Post-1968 Vampires

Concerned with the political and socio-economic implications of Italian vampire cinema, the chapter identifies Italian vampires with enemies within (a specific group of people in the nation-state’s social body) and enemies without (scheming foreigners). The chapter focuses on six Italian vampire films of various genres made between 1970 and 1975. Directly referencing Karl Marx and Marxist thinkers, ...Hanno cambiato faccia (Corrado Farina, 1971), La corta notte delle bambole di vetro / Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971), Il prato macchiato di rosso (Riccardo Ghione, 1972), L’uomo che uccideva a sangue freddo / Shock Treatment (Alain Jessua, 1973), Dracula cerca sangue di vergine... e morì di sete!!! / Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974) and Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza / Dracula in the Provinces (Lucio Fulci, 1975) liken the then-contemporary ruling political caste and capitalist class to greedy, self-serving vampires that are undefeatable due to their power of adaptation, thereby providing an apocalyptic view on the post-economic-miracle period, from the late-1960s wave of anti-authoritarian protests in Italian universities and factories to the mid-1970s plans for an alliance between Christian Democrats and Communists.