Editing Vampire (section)

== In modern culture ==
{{see also|List of vampires}}
<!--**This section is a general overview, do not add cultural references here, add them to the subarticles... Thanks.*****-->
The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was [[John Polidori]]'s "[[The Vampyre]]" (1819), featuring the vampire [[Lord Ruthven (vampire)|Lord Ruthven]].<ref name=":1">{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280805194|title=From Nosteratu to Von Carstein: shifts in the portrayal of vampires|last=Jøn|first=A. Asbjørn|date=2001|journal=Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies|access-date=1 November 2015|issue=16|pages=97–106|archive-date=25 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125163106/http://www.researchgate.net/publication/280805194_From_Nosteratu_to_Von_Carstein_shifts_in_the_portrayal_of_vampires|url-status=live}}</ref> Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the [[antihero]]. The vampire theme continued in [[penny dreadful]] serial publications such as ''[[Varney the Vampire]]'' (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel in history: ''[[Dracula]]'' by [[Bram Stoker]], published in 1897.<ref name="Christopher">{{cite book |last=Frayling |first=Christopher |title=Vampyres, Lord Byron to Count Dracula |year=1991 |location=London |publisher=Faber |isbn=978-0-571-16792-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780571167920 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth,{{sfn|Skal|1996|p=99}} and [[Count Orlok]] of [[Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau|Murnau's]] ''[[Nosferatu]]'' (1922) fearing daylight.{{sfn|Skal|1996|p=104}} The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright [[Hamilton Deane]] to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage.{{sfn|Skal|1996|p=62}} Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=38–39}} Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, [[immortality]] is one attribute which features heavily in vampire films and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for the blood of former equals.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=131}}

=== Literature ===
{{main|Vampire literature}}
[[File:Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover from one of the original serialized editions of ''[[Varney the Vampire]]''|alt=See caption]]
The vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as ''The Vampire'' (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, ''[[Lenore (ballad)|Lenore]]'' (1773) by [[Gottfried August Bürger]], ''Die Braut von Corinth'' (''The Bride of Corinth'') (1797) by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Robert Southey]]'s ''Thalaba the Destroyer'' (1801), [[John Stagg (poet)|John Stagg]]'s "The Vampyre" (1810), [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s [[Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson|"The Spectral Horseman"]] (1810) ("Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore") and "Ballad" in ''[[St. Irvyne]]'' (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s unfinished ''[[Christabel (poem)|Christabel]]'' and [[Lord Byron]]'s ''[[The Giaour]]''.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=114–115}}

Byron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: "The Vampyre" (1819). This was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, [[John Polidori]], who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, "[[Fragment of a Novel]]" (1819), also known as "The Burial: A Fragment".{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}}<ref name="Christopher"/> Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover [[Lady Caroline Lamb]] in her unflattering ''roman-a-clef'' ''Glenarvon'' (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist [[Lord Ruthven (vampire)|Lord Ruthven]]. ''The Vampyre'' was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=37–38}}

''[[Varney the Vampire]]'' was a popular mid-[[Victorian era]] [[gothic horror]] story by [[James Malcolm Rymer]] and [[Thomas Peckett Prest]], which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as ''[[penny dreadful]]s'' because of their low price and gruesome contents.<ref name=":1"/> Published in book form in 1847, the story runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=38–39}} Another important addition to the genre was [[Sheridan Le Fanu]]'s [[lesbian vampire]] story ''[[Carmilla]]'' (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampiress Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=40–41}}

[[File:Carmilla.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Carmilla]]'' by [[Sheridan Le Fanu]], illustrated by [[D. H. Friston]], 1872|alt=A person is lying in a bed while another person is reaching on the bed towards them.]]

No effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897).{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=43}} Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] Europe where [[tuberculosis]] and [[syphilis]] were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire.<ref name=":1"/>

Drawing on past works such as ''The Vampyre'' and ''Carmilla'', Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as ''The Land Beyond the Forest'' (1888) by [[Emily Gerard]] and other books about [[Transylvania]] and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of [[Vlad Țepeș]], the "real-life Dracula", and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as "[[Dracula's Guest]]".{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=82–85}}

The latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics as well as a renewed interest in the subject in books. The first of these was Gothic romance writer [[Marilyn Ross]]'s ''[[Barnabas Collins]]'' series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series ''[[Dark Shadows]]''. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic [[tragic hero]]es rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular ''[[Vampire Chronicles]]'' (1976–2003),{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=205}} and [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s  [[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]] series (2005–2008).<ref name="slate">{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2205143/|title=I Vant To Upend Your Expectations: Why film vampires always break all the vampire rules|last=Beam|first=Christopher|date=20 November 2008|website=Slate Magazine|access-date=17 July 2009|archive-date=16 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916173859/http://www.slate.com/id/2205143/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 2006 [[Peter Watts (author)|Peter Watts]]'s novel ''[[Blindsight (Watts novel)|Blindsight]]'', vampires are depicted as a subspecies of [[homo sapiens]] that predated on humanity until the dawn of civilization. The various supernatural characteristics and abilities traditionally assigned to vampires by folklore are justified on naturalistic and scientific basis.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Galaxy |first=Geek's Guide to the |title='Blindsight' Is the Epitome of Science Fiction Horror |url=https://www.wired.com/2023/10/geeks-guide-peter-watts/ |access-date=2024-06-30 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=30 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240630080300/https://www.wired.com/2023/10/geeks-guide-peter-watts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Film and television ===
{{main|Vampire film|List of vampire films|List of vampire television series}}

[[File:NosferatuShadow.jpg|thumb|A scene from [[F. W. Murnau]]'s ''[[Nosferatu]]'', 1922|alt=A shadow of a vampire and a railing.]]

