Dracula: The Screen-walker

The image of vampire is characterized by Dracula which walking from those old folks to the screen, showing the antiquity legend in conjunction with modern screen gaze. When the first vampire film"La Manoir du Diable"which made by George Méliès showed on screen since the Christmas of 1896, It never fade away from the screen, and vampire became an eye-catching movie figure since then, with more than 300 films and decades of characters which appear in almost all genres, created very exceptional history. The discovery and acquaintance of the vampire films'value and significance is a long and gradual process. Dracula was a horror image in 1931 while in 2000 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed"culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". The relevant study of vampire films abroad has continued to half a century, which arrange from the genre development to the censorship system of films propellant, the film technology promotion and progress of all problems, and territory pairs from psychoanalysis, feminism, mass culture, mysticism and so on, form a unique culture landscape.This subject chose Dracula as an example which lead to a cultural study on the vampire films. To study the image as a whole, take charge of this movie figure on the base of the vampire film history, and attempt to find the values of film, culture and aesthetics. Vampire films studies abroad mostly associated with special subjects, and seldom associated with image analysis, and domestic is rare.This study attempt to make a point to Dracula's image analysis concern about the cultural motivation, focus on three aspects: first, the formation and development process of Dracula's iconography; second, semiotics study on the genre of vampire films; the third, cultural and aesthetic analysis of vampire films. It is divided into eight parts around these three aspects: the first part of this article raise the question how did vampire"the dead-walker"become"the screen-walker"based on a brief introduction of the background of vampire and vampire films studies; the second and third parts provide Dracula's iconography formation of procedure and cause; the fourth and fifth parts interpret Dracula image's screen evolution and the new trend of now and the near future and the new challenges it faced; the sixth part analysis the symbols and their metaphors systems of the image of vampire which characterized by Dracula; the seventh part discuss"the middle status of aesthetic"of the vampire film codes; the eighth part analysis the spectatorship of vampire films and its cultural reflection and significance. This study based on image analysis and cultural studies, and the discussions contain culture, psychology, sociology and aesthetic issue of Dracula's iconography and vampire films.The innovation is:(1) This is a new subject in vampire film study, and this is a fresh attempt to have a cultural study on foreign horror movie figure in China; (2) New data was discovered, people used to think that the first vampire film is Vampire of the Coast (1909), but this study find it should be La Manoir du Diable (1896); (3) Provide a new viewpoint,"the middle status of aesthetic"is an artistic condensation of this movie figure.This study indicates that the formation and development process of Dracula and his screen family's iconography is a process of gradual approach to human's soul; they walking on screen across light and shadow in different time and never"dead". Their special identities were converted into film code systems, which cater to the psychological needs in visual and mental aspects in different levels.Study horror film genre and it's movie figure is fresh experiment in modern China, and hope to some extent be able to eliminate culture barrier, objectively, thoroughly understand visual culture and comprehensive vampire films to mankind.