New Vampire Documentary "A Place Among the Undead"

The force behind the documentary "A Place Among the Undead" is none other than Juliet Landau (Drusilla from BTVS), with funding through IndieGoGo ~ send in the money to get this made!!!

Here's Juliet via Nerdist

I had the opportunity to play Drusilla on Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and now, I am making A Place Among the Undead, which is fast becoming the most definitive vampire documentary ever made. The film is a tapestry with interlinking narrative films inspired by the conversations.
I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Anne (Rice) in Los Angeles and filming with her at the Vampire Ball in New Orleans last year. As I have been wending my way through the project, all roads continually lead to Anne. Each interviewee has talked about the influence of her writing and how her books inspired them to create. Without her, there is no modern interpretation of the undead. She has become as mythic as her beloved Lestat.
If Bram Stoker is the father of the genre then she is the mother, or should I say the queen… Yes, she is “The Queen of the Dammed.” We are all her children and grateful to be so.

Enjoyable discussion video concerning author Anne Rice, including comments by Joss Whedon, Tim Burton, and Charlaine Harris (author of the True Blood novels).

Drusilla's Dolls

One of the creepiest things about the Vampire Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that she has arrested development due to being tortured into insanity at an early age. One symbol of her delicate mental state is Drusilla's obsession with dolls, which are at once her playthings and "children" as well as pretend victims, just as she was once the plaything and victim of Angelus/Angel who turned her into a vamp.

Miss Edith is Drusilla's favorite doll, but she has many more, often seen wearing blindfolds or gagged. In some ways the dolls form a kind of family between herself and Spike, who tolerates all of Drusilla's eccentricities.



Strangely there is an antique book from 1921 called "Drusilla's Dolls" by a writer with the colorful name of Belle Bacon Bond.



The book, which is set mostly in Boston, seems to be an inspiration to the writers of Buffy, although I have never read that anywhere and couldn't find any evidence. However, the book does exist and is available on Amazon

You can also read the free online version here. It's old-fashioned and charming in a way, but very simplified. I wouldn't compare it to the classic Rumer Godden dollhouse books or even Raggedy Ann, but it is simpler and more like an old reading book from school.

Book Description on Amazon:

This charming true story of a little girl named Drusilla growing up in the 1860s is a loving tribute to Drusilla's mother-a woman wise enough to honor the sacred spaces of childhood and the holy spirit of her child's originality. An only child, Drusilla made playfellows of her doll collection. Her gentle recounting of their adventures has entranced five generations. Now, the republication of this delightful book makes it available for many generations to come. Originally published in 1921.

From the website Everything Drusilla

Belle Bacon Bond was already a grandmother by the time Drusilla and Her Dolls was published. An autobiography, the charming story chronicles the author's formative childhood years. To the best of my knowledge, no one knows why she happened to call her childhood self "Drusilla." Indeed, her own name was Isabella, not Belle at all. Perhaps she was too modest to use her own name; perhaps "Belle and Her Dolls" just didn't have the proper "ring."
In any case, children love this enchanting tale of a little girl growing up in the 1860s. An only child, Drusilla makes playfellows of her doll collection.
. . . Mrs. Bond's gentle recounting of her childhood adventures with Frank Bowker, Flora Washington, and the rest of her doll family has entranced five generations of mothers and children alike. Now, this republication makes it available for many generations to come.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday: "Early One Morning"

The English folk song "Early One Morning" plays an important role in Spike's character development, which is ironic given the title and the fact that he is a vampire who sleeps or hides from the rising sun.

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"

Remember the vows that you made to me truly
Remember how tenderly you nestled close to me
Gay is the garland, fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to bind over thee.

Here I now wander alone as I wonder
Why did you leave me to sigh and complain
I ask of the roses, why should I be forsaken,
Why must I here in sorrow remain?



From Songfacts:

This folk song is particularly notable for its use in a number of well known arrangements. In the UK its usage in the opening bars of the "BBC Radio 4 UK Theme" by Fritz Spiegl, which until April 2006 was played every morning at 5.30 am is the best known.
The song has been used in a number of television programs. It was sung by Samantha in the TV series Bewitched, by Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) in "The wooing of Abigail Jones" episode of the TV series Bonanza and was used as a trigger for the Vampire Spike in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was also the theme song for the children's CBC TV show The Friendly Giant, which run from 1958 to 1985. In the UK, it was Frank Spencer's choice of song in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
The song has also featured several times in the movies. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "Early One Morning" is played in the background at the beginning of the tale of Sir Launcelot, just before his assistant is 'mortally wounded' with an arrow. Also Hayley Mills and Nancy Olson sung this song in the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.

In "Lies My Parents Told Me" (season 7) Buffy and Giles learn that the song has become a "trigger" put there by the First Evil which makes Spike kill people even though he now has a soul. Through the use of a magical stone, Spike remembers that his beloved mother once sang the song to him when he was a still a rather hapless and poetic mortal named William. When Spike is turned into a vampire by Drusilla he returns to his family home and bites his ailing mother to make her immortal like himself. However things do not turn out the way he expected. Spike forgot that his mother would become half evil demon as a vampire, and when she proceeds to take delight in describing their mother-son relationship as twisted and unnatural, Spike is shocked and realizes he has to kill her. At the last moment his mother returns to her original loving form.


Principal Robin Wood is wrestling with his own mother issues. We learn that he is the son of Nikki Wood, the New York Vampire Slayer whom Spike admits to killing in Fool For Love. In "Lies" Robin Wood and Giles conspire to put a stake in Spike against Buffy's wishes. Giles is thinking of the safety of the potential slayers, while Robin just wants revenge for his mother's death. As a result of their deception, Wood and Giles lose Buffy's trust, and she defends Spike as "the strongest warrior we have." This is foreshadowing for the final episode when Spike becomes Buffy's Champion and he saves the world.



