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This site is in not an affiliation of MalleuS but is an independent critique site created by Josie Kogge, who is in no way associated with MalleuS or their productions.
Last updated 6th August 2001
The reworking of Count Moggie turned out to be redically different from the original. The new script introduced a new character - Alexandra Monday, and Moggie the Vampire became Lord Mendax. Emphasis shifted from the vampire and spotlit Alex as the lead, as the vampire hunter reveals to an undead visitor to her house that she no longer believes in vampires and insists that the ghoulish guest is nothing more than a relapse into her previous madness. Lord Mendax - echoing Count Moggie's sentiments in the original version - pleads Alex to return to the hunt because immortality is dull when one no longer has a worthy enemy in hot persuit...
Alex Monday would be referred to by Mendax as Qa Fariq Gatri - an insult in the Vampire's native tongue meaning 'The Murder of Lords and Ladies' (or as a literal translation - Of the gentry, a murderer with gatri being the word for murderer) immediatley suggesting that Vampires regard themselves as dignitary and that Vampire Killing is an attrocity.
Morris-Henshaw was asked to reprise his role as the meloncholy vampire Lord Mendax. Ruth Elizabeth, a photographic expert by trade who had previously played Eve in the shelved Frankenstein project, was called in to play the heroine, Alex Monday.
One evening in March 2000 Morris and Ruth called at Andrew's house for a read-through and rehersal. Andrew's home was to once again be the setting for the three-act play. As the evening progressed it became apparent that one radical change had to be made to the format of the play, as Ruth Elizabeth explains;
Well, I'm not an actor. I'm much happier behind behind the lens! So my attempts to play the somewhat difficult role of Alex were a bit...crap! There's nothing simple about the character, she starts off startled and nervous in act one, descends into madness and self-doubt in act two, and by the end of act three we got a whole Dirty Harry thing going on with her as it all turns out to be an elaborate trap to snare The King Bat! Alex is supposed to be some sort of paranoid schizoid eccentirc, but three distinct personalities and three distinct "gear changes" in three acts... I couldn't deliver!
But I wasn't the only problem. Morris - fuelled by Holsten Pils as always - was turning in this piss-poor Klaus Kinski's Nosferatu impression. His performance was too slow, too plodding and really messing up the tempo of the piece.
The story is supposed to be about a Vampire Killer that doesn't want to kill anymore argueing with a Vampire that doesn't want live without the thrill of the chase. They desparately need each other to give meaning to their lives! But what we had was this whinging - almost yawning - Vampire moaning to a flat, monotone and seemingly uninterested Slayer! Andrew didn't know whether to laugh or cry!
I suggested I read for the Vampire while Morris had a bash at the Hunter...
That's when the spark ignited!
Morris came alive as Alex Monday, tormented, manic, bemused and insane in turn. I felt much more at ease as the emploring, reasoning vampire - a steadier and more even character to play. Looking for Gatri was set to shoot with just a few minor changes to the script.
And so Alexandra Monday changed sex and became just Alex Monday. Lord Mendax - King of the Vampires - became Lady Mendax, The Great Queen Bat. It was agreed to shoot the movie the following week. Andrew reasoned that a twenty minute, three-act play would take roughly six hours to shoot - just an evening's work - so he sent his two artists off to prepare for their roles while he gathered together a few props and collaberated with Ruth on the look of the characters.
Mendax was easy to dress, elaborates Ruth, I dyed my hair jet black, made-up with "goth" style black lipstick and dressed in flowing black clothes - to be honest, the stuff I'd normally wear when out on the town.
Andrew had already decided that his vampires would harken back to the days of Hammer - they would be attractive and in some sense alluring. The urge to go with the now cliched furrowed brow of The Lost Boys and Buffey was quickly resisted despite an offer from a Worcester-based make-up effects artist (via D. Robertson Cane) to provide MalleuS with Hollywood-quality generic prosthetic make-up.
In his Gatri writer's bible Andrew states; Modern Hollywood vampires look great - but they're monsters. Ugly, demonic monsters. MalleuS vampires are a different breed altogether - they're a hidden society of augmented humans - albeit dead humans! Vampires in Hammer movies seduce their victims, they're lovely to look at and the victim gets an urge to get closer, to bathe in their beauty. MalleuS vampires don't smell of the grave, they smell of roses! A human can be enchanted by the creature, wish to embrace it, such is the strength of their allure.
Venus Flytraps eat their victims...slowly! This jaws of this plant are a pretty red colour and gives off a scent that flies find irresistable. The fly gets closer because it wants more of the pretty colour, more of the attractive scent. Then it dies horribly. The plant doesn't hunt it's meal - it's not a predator - it seduces it.
That's MalleuS vampires. That's Lady Mendax, Lord Schrek, Jolly Jack, Ruby Tuesday...
Alex Monday, it was decided, would dress something like a school-teacher. He appears to be an acedemic or intellectual. He reveals in the script that he works in a book shop, and that he spent two years in psychiatric care. He's out of touch with the world, has no understanding of fashion or personal appearence, and probably has no friends. Ruth outfitted Morris in a Harris Tweed jacket and green trousers, finished off with a blue shirt (sans tie) and a scraf about the neck.
Clothes that clash - no harmony, no thought given to outward appearence. He has far more important things on his shattered mind...
Alex also carries a briefcase in which he claims he keeps his pills...
