Cinematic Vampires: From Shadows to Spotlight

Defining the vampire

The vampire is a creature of popular legend, and one that has fascinated countless cinema-goers for more than one hundred years. Vampires have been featured in folklore and fiction in various cultures. ¹ Their characteristics have varied, their name has even varied, but predominantly the myth has centred on the need of these unnatural creatures to consume human blood. ² Akin in many myths to ghouls, zombies, or other undead, the vampire has always been connected to death. As part of this they have often been associated with concepts of taboo or liminality. They are creatures that conjure a mix of reverence and fear; they represent immortality but only through unnatural existence. They will live forever, but always as monsters. As such the vampire is considered a liminal character, understanding that liminality is the temporary state between two fields, as it removes the borders between life and death. ³ The symbolic desecration of the mortal border of existence crosses an essential line. For the vampire to feed it must take the life force and blood of a living human – a fundamental violation of our belief in the sanctity of life. It is then not a long step to the association of vampires with other immoral transgressions. As such, even in early mythology there have been clear connections between vampires and deviant sexuality. More often portrayed through the breaking of basic Christian values, such as sex outside marriage or multiple partners, it has also been presented as a façade for necrophilia or other forms of bondage, blood play, etc. that are not usually considered part of mainstream society. The vampire in many ways represents the other, the counter-cultural norms of the society in which its myths appears. This continues to hold true in Western cinema’s portrayal of the vampire. One of the great things about cinema, and especially the horror genre, is that as times change and societal fears evolve, so too has the representation of the monstrous vampire. ⁴

The associated characteristics of the vampire have also varied greatly. Some rise from their graves, or sleep in a coffin, others are more ethereal in nature. They may appear as grotesque monsters or as preternaturally beautiful, an allure to the unwary. ⁵ Their very creation even differs widely: a person may be bitten by a vampire to become one; some form of sorcery or witchcraft; a contagion carried in blood or other bodily fluids; a ritual process involving particular items; some even believed that babies born with teeth were predisposed to becoming vampires. ⁶ Even the form of their destruction differs widely: a wooden stake through the heart; fire; decapitation or “taking the head and the heart,” or more detailed dismemberment; or exposure to sunlight or more specifically UV light. ⁷ The specifics of the creation and destruction of vampires is often unique to a particular fiction, and more elaborate specifications have continued to appear, which is part of the appeal – that it is not a static myth.

The mythos connected to raising the dead already occupies a place of deep unease in Western Christian society. Connected from a Christian view to the story of Jesus and the saints, it appears often as a strong perversion of divinity. The other legends of the dead rising commonly used in fiction today derive from Vaudun or voodoo traditions. Every culture, religion and time has a set of beliefs regarding the ability to raise the dead. It is a fundamental desire of humankind to be able to find a way to restore our departed. The vampire is part of the warning that such unnatural desires can have terrible consequences. Creatures bearing vampiric characteristics that attack those sleeping and drain their blood, have appeared as far back as ancient Greece. ⁸ Some of the earliest recorded vampire fables were composed in Sanskrit in the 730s CE. ⁹ Walking corpses that drank the blood of the living were a common part of folklore in medieval Europe in times of diseases. ¹⁰ Such tales were particularly popular in Eastern Europe, and many writers today still draw from these myths, and the original base word for vampire is believed to have been derived from there. ¹¹ The first known recording of the root word was in a Russian document referring to a prince as an “upir lichy” or wicked vampire. ¹² The word “vampyre” did not enter the English language until around the 1730-40s with the first modern vampyre poem ‘Der Vampir’ being published in 1748. ¹³

