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Lee Vitaht is a youth from Tip Valley, Nottingham, a slum area where the unemployed are forced to live until society can find a use for them. One day he enters a competition to appear on the Reality TV programme Live Island with the chance to win immortality. Lee Vitaht would love to live forever so he can finally witness Forest win the Prem and possibly see the Broadmarsh Centre flattened. But as Reality TV host Android Marr explains, we work in immortality, not miracles.

AI Up Mi Duck is an interactive fiction game that can be downloaded from itch.io. It explores the impact of technology on our lives and issues of transhumanism - the idea that we can somehow become untethered from our flesh and live forever. Nobody is quite sure exactly what transhumanism means or how it will work, but its got a lot of people interested and generated a load of cults, with Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines (2000), the alpha prophet.

The hope is that emerging technologies such as genetic engineering, AI, cryonics, and nanotechnology can somehow help humans stop ageing and relegate death as a twentieth century inconvenience. One of the most extreme versions of this ideal is that our consciousness can be downloaded and rebooted into some kind of external mainframe computer. Lets just hope the broadband connection is stronger than my GiffGaff connection. But consciousness is not a tangible thing like a foot or finger and so whether you can download something that is difficult to define or locate is a bit of a challenge.

To help me research the game, I read Matt OConnells To be a Machine (2017), and discovered that the idea of connecting ourselves to a wider network may not be that far fetched. The body, after all, is a series of electrical circuits. If this could be emulated somehow, it would completely redefine what it means to be human. For those who cant wait for such innovations, fear not. You can get your frozen corpse stored in a massive cryogenic warehouse in the hope that one day medicine and technology will be able to reanimate the brain, thereby providing a second chance at life. Then theres the hubris of the life hack brigade who think that a strict diet and exercise will help prolong life. If getting up at four oclock in the morning every day to do 1,000 press-ups while bingeing on raw food is the key to eternal life, its a no from me. Its the quality rather than the quantity of life that matters.

In writing this game with animation students from Confetti, one thing became abundantly clear: I dont want to live forever. It would be tedious. Theres only so many times you can get Homer Simpson socks for Christmas or watch fireworks over Trent Bridge before the novelty wears off. Theres something humbling about coming to terms with your mortality that helps you appreciate your allotted three score years and ten.

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AI Up Mi Duck: An Interactive Fiction Game Exploring ... - LeftLion

The teshuva process can be very vague and elusive. Unwilling to confront our own flaws and face the unpleasant truths of our past, we often spin false narratives, in a futile attempt to justify our botched behavior. For teshuva to be successful we must cut through numerous layers of self-denial. We must also summon the courage to stare at ourselves in the mirror and confront the ugliness looking back at us, without photoshopping it. Authentic teshuva is a difficult journey through the dark recesses of self and the deepest crevices of our psyche.

Viduy or verbal confession is instrumental in helping us pierce the emotional barriers blocking authentic teshuva. Judaism rejects any form of vicarious atonement, and therefore, confession alone can never provide absolution. Verbal confession is merely one step in a larger process of heartfelt and sincere teshuva. Verbalizing sin helps concretize the painful realities which we would rather not consider. Articulating a sin makes it harder to deny or to explain away. Additionally, enunciating sins makes them more vivid and more disturbing. Without distress and remorse, repentance becomes artificial and formulaic. By lending verbal imagery to sin, confessions assure that our past behavior is painful, and that repentance is genuine. Through confession we clarify, quantify and vivify our religious failures.

Registries of Sin

Though, ideally, confession should be personal, throughout history, a rich liturgy of confessions developed. Lists of sins were compiled into ritual confessions which were then incorporated into tefillah. Generally, the lists were structured upon the Hebrew aleph bet, with each letter addressing a particular sin or a specific character trait which triggers multiple sins. The two most famous lists are the confessionals recited on Yom Kippur, known as Ashamnu and Al chet.

While these lists provide a common registry of sin, they ignore other important areas of self-improvement. By definition, each of the entries of a viduy list addresses a very specific sin or a very specific area of human behavior. The alphabetized entries are very targeted and narrow, and they do not address deeper or broader character flaws. These foundational character flaws or super flaws are responsible for our systemic and large-scale religious failure and underperformance.

