Vampires I: Ageless & Imminent

Vampires are more than silly Halloween costumes – their nature and depictions in media have a lot to teach us about our societal fears.

A mindless predator lurking beneath a superficially sophisticated surface. A creature which extends its unnatural existence by feeding on the very life of human beings. A parasite on society that promises loyal followers they can one day be just like it. An ever-hungrier tyrant which will either dominate or destroy our species if left unchecked.

But enough about billionaires.

Olivia’s Attendants by Dmitry Burmak

Undying Fascination

When did I fall in love with vampire stories? Rather than a moment of revelation, I think it transpired over years. Continued and varied exposure certainly acted as a catalyst. 

I recall appreciating Dracula (1897) for its epistolary and atmospheric storytelling during my first serious experience with the text in university. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) opened my eyes to the hilarious possibilities of combining speculative fiction with black and absurdist comedy. Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering creatively reimagined vampires as long-term social antagonists and conquistador legions respectively.

Vampires can be despotic tyrants, desperate addicts or “regular human bartenders”. In the same story, they can be the most elegant and most horrifying creatures on Earth. This is certainly the case in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, a role-playing game where players embody distinct vampires across the spectrum of modern society.

Their circumstances and appearances are malleable, but their underlying nature is constant: vampires seek to extend their own unnatural existence by draining the blood from our very veins (in many cases the blood carries aspects of the spiritual, emotional and mental self to the vampire alongside vitality). Modern civilization offers them a perfect blueprint for their hunts, by designating entire communities as vulnerable and/or exploitable.

What monster better encapsulates and enacts our societal fears?

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Spinning the Web

Though the modern vampire is said to have risen from John William Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), that story’s titular Lord Ruthven is defined by staccato moments of violence amidst an elusive nobleman’s life.

Carmilla (1872) and Dracula (1897) take a slower approach (often forgotten in modern tales), repeatedly feeding on their unknowing victims. Laura, Lucy Westenra and Jonathan Harker each become gradually weaker and confused even as their predators seem to gain youth and vibrancy. I find these scenes horrifying as allusions to gaslighting, where the vampire denies anything is wrong even while absorbing the very lives, minds and souls of their victims.

As with many cases of gaslighting, it takes external intervention to save Laura and other victims from Carmilla. Lucy receives constant infusions of blood from her suitors and is nearly rescued by the knowledge of Van Helsing, but a miscommunication leaves her fatefully vulnerable. Jonathan is abandoned by Dracula and escapes on his own, but must be nursed back to health afterward.

Lucy Westenra (more on her soon) - by Juan Pablo Rodriguez Padilla

Expand this scenario beyond a single victim and it doesn’t take long for entire populations to be endangered. Bram Stoker’s text sees Van Helsing and company narrowly halt Dracula’s shadowy conquest of England in its earliest stages. Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series reimagines that ending to depict a world where Dracula won, married Queen Victoria and spread his curse far and wide. Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot (1975) is similar, with recognition and intervention arriving too late.

In these stories, the vampire is a lurking threat which becomes exponentially more dangerous the longer it remains undiscovered. The very improbability of its existence in our world always plays a part in building narrative tension – arguably Dracula only ended the way it did because Van Helsing was already madly obsessed with such creatures and took no convincing.

Have you spotted that next allusion yet? Probably none of the 19th-century authors had climate change in mind, but vampires can easily be taken to represent any issue struggling to be heard and believed in mainstream society. Domestic abuse is certainly a major contender, alongside perceived radicalization. Thankfully those issues are long gone!

You’re welcome for the free advertising, Netflix

The absolute best of these stories manage to surprise me with the vampire twist – that was honestly a huge reason why I enjoyed ‘Salem’s Lot. It has to be the focus of the story and bring the right atmosphere with it, though – I discussed last week why the random vampire in Hell Bent failed for me, and just this week The Ten Thousand Doors of January pulled the same trick to only slightly better effect. 

[Oh – totally unrelated, but I wholeheartedly recommend Midnight Mass on Netflix. Impeccable acting throughout, and from the same brilliant mind as The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher. Sorry, I know it’s a weird place and time but ADHD, you know?]

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Anyway, there’s some of my favourite mainstream stories and the important morals they represent – in addition to being endlessly entertaining. Next week we go metatextual: Anno Dracula, Lucy Westenra, Vampire: The Masquerade and more.