The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

What is your opinion on the way vampires are portrayed in Books and movies?

I personally think that it overly romanticizes the vampire and makes it seem like a lovely fad. Its kinda depressing to have people think that the life of a vampire is all about sex and blood. I mean dont get me wrong those aspects are fun but theres more to it then that.

sex an Blood, thos aspects are a part of my life, but i seem more of a shadow compared to the books an movies, i dont let people know what i am. only a select few know an thay have my full trust

Books and movies don't cover the true condition of vampirism at all. There is no immortality, no killing people in the night, we're not undead beings, etc. I don't concern myself with vampire fiction. I'd much rather learn more about myself.

Moat of the imbellishments that are found in the books and movies, are usually glorifed metaphors for different characters traits,that folklore has made a mainstay from the legends...

Well, more than a half of this community would not exist without them.

Perhaps, but how badly would they be missed? (sorry for any offense this statement may cause. I'ts very late)

you cant really miss what you dont know isnt there. thus theoretically if all the ones who are strictly into the overdramatized version of the vampire didnt exist those who have a love for the true vampire wouldnt know they were gone and that doesnt necessarily mean this site would be emptier, but maybe those spots would be taken by others people. I mean you never know right?

They are just for entertainment to me. Just something to wish was true to escape everyday life.

Perhaps. What I was saying is that those who join a vampire community because they just saw Queen of the Damned or what have you and they think it's cool to be a vampire, are not necessarily those who contribute anything intelligent to the discussions.

books and movies never tell the truth and then everybody then thinks they were telling the truth.any way in books and movies vampires are etheir (a)a monster or (b)a lover.

When in reality, they are disappointed to discover that there is really nothing special to see. Vampires are normal people. Disappointed? Probably.

I think vampiremovies are fasinating and beatyful, but I don´t belive thats how a vampires are ore lives.

Movies and FICTION books are fiction.

They are there to make money and entertain people not to teach.

And again I have to agree with LaMuerte.

Even tough if they want to believe that a vampire is like the movies it's their free will to do so.

And it's not a probability when they discover it's not like the movies it's an assurance.

The books and movies do not give an accurate portrale of the Vampire. You have everything from a comedy to a horror portrayed.

I think its a bit harsh to judge the ones who are not true vampires, just because they like the movies and books as entertainment. I'm not a vampire, but I believe in them, well not like they are portrait in movies or books. Like I believe in witches and warlocks and again, we for sure are not like they show us in Hollywood. But I dont go and look down at people who like the stories they get told. I would have thought people on here would be more tolerant. Was I wrong? :)

You must first look at the author and view his body of work singularly.

Every writer weaves his story in his manner. They take the vampiric myths and crafts it into something the reflects their own beliefs on what a Vampire should be.

And that also impact our own versions of vampire tales.

Just a thought

I mean dont get me wrong I love to sit back and and read an Anne Rice novel but I know its just a book. The thing that kills me is when im talking to someone and they make all these crazy claims that echo the names in her books IE " I was visited by akasha and lestat last night and they fed on me and told me I was one of the chozen vampires and I have all these powers..." those people drive me nuts... I mean its great to fall in love with the beauty of the vampire but sometimes people are a little much

If a person makes any sort of reference to a fictional work when trying to make a rational argument, I stop talking to them. I refuse to converse with stupid people.

I would have to agree with you. There is a lot more to Vampire then what is portrayed in books and movies & for once l wish they would make something that has more indepth on that side of a vampire.

However i do believe that Queen of the damned did make a good point when it came to Le Stat and the fact of being Immortal & having to live alone forever.

sometimes Im just too nice for my own good.... I didnt actually flip on the little wanna be until she said they gave her the "power to mimick other peoples abilities" then I iggied her ... my gifts are something I dont like to share. I mean theyre nothing special I read auras and have the occasional dream that happens but those can be learned not taken...

ImmortalKitty, are you suggesting that vampires really are immortal?

Well the romantacized version is what I fell in love with, but From that point, I researched all aspects of vampirism, fictional and non-fictional. I am still drawn to the stories where the Vampires is not a blood thirsty beast, just for the human aspect of it i suppose. which is sort of odd to say. Fantasy is alluring to people, and the prospect of this beautiful androgynous vampire living an immortal life of culture and rebirth, well it draws people in.

mabe by immortal thay mean soul, for the soul is immortal. or better yet energy, we know for a fact that energy can not be destroyd or created it only changes forms. i didnt want to make this a religin statment so i went with energy

do you mean like the vampiric soul lives on throughout ones many lives vincent? because if so that makes perfect sense for those who believe in reincarnation.

LaMuerte, no l'm not saying that as l believe that no one can be immortal.

i believe that the portrayal of vampires by the White Wolf books depicts a more intelligetnt extstence rather than just living in a crypt and drinking blood, theres the whole society based thing etc

There's far too much hype in most of it. The real informational texts (least in the way of the Codex, etc), are very, very hard to coem by.

It's all in the flick of a keyboard nowadays.