Every sin is rooted in a deep-seated character flaw. Ignoring these flaws and focusing our teshuva solely upon actions or behavior increases the likelihood of recidivism. Addressing symptoms of sin and ignoring the root almost assures that we will slip back into old habits and to familiar behavior. Telescopic viduy lists fail to address seminal character flaws or basic behavioral issues. Though the lists facilitate micro-teshuva they arent as helpful for macro-transformation.

Forgetting

One example of a broader behavioral tendency which causes extensive religious breakdown is our forgetting basic ideas and values of religion. Typically, we trace our sins to the overpowering desires which conquer our will and shatter our discipline. We possess a clear sense of right and wrong but are overcome by powerful needs and wants.

Often, however, sin doesnt stem from desire but from apathy or neglect. We allow important values to slowly slip out of consciousness and we push important religious principles out of our minds view. Often, sins are caused by religious inattentiveness rather than by religious weakness. For teshuva to be holistic and foundational we must repent for the sin of inattentiveness and forgetfulness. To accomplish that we must first ask: what do we forget and why do we forget it?

Forgetting Hashem

Sadly, we live in a secular era, in which much of humanity has completely forgotten that Hashem exists. Even believers though, in their own way, sometimes forget Hashem. We dont deny His existence or His authority, but we become so engrossed in our own lives and our own pursuits that Hashem becomes a sideshow. Instead of fixing Hashem as the epicenter of our lives, we think about Him from time to time, pray to Him when we need Him, but relegate Him to the margins of our consciousness. We dont deny Him, nor do we even devalue Him, but we do decentralize Him. We dont forget Him, but we also dont remember Him often enough.

Additionally, we sometimes forget Hashem by not sufficiently attributing our success to Him. Repeatedly, the Torah warns us that success will morally fatten us, making us arrogant, ungrateful, and religiously insensitive. The scenes dont portray atheism or the crime of marginalizing Hashem, but a scenario in which we are hypnotized by success and slip into ingratitude. As a gateway to numerous other moral failures arrogance is inherently harmful. In additional, too much self-confidence obscures human frailty and human dependence upon Hashem. Success blurs our vision of Hashem. We know He exists, but we dont trace our success back to Him, so, in effect, we forget him.

We ask forgiveness for the various ways by which we forgot Hashem.

Forgetting Immortality

Sin also emerges when we confuse eternity with transience. Wrapped up in the present, we lose perspective of human immortality. A very famous dictum of the mishna, recited at funerals, urges us to consider from where we came, where we are headed to, and in front of Whom we will be held accountable. By reminding us of human mortality on Earth, this reductive advice prevents us from being trapped in the present. Often this world captivates us with its glamorous pizzazz, and we ignore duty, mission, responsibility and, of course, eternity. We get stuck in the immediate and lose track of the long term. Every sin is a tragic exchange of eternity for immediate needs, which quickly fade. Endlessly executing these sad transactions of sin, we become stuck in the needs of the present, which often leads us to sin.

We ask forgiveness for forgetting the eternity of Man.

Forgetting Jewish History

A third vision we often forget is the trajectory of Jewish history. We forget that we live as part of a large intergenerational community of people who stand for Hashem in this world. We are all miracles, the product of great sacrifice on behalf of Jewish destiny. Viewing our lives as part of something larger than ourselves amplifies our experience. Forgetting our common Jewish narrative shrinks us into lonely individuals. Sin is always a triumph of small mindedness over large mindedness.

Over the past year, too many Israelis forgetting our common heritage have sinned. Independent of whatever political opinion we believe in, we have spewed too much hate and have generated too much polarization. Eighty years ago, a murderer named Joseph Mengele divided us into left and right, horrific designations which decided life and death. Today we glibly use the terms left and right to cluster people into clumsy political groupings. Once we group them they are easier to assail or to insult.

We ask for forgiveness for forgetting our common past and our common future? How could we?

Hopefully, this Yom Kippur, in addition to repenting for specific sins, we will ask Hashem to forgive us for forgetting. Too often we forgot Him, or forgot to think of Him correctly. Too often, we forgot eternity by tragically exchanging it for the passing needs of transience. Too often, we forgot Jewish history and sank into the dark doctrines of radicalized politics and culture wars.

Forgive us Hashem, for we have forgotten.

