Hysteria, A Thesis.

Vampires have terrified and fascinated people for over centuries, and have adapted to suit fictional trends over the ages. This essay will study the origins of vampiric folklore, the gothic era where Dracula reigned, the journey from fearsome creature to the romantic Rice’s vampires and the reinvention of the creature in the modern day. Then further study will try to anticipate what the audiences expect next from the genre and how the years of bloodsucking have impacted how we see the legend today.

This essay aims to answer the questions of How the vampire as an archetype and as a genre has evolved? Why has it had an influence on popular culture? And what the future of the vampire is.

Introduction

The vampire is believed to be one of the greatest fantasy beings, skulking in the shadows since the silver screen began, famously terrifying. Fear was the reason the vampire was imagined from the depths of hell, fear is the driving force behind the original gothic vampire fictions, fear of becoming a monstrous revenant was the churches weapon against immorality. But emerging through the 21st century is the vampire who is no longer fearsome, Meyer in her final lines of The Twilight Saga (2008) swoons ‘Edward always thought he belonged to a world of horror stories, but I knew all along. He belonged here, in a fairy tale.’

Origins: Folklore & Fakelore

Serbian Nights & Transylvanian Frights

The vampire legend can be found in every ancient culture across the world, from Arabia to Egypt. What we now know to call ‘vampires’ mainly originate from folklore over southeastern Europe. We all think we know where vampires come from, creatures of horror stories who turn into bats. Many would say Count Dracula started the legend. Today it is fair to say that the traditional idea of the vampire in modern Transylvania has lost its relevance somewhat, leaving in its wake the commercialised ‘tourist vampire’ readily marketed to the west, as noted by Beresford (2008). In Medieval Romania, folklore told of the Strigoi, a demonic reanimated corpse. This lead to the folkloric belief that one could return from the grave to wreak havoc. Mass hysteria which included grave diggings and staking of corpses was reported across Europe during the 12th to the 18th century after the onslaught of vampire paranoia. Upyr’s were a native belief to the Slavic regions in the middle ages. The Upyr was the true origin of the vampire myth we know today, to return as a vampire one had to die an untimely death or be bitten. These vampires were sexually active and could even bear children with humans, although they were grotesque in appearance and resembled zombies as opposed to the glamorous vampires of today. The key link to the Romanian vampires comes not only from Stoker’s choice to set his novel Dracula in Transylvania but from the legends of Vlad The Impaler, the bloodthirsty king. Vlad was no vampire nor did he consume blood, but he had such a lust for killing that the ghosts he left behind in modern-day Wallucia made an eerily perfect setting for the vampire myth to flourish. He wasn’t the only one, Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005) recount of the ’real life vampire’ Countess Bathory used to kill young girls and bathe in their blood because she believed that doing so would preserve her once-famous beauty.

Curses & Churches: Christianity's influence on the legend

It was actually Christianity which really gave life to the vampire legends. Nelson (2012) studied the historian Gabor Klaniczay links western Europe’s sudden love affair with vampires with the simultaneous decline of the belief in witches in the early 18th century. In the vacuum left by witches, vampires presented a convenient vehicle for metaphysical fudging. It is common knowledge that the condemnation of witchcraft was inspired by the overzealousness of the church. But not many link the vampiric beliefs to similar oppressive religiousness, a way of keeping the people in control. In some folklore Judas Iscariot, Jesus’ betrayer, is believed to be the first vampire. Even in works as recent as Dracula 2000 Judas is portrayed as being the forefather of vampires. Themes such as the silver, the cross, the blood and Judas’s suicide by hanging. Beresford (2008) said it is possible that the church used society’s fear of becoming a vampire to deter suicides. Burials of suicide victims were even prohibited on consecrated grounds. Although no vampires are mentioned in The Bible, The church's role in creating the vampire we know today was further shaped in the gothic romantic era. As paranoia of the folkloric monster became bait for entertainment, vampire fiction rose to prominence in the 18th to 19th centuries. Nelson (2012) remarks the vampire quickly shed the coarse behaviour of the Serbian peasants who threw themselves upon neighbours for a convenient feed and reinvented themselves as sophisticated aristocrats. These transformed vampires were not just villains, they were sexual predators administering the kiss of death to their victims as they stole their blood.