Good point. The books and movies, althoug not accurate, well, for what I've read, very far from the reality of the condition, seem to have drawn many people to the vampiric community. They might be over-romanticised, but they speak to the hearts of many, and lead many to want to know more.

Movies: a great source of entertainment with a vamperic swing to it.

Books: Books both modern and ancient are of tremendous benefit. Without the ancient writings on vampires there would not be a label to those who feel that pull within themselves. Some parts of modern books are good to because they can be either entertainment, or also some pratical information

Books and Movies are for entertainment but some of the books are based off of folklore from hundreds of years ago.

And hundreds of years ago Vampire were protrayed as killers who would suck your blood and kill you if you misbehaved.

So yes I believe that the movies and books do not protray vampires as true. But they are protraying them how people want to see them. As they have for hundreds of years.

i think that it is exaggerated in the movies

I think some movies and books do vampyres justice but mostly its too fake and sugar coated.

Ok let's look at it from another point of view. Every 'real' vampire here. How did they got into all of this? Cause I highly doubt they have been born with the knowledge of vampires and i doubt they stumbled over any serious documentation about vampirers at a young age. I'll be so daring to say, that all of them either saw a movie or read a fictional book and went from there.

Most movies r not realistic, but so are some real reports on tv about other things. Vampires, werewolfs, fairies, etc, are things are not logic to the 'normal' world so how can someone say, they know it all from historical books and artifacts? I doubt there would be so many people who believe in that kind of things, if there weren't all the romantic books and movies.

Kat, I agree. You can not dicuss a topic like vampires in a logical or scientific frame work. That is something taught in a basic science class. Vampires or even god or religion is outside of that scope. Superstition, folklore, philosophy, or entertainment..logic does not enter into it.

I disagree entirely that vampyres and vampyrism cannot be studied in a scientific and academic manner.

It is not exclusively the domain of faith with which one can believe. While metaphysics looks into the fundamental theories of why a vampyre is, quantum mechanics, in a purely logical, rational field of study, appears to be more than capable of discerning the how.

Many feel that even the taking of blood is still, at a basic interaction, an ingestion and absorbtion of energy. What is not yet fully understood is why a vampyre has the ability to perform this act, from initial detection and contact, to fully integrating the new energy to their system.

And this is not withstanding the socio-psychological affects of culture upon the individual psyche, which also explores psycho-somatic reactions to events, the nature of personal belief and its outward consequences upon the world.

the books are fiction, the movies are fiction.

An academic manner yes. But not scientific. For a scientific study you would have to provide empirical evidence to support your claims/theories. Now if that could be done we would already have proof of vampires.

i think alot of vamprie storys are exggerated but then again i think several are true. mixed emotions

scientific or not, only cause a person has a higher energy level, it doesnt makes him/her a vampire. I'm empathic, but im not a vampire, im still human.

Humans use merely 20% of their brain, who knows what would be if we'd use 40%. But do i need to suck blood to find out? ;)

I haven’t read to many books and I really don’t watch TV but the ones I have wasn’t to far off. Authors have to tease the senses to keep people going so they put in a bunch of sex and blood

The image of the vampire underwent a major change in the 1930's, thanks to the Bela Lugosi stage and film portrayal of Count Dracula. Prior to Lugosi, vampires had been seen as repulsive, zombie-like creatures. Even Bram Stoker described his Count Dracula as repugnant and definitely un-sexy. But the play and subsequent screenplay for Universal Studio's 1931 film version of "Dracula" portrayed the vampire Count as seductive. There had, of course, been literary precedents for seductive, sociopathic vampires. John Polidori had written of the vampiric Lord Ruthvin as a dark, brooding presence very similar in nature to his friend, Lord Byron. Le Fanu added a lesibian element to the vampire mythos in the 1870's in his novel "Carmilla." But it was Lugosi who popularized the sexual vampire and brought this dark fantasy to the masses.
The vampire mythos has been the dumping ground for repressed sexual energies ever since. Even in Victorian times, vampirism was a kind of unconscious projection of the repulsion/attraction of promiscuous sex in an era of untreatable syphilis. Today, the vampire has become the symbolic expression of more contemporary HIV related phobias. Anne Rice and other writers introduced a whole new generation of homo-erotic vampires. Poppy Z. Brite extended this trend with her lesbian vampire fables. Vampires today represent the forbidden poly-sexualism which is so often accompanied by a fear of STDs. Far from being repulsive reanimated corpses, vampires are the people you secretly most want to screw! And yet they come with a curse, as have all forbidden sexual fantasies since the dawn of our species!

