In the fourth instalment of Killer Bites, Fadzai and Sandile make mayhem with the wicked lesbian Heretics, Nora Hildegard and Mary Louise. Introduced at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries' seventh season, the pair are two of the six vampire/witch hybrids that form part of Lily Salvatore's found family, and serve as antagonists for the Mystic Falls Gang.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of child abuse, eugenics, lesbophobia, mass murder, mental coercion, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

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Spin-off! We talk Sinners (2025), and discuss vampire & the desire for community, Africa, the diaspora, spirituality, music as cultural storytelling, and forbidding the white boy from catching a vibe. Also: Black religious trauma, race in South Africa, and a lament for The Vampire Diaries' Bonnie Bennett.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of anti-indigenous sentiment, colonialism and colonial violence, white supremacy, mass murder, racism, religious trauma, and slavery.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

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(00:00:05) - Introduction

(00:02:00) - Sinners 2025: preamble and viewing experience

(00:07:55) - Smoke and Stack

(00:10:30) - Annie, who is everything

(00:11:30) - Bonnie Bennett (TVD) + African-American magic

(00:14:48) - Back to Annie

(00:17:42) - Abrahamic religion vs African & African-American spirituality

(00:22:54) - Mary + passing + racial dynamics

(00:30:25) - Preacher boy Sammy + the lure of the easy promise

(00:33:13) - Experiences of black religious trauma

(00:34:56) - Back to Sammy

(00:35:56) - Pearline our queen

(00:37:45) - Bo, Grace, and Lisa

(00:40:36) - Choctaw vampire hunters outselling

(00:42:01) - Remmick predating, but still exploiting, race

(00:48:22) - Irish marginalisation, whiteness, and assimilation

(00:50:33) - Indentured servitude vs slavery in the US and SA

(00:52:56) - Remmick culture-shifting to suit his needs

(00:54:56) - Vampire and the desire for community

(00:55:56) - Music as a cultural tool of storytelling

(00:58:05) - Music (or religion, or vampirism) as consolation or escape

(01:01:22) - The nature of the vampire hive mind

(01:02:22) - Stack and Mary's mid-credit scene

(01:04:00) - Spiraling tangent about vampire varieties

(01:06:49) - Check out @XofWords here: https://linktr.ee/xofwords!!!

Spin-off! We talk Nosferatu (2024), and discuss comparisons with Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula, gothic horror, repression, and taboo, vampire variety through the eras, and mental illness and the supernatural. Also: As many tangents as you'd expect, incl misunderstanding Lily-Rose Depp's name.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of antiziganism, mental illness and related stigma, necrophilia, patriarchal violence against women, and sexual assault.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

-

(00:05) - Introduction

(02:00) - Nosferatu (2024) preamble and viewing experience

(06:00) - It's all about atmosphere

(07:35) - Nosferatu (2024) vs Nosferatu (1922) vs Bram Stoker's Dracula

(12:45) - Nosferatu and The VVitch (2015): repression and social taboo

(15:50) - Ellen + Lily-Rose Depp + Cassandra of myth

(19:45) - Thomas + Nic Hoult in papa's orchard

(21:03) - HERR KNOCK DIVERSION + the Renfield figure

(25:56) - Count Orlok, transformation, and the cost of immortality

(32:28) - Friedrich, politeness, and the consistency of rich white men

(34:47) - Anna and perfect womanhood

(37:46) - Prof von Franz: the impetus of understanding

(42:53) - The Romani community hunting vampires and radiating aura

(46:22) - Parallels between the ending and Midnight Mass (2021)

(50:56) - Final thoughts