What’s the deal with vampires?

Sandy Petersen

To be fair, Count Dracula was described as having the strength of 20 men in Stoker’s novel, and super-strength has been at least occasionally featured since the beginning. Renfield takes on Dreacula because he figures a madman’s strength might be enough, and Dracula basically wrings his neck like a kitten. The vampires in Kolchak: The Night Stalker were always prtrayed as immensely powerful, and this never struck me the wrong way as a kid.

Anyway, i’m not sure that the super-strength is necessarily revisionist. In Dracula however, it is clear that the reason Dracula is strong is because he’s been tapping human strength – it’s stolen.

Elizabeth

What Sandy said. I don’t recall if the old myths necessarily included super-strength, but it makes sense that a creature gorged on others’ lives would be more, er, lively in various ways.

Flying is what annoys me. Not turning into a bat and flying, but actually flying around. Stop that.

As far as the power-fantasy element, I’m pretty sure the whole “look into my eyes” bit does that much more effectively than being able to throw people, and I’m not even sure if they’re including that in half the vampire movies these days. The actual power of vampires is supposed to come from their evilness, basically, and said evilness is no longer a given.

Ericb

Is a sparkly vampire’s breath minty fresh?

Gamera

I have to agree that I’ve come to expect vampires to be shown as super strong the along with them bursting into flames in direct sunlight. Just seems less thrilling if one man can wrestle the vamp down and stake it.

One thing though I don’t get is the whole vampire/werewolf animosity thing Hollywood had begun pushing. Other than competing for the same group of humans for food why would they be on bad terms? I assume this all started with White Wolf’s old RPG series?

And sexy vampires? Being a walking corpse wouldn’t a vamp smell… well you know like an open grave???

Ericb

I heard a Twilight joke that goes: Poor Bella, having to choose between necrophilia and beastiality.

Sandy Petersen

In the old legends, werewolves were generally assumed to turn into vampires upon their death.

Of course, the really stupid thing is to consider either vampires or werewolves “races” of beings, since both are derived entirely from infected humans. And there are, frankly, more than enough humans to satisfy both tribes.

P Stroud

Worse than the super strength is the useless Vampires of the Underworld series. Those guys are pathetic. They need to hide in the sewers because if humanity ever learned of them they’d be wiped out in a short afternoon.

Mr. Blue

Terry Pratchett, in his book Thud, had a great line about that:
“But everyone wanted to fall for it, because vampires could be so charming. Of course they were! It was part of being a vampire! It was the only way to get people to stay the night in the dreadful castle!”

fish eye no miko

but it seems another step in the vulgarization of vampires into super-sexy superheroes.

In all fairness, being super-strong also makes them more credible villains, since you have to out think them, instead of just physically over-powering them.

Rock Baker

I’ve learned to avoid modern vampires altogether. Didn’t watch Underworld or Blade or Twilight or much of anything after Dracula 2000. Well, I did see Van Helsing recently. It makes one want to clean one’s brain with a toothbrush. If we ever needed a Christopher Lee in a cape, that time is now!

And yeah, I usually take for granted that vampires are strong (not Superman strong or anything, but able to pick up and throw a grown man across a room with minimal effort). Their physical power makes all the more important their being subdued by a cross. But that was back when vampires were about Good vs Evil. Do they even bother with the Cross anymore?

Gamera

And to some of the more wildly over-powered versions I wonder if vampires are so powerful and stuff why don’t they take over and treat people as cattle instead of skulking around in the shadows terrified of normal humans? The last time I saw a film where some vamp goes on about being predators on humanity I had to wonder why the ‘wolf’ is hiding from the ‘rabbits’. Predators??? More like parasites.

If I should ever be cursed with undeath at least let me be something cool like a lich or death knight!

Hasimir Fenring

In fairness to Ken, he does say ‘superstrength and crap‘, by which I’m positively certain he means ‘all the other powers vampires didn’t usually have but have now, to better match the modern superhero’, like the Twilight vampires’ super-speed, telepathy, and prescience. Vampires of ancient lore had plenty of powers, some of which haven’t been explored much. (I seem to remember something about Dracula having the power to travel on moonbeams and don’t recall him ever using this ability.)

In my Twilight blog, I’ll be looking at the hilariously overpowered nature of its vampires. I just love the scene in which Edward talks about how he’s so strong and fast that no-one could possibly escape him. Why? Because it comes mere pages after he explains he has the power to charm anyone so that they would not resist him at all!

BeckoningChasm

Do they even bother with the Cross anymore?

I don’t think they do anymore, except in an ironic sense. Anne Rice pretty much removed most of the religious bits from vampirism and turned them from damned souls into romantic heroes.

Rock Baker

That pretty much sums up the problem with modern vampires right there.

Grumpy

“Anne Rice… turned them from damned souls into romantic heroes.”

