While Sherlock Holmes Readers most often classify the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the context of the mystery genre, they also know that stories sometimes enter horror and supernatural territory. After all, the most famous Sherlock Holmes history, The Baskervilles dogTreaty of a horror story of a demonic and legendary dog haunting the Baskervilles of Dartmoor.
The draw of Sherlock Holmes The stories are that there has always been a rational explanation in the end which diffused any suspicion of the supernatural, no matter how much the cases seemed above all. However, by refusing to give weight to the paranormal, Doyle has often captured horror and darkness in something else: humanity. One story in particular, “The adventure of the Vampire du Sussex” is so dark that the sparse adaptations of history have deviated from the source material.
What’s going on in the adventure of the Vampire Sussex?
“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” is one of the news of Doyle’s The Sherlock Holmes case book. In history, Holmes receives a letter from Robert Ferguson, seeking his help because he believes that his second wife, Ms. Ferguson, of Peruvian origin, could be a vampire. Mr. Ferguson admits that the nationality of his wife has created some ditch between them, but she remained a loving and faithful wife towards him. However, several incidents concerned him for their children. Mr. Ferguson has a fifteen -year -old son, Jack, of his first marriage, who is disabled due to an injury in childhood. Meanwhile, he and Mrs. Ferguson had a child together, who is still a baby.
Mr. Ferguson reports that Mrs. Ferguson seems jealous of Jack and struck him twice without apparent cause. However, history becomes even stranger from there. One day, the nurse heard the baby cry and, by checking him, saw Ms. Ferguson leaning over the child, apparently biting her neck. Ms. Ferguson paid for the nurse to remain silent about what she had seen. Later, the same incident reproduced, this time with Mr. Ferguson himself testifies to this. Noticing the blood on her face and the injury on the baby’s neck, there was no mistake that she had sucked the child’s blood. Unable to imagine a reason for her to hurt the child, vampirism seemed the only absurd conclusion.
After the incident, Ms. Ferguson fell ill and refused to speak to her husband. Holmes quickly laughs at the idea of vampires, although he agrees to go to Ferguson to investigate the issue. From the start, the case has a disturbing nature. A lot Sherlock Holmes The stories deal with murder, disappearances and concealations. They certainly do not fear the human capacity to harm. Despite this, “the adventure of the vampire of Sussex” stands out because it is the story of a mother who would have injured her baby and her stepson. It is difficult to imagine a rational explanation to explain why someone would suck their child’s blood. Most readers probably suspected that a mental state would explain its actions.
Unfortunately, the truth is even darker. In Ferguson’s house, Holmes finds a demonstration of South American weapons and discovers that the family’s dog has inexplicably fell partially paralyzed. After looking unusually by the window, Sherlock drops the bomb: Jack is the threat to the baby. In the reflection of the window, he observed Jack looking with a surprising level of cruelty and hatred against his father while he was holding the baby. He put together that Jack had used the South American darts, had plunged them into poison and tested them on the family dog before trying to kill the baby twice.
Ms. Ferguson had sucked the child’s neck to remove the poison, but refused to be the only one to say to Mr. Ferguson of what her child had done. The case is resolved, but there is no feeling of triumph or celebration as there are sometimes. Watson and Holmes are quietly leaving while Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson Sob, leaving the family to decide what to do with Jack.
The difficulty of adapting the adventure of the Vampire Sussex
“The adventure of Sussex Vampire” has been adapted to television several times. However, it was not affected by more popular modern adaptations, such as BBCs Sherlock or Guy Ritchie Sherlock HolmeS Series S. Meanwhile, the few adaptations of the story have gone out of the details of the case. An episode from 1993 of Sherlock Holmes (1984), “The Last Vampyre”, is vaguely based on “the adventure of Sussex Vampire”. The story presents a new character, Mr. John Stockton (Roy Marsden), who, according to the inhabitants, is a descendant of Vampire. Meanwhile, the show aged Jack Ferguson (Richard Dempsey) a little while giving him illusions of vampirism.
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century And Miss Sherlock Also offered loose adaptations of “the adventure of the Vampire Sussex”. Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd centuryThe version hardly resembles the original, because it is equivalent to a vampirism with a kind of cybersecurity crime. Miss Sherlock is the closest adaptation in that she presents a mother suspected of sucking her baby’s blood. However, this changes history by making the real culprit an adult who seeks revenge by manipulating the stepson in harming the child. Although all these adaptations are different, they have one thing in common: they all demonstrate the reluctance to make the 15 -year -old boy responsible for the injury of a baby.
The way in which these adaptations deviate from “the adventure of the Vampire du Sussex” illustrates why it is so difficult to adapt. It is a story that is too dark, given the age of his culprit. Sherlock Holmes Stories often immerse themselves on the cruelty of humanity and the power of greed and the desire to motivate men and women to take drastic measures. However, extending these ideas to children is difficult to digest. Films like The good son have indeed taken the plunge to represent children’s sociopaths, but not without criticism of the representation of such concepts for entertainment. Since “the adventure of Sussex Vampire” is nothing deep to say on its subject, it is not surprising that television and film leaders have hesitated to go.
Should the adventure of the Vampire du Sussex be faithfully adapted?
“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” is one of the least known Sherlock Holmes Stories. When Internet users mention it in Sherlock Holmes Discussions, it is generally to list it as one of their favorite news. Dark content is not the only problem with history. Some readers believe that the title is misleading, as they expect vampires entering Sherlock Holmes universe. In reality, vampirism is barely mentioned, and the case, although particular and dark, also feels a little trivial with its trope of jealous child. Other aspects of history also require a certain delicacy and sensitivity.
“The adventures of Sussex Vampire” includes some clues to xenophobia. In his initial letter to Holmes, Mr. Ferguson talks about his love towards his wife and that he considered their marriage as a “error” because of “the fact of his foreign birth and his extraterrestrial religion”. Although he saw enough to be suspect, readers do not doubt that his Peruvian descent is also an important source of suspicion of Mr. Ferguson with regard to his wife and the reason why he jumps to vampirism for a more rational explanation. It is an interesting part of the story, but a part that is ignored in the end. Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes The story did not quite seem to know what to do with this detail and especially excluded it.
A more problematic aspect of history is the perplexed decision of Doyle to make Jack disabled. His injury and handicap are not narratively necessary, only used to create a little more indignation about Ms. Ferguson striking him and might try to take out suspicions. The story also suggests that the wound could have contributed to his craze for his father and his intense jealousy of the baby. Consequently, “the adventure of the vampire of Sussex” also raises the “bad disabled” trope.
In the end, “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” has a complex place in Sherlock Holmes‘ history. The story is dark and disturbing, and implies harm to come to children. In addition to that, he fails to deliver his title, which gives the impression that the 1924 version of “Clickbait” to draw viewers in a story of supposed “vampires”. Then there is the inclusion of xenophobia and a disabled character, which history does not generate with the most sensitivity.
A modern and faithful remake should be wary of sensationalizing mental health problems and paying attention to how he chooses to frame his representation of Ms. Ferguson and Jack, while fighting with his lack of attraction for many audiences because of his dark nature. In the end, “the adventure of the Sussex vampire” can be one of the Sherlock Holmes Stories that are better read than adaptation.
Sherlock
- Release date
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2010-2017-00-00
- Network
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Bbc
- Showrunner
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Steven Moffat
- Directors
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Steven Moffat
- Writers
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Steven Moffat, Steve Thompson, Mark Gatiss
