Is Vampire a Reflection of Society?

Vampire is one of the most popular mythical beings in pop culture history. According to Australian Oxford Dictionary, the vampire in the 20th century cannot be reflected in the mirror, cast no shadow, only active at night, afraid of garlic or a crucifix. In addition, they can only be destroyed by beheaded, burnt or stake through its heart. The legend of the vampire is widespread in the film industry due to the success of the novel Dracula of Bram Stoker that published in1897. After that, vampire became a rich subject and the major figure of horror films. When reviewing the old generation vampires like Tod Browning’s movie Dracula (1931), Christopher Lee as the Count in Dracula (1958) or Max Schreck in Nosferatu (1922), all of them are the figures of horrify blood-sucker with long black cape. During that period, the long black cape is the symbol of vampires or most precisely, Dracula. In the 2000s, vampire start to veer away from their stereotype image and transformed into everyday person and blended in current cultures. Despite the variation between the old and current generation of vampires, the vampire has always served as the reflection of society.

“If you ever want to know what we’re scared of, attracted to or conflicted by, just look at the vampires.” said Eric Nuzum, who drank blood of himself, watched more than 500 vampire movies and wrote The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula (2007). “They’re in every culture and every time and they kind of capture their time,” Nuzum added. This mythical beings embodied every fear that has plagued society since the 19th century. They served as allegory of sexuality, immigration, diseases, race and war. Take one of my favorite vampire movies Ann Rice’s Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) as an example, the movie focuses on telling the life story of Louis who turned into a vampire in 1791. Vampires in this move reflected fear of love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger. The movie featured Tom Cruise as Lestat de Lioncourt, the hot and lonely vampire and Brad Pitt as Louis de Pointe du Lac, the vampire who refused to suck human’s blood and struggle with the homoerotic love of Lestat. Romance between two male vampires, the plot of outbreak of plague and transforming a sick child into a vampire daughter, these are all examples showing that vampires reflect fear of the dangers of sexuality, illness and loneliness in that time.

Vampires change through the ages, reflecting our fears and our conflicts. The vampires today are very different compare with Dracula or Graf Orlok, they are much more sexual and disconnected from religion. Vampires of today no longer fear of crosses, holy water or garlic. They have superpowers like glamour human, blood that could cure human and instant transfer from one location to another. One of the biggest transformation of today vampires is that they always fall in love with mortal and some of them avoid feeding on humans. Take HBO’s True Blood (2008) as an example, the show explores issues such as discrimination, homophobia, equal rights, drug addiction and the influence of the media…etc. We can now see much more female vampire characters, vampires with diverse nationality and also openly gay vampire characters in films and drama. This is because gay, feminism and race issues are very common in this era, especially in the mainstream Hollywood. So how vampires reflect the society of today? What we scared of, attracted to or conflicted by can still be reflected by the vampire of this time. Edward and Bella in Twilight as the signification of teen abstinence or True Blood as an analogy for civil rights issues in the American South, they are all echoing our dreams of immortality, true love, equality and power. From my opinion, the argument of whether vampire is a reflection of society is a big yes for sure. Most specifically, vampires signify collective American fears. Historically, vampires have been served as the reflection of societal fears that exist at the time. Although I have no idea how long the theme of vampire will suck the life out of us (as now the trend is getting to zombies), there are always a demon or mythical beings to represent the fear in society.