Unofficial Tex Murphy

If Vampires are scared of any crucifix, why don't vampire hunters wear an outfit with a crucifix pattern all over it?

One of those Saturday musings....

And would it be wrong for Dracula hunters to wear a garlic vest.

Aren't you folks posting on the wrong forum? I think the Anne Rice or Twilight forums might be able to answer your questions better. I personally feel that vampires have been done to death (pun intended).

I refuse to accept Twilight into Vampire lore.

Twilight is the story of faeries. All the evidence is there.

-Fred

Everything and anything I can say about vampires is summed up in two words: "Bite me."

lol, nice one Jtog

Okay, but what if you're an Atheist when you are Bitten and changed into a Vampire??? Would Crucifixes still work against you???



I have to agree with Fred when it comes to Twilight, I can't put it into the same Realm as Vampires, the whole Sparkling in the Sunlight thing is just so NON-Vampire and that's just for starters...
And then there are the Vampire Diaries, nothing more than a Teenager Soap Opera...

You want a good Vampire show, you need to start watching TrueBlood...

So then what about Buffy? Is she too campy for Vampire purists?

I am not a fan of Buffy....

As for the crucifix question, as per Anne Rice, the fear of crucifixes and garlic are a myth created by people to make them feel safe.

The only thing that can kill a vampire is the sun and that is only if they are not old enough. As they age they become immune to the sun.

The other way to kill them is to kill the Queen of the Damned... the first vampire.
Kill her and all of them die.
Good luck though.

The most bad-ass vampire in history (yes of course the history of FICTION!) is named Cassidy.

-Fred

Who is Cassidy then? (I've not seen Twilight but did like Buffy)

You guys have got it all wrong. I don't think you realize how many different takes there have been on vampires in the history of folklore and literature. If you want to see something closest to the original folklore, it's not Dracula with Bela Lugosi (director: Tod Browning) or Bram Stoker's Dracula at all - it's the difficult art move Vampyr by Carl Dreyer and the easier Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau, both silent films (don't throw rocks at me!). Stoker did do some research in to European folklore, but the book he wrote is ultimately original and not at all in that tradition. And the Lugosi film only uses parts of the Stoker novel.

Everyone who writes vampire fiction has a different take on what they're like, what motivates them, what kills them, you name it. There is an enormous amount of fine, fine vampire fiction that I'll bet most of you have never heard of unless you are vampire freaks. You can easily look this up on the internet - I think Wikipedia even has an entry called "vampire fiction." I haven't read a fraction as much as my wife, but my two personal favorites are I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (vampirism is caused by a virus, I believe), which has been filmed three times and once recently with Will Smith, and the out-of -print (check your library) The Vampire Tapestry by Suzty Mc Kee Charnas. Matheson's novelette is better than any of the movies, thogh Charlton Heston in The Omega Man is one of my guilty pleasures. I think Anne Rice is basically a wealthy hack, though I think Interview with the Vampire was a very fine first vampire novel (and a good film to boot - Tom Cruise really can act, he's not just a pretty boy). My wife used to like Laurell K.Hamilton a lot but stopped reading her when she took the series the way of soft-core porn. And no one has mentioned Charlaine Harris, whose books are the basis for HBO's True Blood - they're great! Buffy is in a class by herself - I think Whedon was trying to talk about adolescence-into-adulthood as much as we has having fun turning monster conventions every which way but loose.

Enough? Too much?

Harry

Not at all Harry!

Also, Cassidy is a creation of Garth Ennis. It's from Preacher, on of the most acclaimed graphic novels of ALL TIME!

Basically, Cassidy's an irish vampire with a hankerin' for whiskey. Only thing to hurt him is sunlight, and he's got a wicked sense of humor.

If you've not read Preacher I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody with more in their skulls than just a rubber band holding the ears in place

Oh yeah, and there's also that bit about the Preacher who gets possessed by the infant offspring of a demon and an angel and commands the Word of God, thus making everybody who hears his voice automatically obey him. No matter what. The girlfriend with the commando-training childhood. And God having abandoned heaven. And a Saint of Killers. A guy with a face like an arse. A shadowy conspiracy group who holds very mighty strings. A fat bulimic man who's favorite subjects are cake and mass murder. The bloodline of Christ. The Devil and the Angel of Death playing poker. Crazy rednecks. Oh, and yeah - John Wayne.

It's a tale of friendship and hardships, of love and desire. Oh, and of faith.

Piqued your interest yet?

Back to the vampire stuff - Has anybody here played Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines?

-Fred

In regards to vampires and crosses, it all depends on if the writer of the vampire fiction wants them to be weak to crosses. That's not a standard, or at least not anymore.

In regards to Twilight vampires not being camped with the regular vampires...it's like this. A friend of mine says, vampires shouldn't be able to walk in the sunlight. They shouldn't sparkle. And I tell him, vampires don't exist. If the author wants her vampires to sparkle in the sunlight then she'll have a whole bunch of sparkling vampires. If she wants to call her bloodsuckers vampires than she can. Because vampires are mythological creatures that don't exist.

This extends to further conversation, where he's like, those werewolves aren't werewolves. They're overgrown wolves or dire wolves. Then I point at him and say, "Nerd." That's my whole retort to mythological creature elitism.

They do TO exist! Riddle me this: What about lawyers!? Why are THEY called 'bloodsuckers', huh? Answer me that and stay fashionable!



-Fred