I’d seen DRACULA (1931) and it’s sequels on my local TV
station’s Creature Feature. I loved the atmosphere. I loved Bela
Lugosi as Dracula. Even when he played characters similar to Dracula,
he was Dracula so the characters became Dracula. But there
came a day when Bela Lugosi was Dracula no more. That was the day I
saw Christopher Lee in HORROR OF DRACULA (1958).
I was 14 or 15
years old, talking to a girl I liked who liked monsters too. We were
listening to the radio on external speakers in the gas station
parking lot, across from the high school. The DJ announced that,
Friday night, at our home town theater, we were going to have a
horror double feature. Not a lot happened on Friday nights in our
hometown. This was going to be cool...especially when I heard that
the films were HORROR OF DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD.
Since I rarely got
to hear the rock n roll station at home, this was the first time I’d
heard this ad. I was grinning ear to ear.
“Are you going?”,
she asked me.
“I don’t
know...Lugosi is Dracula. No one else is Dracula”, I replied.
“Well, Mama said
that if you were going, I could go too.”, smiling and twisting her
hair.
I leaned in towards
her, “Amy, I...”
About that time, my
mom pulled up in the station wagon.
“Hi, Amy! Billy,
the ice cream is melting...we have to go! Tell your Mama I said
hello.”
“I will, Mrs.
Jones. Call me, Billy.”
“Will do.”
On the way home, I
came up with a plan. I’d research the movies. Learn everything I
could before Friday so I could impress Amy. I got home and grabbed my
Famous Monsters out and started pouring over the pics. I knew
FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD mainly because I'd seen it already,
but I’d avoided Hammer’s Dracula because he wasn’t MY Dracula.
But now I HAD to learn more...I was going to watch HORROR OF DRACULA
Friday night and betray Bela Lugosi.
Friday afternoon
came. I was excited about the double feature, but I wanted to watch
the afternoon movie, GODZILLA VS. THE THING. Mom told me to get a
shower and get dressed. I grabbed my Led Zeppelin t-shirt, threw on
my jeans, and my high tops. I ran to the station wagon and jumped in.
Mom saw me and said, “Is that what you’re wearing tonight?”
“What do you mean,
Mom?”
“Nevermind.”,
she said smiling at me as we drove off.
We got to Amy’s
house around 6:30. I ran to the door and Amy opened it before I
knocked. She was wearing a really nice dress. Her hair was pulled up.
And she smelled like honeysuckles.
“Hey, wow, um….”
“Shouldn’t we
get going, Billy?”
“Um,
yeah...I..I..”
‘Come on, y’all!
‘Movie starts at 7:15”, mom yelled from the station wagon.
We climbed in the
back seat. I started rambling about GODZILLA VS. THE THING. For some
reason, perhaps it was my upcoming betrayal of Lugosi, I felt
nervous. Amy moved closer to me. I began to sweat. My worries about
my betrayal of Dracula were worse than I thought!
HORROR OF DRACULA
began and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t feel as though I was
traitor to Lugosi. I felt like everything was going to be
alllllllrrr….. FANGS. I wasn’t expecting the female victim to
ENJOY the FANGS...to enjoy the FANGS oh so very much. I began to
sweat again. I glanced over at Amy who was twisting her hair and
staring at ME instead of the FANGS! Suddenly something clicked
in my head...Dracula was just a movie. Amy was real. Amy is right
here in front of me. Our eyes locked. She leaned in….I leaned in
and
POP!!! CRACKLE!!!!
Pitch black darkness. My heart was racing. The house lights came on,
“Sorry folks, the film broke. You will be refunded at the door.”
I called my mom on
the pay phone to come and get us. Everyone was in the parking lot
talking and waiting for their rides to arrive. “I hated we didn’t
get to see the rest of the movie, Amy.”
“That’s alright,
Billy. I enjoyed getting to hang out with you.”
“Amy, I...”
“What, Billy?”,
she asked with a grin, moving in closer.
“I think I dig
Christopher Lee more than Bela Lugosi.”
“Why?”
“Fangs.”
“You’re
welcome.”
“Ha! Come here.”
Amy moved closer to
me. The crowd seemed to vanish. No chatter or theater lights. Just
she and I waiting in a parking lot. I began to kiss her. “Ow!
Billy, you bit me!”
“Fangs for letting
me know”, I said as my fangs flashed under the neon sign of
the small town theater on a Friday night.
FANGS copyright 2021
Vance Capley
Grab Monster Magazine at https://indyplanet.com/visual-comics
