 First edition | |
| Author | Charlie Huston |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Noir, Thriller, Horror |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
Publication date | 27 December 2005 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 288 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-345-47824-5 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 57235799 |
| 813/.6 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3608.U855 A79 2005 |
| Followed by | No Dominion |
Already Dead is a 2005 pulp-noir / horror novel by Charlie Huston and published in 2005. This is the first of the Joe Pitt Casebooks.
Already Dead follows the adventures of a vampyre named Joe Pitt as he tries to figure out a mysterious zombie epidemic stemming around New York. He has connections in Manhattan Underworld which make him a valuable item for clans. Joe is then asked to find the gothic daughter of a rich man, and is pressured to do the work. Meanwhile, a disease is spreading zombie like symptoms around the town, causing whoever is bitten (or infected) by this disease into "Shamblers", and it's up to Joe to find the mysterious carrier of this sickness.
Aside from his line of work, Joe has a girlfriend named Evie, a human that is HIV positive, is currently terrified of any sexual contact since she's afraid of infecting him with the sickness. Joe knows how to cure her HIV, but fears the side effects; so he tries his best to keep his vampyrism a secret from her.
Joe Pitt: The main protagonist; a vampire who works as a freelance detective doing odd jobs for other clans around New York for some blood; namely The Society and The Enclave, but occasionally, The Coalition. He has a human girlfriend named Evie, who is HIV positive. However, he keeps his vampyrism secret from her.
Evie: Joe's girlfriend, who's a redheaded waitress down at a bar he regulars at. She's also HIV positive, and refuses to get intimate with Joe out of fear of infecting him. Even though Joe knows the ultimate way to cure her, he's afraid of infecting her with the Vyrus and transforming her into a vampyre.
Philip Sax: Joe's pompadoured "sidekick" of sorts, but he is used mainly for syphoning information for Joe's various cases. Unfortunately, he's rather dimwitted and flaky, which angers Joe most of the time and ends up getting beaten if he doesn't do as Joe asks. He wants to become a vampyre (or as Joe refers to him, a "Renfield"), but Joe believes he's far too dumb.
Dexter Predo: A very powerful vampyre in charge of running The Coalition; the most prestigious clan in New York. Sometimes Joe takes odd jobs for him if he's in need of blood.
Terry Bird: Head of The Society; a vampyre with something of a hippie complex. He harbors a fondness for Joe, and, unlike Predo, can see that Joe has a sharp wit, and acts as a bit of a father-figure to vampyres in need. His main three cohorts are Lydia, a gay-and-lesbian rights activist, Tom, an anarchist who has an extreme hatred for Joe, and his burly Irish bodyguard, Hurley.
Daniel: Leader (and Elder) of the Enclave; a very old vampyre, but possibly one of the single most dangerous ones in Manhattan. He and his followers have made an art out of "starving" the Vyrus, so it could be stretched to its full potential in combat and survival. Tends to refer to Joe as by real name, "Simon", which usually aggravates him, but he believes Joe will be the one that eventually takes his place as leader.
Producer Mike DeLuca optioned the book, and hired screenwriter Scott Rosenberg to pen the screenplay in February 2007, for possible release through Phoenix Pictures in 2009. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
I Am Legend is a 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson that was influential in the modern development of zombie and vampire literature and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).
Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872), and the most well known: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and more recent examples such as Moto Hagio's series The Poe Clan (1972–1976) and Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire (1976) proving influential.
Carlos Irwin Estévez, known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He is known as a leading man in film and television. Over his fifty-year career he has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1994 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"The Vampyre" is a short work of prose fiction written in 1819 by John William Polidori, taken from the story Lord Byron, told as part of a contest among Polidori, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley. The same contest produced the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. "The Vampyre" is often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction. The work is described by Christopher Frayling as "the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre."
Lord Ruthven is a fictional character. First appearing in print in 1819, in John William Polidori's "The Vampyre", he was one of the first vampires in English literature. The name Ruthven was taken from Lady Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon, where it was used as an unflattering parody of Lord Byron, while the character was based on Augustus Darvell from Byron's "Fragment of a Novel". "The Vampyre" was written privately, and published without Polidori's consent, with revisions to the story made by Polidori for an unpublished second edition showing that he planned to change the name from Ruthven to Strongmore. The initial popularity of "The Vampyre" led to the character appearing in many translations and adaptations, including plays and operas, and Ruthven has continued to appear in modern works. The Lord Ruthven Award (1989–present) by the Lord Ruthven Assembly is named after the character.
Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 gothic horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conceived as a stylistic remake of F. W. Murnau's 1922 German Dracula adaptation Nosferatu. The picture stars Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and French artist-writer Roland Topor as Renfield. There are two different versions of the film, one in which the actors speak English, and one in which they speak German.
