Vigo the Carpathian
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Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf (1505-1610) is a fictional character, and the principal antagonist in the 1989 film Ghostbusters II.
His name (revealed on a blowup of the scene where his information was called up on a computer terminal) is an apparent combination of the name of the actor who portrayed the 'Vigo' character (Wilhelm von Homburg) and the surname of the twin actors (William T. [1]and Henry J. [2] Deutschendorf) who portrayed Oscar Barrett, Dana Barrett's infant son and Vigo's intended "host".
Loosely based on the historical and real-life 15th century Romanian tyrant Vlad Ţepeş, Vigo was a sadistic tyrant of Carpathia, assumed to be a fictional kingdom located in the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania. He may also be partially inspired by Joseph Curwen from H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, another long-lived necromantic who had a disturbing portrait made of himself, which was implied to contain his soul and was resurrected to modern times. Self-described as the “Scourge of Carpathia” and “the Sorrow of Moldavia” he was also known as “Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Despised, and Vigo the Unholy”. His quote “On a mountain of skulls in a castle of pain, I sat on a throne of blood” sums up his ruling style and the probable reasons why he was not well-loved by his subjects. An apparent expert in sorcery and black magic Vigo enjoyed an unnaturally long life which came to a very unnatural end when he was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hanged, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered by his own people. As the story goes, as his severed head lay dying, it prophesized that “death is but a doorway; time is but a window – I’ll be back.”
His spirit was eventually transferred by unknown means into a large life size portait which had made its way to the restoration department of the fictional Manhattan Museum of Art by 1989, the setting for the Ghostbusters II movie. By the start of the movie, Vigo’s spirit had begun to call all evil to it, resulting in pools of a psychomaganatheric "mood slime" to collect under New York City and a sharp increase in supernatural activity. Eventually, Vigo’s spirit reanimated the painting and possessed Dr. Janosz Poha (a man with a penchant for exclaiming "He is Vigo!!!"), the curator who was in the process of restoring it, as part of a plot to steal a baby so he could reincarnate himself and conquer the modern world. Of course, this plan was foiled by the Ghostbusters - See the entry Ghostbusters II for additional plot details.
[edit] Trivia
- The life size portrait of Vigo used in the Ghostbusters II movie was painted by scenic artists David Rymar and Leslee Turnbull.
| Ghostbusters | |
|---|---|
| Movies: | Ghostbusters | Ghostbusters II | Ghostbusters III |
| Television: | The Real Ghostbusters | Extreme Ghostbusters |
| Video Games: | Ghostbusters (Activision) | Ghostbusters II | Ghostbusters (Sega) | Ghostbusters (Xbox 360) |
| Technology: | Proton pack | Ectomobile | Ghostbusters equipment |
| Characters: | Peter Venkman | Egon Spengler | Ray Stantz | Winston Zeddemore | Janine Melnitz | Ivo Shandor |
| Ghosts: | Slimer | Stay Puft Marshmallow Man | Vigo the Carpathian | Scoleri Brothers | Samhain | Bogeyman |
| Misc: | Ghostbusters: Legion | Ghostbusters: The Return | Ghostbusters (role-playing game) | Filmation's Ghostbusters |
