Written by: Holly Dodd, Staff Writer
Every spooky season, many of us grab the butteriest popcorn, fluffiest blankets, and reddest of wines to swoon over vampiric princes of darkness and their human soulmates. The vampire has long grabbed hold of public imagination, at first through oral folklores, now through television, movies, and books. Over the centuries, mythology about vampires evolved, and in a much shorter span of time so have our movies about them.
DrACULA (1931)
This was the very first vampire film which had dialogue as well as visuals. This classic created the most recognizable image of a vampire to date. Go into any Spirit Halloween and the vampire costume will be a nearly identical replica of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. The traits given to this version of Dracula are also ones which follow vampires far into the 20th and 21st centuries. He cannot stand crucifixes, has no reflection, and cannot be out in the sun. During this time in Hollywood screenwriters were struggling with adding dialogue as sound was a new phenomena in cinema. Because of this, they hired playwrights, Dracula being one of these films written by a playwright.
THE LOST BOYS (1931)
The late 80s saw a turn in vampiric tales. Rather than following the great Count Dracula, this film has multiple vampires, all new on the scene. While vampires are usually creatures who live in isolation from the rest of the world, in this film they act more like a stereotypical werewolf pack. They seem to have a brotherhood-like bond, and answer to one vampire: David. Michael is a human teenager bregudgidly moving with his mother and younger brother to Santa Carla, California-known as the murder capital of America.
Michael soon meets Star, who lives with the vampires, her younger brother, Laddie, after having been turned. The vampires have caused this town to be known as the murder capital of America. Despite this band of blood thirsty boys craving for the kill, David decides to take Michael under his wing. David could easily kill Michael, who resists his nature once he is turned, but instead David stubbornly attempts for Michael to embrace his new nature.
In the final fight sequence, David and Michael look more like they’re about to kiss than like they want to kill each other. (pictured above) When David is finally killed by Michael, he stares before laying his head back, seeming to be at peace. Try to find a heterosexual explanation for that.
INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE (1994)
This is the second gayest story in this list, and is even put in the romance genre by Google. In this tale Lestat de Lioncourt turns Louis de Pointe du Lac into a vampire and they are bound together as Lestat attempts to teach him the ways of vampirism. Louis resists this, not wanting to bring harm onto anyone else, as it goes against every value he has. Throughout this time they act like a bickering married couple on the verge of divorce.
When Louis finally succumbs to his urges he feeds on a little girl, Claudia, who has lost her mother to a sickness. He believes her to be dead and hides in the sewers of New Orleans, distraught. Lestat comes to find him and informs him the girl is alive. Lestat then turns her into a vampire, literally calling her their daughter and not so subtly trapping Louis in a marriage with a child.
Louis’s and Claudia’s journey to escape looks to be an allegory for escaping an abusive relationship. At the end of the film Lestat says the exact same thing to the interviewer that he did when he first met Louis, showing that the cycle is destined to repeat itself.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997)
10 years later, vampires transitioned onto the small screen in easily one of the most iconic shows of all time. This show follows Buffy, a teen girl at a new school who has been chosen by the universe to kill vampires. Along the way, she meets two vampires who somehow break through their murderous nature and fall in love with her. This show helped bring the idea of a vampiric romance into the public consciousness.Rather than using charm and sexual magnitism to lure their prey in like traditional vampires they actually end up falling in love.
This is also the first time vampires are not characterized as purely evil demons sent forth from hell. In this world, vampires at large do not have souls, and therefore no humanity. However, Buffy’s two love interests are able to gain humanity for her, and eventually fall in love with her. This causes Buffy to embody the “special girl” trope. Here is a great video exploring this trope.
That’s right, folks! It’s the first love triangle! The first vampire, Angel, is a brooding emotional being with dark hair who eventually leaves for his own, less interesting spin-off show. Her second, more enduring love interest is a blond bad boy who is the embodiment of Aries sun chaos: Spike. This is where the good vampire, bad vampire trope is born. In this trope one vampire is a brooding, tortured soul who has an incredibly strong moral compass that is at odds with their nature. The other vampire in this trope tends to have a quick wit, and is incredibly morally gray. They don’t care who they have to hurt in order to either get what they want, or protect their loved ones. Before Stefan and Damon, there was Angel and Spike.
TWILIGHT (2008)
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The most iconic, enduring, generation-defining vampire flick of our generation. Romance entirely defines this franchise. Sexual tension underlies Bella and Edward’s relationship throughout the first four movies before their love is finally consumated on their honeymoon. Twilight also reintroduces the public to the vampire’s mortal enemy: the werewolf.
