Where Have All the Vampires Gone ? An Examination of Gothic Horror in BBC ’ s Luther
By Richard Logsdon
Abstract : Gothic horror has found a home in several recent European crime dramas . One of these dramas is BBC ’ s four-season series Luther . Episode after episode , London “ copper ” John Luther tracks down a sociopathic killer whose monstrous actions are easily the equivalent of those committed by the creatures of traditional Gothic horror . Just as significantly , Luther ’ s encounters with the evil represented by these killers taps into those anxieties that currently grip a European continent that has experienced mass shootings , mass stabbings , suicide bombings , baby trafficking , sex trafficking , and killings related to the smuggling of drugs and diamonds . This essay thus represents a unique contribution to the existing body of scholarship devoted to the study of the merging of Gothic horror and contemporary European crime drama .
Keywords : European crime drama , Gothic horror , cultural anxieties
Resumen : El horror gótico ha encontrado un hogar en varios dramas de crimen europeos recientes . Uno de esos dramas es la serie de cuatro temporadas de la BBC , Luther . Episodio tras episodio , el “ cooper ” de Londres John Luther le sigue la pista a un asesino sociópata cuyas acciones monstruosas equivalen fácilmente a las que cometen las criaturas del horror gótico tradicional . Igual de importantes son los encuentros de Luther con la maldad que representan estos asesinos que utilizan las ansiedades que actualmente dominan un continente europeo que ha
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