Getting it in the neck

I’M NOT sure when my own vampire obsession started.

I read Dracula when I was about 12 and I reckon the timing of that, coupled with my growing interest in all things pale and interesting — David Sylvian and Steve Strange, and the other pallid New Romantics, made for a perfect adolescent angsty crush. If they were tall, drained and handsome, I was hooked.

I saw my TV action hero, Eddie Shoestring (Trevor Eve) in a 1979 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s fine novel and I was truly bitten by the vampire bug.

As a teenager, I found a magazine article in the City Library on a community in New York who really believed they were vampires, and I was fascinated.

Their bizarre rituals and ability to down a few pints of the red stuff on demand intrigued and repelled me in equal measure, but I knew I could never be one of them. In a cruel twist of biology, I have a fear of the sight of blood, and am more squeamish than a vegan in a butcher shop.

That paradox may in fact be the root of my obsession: I recoil in horror at feasting scenes in True Blood, yet I secretly fantasise about cruel vampire Eric making a v-line for my neck.

But that group in New York which I read about in the ‘80s was not unique, it now seems. Vampire ‘cults’ are being increasingly blamed for an upsurge in gory killings in America and other countries.

Those accused of the murder of 16-year-old Jake Hendershot, beaten to death in Florida last July, have claimed they were part of a vampire cult. Stephanie Pistey, who was charged with accessory to murder, told an NBC reporter that she believed she was ‘part vampire and part werewolf’ since the age of about 12. She told police she had drank the blood of her fiancé.

A German couple, who said they ‘learned’ how to drink blood in Britain, were convicted of stabbing a friend to death in 2002. At the trial, onlookers were fascinated with killer Manuela Ruda’s animal teeth which she had implanted to make her look like a vampire.

Kentucky-born Rod Ferrell, now serving life for the death of a couple from Eustis, Florida, told police that he was part of a group of teenagers calling themselves the ‘Vampire Clan’. One of his victims was found bearing burn marks in the shape of a V. The V was described as Rod’s ‘symbol’.

And in Texas last August, a man who was arrested after attacking a woman told police: “I’m a vampire, and I’ve been alive for over 500 years. I needed to feed.”

But is it too simplistic to say that these cases are on the increase due to the huge upsurge in demand for vampire stories in popular culture — our fascination with the Twilight books and movies, the prevalence of neck-nibblers on the big screen, or the huge success of TV series like True Blood today, or Buffy in the 90s?

Two unfortunate brothers in Suffolk in Britain, suffering from a rare genetic disease known to some as ‘vampire syndrome’, found themselves unwittingly in the spotlight last year, due to the success of the Twilight movies. Simon and George Cullen are ghostly pale, cannot tolerate sunlight and have fang-like teeth. They eventually took solace in the fact that their unusual looks made them popular with their Twilight-loving classmates.

Southern Romania hit the headlines a few years ago when there were reports of families digging up the bodies of their dead relatives, believed to be vampires, to ensure they were properly deceased. The police got involved, requesting them to stop the practice, but there was a general feeling among locals that the authorities shouldn’t be interfering with an age-old tradition.

But there’s no doubt that Bram Stoker’s creation is the work of a true, dark, genius. The vampire is, of course, the ultimate ‘bad boy’ — the quintessential man your mum wouldn’t want you to bring home. Unless, of course, she likes the bad boy herself. But is it the need to be dominated or protected, that we crave? For while we might love the thrill of succumbing to a stronger force, we also want a man who is big and bold enough to protect us. With the vampire, you get both.

There have been many theories on the messages hidden in the original Dracula — a wonderfully stylish and evocative novel about a mysterious, evil man who appears charming at once, and yet harbours a secret so dark, the narrator cannot bear to bring himself to put it in words even when he realises what he is dealing with.

The image of the count, bearing down on vulnerable, beautiful women in the dead of night, probably plays on our worst fears — and the stark image of blood being drained from their bodies in methods akin to feasting beasts, is an incredibly powerful and even sexual one. The theories that vampires are so hell-bent on getting their fix of blood, that they are also bisexual, is a theme that has been replicated in many movies since — adding yet another frisson of excitement to the myth of the vampire.

And there are many among us who would be quick to point out that the rise in fascination with the ‘dark side’ is in direct correlation to the world’s rush to reject organised religion.

But when myth starts to become reality, maybe it is time to dust off the bibles, polish those crucifixes and stock up on the garlic.