Bite Me
“When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers I kind of wanted to be a vampire !”Angelina Jolie |
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 When did my vampire obsession start? Like Angelina Jolie vampires intrigued me from an early age but it was only as I got older that I could appreciate the erotic symbolism associated with these dark, sensual creatures!
Now there is a craze around at the minute, you can’t get away from it; when you walk past a book store, HMV, bus signs, billboards…and that is the Vampire! Twilight, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries. The myth of vampires has always intrigued me, so I decided to look into the fascination and see whether it is some strange obsession or just a fashion trend which has suddenly turned girls and grown women into vampire fanatics!
My allure with the vampires first began when my older brother used to watch ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’. Being a child of the 90’s, it was all about the ‘Spice Girls’ and ‘Girl Power’. Buffy definitely kicked ass better than any boy (and I am sure most of the boys wouldn’t mind Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking their asses!) but it was the brooding sensuality of Angel and even the strangely addictive attraction of Spike (with his bleached blonde hair and long leather coat) that got me hooked. Also the fact that my brother bought all the box sets so I could have my Buffy fix whenever I needed it certainly helped! I watched ‘Interview With The Vampire’ a couple of years later. Most women fell for Brad Pitt’s charm in ‘Thelma and Louise’ but he definitely caught my eye when playing the striking ‘Louis De Pointe Luc’ from the Anne Rice Novel. (I managed to read the whole trilogy at the age of 13). So where exactly did the vampire appear from? Was it just an ancient myth or does the vampire secretly exist?
There have been tales of vampires and bloodsucking demons for centuries; some speculate it began mainly in Western Europe in the early 18th Century after an influx of vampire superstition. The legend has been going as far back as the ancient Mayans and Aztecs where stories were told about vampires’ right through to Romania’s Vlad The Impaler, which inspired Bram Stoke’s Dracula! The Ancient Indians and Egyptians both link certain goddesses with intimately drinking blood. However literary historian Brian Frost says that the "belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself", and may go back to "prehistoric times", “Even the Devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.” To this day there are still rumours circulating about vampire attacks, the most recent being in January 2005 in Birmingham. Whether these are true who knows.
The main fascinations with a vampire are firstly the romanticism, the love story, the immortal vampire falling for the mortal human. Then there is the attraction to the creature that can cheat life, almost the unobtainable being, like a dark superhero. Who would not want to live forever? Finally the desirability to being so close to death, ‘will they/won’t they bite?’ It is a similar scenario to the ‘bad boy’ syndrome…many women are attracted to men who are ‘bad boys’….The Rock Star, The Drug Dealer, The Playboy …all male characteristics we see in everyday film and TV. Plus the biting can be a sexual fetish, very S&M, the blood, the colour red, a passionate symbolism!
I had not really thought about vampires much the past few years, the odd film was released at the cinemas yet I think after the Buffy craze ended, vampires took a back seat, the interest had died down. Then the flame ignited! It was the 1st January 2009. My friend and I were both supposed to be working but there was a mix up with our shifts…….anyway, we were in Manchester and had nothing to do so she suggested going to watch a film called ‘Twilight’. She had been to see it and her exact words to me were “as soon as you see this guy on screen, you will fall in love with him!” Well I hadn’t heard of this Twilight book or film so I decided to watch it and sure enough the minute Robert Pattinson came on screen as the flawless Edward Cullen, I was hooked! . A year later I discovered True Blood and again Stephen Moyer as the striking Bill Compton caught my eye. Not to mention there are some very racy scenes in True Blood which are maybe a tad x-rated for Twilight fans! I have also managed to catch a few episodes of the Vampire Diaries which again is another interesting TV show and one for vampire lovers. All of the aforementioned also started out as novels so for anyone who is part of the vampire phenomenon, make sure you purchase a good vamp novel as I would recommend all of the above. Especially the Twilight Saga!
The vampire has suddenly woken something up inside us from girls to grown women and I can say I am certainly seeing the sexual attraction to the vampire….BITE ME!
Twilight Saga Eclipse - released in Cinemas Friday 9th July 2010. True Blood Season 2 DVD is now on sale Vampire Diaries Season 1 DVD released 23/8/2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire
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