I think they are fun charactars to read about or watch. They give us an opportunity to escape into their impossible (most of the time) lives. thy are fake as hell,.. it's the same in most all movies and books,.. why should vamnpires be diffrent in the respect of reality vs literature and cinema (I doubt sincerely davey crockett killed a bear at the age of 3)

one has to really enjoy the actual good bits of information or research the writer does in some of these pieces...anne rice for example does alot of time/era research, and even gives accurate names of places and streets and families..so good things are to be enjoyed. I think most just use the vampiric effect to cash on because it is a money maker...but only use the vampire theme to enhance a characters flaws, qualities and dark side.
....not so much to portray an actual vampire..perhaps only anne rice did that in early pieces.

the key word to remember here is Fiction...most of the books are an over exageration of the truth....there simply to make money and give people an escape from the real world for the time being.

well thats simple...society doesnt believe that vampyres can be honest and normal humans so they portray then as evil beings that hurt the innocent

there has to be more to a vampires life then what is protrayed on the movies

i mean they have lives also things to do and places to go. so they have to live some sort of lives

Some are portraid as heroes and some arent so go figure

I think they build it up more, the way anything in Hollywood does, in regards to the movies.

I enjoy watching vampire movies, but, I think I like reading the books more b/c I can get my own image in my head of how it is-regardless of the words on the page b/c I tend to have an over active imagination anyway.

There is alot to say on this. So I figure I'll keep it short. The over do everything. Although I am a firm believer in undying love, I believe that somewhere out there my soulmate waits....one person I would spend eternity with...even though I know alot of people dont believe that...I do...i don't care what others think. Yet on the case of Vampirism in books...way over done. They either make them evil...which is highly overated lately...some vampires arn't evil you know.....some are just...morbidly dark. hehe.... Romanticism wise....whoa there buddy.....they make these vampires act crazy sometimes. It's just nuts.

all the books have different veiws like all the authors make their own stuff up out of their minds but there is a book series i like by l.j. smith called the vampire diaries which is good although it is a romance kind of thing

I agree with most of the people on here. I agree mostly with archonsyn though...

i think they make vampires more romantic and less scary.
the way they are.

interesting read.... :)

I've a great collection of vampire movies.

in 1836 was describe like a monster, without brain. Instintive and longing of blood... in 1900 was a great character, he wasn't scary, but shrewd seducer, a psycho & physical Vampire...I love last Vampire

If there were no extremely fictional vampire books and movies as there are- I would have never joined this website. I LOVE the fiction, I LOVE the romanticism and outlandish fictional vampire abilities in their entirety.

Although I befriend MANY vampire HUMANS here on VR, I am here because of the fiction, that's what I dig. And I have ranted enough about this very subject in the 'hollywood's interpretation' thread.

Personally, I would live to see them make a movie (or series of movies) based on the Legacy of Kain series... THAT to me, would be even more entertaining!

I tend to agree with the general consensus. Fictional Vampires are overly romantisized (sp?).

hmmm.... i think i'm being followed....
LOL!

i think hollywood over glamourizes the life of a vampire. yes the blood and sex are fun but that is not the whole life behind vampires

"There's more to being a vampire then drinking blood.. and ripping out throbbing hearts, TRUST ME DOLL!"
voice actor for Raziel
in the game, "Soul Reaver 2"

What most people need to realize is that books and movies about vampires are fiction. They are only meant to make money not to educate.

No kidding. But sitting here getting angry about it isn't going to solve anything. If you want a movie to protray vampires as you see it, then make a movie or write a book yourself. There are mnay publishers who would be willing to to that kind of thing and quite a few scriptwriters (even if they tend to hide it).

I have found that there's actually alot of people who are genuinely interested in the truth, but have nothing to go on. The best way to educate people about the Truth, is simply to tell them, point blank, what it all really entails. But you have to be willing, and patient in order to teach them. ALOT OF PATIENCE!!!!

I don't think books and movies are portraying vampires WRONG- I think they are doing a fine job portraying fictional vampires- they are not claiming to be non-fiction.

Since their total intention is creating fiction, their can be no wrong in what they are doing.

i can't start a thread yet, so i think this is the closest existing one to this subject: i just have to say the russian vampire film 'NIGHTWATCH' is coming to america very soon. it's in russian, titled 'Nochnoy dozor', subtitled, and looks to have some promise. i haven't seen it yet, so if it sucks, don't blame me - i didn't make it. but at the very least it's vampires portrayed outside of the hollywood machine. you can check it out at imdb, or direct at www2.foxsearchlight.com/nwnd/

I never really liked how vampires were viewed in most movies or shows. I like how they are viewed in Queen of the Damned because they're not just blood thirsty and stupid. They still have emotions and a soul they're just better than humans... that's what it comes down to.

I don't think Anne Rice has ever depicted them as stupid, I don't think they are really stupid in any movie or book (with the exception of the Buffy MOVIE), by anyone~ blood-thirsty... well that's vampires, dude.

I do like the books and movies, but I realize like anything else - how many movies accurately relfect the book, and how many books reflect the story?

I wish I could find some original source materials or at least texts from the Middle Ages. That would be cool to read.

No one just wakes up suddenly and says to themselves "Well, I'm a vampire. Now were's a neck?"

Basically everyone here is here because of the mutual infatuation there is with vampires. Whether you discovered them through books or movies.

Sure, the movies can be really silly at times. Especially with the corny accent "I vant to suck your blood!" But, I think that there are more simularities then there are differences.