Vampires in popular culture and history: Blood sucking hotties versus old rat men
By Kayla Stitt, Contributor
Vampires. The very word instills fear into the hearts of men everywhere. Theses beasts have evolved throughout history, with these easily top-ranking fanged-freaks sitting among the most popular and recognizable monsters out there. Whether it be through literature, movies, or plays, vampires have always been on the mind of mortals, but how do they stack up through history? Let’s find out.
Early 1800s
Like many other horror fiction characters, the idea of blood sucking hotties was first developed in 1800s European literature.
One of the earliest works is the short prose fiction The Vampyre written in 1819 by John William Polidori. The story follows a young British man named Aubrey who befriends the alluring nobleman, Lord Ruthven. After an attack on the two men, an injured Ruthven tells Aubrey not to speak to anyone of his death. Aubrey holds true to this promise until years later when he finds himself back in London only to discover that Ruthven is alive and well.
Ruthven woos Aubrey’s sister and gets engaged shortly after. Before his death, Aubrey writes a letter containing Ruthven’s secret and addresses it to his sister. The letter does not arrive in time and she is found drained of blood on her wedding day! Romance, violence and blood — a classic vampire story.
A true classical take on the vampire, Ruthven is a young, sexy, British beast and the ladies love him. He does not have fangs and his only known weakness — like many other vampires — is a wooden stake to the heart. Ruthven also supposedly gains power from the light of the moon, which is pretty sweet. All in all, Ruthven was the originator and you’ve got to respect that.
Late 1800s
Ghosts and ghouls, the game is about to change, because here comes Dracula. The story of Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel Dracula is filled with so many plot points that I don’t have time to explain, but we’re all here for the vampires anyways, so let’s get to the Count.
In short, Count Dracula is a pretty spooky old dude, who is apparently into real-estate deals. At the start of the novel, Jonathan Harker, a young lawyer from England, hopes to travel to Transylvania to seal a real-estate deal with the spooky old dude himself. When Harker actually gets there, it turns out Dracula is not the nicest guy and Harker ends up his prisoner.
Cut to the end when — spoiler alert — Harker destroys the Count with the help of a few other characters in the novel.
Although Dracula may not be the sexiest blood sucker around town, he does have three sexually alluring female vampires that live alongside him in his castle, so he must be doing something right. But, Dracula is described as a pale old man with occasional fangs, which admittedly doesn’t really do it for me.
Our friend Drac also has many weaknesses and fatal instruments — wooden stakes, daylight, garlic, holy symbols, decapitation and running water — which really hurts his overall score.
He also has to be invited in wherever he wants to enter, so it would be a nightmare taking him out.
Dracula’s best attribute and arguably his most alluring is that he can transform. From a bat, an even bigger bat, a wolf, to also dust and fog, Dracula’s big moves are quite impressive.
I don’t know about you but once you get past the creep factor and fangs, the Count seems awfully cool to me. I mean, who doesn’t want to turn into a really big bat?
Early 1900s
In 1922, the general belief of what a vampire was shifted drastically. This change in perspective was the result of the film, Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau.
Photo courtesy of Nosferatu
This adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula portrayed the Count in a completely different light. Count Orlok was not simply a pale old dude, but rather something much more sexually appealing: a rat man.
The story begins and ends very similarly to Dracula but with a few changes made. The most defining thing about the entire film is the hideousness of Orlok. Up until this work, the majority of vampires had alluring and pleasing features that allowed them to hypnotize their prey. The creature in Nosferatu is often described as a gargoyle-like, hairless being with rat teeth instead of fangs. So, pretty sexy.
Aside from being unbelievably attractive, Count Orlok can also transform into a wolf and force rats and disease to follow him around. Total heart-throb.
Sadly though, no man is perfect and he does have a few weaknesses which are basically the same as the original Dracula. So far, Count Orlok has my vote for best vampire in history for painstakingly obvious reasons.
Late 1900s
Vampires begin to evolve even further by the end of the 1900s. One of the most prominent examples of this is in George R.R. Martin’s novel, Fevre Dream.
In 1982, Martin decided to change the game by suggesting that not all vampires are evil- spirited and they are simply in need of saviours. Martin’s character Abner Marsh is a steamboat captain who has fallen on hard times and is in desperate need of a business partner. A wealthy man by the name of Joshua York contacts the captain and finances the building of a brand new riverboat that they later name Fevre Dream.
It is later revealed that Joshua and his crew are in fact, vampires. Joshua, who developed a potion that prevents himself and his friends from experiencing bloodlust, is referred to as the bloodmaster.
I do recommend reading this one, especially if you’re familiar with Game of Thrones. I will avoid spoiling the end, but just know that Joshua and his vampire posse do not want to suck blood and partake in regular naughty activities.
In this novel, vampires switch back from being rat-like and yucky to hypnotically beautiful. The idea of vampires being morally conflicted, alluring creatures is an idea that is carried out consistently from this point in time and honestly, it’s pretty cool. But, like the classic Euro vampires they are killed with a wooden stake, decapitation and fire.
Vampires seemed to have stepped up their game in the late 1900s. Hot and not wickedly evil? Win-win.
Early 2000s
And now, what you have all been patiently waiting for, Stephanie Meyer’s 2005 novel, Twilight.
This is the storyline that put the the coolness factor of vampires to death. Bella Swan is a young girl who moves from Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father and attend high school. She has a real angsty teen attitude and couldn’t be bothered to make new friends. That is until she meets none other than Edward Cullen, another angsty teen with dreamy hair and a thing for Bella.
Despite the fact that Edward literally has golden eyes and ice cold skin, Bella takes a decent amount of time to determine that he is not human. Once it is openly known between the two that Edward and his family are all vampires, the drama ensues.
Things get kind of shaky when Edward’s brother Jasper tries to eat Bella at her very own birthday party but they get through it and eventually get married, only to have a cute vampire baby four novels later. I have to admit, I do not hate the Twilight Saga. I found the novels extremely relatable and exciting when I was 12.
I do, however, believe that Meyer took everything intriguing and mysterious about vampires, exterminated it and started a new generation of hottie teen vampires that lack any true character depth.
The vampires in Twilight have many of the same physical traits as those throughout history. They have pale, cold skin and have marble like features. The differences begin with the fact that they sparkle like diamonds when entering the sunlight rather than burn up and die.
The only way to kill a Twilight vampire is to cut off their head and burn up the bodies, otherwise they will always heal. Although there are many good-natured vampires in this universe, there are also many evil ones, who are still sexy, but they are bad. Honestly, this may make them even more appealing depending on your preference.
Overall, although the teens are hot and spicy romantics, the vampire culture in this story is lacking the aristocratic and moral depth that previous vampire pop culture always had before.
Personally, I think vampire literature and film gets weaker with time. Vampires began as alluring but horrifying, blood sucking demons that had no remorse for human kind and they have slowly evolved into softies who fall in love and dedicate their gift of eternity to giving teenage girls attention.
A real man drains your blood on your wedding night and has rats following him around wherever he goes. Settle for no less.
