yuletide | 2022 Yuletide Promo Post

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign-ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

NEW: We've made a register! There is now a searchable Google spreadsheet index of the canons promoted on this post. Go ahead and add yours or any you see that are missing! We hope this helps connect people up with canons of interest to them.

Here are some areas you can cover:

Title:
Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment, too. This helps people find your promo again.

Media:

Approx length:

Where to find it:
(If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)

What is it, in summary?:

What do you love about it?:

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
This is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive

(Bonus options: What are you thinking of requesting for this? If you're thinking of nominating worldbuilding, what sort of worldbuilding topics might people explore?)

Useful tip (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.

Previous fandom promo posts can be found at this tag!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Title:
Hammer Dracula - specifically 1958's Dracula and 1972's Dracula A.D. 1972

Media:
Film series

Approx length:
There are 8 films in the whole series, but there's no need to watch them all. My favourites are 1958's Dracula and 1972's Dracula A.D. 1972 - and they're both only about 90 minutes each.

Where to find it:
They're apparently streamable on HBO Max in the US, and may be on some streaming services in other countries. But for the rest of us, renting them off Apple TV or Google is probably the easiest option (and should be pretty cheap - about $3 USD). You can certainly also find them on dodgier streaming services, but not linking those here.

What is it, in summary?:
One of the MANY Dracula film adaptations - specifically one that recontextualises the story largely as Dracula vs Van Helsing. And speaking as someone for whom Dracula the novel has always been very much the Mina, Lucy and Jonathan show, it speaks volumes that I still fell so much in love with this version of the story.

There are a number of sequels - most either resurrect Dracula and set him against a new cast, or are send Van Helsing on unrelated vampire-hunting adventures - and many different opinions about which are the best, but my personal favourites are the few that reunite the leads - Dracula A.D. 1972 especially, where Cushing is now playing the original VH's grandson.

What do you love about it?:
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing have the kind of dynamic in these films that I can really only compare to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan's contributions to the X-Men franchise: terrific performances that lend all the campy nonsense going on around them a touch of gravitas and a lot of style - not to mention some very shippable chemistry.

Plotwise, I love that these films suggest Dracula vs the Van Helsing family into this epic, generation-spanning rivalry, where the Count has decided that the best possible revenge involves turning the latest Van Helsing descendant as his new bride (yes, technically he goes for the current VH's granddaughter, though his priorities shift pretty quickly once he discovers a virtual double of his old enemy is also around). There is a lot of OTT camp and low-brow gratuity in these films (later entries in the series particularly), but that's often half the fun. And I have written up whole posts on my love for these films, if you'd like to hear more about them.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
Anything Van Helsing/Dracula, obviously (with any of the Peter Cushing members of the family). But I'd also be up for anything that deals with their history, or which spins their future incarnations/resurrections off into whole new eras.

Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
Absolutely - either the original Hammer Dracula or Dracula A.D. 1972 can be watched and enjoyed without any of the rest of the series (and there's some real debate whether continuity even really holds up between them), and most every film in this series is only around 90 minutes long.

Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
Lots of cherry-red fake blood and some somewhat-dated treatment of female characters, but all very minor by modern standards.

2022 Yuletide Promo Post

The Hammer Dracula series