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Vampirism

I have always been very fascinated by vampires and ghosts... (which is kind of obvious, I guess). I always loved ghost stories, I loved the ghost trains on the carnivals and I loved vampire films. I was really living myself into the stories and images that surrounded me, I was part of it. I remember when I was little, it was popular to show the vampire classics with Bela Lugosi and Christoffer Lee on Saturday night on TV, at midnight (of course), when children tend to be asleep in bed. When I saw in the TV guide that there was a vampire film the following Saturday, I got all excited and I was begging my mum and step dad "Oh please, I have to see this, please...?". At first they disapproved, of course, because it was late and it was a horror movie. Nothing for children. But then they understood that I was strangely enough not scared but instead really interested in vampires and that it was very important to me to watch the film... and so they gave in. My step dad actually thought the films to be entertaining as well, and so we watched Dracula together. I sat on the couch, in my little nightgown, with hot chocolate and cookies, really excited, and disappeared into the world of vampires.
Afterwards, when I went to bed, I lay awake with the window open... in the hope that Dracula would fly in and bite me... but I am still waiting.

I love the good old films, and the greatest classic of all: Nosferatu; absolutely divine! What an atmosphere! Even though the films were based on the good old traditional superstitions we know; in other words, the demonised Christian version of the vampire myth, where the vampire is a damned creature of the night, fearing the cross and holy water, shifting into the shapes of demonised animals - such as the wolf and the bat - but nevertheless, they had a fantastic gothic atmosphere to it.

Since the nineties, there have been several new vampire films, even Hollywood movies, and with TV series like Buffy and Angel the Vampire, image has become cool, trendy and popular amongst the teens. Yet eventhough the vampire image has become more cool and modern, many of the new scripts are not only focused on the "traditional" demonised superstitions; now they indeed contain serious, and often banal, Christian propaganda. Because now the vampires are pictured with serious conscious problems, feelings of guilt, and they are punished by "God" for "disobedience" to him. And this irritates me, of course. Just take a look at Bram Stoker's Dracula: he is damned by "God", because he did not obey him, thus, he is cursed to live his life as a vampire. He suffers because he has to live on for ever and cannot die (well, I'm sure many would envy him for that). He's drinking blood from humans so that they are lost and doomed as well; in other words, live forever, forever young... erm, hello? Being eternally young, and not having to do all this everyday shit like going to work, paying bills, but instead one gets to party all night long, all the time: iIs this really something to complain about? I think it sounds fantastic!
Even though I love the film, with its absolutely amazing scenes and visual images (and a really passionate, sexy Dracula), I get really annoyed at the "cheesy" Christian propaganda. Had I been Mina, I would have run off with Dracula in no time. Seriously. But no, she is a good and decent Christian girl who is to be married to the moralistic prude, Jonathan. And in the end, the vampire (of course) has to die, and when he does, he sees a light from above and is forgiven, and now he may enter heaven... now isn't that nice of "God"? No, it's really annoying!
Then we have Buffy and Angel the Vampire, which I also love to see. Here we have many cool gothic vampires (and I must admit I did have a crush on Spike), but anyway, the lines are often so simple, banal and black and white, that it is really embarrassing and insulting to the viewers. With lines like "Oh, he is good now... but oh, he used to be evil... but oh, is he evil again? Way no, he is good... but he can never be really good, because he has no soul...(?)" And Angel suffers because he is a vampire, damned to immortality and eternal youth... OK, let's analyse his problem: he is strong, melancholic, emotional, handsome... wow, what is the problem? He is higher than any human could be.

The list goes on about not too impressive vampire films and it is seldom one actually finds a good and intelligent film. One of the worst I have seen was Dracula 2001. It started pretty OK, but in the end, when he died, it turned out that he was Judas, who had been cursed by "God" to be a vampire... now this is totally ridiculous. Why should he be punished to be eternally alive and young? This is what most people dream of.
What I am annoyed about mostly with all these films, is that humans are but oh, so good and innocent and holy because they are human... when we all know that humans are the most viscious and destructive creatures on this planet. So why is it that vampires are so incredibly evil then?

Let us analyse the vampire myths:

As I already have written about many times in my books, articles, interviews (and so forth) about our shadow aspects, the vampire and the werewolf represent our shadowside or animal within. Often they are shown as creatures with intense senses, beastial instincts and a strong sexual force of attraction. And as we know, the animal within us, and our bodies, have always been demonised and suppressed by the Church. That, in fact, are humans that are the real evil ones, that torture, abuse, murder in masses, make war and destroy the planet seems to mean nothing. "Now, that is only human you see". According to the Church, it is the natural, the animalistic, the supernatural, the mysterious, the heathen ways that the good Christian has to fear the most.
When a person is bitten by a vampire, he or she feels incredibly alive. Dead, however, oddly more alive than any human being could feel. Both animalistic, sensual, passionate and intelligent. A higher animal. And thus it is a threat to a community that is supposed to be obedient, dumb and domesticated.

Without getting further into it, my point is that I would like to see more deeper and well-written vampire stories, focused on the life of vampires, and not on their guilt of being bad Christians.
Underworld was OK, I think. And if I could recommend one good film, it would be The Hunger, with David Bowie. Here the vampires are survivors of an ancient blood cult, and they kill their victims with an ankh, the egyptian symbol of eternal life... yep, that's more like it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who dreams about a life as a vampire. But unfortunately, I doubt that a handsome Dracula ever will fly through our window and takes us away to give us immortality... However, it is still possible to live out some of the animalistic and sensual intensity the vampire represents. We, humans, have become so numb, dumb and unaware, and there is so much we can learn from our fellow animals (and if it is only how to treat them with greater understanding and respect). Use your senses, use your instincts, and always trust your intuition. Live life with intensity!

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