The V.A.M.P scale - measuring tone and thematic markers in vampire movies

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Why?

I really like data analysis and I really like vampire movies. I wanted a quick and snappy way to communicate the differences in tone between a few specific movies and I thought it would be funny to devise a scale. That's it.

Further V.A.M.P. scale backstory: it took me a little bit to devise how to depict the categories in a snappy way. The initial conception was as a percentage makeup, but I also considered a 4 quadrant graph. This got scrapped pretty quickly because I didn't want anything to be diametrically opposed; none of these categories are mutually exclusive. I also thought about a triangle graph with 3 categories, but I got really attached to the idea of 4 of them. The categories also had different names initially but I wanted a thematic and catchy abbreviation and GCMS just didn't have a chance.

Outline

The central conception of the V.A.M.P. scale is that every single vampire movie has an atmospheric and thematic tone which incorporates at least 2 of these 4 categories to varying degrees:

• Viscera - Refers visually to gore and other icky stuff, the higher the intensity the higher the points. Can also refer thematically to a heavy emphasis on paranoia and a distinct attempt to evoke fear.
• Absurdity - A sense of camp or schlock, AKA the silly factor. Either intentionally or unintentionally funny or cheesy. Despite the fact that this is a more comedic slant, sincerity does tend to get higher points as that is the main root of schlock and camp.
• Moodyness - Dark tonal focus, super atmospheric and/or thematically broody. Traditionally leaning into gothic or victorian aesthetics, but more modern renditions utilizing strong color grading or otherwise strong dark/wet atmosphere get high points as well. Narratively, a focus on the curse of being a vampire scores high points.
• Pizzazz - A sense of glamour, polish, or maximalist excess. Thematically rated on how cool or sexy (in a general pop sense rather than an inherently erotic sense) it makes being a vampire seem.

Each rated film is graded in each of these categories on a 5 point scale, which is then represented as a radar graph. I usually stylize this as half of an 8 segment radar graph because it looks like a cobweb. Here at nuclearblues productions we like to keep things as thematic in presentation as possible.

Please excuse any jank in my template, I made this in 10 minutes with GIMP and a trackpad. Maybe I'll make a nicer polished one someday, but I think it's perfectly serviceable for now!

Examples