Good morning you beautiful people. So I’ve spoken about werewolves earlier this month, which has always been my second runner up for monsters in horror. Second?! You may ask, I know, I know, I’ve always had a soft spot for vampires, I’m sure if any of you were Twilight fans, I hear “team Jacob!” being shouted at me. But out of the classic monsters, vampires have always been my favorite and I blame Bram Stoker’s Dracula for that.
I’d like to take a deep dive into the way to combat a vampire, why does garlic repel them, why in some movies or tv shows it doesn’t? How come they need an invite? Also, WHY are Dracula movies constantly so sexed up?! Seriously, constantly orgies everywhere. But let’s brew about it.
Enter the usual suspects when it comes to keeping a vampire away, holy water and invitation into one’s home. Technically, a vampire is kind of like a demon, I poked around the internet saying a demon and a vampire are totally two different entities, but to me as I thought about it they are very similar. A vampire has to be invited in much like a demon has to be summoned/ invited to come. So, holy water and crosses being an irritant makes sense. Garlic, not sooo much other than it is pungent in smell and since vampires have strong senses it’s more like a gross over powering smell. However back in medieval times Europeans believed that garlic symbolized strength as well as purity. Now, stakes through the heart, well, it can kill anybody so does fire.
Now, the parlor tricks so the “usual” vampire has all the attributes of a lean mean killing machine but with the intelligence of a human that leans more predator, like an apex predator that has a taste for human. In some cases, they have animals to call kind of like a witch or warlock( Dracula could call to wolves), flight, telepathy is most common, and another is reaching across by touch via shadow(very rare in movies nowadays).
Let’s get into the movies shall we, I practically rubbed my hands together for this one. When it comes to Dracula he’s portrayed as a heartbroken albeit blood thirsty soulless creature. If we were to put him in a human perspective with the super charged sexual aspect, he’s having lots of sex because he’s lonely and trying to fill a void much like a person who was broken up with, divorced or widowed. You may say hold your fucking horses that’s not always the case, but maybe for him it is? Dusk Til Dawn, Nosferatu, they too have that sensual aspect. Maybe the lore of vampires creates a sense of sensuality of a creature filled with longing or knowing they’re beautiful and like a succubus lure humans to their death? Or nowadays for book readers the premise that the villain is more desirable over the hero/heroine.
Either way, vampires movies and stories cross reference each other like the diorama we had as kids where the circles overlap but there is always a new way to make these monsters intriguing and at times terrifying. What are your thoughts? What is your favorite vampire movie? Or do you find the furry werewolf more to your liking?
As Always Keep On Brewin!