dirty Pogues you call your friends. He’s never taken the time to notice you, though, not in passing. 

Rafe thinks he would remember if he’d noticed you then. You stand before him, a book in your hand, pretty eyes shining and a gentle smile gracing your face. You look nervous, like you don’t want to bother them. He thinks it’s sweet.

Wheezie looks up at him, mouth a little open, not replying. She pushes an elbow into the side of his leg.

“Are you gonna say anything?” He shoots a glare down at her.

“Yes?” he asks, and you approach them slowly. You’re wearing a lanyard around your neck, dangling over your short white dress and sweater, with a card hanging off the end that can only mean you work here.

“I just overheard and I was going to recommend some books for your age group, if you’d like?” you ask, looking down at Wheezie. Then you look up, glancing at him for approval.

“That would be great,” he replies, a little too quickly. You smile widely at Wheezie, guiding her to where you were organizing chapter books. 

About fifteen minutes later, Wheezie’s checking out at the counter with two Amelia Bedelia novels and another book about some girls who bake cupcakes. She’s using her very own library card, so Rafe stands back at the shelves, watching you sort the rest of the books on your cart while he leans against the frame.

“So, how long have you worked here, kid?” 

“Really?” you ask, glancing up from the Junie B. Jones book you were about to organize. “Are you really gonna try a pick-up line on me?”

“What’s so wrong with that?”

“I know who you are, Rafe. Are you really gonna hit on a dirty Pogue?” He blinks in surprise for a second. Maybe he underestimated you.

“So your little friends talk about me, huh? What exactly are they saying?”

“Contrary to what you might believe, Rafe, we don’t just sit around all day talking about you Kooks.” You turn to shelve the book, hiding a smile as you do. 

“Yeah, sure. Well you seem to know a lot about children’s books, that’s why I’m asking. I’m gonna be around here a lot.” You turn to stare at him for a second. “For Wheeze. She loves to read.”

“Yeah, sure.”

He notices Wheezie’s figure walking back towards him, three books tucked under her arm.

“Well, thanks for getting her away from that Twilight crap. Same time, next week?”

“Yeah, it’s a date,” you say, picking up another book. You only realize what you said a few seconds too late. “Wait, not-”

“Yeah, kid.” Rafe smiles at you, and you find it hard to look away. “It’s a date. See you then.”

He walks away with his sister, leaving you to wonder what you just got yourself into.

#<33333333 #rafe brother of eight-year-old wheezie my beloved<3 #rafe cameron #can someone lmk if they like this pls and thanks!

[canyourfavesurvivecastledracula]

Large Luigi, from D&D.

So. There's a LOT to unpack here.

Pros: - he is large and has thick skin, and abberation blood probably isn't even that enticing (beholders are essentially D&D's shoggoths) - His central eye emanates antimagic. Would that make the undead become temporarily dead? Would they not be able to use their powers? i have no clue - His eyestalks shoot various beams. The most helpful are probably Charm and Disintegrate - He is an accomplished chef - He literally is the supernatural - He does not need to shave

Cons: - he could not wear the crucifix, as he has no neck - he may be too much of a cinnamon roll too good for this world too pure to entertain the Rich Jerk

Excuse me

Nononono you come back here you can't just tell me there's a frickin BEHOLDER called Large Luigi who is both apparently Good aligned and an accomplished chef in... "DnD." Like. WTF. Also you are going to have to be waaaaaaay more specific there is a lot of DnD out there. Is this the day they let Eliot Spencer DM like what is happening.

I think I love him.

The question of whether vampirism is magic in the novel is a complicated one which came up with the Superman ask as well, especially by DnD mechanics. I want to say that if such a distinction exists, vampirism is a spiritual/metaphysical condition, rather than a strictly magical. Some systems draw distinction between magical effects and divine effects, although DnD kinda doesn't - Clerics use spells and things, just like Wizards. Eh? But if an anti-magic field won't automatically disanimate a zombie which I believe it will not - it's nor Free Turn Undead (I don't think??) - then it shouldn't have such an effect on Dracula either.

You know this question has an answer. There's vampires in DnD. Heck, there's Dracula in DnD. Someone go run Curse of Strahd with Large Luigi in it real quick and tell me what happens.

At the very least an anti-magic beam should disrupt Dracula's use of Scholomancy, because Dracula isn't just a vampire, he's also an Evil Wizard who majored in vampirism at Evil Wizard College.

If it came to a fight, I don't think they'd be able to do much to each other. Dracula's saving throws are pretty incredible, so he's not getting charmed or disintegrated. Without magic though, I don't think there's much Dracula can do that would have much effect on a Beholder. Gonna throw a wolf at his eye?? What???

If it comes to escape, I doubt Large Luigi can fit out the window. And the big doors are locked. On the other hand, even several inches of solid oak and iron are probably no match for a disintegration beam. If the situation becomes intolerable, he can probably break down the door and leave.

But you tell me Large Luigi is a cinnamon roll and also a chef. Dracula needs a chef, and he loves tormenting the pure of heart. (The two victims he chooses for himself in the novel are incidentally also the sweetest cinnamon rolls in the cast). Jonathan is sure he has no human servants inside the Castle ... but maybe he keeps Large Luigi and Undead Amelia Bedelia as kitchen staff. How well can Large Luigi roast a chicken? How does he feel about Evangelical vegetables?

Maybe he was there all along, he just wasn't relevant to Jonathan's journey

Anyway yeah my guess would be Large Luigi the Beholder can survive Castle Dracula. Maybe he and the monster eating Dungeon dude can be friends.

#large luigi #beholder #chefs #DnD

[rottngdeer]

Bloodsuckers — 3

Pairings || Hannibal Lecter x Vampire!Female!Reader

Part 3/?

Contents/Warnings || Graphic depictions of death, cannibalism, Hannibal being Hannibal, blood consumption/feeding, light smut at the end

Authors Note || going to start incorporating Will a bit more— might have some plans with him. and sorry for the delayed chapter !! been busy because of winter break :) happy holidays everyone !

“Why them?” You asked as you wiped blood off of your mouth. Hannibal looked down at you on the ground, knelt over a young man you had just drained. Hannibal was wearing a full plastic suit over one of his normal suits, which had small splatters of blood in it from you smashing the young man’s head on the table a few times before you had your fill.

“He was rude to me,” Hannibal’s nonchalant answer was followed up by talk about what organs to remove and what he wanted to cook with them.

The reply was simply yet empty, leaving you with even more questions. You knew not to ask. You also knew that when he started to talk about how to remove organs and how to cook them, it was more for him to talk and you to listen, not for you to follow. He hadn’t let you touch or cook any organs, but he found joy in feeding them to you, despite your protests and reminders that you didn’t need actual food. He would just insist until you relented. You knew that you could just wait this out— Hannibal would die and you would move to a different place before that happened. You just needed the blackmail to stop first.

—

Your birthday finally came. It meant nothing to you but everything to Will and Hannibal. Hannibal insisted on throwing you a dinner party, which you objected to, but he said he would allow you to invite only who you wanted, and he would keep human meat out of it all. You accepted.

Every time you looked at Hannibal, you wondered how such an intelligent man could commit such sadistic crimes. You also wondered how he hadn’t been caught yet. Hell, his name rhymed with cannibal. Thankfully, you knew that Will was suspicious of Hannibal. Despite his instability, you knew it didn’t cloud Wills judgment. You hoped that Will and Hannibal being together around you wouldn’t cause any issues, and that you wouldn’t think about your recent kill with Hannibal too much.

You arrived at your party, being greeted by a kiss on the hand from Hannibal and then a hug from Alana. Alana led you to the dining room, where there was a long table of foods and drinks, along with a separate table filled with gifts, predominantly from Hannibal and Will. Will was sitting anxiously at the table with Bedelia and Jack when he saw you come in. He shot up from his seat and went to you, hugging you and whispering something into your ear that made you giggle. Everyone saw that and thought it was cute, but only Bedelia saw the look in Hannibal's eyes as he stared at you and Will.

You all had a nice dinner of good food (you assumed), laughter, and a genuinely good atmosphere. Hannibal had pre poured you a glass of watered down blood before the other guests arrived, and had drizzled some over your meal, which he also prepared separately. When you noticed these things, you had reached your hand under the table and gave Hannibal's knee a small squeeze since he was seated beside you. When he looked at you, you gave him a small thankful smile. While it was a genuine gesture for you, it made something swirl deep inside of him. Of course when gifts came around, Bedelia, Jack, and Alana had given you small meaningful gifts, but Will and Hannibal were at war with each other, giving you more gifts than you admittedly wanted, but appreciated nevertheless. At the end, Alana managed to distract Will from his anger over the gifts, while Hannibal pulled you away into an upstairs room.

“I have one last gift for you,” He told you once you were both in the room with the door shut. He shrugged off his blazer and rolled up one of his sleeves. You looked at him, confused.

“I’ve found out the statistics of my blood type, it’s AB negative, only making up 1% of the population. I assume you don’t get this much considering he statistics. This is my final gift to you“ He held out his arm to you.

You gently took hold of his arm, “You're sure about this?“ When he gave you a nod, and you hesitantly leaned down. You sunk your teeth into his arms, your fangs piercing through and beginning to extract blood at a steady pace. God, it was good. You can’t remember the last time you had even tasted it. You only did this for a minute or less, not wanting to take too much and make Hannibal pass out. “Thank you,“ you panted when you pulled away, feeling almost intoxicated. Hannibal could tell, and that’s exactly what he wanted.

He rolled his sleeve back up and put his blazer back on, smoothing it out, “I will allow you to do this a few times a month, as long as our arrangement continues.”

“You’re a strange man, Hannibal. I’m not doing much of anything for you in return. You’re perfectly capable of killing.”

“There is one other thing you can do in return.”

“What?”

Hannibal stepped close to you, grabbing your chin with one hand and leaning his head down, kissing you. You were a bit taken aback but returned the kiss after a few seconds. A heavy make out session ensued with Hannibal’s hands grabbing at your waist and your hands gripping his shoulders tightly as your tongues battled for dominance. Hannibal was the first to move away, breaking the kiss and letting go of you.

“What’s wrong?” Your hands slid down his shoulders and to his forearms.

“We can’t leave the guests waiting for too long, can we?”

“You tease.”

