Coming out of darkness through passion: why vampires are the classic monsters that best reflect our fears and desires

A fawn calmly strolling through a vast American evergreen forest is about to be eaten by an unexpected predator: a vampire.

During the stillness that precedes the hunt, a voice-over recites the phrase that begins one of the most iconic sagas of

millennial

pop culture : “I had never stopped to think about how I was going to die, but dying instead of “Someone you love seems like a good way to end.”

This and other fragments of the

Twilight

script (Catherine Hardwicke) stayed to live in the memories of a lot of teenagers who lined their folders and bedroom walls with images of the protagonists of the films.

The curious thing is that, despite the fact that the myth has evolved and mutated, it has managed to remain very present in pop culture: “The vampire is the only classic monster that has managed to adapt to the times because it has gone from reflecting our fears to capturing also our desires,” says David Remartínez, journalist and writer of the book

A Pop History of Vampires

.

Without a doubt, the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's books - responsible for the dark circles that many young people had under their eyes after spending the night awake with them in their hands - were the culmination of the vampire narrative trend of the 21st century. .

However, there are many others that also deeply penetrated the collective ideology of the teenagers of the moment, such as the pioneering

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(

Joss Whedon)

,

True Blood

(Alan Ball) or

The Vampire Diaries

(Kevin Williamson; Julie Plec), all They are marked by plots full of supernatural abilities in which dark, young and beautiful creatures fall in and out of love with each other and with other human beings.

Gone are the terrifying features of Murnau's

Nosferatu

and the remote cursed castle of

Bram Stoker's

(Francis Ford Coppola) Dracula.

Now these beings put aside their evil nature, have an eternally beautiful face and body and embody many human desires.

Alexander Skarsgård was the vampire Eric Northman in 'True Blood'.Alamy Stock Photo

Biting the teenage spirit

“I am a lover of theater and good movies.

I already told you that for me a reference is

Twilight

,” Inés Hernand told Mercedes Milá in the monograph dedicated to the interpretation of her new program

De ella I don't know what you're talking about

,

generating laughter of complicity among the audience.

The format aims to show young people what Spanish society was like decades ago and it is precisely Hernand, a collaborator of the program, who represents the ideas, characteristics and essence of the latest generations.

For this reason, referencing

Twilight

in the first minutes of an episode dedicated to interpretation sets up a comfort zone for a large part of the audience, which in its day was torn between vampires and werewolves.

It may be perceived as a

meme,

but at the end of the day many people still feel tenderness when thinking about it, since it is part of their memories and their adolescence: “Every era has had a vampire to represent it.

These reinterpretations and adaptations of previous myths are always made trying to speak to a new generation that identifies with them,” reflects Julio Pérez Manzanares, doctor in Art History from the Complutense University of Madrid and author of the book

Dracula Superstar.

This feeling of cohesion could occur, among other issues, because these narratives embody many adolescent fantasies.

Indeed, in all these series and films there are several common characteristics: the protagonists are young, handsome, mysterious, rebellious and seductive.

Certainly, during this life stage, wanting to be alternative, special and different from the rest is not unusual.

And, in these audiovisual proposals, according to Remartínez, the vampire is presented as an aspirational model and is attractive for its torments and pleasures, which coincide with the turbulence of adolescence: “All of these proposals have connected with their audiences because they have “promised a fantasy adolescence, where their feelings and powers oppose those of the adult world.”

Spike (James Marsters) and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a story of vampire redemption in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Bloomberg News/ Cordon Press

Other themes that attract most young people like moths to a light are eroticism and romanticism.

Some have not experienced it and still perceive it as something platonic and others are beginning to experience it;

In any case, it is something new that usually arouses curiosity.

“Vampires of the 21st century can have sexual relations, something that was previously prohibited by religion.

Dracula bit, but he didn't have sex.

Today, youthful vampires don't even fear the sun, let alone the crucifix.

They are terrified of heartbreak and that alone explains the evolution,” says Remartínez.

