V is for Vampires

My book isn't about vampires, but it does have a few in it. They're all antagonists to one degree or another, and two of them have names.

These days, vampires are either still the hottest thing going, or the last thing anyone wants to see anymore. I grew up on vampire movies, though, so they're kind of ingrained in my mind as go-to villains. The thing is, they're not the villains in most cases anymore.

Something changed, somewhere along the road, and instead of vampires being representations of everything our humanity and society are meant to find abhorrent, they became romantic, tragic figures. Even re-tellings of old stories have changed. Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Gary Oldman, while an excellent film, is very different from the book. In the original book, Dracula is not a romantic figure. He's a dark, sensual predator. The women he feeds on are not drawn to him by lust or love. They're drawn to him by his supernatural power over others. Dracula is an embodiment of everything Victorian ideals stood against. He is a monster whose own desires are met by inflicting suffering upon others. He is feared and hated. Not loved.

It would be interesting to see vampires return to their place as monsters. Some movies have tried to return to this. The one most in mind at the moment is the upcoming Priest, starring Paul Bethany. I'd like to see these romanticised creatures as the villains again. We need to fear our nightmares, or else what will our heroes save us from?