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Yom Kippur: Forgive Us For Forgetting - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

In January 1818, Mary Shelley anonymously published a strange little novel that would eventually make her world-famous. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is the story of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who is driven by an unrelenting thirst for knowledge, an ambition to penetrate the secrets of nature, heaven, and Earth. He works tirelessly to engineer a sentient being who, upon coming alive, is hideous to him.Realizing with horror that his plan has gone awry, Frankenstein flees his creature who in turn angrily chases him to the end of the Earth and finally destroys him at the novels end.

Shelleys dystopian tale has managed to stay relevant since its publication.It has a riddling, Zen koan-like quality that has edified and entertained readers for centuries, inspiring a range of interpretations.Recently, it has been making appearances in the heated debates over generative artificial intelligence, where it often is evoked as a cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific overreach.Some worry that in pursuing technologies like AI, we are recklessly consigning our species to Victor Frankensteins tragic fate.Our wonderchildren, our miraculous machines, might ultimately destroy us. This fear is an expression of what science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once called the Frankenstein complex, a Luddite fear of robots.

Strangely, its not only Luddites expressing such fears today; it is also some of the people who are most aggressively at the forefront of technological innovation.Elon Musk seemed to have had Mary Shelleys story in mind when he warned a World Government Summit in Dubai in 2017 that sometimes a scientist will get so engrossed in their work that they dont really realize the ramifications of what theyre doing.

But Frankenstein, thankfully, offers much more than a warning about robots.It is a rich and sober account of human error, a testament to lifes mystery, and a dramatic illustration of the redeeming roles of humility and affection.It encourages us to awaken to and love the small piece of reality we inhabit To see, as William Blake put it, a World in a Grain of Sand.As the AI revolutionary tide carries us along into what may be a transhuman future, it can continue to show us who we are, have been, and might be in an unfolding reality that always surprises and exceeds human designs.

Shelley wrote Frankenstein in response to a challenge issued by her friend the poet Lord Byron after a late-night discussion about the principle of life.The Scientific Revolution was well underway by then, and her group of friends had gathered around a fire one summer night by the shores of Lake Geneva, as rain pummeled the rooftops and lightning electrified the skies, to probe the mysterious nature of this thing they and we call life.What is its principle, they wondered?Can life be manufactured out of nothing, or even, say, out of a corpse?Could humans be lifes creators?

The men talked and Shelley, still a teenage girl, sat and quietly listened.She had an important perspective to contribute to the conversation, however, a knowledge about the origins of life that bore directly on their discussions.She had, after all, given birth to a child who had died a couple of weeks after birth, and, a year later, she had birthed a second child who survived.Her mother, the Enlightenment thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, had died of puerperal fever shortly after her own birth, and that death had long haunted her. The principle of life was for her more than an abstract philosophical topic. It had been intimately, powerfully, and tenuously experienced in her own physical body.To gestate a new life was empowering; to lose a child, or to struggle to sustain one, was humbling.

Unfortunately, the men did not enlist her opinion on such a weighty topic.She remained a mere fly on the wall during their discussions, but the wheels in her head were turning.In the days, weeks, and months that followed, she responded to Byrons prompt by writing her Gothic novel.Frankenstein would eclipse in popularity, enduring relevance, and prescience anything those men ever wrote.

Shelley was a believing Christian, and she begins the novel with an assertion which reads at first like a religious rejection of science: Supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.But she also understood that science is not the only ways humans have tried to play God.Childbirth is also a God-like activity, undertaken without God-like powers.Childbirth is divine, but it is also marred by human hubris and failure.

This was not an entirely novel interpretation; it was rooted, in fact, in Scripture. In Genesis, Eve had been enticed by the serpents tantalizing promise: When you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.God in turn retaliated: In pain you shall bring forth children, he tells Eve.Childbirth is the cursed consequence of Eves quest for God-like knowledge, and it is only possible after the fall.Eves descendants learn to live with this curse, to even see in it a hopeful promise of fruitful multiplication.

This storys contradictions riddle her characterizations.Many interpreters have condemned Frankenstein as more villainous than his murderous monster, but Shelleys narrative resists such unilateral assignments of blame. If Frankenstein is a villain, then so is Eve, so is she, and so was her mother; they had all, despite their best intentions, failed the vulnerable lives they had made. In an 1831 introduction, Shelley called the novel itself her own hideous progeny. In writing it, she had also over-reached, had tried to create a universe out of her own small grain of sand. She confessed, however, an abiding affection for the book, and she bid it to go forth and prosper, just as God had done with his fallen creatures.