It is from here, when the concept of the vampire entered English language that we see the most direct correlations to the Western cinematic representations of the vampire. In 1819 John Polidor wrote ‘The Vampyre,’ which was the first recorded vampire story published in England. In 1872 Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu published the novella Carmilla, a tale of a young vampire girl adopted into a family after a carriage accident. Although befriending the family’s daughter, Carmilla begins to kill other girls in the area. Eventually a vampire hunter comes and exhumes the body of Carmilla and stakes her through the heart. Although it predates Dracula by thirty years it draws on a number of similar concepts and mythologies. It was during this period of Gothic literature that the tale of the vampire flourished in publications. The 18th and 19th centuries were the peak of the modern incarnation of the vampire myth. The most famous work of this period being Dracula by Bram Stoker that was published in 1897. ¹⁴ The tale of the Transylvanian count with supernatural abilities that comes to London, solidified many of the popular concepts of vampirism that appeared in the earliest cinematic portrayals, especially in Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi’s portrayal in Dracula. Before examining the prevailing popularity of the vampire myth it is worth examining how (a key selection of) the cinematic portrayals of the vampire have moved from the shadowy figure in black to the enigmatic creature in the spotlight.

The 100 years cinematic timeline

1910s

1913 Vampire

The earliest believed cinematic appearance of a vampire was in Robert G. Vignola’s 1913 black and white silent film, tilted The Vampire. It was loosely based on a Rudyard Kipling poem and featured the vampire as a femme fatale. ¹⁵ It was only one among twenty five silent films to use the term vampire. A film titled Vampire of the Coast (1909) was the earliest use of the term in the title, but the film was about pirates. ¹⁶ There is much confusion surrounding the film The Vampire as very little survived of the film and its details. It could in fact not be about vampires, but rather be utilising the word to mean a villain or unsavoury character. ¹⁷ The term, in fact, was also used in this early period to describe a woman who uses her charms to seduce a man. ¹⁸ What made this film suggestive that it was the first presentation of a cinematic vampire was its connection to Kipling’s poem ‘The Vampire’ (1897). ¹⁹ The plot of the film has been roughly preserved and tells the story of a woman in India who kills a hunter. When the hunter’s friend shoots her she turns into a snake woman. ²⁰ Mythology from India alleged that vampires could take the form of various animals. As such if this is to represent the first version of the cinematic vampire it sets some interesting precedents: the vampire as a woman (which relates back to the early story of Carmilla), and the vampire as a shape-shifter.

1920s

1922 Nosferatu

For most, however, it is the 1922 film Nosferatu that is perceived as the first true vampire film, and for good reason. ²¹ Nosferatu, still a silent movie, was a more sophisticated cinematic piece and introduced the atmosphere of terror. ²² Brought to the screen by F.W. Murnau, whose direction saw a film of shadows and angles that captured the unreality of this psychological thriller. ²³ The central vampire was not Dracula, but was instead known as Count Orlok, acted by Max Schreck. In many ways the portrayal of Orlok is the closest to the original myths and folklore. Orlok was not an appealing seducer, but rather he is a monster: a nightmarish apparition, with a bulbous bald head, deathly white skin, batlike ears and long talonlike fingers. ²⁴ He appears on screen as less than a man, with a stammering walk and overly elaborate movements of his taloned hands. He is a literal representation of what the vampire represents. He is death, decay and a parasite feeding on humans. He feeds on many, bringing death and rats with him on his ship to London, a supernatural and literal plague. He rests through the day in a coffin and feeds at night, with his undoing being a beautiful woman who can distract him through the night. Orlok is defeated not by a hunter, but by his own greed to feed, and when the sunrises and a rooster crows he turns to smoke. This vampire is closer to the monstrous myths of the bloodsucker, the zombie, the ghoul that early authors would have been aware of. He is other, the unnatural and to be only feared.