“After you,” Was all he said, motioning to the door. You left the room, straightening yourself out and walking back downstairs to the small party. Despite being around these other people, your mind was racing with Hannibal.

#hannibal #mads mikkelsen #hannibal x y/n #hannibal x you #hannibal lecter x reader #hannibal lecter #hannibal x reader #hannibal nbc #will graham #hugh dancy #will graham fanfic #will graham x reader #jack crawford #alana bloom #nbc hannibal

[emptinesstomelodyao3]

Hannigram post-fall concept

TLDR: Hannigram post Fall would mirror Louis and Lestat's relationship

By now I'm sure everyone in the two fandoms is well aware of the parallels between Hannibal and Interview with a Vampire, but I honestly believe that if Hannibal and Will survived the fall then their relationship would follow a similar destructive arc to Louis and Lestat's.

I mean, you have The Fall, the creation of Hannibal's equal, it is the Hannibal version of Lestat turning Louis into a vampire - with the same amount of blood and (both metaphorical and literal) death. Will dies that night, just as Louis did, and he comes back new and, by Hannibal's standards, improved.

While, at this point, Will's morals has taken a significant blow, they still exist and I can't really see him immediately jumping to murdering people just for being "rude". He would gladly take Bedelia's life, Jack's, maybe even Alana and Margot's, but I can't envision him rising from the ocean suddenly willing to kill a man just because he tailgated them or something - he would need a better reason, something that would quell the insistent nagging of his shattered consciousness. (Despite this, I do love reading Murder Husband fics).

At first, I think Hannibal would be accommodating to this, like Lestat was, he would hunt alone and bring back meat to cook for Will and he would be patient. But eventually he would become bitter about it, he would come tired of Will's remaining morality and "high horse", he would see it as hypocritical or cowardly when Will has admitted so many times before that he enjoys killing.

I think Will would crave a daughter again, too. I think that he would find his "Claudia" somewhere, and take her in as a stray. Perhaps a similar situation to ITWV where she is injured and he must beg Hannibal to save her life. And Hannibal would: "anything for you." and all that. And, for a while, they would be happy - Will may begin to join in the "hunts" because 'not-Claudia' enjoys them as much as Hannibal does.

However, I think, that like with Abigail, Hannibal would grow jealous of Will's attachment to his new daughter. I think they would begin to fall about as a "family", with their relationship becoming superficial and fake, with hatred and anger seeping through the cracks. As Claudia learned that she was Louis' way of replacing his sister, I think 'not-Claudia' would learn that she was Will's replacement for Abigail and the dynamic would shift, with Hannibal feeling pushed aside.

Perhaps, like with Lestat, Hannibal would eventually grow angry and attempt to kill 'not-Claudia' but Will would intervene and they would return to their earlier selves; with Will brutalised and bleeding on Hannibal's kitchen floor.

I also believe that when, inevitably, 'not-Claudia' convinces Will to kill Hannibal and carry out her murderous plan, he will end up just like Louis. Lost in the manipulation, sobbing over Hannibal's dead or dying body and throwing not-Claudia to the side, or even killing her.

I think that would be their Post-Fall life.

#hannibal #hannibal season 4 #hannibal lecter #nbc hannibal #hannibal nbc #post-fall #will graham #william graham #will x hannibal #hannibal x will #will graham x hannibal #will graham x hannibal lecter #will x hannibal lecter #abigail hobbs #season 4 hannibal #murder husbands #hannigram #hannigraham #itwv #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire 2022 #interview with the vampire #murder family #itwv spoilers #hannibal spoilers #emptinesstomelody #mine #ramble #itwv and hannibal #lestat lioncourt x louis de pointe du lac

[bedeliabestiebracket]

Propaganda below

Cruella de Ville

Cruella just wants someone who can do things exactly as she says them without judgement, and the instructions she gives that sound kooky under normal circumstances ARE meant to be taken literally. They have a similar color scheme and would do wonders for each other's image - Amelia for social status (which she doesn't care about) and Cruella for likeability (which she very much doesn't care about). They would become friends when Amelia takes offense that the hit song "Cruella DeVille" tells blatant lies ("Mr. Radcliffe, I saw a picture of her in the paper and she is not a vampire bat!") She would love working at Cruella's mansion, since a) it's nicely decorated, b) it's so big that there's always work that she can do, and c) it's so big that Cruella usually won't notice when she does something her old bosses would have yelled at her about; if she does, she probably just mutters something about how she's still more competent than Horace and Jasper. She would get along great with her boyfriend - I think they would stay friends even after they broke up, since they would be mutually fascinated with and charmed by each other (he's a silly little modern artist who loves puppies). I also love the idea of Rodger and Anita's maid forming a one-sided rivalry with Amelia, who thinks that their households are just old friends and loves their little chats - she doesn't understand why they never come over to her and Cruella's house!

Bow

I just think they’d have fun

Dedue Molinaro

He’s nice, can cook, and likes flowers

#poll #round one #cruella de ville #bow #Dedue Molinaro

[weedclown]

Hannigram toxic yuri (?) thoughts? More soggy meiw meow murder butch and vengeful femmes. I ate unknown edible chocolate that I found behind my computer under fnaf plushes

i want you to know i am so obsessed w this ask i wish i could put it in a frame in my bedroom forever . genuinely. we love an edible !!!! sorry this isnt the most coherent btw im a little sleepy & stoned lmao.

BUT. i actually have an OC largely inspired by/based off of Hannibal (except she's a vampire) SO YES. I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON HANNIGRAM TOXIC YURI. soggy dogbutch Will swooning over femme Hannibal would be sooo fucming good . can you imagine the scene where Hanni is like literally rearranging tht person's guts in the back of a car(? been a while since i watched) but as a femme............ immmm crazy. thinking of any time Hannibal rolls up sleeves or cooks. the scene where Hanni breaks down the door. ANY scene blood is on her. her calmly stalking someone down in (short) heels. & maybe. femme Hannibal running her nails across Will's scalp when he has encephalitis 🤒 the way her voice would croon & lilt. how easy it would be for Will's brain to just shut off from that-- even if he weren't sick at all. 🤫

also the femme v femme thing tht would be going on w/ Hanni & Bedelia would make me huave covid .

butch Will with all his fishing gear on is literally sexier to me than if he was naked (im insane). also his butch chivalry peeking out around Hannibal. his descent into darkness. the bags under his eyes 😇 also of course he would be so handsome beautiful covered in blood. thinking abt when he kills Randall as well. delicious 👁️👁️👁️👁️

also when Hanni stabs Will. it was literally already so intimate goodness me . + THE. scene in the barn(?) where it looks like they'll kiss.. the way she cradles his head ........

#heheee :) #chirps #ask answer #anonymous

[when-the-bricks-are-down]

Hannibal but it’s a Victorian vampire period drama

#this does not match my blog theme but screw it hannibal on the main #I watched it with my friend for the first time and got addicted #anyway Hannibal has the exact same vibes as gothic classic lit #that’s where this idea comes from #I’ve thought abt Victorian vampire Hannibal far too much #you could literally do the show as is #just with the spooky historical aesthetic #you genuinely would not have to change that much #Hannibal is a vampire Will is a werewolf #it just fits #I think Bedelia would also be a vampire #Abigail is a ghost her actor literally already looks like a Victorian ghost #anyway this was meant to be background practice but then I wanted to draw historical clothes #my art #hannibal #screencap redraw #will graham #hannibal lecter #abigail hobbs #alana bloom #beverly katz #nbc hannibal #victorian #hannibal au #will IS a gothic heroine u cannot convince me otherwise

[darling-i-read-it]

Halloween Parties

Hannibal Lecter x reader

Word Count: 900

Warnings: nothing I don’t think 

Author’s Note: I really liked this one I thought it was super cute so i hope you like it too lovey!!

Requested: by anon, I was inspired by that request for a Hannibal and a Morticia Adams reader so I hope you don't mind me asking something similar but I watched Hocus Pocus just now soooooo 😖 could I ask for a Hannibal x reader where they're at a Halloween party or something and she's dressed up as Sarah Sanderson and she "puts a spell on him" and they flirt and end up kissing or smthn fluffy? Pretty please and thank you!! [Bonus points if he's dressed up as Satan and she calls him "master" sfw and just teasingly]

Summary: the request 

Genre: fluff

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director 

(not my gif)

The costume party was not somewhere you expected to be that afternoon but you were prepared to go all out of it. You were excited and happy to get to go to a proper Halloween party at your age. You probably could thank Jack Crawford for that. He had gotten the party together to let out some stress from work. 

You worked alongside him in the BAU. You were pleased for an excuse to see your work friends and also plan a costume with Bev. You and her worked closely together because you both worked usually in the morgue with bodies.

You walked up to the party beside Bev who was laughing at something you had just said.

“I mean I’m not going to say that Price is gonna get drunk tonight but Price is gonna get drunk tonight,” you said quietly. Beverly was dressed up as Winifred to compliment your Sarah Sanderson costume. She had opted out of wearing the wig but the dress looked great on her and you were happy with how both of your costumes had come along. 

“Shut up, I would put money on that if I didn’t know that it was true,” Bev said laughing. The party looked amazing from the second you got inside. It was at least better than you had expected. There were lights strung up and a banner. Even a band was playing out front. It resembled a high school party almost. You thought that was funny, considering the fact that Jack had probably set it all up.

You caught the eye of Zeller and Price who were dressed as a plague doctor and pirate respectively. You walked over to them where Price was already drinking and Zeller was trying to figure out if the punch smelled okay.

“Hey!” Bev called. “Did you pregame Price?” she asked. You scoffed and he shook his head.

“No I am not,” Price slurred.

“The hands doing actual human autopsy,” Zeller pointed out, gesturing to Price. You nodded.

“We’re just glad there are other people in the room,” you said. Alana walked over, dressed as a vampire. She pulled your arm aside and you left the conversation as it went on easily without you, Bev poking fun at the guys.

“Hey, you look great!” you said. She gave you a kind smile and did a little courtesy.

“Thank you very much. Right back at you,” she told you. “Hannibal was asking for you earlier, I’m simply here to relay that message.” You raised an eyebrow and nodded.

“Then I shall go find him. Thank you Alana.” She nodded and you walked through the crowd of people. You were amazed so many people worked at the BAU. Eventually you saw Hannibal standing by the back, talking to Bedelia who somehow had gotten invited. She was dressed as a goddess which honestly fit pretty well. 

