Vampires, the seductive bloodsucking undead creatures of the night, are one of the oldest horror icons in pop culture, being a staple in fiction for centuries.
Vampire myths have existed from From Bram Stoker’s timeless classic novel “Dracula” to the modern resurgence of teen vampire media like “Twilight” and “The Vampire Diaries,” the mythos of the vampire have undergone a significant evolution in how it’s depicted since its inception. A lot of what we consider common knowledge about the vampire is much more recent than we might believe.
The origins of the vampire myth can be traced far back into history, where tales of blood-drinking spirits and undead creatures were widely prevalent in many ancient civilizations around the globe, such as the ancient Indians, Mesopotamian, Jewish, and even Greco-Roman civilizations.
The term and the more modern idea of what a vampire cropped up in 18th century Europe, when hysteria about rumored vampire attacks began in Southern Europe and Transylvania, which resulted in vampire hunts, digging up bodies and executing suspected vampires. From there, the myth of vampires spread to Germany and England which jump started the use of vampires in Western fiction.
First proper work
While Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula” is widely considered the quintessential vampire story, establishing many of the key elements that have come to define the vampire genre, it was far from the first to introduce vampires to Western fiction.
With popular panic surrounding vampirism, it ensured many mentions of vampires in the likes of poetry and records from the time.
However, the first proper work of literature is considered to be 1819s The Vampyre, written by John William Polidori as part of the same writing contest that produced Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Prior to the story, vampires were considered to be zombie-like undead corpses, but Polidori introduced the idea of them being seductive and aristocratic, and while they were unharmed by the sun, they healed in the moonlight.
After The Vampyre introduced vampires to western literature, many works followed the lead, like most popularly Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, a novella published in 1847 featuring a sapphic vampire.
Vital characteristics
However, none had the same definitive impact that Bram Stoker’s Dracula had on literature. It either introduced or popularized most of the vital characteristics associated with vampires, such as shapeshifting, mind control, super strength, weakness to sunlight (though critically, it did not kill Dracula but severely weakened him), missing reflection, and an aversion to garlic and crosses.
Bram Stoker very loosely based the character of the real life medieval ruler Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad III or Vlad Dracula, a relatively obscure monarch with a penchant for gruesomely impaling his victims though he had no real life connection to vampirism.
The story would directly inspire the first vampire movie Nosferatu (1922) and the 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, whose portrayal of Count Dracula became the vampire in pop culture to this day.
One of the most significant changes in vampire fiction occurred in the mid-20th century, with the publication of Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles” series. In these novels, Rice reimagined the vampire as a romantic, tragic, and complex figure, rather than the monstrous figure depicted in earlier works of fiction.
Her vampires were still immortal and bloodthirsty, but lacked most of the prior typical characteristics of classic vampires. Instead Rice’s vampires were tormented by their own existence and longing for love and acceptance, with heavy themes of homoeroticism, sexuality, and morality.
This new interpretation of vampires proved to be highly popular and set the stage for many of the vampire-themed works of fiction that would follow that had a decidedly more erotic/romantic angle than the prior monster movies.
Resurgence
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the vampire genre experienced a resurgence in popularity, with numerous vampire-themed TV shows, movies, and books being released. One of the key factors in this resurgence was the rise of the “young adult” vampire fiction sub-genre, with Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series being one of the most popular and influential examples.
The popularity of “Twilight” helped to revive the vampire genre, and it inspired a wave of new vampire novels, TV shows, and movies. Some of these works, such as “True Blood” and “The Vampire Diaries,” were more sexually explicit and graphic than previous vampire stories, while others, such as “Let the Right One In,” focused on the darker, more frightening aspects of vampires.
While these new vampires were targeted towards a young adult demographic, it was off-putting to other audiences. And since the vampire craze has died down relatively, vampires have struggled to find their place in pop culture.