In popular culture, vampires dip in and out of vogue. But with Sinners, Nosferatu, and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, the undead are in style once again. It seems we as a culture can’t decide how we want our vampires. Do we want them scary, or do we want them sexy? And when did the whole sexy vampire thing even begin? There are many videos out there on this subject, of course. The latest Monstrum video essay from PBS’ Storied actually gets its facts right when it comes to the history of sexy vs. scary vampires. You can watch the video in full right here:
The vampire of ancient folklore was indeed a terrifying, repulsive creature. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was far more repulsive than sexy. Yet despite popular opinion, Hollywood didn’t actually create the sexy, aristocratic vampire trope. In the near-century before Dracula, popular tales like The Vampyre, Varney the Vampire, and Carmilla, all popularized the seductive undead. Monstrum host Dr. Emily Zarka actually acknowledges that the Dracula image made famous by Bela Lugosi was actually a fusion of both versions. Thus, creating the ultimate vampire archetype we know all still today.
This video covers almost all the bases of major vampire fiction ever since 1922’s Nosferatu and all the iterations vampires have gone through in media ever since then. The Lost Boys, Buffy, True Blood, they all get a nod. And yes, Twilight is too big a pop culture milestone in the genre to ignore. Oddly, despite various versions of Anne Rice’s vampires from both film and TV getting screenshots, Rice’s Vampire Chronicles doesn’t pop up in the timeline. But other than that curious omission, this video essay really understands that when it comes to vampires, we’ll never decide which version we like better. As the saying goes, “Why not both?”