You approached the two of them and Bedelia pointed you out as you got there.

“I’m going to get another drink,” she said, leaving the two of you alone.

You looked up at him and his red suit with devil horns. 

“Ah master, I’ve found you!” you teased, referring to Hocus Pocus when Sarah called a guy dressed up as a devil master. He laughed lightly, stirring his drink a bit. “I heard you were looking for me.” 

“You look wonderful,” he said honestly. You gave him a little twirl.

“You don’t look too shabby yourself doctor. Now what did you need?” 

“I was simply asking for you, seeing if you arrived,” he said. You gave him a look.

“Well would you like another drink oh dark one?” you asked, teasingly. He nodded, walking with you through the crowd to where the drinks were. 

Bev, Zeller and Price were still standing there but on the other end. Zeller pointed out the two of you.

“Why look at that,” he muttered. Beverly turned around and smiled.

“I mean they look good together.” You were laughing and Hannibal was actually smiling. 

“He seems less creepy when he’s with her I’ll say that,” Price muttered. Bev nudged him. 

You handed Hannibal another drink. 

“What do you think about the party?” you asked. He shrugged.

“Jack did his best.” You laughed. You leaned against the table and raised your drink.

“Cheers to that.” He clinked your glass.

“Cheers to that.”

#hannibal lecter x reader #hannibal lecter imagines #hannibal imagines

[darthbelle]

Hi Sam! About that fandom ask, could u please do Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hannibal? I'd love to know what u think about those. Thank bye!

Sure thing! Just a note, it’s been a while since I’ve actually sat down and watched either of these, so my memory of the characters might not be the best Buffy The Vampire Slayer:  - the character i least understand- I mean, I understand Xander. I just want to kick his teeth in a lot of the time also Giles, a lot of the time, just because there’s a lot of things I feel like he should have noticed or done differently...like, idk, not ditching Buffy when she was having an obviously major depressive episode? Not really how you deal with that, buddy - interactions i enjoyed the most- I really liked Buffy and Tara’s friendship. It’s something that’s stuck with me years after seeing the show. I wish they had explored it more (I wish a lot of things re: Tara) - the character who scares me the most- fucking Angelus. He doesn’t scare me, but I hate him so much (I’m still pissed about Jenny Calendar) - the character who is mostly like me- is it conceited to say Buffy? Or is it like, depressing to say Buffy? Because later seasons Buffy hits home a lot otherwise...idk, maybe Faith? If there was a middle-ground between the two of them, I’d probably fit pretty comfortably there - hottest looks character- again, Buffy. Have you seen SMG? - one thing i dislike about my fave character- honestly I don’t even know who my favorite character is....is it Buffy? Is it Faith? if it’s Faith, I wish she would have used more sense in who she trusted. If it’s Buffy, I honestly don’t know. Her character arcs made sense for her, and I can’t fault her for making bad decisions because like...she was so young.  - one thing i like about my hated character - I like how loyal Xander is to Willow, even if he’s a gigantic jackass most of the time - a quote or scene that haunts me- “Mommy?” god, fuck The Body - a death that left me indifferent- honestly, none of them? It’s been a while since I’ve seen the show, but I remember that the major deaths all hit me pretty hard - a character i wish died but didn’t- can I say Xander? I didn’t like wish for his death, but man, if it came down between him and say, Anya, I’d choose his death every time - my ship that never sailed- Fuffy (Faith/Buffy). Gosh, they had a fun dynamic

Hannibal

- the character i least understand- probably Bedelia. Never could figure out why she went to Italy - interactions i enjoyed the most- I mean, Will and Hannibal were the show - the character who scares me the most- Mason Verger - the character who is mostly like me- there was a time where I would have said Will but...hmm. Maybe Alana?  - hottest looks character- a tie between Alana and Margot in Season 3 - one thing i dislike about my fave character- I don’t even know who my fave character is tbh....let’s go with Margot, just for the hell of it I’ve never liked the whole “sterilization” storyline, even in the book, but that’s not her fault. - one thing i like about my hated character- I guess that Freddie Lounds is, at the very least, determined - a quote or scene that haunts me- It’s been quite some time since I’ve watched the show but when Abigail realizes what her father had been doing with the bodies? Especially in regard to what the pillows were stuffed with.  again, I hope I’m remembering this correctly and not thinking of the book lol - a death that left me indifferent- I can’t say that Abigail’s death left me indifferent but...it didn’t have the impact that it should have? I just didn’t care for her all that much - a character i wish died but didn’t- let’s go with Chilton, just for the hell of it - my ship that never sailed- is...is Hannigram considered canon? 

any others?

#asks

[thunderheadfred]

S1E11 - Rôti

we goin off the deep end now!

They’re laying the dramatic irony on SO THICK in this opening scene with Hannibal and Chilton. Eating sheep. I cannOT. What a pair of assholes.

Another ep where everything is a metaphor and like, so totally deep, and every line is unsubtly about Will and Hannibal 

WE BEEN KNEW

I’m not sure I buy into this whole idea that psychiatrists can just like... make their patients turn into homicidal maniacs with a few stray sentences BUT

I DEFINITELY buy into this whole idea of Hannibal sticking his greedy fingers in Will’s brain and scrambling it like the dickens

(LMFAO remember the first thing Hannibal fed Will was scrambled eggs??? that is NOT funny)

Eddie Izzard is back, baby! Obviously he’s fantastic. The single worthy antagonist in this season. That said, if one more asshole says “Chesapeake Ripper” I’m gonna Shriek

Will got so sweaty he had a nightmare about drowning in his own sweat. Oh no. Oh babe. 

This episode finally nails the right balance with Will’s fever-dreams, imho. They aren’t laughably over-the-top, but still have just the right amount of Poetic License to feel like waking nightmares 

also Laurence Fishburne looks very handsome in this one:

SIR

but um, quick question...

do they make Hugh Dancy roll around in baby oil and astroglide before every take? This poor man.

Will’s desperate “please don’t lie to me” is heartbreaking on like, twenty different levels, it’s so viscerally upsetting to him that Hannibal might not be on his side that he has a fucking seizure about it. Dramatic much?

If I didn’t already appreciate Mads Mikkelsen’s performance I certainly do NOW, because the only reason Hannibal’s character seems even slightly consistent in the midst of all this bonkers writing is that Mads took a bullet for us and was like “listen fam, all u need to know is Hannibal is stupid in love with Will”

Hannibal keeping it super professional, as always

for my own benefit I am going to ATTEMPT to parse out Hannibal’s motives in this episode, but I’m not entirely convinced he has motives other than immediate shock value and being unpredictable for its own sake, so um

he wants to take his sweet-ass time to melt Will’s brain and pour it into a heart-shaped mold, but Gideon’s escape unfortunately accelerates things

despite goading the fuck out of him and hoping to have a confrontation, he did NOT anticipate meeting Gideon like this. oops

Having Gideon dead in his dining room would be hella suspicious and point the Chesapeake Ripper investigation his way, obviously

As previously established, Hannibal is trying to manipulate Will into doing... something bad? either grooming him into his murder husband or his babbling scapegoat, whichever the show feels like in the moment???

time to pass another Dark and Evil friendship test I guess??

ETA: after re-watching the finale... yes. Plan A is to craft himself a murder husband out of brain putty, plan B is to frame Will for Murder in case this is just a fling and things don’t work out

“Oh no Will please don’t take this gun and shoot a man with it. Please please don’t do that.”

there’s a lot of psychological horror that this episode is trying to pull off, and I wish it worked better because the concept is GREAT but the execution felt really bizarre and confusing somehow

Especially Hannibal’s final conversation with Bedelia. I tend to assume he is usually honest with her, insofar as they are constantly talking in code, but like... I think he started off treating Will like a lab rat, now he is like “oh shit I actually like him”? 

maybe i’m just too dumb i honestly don’t know what I’m talking about 

I’m 99% sure the show doesn’t either

help me I’m so tired 

I need a palate cleanser!!!! like... a;lkjal;skdjfak I don’t know...  a beautifully coordinated pocket square

oh thank god

Body count

Gideon: 3 guards, Chilton’s pride

Hannibal: 1 psychoanalyst I guess??? I’m very confused

Will: 1 Gideon. Sort of.

Stoned vampire one-liners

"I see his madness and I want to contain it. Like an oil spill.”

“Madness can be a medicine for the modern world.”

# Fred Watches Hannibal

#fred watches hannibal #spoilers #hannibal #season 1

[levyfiles]

1-3 if they haven’t been asked yet !

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to? This is such an interesting question because while it’s reductive, I can see how the content we consume is really a series of experiences in emotional context. I could tell you to listen to the entire discography of Muse but I’d also tell you to do it while you’re thinking of every single person in your life who tried to control and manipulate you, and then think about the first time you were truly deeply in love with someone and your every action was governed to protect them and the bond you have with them. I’d ask you to read the entire Vampire Chronicles series and think about beauty, loneliness and despair only found in the identity of your gender and your race and in the years you’ve lived on this earth, and accessing the part of you that knows, believes you are more dangerous than anyone who wants to hurt you. Secondly read A Little Princess (not any of the films; the actual novel) and consider what it might be like to endure a child’s lifetime of cruelty and hatred while funneling the experience through fantasy, stories, and quiet determination. I’d then tell anyone to watch Yelling to the Sky simply because it’s a beautiful story about a mixed race woman navigating her world, which generally needs little context in the framework of my identity. 

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who? Yeah actually. In 2009 I left a series of comments on a multichapter this author was writing and found out later that she had been lurking on my work all that time. She and I ended up together and it lasted fours years. It ended in a sad way that is still tough for me to talk about and while I’m still coping with the loss and it’s now 3 years since, I’ll never forget how it was to just click with someone creatively like that and I use the experience as a motivator to put out more things because at any juncture your life could end and if you don’t just write that thing, you might not get the chance to. Who knows maybe you resonate with another author somewhere out there.

3. list your fandoms and one character/person from each that you identify with. Oh my god. I have been fandom-ing since I was twelve. This list probably means nothing unless you’ve been into any of these fanbases.