The Gothic, The Erotic & The Romantic

The Alluring Aristocrat & The Femme Fatale

Arguably the first work of English vampire fiction was The Vampyre by John Polidori. But the context around the book's conception is almost as interesting as the story itself. Polidori was Lord Byron’s private physician and traveling companion. The famous story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was told as a ghost story during a vacation of friends, where Polidori first shared The Vampyre. It is hard not to read The Vampyre as an allegory to the two men, characters which include a cold-hearted aristocrat and a faithful boy. Auerbach (1995) states how out of a hating, needing companionship between men came not only romantic poetry but romantic vampires. Wolf (1975) claims that Polidori gave us a prototype vampire, a nobleman, aloof, brilliant, chilling, fascinating to women and coolly evil.

In Stoker’s Dracula, Williamson (2005) quotes how Lucy transforming is the worst nightmare and dearest fantasy of the Victorian male: the pure girl turned sexually ravenous beast. The Church had a heavy influence on the values of society at the time, sexual immorality was chastised and a young woman’s purity was sacred. Works were further fleshing out the new niche in vampire fiction, femme fatale, the seductive temptress who would lure her victims away to devour them. Motifs seen in female vampires are that of losing innocence or breaking a taboo, killing children, being raped or born out of wedlock. This proves as an example of how woman are more bound to societal rules. Men have been terrified of women for centuries, not just in folklore and fiction. The Baobhan-Sith is one of the oldest femme fatale vampires in folklore. A Scottish creature dressed in green (historically seen as the colour of prostitutes) who preys on travelers, seducing them and draining their blood.

Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005 p168) said The woman is represented as the epitome of duality, good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell. In many cultures, she is the cause of man’s fall from grace, her earthy sexuality distracting him from the pursuit of nirvana...there are hints in the 17th-century reports of real-life accounts that the vampiric corpses of males would prey on attractive young women for sexual gratification not just blood...

Now we see the birth of the two founding archetypes of the vampire character: the aristocratic seductive male vampire preying on innocent virgins vs the smouldering temptress enslaving sexually starved men as victims.

Fear & Fascination: the attractiveness of what scares us

There is a curiosity buried deep in the mind, a desire to explore the mysteries of the inexplicable. Beresford (2008) states there are many reasons why the vampire has remained in our conscious thought over time, but the one common element to almost all cases of vampirism is fear. That’s what makes vampire enticing, they’re metaphysical and not tied to earthly rules making them open to fantasy. So what makes vampires so attractive despite their malicious nature? With the Polidori archetype and its successors, Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005) muse how the combination of sexual domination and supernatural power provide erotic imagery that is almost impossible to resist, either by the vampires fictional victims or literary ones. There is something so perfectly attractive about something so forbidden. It’s why children like sweets and girls like bad boys, the longing for the mischief. The Serpent in Genesis knew that Eve couldn’t resist the temptation of the one thing she had been banned from touching. Like Satan in Eden, the vampire knows you can’t take your petrified gaze off of him. Lugosi played the most memorable Dracula, one of his most engaging performances. Lugosi’s eyes were strikingly lit in every scene to create a sense of frisson in the audience. Butler (2013) commented by prolonging the time between eye contact and physical attack, the vampire hands viewers over to a terrible power: their own imaginations. Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005) say horror has always been an attraction for human beings. Some core themes in vampire filmography and literature strike a deeper chord with our emotions, it is the involvement of romance. Sexuality has always been an important part of the vampires fatal fascination.

The Sentimental Seducer

Brooding Bloodsuckers: vampires with feelings

Nelson (2012) The next shift in the archetype flipped the vampire from antagonist to protagonist, villain to antihero. Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire was a radical innovation because it was the first to tell the story from the vampire’s point of view, foregrounding him not exactly as a good person but certainly as far more dimensional and ethical than any vampire character before him. Contrary to what had been done before, Rice’s male vampires preferred male victims, a preference that creates a homoerotic undertone. Butler (2013) states Rice’s fiction is erotic in two complementary ways. In the first place, desire for forbidden knowledge often leads to forbidden places. Secondly, the vampire narrators tell of their fleshly pleasures when they recount their stories. Vampirism promises heightened experience, above all, of a sensual kind. This new desire to feel love not just for blood but for other vampires and humans is what opened the floodgates to the thousands of literary and cinematic works which followed. Vampires can be so alluring in this time period because they were balanced between the monster with a human soul who longed to be loved, and the beguiling creature with a black heart, as seen with Louis and Lestat. Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005) note how Interview With The Vampire explores homoerotic sexual taboos, it was released during the AIDS epidemic so diseases spread through blood may be a metaphor. Even in earlier works such as Nosferatu and Dracula the act of female vampires ‘drawing vital life fluid’ from their victims can be a metaphor for semen. The accounts in Dracula are erotically under toned detailing how pleasurable it can feel to fill a young maiden with your fluid (referencing Lucy being transfused blood). Rice’s books unlocked emotions of pity for vampires, still underpinned by fear and desire. Auerbach (1995) studied that the Dracula’s in cinema from 1931-1979 say as much about cultural America at the time as they do about vampires.

