Vampires and Hollywood

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Vampires have come out of the dark and into the Hollywood spotlight by dominating best-selling books, movies, and television shows. The media has transformed the vampire over the years from what they look like, their emotions, what kills them, and most importantly, what they eat. Originally, they were creatures who hunted only at night because the sunlight would burn them so they could quench their thirst from human blood. The tables are slowly turning on the original vampire and changing it into a Hollywood heartthrob.

Bela Lugosi set the standard for the original vampire in the 1931 production of Dracula. He slept in a coffin, wore a long black cape, came out at night, and fed on humans. Vampires have always been seen as terrifying and what we see in our nightmares. It was not until Twilight that people saw the vampire as someone they wanted to know and even fall for. Most of the changes were brought to light by the author Anne Rice with her books Interview with a Vampire and the Vampire Lestat. Anne Rice gave the vampire the ability to go out in sunlight, showed that they were attracted to each other, and introduced the vampire vegetarian.

Vampires have always survived on the blood of humans and never anything else. Vlad the Impaler is said to be the human version of the vampire, terrorizing Transylvania in 1436. He earned his nickname by impaling innocent people and feeding on their blood. Anne Rice brought on the approaching trend of the vegetarian vampire. Louis de Pointe du Lac, from Interview with the Vampire, showed immediate distaste for human blood by feeding on dogs, birds, and chickens. We see this theme later on in the popular television show True Blood and the movie Twilight. The only difference was that Louis did it for himself unlike in the other two when romantic feelings towards a human showed. Before, vampires could not contain themselves when it came to a humans blood but now they have gained the ability to control it.

There are many ways to kill a vampire such as exposure to sunlight, garlic, and a wooden stake through the heart.

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