Vampires

Why Are We So Obsessed With Vampires?

It's 2024 and we have the technology to ‘rebuild’ (almost) a man or a woman, so why are we still so fascinated by “Vampires”?

It's October and Halloween season, and how many of us will be dressing up for that Halloween party, ready to enjoy our evening by watching horror films about ‘vampires’? My hand is straight up because I love this time of year and all the fun that it brings.

Many of us remember the Hammer House Horror films which are full of Vampires (and sex and amazing costumes), and are always set in the past hundred years, or past 50 years, and in some forgotten country that no one has heard of, but we are ‘glued’ to the film.

It might help if we can find out something about the history of “Vampires”. Are they real or just a fixture of our historical imagination?

The word “Vampire” is from the Slavic word “upir” which means “one who drinks”. These supernatural ‘creatures’ were said to be the undead who walk around (usually in the night) feeding on living blood. Stories of these ‘beings’ go way back into past civilizations, some who are no longer with us. But for the Western world, it was not until the 18th Century when we started to ‘worship’ Vampires.

In 1897, Bram Stoker wrote the novel “Dracula”, who is portrayed as a seductive aristocratic creature who preys on living human blood, and the fascination for ‘Vampires’ was born. We can imagine the Victorian ‘gentleman’, dressed in his tails and top hat, walking the night, looking for his victims (which were usually young, pretty women). Just a minute, this sounds like Jack the Ripper!!! (I doubt there is any connection).

Today, in 2024, we are just as hungry for this as when that novel first came out, over one hundred years ago.

One school of thought is that “Vampires” are a kind of escapism from the world around us because it's not real. We live in a very fast-paced environment which can be so stressful that we need to bury our minds into something that just takes us away just for a short while, to relax and rest. "Vampires” is a fantasy world, a kind of adult Disney world, where anything is possible and ‘you’ can live in it without any fear of being hurt or judged, in other words, without any consequences.

“Vampires” are said to be superhuman creatures, who are not afraid and just live out their eternal lives on Earth. They have supernatural abilities such as speed, strength and mind control. In a world where we may feel powerless, this is very appealing, even if just in our imagination. When someone ‘creates’ a being, if only imaginary, that seems so real that ‘we’ have become obsessed with it, that is mind control indeed.

The interesting thing about “Vampires” is the fact that ‘they’ have developed with time, and modernized as we humans move on in History. So, today, many of the modern films of “Vampires” are about today, so that we can actually visualize ourselves there, in the film. Plus, there are now ‘vampire-based’ games to play online, which has caught the attention of the younger generation, thus starting the craze all over again.

“Vampires” have also attached themselves to the Fashion industry, with Goth being an ongoing trend and very Victorian looking. This applies to both old and young, especially when we see many of our favourite music groups dress as Goth when they are performing on stage.

So, whether we admit it or not, “Vampires” are here to stay, in our imaginations, as we stay fascinated and besotted by these imaginary ‘creatures’.