1930s

1931 Dracula

The introduction of Count Dracula and the iconic imagery associated in popular culture began here in 1931 with Tod Browning’s film Dracula. ²⁵ Similar to Stoker’s version, it is actually a derivation based on a 1924 stage play. ²⁶ The Dracula presented is the well-groomed, suave man with a black cape and fangs. It was also the first true horror movie American audiences experienced where filmmakers did not minimise the terror onscreen (only three years later a code system was implemented). ²⁷ Dracula was portrayed by Bela Lugosi, one of the best known actor-vampires and who became typecast into this role for the rest of his career. Lugosi had already been undertaking the role of Dracula, having performed the part for 40 weeks on Broadway and years on the road. ²⁸ He was popular in the role and presented the vampire as a mesmerising gentleman as far at odds with Stoker’s intention as Orlok was, yet he drew on an aspect of Dracula that was absent in Nosferatu: that of the compelling immortal. ²⁹ He is also a fairly powerful version, able to shape-shift into a bat, hypnotise with a gaze, and turn others to vampires with his bite. He is able to create his servant Renfield to protect him, giving him a taste for blood in the form of insects and small creatures. He is also given weaknesses: he casts no reflection in mirrors, must rest during daylight, and is killed by the impaling of a wooden stake. This representation of the vampire was a tremendous success, and so cemented a new portrayal. Lugosi played the role to emphasise the vampire as a gentleman, a noble of exotic history, well-dressed and charismatic.

1932 Vampyr

A much lesser known film of the period is Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and released in 1932. A story separate to Stoker’s, it nonetheless returns to Le Fanu’s female vampire. The plot follows the death of a lord, who confides in a visiting occultist Allan Gray, and bequeaths him a book on vampires. ³⁰ Grey then solves the murder, uncovering that local dowager vampire Marguerite Chopin is in control of the town before killing her. The story clearly draws on Le Fanu’s Carmilla, but is a slightly “cleaner” version without the implied lesbianism, and with an emphasis on the vampire’s ability to turn family members against each other. ³¹ The vampire conforms to traditional female vampire stories in literature and early film, where it is less about abilities and more the insidious nature of the vampire.

1936 Dracula’s Daughter

Directed by Lambert Hillyer, the 1936 Dracula’s Daughter is a sequel to Dracula and begins a few moments after the previous film on Dracula’s death. ³² The story focuses on Dracula’s daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska, who steals Dracula’s body and burns it in the hope it will make her mortal. Yet this does not quench her thirst for blood and she continues to kill and sleep in her coffin during the day. ³³ She eventually seeks help from a psychiatrist, when he fails to help she kidnaps his love and takes her to Transylvania. She is stopped and killed by an arrow. With fewer powers than previous iterations, she is still a similar portrayal of the female vampire, with lesbian undertones also present in the film. While the role of the male vampire continues to evolve and change, unfortunately the female one remains fairly static until much later.

1940s

1943 Son of Dracula

In 1943 the Son of Dracula, directed by Robert Siodmak, followed as a sequel to Dracula’s Daughter and stared Lon Chaney Jr. as the Count Alucard (Dracula spelt backwards) who comes to America. ³⁴ The film is confusingly situated as Alucard is not directly referenced as a son, of Dracula himself, but more a possible descendent or perhaps a “spiritual son.” It is actually a fairly dark film focused on a love triangle. ³⁵ While Chaney’s Alucard followed well in the footsteps of Lugosi’s Dracula, he brought to the performance a menacing air, still a gentleman, but a noticeably more dangerous one with none of the suave European airs or accents that Lugosi utilised. The story largely is about a normal love triangle, and other than Katherine’s fascination with the morbid there is no suggestion that Alucard had coerced her into the relationship. In fact his only display of power is being insubstantial when Katherine’s boyfriend, Frank, shoots him, causing the bullet to pass through to strike and kill Katherine instead. ³⁶ Alucard turns Katherine and they sleep in the day and hunt the town at night. Katherine, however, wants to share immortality with Frank and tells him how to kill Alucard, which he does before also setting Katherine’s coffin on fire. Alucard is destroyed by the rising sun when he no longer has his resting place, continuing a similar theme to Nosferatu in the killing of vampires.

1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

A deviation from the horror films is the 1948 horror/comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. ³⁷ The inclusion of this film is as the first comedic cinematic presentation of the vampire, and Lugosi appears as Dracula. This is an incursion of where the character is used as a caricature, a cultural icon of what the vampire is: black caped, slick, gentlemanly and blood thirsty. It is interesting as it represents the embedding of iconography in relation to a particular version of the vampire. It is also an early concept of drawing the vampire outside of belonging to horror alone.