Buffy echoes Nikki Woods advice to her son "The Mission is what Matters." Spoken like the true Slayers they are!

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Nickel on "School Hard"

Nickel plays two songs at the Bronze in the Season Two episode "School Hard," which introduces Spike and Drusilla as new villains who come to town to get rid of Buffy, and meet up again with their old pal Angel.



The title refers to the fact that Spike attacks Sunnydale High on parent-teacher night after a long week for Buffy in which the Principal gives her a hard time. Ironically, the way Buffy saves lives during the ordeal impresses her mother more than any school work could have.




"1000 Nights"



"Stupid Thing"

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Lover's Walk

In this episode, the featured song is "My Way," the Frank Sinatra hit. Spike is shown singing it to himself after he returns to Sunnydale looking for his lost love Drusilla.

At the end of the episode after he captures her again, he drives away from Sunnydale singing along with the version of "My Way" sung by actor Gary Oldman in the movie "Sid and Nancy" about the life of Punk Rocker Sid Vicious and his girlfriend. They are clearly somewhat of an inspiration for the "Punkish" Spike and the totally whacked-out insane Drusilla.




Another thing fans love about this episode is the way Spike goes on and on about his love for Drusilla, even crying on the shoulders of both Joyce, Buffy's mother, and Willow when he takes her hostage so she will make a love potion for him.


He's totally obsessed by love and only love. This places him the "Byronic Hero" category which certainly becomes evident later in the series when his devotion to Buffy is tested again and again until he becomes the true champion.

Spike: What do you know? It's your fault, the both of you! She belongs with me. I'm nothing without her.
Buffy: That I'll have to agree with. You're pathetic, you know that? You're not even a loser anymore, you're a shell of a loser.
Spike: Yeah. You're one to talk.
Buffy: Meaning?
Spike: The last time I looked in on you two, you were fighting to the death. Now you're back making googly-eyes at each other like nothing happened. Makes me want to heave.
Buffy: I don't know what you're talking about.
Spike: Oh, yeah. You're just friends.
Angel: That's right.
Spike: You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood...blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

In fact, the title "Lover's Walk" is ironic because Spike is the ONLY character who ends up with his true love.

Buffy and Angel finally go their separate ways so each can concentrate on the greater good.

Angel: Hey. I was wondering when you were coming.
Buffy: I'm not coming back. We're not friends. We never were. And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself. Or Spike, for some reason. What I want from you I can never have. You don't need me to take care of you anymore. So I'm gonna go.
Angel: I don't accept that.
Buffy: You have to.
Angel: How can...There's gotta be some way we can still see each other.
Buffy: There is: tell me that you don't love me.

Buffy is unaware that she would be taking many a "Lover's Walk" with Spike in future episodes.

Things end much more unhappily for Cordelia and Oz, who are shocked when they catch Xander and Willow embracing and finally sharing an innocent and tragic kiss at just the wrong moment. Cordelia runs away and is impaled on a large metal spike, which is symbolic on so many levels - love, vampires, Spike himself who is the reason the gang is in the old warehouse looking for Willow - but this definitely ends her relationship with Xander. She is next seen in "The Wish" making a deal with Anya the Vengeance Demon who nearly destroys Sunnydale by fulfilling Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come there. Also ironic because Cordelia has to leave the show to make a place for Anya, who also falls in love with Xander and nearly marries him.

But Willow's romantic interest in Xander is also over. She and Oz continue to date into their college days until Oz suddenly has to leave town to find himself because actor Seth Green was leaving the show.

There is one more piece of music in this episode, which is the meloncholy guitar instrumental "Loneliness of Six" written by Christopher Beck, who composed the scores of many of the later episodes. The "Six" referred to in the song are Buffy, Angel, Xander, Cordelia, Willow and Oz. Spike would make a magical 7th, except he is not lonely anymore.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Rasputina

Rasputina is an American band influenced by the Victorian Era and the Steampunk movement.

From their official website:

The Rasputina group has existed for more than 20(0) years. Melora Creager founded it to meet like-minded young women (excellent cellists that wanted to play rock music and wear historical costumery). Although often mistakenly lumped into passing fancies, Rasputina manages to survive and defy categorization by maintaining a child-like delight in music-making alongside a clear & true integrity.

The song "Transylvanian Concubine" is included on their album Thanks For The Ether. It was also included on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999 Television Series)


The song plays in Episode 13 of Season 2 - "Surprise" - in which Buffy is having a rather dark 17th birthday haunted by bad dreams about the vampire Drusilla killing Angel. Meanwhile, in an ironic parallel, Drusilla and Spike are planning a party with "presents" arriving in the form of body parts from which they hope to construct an invincible demon to defeat the Slayer.

Transylvanian Concubine is really the perfect song for Drusilla and plays toward the end of the episode when she demands "more music" and unveils the demon.

In another ironic twist, it is Buffy who becomes the vampire's "concubine" when Angel gives her an Irish Claddagh ring to seal their love, and she sleeps with him. The moment of bliss created with Buffy lifts the gypsy curse from Angel, who suddenly loses his soul and goes back to being an ordinary evil vampire whom Buffy eventually has to kill in a following episode. So . . . happy birthday, Buffy! Not!






And alternate version of the song called "Manson Mix" (as in Marilyn Manson) is below. I prefer the original.