Before we get to that, let me describe the problem I have with this. Vampires shouldn't be hot for hot's sake with poofy hair and eye makeup. They should be wretched, evil things, with embers for eyes and the smell of rotting fish for breath. They should scare the living daylights out of you and make you want to run and hide someplace, not head together down to the dance club, after which you follow up with a night of spooning and talking about your "feelings."
They should have a presence that is both majestic and chilling. As described in Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula":
How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness.
Now, no one will deny that vampires offer plenty of metaphors for sex, this we've known for years. For example, listen with your Freudian ear to the language in which Dr. Seward describes the driving of a stake into Lucy's breast by her finance in Stoker's novel:
The thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdly screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam.
But a metaphor for sex is different from a sexy vampire, and so we present to you the below list with the following caveat: we think this whole trend of "sexy" vampires is total crap!
James Marsters as Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen in Twilight
Alexander Skarsgard as Eric Northman in True Blood
Antonio Banderas as Armand in Interview with a Vampire
David Boreanaz as Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Keifer Sutherland as David in The Lost Boys
Brad Pitt as Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview with a Vampire
Jason Dohring as Josef Kostan in Moonlight
Wesley Snipes as Blade in Blade
Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton in True Blood
Gerard Butler as Dracula in Dracula 2000
Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaires
Tom Cruise as Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview with a Vampire
Alex O’Loughlin as Mich St. John in Moonlight
Jason Patric as Michael from The Lost Boys
Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen from Twilight
Aidan Turner as Mitchell in Being Human
Ethan Hawke as Edward in Daybreakers
Paul Wesley as Stefan in The Vampire Diaries
Stuart Townsend as Lestat in Queen of the Damned
Hey Hollywood: Can we please have real vampires back again?
Exactly what do you mean by "should"? Dracula as Bram Stoker described him was very sexy in his youthful guise. He played for both Mina and for Lucy, and they both fell for him. The reason for this is that Bram Stoker hoped to make Dracula into a play staring Sir Henry Irving, an actor in the theater Stoker managed. Irving didn't want to do it. But the description fits him perfectly. Irving was one of the most handsome actors in London at the time. So the novel "Dracula" isn't going to go along with your theory.
ReplyDeleteThere are far too many myths on which vampires are based to really pick one as the basis. Some are attractive, some are not. The aristocratic vampire as he is portrayed today, mostly in the image of Lord Byron, comes from the 19th century. Thats a very long time ago. So your should isn't historically based either.
The vampire isn't a horror house monster precisely BECAUSE thats not what we, the audience, want. They are the outsider. The one that stands outside time as well as humanity, but has plenty of both. Who wouldn't be intrigued by a person that has seen ancient Rome, and might well see the next galaxy close up and personal? They have been around sexing ladies for that long too. So it makes sense that a girl might want to sample that.
There are NO SHOULDS in fiction. As Dracula himself said in "the Dracula Tapes" by Fred Saberhaven; " Jonathat Harker was repulsed and horrified to see me in the coffin as I lay motionless, but the sight of him standing over me with a shovel didn't thrill me any either!"
So don't expect to be joined by everyone in your ideas. They are not shared. But I have a great idea for you; Any time you don't like a genre of fiction, don't read it. And get off your high horse. Everyone likes different things.