Sailor Moon - Sailor Jupiter

Escaflowne - Dilandau in a really weird way minus the sadism

Digimon (wrote my first fanfic for this one) - Joe Kido

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Willow

Lord of the Rings - Either Merry or Galadriel 

Death Note - L (the Japanese live action film sequel with Matsuken really sold his character to me in a lot of ways)

Harry Potter - Harry himself or sometimes Sirius Black

KAT-TUN - Ueda Tatsuya or Tanaka Koki

Gantz - Masaru Kato

Arashi - Ohno Satoshi even though Matsujun is goals

Ooku ~ Tanjou~ - Tokugawa Iemitsu

Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal - Sometimes I really get Chilton, other times I’m in Bedelia Du Maurier’s headspace but most of the time Alana Bloom speaks to me.

Osomatsusan - Jyushimatsu

Buzzfeed Unsolved - I identify with so many different facets of both Ryan and Shane that it’s probably why i’m such a shitfish lol

Answering some identity asks! 

#ask memes #fandoms #mothmanshriek

[cinnamaldeide]

Hannibalwriters’ Alternative Universe #FannibalFicRecs

This is one of the most challenging thing I’ve ever done for this fandom; there are so many Alternative Universe stories, some of them are so different from the canonical Vampire AU which every fandom has to offer. I think I’d want to reward the originality, in this case. I tried to organize my reccs in a sort of “alphabetic” order. I didn’t rec the same author twice: I choose only one work per writer, but this doesn’t mean that the one is their best work, their only Alternative Universe or their only work worth reading; on the contrary! This is supposed to encourage the diffusion of different perspective of the same Universe!

Animal Alternative Universe: The One Where Hannibal is a Cat by @coloredink

Summary: Specifically, he’s Alana’s cat. And Graham is Jack’s dog. They meet. That’s it. That’s the story.

General Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom, Jack Crawford

Generally Animal AUs tend to antropomorphize the characters involved, partly keeping human traits; in this one that’s not the case. This is an interesting asexual interaction between two animals that don’t need to partake the same specie to fluently interact with one another.

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics: Mise en Place by @thehoyden

Summary: Pre-heat left him short-tempered and irritable, even worse than usual, but Hannibal had lingered in his office doorway and said, “Come along, Will. No reason to grade on an empty stomach.”

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

Of all the A/B/O I could think about, this one strikes me because it permeates the biological aspect so typical of this genre; I’m not even sure I can consider A/B/O an Alternative Universe, and I’d have gladly chose at least one Omega/Omega and one Alpha/Alpha if I could, but there’s always @hannigram-a-b-o-library to thoroughtly look into the matter.

Birds Alternative Universe: Black Swan by @genufa (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: “Don’t say Hannibal,” said Beverly. “I’m saying Hannibal,” Will said. Beverly slumped back in the passenger seat, throwing up her hands. “Swans defend territory, Will! They don’t travel! We’re not talking Garrett Jacob Hobbs killing girls in five states, here!”

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Beverly Katz, Brian Zeller, Jimmy Price, Bedelia Du Maurier, Jack Crawford, Mason Verger, Frederick Chilton, Leonard Brauer, Chiyoh; Hannigraham, Marlana

Despite the status of this story, I deem important to include this in the Alternative Universes that this fandom has to offer: the writer takes inspiration from the story of an aggressive swan to recreate his relationship with his momentary attentive and confused keeper, but the magical component renders this work original and worth waiting for the next chapter every time.

Guardian Angels Alternative Universe: Chapter 44 of Eggs in a Basket by @granpappy-winchester

Summary: Guardian Angel AU, where Hannibal and Will are guardian angels whose paths cross on occasion and who have different approaches when it comes to their charges.

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Abigail Hobbs, Garret Jacob Hobbs; Hannigraham

It has been so difficult to decide which one of this serie of one-shots to include in this post, but I ended up choosing the one where Will and Hannibal have a philosophical discussion on the meaning of being seen and understood by your beloved; I suggest to read all of them, but this one was particularly well done in my opinion.

Horror Alternative Universe: Fais Do-Do by @moku-youbi

Summary: Will finds himself in need of staying at a comfortable and suspiciously remote bed and breakfast. He doesn’t know that its manager is reluctant to let him leave. (I took the liberty to provide one)

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Mischa Lecter, Jack Crawford; Hannigraham

This is not a typical romantic setting; it makes the skin crawls during the reading, but stopping is impossible until the story is finished. As the reader, Will has no idea of what’s appening until it’s too late but, as the saying goes, it takes one to catch one.

Mall Alternative Universe: Make the Yule-tide Gay by @destinyawakened and an orphan account

Summary: What if Hannibal Lecter was Santa and Will Graham was a Mall Cop? Would Christmas still blow white?

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

This whole serie is completely out of every possible projection of the canon Universe, but let’s start from the beginning. Will and Hannibal share the same working environment and a certain propencity for unorthodox festivity celebrations.

Multiple Personality Alternative Universe: Multiplicy (serie) by Not_You

Summary: The one where Hannibal is multiple, not (very) murderous or cannibalistic, and all five of him love Will Graham.

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, but there are a lot of them, Will Graham; Hannigraham

In perfect agreement with this writer’s style, this work has a certain sweetness that permeates Will Graham and his life; Hannibal and his disparate selves show how difficult it can be to room with more than one personality and getting romantically involved at the same time, with every one of them.

Pianist Alternative Universe: Unchained melody by @mazephoenix

Summary: Will is a concert pianist who’s retired after an ordeal. His biggest fan comes to offer some comfort.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

As so many of the stories this writer created, this work is synthetic but meaningful; the setting recreates a casual encounter between Will and Hannibal in a bar, which evolves in the beginning of their becoming. This is not the only one story I’d suggest of this author, even if I understand their style is peculiar; I enjoy it very much, anyway.

Pokemon Alternative Universe: Chapter 16 of Tasting Flights: Hannibal Drabbles by @unicornmagic

Summary: By request from soundingonlyatnightasyousleep, who wanted a Pokemon AU.

General Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford; Hannigraham

No matter how short this story is, no matter the fact that this writer is talented and came up with works more elaborated than this one, no matter why they did it, no one made an Alterative Universe just as perfect. I fell in love with it. There’s no way I’m recc’ing something else, not for this post. But you should take a look at the rest, because there’s a whole word of words behind that AO3 account.

Pornstars Alternative Universe: Literally Speaking by @halotolerant (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: So someone prompted me with: 'could you write some old-fashioned 'Will getting his prostate stimulated for the first time and going completely out of his mind' porn? Please? And I took that and ran with it and wrote 'Will getting his prostate stimulated IN porn AS as a porn actor'...

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

This probably started as the classic story of two pornstars ending up with one another, which is what at the time I wanted to read, but then it completely derailed into this perfeclty fitting Alternative Universe where Will is not only getting the abovementioned prostate stimulation, but also some of his personal tragic events of the first serie; this fic made me realize just how sorrowful the encephalis should have been, more than the show itself did.

Post-Apocalypse Alternative Universe: some say in ice by peppermintquartz

Summary: The end of the world came suddenly.

General Audiences

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Will Graham’s dog; Hannigraham

This is beautiful in the sort of hannibalesque way that could lead the intere evolution of Will Graham in a fanfiction instead of three slow burning series: Will has to face the fact that life can suddenly change and moral could slow down his escalating evolution. It’s a cold story, made of snow and estinguishing fire in the chimney, and the writer uses a cold style, where taking a hand in your own can warm you up more than the sun.

Professional Killer Alternative Universe: Cu Sith by @slqtherin

Summary: Verger hires Will Graham, a professional killer, to murder Doctor Hannibal Lecter. Will gets a date with a serial killer instead.

Explicit

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Will Graham’s dog; Hannigraham

Will is equally frustrated and exasperated by his target, and that’s probably the reason why he wants to shoot in his mouth right after their first banter; fortunately that’s not the case. He hopes to profite from the occasion, but things don’t end the way either he nor Hannibal predicted. But you need to read also the sequel to reach this part.

Role Reversal Alternative Universe: Sleeping in the Knife Drawer by @emungere

Summary: Hannibal’s an FBI agent. Will’s a serial killer. He still has a lot of dogs and dislikes being sociable. Hannibal still wants to wind him up and watch him go.

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford

In the remote possibility that Will finds the FBI Agent Lecter interesting, he would take much pleasure in not showing him he’s intrigued. That’s what happens in this story, or at least that’s how I see it, because Will probably wants to push away him, for their own good, playing the aggressive psychiatrist, but ends up fashinated with the darkness that Hannibal doesn’t particularly care to hide.

Single Parent Alternative Universe: Pi’s Lullaby by @t-pock (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: Will loses his daughter at the mall. Hannibal returns her to him.

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom, Aleksandra Graham (Original Character)

Hannibal falls in love with her, first. Then he sees his father and decides that he’s not a man that settles for less than the whole Graham package; that’s how he decides to start his slow pursue of his beloved little family, instead of Will’s darkest inclinations.

SCP Foundation Alternative Universe: Alive Humanoid Sensory Euclid by @berlynn-wohl

Summary: AU in which Will and Hannibal (and Jack) work for the SCP Foundation. This is also a fill for two prompts on the Hannibal kinkmeme.

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Freddie Lounds; Hannigraham

To be honest, more than the story itself, the Alternative Universe fashinates me, when I think about this fic: the writer revisits with a certain fidelity what happens in the first serie, so it’s not the originality per se that I would recommend in here, so much as the way the author adapts this sci-fi Universe to our fandom. It has been incredible reading all about the eccentric objects that Will and Hannibal daily get in touch with.

Soulmates Alternative Universe: Chapter 4 of Alana Finds Out by @victorineb

Summary: In which Alana and Hannibal don’t match, but someone else does.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom; Hannigraham, Hannibloom

This entire serie is probably the quintessence of what this challenge is about: every chapter has its Universe, its dynamycs, and this one beautifully represents the fact that Alana might be perfect, lovely for anyone, but Hannibal and Will are just too taken from one another to see anyone else; obviously they need incentive to admit it.

Unpleasant Theme Alternative Universe: Yourself and People Like You by @metaphoregoneawry

Summary: Meet someone like you.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Frederick Chilton; Hannigraham

I can’t even begin to describe how this story hurts. All over. But this is not a good reason to not read it: their tragic situation can’t end well, the writer promisses suffering and desperation in a subtle, constant way; this doens’t stop Hannibal from trying to grasp what little happiness he can afford in Will.

