I think that my vampires in general were influenced by my being allowed to watch the Hammer vampire films. Vampire Circus, also shown as Circus of Fear, was one of those movies." - Laurell K. Hamilton
I'm as influenced by Hammer Films as Ms. Hamilton. Whilst I have never written a vampire novel (I prefer werewolves), I was enraptured by Christopher Lee when I was kid, with my butt parked two inches in front of the TV all the way down in our unfinished basement, in the dark, at o-dark-thirty in the morning. Running up two flights of stairs in the dark at 4 am, hearing all kinds of noises as the house settled in the dead of night, and hoping I didn't squeal like the little girl I was and wake my parents made my Saturday nights. I also saw Vampire Circus as well as other Hammer classics like Horror Of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, and Dracula Prince Of Darkness.
To me, for the longest time, vampires were dead, horrific creatures. There was nothing romantic about them, although Christopher Lee was a very handsome man. I couldn't get away from the teeth. The blood. The bites. The bruises. The painful death.
It wasn't until I discovered Hammer's The Vampire Lovers that I learned vampires could be seductive and attractive in a more lustful way. Ingrid Pitt ruled as Carmilla in The Vampire Lovers, which was based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's classic story Carmilla, which was also chock full of lesbian undertones.
Now she is a gorgeous vampire! Just my type.
Vampires have been romanticized since Stoker's Dracula and Bela Lugosi's, Max Shreck's, and Chris Lee's portrayal of the undead. Anne Rice is in part greatly responsible for the new, erotic and romantic vision. I'm watching Interview With The Vampire right now. Brad Pitt and even Tom Cruise sure are pretty! Then there is every straight woman's favorite vamp as of late, Mick St. John on Moonlight. Alex O'Loughlin is so gorgeous he takes my breath away! No wonder I'm hooked on Hawaii Five-0 now.
As you can see, I purposefully did not mention any vampires from Twilight. This is a "Sparkle Free" zone. LOL
So which vampires do you find attractive, male or female? Which erotic vamp books do you enjoy? And why?
I think there's something attractive about the immortal-ness of it all. Sexy, brooding, living for centuries alone waiting for that perfect mate to complete them...
ReplyDeleteI think vampires became sexy just prior to Broker's Dracula, with the novella, Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu, which was Broker's inspiration for his famous novel. The veiled sensuality and lesbian undertones between the vampire and her victim were exquisite and while not erotic by todays standards, for the mid 1800's, it must have been scandulous!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Alex O'Loughlin, I can definitely drool over him. Who else? How about Eric in True Blood?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Interview with the Vampire years ago, just thought it was an interesting slant on those night dwellers.
"Carmilla" is my favorite vampire story. I think it's the unusualness of it and the lesbian undertones. I also like "The Vampire Of Croglin Grange", which may be the basis for Nosferatu.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the immortal qualities make vamps attractive. That they're vicious walking corpses is a problem for romances, though. Chris Lee is attractive so maybe that helped. He's the penultimate "Bad Boy"!
Stoker was also inspired by the story of Vlad Tsepes, aka Vlad The Impaler or Vlad Dracul (dragon). There were lots of vampire stories out in the Victorian era including "Carmilla" and "Varney The Vampire" and "Vampyre". Good stuff!
I started watching "True Blood" last year (and reading the books) and Eric is definitely drool-worthy. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, honestly I'm not real familiar with a lot of female vampires. As for male vampires however, a lot of my faves are a result of seeing the the movies based off of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the fact that vampires are immortal are is definitely a strong attraction. In the case of the movie Interview With the Vampire Louis was and still is my favorite, so far at least.
The reason I liked him so much is because he retained something that a lot of the vampires in the movie lost when they were turned, he retained his humanity and I thought it was interesting that he was able to do that.
True Blood is a great series! I think Erik can be a huge jerk sometimes but yeah he definitely has his drool moments!
Gabby, one very interesting female vampire was in "Innocent Blood". It's a French movie where the vamp was played by the same actress who played in the original French movie "La Femme Nikita". (Yes, TV shows were based on the movie.) This is a good movie. When she's sexually aroused her eyes change colour.
ReplyDeleteI just watched "Interview With The Vampire" again and I liked Louis probably for the same reasons you did. It seems the attraction with vampires is the immortal quality and helping them maintain their humanity. The suffering and loneliness has to play a part, too. They're torn - if they fall in love, do they turn their love and condemn that person to an eternity of being undead, or do they let the person live - and watch them age and die? Not much of a choice.
One of my favorite ideas from Anne Rice's books was in Lestat, when she had his mother, whom he had turned, wondering if people improve as the centuries pass, become "better" people, or do they just become more of what they were as mortals? So if a guy is an arrogant jerk, does he develop compassion, or does he just get a whole lot more experience at being a worse jerk?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite vampire show was "Forever Knight", out of Canada. My husband owns all 3 seasons. But for them, as for Anne Rice, vampires are not able to have sex, which kills the whole romance idea.
Personally, I don't even like it when the gyne doesn't warm the speculum first when he does my exam. So the whole "cold as ice" idea is not a turn-on for me!
[I'm posting for Teresa Kleeman, who couldn't get her comment live because Yahoo was acting like a brat.]
ReplyDeleteWOW Elizabeth,
The dude who is number two, with all the tat's is hot,hot, hot. God why can't I find a man that looks like that. I could eat him all up.
Funny you should say that about the "cold as ice" thing, Fiona, since there are sex toys made specifically to go in your freezer. I guess some people like the shock of cold down there. I suppose it feels good when it's 110 degrees in the shade and your air conditioner is broken. ;)
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew who he was, Tereesa. I just created a character in my book who is covered with tats. Never did that before. Also created one with an ouroboros on his upper arm. Very sexy tat, that one. It's the snake with its tail in its mouth, in the form of a circle.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about the loneliness part, yeah I think that was definitely one of the reason a felt for Louis' character the way I did.
ReplyDeleteI also think that's why I liked Lestat in the movie Queen of the Damned, because even though he didn't show as much emotion as Louis did you could sense that he was also dealing with his own loneliness.
Also about what you said about the whole falling love thing?
Yeah that would bother me a lot both if I was a vampire or if I was the love interest, I'd want to be with him but I'm sure I'd be able to give up my humanity so I could be with him.
That's the one of two reasons why vampire are my second favorite compared to werewolves and you can probably guess the second reason.
Thanks for the interesting blog post!