Her exploration of the ethics of Frankensteins scientific experiment is similarly complex and subtle.Her scientist, to begin with, is not exactly a scientist.Victor Frankenstein is an occultist who, in his teens, had stumbled upon the work of a German Renaissance soldier and polymath who was influenced by Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Neo-Platonism.His father and a professor advise him that he is foolishly burdening his memory with exploded systems and useless names.But he ignores them, preferring the forgotten alchemists chimeras of boundless grandeur, their dreams of immortality and power, to the modern natural philosophers more limited ambitions.

The problem, he confesses, was that his reading of modern philosophers had left him feeling unsatisfied.In reading them, he felt like Isaac Newton who once avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth. He wanted to wrap his arms around that whole, great ocean.Is that really such a bad thing? Havent we all felt that desire for wholeness? But his ambition pushed him further.A new species, he dreams as he labors in his workshop, would bless me as its creator.

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Its not this hubris alone that seals his fate, however.It is also his denial of human community.In committing himself to his ambitious goals, he isolates himself, losing physical touch with the people that had once populated his world.The happy man, he admits, is one who believes his native town is the world.But Frankenstein was intent on forsaking that native town for the world. That forsaking is echoed in his abandonment of his monster and in his negative response when his creature begs him to make him a female companion. Fearing that he will end up with two monsters and double the trouble, Frankenstein says no, again denying the claims of human affection.

He could, of course, have embraced his failure, accepting that he had lost control, and committing himself to make the most of it, to even love the monstrosity he had made.Mary Shelley seems to have done just that when she bid her hideous progeny to go forth and prosper. Frankenstein reminded her of the people she had loved and lived among reminded her too, perhaps, of how she had once herself been a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth.

As the debates about generative AI roil our societies, we might remember what Shelley revealed: how the secrets of nature have always eluded our dominion and defied our best intentions.Everything, she wrote, must have a beginning The Hindus give the world an elephant to support it, but they make the elephant stand upon a tortoise.Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.It is tortoises the strange and unruly secrets of life all the way down.

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein can illuminate the debate over ... - Big Think

ORLANDO, Fla. During the first week of Universals Halloween Horror Nights, we learned a lot about the creatures and stories involved in the 2023 houses and zones. We met blues musician Pinestraw Spruce, encountered Vecna of Stranger Things fame plus yeti out the wazoo and even were reunited with a couple of Dueling Dragons.

Still, there were lingering, burning HHN questions, which Lora Sauls, assistant director of creative development and show direction, agreed to field. We chatted about the age of Dr. Oddfellow, the marching Megans and the whereabouts of Carey, Ohio, which in real life is Sauls hometown.

Q: Are adjustments made after the first weekend of HHN?

A: Halloween Horror Nights is an ever-evolving, live event. We want to make it perfect for our guests, so after that first weekend, we listen to what our guests are loving, were seeing what our guests just want more of and were trying to make sure were doing the best and putting the best out there for our guests. So what I can say is Halloween Horror Nights is a living and breathing event. And there are always ways that we can better our scares for our guests.

Q: The proximity of the scare actors makes us wonder Are we back to prepandemic closeness?

A: We do not touch our guests. Thats one thing we pride ourselves in. But we want to get as close to our guests to give them that startle scare. So yes, Halloween Horror Nights is back. Its our 32nd year, and were doing bigger and better things. And were focused on really getting that amazing scare in our scare zones and in our haunted houses.

Q: Whats the deal with Dr. Oddfellow, who has a hand in the Twisted Origins haunted house and all five scare zones, which are set in different time periods? Is he, like, really old or what?

A: He is timeless. He has gained immortality through stealing the souls of humans, and he really, truly gained that immortality in Dr. Oddfellows Twisted Origins in his circus. In the 1920s, he was an adventurer. He was a collector of sorts. And so he went to this jungle, and he had heard about this skull that would give you power. He found this skull, which would then become the top of the cane of souls. As soon as he found the skull, he felt the skull talking to him and giving him this power that he had never felt before. He also felt the skull giving him the power to manipulate things and beings into his own doing.

