Fiction Trends: The Vampire Phenomenon

Vampires may be undead creatures, but in the writing world, they're very much alive. Recently on the Writing list, we discussed the popularity of vampires in today's fiction. The incredible success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series of vampire novels (despite all the critical scorn) is proof that the mysterious fanged night stalkers are here to stay. Even though I agree with the critics who dismissed the Twilight novels as pure drivel - and with Stephen King, who, in a recent interview, opined that Stephenie Meyer "can't write worth a damn" - I've always been a fan of vampire fiction.

Today's vampire fiction owes its success to a book written over a hundred years ago. When Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula was first published in 1897, it wasn't the first classic of the genre. Sheridan Le Fanu's famous novella Carmilla, about a lesbian vampire who preys on lonely young women, was published in 1871. In 1818, John Polidori's classic short story The Vampyre was published - though the byline was miscredited to Polidori's friend, Lord Byron, who was just as angry as Polidori over the incident.

While Polidori's short story had previously depicted the vampire as a suave, aristocratic man, it was Stoker's novel that presented him as the seductive embodiment of evil. The very name Dracula is a reference to the notorious Romanian prince, Vlad Tepes aka Vlad Dracul. To his enemies, the prince was known as Vlad The Impaler because his preferred method of execution was to impale his enemies on wooden stakes. The word dracul means devil in the Romanian language.

Dracula wasn't a huge commercial success upon its initial publication in 1897, but it was quite popular with Victorian readers and received rave reviews from critics. It has been seen as a metaphor for the changing times - the conflict between tradition and modernity and between religion and secular science at the end of the 19th century. The character of Mina Harker represents the conflict between traditional and modern womanhood. And some have suggested that Count Dracula's vampirism is a metaphor for uncontrolled sexual desire - the ungodly lust for blood equated with lust for the flesh. The novel itself is darkly erotic.

While Dracula's name may have come from the Romanian prince, his elegant, gentlemanly mannerisms were inspired by the mannerisms of an actor named Henry Irving, who also managed the Lyceum Theatre, where Bram Stoker had worked for twenty years. Stoker admired Irving greatly and hoped he would play the vampire count in a stage play version of Dracula, but Irving wasn't interested. Years later in 1931, a Hungarian actor named Bela Lugosi, famous for his stage portrayal of the vampire, would play the part again in the first sound film adaptation of Stoker's novel.

It was Lugosi's famous portrayal of Dracula as a handsome, suave, and seductive aristocratic gentleman that made the vampire such a popular character not only in films, but in books and plays as well. Lugosi's Dracula was the polar opposite of Max Schreck's Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film classic Nosferatu - an unauthorized adaptation of the Stoker novel. With his skeletal frame, long, claw-like fingers, bat ears, bald head, and mouth full of jagged, fangy teeth, Count Orlock looks like a human plague rat. There's nothing remotely alluring about him.

The worst film adaptation of Dracula? Without a doubt, Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 artistic misfire, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Despite a formidable cast, including Gary Oldman as Dracula and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Van Helsing, Coppola's film is so overblown and laughably pretentious that it ultimately becomes high camp.

Through the years, the vampire has been depicted in books and on film as both monster and tragic figure, and the vampire mythos has moved in offbeat directions as authors try new angles and fresh approaches to the venerable character. Recently, I've been enjoying The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Set in the fictional small Southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the main character is Sookie Stackhouse, a young woman who works as a waitress at a restaurant-bar called Merlotte's. (Isn't Sookie Stackhouse a great name for a Southern waitress?)

Sookie isn't like most young women - she can hear people's thoughts. She regards her psychic abilities as more of a curse than a blessing. As you can imagine, it makes relationships extremely difficult. Sookie's boss and close friend, Sam Merlotte, isn't like most restaurant owners - he's a shape-shifter who can take the form of a dog. And new customer Bill Compton isn't like most of Sookie's redneck clientele. He's a real old-fashioned Southern gentleman, and the only person whose thoughts Sookie can't hear. That's because he's a vampire.

Ever since the invention of synthetic human blood, vampires have come out of the coffin, er, closet, and are trying to peacefully coexist with humans, despite huge resistance from the Christian right. Many people in Bon Temps are prejudiced against vampires, and some even hunt and kill them and drain their blood, which in humans acts as a potent drug that dramatically heightens the senses - and the libido. The saliva of a vampire can heal wounds.