Submerging Subcultures of the late 20th century

Nelson (2012) notes how Rice’s growing fans with the vampire figure led to lifestyle subculture. Many were inspired to adopt vampire persona, forming their own subcultures in the ranks of the Goth and heavy metal movement of the 80s. It started then but even up to today many people seem to want to be vampires: they dress in black, wear ornate jewellery, put on dramatic makeup, listen to spooky music and generally let the world know they belong to a different crowd. Butler (2010) no matter how young goths and vampire fanatics who don’t identify as goths are, they would have you believe their soul is very old. Occult themes and inverted Christian imagery are seen in bands such as Black Sabbath can be linked to the rise of the vampire subculture. Although metal culture more praises hedonism, anti-religion and the insignificance of mankind. This is all reflective of the vampire legend.

Fig. 5 Members of the Goth subculture

Eternal Love, Ethereal Lure.

The Twilight Saga: mass hysteria for new media

The Twilight Saga was one of the highest grossing franchises of the past decade. Screaming girls flocked to the movie premieres and book signings, mothers wept over the turmoils of young forbidden love and fathers and brothers either turned their noses at the pop icons or revealed in their guilty pleasure in secret. The vampire was heavily shifted by Twilight, it even poses its own genre within the vampiric world of fiction whereas others blend together and have similar works. The father figure of the Cullen Clan, Dr. Carlisle, further evolves the ‘tortured soul’ theme which Rice began. Like a reformed drug addict, Carlisle has trained himself so acutely in self-control to drink only animal blood, he doesn’t even flinch with desire at the sight/smell of human blood! Carlisle atones for his sins of being a ‘cursed monster’ by working as a doctor to help humans. How ironic that Meyer would create almost the opposite of what the vampire was imagined to be? A selfless being who gives life, rather than a soulless one who drains it. Carlisle only turns people into vampires if they have no other choice. Edward was dying from influenza when Carlisle ‘saved’ him by giving him eternal life. The main conflict is how Bella wants to become a vampire when she is a healthy human with a choice, the others had none as their lives were cut short by external circumstances. Even when the time does come for Bella, she is still in the same predicament as her vampire family and is on her deathbed when turned. So even though vampirism is what Bella wanted, it still becomes the only option for her over death. It is almost as if Meyer continues to dangle vampirism before us. Meyer creates vampires to be these beautiful deities with supernatural beauty glistening in the sunlight, even when an ordinary girl wants to be one of them and against all odds gains their love enough to be turned...it doesn’t go as planned. Vampirism and eternal life almost happen by accident for Bella, going even further to show how unattainable it all seems to be even in the reader's dreams. Not only will they have to find a vampire to fall in love with them, but they must be in some conveniently deadly situation for him to turn them if they want to adhere to the moral Cullen code.

