In fact, despite a few variations, Fangland follows Stoker's plot faithfully. Torgu is not a bloodsucking fiend; instead he is a blood-drinking fiend who worships the sites of the worst atrocities of the twentieth century and brings the dead from those places to life. He is akin to our collective awareness of the subject and wants to bring all of humanity the gift of that knowledge and the ability to hear the stories of the dead. Is it any wonder that he wants to be interviewed on television, or at the least to have entry into the world Evangeline Harker comes from?
When the scene shifts from Transylvania back to the twentieth floor offices of The Hour we find mysterious events and behaviour are the order of the day. Torgu has found a minion among the lowly to prepare his way, and in television there ain't nothing lowlier than the production assistant. Promises of power and exclusive interviews carve him his entree into a world that's ideally suited to his needs.
Paranoid and secretive, the employees of The Hour need little manipulation on Torgu's part to be played off against each other. Those within his power are easily separated from other staff either because of the divisions between the technical and on air personnel or due to their own ambitions. This is where author John Marks is able to put his knowledge of the behind the scenes machinations of a television news show to good use, as the horror of the circumstances is leavened with his cutting descriptions of how a network news show is an ideal spot for horror to develop and flourish.
I have to wonder what his former colleagues at 60 Minutes make of his descriptions of the on air talent as prima donnas, producers as despots ruling their fiefdoms with iron fists, and associate producers as bright-eyed and blinded by ambition to the realities of anything but "how will it play in Peoria?" There's nothing innocent about the wide-eyed Evangeline Harker, or anyone else for that matter on the staff of The Hour, more a blinkered, wide-eyed stupidity that blinds them so much they are easy prey for Torgu and his plans.
Article comments