Considered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film, television, and gaming industries. [[Count Dracula in popular culture|Dracula is a major character]] in more films than any other but [[Sherlock Holmes]], and many early films were either based on the novel ''Dracula'' or closely derived from it. These included the 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film ''[[Nosferatu]]'', directed by [[F. W. Murnau]] and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic ''Dracula''{{'}}s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keatley |first=Avery |title=Try as she might, Bram Stoker's widow couldn't kill 'Nosferatu' |language=en |work=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086605684/try-as-she-might-bram-stokers-widow-couldnt-kill-nosferatu |access-date=20 April 2022 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404182540/https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086605684/try-as-she-might-bram-stokers-widow-couldnt-kill-nosferatu |url-status=live }}</ref> Universal's ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'' (1931), starring [[Béla Lugosi]] as the Count and directed by [[Tod Browning]], was the first [[talking film]] to portray Dracula. Both Lugosi's performance and the film overall were influential in the blossoming [[horror film]] genre, now able to use sound and special effects much more efficiently than in the [[Silent film era|Silent Film Era]].  The influence of this 1931 film lasted throughout the rest of the 20th century and up through the present day. [[Stephen King]], [[Francis Ford Coppola]], [[Hammer Horror]], and [[Philip Saville]] each have at one time or another derived inspiration from this film directly either through staging or even through directly quoting the film, particularly how Stoker's line "''Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make!''" is delivered by Lugosi; for example Coppola paid homage to this moment with Gary Oldman in his interpretation of the tale in 1992 and King has credited this film as an inspiration for his character Kurt Barlow repeatedly in interviews.<ref>{{cite web |last=Eisenberg |first=Eric |url=https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2567212/adapting-stephen-king-salems-lot-vampiric-terror-tv-miniseries-tobe-hooper |title=Adapting Stephen King's Salem's Lot: How Does The Vampiric Terror Of 1979's TV Miniseries Hold Up? |publisher=Cinemablend |date=12 May 2021 |access-date=5 May 2022 |archive-date=27 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427163847/https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2567212/adapting-stephen-king-salems-lot-vampiric-terror-tv-miniseries-tobe-hooper |url-status=live }}</ref> It is for these reasons that the film was selected by the US [[Library of Congress]] to be in the [[National Film Registry]] in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |access-date=20 April 2022 |website=Library of Congress |archive-date=28 July 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190728162129/https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Bela lugosi dracula.jpg|thumb|left|[[Count Dracula]] as portrayed by [[Bela Lugosi]] in 1931's ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]''|alt=See caption]]

The legend of the vampire continued through the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated in the pertinent [[Hammer Horror]] series of films, starring [[Christopher Lee]] as the Count. The successful 1958 ''[[Dracula (1958 film)|Dracula]]'' starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=92–95}} By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as ''[[Count Yorga, Vampire]]'' (1970), an African Count in 1972's ''[[Blacula]]'', the BBC's ''[[Count Dracula (1977 film)|Count Dracula]]'' featuring French actor [[Louis Jourdan]] as Dracula and [[Frank Finlay]] as [[Abraham Van Helsing]], and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's ''[[Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries)|Salem's Lot]]'', and a remake of ''Nosferatu'' itself, titled [[Nosferatu the Vampyre]] with [[Klaus Kinski]] the same year. Several films featured the characterization of a female, often lesbian, vampire such as Hammer Horror's ''[[The Vampire Lovers]]'' (1970), based on ''Carmilla'', though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=92–95}}

[[File:Jonathan Frid Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows 1968.JPG|thumb|right|upright|1960s television's ''Dark Shadows'', with [[Jonathan Frid]]'s [[Barnabas Collins]] vampire character|alt=See caption]]

The [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] [[soap opera]] ''[[Dark Shadows]]'', on American television from 1966 to 1971, featured the vampire character [[Barnabas Collins]], portrayed by [[Jonathan Frid]], which proved partly responsible for making the series one of the most popular of its type, amassing a total of 1,225 episodes in its nearly five-year run. The pilot for the later 1972 television series ''[[Kolchak: The Night Stalker]]'' revolved around a reporter hunting a vampire on the [[Las Vegas Strip]]. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as [[Blade (character)|Blade]] in the [[Marvel Comics]]' ''[[Blade (franchise)|Blade]]'' films and the film ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.<ref name=":1"/> ''Buffy'', released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with its adaptation to a [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|series of the same name]] and its spin-off ''[[Angel (1999 TV series)|Angel]]''. Others showed the vampire as a protagonist, such as 1983's ''[[The Hunger (1983 film)|The Hunger]]'', 1994's ''[[Interview with the Vampire (film)|Interview with the Vampire]]'' and its indirect sequel ''[[Queen of the Damned]]'', and the 2007 series ''[[Moonlight (American TV series)|Moonlight]]''. The 1992 film ''[[Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film)|Bram Stoker's Dracula]]'' by [[Francis Ford Coppola]] became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=208}}

This increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in films such as ''[[Underworld (2003 film)|Underworld]]'' and ''[[Van Helsing (film)|Van Helsing]]'', the Russian ''[[Night Watch (2004 film)|Night Watch]]'' and a TV miniseries remake of ''[[Salem's Lot (2004 TV miniseries)|Salem's Lot]]'', both from 2004. The series ''[[Blood Ties (TV series)|Blood Ties]]'' premiered on [[Lifetime Television]] in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, an illegitimate-son-of-[[Henry VIII|Henry-VIII-of-England]]-turned-vampire, in modern-day [[Toronto]], with a female former Toronto detective in the starring role. A 2008 series from HBO, entitled ''[[True Blood]]'', gives a [[Southern Gothic]] take on the vampire theme, while taking on the discussion on what the actual existence of vampires would mean to for instance [[equality before the law]] and religious beliefs.<ref name="slate" /> In 2008 ''[[Being Human (UK TV series)|Being Human]]'' premiered in Britain and featured a vampire that shared a flat with a werewolf and a ghost.<ref>Germania, Monica (2012): Being Human?  Twenty-First-Century Monsters. In: Edwards, Justin & Monnet, Agnieszka Soltysik (Publisher): The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture: Pop Goth. New York: Taylor, pp. 57–70</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2014/06/top-10_most_important_vampire_programs_in_tv_history.html|author=Dan Martin|title=Top-10 most important vampire programs in TV history|date=19 June 2014|publisher=Cleveland.com|access-date=8 August 2014|archive-date=21 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021111509/https://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2014/06/top-10_most_important_vampire_programs_in_tv_history.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of [[human sexual activity|sexuality]] and the perennial dread of mortality.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bartlett|first=Wayne|author2=Flavia Idriceanu|title=Legends of Blood: The Vampire in History and Myth|year=2005|publisher=NPI Media Group|location=London|isbn=978-0-7509-3736-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/legendsofbloodva0000bart/page/46 46]|url=https://archive.org/details/legendsofbloodva0000bart/page/46}}</ref>

=== Games ===
{{main|Vampires in games}}

The [[role-playing game]] ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as ''embrace'' and ''sire'', appear in contemporary fiction.<ref name=":1"/> Popular [[List of vampire video games|video games about vampires]] include ''[[Castlevania]]'', which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker novel ''Dracula'', and ''[[Legacy of Kain]]''.<ref name=joshi>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stJxdpZVl_wC&pg=PA646|title=Icons of horror and the supernatural|volume=2|author=Joshi, S. T.|pages=645–646|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|location=Westport, Connecticut|date=2007|isbn=978-0-313-33782-6|access-date=30 October 2020|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225150423/https://books.google.com/books?id=stJxdpZVl_wC&pg=PA646|url-status=live}}</ref> The role-playing game ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' features vampires.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-dungeons-and-dragons-imagines-and-customizes-its-unique-monsters|title=How Dungeons and Dragons reimagines and customizes iconic folklore monsters|first=James|last=Grebey|publisher=[[SyfyWire]]|date=3 June 2019|access-date=22 March 2020|archive-date=22 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322023827/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-dungeons-and-dragons-imagines-and-customizes-its-unique-monsters|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Modern vampire subcultures ===
{{Main|Vampire lifestyle}}
{{See also|Psychic vampirism}}

''[[Vampire lifestyle]]'' is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the [[Goth subculture]], who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, [[horror film]]s, the fiction of [[Anne Rice]], and the styles of Victorian England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Skal |first=David J. |title=The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror | pages=342–343 |year=1993 |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-024002-3}}</ref> Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirism, commonly referred to as ''sanguine vampirism'', and ''[[psychic vampirism]]'', or supposed feeding from [[pranic]] energy.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=Jøn|first=A. Asbjørn|year=2002|title=The Psychic Vampire and Vampyre Subculture|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283273380|journal=Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies|issue=12|pages=143–148|issn=0819-0852|access-date=9 November 2015|archive-date=15 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715154950/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283273380_The_Psychic_Vampire_and_Vampyre_Subculture|url-status=live}}<!-- ISBN 1-86389-831-X--></ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Benecke|first1=Mark|last2=Fischer|first2=Ines|date=2015|title=Vampyres among us! – Volume III: Quantitative Study of Central European 'Vampyre' Subculture Members|url=http://www.roterdrache.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=138|publisher=Roter Drache|isbn=978-3-939459-95-8|access-date=2 February 2016|archive-date=10 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710053810/http://www.roterdrache.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=138|url-status=dead}}</ref>