![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A new player on a Discord server I'm on asked for a list of inspirational moving pictures for that there Vampire: the Masquerade, and while I'm not the expert on postmodern vampire films, I at least work with her and it'd be a shame not to take a shot. The following list is by no means exhaustive - it's the movies I think are closest in terms of inspiration or general vibe to some aspect of V:tM.
I thought I'd crosspost it here, partly to see if anyone's still around and partly to make some amends for my prolonged absence. I'm happy to discuss/explain that if anyone cares, but I'd rather not drone on about myself if anyone doesn't, if you see what I mean? Anyway. On with the recs!
THE UR–EXAMPLES
The Hunger is about as close to the Platonic ideal of Vampire: the Masquerade as you can get. Nightclubs! Gratuitous Bauhaus! Lesbian kiss! The aesthetic is spot on: it looks and feels like early Vampire art, or rather early Vampire art looks and feels like this film. V:tM may have come out in 1991 but it's rooted firmly in the 1980s and the vampire chic this film defined. The Hunger will dump the vibe of the game right between the eyes and it's as close as I dare come to "must-watch."
V:tM's Gehenna concept is heavily mirrored/inspired by the novel Queen of the Damned, which was filmed around the time Gehenna was actually happening and the line was coming to a close. The Hunger defines where V:tM came from, all Eighties post-punk writhing - this chuggy post-industrial apocalypse-glam perfectly sums up where it's going.
THE META TAKE
Shadow of the Vampire is about a vampire playing a vampire in the first vampire movie ever made. In a weird way I think that's perfect for the sense of the Masquerade, hiding in plain sight, preying on the worst instincts of humanity and encouraging them to let you get away with all the awful things you want to do. In microcosm, it's the perfect analogy for the "vampires secretly run society" vibe.
YOUR FLAVOUR OF BASTARD
Depending on what type of vampire you want to be (and I'm going with V5's categories here), I recommend at least one of the following:
I thought I'd crosspost it here, partly to see if anyone's still around and partly to make some amends for my prolonged absence. I'm happy to discuss/explain that if anyone cares, but I'd rather not drone on about myself if anyone doesn't, if you see what I mean? Anyway. On with the recs!
THE UR–EXAMPLES
The Hunger is about as close to the Platonic ideal of Vampire: the Masquerade as you can get. Nightclubs! Gratuitous Bauhaus! Lesbian kiss! The aesthetic is spot on: it looks and feels like early Vampire art, or rather early Vampire art looks and feels like this film. V:tM may have come out in 1991 but it's rooted firmly in the 1980s and the vampire chic this film defined. The Hunger will dump the vibe of the game right between the eyes and it's as close as I dare come to "must-watch."
V:tM's Gehenna concept is heavily mirrored/inspired by the novel Queen of the Damned, which was filmed around the time Gehenna was actually happening and the line was coming to a close. The Hunger defines where V:tM came from, all Eighties post-punk writhing - this chuggy post-industrial apocalypse-glam perfectly sums up where it's going.
THE META TAKE
Shadow of the Vampire is about a vampire playing a vampire in the first vampire movie ever made. In a weird way I think that's perfect for the sense of the Masquerade, hiding in plain sight, preying on the worst instincts of humanity and encouraging them to let you get away with all the awful things you want to do. In microcosm, it's the perfect analogy for the "vampires secretly run society" vibe.
YOUR FLAVOUR OF BASTARD
Depending on what type of vampire you want to be (and I'm going with V5's categories here), I recommend at least one of the following:
Thinbloods lend themselves well to the What We Do In The Shadows conceit of vampire flatmates (or The Carmilla Movie, I guess, but I haven't seen that one). They're millennial vampires; all the power and resources are concentrated in the hands of previous generations, so they pretty much have to bind together and find something else to enjoy in life, 'cause they're never going to be powerful in the conventional sense. Thinblood games are low power, a bit domestic, and often the closest to "normal life but we happen to be vampires and bigger vampires try to kick our heads in occasionally."
