The Vampire Phenomenon

If you step out of your house late Thursday night, you'll witness an overwhelming scene. At 12:01 a.m., movie theaters will release "New Moon," the next film in the "Twilight" series. Anxious viewers will finally discover whether mortal Bella Swan will choose Jacob's werewolf den over Edward's sparkly coffin. Clearly, creatures of the night have returned to societal consciousness.

WSJ's Stephanie Raposo reports on how far some "Twilight" fans are willing to go.

As a testament to their adaptability, vampires are front and center on the pop-culture stage. Television shows such as "True Blood" and "The Vampire Diaries" feature titillating exchanges between fanged supermodels. Movies like "Twilight," "Let the Right One In" and "Blood: The Last Vampire" explore vampirism through teenage, independent and gore-tinted lenses, respectively. Even the BBC can't withstand Bram Stoker's lure, and has come up with "Being Human," a show that focuses on three housemates who happen to be ghost, werewolf and vampire.

What accounts for this 21st-century obsession? Less than 30 years ago, dealing with blood was considered a risky and unclean business as society encountered the AIDS-laced transfusions of the 1980s. And even though those fears have mostly abated, having blood drawn at the doctor's office is still enough to bring out the squeamish adolescent in all of us. How, then, have vampires been able to influence cultural discourse without activating our gag reflex?

Sex plays a part, undoubtedly—today's pop culture champions infinitely virile vampires who resemble Abercrombie & Fitch models. And perhaps equally salient is the appeal that comes from vampires' eternal first-hand knowledge. Creatures that have experienced the Civil War instead of just reading about it are hot commodities.
The Origin of the Vampire

Most conceptions of the vampire are entwined with European history. See photos and listen to an expert discuss different origins of the vampire legend.

While you might think that all that blood-pooling would drive down ratings, vampires touch on more tempting taboos. That first bite of flesh echoes the very first bite of a certain fruit in a certain garden. Pointed teeth, then, seem to awaken a longing that overrides queasiness.

Proponents of "Twilight" may claim that the series is driven by romance, but sex dominates the franchise. Though the characters aren't having it, the whole premise of the book rests on its lure. It's clear that the connection between Bella and Edward isn't based on a mutual love for, say, Derrida—or even for each other. It's a physical attraction, at most, that's already drawn $380 million in movie-ticket revenue from fans who crave Edward as much as Bella does.

Indeed, to say the sexual machinations between human and vampire are the stuff of romance misses the point entirely. Vampires inspire lust. Confusing sex with romance sugarcoats acts that appeal because of their unfamiliarity—which may be the more salient reason why vampires resonate so deeply. Vampires are innately antideath, so they hover in a permanent purgatory that eschews reason; they know how things started and how they might end. Thus freed from the constraints of mortality as well as morality, vampires can put our existence into perspective. More knowledgeable than encyclopedias, they're worth an infinite number of years in grad school. It doesn't hurt that in vampires' pop-culture incarnations their wisdom is combined with eternal good looks.
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In "New Moon," the second film in "The Twilight Saga," young Bella Swan finds herself drawn into an ancient conflict between vampires and werewolves while in search of Edward in Italy. Video courtesy of Summit Entertainment.

But vampires aren't mere pastiches of 21st-century projections and fears. There have been multiple iterations in myriad cultures, ranging from the Caribbean Loogaroo to the ancient Indian goddess Kali. Curiously, vampires make an appearance in most, if not all, societies. Insofar as they're repositories of information, our attraction to them seems to lie in all they contain, not just in their ability to drain the lifeblood from mortals.

Inherently resilient, they come back in different forms—standing in for racism, sexism, individual traumas, sexual promiscuity and more. Indeed, they're the ultimate metaphor. Their malleability facilitates their artistic depiction, whether they are representing theatrical self-consciousness in "Interview With the Vampire" or functioning as another minority on "True Blood."

And if movies like "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead" and the Korean thriller "Thirst" are any indication, vampires won't be departing any time soon. This may not be a bad thing. For an audience that's stimulated by sex and knowledge alike, vampires are a perfect—if still frightening—match.