Signs of the Undead

The starting point for this body of work was the idea that Bela Lugosi’s character in the film of Dracula (1931) is a Gothic version of the Latin Lover—dominated in that era by the Mexican actor Ramon Novarro (Ramirez previously referenced this actor in his video Postcard eXotica, where he displaced him in a haunted set).

This correlation is a natural effort to imbue Dracula with seductive qualities and is best appreciated in the act of kissing that became iconic for both Dracula and the Latin Lover. Both actors are also foreigners and while the otherness of Novarro envelops him in romance, it charges Dracula with darkness.