1950s

1958 Horror of Dracula

The next important cinematic portrayal of Dracula is in the self-same titled film that starred Christopher Lee in the titular role (known as Horror of Dracula in America). Directed by Terence Fisher, the film also launched the Hammer Horror franchise of films, and was the British answer to the American films. ³⁸ It was also the first version of Dracula in colour. ³⁹ But more importantly, it introduced the final nuance to the most commonly known version of the vampire: the lover. ⁴⁰ Lee’s depiction was the first to bring vampires out of the shadows. He was not lurking in the dark waiting for the victims to come to him, but rather was a sophisticated, charismatic hunter that offered a dangerous and irresistible allure to the unwary. The narrative is based again on Stoker’s novel, but with considerable alterations to the plot. The story focuses on a vampire hunter (Jonathan Harker trained by Doctor Van Helsing) who comes, disguised as a librarian, to Dracula’s castle but fails. The vampire women who served Dracula are killed in their coffins with a wooden stake to the heart, also the first indication of the brides of Dracula. Dracula in this film easily outwits his hunters, and turns a number of characters to vampires, he is seldom seen onscreen, but this acts to highlight his ability to outsmart the others. ⁴¹ Only when Van Helsing traps Dracula in his castle after sunrise does it end by Helsing opening the curtains and forming a cross with two candlesticks to force Dracula into the sun, where he falls to dust. ⁴² Lee presents a terrifying, but strongly alluring vampire in a film with strong sexual undertones. Aristocratic in his bearing, Lee managed to convey the nobility of the immortal trapped in time, although he brought women under his thrall a certain sadness would come over him, a regret in the circumstances. ⁴³ For the first time Dracula was shown as having vulnerabilities in his character, the misunderstood monster that appealed to women the world over.

1960s

1960 The Brides of Dracula

The Brides of Dracula was the next Hammer Horror films. Directed by Terence Fisher again, however, it does not include Christopher Lee as Dracula, but returns to the presentation of the female vampire. ⁴⁴ The narrative follows a young woman, Marianne, and the young Baron Meinster who was imprisoned by his vampire mother. Both mother and son were engaged in debauchery and turn to a darker nature. Van Helsing again comes to the rescue and stakes the vampires. The film has thinly veiled messages on Christianity and morality, which undermine the vampire narrative. ⁴⁵ However, it fits in comfortably with the previous female vampire representations, where their power is based in the sexual, the filial and ultimately lead to their own demise rather than “battling” with the hunters. It is also one of the most clearly situated vampire films that leans into the concept of the vampire as evil in the biblical sense.

1964 The Last Man On Earth

While earlier films did star hunters who drove the narrative, they were still films that framed the vampire as The Vampire – a singular character who embodied the immortal power of vampires. In 1964 The Last Man On Earth offered two unique perspectives: the vampire hunter as the central character, and vampires as a collective. Based on Richard Matherson’s 1954 book I Am Legend, it depicts a dystopian world where vampires overwhelm humanity and one man becomes a reluctant vampire hunter. ⁴⁶ This is important as even though characters such as Van Helsing, especially following Peter Cushing’s outstanding acting, have become as notable as the vampire master himself, this was the first strong cinematic shift to focusing on the hunter. Secondly, the film portrays vampires as zombies, as a plague that mindlessly feasts and destroys. Previously, the secondary vampires in films had been minions, but retained their own personality to a degree. The film also touches, at the end, on a hierarchy existing with more rational vampires hidden away, also an interesting concept seized on later.

1966 Prince of Darkness

A return to Hammer Horror films was Prince of Darkness in 1966 and a reappearance of Christopher Lee’s Dracula. ⁴⁷ Dracula is resurrected through dark ritual, a very thought-provoking precedent to set, but ultimately the story returns to drinking from women, and the demise of the Count, this time by drowning. ⁴⁸ Interestingly, one of most intense portrayals of Dracula that reinforced his nature as the strong and silent type came out of a dislike by Lee of the script. ⁴⁹ Lee who apparently held Jimmy Sangster’s scripted dialogue in contempt refused to utter a single word in the film and instead only snarled and hissed. ⁵⁰ Instead of devolving the character back to a monster, it seemed to somehow express Dracula’s dark demeanour, a display of inner turmoil. ⁵¹.