Romance Is Undead: feminism & 21st-century values

Butler (2013) The heroine of Twilight is awkward 17-year-old Bella. She doesn’t think she relates well to people her age, she seems to belong to ‘another time’ maybe she doesn’t relate well to people at all. That is until she meets Edward, hundred-year-old vampire and high school heartthrob. Old men who spend their time pursuing young women usually want something unsavory. For Bella, companionship with the vampire seems to offer an escape from the turmoil of adolescence. Twilight received a lot of backlash because of its representation of women. Nelson (2012) notes Bella cannot change her man, vampires are what they are (boys will be boys?) but she can grow into her role by actively embracing the feminine passivity that charms him. Twilight portrays traditional roles and masochism, through Bella’s example. Bella is the very obvious damsel in distress. In Twilight, Bella is hidden from the antagonist and locked in a hotel. Edward, earlier in the story, told Bella to stay there, that he was coming to get her. However, Bella goes against his wishes, ends up in mortal danger, and is then forced to be saved. Heavily paralleled ten years prior to the Buffy franchise, Buffy is an independent heroic superstar. Not only is she pretty and desired as most blonde cheerleaders in Hollywood are, but she is a kick-ass vampire slayer who doesn’t need to be saved by any man! A pinnacle of feminism in the 90’s, Buffy was the high school boy’s wet dream. No boy would have naughty thoughts about Bella, apart from a dominator who feeds off her submissive nature. Ironically, Twilight was the prime inspiration for the erotic BDSM trilogy, 50 Shades of Grey.

‘I’m the only one who has permission to hold you hostage, remember?’

-Edward Cullen, Eclipse. Meyer (2007)

True Blood represents a certain brand of feminism. Sookie Stackhouse is ‘different’ from the other girls not just because she is telepathic, but because she is loving and understanding of the vampire outcast in a world where prejudice against vampires exists. In the beginning of the story, she rescues her undead love interest from vampire haters. But despite her act of heroism, which might reflect a more 21st-century woman, Sookie is then reduced to the southern belle being courted by a controlling older male. An archetype the modern vampire in romance fiction falls into all too easily. Sookie is ambivalent between strong-independent-woman and modest-submissive-damsel. With the vampire boyfriend in both Twilight and True Blood having a distaste for the more vulgar modern woman and preferring the plain, pure, everyday girl with an old soul. This is what links modern vampirism to original allure of the goth subculture, the old soul, the outcast, the forbidden lovers, it’s a time old tale.

The Vampire Diaries provides a slightly different angle on the modern day stereotype. The show’s premise is a love triangle between vampire brothers. Troubled and badly behaved Damon and tortured, gentle Stefan both fall for human girl Elena. Contrary to Bella, Elena takes a lot of initiative in her own problems and is protective of her loved ones, even the vampires she is physically incapable of protecting. The show’s motif is more about how the girl picks the nice guy but falls for the bad guy in the end because she ‘fixes him’. A theme is seen everywhere and not necessarily related to vampires. The boys could easily be humans and the core story would be the same, just less exciting. The only similarity to the vampire genre is the tortured soul seen in Stefan and the bad boy seen in Damon can be compared to Louis and Lestat. Nelson (2012) notes the vampire romance offers its readers the opportunity to enjoy and 18th/19th-century courtship while remaining a 21st-century woman. The same age group that gravitates towards horror is also drawn towards the idea of perfect love.Twilight hews to classic Gothic romance ‘feminine fantasy’ first laid down in Jane Eyre. The vampire is seducing women into outmoded attitudes about female behaviour, the underlying hint of father-daughter romantic love predicated on an absent mother is a central subtext of the Gothic woman’s romance.

Fang-Culture: the vampire fanatic today

Carter (1988) states the vampire grew from monster to refined gentleman to rebellious outsider. As a persecuted minority, endangered species, and as a member of a different race that legend portrays as sexually omnicompetent, the vampire makes a fitting hero for modern popular fiction. Butler (2010) The vampire becomes the metaphor for the teenage outcast with the desire to be accepted and understood. TV shows and movies everywhere in the vampire genre offer a supernaturally enhanced version of what everyone goes through and explores the perils of growing up. Late for school plus that weird kid you sit next to in algebra grows fangs and bites you right before your big date! Another boring day in American vampire high. Nelson (2012) notes vampire’s defining trait is the seeming ability to disregard the rules governing the lives of everyone else. That is why some people actually want to become vampires, being undead promises freedom. Gordon & Hollinger (1997) One of the functions of our monsters is to help us construct our own humanity, to provide guidelines against which we define ourselves. Beresford (2008) states whether or not the demonic creature of our worst fears existed in fact if we only looked into ourselves - and into our society - we should find the demon already there. The vampire world has always been a metaphor or race, from the battle of foreigners in Romania to feuds between vampires and werewolves as seen in franchises such as Underworld. Twilight makes this so obvious with Edward being a European gentlemanly vampire and Jacob being a rough, working-class native American werewolf. Could the comparison between racial divides be clearer?