Zombies Alternative Universe: Hierarchy of Needs by @xzombiexkittenx

Summary: It’s the end of the world and everyone’s immediate needs have changed. It’s also Hannibal’s chance to have everything he wants.

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Bedelia Du Maurier, Margot Verger, Mason Verger, Judy; Hannigraham, MargotJudy

Instead of a confused battle for surviving, this story describes every stages that the humanity should go through in order to gain what it has lost. Will knows about Hannibal’s proclivities, but he has to adapt to a new world, where being a cannibalistic serial killer doesn’t make him the worst monster in the planet.

This has been exausting; the computer shut down twice and so I had to learn how to save drafts, but it’s finally finished. I know there could be a lot more to rec, and I hope someone takes the trouble to rec Shark Tank, since I went for the Zombie AU one. I didn’t include Crossovers or Rarepairs, nor did I went for pairings different from Hannigram, if not secondary, but I suspect this post is already too long for anyone to read it all; if your’re here, I’m obviously wrong, and I’m happy to be! Thank you very much @hannibalficwriters for this opportunity to remember that this fandom has so much to give, so much to discover, still after so much time.

#Reading Suggestion #FannibalFicRecs #Hannibal Lecter #Will Graham #Hannigraham #Alternative Universe #Multiple Fic Rec #I discovered many interesting AUs unfortunately after posting this selection #You have to discover on your own the rest #Original post #Sfw

[bonearenaofmyskull]

What does the “interesting next chapter” for Hannibal involve? Fuller provided no concrete details at Split Screens Festival, but he did tease a very enticing elevator pitch: “It was going to be ‘Inception’ meets ‘Angel Heart.'” Combining Christopher Nolan’s mind-bender with Alan Parker’s supernatural horror movie sounds unsung, but it’s a very Bryan Fuller thing to do and he’s definitely not joking. As a huge fan of your S4 speculations, i got to ask your thoughts on Bryan's latest teases!??!

The short answer is that I have no idea. XD  And the truth is that it’s been so long since the end of the last season, and I’ve had so many discussions over time and read so much fic and planned so much fic and written enough fic that while I know what I think is most likely, any sense of objectivity I have about the subject has pretty much eroded away (as if I ever had any in the first place). And my bluff is still eroding. ;)

WRT the specific article you referenced, I do want to talk about Bryan’s elevator pitches and what we should (and should not) take out of them.

The thing about Bryan is that he’s a positive encyclopedia of film knowledge, and he uses example films to reference any of the scores of ideas he may be having at any given moment, and his mind runs about a million miles per hour nonlinearly (which is why he ends up with verbal diarrhea in interviews sometimes). He’s used a lot of film comparisons for various different Hannibal seasons and episodes, and if you looked at them without watching the show, they might often lead you astray. For example, he’s described the first season as The Shining before, and if you were to take this thought at face value, you’d think Will really would have been the copycat killer and would have ended up killing Abigail (Jack would have been right, zomg!): The Shining is about how a man descends into madness because of a sinister influence and then kills his family. But all Bryan meant was that both stories had the madness component, and in Will’s case it wasn’t even technically madness but a physical condition. Also lots of heartbeats, gaudy bathrooms and clanging noises.

Another time, Bryan caused all kinds of fandom drama when he described “Antipasto” as a “new pilot for the series starring Mads Mikkelsen and Gillian Anderson.” People were taking that to mean that Will was no longer going to be either the love of Hannibal’s life or the star of the show. And Bryan repeated that a bazillion times, either oblivious to or regardless of the panic he was causing, probably because it has a tantalizing vagueness to it so it’s a good advertisement. But it was hardly a straightforward statement about what to expect from the show, although it described that single episode well enough.

So let’s have a look at other comparisons he’s made to various films/shows/stuff:

The Talented Mr. Ripley = “Antipasto”

What you’d expect: Guy in Italy kills the guy he’s in love with and takes his identity, then has to balance it against his own identity as he tries to get away with it, costing him his next lover.

What we got: Italy, murdering the man you’re in love with, and identity shenanigans, so this one was fairly close. Hannibal gets away with it and doesn’t fall in love with anyone else, so that’s different. Also, Bedelia. And Abel Gideon flashbacks in nonlinear narration. It’s…circumstantially similar.

The Hunger = Hannibal & Bedelia in Italy

What you’d expect: A beautiful yet dangerous vampire seeks to replace her old lover, whose life has run out after he kills her protege, by seducing a woman who then destroys her and takes her powers. Supposed to be a metaphor for drug addiction.

What we got: Couple of sexy, ice-cold blondes, I guess. Upper crust musicianing and fancy clothes? A waterphone being hurled down the stairs in the background? IDK, man. IDK.

Don’t Look Now = “Primavera”

What you’d expect: A guy with ESP loses his daughter, but then has glimpses of her as he and his wife go to Italy to deal with their grief. Wife falls in with some old psychic ladies, and it turns out his visions are actually prophetic visions leading to his own death by serial killer.

What we got: Well, we were in Italy to deal with the grief our gifted protagonist suffered at losing his “daughter,” and he continues to have visions of her, and there is a serial killer on the loose and a somewhat grumpy Italian detective hanging around. But like Ripley, it’s circumstantially the same, but the story is totally different.

Frankenstein‘s monster = Will’s Italy arc

What you’d expect: (There are so many film versions of Frankenstein out there, as well as the original novel, that it’s hard to anticipate what Bryan thinks about when he thinks of Frankenstein’s monster. So I’m just kind of throwing together the most commonly remembered stuff.)  An overly ambitious doctor creates a living “monster” out of dead human body parts, then promptly regrets it. The monster escapes, kills a bunch of people including the doc’s fiancee, tries to coerce the doctor into making a mate for him because it’s sad to be alone, and then either the doctor pursues the monster or the monster pursues the doctor and they both end up dead. 

What we got: A doctor made a guy into a monster, and the guy is kind of back from the dead. The doctor was the one who escaped, and the monster is the one who is pursuing. The doctor kills people instead of the monster. They’re each other’s mate, and they don’t kill anyone’s fiancees. XD  They don’t die either. It is, however, sad to be alone. This is a deejay mashup of Frankenstein if ever there was one. 

Death and the Maiden = “Secondo”

What you’d expect: Traumatized woman who had survived torture recognizes the voice of her torturer and kidnaps him on a stormy night, trying to make him confess his crimes to her before she kills him while her husband looks on, not knowing if he believes her or not and if he should help her or her captive.

What we got: There’s a woman in an isolated house with a man captive. Aaaaand…that’s about it. Plot-wise, this movie goes mostly the opposite direction from where the film does, and Will is at best an amalgamation of both the husband and the torturer, and way more active than either in the outcome. Again, circumstantially similar but a different story.

Kill Bill = “Aperitivo”

What you’d expect: After her wedding was crashed in the most violent way possible, a woman awakens in a hospital and goes out seeking vengeance against her former lover by killing all his cronies one by one until she gets to him.

What we got: Not Frederick Chilton in a bright yellow tracksuit, unfortunately. After some violence, people wake up in hospitals and then…talk to each other? 

Hannibal, the film = “Contorno”

What you’d expect: the obvious.

What we got: Pazzi’s story and death, and a fun little turnabout with Alana taking Clarice Starling’s place on the phone. But most of other plot stuff from Hannibal exists elsewhere, and instead we got some snail-y conversations and a barefoot beatdown on Hannibal by Jack Crawford.

Bound = Margot and Alana’s storyline

What you’d expect: A woman and her lesbian lover plot to steal the money her mafiaso boyfriend owes to his boss in order to escape the boyfriend’s tyrannical hold, but the plot goes wrong and they get caught, making it so they have to improvise their way out.

What we got: Again, circumstantially something very similar, but only in the loosest of terms–that two women lovers are seeking to escape the tyrannical hold of one of the men in their life, getting his money and ending up killing him. For some reason, there’s no pig-baby in Bound. Unless you count Christopher Meloni.

Leopold and Loeb = “Tome-wan”

What you’d expect: Two men, convinced they’re above everybody else, try to create the perfect murder by hatching a plot and killing a kid. They get caught.

What we got: Two men–at least one of whom is convinced he’s above everyone else–hatch a rather haphazard plot without really telling each other what they’re doing, then hunt down a guy and don’t actually kill him, and then they don’t get caught.

…

So is there a pattern in any of this? What can we take from it to apply to the Inception meets Angel Heart (with maybe a dash of Ripley, since that’s what Bryan told Matt Zoller Seitz in the past) pitch for the fourth season? What would we expect from these films?

I think the answer seems to be nothing more than circumstantial similarities, turnabouts on the expectations that these films might have set up, and some tonal similarities. That’s the pattern, and that’s the only pattern as far as I’m concerned. 

That said though, we might as well have some fun speculating with them.

Angel Heart

What you’d expect: A private detective is hired by a mysterious stranger in a manbun to track down a missing person who was last known to be in a coma. When every person the detective interviews about the case ends up meeting a grisly end, he comes to discover that he is the very man he is looking for, and the devil made him kill all those people in a fugue state because he had attempted to cheat the devil from coming to collect his soul.

…Wait, wait wait…. Isn’t this already Hannibal season one? An investigator falls in with the devil, who helps in with his investigations, all the while encouraging a fugue state to get him to kill people, so that at one point he thinks he’s the very killer that he’s looking for??? 

Didn’t Bryan already tell us that the fourth season would be an inversion or subversion of S1?

Cleverrrrrrrrr, Bryan Fuller! You made us think you were telling us something new by just saying the same thing you said before in another way. But there really isn’t anything new here at all, is there???

I guess, circumstantially, there could be a detective searching for them, or they could be searching for killers, or Will could be metaphorically searching for himself. The deal with the devil has obviously already been made, and maybe Will is trying to find a way out of that, as the guy in Angel Heart was. 

People have made a big deal about the coma and fugue state business, and I’m not ruling that stuff out, but I don’t think they’ll retread ground that they tread in S1 with Will, and I don’t think that they’ll put Hannibal in any sustained position of weakness. They never do either of these thing, and that limits where they can go with the coma and fugue state things.

Inception

What you’d expect: A wanted corporate espionage dream-hacker tries to get his name cleared in order to return to his children after being blamed for the death of his wife, so he agrees to attempt to create an idea in the mind of an unknowing victim by generating a dream within a dream within a dream, where there is a danger of not knowing what is real and what is not.