1970s

1970 Taste the Blood of Dracula

The 1970 continuation of the Hammer Horror films actually follows the 1968 Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, which is largely more the same as above. What Taste the Blood of Dracula signalled was an engagement with explicit sexuality and Christianity. ⁵² The film displays a woman’s naked breasts for the first time, and the de-sanctifying of a church, plus the undertaking of a satanic ritual to raise Dracula. ⁵³ The sexualisation of the vampire by this stage has become an entrenched concept. But this period also saw the popularity of the reviving of the vampire by numerous means, a premise continued in Dracula A.D. in 1972.

1972 Blacula

Blacula is a significant shift in the representations, centrally as for the first time the vampire is black, but also for the nuanced portrayal of the vampire. Known as a Blaxploitation horror film, it told the story of Prince Mamuwalde from a fictitious African nation who was sent to seek help from Dracula in ending the slave trade in 1780. He is of course killed and turned, his wife also left to die, and is left in his coffin which is only uncovered in 1970. ⁵⁴ The film, like many, seizes upon the vampire as a metaphor for colonisation, here Mamuwalde is stripped of his identity and given the name Blacula, separated from his family and warped by the experience. ⁵⁵ In the opening depiction Mamuwalde is shown to be educated, proud and honourable, which is altered by his transformation into a vampire. The vampire here is then similar to early depictions, he hunts, drinks and makes more, with a focus here on Tina whom he believes to be his reincarnated wife. He cannot be seen on a photo negative, and stakes through the heart kill his minions. Yet at the end Mamuwalde willingly climbs the stairs to the roof to be destroyed by the morning sun, rather than face eternity alone once Tina is killed, the first of the vampire versions to show true remorse, and opt for suicide over continuing as monster.

1979 Dracula

Another remake of Dracula, with the same title is released in 1979 and stars Frank Langella in the lead. However, it deviates in the characterisation of Dracula, making him a seductive and almost compassionate character. ⁵⁶ Langella is a different version of even Lugosi and Lee’s charismatic vampire. He has no red eyes, or blood dripping from his mouth, and no accent. Yet he is cool, suave, and endlessly charming. ⁵⁷ He is a prominent protagonist and interacts with the characters in much more detail than previous portrayals. He is charming, seducing Lucy with more than vampiric powers, yet he is also clearly a killer and monster. This is represented less through him then the women. When he brings back Mina it is not as a lush woman, but a dead creature, grey skinned and red eyed. ⁵⁸ The focus of the film is the romance between Dracula and Lucy, yet the romantic allure of the vampire is made more monstrous by the translation of vampirism in his victims. It is one of the best depictions of the monster beneath the façade of beauty.

1980s

1987 The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys is the most iconic shift for the cinematic vampire. This introduced the teenage vampire, and has prevailed as one of the strongest cultural shifts in the image of the vampire. Director Joel Schumacher took the myth and made it modern, gone are the castles, capes and middle-aged men. ⁵⁹ Instead he replaced it with gangs, beach parties and comic book stores. The story emphasises ideas of rebellion, sexuality and fear, within adolescent terms and resonated with audiences. ⁶⁰ It draws on traditional ideas, with thirst for blood, sensitivity to sunlight, no reflection, can be impaled by a wooden stake, but also adds holy water and garlic (in a bathtub), electrocution, and the concept of initiation. For a vampire to finally turn they must kill and feed. It also introduces two new concepts that have been picked up in a myriad of popular-culture since: the idea that if the head of the vampires is killed this will free the others, and that people know of vampires living in society (this arguably is the shifting of genre, moving vampires from horror/gothic to urban fantasy). The film not only offered teen vampires, but it offered new interpretations and considerations of the mythology, while simultaneously poking fun at the common knowledge of vampires created by decades of pop-culture.

