Vampires have gotten something of a bad rap in the last few years and I think there are a few reasons for it, not all necessarily bad.

For the record I’m not a fan of the angsty teen vampires from Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, the comedic odd balls like Dark Shadows, or even the mindless parasitic animals in I Am Legend. This isn’t to say that I therefore hate those stories, just that I didn’t care for their depiction of vampires. My vision of a vampire is something much different from those writers and that’s ok.

But it’s undeniable to say that vampires have changed dramatically from their origins. Put Edward Cullen or even Lestat de Lioncourt up next to Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel and you’ll see what I mean.

Count Dracula was a cunning and sadistic sociopath who had the heart of a warrior and a clever mind. He wasn’t burdened by the wants and needs of humans, the inhumanity of the world, or anything that doesn’t directly affect him. He pursues his own interest with a fierce drive and purpose. He had ambition and he was going to achieve his goals no matter the cost.

A far cry from the vampires consumed by puppy love and loneliness.

Here’s why I think vampires have undergone such a huge shift, where they’ll go from here, and what it would take to go back to their roots.

Everything Is About Sex

I don’t mean this in the sense that everything is a metaphor for sex in some way, I mean this in the sense that our society is obsessed with making everything a metaphor for sex whether they are or they aren’t.

Something happened where we’ve become obsessed with sex and see double entendres in everything, to the point where we’ve become incredibly immature. If there’s a sign in the aquarium saying “please don’t flash the fish” it means don’t use the flash on your camera to take pictures, and that’s it.

As a result, when we read about the original vampires stalking women and forcefully drinking their blood we attach a sexual significance to it whether that was the author’s intention or not. It could be that the vampires were targeting women because they perceived them to pose less of a threat in those days. It could also be that catching a vampire with his face buried in the neck of a woman in the 1800’s would raise fewer eyebrows than if it was a man’s neck.

But our insistence to attach sexual metaphors to everything made the act of stalking a human, pinning them down and biting them a sexual act. Anyone who’s ever been bitten hard enough to draw blood knows there’s nothing sexual about it, but somehow the idea became sexy for some.

Once you start attaching a sexual significance to something, you’re forced to make the object more palatable for sex. Sleeping with a corpse isn’t sexy yet sleeping with a vampire who looks very human can be. Falling in love with someone incapable of experiencing human emotion or empathy is weird, while falling for someone who’s misunderstood is a little more tolerable.

Vampires had to change because our obsession with making everything about sex required it. The bloated, disease ridden corpses from folklore do not make good sex objects, but fair skinned misunderstood teenagers do.

How To Pass The Time

Many an author have asked themselves what they would do if they became an immortal creature of the night with all the time in the world on their hands and tried to answer that question with stories about vampires. Instead of thinking in terms of a vampire, which would mean world domination and guaranteeing a steady supply of fresh blood to survive, most authors were either a little lazy or a bit perverted and simply answered with sex, lots of it.

Unfortunately, mindless meaningless sex sells so those interested in fulfilling their sexual fantasies by consuming fiction weren’t about to stop authors from debasing vampires this way. Instead of powerful, compelling, ambitious individuals with master plans they became little more than immortal Hugh Hefners, fulfilling their most basic animalistic desires of consuming blood and having lots of sex.

It’s kind of sad really, both for the nature of vampires and the minds of these authors and their readers. There should be more to life than just sex.

Of course, some will argue that there are ample examples of vampires pursing both world domination and sex, but it requires some impressive mental gymnastics to enable an animated corpse with a thirst for blood to not only fornicate with humans but enjoy it.

Which leads to the next problem that required vampires to change.

Metaphors Of Rape

When you start to see vampires through the lens of sex then their actions become increasingly questionable. A man who stalks a woman to her bedroom, creeps up on her while she sleeps, and then takes what he wants from her is definitely an unsettling scenario. If you’re convinced everything is about sex then a vampire drinking blood from a helpless victim that can’t fight back sounds an awful lot like rape.

This posed problems for anyone who had a vision that vampires could be sex objects. You can see this with various authors who had to rework a vampire’s abilities to justify these acts. A gaze that instilled lust in others, the euphoria of being bitten made the victim suddenly willing, vampires were so beautiful to look at that no one could resist them; authors tried a variety of ways to justify what in their minds amounted to rape and this made things worse.

The only way sex with a vampire could ever be acceptable is if the victim was consenting to the act. But why on earth would they? It’s an undead being with a thirst for their blood, no amount of fashion sense, charming words, or money was going to make up for that.

So, authors were forced to find ways to make vampires less monstrous. They became humans burdened with a thirst for blood similar to an addiction, human blood was no longer necessary for survival, they’re not cursed beings unable to walk in sunlight but superheroes who sparkle, and so on. The idea that vampires were essentially humans with superpowers bearing a terrible affliction allowed them to be sexy and for humans to become attracted to them naturally without being influenced by something.

On a side note I find it amusing that people think of drinking blood as a metaphor for sex and then portray their vampire as an addict of blood who uses animals to quench that addiction. It tells me that the metaphor of sex is applied selectively to justify certain fantasies and ignored when it makes their fantasy awkward.

What’s Next?

I believe one of three things will happen. The first most likely possibility is that vampires will fade away from the collective conscious, be forgotten for a while, and then come back with a future generation. The zombie hype is a great example of this, they sparked in the 80’s, died down, and then came back with a fury in 2010. I think vampires will do something similar and hopefully come back without the emotional baggage and glitter.

Another possibility is that vampires continue changing, though were they can go from here I’m not too sure. In the days of hyper political correctness and consent between two individuals requiring the proper documentation in triplicate with an official notary and legal representation present just so someone can ask someone else on a date in college, I’m not sure how much safer vampires can get without becoming something else entirely, assuming they already haven’t.

At some point writers will declare them little more than horny emos with superpowers and do away with drinking blood and predatory urges altogether.

The final possibility is the least likely, but one I would immensely prefer, is that vampires see a return back to their roots without dying out first. At some point horror authors will realize this wonderful beast of the night has been hijacked by romance authors who want these monsters to be tender lovers and take them back. Horror stories will reappear depicting these undead beings as they originally were.

Whatever happens with vampires I intend to return them back to their roots at least with my own stories. I don’t pretend to be the best writer in the world and I’m certainly not that original with my ideas, but hopefully other horror fans will appreciate my attempts to return vampires to their former dark glory.

And for those that enjoy the tamer, nicer, more human-like vampires I sincerely hope you enjoy the plethora of stories being released every year with these characters. I’m jealous of the fact that you can look forward to hundreds of new stories coming out about one of your favorite versions of vampires and wish you all the spare cash and free time to consume these stories.

For those like me that want something a little darker, give me some time to put out a few stories you hopefully enjoy while we all wait for the next revival of these wonderful creatures.