They are, by our estimation, the downright coolest of all the supernatural creations of man. Vampires, those blood-sucking fiends, are back in vogue in a major way, thanks to Stephanie Meyer’s uber popular book and movie series, Twilight.
The history of vampires extend far past Edward and his flock, and before the trio from True Blood donned the cover of Rolling Stone magazine covered in nothing but blood.
Even before Bram Stoker’s classic vampire of vampires, Count Dracula. But before we go through the history, why exactly do these horror creatures fascinate us so?
They aren’t just cold-blooded killers, for one thing. One reason why the Jedi from Star Wars are so popular is their noble quest for justice. The vampires aren’t exactly the purveyors of all that is right and good, though. They’re, in a word, mysterious.
Or, handsome. Note that Dracula, Edward, the True Blood folks and even the stars of Interview with the Vampire weren’t hard on the eyes. The attraction, that dangerous desire, is what draws us to them.
Sure, they could be evil and want to suck our blood, but just look at those gorgeous eyes.
Their physical abilities are also impressive. Dracula, for instance, was said to have the physical strength of 20 men–if you can believe Van Helsing.
Also, the only way you could kill Dracula was by lobbing off his head, followed a wooden stake to the heart.
Not all vampires share abilities, though. Edward doesn’t require the decapitation and stake routine to be killed, and suffocation won’t work either because he doesn’t have to breathe. The old count, however, seemed to need to.
The abilities and fascinations all begin way back in April of 1819. An author named John William Polidori published a short story in that month’s edition of New Monthly Magazine called The Vampyre.
The story starred a man named Lord Ruthven, a vampire, who meets a boy named Aubrey. The two have some adventures in Europe, are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded.
Aubrey witnesses Ruthven die, and heads back to London. Surprise! Ruthven’s alive. However, before Ruthven died, he made Aubrey promise to keep his death a secret for a year and a day. Well, okay, not so bad. Odd request, but okay.
Ruthven then proceeds to seduce Aubrey’s sister. It works, and they are to be married the day the oath would end. In the process of all this, Aubrey becomes very ill and dies, but he manages to send a letter to his sister, exposing Ruthven for what he is.
The letter doesn’t get there in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey’s sister, kills her on the wedding night and escapes.
Nearly 90 years later came Dracula, Bram Stoker’s finest creation. It stars the most famous of all vampires, Count Dracula, and is a defining piece of Victorian fiction. The story follows the Count’s quest to take over the world.
In the end, he is thwarted by Jonathan Harker and his group and killed near his beautiful castle in Transylvania.
We’re willing to bet that most of you didn’t know about Lord Ruthven, but all of you have heard of Dracula. Some of you might not know the work of Anne Rice, including Interview with the Vampire, a movie that scratches multiple Clarion itches.
But you know of Edward, Bella and those crazy kids, no? Wait, what? You don’t? You’ve never heard of those movies, which combined have earned an estimated $1,082,643,993 according to boxofficemojo.com? Well, then.
The Twilight series differs from virtually all other famous vampire stories in a key way: it’s melodramatic. The story centers around the romance between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, they’re in high school, and drama ensues.
Where Dracula and Anne Rice’s work tend to branch into the horror genre, Twilight rarely if ever does. Stephanie Meyer’s work is more about strumming the emotional chords in the hearts of teenagers, and to her credit, it’s worked. The movies and books are a major hit, and even if we don’t like the stories, we’re happy about one thing.
It’s brought our favorite supernatural beings back into the light. So go ahead, fateful reader, read Dracula, or go online to find The Vampyre, or head to Amazon and find some of Anne Rice’s work. Also, if you need a good date movie, the next Twilight film arrives in November.
Turn on HBO and check out True Blood, or head to Hulu.com and watch some Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Either way, you’ve got plenty of options, should you find yourself craving some vampire on Halloween!