Well…not quite knowing what is real and what is not is Hannibal all the way, and Will is a dream-hacker if ever there was one. And he will probably be wanted by the law. Kinda doubt he’ll be looking to return to his wife and child, though maybe he is interested in clearing his name. And Hannibal and Will do share mental space, just as Cobb and Mal do…and there could be some comparison to be made between Mal and Hannibal here, in how they haunt their husbands…and how Mal frames Cobb for murder. XD 

People get very hyper-focused on the dream-within-a-dream business from Inception, but I found that to be kind of beside the point, tbh. “Inception” refers to the process of planting an idea in another person’s head in such a subconscious way that they believe that idea is their own and they make it a part of themselves and their reality. I guess because I find this to be the more interesting part of Inception, I’d personally like this to be what Bryan Fuller is talking about here, rather than the dreaming stuff. It’s very psychological, and if Will is looking to understand who he is on the other side of the veil, I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity here for both or either man, within that alchemy of truths and lies. 

If we were looking for a more plot-driven similar circumstance, a situation in which some rich person paves the way for Will to clear his name in America. We do have some powerful rich people on this show. 

To be quite honest, the first thing that came to mind when Bryan said Inception was him talking about how Richard Armitage and Gillian Anderson never had a chance to be in a scene together, so maybe they could be in a scene together in the future in Will’s mind--like he’s hosting all the people he’s killed, or whose deaths he blames himself for (sorry, this thought isn’t very optimistic about Bedelia’s chances). And that reminded me a lot of Cobb with Mal. 

I’m less clear on any of this with regard to Hannibal: it’s as he says himself in “Digestivo,” it’s dangerous to get everything you ever wanted, and that’s where Hannibal finds himself at the end of TWOTL. I’m not sure where that will take him after, though Hugh being convinced that Hannibal would always have to fight for Will is somewhat heartening. I’ve spoken elsewhere on my preferences for where Hannibal goes in S4, but I don’t have a particular sense of anything for him that comes from either Inception or Angel Heart. He’s more likely to be the devil than Will is, and he’s more likely to be compared to Mal. I could see scenarios that would cast him as Cobb, I suppose, but nothing concrete. 

I wrote a lot here to say that I don’t have much to say, but the truth is that I think we should be skeptical about taking anything Bryan says that sounds like an elevator pitch too literally.   

#hannibal meta #hannibal lecter #will graham #bryan fuller #s4 speculations #inception #angel heart #anonymous #bear answers #season 1 #season 2 #season 3 #not gonna tag the individual eps on this one i don't think

[themastercylinder]

Development

The man producer Richard Kobritz called upon to get him his vampire in SALEM’S LOT is Tobe Hooper, the director of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and the last person one might expect to find directing a glossy production for a major studio much less one intended as a television miniseries. Yet the hiring of Tobe Hooper is only one incident in a production chronicle almost as complex as the story of SALEM’S LOT itself, which comes to TV November 17th and 24th on CBS. Stephen King’s 400-page novel of vampirism in contemporary New England was acquired four years ago by Warner Brothers, who intended to produce it as a theatrical feature. At the outset, King and the studio agreed that he would not write the screenplay. He was busy with his own projects as a novelist (in less than a year, King’s career would begin to soar). So Warners was left with the task of finding someone to adapt King’s brilliant but complicated plot into something manageable as a normal movie and without sacrificing the elements that made the book so powerful. But over the course of the next two years, the studio was unable to come up with a satisfactory screenplay. Stirling Silliphant (who had adapted IN THE HEAT 0F THE NIGHT and more recently THE SWARM, and was also producing for Warners), Robert Getchell (ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE) and writer/director Larry Cohen (whose independent feature IT’S ALIVE was a surprise sleeper for Warners in 1974) all contributed screenplays all of them rejected by studio brass. SALEM’S LOT was becoming not only an impossible project, but a source of frustration: CARRIE, a King novel filmed by Brian DePalma, was released in late 1976 and began racking up enormous profits. Warners was sitting on a potential goldmine, but could do nothing with it.

“It was a mess,” King recalls. “Every director in Hollywood who’s ever been involved with horror wanted to do it, but nobody could come up with a script. I finally gave up trying to keep a scorecard.” At one point, if only because Warners was running out of writers and directors to consider, Tobe Hooper’s name was mentioned in connection with the SALEM’S LOT movie. But by then, interest in the project at the theatrical division was beginning to flag. Finally, it was turned over to Warner Brothers Television, in the hope that a fresh approach and the possibility of financial interest by a network would revitalize it.

Enter Richard Kobritz. Kobritz was the 38-year-old vice-president and executive production manager at Warner Brothers Television who had hired John Carpenter to direct a striking 1978 suspense telefilm, SOMEONE IS WATCHING ME, starring Lauren Hutton. As a genre buff with an eye for new talent (Carpenter went on to direct HALLOWEEN three weeks after finishing SOMEONE. . .), Kobritz at least stood a fighting chance of making some sense out of SALEM’S LOT. Kobritz began by reading the already completed screenplays. “They were terrible,” he says. “I mean, it isn’t fair to put down anyone’s hard work, but the screenplays just did not have it and I think some of the writers would probably admit that. Besides, the book is admittedly difficult to translate, so much is going on. And because of that, I think it stands a better chance as a television miniseries than a normal feature film.” So the decision was made to turn SALEM’S LOT into a miniseries and thereby lick the problem of its unwieldy length. Actually, though the production is technically labeled a miniseries, it is basically a four hour movie (31/2 hours, figuring commercial time) scheduled for successive nights. Emmy winning television writer Paul Monash was contracted to write a new, first-draft teleplay. Monash had created the landmark dramatic series, JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE (about a flamboyant lawyer in the F. Lee Bailey mold) during the late ’60’s, and as a producer was responsible for the features BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and Brian De Palma’s CARRIE. Monash had also been producer of the mid-60’s TV series PEYTON PLACE, a credit that Kobritz, who has referred to SALEM’S LOT as  “Peyton Place turning into vampires”  was aware of.  Clearly, one key factor in a viable teleplay would be an intelligent combination of the huge number of characters in SALEM’S LOT. Monash pulled it off.

“His screenplay I like quite a lot,” King offers enthusiastically.  “Monash has succeeded in combining the characters a lot, and it works. He did try a few things that weren’t successful the first time. In one draft he combined the priest, Father Callahan, and the teacher, Jason Burke, as a priest who teaches classes and it just didn’t work, so he split them up.

“Some things were left out because of time, some because it’s television,” says King. “My favorite scene in the book is with Sandy McDougall, the young mother, where she tries to feed her dead baby, and keeps spooning the food into its mouth. That won’t be on TV, obviously.”

Other changes were made by Kobritz, who takes a strong creative interest in the films he produces. His three major alterations to Monash’s first script were: To characterize the vampire, Barlow, as a hideous, speechless fiend, not the cultured villain carried over from the novel, to have the interior of Marsten House, which looms over the town of ‘Salem’s Lot, visually resemble the vampire’s festering soul and to keep Barlow in the cellar of his lair, Marsten House, for the final confrontation with the hero (in the book he is billeted in the cellar of a boarding house once his mansion is invaded) a concept Kobritz would later say,  “works in the book but wouldn’t in the film.”  Kobritz also pushed the killing of an important female vampire to the climax, to give her death more impact and provide the film with a snap ending.

With the example of such turgid, dramatically impotent “evil in a small town” miniseries as HARVEST HOME before them, Kobritz and Monash were determined to make SALEM’S LOT work despite the television restrictions against frightening violence. The project would be designed as a relentless mood piece where the threat of violence, rather than a killing every few minutes sustained terror. And it would be cast with an eye toward good actors first, and TV names second.

But still, there was the matter of all those stakings, and a relentless murderer with no redeeming virtues. “CBS worried about a few things in the screenplay,” King explains. “They worried about using a kid as young as Mark Petrie is in the book, because you’re not supposed to put a kid that young in mortal jeopardy, although they do it every day in the soap operas. “Paul Monash finally sent them a memo that I think covered it. He pointed out, for one thing, that CARRIE which was a CBS network movie was the only movie that ever cracked the top five in the weekly ratings.”

Casting

Next came casting. From the instant Barlow was designed to symbolize “the essence of evil,” Kobritz had in mind Reggie Nalder whom he remembered from Hitchcock’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and genre buffs recall from that film, Michael Armstrong’s MARK OF THE DEVIL and Curtis Harrington’s THE DEAD DON’T DIE. Kobritz’s idea was to recreate the Max Schreck vampire from Murnau’s 1922 NOSFERATU.

In a quirky touch, Kobritz also hired genre veteran Elisha Cook, Jr. (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL THE HAUNTED PALACE) and former B movie queen Marie Windsor to play Weasel, the town drunk, and Eva Miller, the landlady with whom he’d had an affair years before.

“That was an inside joke we threw in right from the start,” Kobritz concedes. “I’m a Stanley Kubrick buff, and on purpose we’ve reunited them 23 years later after THE KILLING. In the script, it says Eva and Weasel were at one time married and then got divorced, so it was funny to think of that same couple from THE KILLING,  23 years later, now divorced, but still living together. It was also the first time since then, I think, that they’d worked in a movie and had scenes together.”

The rest of the casting was less frivolous, and reflected the seriousness with which Kobritz wanted the whole enterprise to be regarded. Kobritz sent James Mason a copy of the Monash teleplay, offering him the role of Straker, the European antique dealer who has Barlow smuggled into Marsten House and whose character had been expanded in the absence of a speaking Barlow. Mason loved the part and agreed to make his first appearance in a television drama since the medium’s early days (several years earlier, he had not been told that 1974’s FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY was not intended for theatrical release).

Key supporting roles went to Emmy nominee Ed Flanders (Bill Norton, a composite character who became both the heroine’s father and the town doctor), Lew Ares (Jason Burke, the local teacher) and Geoffrey Lewis (Mike Ryerson, the gravedigger). Bonnie Bedelia, an Oscar nominee 10 years ago for THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?, was cast as Susan Norton, who is on the verge of leaving ‘Salem’s Lot before she meets Ben Mears, played by David Soul.

