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In 2014, Rose Hathaway strutted off of the page and onto the big screen. The fierce female lead has a reputation for never backing down from a fight, but by the time Vampire Academy ended its theater run, she had thoroughly taken a beating. Adapted from the first book in Richelle Mead’s young adult paranormal romance series Vampire Academy (2007-2010), the movie was billed as a vampire Mean Girls (2004). Unfortunately, the campy, vampy vibe did not resonate with critics.
The film’s dismal 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is mostly attributed to quippy one-line reviews displayed next to the headshots of the middle-aged white men who wrote them; what few positive critic reviews exist are disproportionately written by women. This divide is meaningful because it serves to demonstrate why the film’s massive $15.6 million loss at the box office had nothing to do with its quality and everything to do with its intended audience. Now, long-time fans of the books are anxious. Will critics drive a stake through the heart of their favorite series’ newest adaptation?
The Source Material
Drawing heavily on Romanian folklore, the Vampire Academy books follow different versions of young, mythical beings — Moroi, Strigoi, and Dhampir — as they traverse life in modern times. In Mead’s world, Moroi are mortal, living beings who have the ability to magically manipulate air, fire, earth, water, and “spirit.” Dhampir are not immortal, but they are born with enhanced senses as well as endurance, agility, and healing abilities. Strigoi — unlike Moroi and Dhampir — are not born, they are made. These Strigoi are incredibly strong, fast, bloodthirsty, and hard to kill. It is the duty of Dhampir to protect Moroi from Strigoi.
Vampire Academy sees young Dhampir Rose Hathaway go to the ends of the earth to protect her Moroi best friend, Lissa Dragomir, as they both enter young adulthood and are met with life-altering challenges. The series is packed with action, romance, and court intrigue, but it’s no surprise that they dabble in an assortment of themes. In an interview with BookPeople’s Teen Press Corps, author Richelle Mead describes what she thinks constitutes a good story by cheekily saying,
“You need everything, really.”
(( Teen Press Corps. “Author Interview: Richelle Mead.” BookPeople Teen Press Corps. October 11, 2018. )).
Brimming with juicy content, Mead’s world hangs like an apple, ripe for the taking. A mashup of teen drama, vampire lore, royal scandals, and high-stakes battles, the series practically begs to be adapted into a live-action performance. Hollywood, it seems, would agree.
“Vampire Academy” (2014)
Preger Entertainment announced in 2010 that they would be developing the film, and over the course of the next few years, several important names in Hollywood became attached to the project.
Brothers Daniel and Mark Waters signed on as the movie’s screenwriter and director, respectively. They are widely known for their work on cult classics like Heathers (1998), Freaky Friday (2003), and Mean Girls (2004). Don Murphy, known for his production work on blockbuster action films like those in the Transformers franchise, was slated to produce.
This combination of talents seemed to perfectly lend themselves to all of Vampire Academy’s best features. Lauren Davis, writing for science-fiction website Gizmodo, expressed excitement, saying “the movie is in the hands of two fellows who have seen the dark side of high school.” The comic creator placed considerable hope in the project despite the source material’s large scope of themes, saying, “The Waters brother may be just the team to balance all those elements, and temper the series’ violence with a wicked sense of humor (( Davis, Lauren. “Heathers writer and Mean Girls director teaming up for the undead ass-kicking Vampire Academy movie.” Gizmodo. February 2, 2013. )).”
Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry were cast as the inseparable duo of Rose and Lissa. Russian actor Danila Kozlovskiy took on the role of imposing instructor Dimitri Belikov while Dominic Sherwood geared up to play bad boy Christian Ozera.
Before the first blossoms of Spring even had the chance to bloom in 2014, the much-anticipated Vampire Academy adaptation was declared a “box office bomb.”
Mean Girls Finish Last
Scott Mendelson — an expert on the film industry and box office analysis — reported that the film had been “mostly hidden from critics,” and ranked as the “11th-worst debut ever for a 2,5000+ screen release (( Mendelson, Scott. “Dredd 2, Vampire Academy 2, And Sequels To Flop Originals That Will Never Be.” Forbes. September 10, 2014. )).”
The adaptation’s disastrous debut, Mendelson explains, is likely due — in part — to its marketing campaign.
“Vampire Academy had one of the worst marketing campaigns I can remember for a major release, if only because the vast majority of articles that emerged in the run-up to the release focused not on Vampire Academy but on the respective 10-year anniversary of Mean Girls (directed by Mark Waters) and the 25th anniversary of Heathers (written by Daniel Waters).”
