My Myth of Vampires

My Myth of Vampires

Vampires, everyone loves them, but what makes sense vs. the reality check.
Stake in the heart: In the movies they are classically killed with a stake through the heart. When it comes right down to it, anything that gets a stake in the heart is going to die.

This just makes sense and successful in most of the text and main stream movies.

Holy water: Well if you are from the old world, something blessed is sacred by God. Holy water through the history of early vampires has represented a cleansing or spiritual awareness of God and his goodness. So thus in earlier times, blessed or Holy water was looked at as a good weapon against the Vampire. But today it burns them, mutilates them even blinds them. But make a little sense of it, can holy water really burn anything?

It’s just water right? But unless you have a super rare allergy to water, I really don’t think this is going to work by scalding a Vampire in his/her tracks. It will probably really piss them off! Last films I can remember this being a main stream weapon in was ‘The Lost Boys 1987’, ‘Bordello of Blood 1996’ with a much thinner, younger Dennis Miller and ‘From Dusk to Dawn’ being a more recent release where Holy water was used with some success.

Cross/crucifix: Representing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Evil of man being defeated by the grace of God) used prolifically as holy water in early text and films. Let’s face the reality check here, unless Vampires fear the cross is going to be staked into their heart, I say there is nothing to really fear here or for that matter of a Vampire’s hand touching it, turning it into flame as in ‘Fright Night 1985’.

Just think of it more rationally what we know about science as a whole. You need intense heat or a laser to spontaneously combust any wooden cross. Last two films the I can recall that a cross working in would be ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ and ‘Dracula 1997’ Anne Rice kind of killed the cross’s power in ‘Interview with a Vampire 1994’ when Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater) asks Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) about his/vampires fear of crosses, Louis simply replies that he is actually quite fond of them. But a cross still shows up every now and then.

Garlic: Cloves of garlic around your doors, windows and around your neck, ok, I personally love garlic, but know people and animals that hate it, so really I think this one works, just hope you don’t find one that likes to eat the stuff raw. Last main stream film to use this was ‘Blade 2, 2002’ earlier myths have been that garlic since it grows as a bulb in the ground and with such a pungent odor reminds the Vampires from which they came, from human mortal dead in the ground to immortal undead above ground. But garlic as a whole still has some good staying power on film and in text.

Sunlight: A clear cut good vs. evil, day-sunlight representing good, night-darkness representing evil. Since humans basically sleep during the night and a total opposite creature would roam at night (unless of course you work for UPS or FedEx loading and unloading trucks in the early hours) In older times before modern electricity and lights most humans were home before sunset and stayed indoors. They knew at night predators like wolves and vampires would roam the country side.

But here is something that is really controversial; some say Vampires’ powers are weakened during the day light hours. ‘Dracula 1992’ as well as the Novel by Bram Stoker. Other extreme is they will burst into flame and turn to ash if exposed to sunlight or now the modern twist of UV light as used in ’30 Days of Night’. Logically, hey there are plenty of animals that hate the sun, including me personally. So this I believe to be true but to the fact, do we really believe they will burst into flames? A more modern take was used in ‘Underworld’ where “liquid” sunlight bullets were used. Not sure how you would capture ultra violet light into a liquid, but then again science does do some serious almost magical things, but come on Hollywood, don’t insult us all the time with this one. (but keep those movies coming!)

Mirrors: Early mirrors would have a thin coat of silver melted and poured to the back of a pane of glass. Silver also represented purity and as with werewolves and silver bullets, silver was also seen as a way to kill vampires or ward them off. Since most people had these mirrors with real silver on them, it was thought since silver was a purity metal that since Vampires represented evil that they would not cast their reflection since only a “pure” being could show its reflection in a pure metal. A big play on this was ‘Dracula 1979’ with Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier, perhaps my favorite film of the late 70’s early 80’s. Though the mirror not only did not cast a vampire’s reflection it also did not show their clothes either… hmm how does that work?

Turning into bat/wolf: Well I have seen women turn into something else right before my eyes. Mind you, I love women but both male and female know what I am talking about here. Caterpillar into a butterfly, tadpole into a frog, so on that grounds, sure possible, as fast in the movies? See description of “women”. The transformation of Vampires in other forms of beings can easily be related into the thought of Satan being as other people, demons, ghost or beings. So it was only natural for literature and film pick this up as another dramatic representation of Vampire’s powers.

Are Vampires real?: Great question, vampire bats, do exactly what Vampires are suppose to do, drink blood with fangs, wonder around at night and scary the heebie geebes out of us when you get a “fly by”. No questions there, easily enough to adapt to another creature doing it because they already have one that does. Have I met one, sure plenty, search Facebook to find hundreds, walk down the street at night or check at work for people who suck the life right out of you!

Quick, short to the point, some light humor, to help bring us into the 21st century with are eyes wide open.