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Vampires and Exorcisms: Catholicism in Modern Horror
In Roger Ebert’s review of John Carpenter’s Vampires, he said “When it comes to fighting vampires and performing exorcisms, the Roman Catholic Church has the heavy artillery. Your other religions are good for everyday theological tasks, like steering their members into heaven, but when the undead lunge up out of their graves, you want a priest on the case.”
Catholicism and vampires are not a modern union; in Dracula, the foundation on which most modern vampire mythos has been laid, the vampire hunting Van Helsing is a man of faith, weaponizing all manor of Catholic tools like a sort of holy Batman utility belt. Jonathan Harker, the Anglican protagonist, has to overcome his protestant assertion that such things are idolatrous superstition, though they do still work for him, seemingly regardless of denomination. The choice to make Catholicism the ultimate anti-vampire weapon is interesting as Bram Stoker himself was raised Protestant, his family devout members of the Church of Ireland, a branch of Anglicanism.
In fact, sacred Catholic items aren’t the only weapons of faith that have been utilized against Dracula; in the fantastically bad American-Hong Kong film The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Dracula is successfully fended off by an image of the Buddha, which proves just as effective as a crucifix.
