Halloween -
The History of Vampires
By Bill Knell
I. It Started With Blood
The Vampire persona has evolved from many true
and untrue facts, legends and myths. At various times vampires, real
and imagined, have been considered fiends, supernatural beings,
shape-shifters, mentally disturbed deviants, satanic servants and
fetish followers. However, it all began and still revolves around a
taste for blood!
Contrary to the popular belief that Vampire
history, stories and legends began with Vlad the Impaler, they go
back much further than that. Many ancient societies worshipped blood
thirty gods. This caused people to begin to associate blood with
divinity, leading to the development of the early vampire cults.
Regardless of the spiritual value, some people have always had a
desire to drink blood and the reasons are as varied as the
practitioners. In some societies the practice was accepted, as in
ancient Egypt. But in others, vampirism was considered deviant
behavior and condemned.
In Africa, most civilizations and tribes
greatly feared vampirism. The fear was eventually turned into legend
as people began to believe vampires were evil spirits that would
come in the night to drink blood, kill livestock and steal children.
Archeological evidence shows that fetishes, in the form of
dollhouse-sized huts, were built as a protection against them. Some
modern African tribal medicine men still hold to this belief and
continue to build the fetishes in the same way that their ancestors
did.
During the glory days of Rome, vampire cults
abounded. Roman citizens, mostly females, began to believe in the
concept delivered to them by captured peoples that drinking the
blood of fertile females would cure the infertile. Likewise, for
males, blood drinking was a way to become more potent. It wasn't
long before blood drinking cult members started to get sick and
spread their sicknesses to others. Though it's doubtful that these
people understood much of anything about the diseases transmitted
through blood, Roman physicians did see a connection between blood
drinking and the spread of sickness.
Eventually, the Roman government moved against
the cults and outlawed the practice. Some members of vampire cults
refused to stop drinking each other’s blood and continued to meet in
secret, despite the physical dangers and threats of severe
punishment. When this was discovered and sickness continued to
spread, the Roman government dispatched paid assassins to hunt down
and kill the renegade blood drinkers. Because they were paid by the
number of cult members they killed, these early vampire hunters
became legendary. Seeking to get rich from their trade, there is no
doubt that these "pay per kill" assassins took the lives of as many
innocent people as they did cult members.
The weapon of choice for the Roman vampire
hunters was a small, easily hidden dagger. This allowed them to
infiltrate the secret cult meetings and then attack without warning.
The daggers were highly ornate leaving the Roman public with the
impression that the assassins were on a divine mission. The handles
were in the shape of a cross and looked very much like any ornate,
modern crucifix! In an attempt to scare off the government
sanctioned assassins, cult members began to spread stories designed
to frighten their trackers. They claimed that drinking blood gave
them the ability to change into fierce animals and devour any
attackers.
Thanks to the meticulous records kept by
Romans and Egyptians, as well as the traditions passed orally by the
Africans, vampire legends were well known on local and international
levels by the arrival of the Middle Ages. Had it not been for the
proliferation of plague and other pestilences during that time,
vampirism probably would have re-emerged as a popular fad. Even so,
some drawings in religious books of the period seem to suggest that
blood-drinking cults continued to exist. Devils, demons and human
servants of Satan were often portrayed as committing unspeakable
acts, including the sucking of blood from other humans and animals.
One may assume that these portrayals were not just shadows of the
past or complete figments of over zealous imaginations.
As explorers from the Old World began to visit
the New World, the vampire legend took on a new and frightening
form. Spanish explorers traveled to the Americas in search of gold
and other treasures. Although dreaded by the native peoples living
there, the Conquistadors themselves began to fall prey to an unknown
and terrifying enemy. In an attempt to escape the pervasive heat,
humidity, bugs, snakes, hostile peoples and monsoon-like rains of
the South American jungles and rain forests, the Spaniards would
take refuge in caves at night whenever these could be found. It
wasn't long before a strange disease began to claim the sanity and
lives of the conquering army. The only thing noticed about those who
became ill was that they had strange bite marks on their bodies.