Twilight goes balls to the walls with iconic mythology like sparkling in the sunlight, calling one’s vampiric partner “spider monkey” and naming your child Renegade-I mean Renesmee. I could poke fun at Twilight all day, but whatever I have to say you’ve already heard. The fact is that this series single handedly revitalized vampires in the public consciousness. Without Twilight, there would be no evolution for me to write about.
The vampire diaries (2009)
The Vampire Diaries has often been characterized as a knock off Twilight. Let me say in my totally unbiased opinion it is clearly reminiscent of Twilight, but it is not the same. Let us not forget that The Vampire Diaries books were written nearly 15 years before Twilight. Where Twilight has interesting lore, and hones in on the romance between Bella and Edward, The Vampire Diaries has expansive lore and even though Elena’s romances with both Salvatore brothers (Stephan and Damon) is central to the plot, it is not the entire plot. It also gives a solid explanation for why Elena is considered special in this world. She is what’s known as a doppelganger from the Petrova bloodline, making her blood have intense magical properties.
The doppelganger is a part of the world building the show would be known for and praised for (in its early seasons). The vampires have a strict set of rules for how they can operate in society, and have clearly evolved as the centuries go on. The ability to turn their humanity off, and enchanted jewelry that allows them to walk in the sun being some examples. This world went beyond vampires, though. Werewolves have to actually trigger their curse, witches have specific strong bloodlines, and we even get to meet the first vampires in history.
This expansive universe subverts tropes simply by putting some focus outside of the main love story. If you aren’t subverting and twisting mythical tropes, are you even writing a supernatural story?
AMERIcAN horror story: Hotel (2015)
The fifth season of American Horror Story created its own version of vampires. However, these vampires are possibly the least recognizable versions of the vampires we know to date. Sure, they drink blood and have sharp teeth, but there is no mind control, no wooden stakes, and they can be seen in mirrors. This is also one of the first vampire stories where vampirism isn’t the focus. Rather, the hotel itself being almost like a house of horrors is the focus and vampires are simply one of the causes.
AHS takes vampires out of the teen romance wormhole and throws them back into horror. They’re scary again, like the kind of creatures you never want to see, let alone marry. Rather than sinking fangs into their victims they slash their throats and have few kind moments. There are of course vampires who are kind in the show, but they are not the vampires we focus on. These vampires are blood and guts, they’re fear.
FIRST KILL (2022)
Netflix’s First Kill takes us back to the teen vampire drama, but for the first time since the 1871 novel Carmilla was published, we had an explicitly sapphic vampire story in mainstream media. The novel followed a young woman who falls for another woman, Carmilla. Carmilla is secretly a vampire. Unlike a lot classic LGBTQ literature Carmilla has explicitly lesbian kisses, and clearly serves as an allegory for the “dangers” of queer love. However, in recent years Carmilla has been celebrated a rare lesbian love story, which unfortunately ends in tragedy.
First Kill continues the tradition of sapphic vampires and puts a Romeo and Juliet spin on it. In this world there are two types of vampires, those who are created in the traditional sense, and those that are born. Those that are born are known as legacies and are very rare, and very powerful. The character of Juliette falls into this, and she is nearing her birthday, where is expected to make her first kill. Calliope is the daughter of traveling vampire hunters. After freezing mid battle she is ready to prove herself and make her first kill. Naturally, they fall in love.
This is a major step forward in the vampiric genre. While vampires have always played with queer subtext, Juliette and Calliope’s love story is explicitly queer. This is something that is rare in every genre, but especially romance and horror, which are dominated by heterosexual people and cis men respectively.
Tragically, this show, as with many recent queer shows, was canceled nearly right after its season finale. If Twilight gets five movies, and The Vampire Diaries gets 8 seasons (only 4 of which are good), and 2 spinoffs (only one of which is good) then why is the landscape for queer vampires so barren? Netflix may have cited low viewership as the reason, but I don’t know a single person who was watching Riverdale after the second season. Come on, y’all, give us queer representation.
CONCLUSION
Vampires have long fascinated the world and have evolved with each decade, bringing some new twist or element to their lore. As the vampiric genre continues to evolve we are going to see stories that better reflect our world at large. These are changes we are already seeing. As the years have gone on we have seen a much higher volume of vampiric media that is explicitly queer, and not white. First Kill and Interview with a Vampire (2022) are two wonderful examples of this, the later having deviated the source material so that Louis is not a slave owner, but rather a Black man himself. Vampire-centered media appears less inclined to excuse toxic and violent behavior as “romantic” or “sexy.” Characters are starting to face consequences for their actions. These new editions point to a genre that will be more inclusive and mindful. And you can bet I am here for it.
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