Featured Essays

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Vampires - A Modern Phenomenon with the Supernatural



There are vampires among us.

    What should have been a daunting statement now seems rather trivial, due to the overexposure of these mythical creatures in our modern society.  Vampires exist not only in our literature, but also in our television shows, our cinema screens, and of course our Halloween parties.  Lately, there seems to be no escape from these fanged monsters, not even in broad daylight.  There are swarms of enthusiasts lined up outside of the bookstores and theatres, eagerly anticipating for the next instalment of their vampire franchise.

    Vampires are not a recent phenomenon.  These creatures of the un-dead have haunted our popular culture for centuries.  From Bram Stoker’s classic gothic novel Dracula to Stephenie Meyer’s teenage romantic saga Twilight, vampires carry a prominent influence in many works of fiction.  In fact, their creative potential seems endless.  Rather than going out of style, these timeless characters grew stronger in mystique and intrigue.  Former hit television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel introduced us to multi-faceted vampires that fall in between both ends of the moral spectrum.  Recent cult favourites like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries further demonstrated the complexities of the supernatural community.  Evidently, the momentum for this storytelling niche does not appear to be slowing down any time soon.