The sick moved quickly towards death and a
terrible fear settled in among the Spaniards. The source of the bite
was finally discovered when those on late night guard duty watched
in horror as bats gently attached themselves to members of the
sleeping army. With no real understanding of rabies or how it was
spread, the Spaniards just assumed that loss of blood was the cause
of death. They believed that the bats were killing the men by
feeding on the same subjects night after night until they were
drained of blood! Though staying out of caves stopped most of the
attacks, some were still bitten.
II. Dracula
By the time Vlad the Impaler came along, the
vampire legend had already been well established. His contribution
to the history of vampires was largely due to Bram Stoker's
fictional story of Dracula. Already known as a rabid, bloodthirsty
killer, Dracula suddenly became a virtually unstoppable,
supernatural force of evil.
Bram Stoker's 1897 book, Dracula, was inspired
by existing vampire legends and the brutal acts of a legendary
tyrant. Stoker found the name Dracula in a book on the history of
Wallachia. The name was associated with a 15th century Transylvanian
despot known as Vlad the Impaler, also called "Vlad Dracul," which
means "the devil" in Romanian. Impaling was the gruesome practice of
forcing a long wooden spear through the body until the victim
gradually dies. Dracula favored impaling as a form of execution and
a scare tactic used to instill fear in his enemies. Vlad hated
non-Christians, making it a policy to kill any non-practicing
residents under his authority. Fearing for their lives, his subjects
placed crosses on their front lawns and doorways to keep Dracula at
bay.
Transylvanian traditions were also a source of
great inspiration for Bram Stoker. They believed in what were called
"strigoi" (the undead) who would walk the earth because they were
improperly buried or had lived an evil life. Like vampires, they
would stalk and kill humans. Stopping them meant driving a stake
through their heart. They would then be placed in a coffin where the
same stake was driven through the coffin and into the ground. That
was the only procedure known to keep the undead in the ground where
they belonged.
Although the marriage of fact, fiction and
folktales that came together in Bram Stoker’s Dracula forever
changed and deluded original traditions and beliefs about vampires,
it also created a huge amount of interest in them. More then a few
people read the novel believing it to be a true story, thus adding
to the legend. Younger readers were especially susceptible to the
suspense and fear created by the main character. Many would place
crosses all over their rooms and nail windows shut!
III. Vampires As Entertainment
Several attempts were made to turn the novel
into a stage play, but known were financially successful until Bela
Lugosi entered the picture. Though legend has it that Bela initially
wanted nothing to do with the project, Dracula became the role of
his lifetime. Each night an ambulance was parked outside the
Broadway Theater where Dracula was performed, and this wasn't just
for publicity purposes! People would faint or get trampled as
audience members tried to run out of the performance with the
appearance of Bela on the stage as Dracula.
With reactions like that to the book and
Broadway Play, the story was a natural for early filmmakers. While
it is unclear who actually tried to bring Dracula to the screen
first, it's certain that the 1922 silent film Nosferatu was one of
the first uses of a vampire as a major character in a motion
picture. In this German film, the vampire is a blood-sucking fiend
with no redeeming values. Realistic make-up and great special
effects make Nosferatu still worth watching on video.
If Nosferatu secured the vampire's reputation
as a fiend with movie audiences, it was the 1931 American film
DRACULA that gave a slightly more human face to all creatures of the
night! In Dracula, Bela Lugosi brought his stunning stage
performance to the big screen. The pace was slow allowing each
moment of suspense and terror to be fully felt and appreciated by
the audience. Rather then being just a predatory monster as in
Nosferatu, Bela played the Master Vampire as a royal, dark and
manipulative force using the few human attributes he had left to
build an army of the undead that existed to serve his needs.
The 1940s brought the movie character of
Dracula into contact with other well-known monsters like The
Werewolf and Frankenstein. During that time, a string of reasonably
well made "B" Movies forced gothic horror purists to endure watching
their favorite characters mixed with everyone from mad scientists to
Abbot and Costello. During the 1950s and 1960s, movie vampires faced
new friends and foes in the form of atomic monsters and space
aliens. If you want to see what may be the stupidest vampire movie
of all time, buy a copy of 1967’s Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In
My Neck by Roman Polanski on video. The 1960s also brought an
unusual soap opera to TV.
