A look at pop culture bloodlust that really bites
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By JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star
Suzanne Sughroue is a 45-year-old mother of three, a businesswoman and a vampire fanatic.
Yes, you read that correctly.
And, yes, one of those three is not like the others.
“I’ve always been fascinated with vampires ever since I was a kid and saw Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee as Dracula,” said Sughroue, a development director at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.
“One of the best was Barnabas Collins on ‘Dark Shadows,’” she added. “I find them compelling. They draw you in even though they’re supposed to be super scary.”
Without question, vampires have a certain lure, especially of late.
Academy Award winner Alan Ball (“American Beauty”) has brought one to HBO in “True Blood,” adapting Charlaine Harris’ popular “Sookie Stackhouse” series for the small screen.
Vampires Angel and Spike continue to sire new fans with the syndication of Joss Whedon’s series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.”
And no vamp is more popular right now than Edward Cullen, the protagonist in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling, four-book “Twilight” series.
A movie based on the first book opened at midnight Thursday in Lincoln. Sughroue attended with two other women her age and two teenage girls, the target audience of Meyer’s ultra-popular series.
After having read the first two novels, and now in the middle of the third one, Sughroue wasn’t about to miss the movie.
“The thing about the novels, like the Anne Rice novels before them, is that they’re plausible,” Sughroue said. “The characters seem real, like someone you might really encounter, but, obviously, you wouldn’t.”
For the uninitiated, Edward Cullen is the latest in a long, long line of vampires to cultivate a cult following — the same way fellow bloodsuckers Barnabas Collins, Lestat and Saint-Germain did before him.
The same way Bram Stoker’s Dracula has done ever since his introduction to the masses more than 100 years ago.
“If it wasn’t for Dracula, we wouldn’t be talking about any of this today,” Dracula scholar Elizabeth Miller said.
Unlike “Dracula,” a novel of horror that Stoker published in 1897, Meyer’s book is a love story, with the primary plot of a forbidden romance between the dangerous and extraordinary Edward and the ordinary and very human Bella.
“The fact that there’s this evil side (to Edward) that’s masked by his beauty is seductive in a way," said Laura Chejka, a 19-year-old Nebraska Wesleyan University student and an “obsessed” “Twilight” fan. “You’re not supposed to want it. You can’t want it, but you want it anyway.”
Boy, do Meyer’s fans want Edward.
At press time, her four books ranked Nos. 3 through 6 on Amazon’s best-seller list. The novels were among the top five best-selling books during the year’s third quarter, according to USA Today.
The “Twilight” soundtrack debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart more than a full week before the movie even opened.
The phenomenon doesn't surprise Miller or fellow scholar Leslie S. Klinger, who have seen vampires rise and fall (mostly rise) in popularity since Stoker scared the wits out of his readers.
Of course, any discussion of vampires begins and ends with Dracula.
There were vampire stories before Stoker’s novel. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th century poetry. Then, John William Polidori published “The Vampyre” in 1819, a story supposedly inspired by Lord Byron.
But Stoker’s story is the one that launched the vampire phenomenon, especially after Hollywood got its hand on the Count.
Klinger, who recently published “The Annotated Dracula” (Norton), said the story works because Stoker tells it from multiple viewpoints. His narrative includes diary entries, telegrams and newspaper clippings.
Plus, it’s methodical.
“It’s slow,” Klinger said. “It takes time for the horror to build.”
It also helped that Stoker’s readers, unlike readers today, weren’t well-versed in vampire mythology. A character who could scale walls and feed on human blood was novel to readers of the time.
Interestingly, “Dracula” wasn’t an immediate success. The novel attracted attention, but only as a thriller. The author didn’t profit from it. His main source of income was not from writing, but from running a theater.
Nearly 30 years later, Dracula found new life (no pun intended) when Hamilton Dean adapted the novel as a stage play. That’s when the Count’s image began to change.
Stoker’s novel, after all, is not a “love story,” Miller said. It never was meant to be.
“There was no love at all,” she said. “(His victims) were his lunch.”
Klinger called Dracula a “walking corpse,” with less emphasis on bloodsucking.