He felt the power of the skull He knew he had to collect the souls of human beings in order to gain more immortality from this skull. While in the Dust Bowl, he affixed it to his cane, and thats where you got the cane of souls. And thats why in the circus, in Twisted Origins, he is inviting these murderers to be a part of his twisted carnival act, so that they can murder for him, so he is just collecting their souls within this carnival. That is where, in the 1930s, Dr. Oddfellow gains his immortality. And then he lives with this for several decades. In about the 1960s he realizes he wants more, hes not done with this.

So Dr. Oddfellow has been collecting things and becoming so immortal that hes kind of been waiting in the shadows. He allowed Jack (the Clown) to have his time at Halloween Horror Nights. And this year, he felt like it was his time. He collects the souls of those who enjoy fear and enjoy the chaos and enjoy deceit and so he is here because if he collects every soul that comes in to Halloween Horror Nights, he will become the most powerful immortal in the universe.

Q: Where can we see the dancing Megans in action?

A: Well, its a bit of a pop up. We want you to stumble upon them, not search them out. We are calling them our Megan flash mob. They come out and they do in Megans true form our Megans do this dance that is very kindred to what you might have seen in the M3GAN film, and then they kind of spread out and do a really short photo opportunity. But it is very short, and then they disappear. They will pop up at a couple of various locations around the park. Thats going to vary even days and times may vary. We want it to be a surprise and delight for our fans.

Q: Did we overlook where Carey, Ohio, fits into things this year?

A: Carey, Ohio, was a part of the event for a very long time. And Im not going to say that Careys never going to come back. But we wanted to step away from Carey, Ohio, for a few years and see what we could create without leaning on that fictional town.

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Universal: 5 Halloween Horror Nights burning questions answered - Yahoo News

Vampires have long held a mesmerizing allure in the realm of cinematic horror and have been a staple of the genre since the dawn of film. From the classic elegance of Bela Lugosi's Dracula to the sparkling undead of Twilight, the vampire subgenre is filled with riffs on the legendary creatures of the night, some better known than others.

With hundreds of films made about vampires, its obvious that some are going to fly under the radar. While these films may not have enjoyed mainstream acclaim or box office success, they have left their mark on the genre, tantalizing those with an appetite for the unusual and offering fresh perspectives on ancient mythos.

Just in time for Halloween and the need for something new to watch. From forgotten classics of the past to contemporary hidden treasures, here are 12 obscure vampire movies youve probably never heard of but definitely need to check out.

The lavishly atmospheric and romantic Only Lovers Left Alive is a vampire movie that only Jim Jarmusch can make: light on plot, heavy on style, and really, really cool.

The movie revolves around the reclusive musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and the philosophical Eve (Tilda Swinton), two vampires who have been married for centuries but now live half a world apart. Adam has grown disillusioned with the declining state of the world and has become suicidal. Worried he may end his centuries-long life, Eve travels to Detroit to visit her husband in the hopes of reigniting his lust for life.

Rather than focus on the gruesome bloodletting that seems to be the driving force behind every vampire movie, Jarmusch explores the ennui of immortality and the power of enduring love. The cinematography is lush, the mood is exquisite, and like every Jarmusch movie, the soundtrack is the epitome of cool.

Jim Carrey made his Hollywood feature debut in the forgotten 80s vampire horror-comedy Once Bitten. Howard Shores film stars Lauren Hutton as The Countess, a 400-year-old vampire who needs to drink the blood of a virgin three times to maintain her youthful appearance and immortality. Finding a virgin in the hedonistic city of Los Angeles is difficult, but the Countess lucks out when she crosses paths with Mark Kendall (Carrey), a naive high school student desperate to lose his virginity, who she easily seduces and turns into a vampire. But Marks girlfriend, Robin, threatens to intervene before the Countess can finish her ritual.

Related: 25 Great Low-Budget Horror Movies You've Probably Never Heard Of

Once Bitten was positively lambasted upon release (it still holds a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes), but in the near-forty years since its release, the admittedly sophomoric horror-comedy found a small but passionate audience. It may not be the best film on this list, but its a goofy good time, and its always fun to see Jim Carrey in an energetic and lively performance.