I don't want to give out more plot details and ruin the novels for those of you who haven't read them yet. I can tell you that the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels have been adapted as an HBO series called True Blood, which I really enjoyed watching. Academy Award winning actress Anna Paquin makes the perfect Sookie Stackhouse. The first season comes out on DVD on May 19th. The second season premieres on HBO in June.

At the time the Twilight movie premiered in theaters, there was another vampire movie playing. Unfortunately, it didn't get much notice. It was a Swedish film called Let The Right One In. While the Twilight movie was roundly panned by critics as one of the worst movies of the year, Let The Right One In earned rave reviews and was declared one of the best movies of 2008. And it was. It proved to be not only one of the best horror movies of all time - a classic of the vampire genre - but one of the most touching love stories as well.

Stylishly directed by Tomas Alfredson, featuring incredible performances by its two young lead actors, and based on the stunning novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay, Let The Right One In tells the story of Oskar, (Kåre Hedebrant) an odd, desperately lonely 12-year-old boy whose life is bleaker than the harsh winter landscape around him. Tormented at school by a gang of sadistic bullies and emotionally distant from his clueless, self-absorbed, divorced parents, Oskar is left alone to fantasize about killing his tormentors, stabbing at trees with his small hunting knife. That's really all he can do - he lacks the courage to stand up for himself.

Oskar's life changes forever when a new girl his age moves into the apartment next door. Her name is Eli, (Lina Leandersson) and she's a strange, darkly beautiful young girl with big brown eyes. Eli only comes out of her apartment at night, walks through the snow barefoot, and smells like a corpse when she's hungry. She and Oskar strike up an akward friendship that blossoms into a deep and true love. Eli is a sweet girl and loyal friend who gives Oskar the strength and courage to stand up for himself.

Eli is all alone in the world, too - except for Håkan (Per Ragnar) the creepy middle-aged man she lives with. Håkan is not Eli's father. He's a serial killer who murders people and drains their blood into plastic containers. Well, he tries to. He's a pathetic bumbler who screws up every attempt at collecting blood. In one darkly funny scene, a nosy poodle interrupts Håkan and almost gets him caught red handed - no pun intended.

When Oskar discovers that Eli is really a bloodthirsty vampire, he's horrified at first. But he can't stay away from her for long - he still loves her. Eli depends on Håkan, her creepy human "guardian," to collect blood for her because she can't bear to kill, (the movie doesn't elaborate on what he gets in return, but in the novel... well, you'll find out) but when his latest screw-up results in his capture, Eli must hunt for her own blood. When one of her victims, a woman named Virginia, survives and becomes a vampire herself, her husband tracks Eli down, breaks into her apartment, and tries to kill her. Oskar saves Eli, then leaves the apartment while she rips the intruder to shreds.

Sadly, Eli must now leave Oskar forever to avoid capture. This sets in motion the knockout ending, which proves to be both incredibly gruesome and deeply moving. With its chilly, brooding atmosphere of near constant dread, nail-biting suspense, and scary spates of carnage, Let The Right One In is a feast for the horror fan. But it's the love story that really drives the film. In one particularly sweet and tender subplot, Oskar learns Morse code, teaches it to Eli, and they use it to tap out messages to each other on the wall that divides their apartments. This subplot is a clever bit of foreshadowing. Watch the movie to the very end, and you'll see what I mean.

That's what I really liked about Let The Right One In. Eli is a tragic, sympathetic character trapped by her vampirism. She hates to kill - she even weeps over the body of her first victim - but she needs blood to survive. When Oskar discovers who she really is, a sad-eyed Eli simply says, "Try being me for a while." As good as it is, John Ajvide Lindqvist's screenplay serves as a minimalist adaptation of his detail-rich novel, which includes the bizarre backstory of how Eli became a vampire and who she really was before. I wholeheartedly recommend that you read it. But first, watch the movie. It's available on DVD now. One thing: be sure to select the original Swedish language audio track with English subtitles. The English dub track is horrible.

Though it wasn't the first work of fiction about a vampire, Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula planted the seeds for the vampire pop culture phenomenon. It's a phenomenon that continues to grow and evolve in new ways and will be with us for a long time to come. There really is nothing like a good vampire story.