Monster Scholar

I posted my thoughts about vampires and consumerism awhile back, so I caught myself giggling out loud at the sight of these advertisements geared specifically towards vampires. TrueBlood has created an alternate reality where vampires exist, supporting this alternate dimension with websites like the Fellowship of the Sun Church and American Vampire League, as well as products like the titular TruBlood synthetic blood drink. These devices create a complex meta-text around the TrueBlood series that expands and reinterprets the themes of the show. These targeted vampire advertisements are a part of this meta-text. These ads cleverly propose not to sell us their products directly by using vampires as their demographic. This is an ingenious move, because it makes the product exclusive, sexy and we humans want it just as badly as any fang-banger. We, the thirsty consumers, crave these products and are the true vampire audience for these ads. Brilliant

It’s the classic love story. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy and girl get married and punch out 2.5 kids. With Japanese horror, nothing is ever that simple. In Tomie (1999), boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy falls into a homicidal rage and kills girl as well as other men who have fallen under her spell. Boy hacks girl to pieces and disposes of the body. Girl regenerates from a single body part and looks for new victims to carry out the same grisly pattern. This is the premise of Tomie, the story of a school girl/demon who returns from the dead to inspire others to murder her in the most violent ways possible. Talk about a masochistic complex. The idea is fascinating and a little more than disturbing, a serial victim instead of your garden variety serial killer. Score one for director Ataru Oikawa. The opening scene is a subtle punch to the gut. A mousy looking boy dressed in a baseball cap trolls the crowded streets of a city like Tokyo. Sudden