BLOODLUST IN BOOKS & FILMS A FEW OTHER VAMPIRES

Looking Back

The most iconic of all vampires is probably Dracula, in Bram Stoker 1897’s classic novel of the same name. It’s not the first vampire literature, but has come to define vampires – living in coffins, getting burned by sunlight, drinking blood, being repelled by garlic… Numerous films have been made on this book, from the 1931 Dracula to Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. The 1922 German screen horror Nosferatu, the story of the vampire Count Orlok, is also based on it.

No Gender Gap

Carmilla is a woman vampire and she is older than Dracula. Written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the novella was first published as a series between 1871-72. Carmilla is also shown to be in relationship with the woman she preys upon. Other women vampires include Akasha from Anne Rice’s novel The Queen of the Damned, Vampirella from the comics of the same name, Miriam Blaylock in Whitley Strieber’s book The Hunger, Santanico Pandemonium from the franchise From Dusk till Dawn, Rose in Vampire Academy

The Sensitive Vampire

If Meyer’s vampires had an older relative, it would be the vampire Louis from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles – a series of novels the first of which is Interview With the Vampire published in 1976. Loius is repelled by the thirst for human blood (and for a time makes do with animal blood), has emotions and is weary of immortality.

On Television

The Originals, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vampire High… TV has had its share of bloodsuckers.

And There Are More...

From Stephen King’s 1975 novel Salem’s Lot to the 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive and the 2002 novel The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klien, vampires continue to entice even as they give you goosebumps.