by Vicky Smee

Created on: November 06, 2007

In 1897 Bram Stoker brought us Dracula. A book that has led us to our love affair with the vampire. Its a book that has inspired countless filmmakers.

In the Vampire we have a creature, who survives drinking the blood of his living human victims. A creature who never has to gaze at what he has become. His image cannot be caught by any mirror or by film.

For the past century we have revelled in watching vampires evolve, on the very film they cannot be captured on.

The first truly memorable Vampire film was F.W. Murnaus' Silent film Nosferatu, which featured the rodent like Count Orlok, the solitary outsider who lives in a castle, hidden away from the rest of humanity.

Bela Lugosi brought us a more charming, and seductive vampire. A vampire with an ever growing human appearance, becoming more like ourselves and less like the hidden beast Nosferatu. The exaggerated gestures and longing looks remain, yet the rodentesque makeup is replaced. The suit cape and and V shaped hairline, gives us the vampire we are all familiar with today.

The hammer house continued with the classic tale. With our vampire hidden away in a castle, in a far away land, emerging to feed on locals, whose superstitious ways seem preposterous to the educated visitor. Until he too realizes the evil truth of the monster in the woods. This basic story line has been the basis to countless vampire films.

In the 1994 film adaptation of Anne Rices interview with the vampire, we find a vampire with a conscience, no longer the unfeeling monster who cares only about the sating of his own ravenous appetites. But still a creature with the same survival extincts as any other, who learns what it is he must do to stay alive. The solitary aspect has faded and the vampire now is someone who prefers companionship.

The 1998 film Blade, a character created in Marvel comics shows us a super hero, half breed vampire. Who strives to free humanity from the disease of Vampirism, yet again the vampire is becoming more human. Still sensual and seductive but the monstrous nature, of Blade at least is able to be repressed by the use of a serum.

With John Carpenters 1998 film Vampires we now have the vampires living in packs, as has become the trend in many of the newer vampire films. Its a far cry from the solitary Nosferatu.

In 2006 Requiem for a Vampire brings us the story of a family of undead, who desperately try to live without taking life from humans, feeling threatened one night one of the family attacks a man and contracts AIDS from his blood. Subsequently dying from the disease. This brings the humanity and mortality of the vampire more into view.

The vampire has evolved from the pale solitary monstrous figure that first hit our screens, growing ever more to mimic the human race on which it feeds.

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