Thoughts on the Lazzaretto Nuovo "Vampire"

In March of this year, media coverage was given to the unearthing of an alleged vampire, buried in a 1576 plague pit in Lazzaretto Nuovo.

It was briefly discussed by Niels in Magia Posthuma, who, in turn, mentioned another post by Carl Pyrdum in "Other Bloggers".

Carl Pyrdum is the blogger behind Got Medieval. He discusses the "vampire" case here. You can read my thoughts on his post, via the comment I left to his blog entry.

No More Bud

Beloved Aussie actor, Charles "Bud" Tingwell (1923-2009) passed away this morning due to complications arising from prostate cancer. He was 86.

To those wondering why I'm mentioning that on this blog, it should be noted that he had a pivotal role in the 1966 film, Dracula: Prince of Darkness.

Spoiler alert: Don't read the next bit if you haven't seen the flick yet.

He played Alan Kent, the bloke who gets strung up by Dracula's manservant, Klove (Philip Latham) and his throat slit over Dracula's ashes, in a ritual designed to bring the undead fiend back to "life".

This was the first of Dracula's "resurrection" scenes in the Hammer Dracula series, thus making Bud Tingwell the first sacrificial goat and benchmark by which to figure out new and inventive ways to continue the franchise.

Echoes of this practice are seen in American slasher franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Whether or you think this is a good or bad thing, is entirely up to you!