There has been a modern revival of vampirism in recent years. Although AIDS has put a dampener on sucking your girlfriend’s blood, no one can deny there is a growing subculture which, embracing everything relating to vampires, has spilled over into mainstream pop-culture.
Modern-day vampirism is, put simply, the party by night, sleep by day mentality. Dressing in black, celebrating everything macabre and sensual. Its origin came from the early Slavs and Britons having strong beliefs in vampires (living corpses empowered by evil, craving blood as sustenance) up until the early 1800s. Some occultists today believe supernatural vampirism to be a fact.
If I was to ask who is the most popular vampire in history, an overwhelming majority would say Dracula (although my kids might say Sesame Street’s The Count). Have you ever wondered how the superstar of horror was inspired?
Dracula was very much a real person, called Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (or more commonly known as Vlad The Impaler, or Draculea (1431-1476). He was a madman who massacred more than 100,000 men, women, children, and babies during his lifetime in the most sickening, disturbing ways imaginable. And to drive the point home (pun intended), let me go into detail—but please be forewarned, the next paragraph isn’t nice to read
The atrocities committed by Vlad included impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, boiling people, feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives, cutting off limbs and drowning. As his name implies, Impalement was Vlad’s preferred method of torture and execution. An oiled stake was slowly forced through the anus until it emerged from the mouth. Death by impalement was slow and agonizing, and victims sometimes endured for hours or even days. One claim says he impaled 10,000 in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in a single day (and I bet you thought Transylvania was only a fictional country).
Sorry you had to read that, but I wish to make a point, which is simply this: the origins of vampirism is nothing short of pure evil. The original vampire, Vlad Dracul, was nothing short of pure evil. The vampires in books and films of yesteryear were nothing short of pure evil.
But times have changed.
Pure evil has become not-so-bad, pretty-good-actually evil. The repulsive has become romantic. The villain has now become the hero. We, the pop-culture consumers, have made the slow (but sure) transition from hating the vampire, to cheering for him . . . or her.
Is anyone else concerned?
- Photo credit: www.fanpop.com
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