1987 Near Dark

Near Dark, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is a mashup – a Western vampire movie, and not the only one. It centers on Caleb Colton who is turned by an alluring woman named Mae. He is then brought into her family where he must kill and shed blood. ⁶¹ It is a film stripped of the expected gothic trappings, with no crosses, coffins or holy water, but rather involves guns and knives. ⁶² Sunlight, however, continues to be deadly, as is the need for blood. The film is set amongst abandoned buildings, cheap motels and travel in blacked-out windows, all of which help films such as The Lost Boys in signalling the overall change to the vampire narrative.

1987 My Best Friend is a Vampire

Not the first vampire comedy, but one that again acts as a cross-genre interpretation of the vampire story. My Best Friend is a Vampire, directed by Jimmy Huston, focuses on the idea of a newly made vampire trying to not feed on humans. ⁶³ Not a deep interpretation as it is focused on the teenage problems of the lovelorn Jeremy, but it does hint at later films that deal with the concept of the moral struggle between what is needed to live against the cost to others. Part of the comedy of the piece is the inclusion of traditional concepts: he is turned by an older, sexually appealing female vampire; he develops an aversion to garlic; sensitivity to sunlight; and a craving for blood. ⁶⁴ He is considered a “living” vampire rather than an undead one, and is even provided with a guidebook that frames vampires as a “minority group” who has been persecuted. ⁶⁵ It is one of the earliest presentations of the vampire as harmless, “different,” and able to be integrated into human society. The film in fact ends with Jeremy still a vampire, but now one with a girlfriend that he introduces to his parents.

1990s

1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula

1992 saw the return to Stoker’s Dracula, moving back away from teenage issues and popular culture. Francis Ford Coppola directs Bram Stoker’s Dracula, deliberately connecting the film to the book. It has been widely accepted as an accurate screen representation, but still bears clear amendments to the original version, which is most obvious in his characterisation of the titular lead. ⁶⁶ Stoker’s Dracula is monstrous, a killer driven by blood, and a representation of England’s fear of the darker mythologies of Eastern Europe. In comparison Coppola chooses to depart from this and follow the progression that had been evolving: of a romantic lead, a misunderstood Byronic hero. Blood lust alone was not the focus to motivate Dracula to pursue Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray, but rather a connection is made to the inspiration of the original story, the historical character of Vlad Tepes (the Impaler), and as such his origins as a man. ⁶⁷ Where previous versions have focused either on the monstrous or the sexual nature of Dracula, Coppola’s version is more interested in the idea that Dracula is capable of love. ⁶⁸ It is also presented that he has further abilities, mainly that he is able to change between youth and old age, which also is able to represent the different aspects of his character – the old hermit living as a monster, and the young man who seeks love. It is indeed a romantic representation. The entire film leans into the romantic genre, with a Romeo and Juliet style end, where Dracula lies dying in his chapel where he first renounced his faith, turning young to kiss his love goodbye as the cross above him repairs itself, and he asks her to give him peace, which she does by stabbing a knife through his heart. This version offers three new considerations: the curse of the vampire can be a punishment for turning from god (a thread picked up in many later film and television versions); immortality is not only about being young; and a vampire can seek love.

1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In the same year came Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a continuation of the teenage vampire films with an edge of comedy. It is a strong mix of The Lost Boys, with gang style hierarchy and leather glad vampires, Dracula, with the use of traditional mythology and references to earlier vampire hunting in Europe, and My Best Friend is a Vampire, set in a suburban high school with teenage problems. The film is focused on the vampire slayer, Buffy, who while being a cheerleader is also now following her destiny as a slayer. ⁶⁹ It lacks the finesse of the later television version, but it does also signal a change for later films, where the focus of the film is on the hunter, not a collective, but a single hero who is holding back the darkness.

