BANISHED to skulk around in the dark on the fringes of society, vampires are getting another chance to sink their teeth into pop culture.
We’re in the throes of a mainstream resurgence of interest in bloodsuckers – one that actually exceeds that of the last time they bared their fangs, nearly a decade ago, with the big-screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” and the debut of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
“There’s a huge upsurge in vampire awareness now,” says Dr. Thomas Garza, chairman of the Slavic Department at the University of Texas at Austin, who teaches “The Vampire in Slavic Cultures,” now a 10-year-old course.
“I’d say this is probably the largest vampire resurgence in this country since just after World War II, when we had all the Frankenstein, Dracula and Mummy movies come out between 1938 and 1947, which were largely made in response to the wars.”
The strongest evidence of the renewed interest in vamps can be seen in the overwhelming popularity of “bit lit” among young females and the vampire-themed TV shows that’ll soon be popping up like so many empty graves.
CBS’s “Moonlight” (debuting Sept. 28) revolves around a strong, studly, tortured undead private eye, Mick St. John (played by Alex O’Loughlin), who sleeps in a freezer, buys blood from a dealer, fights less-humanitarian vamps and falls in love with a human.
Meanwhile, Lifetime – yes, that Lifetime – has “Blood Ties,” based on Tanya Huff’s best-selling “The Blood Books” series.
Here, the private eye is a feisty human ex-cop (Christina Cox), but she relies on charming and hunky vampire Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid), the bastard son of Henry VIII, to solve a never-ending stream of paranormal cases. The series proved to be so popular when it premiered in March that the cable channel picked it up for a second season, beginning Oct. 12.
Not to be outdone, HBO recently greenlit “True Blood,” based on Charlaine Harris’ “Southern Vampire” series. Created by Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under”) and starring Anna Paquin, production is slated to begin this fall.
Graphic novels are also getting their share of vampire attention – Marvel’s “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Vol. 1,” based on Laurell K. Hamilton’s best seller, is already out, while Vertigo’s vampire mafia book, “The Complete Bite Club,” hits stores Tuesday – as are video games: “Vampire Rain” went gold in pre-order sales last month.
Even Johnny Depp’s getting in on the action, announcing that he’s developing a film based on the soapy ’60s vampire TV series “Dark Shadows.”
Why all this interest in vampires right now?
“We’re in a period in the U.S. where we’re dealing with a situation we don’t understand, whether it’s political, what we perceive to be a war on terror, or a physical war in the Mideast,” says Garza. “We keep wanting to give a face to the evil, and that face is easily translated into vampires. It all goes back to why vampire stories began in the West in the first place.
“Historically, vampires happened in literature, culture and the arts when populations were unable to understand or were experiencing the unknown. The influx of Jews into Western Europe during the pogroms was precisely what pushed Bram Stoker to write ‘Dracula’ – there’s a real xenophobia there, and it’s been in every vampire story that’s come to us since,” he says.
Previous vampire resurrections were tied to other periods of social upheaval. The ’60s revival, for example, was a response to the Vietnam War, free love and the boom in drug culture. In the ’80s, it was the threat of AIDS.
There is a lighter side, of course.
Fangoria magazine editor Tony Timpone muses that it’s possible the renewed interest might be due to America’s current obsession with celebrity beauty. “Many people are obsessed with plastic surgery and how they look, aging backwards – the vampire fantasy of being able to live forever is wish fulfillment for a lot of people,” he says.
Ultimately, “deep down, everyone wants to be one – vampires sleep all day, party all night, are enormously wealthy, have a lot of power and live forever.”
Let’s not forget that the Children of the Night are dead sexy.
“No one’s going to look at zombies and go ‘kind of sexy, kind of cool,’ ” points out Julie Kenner, an author of young adult title “Fendi, Ferragamo & Fangs.”
That goes a long way toward explaining why original “Nosferatu” vampire attributes like rat-like fangs, long, dirty fingernails, gaunt frames, a pasty-white mien and evil intentions have gone up in smoke. Today’s vampire stars are a kinder, gentler breed – they’re definitely not the stuff that nightmares of made of.
“It sounds so silly, but people want to humanize vampires, ground them in some sense of reality, so that even nonbelievers or people who don’t like sci-fi will want to watch them,” says Allison Wallach, VP of original programming at Lifetime. “When ‘The Sopranos’ came on air, we all fell in love with an anti-hero. He’s a mobster who kills people, and, to some extent, that’s what people are trying to do with vampires: ‘Believe it or not, you could love this guy.’ “