From I09:
Vampires are the sexpots of the undead. Zombies are usually too blood-dribbly and rotted to be players. And ghosts are, well, insubstantial. Which leaves us with vampires, who are permanently young, beautiful, and possess a fierce need to suck things. How could they not be the poster-children for weird sex after death?
Where did all this sexual rule-breaking come from? Certainly Bram Stoker's late-19th century bestseller Dracula helped. He took legends of blood-sucking beasts, mixed them with a little Transylvanian history, and created a mesmerizing creature who drained British ladies of their blood and turned them into wantons. Cinematic versions of Dracula have played up the erotic side of this story, casting gorgeous men and lovely ladies with blood-red lips and strange desires.
I've always found vampire myths to be interesting on numerous levels. It's a shame that most horror mags aren't very keen on publishing vampire stories, though I can understand their point. Every disaffected, book-loving goth college kid has gone through a love affair with blood suckers, and most I'll wager have written a cheese-riddled homage to their favorite tragic characters. Still, I think the possibilities for exploring the myths, and mythos, surrounding them are far from played out. It's one of those things that seems to come in and out of fashion in entertainment and art. There was a big resurgence in the early 90's, and now with the whole Twilight business, here we go again. It would be nice to see more substance than barely-concealed romance novels and gore flicks, however (though Let the Right One In looks very interesting).
Until then, I'll have to satisfy my interest in what's there, I suppose. Love-starved, under-sexed emos of the world, take heart!
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