Scott Mendelson
Adaptations are often required to walk a thin line between pleasing fans of the source material and not alienating the general public. Interestingly, fans of the book series and average theater-goers both generally enjoyed the film (( Brueggermann, Tom. “Box Office Top Ten: The Lego Movie Wins the Gold, Monuments Men Settles for Silver.” February 9, 2014. )). The only demographic that seemed to have an issue with Vampire Academy was film critics.
Misogyny Sucks The Fun Out Of Life
The film critic industry continues to be heavily dominated by white men (( Puente, Maria. “Thumbs down! Male film critics still far outnumber female – and too few are people of color.” USA Today. August 19, 2020. )). Martha Lauzen, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego University, explains how this directly affects the success of certain films.
“The over-representation of men as film reviewers, coupled with the fact that a higher proportion of their reviews focus on male-driven stories and films directed by men, advantage those films by giving them greater visibility in the critical marketplace (Maria Puente, 2020).”
This suggests that the reason why Vampire Academy failed at the box office despite being enjoyed by audiences is because a small, heavily biased group of people – aging white men — to whom the film was not catered — were given too much precedent. The Weinstein Company distributed the film to North American audiences with promotion almost entirely focused on the fact that it was Daniel and Mark Waters’ newest project.
On every poster, preceding the title, The Weinstein Company wanted you to know that this was “from the director of Mean Girls and the writer of Heathers.” Whether or not the team behind Vampire Academy intended it, two versions of the movie now existed: the adaptation fans enjoyed, and what critics consider nothing more than a failed successor to the Mean Girls and Heathers legacy.
The Young And The Feminine
The adaptation’s failure did not deter fans of the series who harbored hopes that the books would one day get the live-action workup they truly deserved (( Bondi, Gabrielle. “Gabby’s Movie Review: Vampire Academy.” The Young Folks. February 9, 2014. )); one catered to the story’s intended audience rather than the upper echelons of the film world.
“Intended audience” should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt since it would be ridiculous to presume only a certain group of people can or should enjoy something. That being said, Mead’s series is labeled as Young Adult and has consistently been marketed toward young women because, as a whole, Young Adult literature is widely thought to be written by and for a young, feminine demographic (( Lewis, Meghan. “Why Do Female Authors Dominate Young-Adult Fiction?” The Atlantic. August 7, 2012. )).
If this theory holds water — if the movie’s failure was, in fact, not any fault of its own, but rather the fault of those behind the scenes in their attempt to further enshrine two white men into the proverbial Hollywood hall-of-fame — then what would it take to make a successful adaptation? As it would turn out, the answer may come in the form of someone who has championed Mead’s world all along.
“Vampire Academy” (2022-)
On December 19th, 2012, Julie Plec tweeted, “There’s a script for The Vampire Academy Movie. I volunteer to read for typos. I’m very thorough. #yay #marrymeadrian #lovethesebooks.” In what can only be described as an interesting twist of fate, Plec herself would be selected to develop a new adaptation almost a decade later. In 2021, Peacock announced that they would be bringing on Plec — as well as Marguerite MacIntyre — to develop a straight-to-series adaptation of Vampire Academy. Julie Plec is arguably one of the most qualified people in the industry to spearhead the project, having served as a developer, writer, producer, and showrunner of The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017), itself a book-to-tv adaptation, as well as two spin-offs on top of numerous other projects.
Later in 2021, the cast was announced and filming began. Sisi Stringer is slated to play Rose Hathaway with Daniela Nieves as Lissa Dragomir, Kieron Moore as Dimitri Belikov, and André Dae Kim as Christian Ozera. Leading up to its release, Plec and MacIntyre have given interviews about the adaptation where they take a firm stance on their belief in the show. In one interview, Plec dismisses that this is just another vampire story, emphasizing the importance of theme and emotion over genre (( Lovitt, Maggie. “Julie Plec & Marguerite MacIntyre’s Thoughts on the Evolution of the Vampire Sub-Genre.” Collider. August 2, 2022. )).
MacIntyre follows up Plec’s statement by explaining the importance they’ve given to shining a spotlight on the classist, sexist society Rose and Lissa live in. “I love vampires. Who doesn’t love a vampire? But it gives up the ability to tell a story and metaphor that sometimes is not as easy to tell in a certain kind of just raw truth (McIntyre 2022). Still, fans are left with an uncomfortable cliffhanger: will Vampire Academy get the adaptation it deserves, or will it once again exist as a means to further a creative’s legacy?
Sparking hope within the fandom, Plec and MacIntyre have made it clear that their priority is to “make a show that stands on its own with a singular, unique identity (( Moon, Kat. “Vampire Academy Bosses Reveal How Rose and Dmitri’s Relationship Is Different in Peacock Adaptation.” TV Guide. August 11, 2022. )).” With such experienced, devoted developers behind the show’s second chance at life, it seems like things are looking up for Vampire Academy’s chances at a successful adaptation.