Once known only as mysterious, condemned creatures, vampires have become a part of pop culture. Humans fall in love with them, vampire clans clash – it seems as though vampire stories on TV or the big screen or in literature have caught our attention. Bloodsuckers sell.
It all started when Anne Rice’s novel Interview with a Vampire came out in 1976. The bestseller was made into a movie in 1994, studded with stars such as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and the young Kirsten Dunst. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles was a box office success and was nominated for numerous awards.
Before Interview hit the cinemas, another vampire movie had come out in 1992, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though less successful than Interview, the TV version starring Sarah Michelle Gellar was a huge success for more than six years, from 1997
to 2003.
Time magazine named Buffy Best TV Show of All Time and ranked second on Empire’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Due to this success, a spin-off was released, Angel, which revolved around Buffy’s vampire sidekick and lover.
Several vampire movies were released in the wake of these successes, but they were not as applauded as their predecessors. Queen of the Damned, a sequel to Interview with the Vampire was one.
In 2005, American author Stephenie Meyer came up the next great idea in vampire lore. She published the first installment of the Twilight series. Twilight revolves around Bella Swan who falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. Since Twilight’s release, it has become popular among young adults and quickly became a phenomenon after the release of the next books in the series, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
The series has been translated into 38 languages, including Indonesian, and sold about 70 million copies worldwide so far. Twilight the movie came out in 2008, starring Kristen Stewart as Swan and Robert Pattinson as Cullen. Since that film, the Twilight series has developed a huge fan base among teenagers. The second film of the Twilight series, New Moon, is due out in November 2009.
If the Twilight series is mostly popular among young adults, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, later adapted for TV as True Blood, is highly popular among adults. Charlaine Harris wrote the first book, Dead until Dark which made the New York Times bestsellers list in 2001. Harris has produced nine books so far, with the tenth due out in May 2010.
The Southern Vampire Mysteries tells the story of Sookie Stackhouse,
a cocktail waitress, who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton. There are also a few characters beside vampires, including shapeshifters and werewolves.
The television adaptation premiered in September 2008 on HBO, starring Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse. Two seasons have aired so far, and the third season is set for broadcast next year. True Blood has been well received by critics and has won both Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
In early September The Vampire Diaries, a new TV series, premiered on the CW television network based on the books published since 1991 by bestselling author L. J. Smith. Smith has written and published five books and the sixth, Shadow Souls, is set to be released next year.
The Vampire Diaries tells the story of Elena Gilbert, a high school girl who becomes the object of attention for two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. One of the brothers is good, the other evil. The Vampire Diaries has received favorable reviews, including B+ from Entertainment Weekly; 4.91 million viewers watched the series premiere. The series also introduce some fresh new acting talent: Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert and Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore.
Another vampire series for young adults, The Blue Bloods Series by Melissa de la Cruz, includes three novels: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, and Revelations. The series is set in Manhattan and revolves around Schuyler van Allen, a private school student, who is thrown into an old New York elite group called the Blue Bloods, a centuries-old vampire clan. Schuyler, the main character, was ranked ninth in Entertainment Weekly’s 20 Greatest Vampires of All Time.
With countless more vampire books, TV series and movies, the vampire phenomenon just keeps on going strong. Do you think this trend will be immortal as well?