Dark Shadows, the parent of all other vampire
TV Shows, was a daytime soap opera that began in the 1960s and ran
through part of the 1970s. Although set in modern times, the show
drifted across the centuries to tell the story of the ill-fated
Collins Family and the vampire curse that hounded them. This was
modern gothic horror at its best! The show's primary character, a
vampire named Barnabus Collins (played by the scary Jonathan Frid),
became wildly popular and made the soap a massive success. Dark
Shadows gave birth to fans clubs, books, magazines, several major
films and a short-lived revival series which lacked the punch the
original had. Thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel, the original Dark
Shadows can now be seen on cable.
Most 1970’s theatrical releases with a vampire
theme were merely color remakes of earlier films or ideas. Many were
cheap exploitation pieces made to fill time at a buck fifty a
carload Drive-Ins. There were a few exceptions. Andy Warhol's 1974
film, Andy Warhol's DRACULA, was well received and became a good
companion to his highly acclaimed Andy Warhol's FRANKENSTEIN. 1979's
Dracula featuring Frank Langella and Sir Lawrence Olivier gave the
master vampire a more sophisticated sexual identity that went over
well with even the most devoted gothic horror fans. Vampires on TV
faired better then those on the big screen in the 1970s.
1972 brought us a made for TV horror film
called The Night Stalker. The vampire was a centuries old killer
discovered and tracked by an annoying and slightly washed up
reporter named Carl Kolchak, played by veteran character actor
Darren McGavin. The Night Stalker spawned another film and a
Television Series that still airs in reruns today. The 1979 made for
television mini-series, Salem’s Lot, was based on a Stephen King
story and featured David Soul (of Starsky and Hutch) and master
actor James Mason in one of his last performances. It is a classic
and can still be seen in a shortened or full-length version on cable
television. It’s also been released on DVD.
The only other big screen vampire movies of
the 60s and 70s that gothic horror fans enjoyed were those starring
Christopher Lee. His portrayal of the Dracula character was sincere
and compelling. Though most of his vampire films were exploitation
pieces designed for matinee audiences, Lee's performances in those
movies gave them class amid weak story lines. While most laugh at
it, another 1970’s exploitation film, Blackula is oddly addicting
and joins the ranks of Love At First Bite, with George Hamilton and
Arte Johnson, and the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show as
films many vamp fans like to revisit. Each of these movies contain
elements of horror, suspense and comedy that mix well and do no real
harm to the vampire legend.
By the time the 1980s rolled around, the
vampire theme had been covered so much on film that little was
offered apart from comedies and cheap exploitation flicks. One
notable exception was Joel Schumacher's 1987 film The Lost Boys.
This movie offered us an updated version of the vampire look as seen
by comic books of the time. As scary as it was interesting, The Lost
Boys has become a gothic horror and vamp fan favorite. Almost
invisible in theaters, the1985 comedy Once Bitten starring Lauren
Hutton and Jim Carrey became a cable television standard after
Carrey hit the big time in the 90’s. The 1988 teen comedy flick, My
Best Friend Is A Vampire, also made it bigger on video and cable
then on the big screen.
The 1990s brought us some quality vampire
flicks. Francis Ford Coppola's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA told us more
about the traditional Transylvanian character then previous films
and remained faithful to the original novel. The 1992 film based on
the comic book character, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, has become a
cult favorite. The comic book character also turned into a
successful television series with the same title a few years later.
The 1994 box office hit, Interview With The Vampire, was based on
the Anne Rice book. The film brought Anne’s popular characters to a
much larger audience and featured a young cast that hit a home run
with most vamp fans.
Eddie Murphy’s 1995, A Vampire In Brooklyn,
was both funny and frightening and should not be missed. 1998’s
Blade starring Wesley Snipes hit a home run as a an action film with
a total update of vampires and those who hunt them. Another 1998
film, John Carpenter’s Vampires hit a home run with a lot of vamp
fans, but didn’t make much of a mark at the box office. Some felt
that the western setting and motif hurt the film, but I thought it
was original and fun.1999 brought us the start of Angel, a dramatic
television series with a touch of humor based on the vampire
character introduced in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show.