1994 Interview with a Vampire

Interview with a Vampire is an adaption from the Anne Rice series and captures a different perspective on the vampire myth. The key difference is that for Rice it is the complexities of an immortal’s tale that is the important narrative, and less focus is spent on the blood lust and staking. These vampires, through the lens of Louis, are tortured characters that struggle with their vampire natures. ⁷⁰ The film straddles the emerging views of vampires. Lestat is blood hungry, charismatic and throws himself joyfully into an immortal life as a vampire, unrepentantly killing. However, Louis the brooding protagonist, who Lestat turns, struggles with the killing, rejects human blood for rats and continues to fight against the immorality of their existence. Only when Claudia, a child vampire, is made do the two come back together in accord and form a family. ⁷¹ The actual invention of Claudia raises some further questions about immortality, with this woman who kills and feeds trapped inside a woman’s body. The film also touches on an emerging sense of sexuality in relation to homosexual relationships. Vampire sexuality has previously centered on concepts of sensuality and lesbianism, only in the support of meeting the male gaze. The advent of new interpretations of the vampire has been used to explore the homosexual experience as part of appealing sexuality.

1998 Blade

Directed by Stephen Norrington, the action/horror film Blade is the first film version of a comic book vampire, and it has a unique take on the myths. It draws on the similar successes of Blacula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in that it subverts the expected. The narrative focuses on the hierarchy of the vampires, and Blade’s unique place as a part-vampire. ⁷² Originally created in 1973 Blade is a character that hunts his own race. Redesigned in 1998, Wesley Snipes’ presentation as a stoic warrior resulted in a shift in the corresponding comics to reflect his performance. ⁷³ The film picks up on traditional icons: aversion to sun, silver, beheading, staking, etc., but it also introduces the Daywalker, a vampire that through mixed heritage can walk in the sun. It also begins to flesh out the idea of the vampire hierarchy, of leaders, factions, their own lore (Blood God), connections to human politicians, willing human donors, and levels of power and prestige, including an obsession with pure-blood vampires (the nobility). ⁷⁴

2000s

2003 Underworld

It is fitting to discuss Underworld next as it picks up many of the concepts Blade put into play. Directed by Len Wiseman, Underworld is a film about the war between vampires and lycans (werewolves). The central character Selene is a trained assassin, a vampire, that hunts the lycan. ⁷⁵ This feud has been going on for centuries and largely occurs outside human purview, yet when Selene becomes mixed up with Michael Corvin who is turned into a lycan the film delves into a moral shift that sees Selene realise the injustice present in the vampire’s persecution of the lycans. Selene undergoes a huge transformation, which highlights the complexity and depth of the vampire. It is also the first presentation of a strong female vampire that is not sexual or debauched. The film manages to tell an incredibly dense set of lore (largely reliant of a viewer’s base understanding of vampires and werewolves) along with a star-crossed lovers plot, while framing the vampire as a supernatural powered being, but still bound by morals and ethics. ⁷⁶

2008 Twilight

Twilight based on the Stephanie Meyer’s book was directed by Catherine Hardwicke and offered a fairly accurate representation of the source material. Again, a teenage vampire interpretation, but with some changes in lore (mainly in the form of the beautiful sparkling vampire). The film also does not belittle the role of humans, and ends without the female losing her life or becoming a vampire. The intense sexuality is present, but repressed, and the vampire is still positioned as a sexual threat. These vampires subsist on animal blood, but display superhuman strength, supernatural powers and resilience. ⁷⁷ Hugely criticised, what Twilight did offer was the framework to understand that all aspects of the mythology are amenable for narrative impact, without losing the presence of the vampire.

2008 Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In delves into the unsettling idea of the child vampire. Based on the 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, it is directed by Tomas Alfredson and sits firmly in the thriller genre. The story focuses on the developing relationship between human boy Oskar, who is significantly bullied, and child vampire Eli. The brutality of Eli’s killings of adults is horrific and in line with expected vampire feedings, but is further terrifying for audiences when witnessing her frail, childish form attack larger male characters. The film borrows from vampire traditions (avoid sunlight), but largely highlights the potential violence of children. ⁷⁸ Eli is vulnerable, but monstrous in a manner that cannot be expressed by adult versions of the vampire myth. With a plethora of film and literary versions before it, even the most jaded of vampire-viewers would struggle not to be unnerved by this iteration.