Neil Jordans 2012 vampire film Byzantium, based on Moira Buffinis novel A Vampire Story, stars Saoirse Ronan as Eleanor, an introverted teenage vampire living in secrecy at the rundown Byzantium Hotel with her mother, Clara (Gemma Arterton). The two have been on the run for centuries from The Brethren, a male-dominated vampiric society that wants them dead. Their quiet lives are put at risk, however, when Eleanor develops feelings for Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a young man dying from leukemia who wishes to become a vampire.

Buffinis novel offers a refreshing perspective on typical genre tropes through her exploration of motherhood and female empowerment within a hostile, male-dominated community of vampires. Jordan effectively captures the melancholy and anger of the source material, thanks to Sean Bobbitts alluring cinematography and Javier Navarretes unnerving score.

Filmmaker Tony Scott made his directorial debut with The Hunger, an erotic horror film starring Susan Sarandon as Sarah Roberts, a research scientist who enters into a love triangle with two centuries-old vampires, Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) and John (David Bowie). Miriam seduces Sarah and introduces her to the world of vampirism, but she struggles to come to terms with her newfound immortality and appetite for blood.

The Hunger received mixed reviews upon release (Roger Ebert certainly wasnt a fan, calling it an agonizingly bad vampire movie), but its overt sensuality and LGBTQ+ themes garnered just as many fans as it did critics. In the time since, the filmhas developed a passionate cult following, with many praising its erotic take on the vampire mythos.

Filmmaker provocateur Abel Ferrara ventured into the vampire genre with his 1995 black-and-white horror film The Addiction. Lili Taylor stars as Kathleen Conklin, an introverted and overworked NYU grad student who is attacked by a bloodsucker and soon develops the traditional symptoms of vampirism: a thirst for blood, an aversion to daylight, and an inability to eat regular food. At first, she tries to resist, but not only does she give in to her murderous cravings, she begins to enjoy it. But things begin to change for the better when she meets Peina (Christopher Walken), a vampire who has conquered his addiction to blood and has agreed to help Conklin overcome hers.

If the films title didnt give it away, Ferrara envisioned The Addiction as an allegory for drug addiction. Having battled a nasty heroin habit for years, Ferrara recognized the parallels between addiction and vampirism and wanted to make a film that channeled his struggles and eventual rehabilitation. Like many of the directors works, The Addiction can be heavy and hard to watch. But unlike Ferraras other films, it also feels oddly hopeful.

David Cronenberg followed his debut feature Shivers with the equally stomach-churning vampire-adjacent shocker Rabid. Marilyn Chambers stars as Rose, a woman who undergoes a surgical operation following a horrific motorcycle accident. She falls into a coma and wakes a month later, only to discover a vampiric stinger under one of her armpits and an unquenchable thirst for human blood. Those she bites become infected, and the epidemic continues to spread through Montreal, threatening to consume the entire country.

If youre familiar with Cronenbergs work and his penchant for overtly sexual body horror, then you know exactly what youre getting with Rabid. (Variety called it an extremely violent, sometimes nauseating, picture in their review.) Its a gruesome combination of the vampire and zombie subgenres and is one of Cronenbergs more underappreciated works.

George A. Romero may forever be remembered as the father of the zombie genre, but the iconic filmmaker made a provocative and powerful contribution to the world of vampire cinema with the criminally overlooked Martin.

John Amplas stars as the titular Martin Mathias, a young man who comes to believe he is a vampire. To satiate his bloodlust, Martin drugs women and bleeds them dry. Though hes riddled with guilt over his murderous actions, his hunger is far too strong to ignore, and the troubled young man succumbs to a life of isolation and violence.

Romero considered Martin to be the best film hes ever directed, and for good reason: its an incredibly mature and probing look into the reality of being a vampire. The strength of Romeros film lies in its ambiguity: the audience is never quite sure if Martin really is a vampire or someone suffering from a worsening psychotic delusion. Hell, even Martin isnt sure, and all his efforts to rid himself of this curse end in vain. Its a clever, if incredibly downbeat, retooling of the classic vampire mythos that is worth a look.

Bill Gunns experimental vampire movie Ganja & Hess follows Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones), an anthropologist who becomes a vampire after being stabbed with an ancient African dagger by his unstable assistant (Gunn), who then commits suicide. Hess struggles with his newfound bloodlust but finds solace in Ganja (Marlene Clark), his assistant's widow. The two fall in love, and Ganja agrees to become a vampire so they may spend the remainder of eternity together. But, of course, good things cant last forever.