Vampires are frequently represented in popular culture across various forms of media, including appearances in ballet, films, literature, music, opera, theatre, paintings, and video games.
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium is a 2005 horror film written by Ana Clavell and directed by Clavell and James Dudelson, starring Justin Ipock, Laurie Maria Baranyay and John F. Henry III. It was unofficially marketed as a prequel and sequel to 1985's Day of the Dead. The film was released direct-to-video in the United States on October 18, 2005.
Charlie Huston is an American novelist and TV writer. His twelve novels span several genres from crime to horror to science fiction. His books have been published in English by Ballentine, Del Rey, Mulholland and Orion, and translated into nine other languages. He adapted his novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death for HBO, and his novel Already Dead for HBO Max. He has also written pilots for FX, FOX, Sony and Tomorrow Studios, served as a consulting producer for FOX's Gotham, and worked in several development rooms. He is known for storytelling that focuses on character and relationships in richly detailed worlds that blend genres.
Der Vampyr is a Romantic opera in two acts by Heinrich Marschner. The German libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück is based on the play Der Vampir oder die Totenbraut (1821) by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter, which itself was based on the short story The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori. The first performance took place on 29 March 1828 in Leipzig, where it was a hit.
No Dominion is a 2006 pulp-noir / horror novel by American writer Charlie Huston. This book is the sequel to Already Dead and follows the life of the vampire detective, Joe Pitt. The title of the book is an allusion to the Dylan Thomas poem "And Death Shall Have No Dominion," which appears in the book.
Nightmare City is a 1980 Italian-Spanish science-fiction horror film directed by Umberto Lenzi. It stars Hugo Stiglitz as a TV news reporter who witnesses the collapse of order in a city overrun by irradiated blood-drinking ghouls. Victims rise from the dead to join the host, adding to the chaos.
The Joe Pitt Casebooks are a series of supernatural noir thrillers written by American author Charlie Huston. Each casebook chronicles Joe Pitt's life as well as his struggles in the underground of vampyre clans of New York. At first Pitt is an unaffiliated vampyre, living in between the cracks by doing jobs for various clans in exchange for blood and freedom. However, as the series progresses, this shifts and Pitt's life evolves with each book.
The Vampyr: A Soap Opera is a miniseries based on Heinrich Marschner's opera Der Vampyr. It first aired on BBC 2 on December 29, 1992. The new English libretto was written by Charles Hart, based on a story by Janet Street-Porter and Nigel Finch, which was based on the original libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, which was based on John Polidori's short story "The Vampyre." It was conducted by David Parry and directed by Nigel Finch and co-directed by Robert Chevara.
House of Night is a series of young adult vampire-themed fantasy novels by American author P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. It follows the adventures of Zoey Redbird, a 16-year-old girl who is "marked", becomes a fledgling vampyre and is required to attend the House of Night boarding school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Books in the series have been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 63 weeks and have sold over seven million copies in North America, and more than ten million books worldwide, in 39 countries.
Eternity is a South African horror film which tells the story of a clash between vampires over the use of a serum that would allow them to walk in the daylight. Written by Anton Ernst and Wolfgang Muller, and stars Hlomla Dandala, Ian Roberts, David James, and Andre Frauenstein.
Vampyr is an action role-playing video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 5 June 2018, and for Nintendo Switch on 29 October 2019. The plot relates how Jonathan Reid, a doctor who has turned into a vampire, is torn between the Hippocratic Oath and his newfound bloodthirsty nature.
Plague is a 2014 Australian horror film directed by Kostas Ouzas and Nick Kozakis, written by Ouzas, and starring Tegan Crowley, Scott Marcus, and Steven Kennedy. After a zombie apocalypse, Evie (Crowley) and her husband John (Marcus) struggle to survive on their own. They receive help in the form of a resourceful stranger, Charlie (Kennedy), who shows up one day and offers to assist them. It had a private screening at the Astor Theatre in Melbourne on 29 October 2014 and premiered at the Fantastic Planet Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy Film Festival on 22 November.
Ravenous is a 2017 French-language Canadian horror film written and directed by Robin Aubert and starring Marc-André Grondin, Monia Chokri, Brigitte Poupart, Luc Proulx, Charlotte St-Martin and Micheline Lanctôt. The film depicts the residents of a small town in rural Quebec as they deal with an outbreak leading to an attack by zombie-like persons.
The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo is an American short story published in 1819 by the pseudonymous Uriah Derick D'Arcy. It is credited as "the first black vampire story, the first comedic vampire story, the first story to include a mulatto vampire, the first vampire story by an American author, and perhaps the first anti-slavery short story." The Black Vampyre tells the story of a black slave, who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his captor; the slave seeks revenge on his captor and achieves it by stealing the captor's son and marrying the captor's wife. D'Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution.