David Soul? Though the hiring of Soul may shock or disappoint readers of the book who know him only through STARSKY AND HUTCH, it marks a shrewd move by Kobritz (which is discussed at length in his interview). Soul’s acting ability may sometimes have been concealed in STARSKY AND HUTCH, but it wasn’t in the telefilm LITTLE LADIES OF THE NIGHT, which happens to be the highest rated TV movie ever made. His presence therefore guarantees an audience. “I think the casting of David Soul is fine,” says King. “I have no problem with that at all.”

Soul also offers a strong counterpoint to Lance Kerwin (who starred in the well reviewed, but poorly rated-1978 NBC series, JAMES AT 16), selected to play Mark Petrie. Kerwin has a brooding presence that undercuts his superficial physical resemblance to Soul, and the two actors, who join forces to destroy the vampires at the end of the film, project a strange chemistry when seen together.

Production & Direction

SALEM’S LOT was budgeted at $4 million, about norm for a prestige miniseries, with financing split between CBS and Warner Brothers and a European theatrical release was planned from the start. It would, naturally, be shorter than miniseries length, but it would also contain violence not included in the TV version for example, the staking of vampires would not occur below the camera frame, and one death in particular Bill Norton’s impalement on a wall of antlers would be seen in graphic detail, while shot in a markedly restrained fashion for television. Because of his oft stated goal of having SALEM’S LOT like a feature, not a TV special (whether it was to be released theatrically or not), Kobritz and his staff handpicked production personnel capable of providing the right texture and depth under deadline pressure. Jules Brenner, who had shot the impressive NBC miniseries HELTER SKELTER, signed on as cinematographer; Mort Rabinowitz, a 23-year veteran of the film industry who was art director for Sydney Pollack’s CASTLE KEEP for which he and his staff built a castle in Yugoslavia) and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?, was hired as production designer; and Harry Sukrnan, an Oscar winning composer (SONG WITHOUT END), who wrote the excellent music for SOMEONE IS WATCHING ME and whom Kobritz describes as “a former cohort and protégé of Victor Young,” was contracted to score SALEM’S LOT. And Tobe Hooper was enlisted as director. Following a chain of events Kobritz describes at length in his interview, Hooper was deemed the only appropriate person to direct SALEM’S LOT. Kobritz had screened for himself one recent horror film after another usually films by highly praised neophyte directors. Some of the features Kobritz found intriguing. Others, like PHANTASM, he remembers with a shudder of disbelief. None impressed him like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Hooper was called in for a meeting with Kobritz, and was signed.

It is important to note that the selection of Hooper did not signify an attempt to mimic the intensity of TEXAS CHAINSAW in a television show, which would be frankly impossible. Kobritz was searching for a filmmaker with a confident visual style, a mastery of camera movement, and an ability to follow a script and adhere to a tight schedule. There was, apparently, never any concern that Hooper would not be able to direct a film that did not contain a large quota of violence. “I think it goes without saying that if a man has a strong visual style and is also able to meet those other qualifications, his skills encompass more than the making of violent movies,” says Kobritz. “I knew Tobe was our man from the day I met him. And he’s come through like a champ.”

Hooper was signed in late spring of this year, and one of his first tasks was a field trip to the location that would be used for most of the exteriors of ‘Salem’s Lot. In 1977, Tony Richardson had directed a Warner telefilm, A DEATH IN CANAAN, which was supposed to be set in a small, contemporary Connecticut town. Ferndale, a northern California town 16 miles south of Eureka, and 75 miles south of the Oregon border, doubled perfectly as a bogus Connecticut location. Anna Cottle, associate producer for SALEM’S LOT, had been Richardson’s assistant. She remembered Ferndale and particularly the cooperation of the local inhabitants. After a brief scouting trip, Ferndale was chosen for SALEM’S LOT.

But in all of Ferndale, there was no house which could be used as a double for Marsten House, so Rabinowitz and his staff were dispatched to Ferndale to build one. They found a cottage on a hillside overlooking Ferndale and the Salt River Valley; it was decided to build a full-scale mock up of Marsten House around the existing cottage complex, complete with a stone retaining wall and several misted, dead trees. The family residing in the cottage was paid $20,000 and guaranteed all of the lumber from Marsten House once shooting was completed. The filming of SALEM’S LOT began on July 10 in Ferndale. “It took 20 working days to build Marsten House from scratch,” Rabinowitz recalls. “We put the last touches on it very late at night before shooting was to begin. I remember, my assistants and I were up there painting, and someone drove on by the road just below us. All of a sudden, he slammed on his brakes and backed up, got out of his car and just stood there staring at the house. ‘My God, I’ve lived here 25 years,’ he said, `and I never noticed that house before!’ I played along and just said, ‘Gee, I don’t know we’re just tourists.'”

Rabinowitz estimates the cost of the exterior Marsten House mock up as $100,000. Another $70,000 was spent constructing the interior of the house Kobritz’s rotting embodiment of the vampire’s soul back at the Burbank Studios. The interior rooms and passages of Marsten House posed the more difficult challenge for Rabinowitz and his staff. For one thing, there was the problem of creating atmosphere without going overboard.

“It’s a very difficult line,” admits Rabinowitz. “By the nature of the writing, you’re going into a theatrical abstraction, and you must take it further than normal, but not too much further. It’s trial and error. When I designed the interior, the first shots were way over, which I knew they would be, and I had to be careful in bringing them down not to lose all the gory description and so forth. When it’s that fine a line, I’ll intentionally go overboard and then gradually shave it back and back. I’d say it was two weeks from the first still photos and testing of the color lighting to the final result.

“I used a lot of plaster, no I could make huge craters all over the entire set and furniture so that it looked as though it was pock-marked, and from some of these larger openings in the walls I put a kind of epoxy or resin, and let it drip as if it were oozing from the interior, as if it were an open wound. We wanted a rotting, sick appearance, almost as if in discussions with the director and producer, we were looking into the body, the heart of the vampire. It reflects his whole being more so than just a decayed house. So we decided to go for an abstract image.

“Then,” Rabinowitz continues, “in front of the camera, we took the same material in medium shots and close ups and just loaded it up so it would ooze and pour right in front of you. Sometimes it’s very clear and at other times it’s not too obvious, just a little glistening in the background. “There’s a dark, greenish tint to the interior. We put down glaze after glaze after glaze, for the proper amount of sheen, and then various shades of green, mixing it up with other colors to that it wasn’t solid green.”

Two other important duties for Rabinowitz were the building of the antique shop (Strakers business front) and the small South American village where the beginning and end of the film are set.

“The Latin town was shot on the Burbank back lot and the San Fernando Valley Mission,” says Rabinowitz. “We used the interior of the mission church, and I built an adobe style native but on stage.

“My decorator, Jerry Adams, who is fantastic was responsible for most of what you see inside the antique shop. Ninety percent of what you see is his taste initially directed by me. But the individual pieces all Jerry Adams. I also have an assistant, Peter Samish, who is only 28 but is brilliant. He’s the son of Adrian Samish, the producer and former head of CBS who was not popular among many people. So Peter has not gotten where he is because of papa, he had a very rough time. But he was just to creative and inventive on this picture.”

Rabinowitz, a stickler for accuracy, found that one of his most perplexing assignments was to come up with a coffin for Barlow. “It was designed special,” he notes, “because there was no way to find anything like that. The research was difficult to come by, it’s a 400 year-old coffin but once I did find it, our cabinet shop and our antique shop here is so superb that they gave me exactly what I drew up, right on the nose. If I’d had to work at another studio, I don’t think it would have come out as well, because they are superb—just the finest in our business.”

Rabinowitz tries to be a perfectionist. A professional painter and sculptor, he has taught at UCLA and USC, and spends six months of each year at his Santa Fe, New Mexico studio, painting and sculpting for galleries. At 53, he is still excited by what he terms “that marvelous madness that is Hollywood,” and he still finds his work there a challenge. For SALEM’S LOT, in the rush of production for television, there are things he would do over if time allowed.

“There is one interior of the Glick boy’s bedroom,” Rabinowitz confesses “where I overdid the color and blew the gag. I absolutely telegraphed it by making the room a somber brown, so when the scene opens you’re in that mood already. Then, when the vampire arrives, it’s not as big a surprise. It’s still a very effective scene, but I’d have toned down my part of it more.”

In his interview, Hooper speaks of Rabinowitz with genuine awe. Rabinowitz worked closely with Hooper, and feels he developed an understanding of his personality. “He’s very good natured, extremely so,” says Rabinowitz, “very warm, but very laid back. He’s quite shy. But once he gains your confidence and you gain his, that stops. Was he articulate? With me, yes. He was very articulate. With others, not so much. It took time. It’s a personality kind of thing. But he knows exactly what he wants.”

But getting what he wants was another matter entirely for Hooper, particularly in the case of David Soul, who was also under pressure to perform. According to Soul, Hooper was articulate in relating to him what he wanted.

“I believe he is a good actor’s director and I believe he will be even more so,” observes Soul. “I think the problems of this film, which were primarily the special effects, the vampire obviously, and the fact that we were shooting out of continuity, made it difficult for him to spend the kind of time with the actors he’d have liked to.

“Many, many times we’d pull each other aside to talk and he’d say, `Goddammit, David, I’m sorry we can’t spend more time working out these relationships, but this just isn’t the time to do it so just hang in there.’ He was concerned that everybody on the set was happy. He’s a very gentle, very, very bright man. This picture, if nothing else, will seal his future, as an important director along with the Steven Spielberg’s, the John Carpenters, the John Badhams  people like that.” Soul, who was cast two months before the start of production, was able to make suggestions that helped define his character a little better, but he feels some inconsistencies remain.

“Yes, there are a lot of inconsistencies, built into the script because the producers felt that since it’s television, there needs to be this reiteration of the fears on Ben Mears’ part so the audience is constantly aware. That for me is not giving the picture everything it could have. There are only so many times Ben Mears can say, ‘Did you ever have the feeling something is inherently evil?’, you know? There are a million other ways to say that same thing. I much prefer the scenes such as the entrance of Straker with his cane, which comes far closer to creating true terror than dialogue can.”

The scene with the cane the first meeting of Mears and Straker,  helps illuminate Soul’s working relationship with Mason.

