I don’t usually write about fiction in thiscolumn unless the story has film as its theme, so I’m making an exception forJim Cryns’ Bite Me. The Milwaukeeauthor’s vampire novel is excellent material for a film—a Tarantino, not aTwilight.
Bite Me begins in Milwaukeewith recognizable locations (Wolski’s, MAC), but moves from place to place andcould be relocated for filming to other urban settings. The story is told inpart by the undead leader of a “vampire clan” in colloquial, conversationalstyle. Sometimes he sounds like the frustrated head of a family business,ticking off irritations with his employees and kin. And business it is: theclan sells drugs and often kills users by sucking their blood. “We’re makingthe streets a little safer for your kids,” the head vampire mentions mordantly.In truth, he admits that sucking the blood of druggies makes “for a betterexperience.”
Bite Me is well suited for acontemporary film adaptation because it is dialogue and scene driven, travelsswiftly through its story and brings a unique perspective to the growingmythology of vampires—a far more alluring creature, one must admit, thanvampires or werewolves.
Jim Cryns will speak about Bite Me at the Cedarburg Public Library, W63 N589 Hanover Ave.,Cedarburg, 11:30 a.m.-noon, Sept. 13; and AnodyneCoffee, 224 W. Bruce St., 9-9:30 p.m., Sept. 13.
