Bloodsuckers: Reflections on the Vampire Genre

Vampires! Where? EVERYWHERE! Yes, with the release of a few good bloodsucking flicks (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is my pick) on the way, it seems a good time to delve into the history of these wonderful creatures, and find out why they make us (and, apparently, ex-presidents of the USA) tick.

Vampires have also been around for a long time. Not just because they live forever, either. For the most part, they are depicted as irresistible, hypnotically attractive, endlessly unattainable. Vampires represent a fear of sex and sexuality. Dracula preyed on both the “Blooful Lady” [Beautiful Lady] Lucy, and the traditionally kittenish Mina Harker, while keeping a harem of three alluring, vaguely incestuous “Sisters” in his home. Think back to the end of Nosferatu- Count Orlok watches the woman as she sleeps through his window, conjuring images of voyeurism and Peeping Toms. In a more contemporary setting, The Lost Boys depicts vampires as desirable, highly sexual teens- the combination of puberty and vampirism combining to create a heady mixture. Fangs and fornication, if you will. The idea of something hedonistically dedicated to one thing, and one thing alone, is attractive, yet repulsive- it appeals to our basic “treat” premise (we can’t have it, so we want it more), combined with elements of mystery and sexual attraction.
The basis of a vampire suggests a sexual surtext, too- extracting a bodily fluid using the mouth is an obvious reference to oral sex. Earlier vampires also used to remove other, unspecified bodily fluids from humans, too – and it seems unlikely they weren’t just feasting on phlegm. The fact that these creatures need this to survive suggests the incredibly strong sexual drive that still exists in many humans- to procreate in order to continue the human race-and the lengths some people will go to in order to fulfil this desire. The fact that the vampires are seen as demonic, evil, murderous, amoral beings suggests that the society that created them saw unmarried sex as undesirable and in league with the devil, something to be feared and avoided at all costs. With the first notable reference to vampires being in England, 1735, when adultery was punishable by a sizeable imprisonment, it seems likely that their views on sex were not particularly liberal.
Vampire films are, at best, patchy. I’m going to acknowledge Twilight as a vampire film, simply because that is what they are defined as. Unfortunately, it is at the lower end of the vampire film scale, because they don’t seem to drink blood or do anything other than turn into Christmas tree baubles when they come into contact with sunlight. Also, because it’s unbelievably awful- and I don’t say that as a blind hater to the series. I’ve read the first book and seen the first film and detested both. The acting is shocking, the writing worse, the direction bland and the cinematography boring. That said, even films that toe the line of vampire lore entirely can still fail dismally- Yes, I’m looking at you, Daybreakers, with your ludicrous explosion-and-blood-fountain attitude to sunlight.

On the other end of the scale, we do have genuinely interesting vampire flicks, like the brilliant ‘Salems Lot and highly disturbing Let the Right One In. I think what makes these stand out particularly is that they approached the issue sideways- the erstwhile Stephen King adaptation was, to an extent, about small-town politics, and the eerie Swedish chiller was using the whole thing as a spectacularly effective metaphor for puberty. The thing about vampire movies is that, by now, we know what vampires do.

It’s no good making a film that goes “LOOK! THEY EAT BLOOD! AND THEY GO FUNNY IN SUNLIGHT! AND THEY’RE ALL SEXY! SEXY SEXY SEX! AND BLOOD! BLOOD, DO YOU HEAR!” . We need something to catch and hold our attention, whether it is a cool soundtrack (People Are Strange, in The Lost Boys, anyone?), or by featuring the struggle for vampire rights as a series plot point (although True Blood has a little too much of the sexy sexy sex for my liking). Vampirism is no longer a gimmick, it’s a cliché.
But American presidents indulging in a bit of vampire hunting? There’s something we can ALL buy into.