Ryan Murphy is adding another bloodline to his horror resume. The co-creator of American Horror Story revealed that his next genre project is a vampire series titled Brides of Blood, built around the trio of brides who served Count Dracula in Bram Stoker‘s 1897 novel Dracula.
“I’m making a vampire tale called Brides of Blood, so I can pay homage to my grandmother and what she loved,” Murphy said. Murphy has said his grandmother’s two great loves were musicals and Dracula, and Brides of Blood is his way of honouring both her taste and a corner of vampire lore he feels has gone underexplored. “I’ve always wanted to do a vampire story, and I always wondered why nobody has made a show about these characters I love,” he added.
I’ve always wanted to do a vampire story, and I always wondered why nobody has made a show about these characters I love.
The brides are nameless in Stoker’s text and typically reduced to a few pages of seduction and bloodletting before Jonathan Harker escapes Castle Dracula. They have turned up on screen before, most memorably in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but usually as a supporting flourish rather than the main event. Murphy’s series suggests they are overdue their own showcase.
Murphy, whose credits also include American Crime Story, Ratched and this year’s Grotesquerie, framed the new project as proof that his horror output isn’t one note. “There’s always something for everybody,” he said of his catalogue. “Maybe American Horror Story is not your cup of tea, but maybe you want to watch something that’s just like a white wine fun show.”
Given Murphy’s history of moving quickly from announcement to premiere, and with cameras set to roll in just two months, further details on casting and a home network for Brides of Blood are likely to surface before the year is out.