This preference for the romantic inclination over the terrifying one - even in the nineties

Buffy the Vampire Slayer,

whose protagonist fought against them, fell in love with one - is reflected in figures.

One of the videos uploaded by the

YouTuber

and communicator Andrea Compton, talking precisely about

The Vampire Chronicles,

has no more and no less than 378,000 views and more than 1,900 comments.

Without a doubt, this series is especially famous for its passionate kisses, its love affairs and its ability to keep the audience in suspense, pending what direction the hearts of the protagonists will take.

“As the figure has become more familiar, and contributing new nuances to the thread of social changes, he has become a kind of rock star much more desirable than the

good guys

in the movie.

Hence, they have to admire her or even fall in love with her so that the conflict can continue to exist,” explains Pérez Manzanares.

This trend is also palpable in 21st century vampire films that are not intended for this audience, such as

Only Lovers Alive,

by Jim Jarmusch, in which the protagonists embrace their intimacy by resting together on a sofa, wearing glamorous clothes, protecting their eyes from the sun hiding them behind Ray-Bans and they live surrounded by electric guitars, a lot of books and a

cool

aura that makes them seem precisely that: rock stars in love and lost in a sea of ​​centuries lived.

Traces of past passions

Forks is today practically an amusement park: it is possible to visit Bella's supposed house, whose van is parked at the entrance in the same position as in the film, there is a museum with objects used in the saga -

Forever Twilight in Forks Collection

- and a huge welcome sign nods to the saga and the potential danger of encountering vampires in the small town in Washington state.

If you type Forks in the Instagram or TikTok search engine, it is possible to find a lot of videos of people visiting this region referring to

Twilight

.

Without a doubt, even though this was not the location where the films were filmed, since they were actually recorded in Oregon (USA) and Vancouver (Canada), the American town knew how to take advantage of its popularity by carrying out all these actions, in addition adding a space dedicated to the saga on its tourism page and even organizing an annual themed festival.

“Within the fan phenomenon and mythomania, the pilgrimage to a place where you feel 'part of history' has always been very important.

The paradox of the matter is that those places, certainly, were never real.

This is evident in the case of Dracula's castle in Transylvania, which was never visited by this historical figure,” says Pérez Manzanares.

This idea of ​​the importance of the fan phenomenon could also be summarized in an intervention by

YouTuber

Andrea Compton - who owes her last name to Bill Compton, the vampire protagonist of the series

True Blood

- in

an

episode of the Cadena SER radio program dedicated to cinema and series,

The Script

.

During it, the communicator, who heads the

Cuarto Millenial

podcast

,

declared that with

Twilight

“we have learned what a

fandom

is and

what it's like to cry with your friends over a vampire story that doesn't make any sense.

It is something generational and it is beautiful.”

The vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), in 'True Blood'.Alamy Stock Photo

The other great pillar of the permanence over time of these modern vampire series essentially intended for a teenage audience is, as with so many other trends that inspire current trends, nostalgia and the taste for reliving the past.

So much so that series like

True Blood

are still completely topical – without going any further, Netflix added it to its catalog at the end of 2023 – and that it is very easy to find t-shirts and memes related to this universe: “Pop culture always lives to return to herself.

The recurrence and nostalgic survival of icons is essential for them to be part of the collective popular ideology,” says Pérez Manzanares.

In short, there are several reasons why during the period of the first two thousand vampire-themed series and films proliferated and triumphed in equal measure, offering new narratives and perceptions regarding a monster that, despite having shown romanticism, , sensitivity and glimpses of humanity in previous versions, such as in

Bram Stoker's iconic Dracula

, he continues to be a ruthless creature to be feared, capable of committing any aberration.

Perhaps when you don't get what you want in reality, you resort to fantasy - especially in a period as turbulent as adolescence, in which everything knows little and no one seems to understand anyone.

We travel to books, movies and all those other settings in which it is possible to dream of a higher and more exciting version of ourselves, in which vampires shine in the sunlight and speak with a convoluted language that, So, it was charming.