Sex, love and immortality: Behind the obsession with vampires

Immortal, bloodthirsty creatures that provender connected humans - they person crisp fangs and a hatred for sunlight and garlic.

Vampires mightiness not the leader you typically basal for, but they person transfixed america for centuries.

The archetypal abbreviated communicative astir the monster written successful the English connection was John Polidori's The Vampyre successful 1819.

More followed, with Bram Stoker's Dracula successful 1897 inspiring F.W. Murnau's soundless movie Nosferatu successful 1922. This is present being remade by Robert Eggers and is acceptable to beryllium released successful the UK successful 2025, starring Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult.

But what's driving our hunger for vampire stories?

For writer and histrion Mark Gatiss, his fascination with vampires started early. The co-writer of BBC play bid Sherlock and Dracula has been a "horror obsessive" for arsenic agelong arsenic helium tin remember.

Gatiss went connected from a puerility emotion of scary stories to prima arsenic Dracula successful an audio production, made a documentary connected the monster arsenic good arsenic a 2020 BBC series, which sees the Count (played by Claes Bang) task to London.

He says the accidental to bring Stoker's iconic vampire to beingness felt "too bully to beryllium true".

"Like Sherlock Holmes, it's an imperishable story and, really, if anyone gives you the accidental to person a spell astatine it - you person to bash it," helium explains.

Rolin Jones is an enforcement shaper and a writer connected the TV adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, based connected Anne Rice's postulation of novels.

The series, available connected BBC iPlayer, follows vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (played by Jacob Anderson) who shares the communicative of his beingness and narration with Lestat de Lioncourt (played by Sam Reid) with a journalist.

He explains stories astir the vampires "come backmost implicit and implicit again" due to the fact that they "get successful your bones and haunt you," with galore raising questions of immortality, decease and love.

The modern popularity of the figures tin beryllium seen connected societal media with #vampire having 2.7 cardinal posts connected TikTok.

Jones adds that each time helium volition spot much radical tattooing the characters' faces connected their body, explaining "this is simply a rabid instrumentality base".

While the characteristics of fictional vampires person changed passim past - immoderate pain to a crisp successful the sunlight, others person famously sparkly tegument - they person 1 happening successful common: immortality.

Dr Sam George - an subordinate prof astatine the University of Hertfordshire who taught students astir vampires successful fabrication - explains that portion of the crushed the monster endures is due to the fact that they "get america to deliberation astir the large questions that interest us, ideas astir ageing" arsenic good arsenic "what happens beyond the grave".

She adds that "the vampire's ever been linked precise powerfully with disease, with contagion," adding that if we look backmost successful past we tin spot that our involvement successful the immortal monster seems to pique astir times of wide disease.

"When the archetypal fictional vampire appeared successful 1819, determination was a beardown nexus with tuberculosis," she says.

She adds that F.W. Murnau's soundless movie Nosferatu successful 1922, centring connected a quality celebrated for the plagued rats helium brought successful his wake, came soon aft the Spanish influenza pandemic.

The world adds that this is "really important to wherefore vampires are truthful fashionable and connected inclination now, erstwhile you deliberation of Nosferatu and its nexus to the plague, station Covid we're precise funny successful the vampire arsenic contagion."

Executive shaper Jones adds that a cardinal constituent of involvement for him lies successful moving retired wherefore vampires privation to support living. "You instrumentality mortality retired of immoderate drama, and it's rather interesting," helium says.

Jones adds that Ms Rice herself wrote the caller aft losing her girl and that this consciousness of "grief and mourning" is "exceptionally articulated" successful the book.

While vampires whitethorn fto america play retired our fears astir mortality and death, Jones adds that determination is thing other that draws america to the fanged figures.

"They're the sexiest, the astir sensual of monsters," helium says. "They seduce you."

Jones adds that erstwhile helium archetypal picked up the caller Interview with the Vampire, "it seemed to maine what I was speechmaking was this truly repressed and truly messy emotion story."

Dr George agrees, explaining "vampires person gotten younger and amended looking implicit the years" and notes the quality betwixt Nosferatu and Twilight's Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson).

The world adds determination has been "a shift" successful the mode radical work vampire fiction, explaining determination has been a batch of involvement successful the taxable of sexuality and vampires, similar the "queer family" presented successful Ms Rice's novel.

The operation of emotion and immortality, Dr George says, is besides seen successful Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, which ran with the tagline "love ne'er dies".

For Dr George, the "sense that the vampire tin code a fig of questions each astatine once," from decease to emotion is the crushed it stays with america today.