Wes Craven’s Dracula 2000 was a very scary
treat and a great way to usher in the Millennium, from a
supernatural perspective. In 2001 John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe
starred in Shadow of the Vampire, a movie which presented the
fictional idea that a real vampire was used for the filming of
Nosferatu. Although it’s kind of an arts film, the slow pace is
equaled out by some very frightening moments. 2002’s Queen of the
Damned was a less successful adaptation of an Anne Rice story that
lacked the star power and humor that Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio
Banderas, Christian Slater and a very young Kirsten Dunst brought to
Interview With the Vampire.
A non-stop selection of cable documentaries
about Dracula, his castle and vampires seems to indicate that people
have yet to get their fill of these creatures of the night. More
films are planned and, unless they cancel Halloween, we are likely
to be informed and entertained by vampire stories on the large and
small screens, as well as online, for years to come.
IV. Motivated By A Thirst For Blood
Most people labeled as Vampires after being
accused or convicted of a terrible crime may have had an unusual
thirst or need for blood. Hungarian Countess Erzebet Bathory, who
lived in Vienna in the early 1600s, beat and tortured her servants
and may have bathed in their blood believing it would restore her
youth. Another Hungarian, Bela Kiss, murdered his wife, neighbor and
up to twenty young girls in Budapest before he died while at war in
1914. The bodies were later discovered stored in metal drums, with
bite marks on their necks and completely drained of blood. In 1996 a
sixteen-year-old boy named Roderick Ferrell organized a group of
Kentucky Teens into a Vampire Cult. They were all fans of the
role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. The group went to
Florida and murdered the parents of a former girlfriend. Ferrell was
later arrested, convicted and sentenced to execution.
Not all vampire incidents are as easy to
explain as the crimes committed by wannabe vampires who end up dead
or arrested. One of the most puzzling of all factual vampire-related
crimes and incidents is the case of the High Gate Cemetery Vampire
of England. Oddly enough, it was the western section of that British
Cemetery that inspired Bram Stoker in his depiction of some settings
for the tale of Dracula.
During the late 1960s, several British
children found a shortcut to their school through the western
section of High Gate Cemetery in London. As they started using the
shortcut on a daily basis in the early morning, some strange things
happened. Several of the children became sick and were diagnosed as
having experienced a significant loss of blood, along with unusual
bite marks on their necks. At the same time, residents of the area
began reporting their dogs missing.
Dog carcasses began to turn up inside and near
the cemetery. Most died of blood loss and also had strange bite
marks on their bodies. A number of credible witnesses reported
seeing hooded figures hunched over the dogs as they were dying. An
occult group dedicated to the eradication of vampires started
patrolling the area, adding to the confusion and weirdness. They
actually went around digging up bodies and sticking them with
stakes! Needless to say, the group quickly wore out their welcome
and had problems with local law enforcement. By the early 1970s,
things quieted down as children stopped taking the shortcut through
the cemetery and most people kept their pets indoors at night.
Although the case remains unsolved, one event put a cap on the whole
thing.
A British Policeman on patrol just outside
High Gate Cemetery one evening noticed a hooded figure bent over the
body of a dog. The animal seemed to be in great distress. As the
Officer approached the hooded figure, it turned to look at him. The
Officer could clearly see that the hooded figure had no face! It
then turned and vanished before his eyes. The dog died of a loss of
blood and this is the how the Officer reported the incident. Like so
many unexplained events, the case was quietly filed away.
V. The Gothic Lifestyle
For years people have dressed up as Vampires
for Halloween and other special occasions. But some never stopped!
Over the past forty years more then a few people have spent a good
part their lives living like vampires. For most, just dressing the
part is enough. Others feel a need to actually drink or suck blood.
Although dangerous in a day when blood born diseases pose such a
threat to humanity, most involved in the blood drinking or sucking
only participate in the fetish with one person or an exclusive group
of people.
Today, people who dress like vampires as
politely referred to as participating in the Gothic Lifestyle. It’s
an umbrella term that covers everyone including those with a blood
drinking or sucking fetish. The mere fact that people are still
emulating what was laid down as vampire characteristics, dress and
behavior in the Dracula novel and films after so many years,
indicates the strong appeal and enduring quality of the legend.
Since it’s publication in 1897, Dracula has never been out of print!
Read more at http://halloween.billknell.com
