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The Symbolism of the Vampire in Film
Part 2 of 4
Lilith Blackangel
The homoerotic vampire, typified by those of Anne Rice portrayed in 'Interview With the Vampire' is a variation on the theme of asexuality. In 'Interview', the only major female character is Claudia, who is a child, and thus an innately unsexual entity. Louis forms close relationships with both Lestat and Armand, acting in many ways as lovers with them, although Ricean vampires, in the same way as many others, are incapable of sex, with feeding itself being an intensely sensual act, with an effect comparable to orgasm, being to the vampires the ultimate high, the epitome of sensual experience.
The female vampire is another interesting variation on the theme of asexual sensuality. She is either a tempter of men or a sapphic corrupter of innocent young women. The female vampire is often a woman of unusual power and confidence.
Carmilla/Mircalla in "Vampire Lovers" seduces and preys upon young women of wealthy families. While she is seen to feed on men, she only does so when it is necessary to kill or control them. The victims she feeds upon over a long period of time are invariably women.
The Countess Elizabeth Bathory in 'Daughters of Darkness' is another another sexual predator upon young women. Interestingly enough her advances are portrayed as infinitely more appealing that those of the heroine Valerie's rapacious and sadistic new husband Stephen. Bathory has a female lover and companion, and all her victims are attractive young women. The countess shares her vampiric condition with a chosen woman (in this case Valerie), leading up to a climatic scene in which Stephen's wrists are slashed, and the vampire and her initiate feast upon his blood in a highly fetishistic scene. Bathory shows a highly dominant personality both in her socialization, and in the portrayal of more intimate scenes.
The lesbian vampire can be regarded as representing the corruption of innocence by an unnatural love, in addition to emphasizing the the otherness of the vampire. The more cynical would add that it also gives film makers can excuse to include a touch of very soft porn.
The Vampire as an Analogy for Disease
Another aspect, perhaps more underplayed, particularly in the more romanticized interpretations of this legendary being, is that of death, destruction, and entropy. The vampire causes destruction in a number of ways; the destruction of purity (which is usually deemed more important in victims than the mere destruction of their lives); destruction by violence, and destruction by entropy. This entropic destruction is shown in the environments vampires of film commonly surround themselves in, and in the sometimes blatant, sometimes less so, analogy of the vampire with disease.
In both Hammer's 'Dracula' and in 'Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires', the area around the vampires' resting place is devoid of animal life, and has a barren appearance. The vampire's feeding is referred to as a "vile contagion" in Hammer's 'Dracula', and the plague analogy is a dominant theme in 'Nosferatu' and in it's remake 'Nosferatu the Vampire', more so in the latter. With him, the Nosferatu brings a horde of plague rats, infesting the town he travels to, and decimating it's populace. With the death of the vampire, the plague rats disappear.
Addiction is yet another common analogy to the vampiric condition, which again rests firmly in the realms of symbolic entropy. The life of the vampire is often portrayed as the slavery of an addict. One of the most blatant example of this analogy may be found in 'Daughters of Darkness'. When they do not feed for a period of time, while Bathory exhibits control, her first consort suffers greatly through withdrawal, and is seen retching when she does not get her fix, a side effect which appears as part of the withdrawal symptoms of many drugs.