When Ganja & Hess premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, the unabashedly artsy film was met with critical acclaim. But when it made its U.S. debut, it was poorly received by critics who didnt understand (or care about) the films underlying political and cultural symbolism. The movies poor reception led to its producers selling the rights to Heritage Pictures, a distribution company specializing in Grindhouse-style movies. They recut the film to better fit their genre sensibilities, shaving off more than 30 minutes of footage and totally butchering Gunns vision in the process. Retitled Blood Couple, the film was an even bigger commercial failure.

Fortunately, Gunns original version of Ganja & Hess has been restored to its original glory and is widely available. (Sadly, Duane Jones and Bill Gunn both passed away before the film received its overdue critical reappraisal.) Its an avant-garde and socially conscious take on the vampire genre thats more than worth your time.

Loosely based on mile Zola's novel Therese Raquin, Park Chan-wooks darkly funny and positively wild Thirst is one of the best vampire films to release this century, but its been widely overlooked outside of South Korea.

The film stars Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who volunteers for a secret vaccine development project intended to eradicate the fatal Emmanuel Virus. The experiment goes awry, however, and Sang-hyun is left with an insatiable desire for blood and the pleasures of the flesh. To make matters worse, he begins a passionate and forbidden love affair with Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin), the unhappy wife of his childhood friend, leading them both down an increasingly gruesome rabbit hole of depraved sex and violence.

Fans of Park Chan-wooks work know what to expect with Thirst: its provocative, boundary-pushing, and deliriously fun. Fans of South Koreas more extreme genre films (including I Saw the Devil, The Wailing, and Park Chan-wooks own Vengeance Trilogy) will surely cherish the gory delights of Thirst.

Indie horror maverick Larry Fessenden wrote, directed, and starred in his 1997 vampire horror film Habit, in which he plays Sam, a self-destructive alcoholic who meets the beautiful but mysterious Anna at a Halloween party. The two are immediately drawn to each other and embark on an all-consuming romance. But Sam starts to suffer from a strange illness and soon begins to suspect Anna is actually a vampire, and hes been turned.

Related: The Most Iconic Vampire Hunters In Movie History

Like Abel Ferraras The Addiction, its pretty obvious just by the title alone that Fessendens Habit is more or less an allegory for alcoholism and the self-destructive lifestyle of addicts. Its grim, dark, and gritty, with a heavy atmosphere thats hard to shake.

Jim Mickles indie post-apocalyptic vampire film Stake Land has gone underseen and underappreciated since its quiet release in 2010. Set in a dystopian world overrun by vampires following a viral outbreak, the film centers around a young boy named Martin who, after his family is killed by vampires, joins forces with a seasoned vampire hunter named Mister. Together, they embark on a perilous journey through the desolate American landscape, searching for a rumored safe haven known as "New Eden."

Despite its obvious low budget, Mickle mines the most out of his limited resources via strong characterization and powerful performances from his two leads, Connor Paolo and Nick Damici. The direction is assured, and Mickles ability to maintain a brooding atmosphere - thanks in no small part to Jeff Graces fantastic score and Ryan Samuls crisp cinematography - really helps Stake Land stand apart from other low-budget post-apocalyptic monster movies (of which there are many). Its a unique take on the vampire mythos, with more in common with The Walking Dead than Dracula, and is well worth checking out.

John D. Hancocks psychological horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death revolves around Jessica (Zohra Lampert), a troubled woman who has recently been released from a psychiatric institution and moves to a secluded farmhouse in rural Connecticut with her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman) and their friend Woody (Kevin O'Connor). But as they settle into their new home, Jessica begins to feel something is wrong, especially after her encounter with a mysterious woman named Emily (Mariclare Costello), who may very well be a vampire.

Initially conceived by writer Lee Kalcheim as a satirical horror film about a group of hippies preyed upon by a monster in a lake, Hancock opted to make a more straight-forward horror film once signing on, inspired specifically by such classics as The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House. Hancock wanted to center the screenplay on a protagonist whose credibility could be questioned by the audience. The result is an atmospheric and unsettling vampire film that also doubles as a ghost story. If Lets Scare Jessica to Death isnt on your watchlist, its time to rectify that immediately.

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Obscure Vampire Movies You've Probably Never Heard Of - MovieWeb