Vampires have been a popular icon in entertainment since Dracula first began appearing in movies in the 1920s. The appeal of the vampire in cinema and literature has always been the allure of an incredibly beautiful and sexual being that is at the same time a monster. With the recent success of the Twilight novels and movie, vampires have reemerged onto the pop culture landscape with a new persona and image.Despite how ridiculous (and how unfaithful to accepted mythology) these new vampires are, they are becoming a real phenomena. As Che's image became ubiquitous his message became perverted and diluted. So too is the case of these "modern" vampires. The original established meanings and connotations associated with vampirism have been removed and replaced for a new audience. The Bela Lugosi-loving Goth girl has been replaced with the seen-every-Disney-movie teenager. To put it in terms of the Roland Barthes model; vampires are the signifier, youth and passion are the signified, and true love is the sign.
What was once a cultish symbol of danger, sexuality, passion and morbidity has transformed into a representation of teenage angst and true love. In an effort to understand these "newer and gentler" vampires I watched the Twilight movie and the pilot for the new CW show Vampire Diaries. Both are incredibly similar in tone, characters, and plot. The male leads are both "godlike" in their beauty and incredibly angsty vampires who attend high school as a cover. The female leads are equally as breathtaking and angsty as the men. Both characters spend the majority of their time on screen perfecting their pained expression look. As the story progresses it becomes clear that the vampire and the girl are in love and are meant for one another. Apparently, in both these stories, love is predestined, eternal, and never loses any of its intensity (just like in real life, kids!).
In order to turn Che into a commodity, all of the danger and moral ambiguity had to be removed from what he signified. Unfortunately-- but inevitably-- the same change in meaning has occurred with the vampire. In a culture where it is acceptable to wear a shirt with the face of a violent revolutionary on it in as an expression of one's rebellion, it really should come to no surprise that we now watch movies and TV shows about vampires because they are the new symbols of the "true love waits" movement. I suppose it is only a matter of time before zombies are the new symbols of conservatism in this country.
I like what you have to say about the revamping (haha, I'm sorry for the really bad pun) of vampires and that is one of the major problems I have with Twilight. But at the same time, I think that is precisely one of the things that Stephenie Meyer was applauded for doing (and, tbh, there really isn't much else...)
ReplyDeleteI know you are talking about the movie and the Vampire Diaries tv show and I'm referring to the books, but I think it's important that the books are doing insanely well, too. I think it's the newer take on an old and arguably tired genre/supernatural creature that really works for vampires now.
In between Dracula and the last few years (maybe earlier, starting with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in that 90s movie) of vampire shows and movies I think there's a bit of a same-old, same-old drag to vampires. Maybe the current trend in the sign isn't the best, or one could say very good at all, but it's got an "originality" to it that can make the story pretty addicting.