PrintLock up your daughters, light some torches, and break out the crucifixes: Vampires have invaded our culture.
But unlike other topical TV trends like candid camera shows, programs like True Blood have used their subject’s growing popularity to explore deeper issues, like the acceptance of homosexuality and racial minorities—making the vampire trend more than just a passing fad.
True Blood is part Anne Rice, part Dracula, and a bit of Twilight. The series, based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, follows Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress working at a bar in the hamlet of Bon Temps, Louisiana. In True Blood’s world, vampires have recently exposed themselves worldwide and one, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), moves to Sookie’s town. He immediately fascinates her—he’s the first vampire she’s ever met and she is drawn to him because she can’t hear his thoughts. If the high concept isn’t enough to pique your interest, consider the acclaimed work of the actors: Paquin just won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama.
HBO’s bloodsucking show is part of an expansion of the vampire genre that’s twelve years in the making. The current trend began in the ‘90s, when Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on the late, lamented WB network. During that show’s seven-year run, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels was published and a Buffy spinoff, Angel, was created. In more recent years, the phenomenon of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight hit bookshelves and Cullen-mania began with a capital OME (Oh My Edward). Most recently, CBS’s Moonlight, a show about a vampire detective—taking up where Forever Knight and Angel left off—was released during the 2007-2008 television season, and the film version of Twilight exceeded expectations to become a blockbuster. The current success of vampire media, both critically and popularly, is creating a snowball effect, allowing for more books, TV shows, and movies to be greenlit.
As a result, Reuters named 2008 the year of the vampire. But our communal vampire obsession has shown few signs of decay in 2009, which is set to include the release of the third Underworld film, the upcoming second season of True Blood, the possibility of a movie based on the House of Night book series, and the anticipated release of New Moon, Twilight’s big-screen sequel.
But amid this flood of vampire entertainment, can we find any substance? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Vampire tales have always acted as social commentary—Bram Stoker’s Dracula is largely about female sexuality, Buffy is an extended metaphor for adolescence, and even Twilight has an ax to grind about abstinence until marriage—and True Blood is no different. In that show, the undead have recently “come out of the coffin” due to the development of synthetic blood. There’s a sign in the pilot episode that says “God hates fangs”—an obvious pun on “God hates fags.”
True Blood’s use of vampirism as a metaphor for homosexuality isn’t exactly subtle. As Alice Mottola, BC ’10, says, “I don’t even know if it’s worth veiling it if they are going to be that blatant.” She continues, “I think it’s sad that we can’t discuss it explicitly.” Nonetheless, True Blood still dares to enter the discussion at all.
Vampires in True Blood are also discriminated against because they are not human. The show’s vampire community is an oppressed group: Leading members of their society are trying to pass a Vampire Rights Amendment, and legislation that puts them on more equal footing with their human counterparts—in areas such as marriage rights—has already been passed. The marriage laws, which allow for a human and vampire to marry, parallel the interracial marriage laws of yesteryear and also echo the recent uproar over California’s controversial Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage.
Based on the challenging and relevant issues they tackle, it seems that vampires won’t be retreating to their coffins anytime soon. As True Blood and other vampire entertainments prove, these Faustian figures deserve the attention they’re getting—at least until other movies and TV series get brave enough to tackle the same sorts of tough issues.
-----------
Each of These Vamps Is Not Like the Others
If you’re living off blood, chances are that you’re a vampire. But the rest of the telltale signs of vampires aren’t as consistent—especially on TV.
Moonlight
Alex O’Loughlin stars as Mick St. John, a vampire detective in Los Angeles who falls in love with a human reporter (Sophia Myles). These vampires grow fangs, drink blood, and sleep in freezers during the day. Strangely, sunlight doesn’t really bother them.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The titular teenage vampire killer, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, tries—and usually fails—to keep her slaying duties separate from her personal life. Her foes burst into flames in sunlight, transform their faces to feed, and drink blood—but can somehow also eat food.
Blood Ties
Kyle Schmid plays Henry Fitzroy, a vampire who has a thing for Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox), a sexy cop who is losing her eyesight. Henry, the bastard son of Henry VIII, grows four fangs, burns in the sunlight, drinks blood and is literally dead as a doornail during the daytime. In this series, vampires are solitary creatures— two never live in the same area.
—Logan Hofstein