The 10H+ students and their teachers filed into the auditorium on December 14^thafter school for an evening of frightening films united by a common monstrous archetype—the vampire. Mr. Banfield curated a sampling of classic vampire movies ranging from the 1922 classicNosferatuall the way through to 2000’sShadow of the Vampirein an effort to showcase for the students how vampires have been used to express changing cultural anxieties over time.

The 10H+ students are currently learning about cultural anxieties and intertextuality as they read Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire novelDraculaand Angela Carter’s 1979 short story “The Bloody Chamber” alongside each other, forming thematic links between the two texts to build their research-reading skills and comparison-essay writing. The students gasped at the rat-like Nosferatu’s long, dirty nails, laughed at the dated fashion and slang of the 1990s depicted inThe Lost Boys, and murmured their appreciation of Mr. Banfield’s astute reading of director E. Elias Merhige’s veiled criticism of Hollywood’s predatory producers, actors, and personalities in 2000’sShadow of the Vampire, produced almost 20 years before the chronic abuses of film producer Harvey Weinstein were made public through the #MeToo movement. It was a wonderful night of frights and fun and learning enjoyed by all.

(Written/Pictures by High School English & World Languages Department)