Living Fiction

An entity, to which Giles and Maxie of the Preternatural Research Bureau decided to refer as "the Living Fiction", arose in London following the "Ecto-Space incident".

It was formed when some of the mysterious pink slime leaking through from Ecto-Space made contact with an old film reel, kept in a private collection, of a black-and-white German horror film. Gaining consciousness, the entity gave itself shape based on the fictional contents of the film, appearing in the physical world as its villain (a "clichéd vampire archetype") come to life. The entity would begin to materialise when anyone watched the film, and continue to haunt them in their dreams even after they stopped playing the reel and its physical form vanished.

After killing several people, the "haunted film reel" was seized by the authorities and sent to P.R.O.B.E.. There, Maxie ran some tests on the reel and discovered it had been made indestructible by the entity's influence. Giles decided to watch the film in controlled conditions, with the apparition of the vampire kept safely locked inside a transparent tank. However, he began having bad dreams based on imagery from the film.

The two ultimately figured out a way to destroy the film and its occupant: because it had adopted the identity of the movie vampire, the Living Fiction had also given itself the character's weaknesses. They exposed the film to direct sunlight, which caused the vampire to appear and begin writhing in pain quite like the character would in those circumstances. Its physical form then melted away into a much more alien appearance, an insect-like, faceless humanoid, before disappearing completely. Maxie and Giles then disposed of the now mundane, whitened-out film reel. (HOMEVID: Living Fiction)