The godfather of the 'children of the night'

Only two more days to Halloween and an extra hour of sleep.

In one of those quirks of the calendar, during the early morning hours of Nov.1, Standard Time returns, so before retiring for the night on Oct. 31, you need to set your clocks back one hour, unless you want to be REALLY early for church.

I have bemoaned the fact that we have added two weeks to Daylight Savings Time, taking away the darkness from the majority of trick-or-treating time. So, I will not belabor the point. I still think it stinks, but I am moving on...

Since Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series of novels became successful a few years ago, vampires are big business. I imagine anyone with a vampire novel or screenplay is making their pitch now.

Yes, it's a good time to be among the undead.

But with all of these young and sexy vampires inundating the bookstores, television and movie screens, I think it's time to give credit to the Romanian that started it all.

Let's give it up for Count Dracula, creation of Irish author Bram Stoker. Count Dracula first scared readers in 1897. The film vampires began appearing in the silent era, and have kept on coming. According to the Internet Movie Database, Dracula has been featured in over 160 films, second only to Sherlock Holmes.

I was watching television this past weekend, and one of the versions of "Dracula" was on. This was the 1979 "sexy" Dracula with Frank Langella, one of the weaker efforts, in my opinion.

I'm sure that many of my generation will think of the 1931 film version with Bela Lugosi as the count. Very campy by today's standards, by still a very scary movie.

Perhaps Christopher Lee, who played the count 11 times over a nearly 20 year period comes to mind when Dracula's name is mentioned. George Hamilton or Leslie Nielsen, who played the role for laughs?

I think Gary Oldman's portrayal of the count in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version was one of the best. Heroic, creepy, gory and ultimately tragic. The reincarnation love story worked, even with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves in the triangle.

I realize that all of these vampire stories are meant to scare us, and our society has become increasingly desensitized to violence and gore, so each incarnation has to be more bloody, more over the top, but I would encourage anyone that simply wants a good scare to check out Bela Lugosi in the 1931 original.

Another trend I have noticed and have not been pleased with is the marginalization of faith in these movies. Everyone knows that vampires can't see their reflections, don't age, have to be invited in, don't like garlic and are afraid of crucifixes. Yes, the image of our lord on the cross has been dumbed down to be a "lucky charm" in the fight against evil. A "swiss army knife" in the fight against the undead.

Stephen King's "'Salem's Lot" features a showdown between a priest who has lost his way and a vampire. The crucifixes and holy water are useless, because the man has no faith.

I can think of only one horror movie that I have seen that has been different: 1976's "The Omen," where Gregory Peck realizes that what he believes to be his son is actually the antichrist. As he prepares to kill his son, he is counseled by a priest, who tells him to accept Christ as his savior and confess his sins. Peck ignores the advice and ends up dead. Damien becomes William Holden's problem in the sequel.

I hope that you get to enjoy a good scare for Halloween, and that you purchased candy that you enjoy for the trick-or-treaters. The weather forecast looks good, but remember the Halloween blizzard of 1991? ALWAYS buy candy you like, because you never know when you will end up finishing it off.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.