The Evolution of the Movie Vampire

Christopher Lee is about to get personal with Joanna Lumley.

It seems that vampires are everywhere today and just as, if not more, popular as ever. Once a vampire was a monster who killed without regret or care. Today vampires are romanticized to the point that they do not even resemble the original Bram Stoker vampire, Dracula.

The first movie vampire appeared in Nosferatu (1922). This vampire was little more than an animal. He was ugly and killed to survive. It did however, establish why vampires above all other movie monsters have mass appeal, sex. Nosferatu snuck into womens bedrooms and bit their necks. It is a very intimate, although deadly, act. The sexual suggestion is blatant.

Bela Lugosi set the standard in Dracula (1931). With his black cape and accent, he created the iconic vampire. His vampire mingled in high society. He charmed and hypnotized women,yet he still slept in a dirt filled coffin near his vampire wives.

Dracula was re-made in 1958 with Christopher Lee as Dracula, squaring off against Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. Lee would play the role eight more times in such "B" movies as Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). These films featured plenty of large breasted female vampires. Jack Palance returned to the original story playing the title character in Dracula (1974).

Dracula became the subject of camp films in the early 1970s. Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974) needs virgin blood to survive. He has his fangs set on three virgin sisters who live in a mansion. The groundskeeper at a mansion however, keeps deflowering the girls. Dracula even went ghetto in Blacula (1972) and in the sequel Scream Blacula Scream (1973).

Dracula would not be taken seriously again until 1979. That year Frank Langella played Dracula with Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing. On television Steven Kings vampire story Salems Lot was turned into a great mini series, with a vampire that resembled the 1922 Nosferatu.  To create balance that year, Love at First Bite had George Hamilton playing a comic Dracula. "Without me, Transylvania will be as exciting as Bucharest... on a Monday night."
 

In 1985 vampires invaded suburbia.  Jim Carrey must fight off the advances of a cougar vampire, Lauren Hutton, who wants to suck his virgin blood in Once Biten.  In Fright Night, a high school boy discovers his neighbor is a vampire who has the hots for his girlfriend. It pokes fun at Christopher Lee.  Once Biten and Fright Night were a couple of the first major films to feature a vampire that is not associated with Dracula.

Francis Ford Coppola went back to the original source in 1992s Dracula, starring Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. Even though he upped the sex, audiences seemed bored with yet another remake of the Stoker novel. Instead, the 1990's saw Vampires as action films. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) was a modest hit but spawned the cult followed television show (1997-2003), about a popular high school girl who spends her free time kicking vampire butt. She also falls in love with one. Interview with the Vampire (1994) with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, hinted at homosexual vampires. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and Vampires (1998) are straight up action films. Blade (1998) and it's two sequels were about a sword wielding vampire superhero.

Robert Pattinson makes Kristen Stewart's and a million tween girl's hearts go pitterpat.

Dracula 2000 (2000) with Gerard Butler and Christopher Plummer, tried to mesh the original story with a modern setting, with modest results.  Underworld (2003) had a gun toting vampiress fallling in love with a werewolf.  Although Kate Beckinsale looked good in leather, it could have used some sex and nudity.

Twighlight came out in 2008 and made vampires practically human. These vampires are romantic objects for girls to drool over. Edward is nothing like the original Nosferatu. He goes to school, plays baseball and has the habit of unbuttoning his shirt. It is like modern man standing next to a caveman. Vampires were always portrayed as predators needing the blood of humans to survive. Humans were little more than cattle to them, such as depicted in Daybreakers 2009, where human kind is becoming extinct as vampires have taken over the world and nearly drank it dry.

With the success of the Twilight films and televisions adult vampire show, True Blood, in which vampire and humans exist cohesively, it seems the romanticized version of the vampire is sticking around. The latest Twighlight movie is coming out soon and Collin Farell is set to play the vampire in the remake of Fright Night. Hollywood though, has not given up on the original vampire. A new Dracula movie is in the works with Sam Worthington.  Clearly vampires will never be ugly again.