They’ve been romantic heroes since the beginning. One of the first literary vampires was Lord Ruthven in Polidori’s The Vampyre in 1819, based on Lord Byron — the ur-romantic hero.

BeckoningChasm

I had a dream wherein the New Vampires teamed up with the Ewoks to fight the human race. The only weapons we had were rocks, bricks, orange juice and a LOT of enthusiasm. Then those “Mega Shark vs” people made it into a lousy movie.

Aussiesmurf

There were still some movies with ‘scary’ vampires : John Carpenter’s Vampires etc.

The idea of vampire as sexy romantic hunk has been around a while in the television age – look at Forever Knight’s cult success in the 90s, and even Buffy. Or The Hunger before that (although Catherine Deneueve was sexy even when brushing her teeth…)

tim

which vampires do you mean? I think only the twilight vampires are overpowered. the ones on true blood only have the superstrength (I view superspeed as a byproduct of superstrenght), and the ability to glamour people. ok, eric did fly, but a lot of vampires have had that ability. if anything, I’d say today’s vampires outside of twilight are underpowered, considering everything dracula was capable of.
I like the true blood approach, that the older and more experienced you are as a vampire, the more powerful and the more powers you have.
that was my main complaint about anne rice’s vampires. they were pretty powerless.

Marsden

I miss vampires that are undead remenants with no soul and no personality other that what they pretend to have in order to subdue their prey. This “I’m a good vampire” shit is ridiculous and overdone. What’s next? Compassoinate Zombies? Caring Ghouls? Skeletons that open a day care and then a day camp?

Being a vampire has gone from a damnation only to be released by the destruction of the corpse to promotion to superhuman. Quite a change, not for the better.

Jim

Stephanie Meyers commented in an interview, I believe in Publisher’s Weekly, that she didn’t know much about vampire lore. I believe her writing supports this contention.

Hasimir Fenring

I’d say today’s vampires outside of twilight are underpowered, considering everything dracula was capable of.

Dracula also had quite a few weaknesses, and nearly all of these have been dumped in today’s vampire fiction. It’s not just about how many powers you have; it’s also about how many weaknesses you have to offset them. The cross has already been mentioned. What about his weakness to the Host? To garlic? His inability to cross running water? His need to rest periodically in earth from his native land? Vampires of today have, at best, the single weakness of vulnerability to sunlight. (And, of course, Twilight ‘vampires’ don’t even have that.) I haven’t seen a vampire since Fright Night that had any of the weaknesses.

In unrelated news, Fright Night remains my favourite vampire film.

The Rev. D.D.

“Stephanie Meyers commented in an interview, I believe in Publisher’s Weekly, that she didn’t know much about vampire lore. I believe her writing supports this contention.”

Did she also say she didn’t know much about writing? Her writing also supports that contention….

“What’s next? Compassionate Zombies? Caring Ghouls? Skeletons that open a day care and then a day camp?”

I can see it now…Deady Day Care, where family-friendly ghouls teach a bunch of precocious, “adorable” kids a few lessons about life (which is ironic since they’re all dead) and learn a few things about love in return.

Shit, I just gave someone in Hollywood an idea, didn’t I?

Grumpy

“…she didn’t know much about vampire lore…”

First step in writing: research. Takes about a half-hour these days with a thing called “Wickerpedia” or something. Which existed before Twilight was published in 2005.

fish eye no miko

BeckoningChasm said: “I don’t think they do [bother with crosses] anymore, except in an ironic sense.”

There have been at least a few vampire stories since Rice that have had crosses, actually; including Forever Knight and Buffy/Angel.

Jimmy

To a certain extent there have been so many different versions of vampires over years be it from different realms of folklore or mythology or be it from differnt works of literature or pop culture I guess there is really no definitive version of the vampire other than a few basics like the blood sucking and the undeadness. As such writers can pretty much do any old variation on vampires and add or subtract whatever attributes, weaknesses and strengths or powers as fits and it’s not like they’re betraying any one true version of what a vampire is meant to be like. That said doing certain things with them is lame by any sensible person’s reckoning- like making them sparkle in sunlight instead of explode.

KeithB

“This “I’m a good vampire” shit is ridiculous and overdone. What’s next? Compassoinate Zombies? Caring Ghouls? Skeletons that open a day care and then a day camp? ”

Based on the trailer for “Despicable Me” I just saw, they seem to be going for this vibe. Creepy Super-Villian (but as far as I can tell non-supernatural) inherits three adorable kids. Hilarity ensues.

(Actually, Brad Bird, John Lassiter and Tim Burton could get together and do something with this cooncept, as long as it is done in stop-motion.)

Ken Begg

To an extent, Burton already did that with Nightmare Before Christmas, in which Jack learns to tap into the inner rage and self-pity that makes him the Pumpkin King but still staying a sweetheart of a guy.

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