Dispatch

The modern vampire: from loner to rock star

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Vampires. They are seemingly everywhere: They are on TV. They occupy entire sections of bookstores. People stand in line for days to see them in theaters. Truth be told, vampires’ fame has lasted much longer than 15 minutes. Let’s take a look back at how the vampire narrative has thrived over the last century of pop culture.

Bram Stoker introduces us to the international man around town, Dracula.


Wikipedia

Nosferatu shows us the monster behind that hunts by night, with Count Orlock.

Universal Studios

Bela Lugosi becomes the image of the Count, that for decades will endure.

Universal Studios

Abbott and Costello teach us it is okay to laugh at our modern day fear of monsters.

Warren Publishing

We learn vampires are aliens, from the planet Drakulon. Don’t fret Vampirella crash-landed on our planet (without most of her clothes) to save us all, and the vampire-as-hero is born.

A generation of children are introduced to undead with The Count on Sesame Street, and the scrumptious Count Chocula and the image of the vampire changes forever. Is it our fault that we keep wanting our vampires to be good, when they taught us how to count?!

Alfred A. Knopf

Anne Rice pens Interview with a Vampire and we are introduced to the first truly modern-day vampire Lestat.

MGM Studios

David Bowie proves that nothing is cooler than being a vampire with means in the heart of Manhattan, with The Hunger.

Sony Entertainment/MGM/The Samuel Goldwyn Company; Kings Road Entertainment

The future is so bright you have to wear shades, especially when you are vampire high school. Teen angst and comedy collide with stakes and holy water in the comedies My Best Friend is a Vampire and Once Bitten.

Jocelyn Petruccio

Lestat forever changes the image of vampire as monster when he sheds the shadows for the spotlight and becomes a rock star, that is. No more stakes, no more capes, no more of Van Helsing’s dirty looks.