“There was a certain kind of awe to my working with Mason,” Soul explains, “and I used that for the relationship between the two characters: Mears is intimidated by Straker. It sounds simplistic, but it works. I did not try to get to know Mason better, so it was as if, in my early scenes with him, this imposing stranger could be the evil coming from the house. And only as we got further into the picture did my curiosity as David Soul—and certainly as Ben Mears—manifest itself in a kind of relationship with the character. So I kept away from him in the beginning. Also, the may Tobe staged our scenes heightened the element of surprise. The scene where I meet him as he’s walking with the cane is very well staged by Tobe, because I’m staring at the house and feeling all those disturbing sensations and memories and I back out almost out of the shot and then” Soul gasps “there he is behind me. These kinds of cinematic devices helped a lot, and that’s Tobe.

“I was impressed by both Tobe and Mason. There were a lot of impressive people on this film, actors especially. Lew Ayres was the same as Mason in a way, though he was a little difficult to crack. He’s a very orthodox and tough actor. He was a matinee idol, and he considers himself still to be a star. But once that was broken down, it became a very warm relationship.

“Mason is fascinating. He’s better than most TV actors and he’s also a personality. He’s got a mystique that he’s built up forty years and that’s what you’re watching also, and what you’re playing opposite. I was surprised to find out how organically he works, he had a whole history for Straker. His conversations about the character were very intelligent.

“How did I change my own TV personality and still play a hero? It’s a good question. I don’t have a pat answer. Obviously, they’re different characters. I think the accouterments changed me somewhat the glasses, the clothes. Also, I cleaned up my speech pattern a little bit. I sound like a writer, a man who’s at home with words. In STARSKY AND HUTCH, it was always dip-dip-dip, sort of half-finished sentences, a street jargon and repartee. This time, I stuck with the lines and the discipline of a well written script. There’s also a mysterious quality to Ben Mears and I tried to work with that. I didn’t socialize a lot. It was a rough part, and in a sense, I let the neuroses that were building up in David Soul because of the pressure work for the character.

“That’s one area in which Tobe was very helpful and understanding. He listened. “Have I seen THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE? No, but I do want to, very much, after working with Tobe.”

Hooper, who’s career literally reached a standstill a year after his arrival in Hollywood, is a living testament to the difficulty of maintaining a career in the horror genre. Shortly before he was approached by Kobritz for SALEM’S LOT, Hooper had even met with Italian producers over the possibility of directing THE GUYANA MASSACRE, before his agent blew the whistle on the project (“God bless him,” Hooper now says). Hooper openly admits that SALEM’S LOT pulled him from obscurity.

“Look,” says Hooper, “this is a quantum leap for me. SALEM’S LOT is my best picture, and there’s no question about it. It’s a major studio production, I’m working with a fantastic cast and crew. And Kobritz is wonderful. This is a first for me.” But is it the same Tobe Hooper in SALEM’S LOT that we saw in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or even EATEN ALIVE? Can the same audacious spirit run through something created for television? “Oh, I think so,” Hooper replies. “For one thing, my style is ingrained in me. It does not change. It improves, perhaps, but it does not change. Also, SALEM’S LOT does not rely on the same kind of dynamics as CHAINSAW. It is scary, it is atmospheric, but in a different way. I do not have to cheat the audience to bring it to television.

“The style of my films is not their violence. Violence has sometimes been an ingredient in them, but because I shoot it a certain way, people may have thought that is the style all by itself. You know, I made a number of short and feature films before I entered the genre with TEXAS CHAINSAW, and they didn’t contain violence, but my style was developing nonetheless in each of those films. “Part of the idea of SALEM’S LOT is to bring the audience into the movement, in a way the camera moves almost constantly. I am leading the audience on, but I’m satisfying them too, I’m not cheating them. They’re not going to expect a dollar’s worth of scare and get 75 cents worth of talk. And you can do that without slicing someone up with a chainsaw.”

In fact, there is relatively little dialogue in SALEM’S LOT. The narrative is advanced primarily in cinematic terms through camera movement and editing, and through scenes that establish perspective in a strictly visual way. Kobritz’s desire for this effect, and his need for a director who could add to his and Monash’s ideas, not just catty them out was the main impetus behind the hiring of Tobe Hooper.

One of Hooper’s most striking scenes of barely glimpsed violence is the murder of Dr. Bill Norton by Straker, who picks him up and heaves him across a room into a wall embedded with antlers. Hooper’s camera carries the audience right along with Norton, holding on a dose shot of Norton’s horror struck face up to and including the moment of impact. Because the actual impalement is not seen in a wide shot, the scene is technically acceptable for network TV, and Hooper’s surprise trick of dragging the audience along on the victim’s death ride assures both shock and terror.

In another sequence, Hooper and his special effects team employ a coffin’s eye view of the inside of a grave, to involve the audience in the resurrection of one of the Glick brothers. In his interview, Kobritz explains the mechanics of two of SALEM’S LOTS most elaborate effects: the vampires’ contact lenses and the shot in reverse levitation scenes. Hooper discusses their emotional quality. “I invented those,” Hooper says, “working with the makeup and special effects people. The one with the eyes has to do with hypnotism. I was going for an effect that would implicate the audience again, I guess it’s my interest in psychology rather than have them walk out of the room for a drink when the vampire turns to hypnotize someone. Those are generally very boring, predicable scenes.

“I studied what I had been exposed to as a film student and moviegoer, from the old Universals all the way up to the Hammer Films. No matter how you try to explain those away or make allowances, it’s always just Chris Lee with those damned bloodshot eyes. I knew our hypnotism would have to be something that is not easy for an audience to comprehend. Well, we’ve all had bloodshot eyes. So what we came up with was a kind of contact lens that just glows and glows and follows you, and is obviously not an optical done in the lab, and is therefore strange and fascinating to look at. The result is that it makes you look in his eyes, too, and you just wonder and look and look and look.”

And the levitation scene, in which the vampires float through the window to prospective victims?

“Well, I’m sorry they told you so much about that. Damn! That’s the kind of thing that should also make you guess, no you’re riveted to your seat. It’s one of those devices that ought to be revealed after you’ve seen the picture. But since they’ve told you. “The business of bringing the kid into the room on a boom crane eliminates the use of wires, and if you keep the camera in a certain position, keep the kid moving so you’re distracted from guessing or trying to guess how the effect was done, which is unlikely anyway and you cut properly, it’s very disturbing. It’s just obvious there are no wires. I also had an ectoplasmic mist surrounding him, and issuing in a kind of vacuum from him to his victim and back again.” The levitation effect was also enriched by shooting in reverse, which made the ectoplasmic fog swirl in an eerie way.

Jack Young – The Vampire Look

“We wanted something like the Nosferatu Of Murnau’s 1922 film where the vampire was walking death, ugliness incarnate, a skull that moved and was alive. “

– producer Richard Kubritz

‘Creating the image Of the vampire was a little like a fishing expedition, ” admits makeup man Jack Young, who in his 30 years as a makeup artist has worked on films from The Wizard of Oz to Apocalypse NOW changed the at least six time,” he says displaying a small card with Polaroid shots of each of the six renditions in his lab on the Warner lot. “We tried him with light pink on his face but he looked phony, burlesque. We finally came up with the light gray which is dead and bloodless. “Reggie Nalder (who plays Barlow) has such a wonderful face; he always plays some pretty grim so We just put ears on him, made him bald, put gray horrible makeup on him and used his own lips. For the teeth I made impressions of his, created a false set and then aged them by airbrushing shadows on them. They yellow and like they have cavities.” The eerie look of the vampire Barlow’s eyes are created by contact lenses almost like half a ping-pong ball—light green in color with red veins—that fit over the eye and can only be worn for 15 minutes at a time. The pupils reflect as do the eyes of the other vampire characters in the film, an effect created by yellow screen-like contact lenses. “They spark when the light hits them,” says Young with a devious look in his eye. “It looks awful, like they have searchlights coming out Of their eyes.”

In the scene near the end of the movie when Mears is driving the stake through Barlow’s heart, Barlow’s claw-like hand flies up and grabs Ben’s wrist. “For the claws, ” says Young, “I made a composite you can form with your hands. Ifs like a clay you can hake but it has flex. It wasn’t originally made for nails but that’s what I used it for. It’s all part of the attempt to get away from the stereotype Dracula. ”

As Ben continues to drive the stake in, Barlow’s head starts to rise from the coffin to meet Ben’s. Then suddenly the flesh seems to fall from the head, revealing a ghost-like skull. “I had to make the head about four or five times to get it to come out right, ” admits Young. The final one is hand-carved out of plaster then covered with a composition of wax that would sag , not drip. “I got the skin to appear to fall away by turning a heat gun on the completed portrait head,” adds Young.

But how will all of this look on a big screen? With everyone involved with the production stressing that SALEM’S LOT is a feature, not just a television special, it seems a logical question.

“This piece was not made with a lot of concessions to TV, beyond the obvious limiting of the use of violence,” Hooper replies. “There has been some second unit shooting, about five days I think, for some of the special effects. These are physical effects, as you called them before, not opticals there are no cheap opticals designed for the TV screen. The photography is very good, Mort Rabinowitz’s art direction is just remarkable, SALEM’S LOT will look like a feature.”

SALEM’S LOT wrapped shooting on August 29. Hooper assembled his rough cut within a couple of weeks after. CBS has already begun to promote the miniseries, and will air it on too successive nights during either the November ratings “sweep” (when network ratings are closely monitored to determine future advertising rates and the best specials are consequently televised) or a date soon after.

And way up in Center Lovell, Maine, the author of SALEM’S LOT is awaiting the production’s telecast like the rest of us.

“I thought THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE was a great movie, and I like the screenplay they’ve come up with for this, so I’m looking forward to it,” says Stephen King.

“What I’d really like them to do is send me a videotape of the European version. I’d be very into that.”

– Bill Kelley Cinefantastique – Volume 9, Number 2 (Winter 1979)

From “On the Set of ‘SALEM’S LOT By SUSAN CASEY” (FANGORIA Issue 4)

(Available at Amazon) Salem’s Lot 1979 Blu-ray

SALEM’S LOT (1979) RETROSPECTIVE – Filming Horror for Television (Part 1) Development The man producer Richard Kobritz called upon to get him his vampire in SALEM'S LOT is Tobe Hooper, the director of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and the last person one might expect to find directing a glossy production for a major studio much less one intended as a television miniseries.