2010s

2013 Byzantium

Directed by Neil Jordon, Byzantium, is a unique story about a vampire mother and daughter on the run from the brotherhood of vampires. ⁷⁹ The film also rejects all the traditional weaknesses and strengths of the vampire, retaining only the need for blood. Furthermore, the key lore of the film is that vampirism is gained by finding a hidden waterfall on a remote island. ⁸⁰ The film centers on the mother/daughter relationship and the issue of isolation and secrecy. ⁸¹

2014 Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive continues with the new perspectives of the vampires. Created by Jim Jarmusch, it is a film more about art than love. The film touches on one of the greatest appeals of the vampire: immortality. It highlights that vampirism is a way to be there to see the turning of history, the changes to culture and to bear witness to new societies. ⁸² It explores the darker psychology of immortality, as Adam (male vampire) laments the heartlessness of humans. ⁸³ The film touches on the hunting of the vampires as through centuries they have been pursued, but focuses more on the fatalism of living an eternal life in a diminishing world. ⁸⁴

2014 Dracula Untold

Returning to Dracula, the 2014 film created by Gary Shore, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Dracula Untold is an origin story and a retelling of previous versions. ⁸⁵ The story delves into the origins of Vlad Tepes, emphasising, as did the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, that there was a man before the vampire, and he can still be reached. ⁸⁶ Dracula Untold strongly situates the character Dracula in the vampire, highlighting the emotional drive and motivations that continue throughout the film. ⁸⁷

2014 Vampire Academy

Another teenage vampire film was Vampire Academy, also based on a series of young adult novels by Richelle Mead. However, the film does introduce a strong lore, vampire society and a return to original mythologies. Using the terms Dhampir and Moroi the film draws on Eastern European and Russian myths, some of the places the mythologies were retained the longest. The story is set at a vampire school where Moroi are of pure bloodlines, while Dhampir are half-human and act to protect the Moroi. The Strigoi are vampires in the traditional sense, they have blood lust and seek death and power. ⁸⁸ The film builds on the lore of the novels, highlighting the Moroi have a queen, have a parliament, have their own societies within the human populations. Moroi also have control over the elements, are only slightly sensitive to light, but do still need blood to survive. The Dhampir have all the super strength, but no powers, but also no weakness to light. It crosses a number of modern concepts of the vampire with ancient mythology and a medieval caste system. The trend of this period seemed to be of either the existential vampire, or a modern interpretation of ancient myths.

The enduring appeal of the vampire

For a hundred years vampires have stalked the silver screen, capturing audiences across the world. Early works clearly drew their inspirations from key texts, such as Stoker’s Dracula and Le Fanu’s Carmilla, but later creators have turned to new perspectives, not only in the presentation of the vampire, but the meaning of the character. The vampire has been a monster, a gentleman, a lover, a tragic hero, a Satanist, a biker, a cheerleader, and a friend. It is a diverse creature that can be utilised in a myriad of ways to represent social, cultural and moral allegories, be a metaphor for death, greed, immorality, sex, and more. They are powerful, they are vulnerable, they are unnatural and they are “human.” As we have seen their powers shift, their weaknesses, their narratives, the very lore that defines them, all that remains is the need for blood to survive. A base need that should make them only monstrous, yet here we are at the end of one hundred years and still our fascination has not yet waned. Even now we have a new slew of interpretations with Vindar the Vampire (Christian corruption), The Witcher: The Vampire Hunter (based on a computer game), and Family Blood (vampirism as a drug addiction); not to mention the myriad of 21st century films (Dracula 3000, Van Helsing, Perfect Creature, BloodRayne, I Am Legend, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Vampires Suck, and so many more) I could not include in this article. Because always the vampire represents the taboo, the liminal, the dark temptation that titillates and terrifies – this is why the myths continue.

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