Findings

In recent years, Vampires have become relatable.

I performed a focus group study on three girls who experienced the Twilight fame in their adolescence. Katie Davison, Rowena Ashby, and Naomi Bell were all avid readers and fanatical for Twilight, not to mention other vampire works out at the same time. When asked what the draw of Twilight and similar works of vampire fiction at the time was, the girls commented:

‘I wanted a boyfriend and was lonely and insecure. Young girls, who feel insecure reading/watching a version of themselves getting a sexy vampire hubby? That’s the whole point. Evolutionary wise it makes sense, he’s powerful enough to protect you and any offspring and he’s good looking so hopefully healthy babies. Both of these are traditional vampire stereotypes.’ - Davidson

'A friend introduced me to Twilight, we used to bond over it and swap notes. It all seemed very romantic. But I think that's what I mainly liked about it because it was like old-school romance and very intense and I liked the dark aspect. I read the House of Night series after reading Twilight because I guess I enjoyed the new 'teen' perspective on vampires that Twilight initiated.’ - Bell

‘The Hype got me into it and then the actual story drew me in because it was so damn romantic and angsty, it made you feel like you had a boyfriend. And there was something about how powerful vampires are which just makes you feel very damsel-in-distress and like you're getting swept off your feet and saved, even if just in the imaginary world inside your own head. I read the Vampire Diaries and House of Night for a while. The style of the vampire is very similar, the whole distressed teenage boy who hates himself.’ - Ashby

I then asked if the girls found the vampires in these stories relatable:

‘I never really considered myself an outcast because I didn’t really want to be in the popular group. Maybe because the characters were dealing with the whole boo hoo hardship of being vampires and I was dealing with mental illness at the time, we were both different and ashamed of our flaws.’ - Davidson

‘When I think of vampires, I mostly think of the old-fashioned version of vampires, with the long black capes and blood around their mouths. But I don't find them relatable. I wouldn't like to be one either because I wouldn't like to be immortal. But I think they're pretty badass and romantic.’ - Bell

‘I mean, the vampires were just as relatable as, if not more relatable than, the female lead characters I think we were supposed to connect to. I get the whole outcast thing, very misunderstood. I guess I used to feel like I related to that a lot more, now I've grown out of it but at the time, definitely yes. I wanted to be Bella! But I've reached a point where I can't disentangle vampire from the romantic, swoops-in-and-saves-the-lady archetype, as much as I might like to, because they're not supposed to be cute and glittery, they're supposed to be evil murderers who terrorise neighbourhoods. It's just a very immersive world, I think, especially for any young teenage girl with any sort of angst. Also in terms of sexuality, I've always been a sub. There was something mildly intoxicating about the character of a very powerful man who wanted to be with you and basically be your dom. Even if as a teenager I didn’t know what those words meant.’

- Ashby

What interested me about the focus group study was how much the girls claimed to adore Twilight. Even if today they don’t feel the same level of love for it, they commented on how they still get ‘butterflies’ when Edward comes on screen. It was such an integral part of their girlhood (and I must add, mine too.) Two out of the three girls said they related to the teenage outcast aspect of vampirism, as Carter (1998) predicted about the role in society of the ‘new’ vampire. Although one girl felt she didn’t relate because despite being a Twilight fanatic, she still associated vampires with the older stereotype. The girls also note how the traditional role of the Bella as the damsel in distress appealed to them. This supports what Nelson (2012) observed about the gothic romance genre, Twilight is like Bronte with better hair. Bella’s favourite book is even, wait for it, Wuthering Heights. How dimensional Meyer’s work is... As women in their twenties now, the girls mused over how the concept of Edward being much older than Bella is actually rather repulsive, but they still felt attracted to him. One of the girls muses the idea that Twilight partly sparked her sexual awakening as a submissive. The vampire genre has been known to inspire such an erotic nature (as seen with 50 Shades of Grey) Nelson (2012) even noted how gothic horror got a boost in the turn of the millennium with a savage new ‘torture porn’ sub-genre. Fans post pornographic twilight inspired fiction on the website Twilightened. So the seduction and sexual nature of the vampire proves to age-old, from Nosferatu to Edward Cullen. The vampire still seems to get girls hot and bothered whether he’s riding in a hearse or a Volvo. To further my research into how young people of today feel about the vampire legend and culture surrounding it, I spoke to Transylvanian native Luis Drajan. I was curious to see how the youth of another culture related to the vampire. Transylvania has long been revered as the vampire motherland because of Stoker’s Dracula, and the tales of Vlad Tapes the murderous king. So much so that The International Vampire Film & Arts Festival: Vampfest is held in Sighisoara, Transylvania. One of the best preserved medieval citadels in Europe and birthplace of the infamous Vlad Tepes. I wanted a native opinion on the legend and popular culture. Here Drajan sheds light on how Romanians, and more specifically Transylvanians, feel about vampires and the Dracula affiliation.

