The Kiss Of The Vampire Movie Poster Masterprint (35.56 x 27.94 cm)

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perhaps the female vampire acts as a role model for women struggling against male oppression or desperate to be seen as the equals of men, whatever the narrative or environment. Stuart Hall argues that stereotypes are a primary means of reinforcing wider social power. The Kiss of the Vampire poster, likewise, deploy a number of gender-based stereotypes that arguably help to reinforce a passive and objectified representation of women - a representation that clearly prevents female social empowerment. Shows a patriarchal society as 2 men are leading their armys. Iron Man and Captain America are both the furthest forward in the poster which shows that they are the most important people in the film. Could also link to the politics are its usually the Red party vs the Blue party being led by men. Dr Ravna (Noel Willman) works his magic on Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) and Gerald (Edward de Souza) in The Kiss of the Vampire (Hammer 1964) The dominant gesture of the female vampire places her in a position of hierarchical power over the male victim, which is highly subversive

Historically, 1963 saw the early stages of ‘Beatlemania’ and the so-called ‘swinging sixties’, the assassination of JFK and the Soviet Union launching the first woman into space. The Tide advert, produced in the 1950's, shows a woman dressed as a stereotypical house wife hugging a box of Tide washing power.

Kiss Of  The Vampire

Films represent social fears as male vampire character looks scared and women has power over man on right. Through facial expression and body language she looks more powerful and aggressive. This could reflect male concerns at the time that the role of women was changing significantly and this could be a threat the the status-quo of a male dominated world.

The gesture code of the woman on the left is that of the stereotypical passive victim of the ‘monster’, his power highlighted by the fact that he’s holding her by just one arm. Dresses were made of light material to highlight their curves and revealing the flesh of arms and chest's David Gauntletts theory of identity is also being seen here as typically in horror films, all the female characters are normally victims but in this we can see that one woman is a vampire and is pinning down a male. This links into the time this film was made; because during the 1960's this was a time where feminist where campaigning for more equality between men and woman. So in this film we might start to see a difference between how men and woman have normally been represented. Both women wear pale dresses made of light materials and these dress codes serve to reinforce their femininity by highlighting the curves of their bodies and revealing the flesh of their upper chests and arms. What intrigued me about them was after about 20 minutes I was totally hooked despite a totally absurd situation," he said later. "I thought it was wonderful - here was a genre with its own ground rules and self contained world and you could be theatrical but treat it realistically to grab the audience and make them believe something absurd." [2]Barthes’ theory of semiotics can be applied. Suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires and the fate of their two victims. Semantic code could be applied to the images of the bats and their conventional association with vampirism and horror in general. The symbolic codes of horror, darkness and fear are more widely reinforced through signifiers such as the male victim’s gesture code. The 1960s audience for this advert could be assumed to be familiar with the codes and conventions of ‘monster movie’ film posters – such as its composition, fonts and representations of ‘the monster’ and its (usually female) victims. Interesting intertexts for comparative study might include: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb (1971).

The advertisement uses a commonly held ideology of the 50's that all women should be housewives while there husbands work and earn money. The advert depicts a woman who's hair, clothes and make up have been used to represent the average housewife, thus appealing to a wider audience.

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the images of a castle, bats, the vampire’s cape and dripping blood form part of the “shared conceptual road map” that give meaning to the “world” of the poster. The audience is actively encouraged to decode this familiar generic iconography. The setting of the image uses low key colours, and the MES of the women's costumes contrasts highly with this, presenting a pleasing binary opposition to the target audience.