Neonates are your classic Gen X eighties/nineties vampire movie - The Lost Boys. Still weak enough that they're better off standing together, strong enough that they can afford to be a bit cocky around humans. Probably share a sire, mentor, authority figure of some sort and should probably be working on his agenda once they've finished prowling the boardwalks and clubland at night. They're a step further removed from society, but they can pretend to be human for an hour or two if they really try. Also, this is the other one that was in the air and influential when V:tM first came to be - along with The Hunger, I'd recommend it as the closest to a must-watch.
Ancillae (the upper reaches of age and power offered by the V5 corebook) are more your Interview With The Vampire kind of deal. You've lived a long life, your adventuring days are behind you, and now you're something of a mover and a shaker - you're probably permitted or at least not prevented from siring and you're looking to give someone the choice you never had. Modernity gives you a headache but at least you can work a smartphone four times out of five. Ancillae games are a nice balance between "you're powerful" and "you still have to answer to someone".
If you're extending into Inconnu territory, settle down with a small glass of something and enjoy one of my favourite films ever, Only Lovers Left Alive. It's a slow story, and not a lot happens, but that's elders for you. They become introverted. They fall into a groove. They keep to each others' company. It's beautiful and haunting until some clueless childe comes along and screws it all up for them and they have to admit what they really are.
Want to figure out the Sabbat? Watch 30 Days of Night and thank me later. The vampires there are getting away with something horrible because they've fallen through the cracks in the world. They act alpha-predator but they still live on the fringe or civilisation, the little savages.
REFLEXIVE ACTION
It would be deeply remiss of me not to talk about Underworld, the film series transparently inspired by V:tM,.to the point where White Wolf as was took the producers of the original to court over it. Underworld reflects V:tM at its most "gamery" – all custom weapons, trenchcoats and corsets, fighting werewolves in the dark, flashing back to the
WAIT, THIS ISN'T VAMPIRES!
V:tM is synonymous with politics and backstabbing, and there isn't in my opinion a vampire movie that really hits that. Thing is, Reiny-H also loves Mafia movies, and the concept of omerta – which is why, to grasp how a Prince or Baron holds court and influences people, you really should just sit down and watch The Godfather. Which is a pretty basic recommendation, granted, but I don't know if anyone else is here for my "Guy Ritchie's V:tM" style of action storytelling...
YOUR OWN PERSONAL
What are your top three movies? Why? That'll give you an idea of what you, as Storyteller, are most interested in running. Now grab some friends and ask them the same question. Wherever you find an overlap in your tastes, that's something that's worth focusing on in your actual game. Try to make sure there's a couple of vampire-themed answers in there, but also something else, because "being a vampire" in and of itself doesn't make a story (unless it's a quiet, short one like Only Lovers Left Alive, but that's a one-off, not a chronicle).
People often expect an RPG to come ready-made and ready-to-go ("We're playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver") and Vampire, at its best, is a bit more bespoke. Asking players about their taste in media is one way to start that tailoring process, making your V:tM something a bit different from everyone else's and getting into that transformative stuff that makes RPGs so gosh-darn amazing.
Mine, discounting the one I've already gushed about up the line, are a nebulous "pick one from Guy Ritchie's early career" and Franklyn. My games run on personality clashes and acerbic banter, generally have a couple of seemingly indestructible SPCs nobody likes and a dark secret that can absolutely take them down, someone WILL have an impenetrable regional accent, but there's also a layer of exaggerated Gothickry over everything, neuratypical characters will perceive the world very differently, vengeance and trauma will drive the major players and love may conquer all but you'll have to lose a lot to get there. None of this is essential to V:tM but it's what makes my V:tM different from A. N. Other Storyteller's.
Mine, discounting the one I've already gushed about up the line, are a nebulous "pick one from Guy Ritchie's early career" and Franklyn. My games run on personality clashes and acerbic banter, generally have a couple of seemingly indestructible SPCs nobody likes and a dark secret that can absolutely take them down, someone WILL have an impenetrable regional accent, but there's also a layer of exaggerated Gothickry over everything, neuratypical characters will perceive the world very differently, vengeance and trauma will drive the major players and love may conquer all but you'll have to lose a lot to get there. None of this is essential to V:tM but it's what makes my V:tM different from A. N. Other Storyteller's.