‘Dracula, it’s not part of our culture! There is no kind of celebration for it, people in Transylvania haven’t even really read the book. We do not care about vampires because it’s never been in our history, cause it’s unnatural for us to believe in them because of an English guy, took a guy we actually like (Vlad Tepes) and made him something we do not understand and said ‘Hey this is your shit!’ We didn’t ask for it or get asked about it. Stoker didn’t care about our history or our traditions so why would we care about his book? It’s so out of the national identity of Romania. It’s like this artificial limb that's been attached to us by the British by the Hollywood culture. Transylvania is actually a beautiful land, it’s a peaceful place so that’s why I don’t really think to identify it with the bloodshed of vampires.’ - Drajan

What I found most intriguing is the sheer rebuking of the whole idea. Romanians couldn’t care less about our beloved Lugosi style Halloween costumes or blood-soaked blockbuster movies. They view it as commercialisation and misrepresentation of their culture, all vampires are to them is tourist cocaine. To Romanians, vampires are an English creation, owned now by Americans, contradictory to the rest of the world’s belief that vampires are Romanian. If the inhabitants of the alleged homeland of the vampire won’t even ‘invite them in’ so to speak, how’s it they have still immortalised themselves in popular culture? Drajan did mention how the country loosely encourages it to ensnare tourists, but if there’s no pride or love for the character. Surely in the future, what with the new Twilight and bad boy modern vampires taking over, Dracula will be reduced to dust in the bright Romanian sun whilst the locals look on in apathy.

Out of curiosity, I took a poll to see which stereotype of fictional vampires people preferred. The winning category in a poll of 71 votes was the sexy bad boy with 25 votes, followed by seductive aristocrat with 18 votes, Twilight with 16, and the wild monster with 12. It is interesting that more people did not praise the Twilight vampire because of its influence a few years back. Many went for the leather-clad Damon of The Vampire Diaries. Damon’s vampire is the current trend in the latest vampire media, the misunderstood bad boy with a heart of stone with a soft spot for that one special girl. This is a theme seen not only in vampire fiction but everywhere, the bad boy, with fangs he’s just more dramatic. By combining the age-old lust of the bad boy archetype with the victorian seducer vampire of years prior, viewers ovaries might just explode. It is also interesting to see the decline in the love of traditional Dracula style vampires, further evidence that the Transylvanian legend may be on his deathbed. Although it must be pointed out this was a survey done amongst a small group of British young people.

I wanted some proof of the trends in recent fiction from someone who sees what the public and aspiring writers are submitting for publication long before they reach our shelves or movie screens. I personally felt that after Twilight came out there was a sudden rise in vampire fiction which was dissipated a few years later by the dystopian future element inspired by The Hunger Games. I spoke to Jeremy Barclay, an assistant scout for KLO Scouting with an MA in English literature. Here he comments on rising and falling trends in publication over the last year he has worked there.

‘In my year in publishing, I haven’t seen a single vampire book come across my desk. Obviously, there was an overexposure not just to vampires but supernatural elements as a whole with Harry Potter and Twilight. Also, another interesting thing is just a lack of interest in fiction. People are most interested in compelling non-fiction, we are putting it down to the political climate: no one wants ‘escapism’, they want instead to learn more about the real world and keep informed. If we’re looking to draw a comparison with the vampire then you might want to think about Artificial Intelligence. Loads of books (fiction and nonfiction) being written about the subject involve a kind of seduction: people are drawn to AI for its ability to do the humanly impossible, but the closer we get to achieving true artificial intelligence, the closer we all come to death. I don’t think the vampire will return to fiction for a while, books are usually ahead of films and there’s been nothing here at all. I’d say when it does return, it’ll be gritty and in a neo-gothic fashion, because the selling point will be how it’s so different from Twilight.’ - Barclay