“He was a zombie more than anything else,” he said.
In the play, and later in the 1931 Bela Lugosi movie, Dracula became a romantic loner.
“He’s almost a cowboy figure in many ways,” Klinger said.
And, just like that, a phenomenon was born.
“It’s really quite amazing,” Miller said. “He (Stoker) was a second-rate author. There’s nothing else (he wrote) that anyone would remember. But somehow he tapped into something that still strikes a chord.”
Even more so today.
Vampire novels were once found only in the horror section.
But along came authors Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro with their heroic vampires, and suddenly there was a shift.
Vampire stories began showing up as science fiction, detective fiction, Harlequin romances and as young adult fiction.
Why? Vampires have commercial appeal. They connect to broad audiences.
Meyer’s Edward Cullen, for instance, is as popular with soccer moms as he is with Meyer’s target audience of teenage girls.
“After a few pages, I was hooked, and I’m not one for vampire stories,” said Lisa Hansen, a Utah mother of two who created TwilightMoms.com, which boasts more than 16,000 members.
“I’m not much of a reader, actually,” Hansen added. “But there is absolutely something about her writing that speaks to me. Maybe it’s her being the same age, being the same kind of stage (in life), with kids. We share a lot of the same perspective.”
Vampires also are versatile. They can change shape. They can be evil, heroic and/or romantic. And they can be anywhere at any time. Try putting an astronaut in 18th century England and see how far you get.
“Just stick a vampire in and, boom, you have a story,” Miller said.
No better example is “Dark Shadows,” the ABC daytime soap opera that aired from 1966 to 1971. Introduced in episode 211 in March 1967, the vampire Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid) was meant as a quick fix to resurrect failing ratings.
It worked.
Barnabas became so popular, his 13-week run turned into four years. NBC revived the series and its popular vampire as a primetime drama in 1991.
Not long after Barnabas, Rice and Yarbro steered the vampire myth in a new direction with Lestat and Saint-Germain, both more heroic than blood-thirsty.
Rice introduced Lestat in 1976 in “Interview With a Vampire.” Yarbro debuted Saint-Germain two years later in “Hotel Transylvania.”
A valiant, misunderstood vampire has carried over to today, with Angel and Spike in Whedon’s “Buffy” series, Bill in HBO’s “True Blood” and, more recently, Mick St. John on the short-lived CBS series “Moonlight.”
“The (modern) image of the vampire has, to a great extent, replaced the Stoker image,” Miller said. “‘Twilight’ is another manifestation of that movement.”
Granted, “Buffy’s” Angel and Spike had their moments. Spike, after all, was known as “William the Bloody,” and Angel wreaked massive havoc every time he lost his soul.
“The two key vampires in ‘Buffy’ are on journeys of redemption,” said Meghan Winchell, a Nebraska Wesleyan University professor who teaches a course on “Buffy.” “These two vampires have done horrendous things through their 100-plus years, and now they are trying to make up for it. That’s attractive.”
As are such things as immortality, superhuman abilities, forbidden desires, rebellion, power, eroticism and more, Miller said. Those traits and qualities have helped the vampire remain popular for more than 100 years.
Alex Munger, an 18-year-old NWU student, has read all four “Twilight” books, including the first novel three times. He’s enjoyed “Buffy” as well as recent vampire movies “Blade” and “Underworld.”
So what’s the appeal?
“It’s the mysteries involved with them,” he said. “They usually stay in the shadows at night, not wanting to be exposed.”
Munger’s answer is something Miller has heard before.
“Unlike other ‘monsters,’ vampires attract as well as repel, and they are in many ways so much like us,” she said. “Add to that the general fascination with the darker side of our natures, with the supernatural, and with the nature of evil, and you have the fascination with Count Dracula.”
And Lestat, Saint-Germain, Angel and Edward Cullen.
“I went to a movie yesterday,” Miller said. “‘Let the Right One In,’ a Swedish (vampire) movie about a 12-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl.” The movie plays next month at the Ross Media Arts Center.
“The next thing we’ll have is vampires in baby carriages,” Miller said.
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
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