In a word Vampires.
I blame my mother. My first memories of vampires was loving the Count on Sesame Street and watching the campy movie "Love At First Bite" with George Hamilton.
As a kid when the nightmares overwhelmed me and I had a lot of those nights it was always the vampires that chased them away. The anti-Hero being the Hero.
I am not a lover of slasher horror movies, but give me anything involving a vamp including blood and gore and I'm all over it. To me there is something so primal about a humanoid creature that can have the strength of a superhero and the mental windings of a serial killer. I am not biased in my like of good vs. evil vampires. To me that all hold the same appeal though some over the years have held my interest and grabbed my heart more than others. They are not necessarily the ones who seem to have redeeming qualities some are just so bad that it makes the character that much more complex.
In honor of Twilight that comes out on Friday and my strong liking for the books. I decided to post my favorite Vampires Throughout History. These are in no particular order as the order frequently changes.
1.Edward Cullen: (Twilight - Stephanie Meyer)
Edward is one of the few male vampire characters that I have really enjoyed in fiction form. His desire to live a life just on the side of normalcy gets shot all to hell when he falls in love with a human. His mind doesn't know whether he wants to kill her, love her or turn her so in the span of the series he tries all three. After his book version of Twilight was leaked online this fall Stephanie Meyer has called a halt to the book and it has been put on permanent hiatus except for the 12 chapters that was leaked. I myself am hoping that within the next year or two his story will finally be told in his own words.
2. Elizabeth Bathory: (The Blood Countess) 1560-1614.
Yep she was a real person who was accused of more than 600 counts of murder and torture. Convicted of 80. The folklore is that she bathed in the blood of her young women victims in attempts to keep age at bay.
What gets me about Countess Bathory is that she is one of the few women in history to be a major serial killer with almost Hannibal Lecter tendencies.
3. Vlad The Impaler (The Original Dracula) 1431-1476.
There is so much history with this character. We truly do owe every bit of the modern day vampire to him, though legends of vampiric creatures have been around since the dawn of time. He was incredibly mad in his tyranny of his own people and the Turks.
A definite favorite for me and not because of the Dracula book and mythology but because of his history. He has been portrayed as an almost evil ruler for the atrocities he commited in the battlefield, yet in Romanian history he is seen as a just ruler in fighting against the oppression of his people. A definite two sides to every story philosphy.
4. Dracula (Bela Lugosi)
For me this is the only way I can really take the Dracula character. Bela played the character to a perfection that will never be found again. There was something so sinister at times in the gaze and the slight thin smile that has always sent chills down my spine.
5. Angel/Spike (BTVS/Angel)
I have to put both of these characters together because of my love for both shows. The characters were done in such a way that you couldn't help but even love them bad, and who wouldn't go for a vamp with a soul.
In many ways I like the Angel's evil half Angelus more than I do Angel. He was trully calculating in his every move and took such pleasure in causing even the smallest amount of distress.
Spike is the only character in the realm of Buffy that seems to keep a lot of his humanity in place throughout his history. Whenever I write fanfiction Spike is the voice that I hear the most in my head, for me I understand his character better than any vampire that I have ever come across. I at times tend to like Spike a bit more because of James Marsters who I got to meet and hang out with in private at a convention. It made me really look at the character different when I got to see the man behind the fangs.
6. Selene (Underworld)
The first time I watched both of these movies I fell in love with Selene. Finally at last a female vampire that could really kick ass and look so cool while doing it. How could you not love a female character that gets to be the guys hero.
7. Mick St. John (Moonlight)
From the very first preview I had of this show I knew that Mick would always be near the top. He is the most human of any vamp character that I have come across at least in my humble opinion. Like many vampire shows he fell in love with the woman he didn't want to want. What captured me about Mick was that he was up front with his turmoil. I think the worse thing that CBS ever did was to pull this show before giving it the second season it was supposed to have, one of the reason why I boycott the channel.
8. Blade (Comics and Movies)
I was a fan of the comics before the movies and agreed with Wesley Snipes portrayal of the character. I liked that Blade was a hybrid (human and vampire). The character because he is so strong makes you wonder what he would be like if he went really bad.
9. Dracula (Wes Craven's Dracula 2000)
Gerard Butler was incredible. Wes Craven really added a twist to the mythology of vampires by having Dracula as the Biblical Judas Iscariot. Butler added the intensity needed of anyone portraying the character of Dracula something that I found lacking in Gary Oldman's in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
10. Sita ("The Last Vampire Series" - Christopher Pike)
Sita's story spans 6 books in the mid to late 90's and was some of the first vampire fiction that I ever read. Her story spanned the ages and now the hardback copies of the books that I read years ago are now incredibly hard to come by.
Not only do I watch and read whatever vampire action goes on I have studied the history of vampirism throughout the ages and it still facinates me that every culture in every time period has had a similar creature in their mythology.
My love for vampires and for the writing I have done since I was a small child I have decided that after this weekend's Twilight premiere and HBO's last True Blood episode for the season I will be taking a big break from all outside vampire influence for awhile. For the past few years I have been trying to get my book written. I started writing it a few years ago and life has not be condusive to my original work in quite some time. I am hoping that the isolation from all outside things with fangs will help my characters better take form. My goal is to have my book finished within 6 months so I can start sending it out in hopes to find and agent and publisher.