Barclay notes how the public has become disinterested with fantasy works as of late due to the politics of recent years. We have already explored how the vampire genre adapts to its current social climate even down to who plays Dracula each time a reboot comes around. But it doesn’t seem the genre has adapted lately, or perhaps it is just lying dormant, ready for a new makeover. I feel if True Blood was released today it would have more of an impact because of its allegory of prejudice which might strike a chord with modern-day Americans more than it did ten years ago. However, some of the key themes which build the modern vampire are still prevalent, the seduction of a more powerful being. AI has been an on-screen theme since the mid 20th century but was often portrayed in movies like The Matrix where humans can team up and overcome it. Barclay notes how lately, AI has taken on a more sexy and personable nature rather than a cold intimidating one (sound familiar?) Barclay’s observations on the decline in vampire trends are expected. Although there was a high influx of vampire ‘hysteria’ in cinema and on bookshelves just under ten years ago when Twilight was a hit, admittedly there has been little in recent years. The vampire genre comes and goes, it is a classic however because the story has evolved to incorporate almost every theme of storytelling, folklore, horror, romance, comedy, teen drama. You could almost take any Shakespeare or well-told story now and throw some fangs at it, tweak the ‘vampire rules’ a little and call it a blockbuster. As seen with Interview With The Vampire, age-old story of bad friends and lost identity. Twilight is basically Bronte meets Romeo and Juliet, even Polidori’s The Vampyre is inspired by the real turmoils of a relationship with Byron.

Barclay predicts how when the vampire genre makes a comeback, it’ll draw inspiration from its gory roots. This is contrary to some of my research where audiences proved not to be drawn to the traditional vampire. What with the tourism in Transylvania on the way out, where will the lust for neo-Dracula come from? Perhaps it is not the time, the world is not ready for a new vampire, yet, the desire lies somewhere in the next generation.

Conclusion

Coming Out of The Coffin: the future for the viral vampire?

Being a vampire was never easy and without its baggage. The initiation of every stretch of fiction makes even the most violent gang look tame. Intense pain, death and reanimation, blood draining and drinking. Even when one finally awakes as a vampire, and eternity of torture stretches before them, they must constantly take life to sustain their immortality, which begs the question are vampires truly immortal at all? If so much sacrifice must be made, so much youth stolen for theirs to remain. Everybody knows how most vampire stories end, the creatures have to atone for their reckless ways and defiance of a convention by meeting a violent end. Vampires seemed cursed to a tortured existence. Even in Twilight where the ending is painted as happy, Bella still thirsts insanely for blood and is capable if not likely to kill a human somewhere in her centuries ahead. She must also watch all her loved ones die with natural age whilst she lives on and can never explain her eternal youth to those close to her. Although she remains with her true love, at what cost?

Even though Twilight and other modern vampire works balance strangely between eternal life and eternal damnation, they both come with a sacrifice of one's humanity, freedom, and youth. Perhaps a metaphor for life, one cannot have riches without paying for them in some way. Butler (2013) Some vampires like Lestat shrug off the feelings of the emptiness of his existence and live wildly, others like Carlisle, try to fill the black hole inside by performing charitable works.

The future of the vampire is uncertain, current trends predicting that the bad boy, relatable, modern vampire won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. With only one aspect of evidence to vouch for the gothic Dracula genre to resurface, I cannot dimly say I believe this is the future for vampires. All my research has proved, however, how beloved they are. Feared, lusted after, revered, and adored despite your every instinct telling you it’s wrong.

Vampires are timeless.

As ageless as their bodies with a history as rich as their blood. They will never truly leave our screens or fade from our imaginations. This creature which has undergone makeover after makeover has built such a dimensional and transferrable archetype in every genre. Even if they are out of fashion at present, like double denim, they will make a comeback again and again.

Why have vampires gone viral? The best description it seems is it was never clear what vampires were, to begin with, ergo we could fill in the blanks with whatever we wanted at the time. Vampires rose to fame and influence by profiting from confusion and our natural desire for the unknown. Vampires as just as empty and unfulfilled as humans, just more glamourous. They always contradict themselves, nobody can truly agree on what a vampire is and all the rules change, old ones being discarded then resurfaced as a ‘new idea’ and new rules and beings seemingly materialised whenever authors feel like it.

Bartlett & Idriceanu (2005) say ageing and death have not yet been conquered by man despite all our technological advances, this is why the AI genre is drawing similarities. The vampire is caught in a nightmare world, neither dead nor alive, and reminds us of our vulnerability and mortality.

‘In the end, we are alone. And there is nothing but the cold, dark wasteland of eternity.’

~ Lestat de Lioncourt

Reference List

Books:

Auerbach, N. (1995) Our Vampires, Ourselves Chicago: University of Chicago Press Bartlett, W. & Idriceanu, F. (2005) Legends of Blood: the Vampire in history and myth Gloucestershire:

Sutton

Beresford, M. (2008) From Demons To Dracula: the creation of the modern vampire myth London: Reaktion

Butler, E. (2010) Metamorphoses of The Vampire in Literature and Film London: Camden House

Butler, E. (2012) The Rise of The Vampire London: Reaktion

Gordon, J. & Hollinger, V. (1997) Blood Read: the vampire as a metaphor in contemporary culture Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

Meyer, S. (2007) Eclipse New York: Little, Brown and Co. Meyer, S. (2008) Breaking Dawn New York: Little, Brown and Co. Nelson, V. (2012) Gothika Cambridge: Harvard University Press Rice, A. (1976) Interview With The Vampire New York: Knopf Stoker, B (1897) Dracula edited by Negri, P & Casey, K. Mineola: Dover Publication, 2000 Williamson, M. (2005) The Lure of The Vampire London: Wallflower Press

Interviews:

Barclay, J. (2017) interviewed by Sadler, K. 5/12/17 Drajan, L. (2017) interviewed by Sadler, K. 5/12/17 Ashby, R. Bell, N. & Davidson, K. (2017) interviewed by Sadler, K. 5/12/17

Bibliography

Books:

Cavallaro, D (2002) The Gothic Vision: Three Centuries of Horror, Terror and Fear in London. London: MPG Books Ltd

Freud, S. (1920) Beyond the Pleasure Principle edited by Strachey, J. Pacific Publishing Studio 2010 James, E.L. (2011) 50 Shades of Grey New York: Random House Jenkins, H. (2013) Spreadable Media New York: NYU Press Le Fanu, J S. (1871) Carmilla republished Charles Town: Jefferson Publishing 2015

Meyer, S. (2006) New Moon New York: Little, Brown and Co. Meyer, S. (2005) Twilight New York: Little, Brown and Co.

Poe, E A. (1903) The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition, Volume 2. New York: P. F. Collier and Son.

Polidori, J. (1819) The Vampyre London: Henry Colburn Senf, C. (1987) Blood, Eroticism and the Vampire in Twentieth-Century Popular Literature OH: Bowling

Green State University Press Stephens, W. (2002) Demon Lovers Chicago: University of Chicago Press Twitchell, J. (1981) The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature Durham: Duke UP Films: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Francis Ford Coppola [Film] Columbia Pictures Dracula (1931) Tod Browning [Film] Universal Pictures Dracula (1958) Terence Fisher [Film] Universal International Dracula 2000 (2000) Patrick Lussier [Film] Miramax Films Dracula Untold (2014) Gary Shore [Film] Universal Pictures House of Dracula (1945) Erle C. Kenton [Film] Universal Pictures Interview With The Vampire (1994) Neil Jordan [Film] Warner Bros. Only Lovers left Alive (2013) Jim Jarmusch [Film] Soda Pictures The Lost Boys (1987) Joel Schumacher [Film] Warner Bros. Twilight (2008) Catherine Hardwicke [Film] Summit Entertainment The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) Chris Weitz [Film] Summit Entertainment The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) David Slade [Film] Summit Entertainment

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 (2011) Bill Condon [Film] Summit Entertainment The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 2 (2012) Bill Condon [Film] Summit Entertainment Underworld (2003) Len Wiseman [Film] Lakeshore Entertainment

TV:

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) 7 seasons, 144 episodes, Joss Whedon, 20th Television The Vampire Diaries (2009 - 2017) 8 seasons, 171 episodes, Kevin Williamson & Julie Plec, The CW True Blood (2008 - 2014) 7 seasons, 80 episodes, Alan Ball HBO Enterprises.