With the third movie installment of the "Twilight" movies, "Twilight Saga: Eclipse," based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling vampire-romance novels, slated to arrive in theaters on June 30, vampires have once again crept into pop culture's collective consciousness. While true, undead vampires do not exist, some diseases and disorders show themselves in ways that are similar to vampiric characteristics. From sunlight intolerance to an aversion to garlic and mirrors, below are six illnesses that, to some extent, cause people to act like vampires:
The vampire has held its place in superstition as long as any other creature. The vampire of today is, for the most part, quite different from the one of ancient times. In researching the vampire lore, I attempted to find out just how different they are. I wondered what people thought of them now compared to yesteryear.
James Riva claimed to hear the voice of a vampire in April, 1980, before he shot his grandmother four times with bullets that he had painted gold. He then tried to drink her blood from the wound in order to get eternal life. Finally, he set her corpse on fire. Carol Page documents his tale and includes her interview with Riva in Bloodlust: Conversations with Real Vampires.
VAMPIRE 101
DEFINITION OF A VAMPIRE
A vampire is a reanimated, soulless, dead human who must drink the blood of others to remain "alive."
VAMPIRES THEN AND NOW (DIFFERENCES)
Serial killer John George Haigh knew the power of the monstrous image to incite horror into people's minds, and even today he is cited as a murderer who drank a cup of blood from his victims before getting rid of their bodies. He's found on nearly every list of "modern vampires," which attests to his own insight in just how far his legend would carry. However, there's no evidence that he had such a fetish and plenty of reason to believe that he was malingering a mental illness that would get him sent to a mental institution.
When an image enters the popular imagination, its origins can become difficult to trace. How many people can name the silent film in which a heroine was first tied to railroad tracks by a snarling evildoer? Or the western in which a lock-jawed hero first told the bad guys to Reach for the sky!?
First, I think it best to define the essence of the vampire (fictional) before attempting to define the Essence of the Vampyre (magical). In this way, I hope to invite discussion and/or debate on the topic, and to hear from other magicians' experience with this type of magic.
In the village of Blow, there was once a Shepherd, who died for unknown reasons. Several days after his burial, he took to reappearing in his village and tormenting the people there. Anyone on whom he visited would die within eight days. His case would be unremarkable, but for what happened next.
"Budapest seems a wonderful place... The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East." So begins Bram Stoker's Dracula, written in a time when the city was seen as Europe's final frontier. Today, Budapest is rather more familiar (it joined the EU in 2004) - although it has lost none of its original appeal.
More than 80 years after its completion, FW Murnau's Nosferatu remains among the most potent and unsettling horror films ever made. Now released again in a fully restored version, with its original score available for the first time since 1922, it has lost none of its impact, unlike many of its imitators.
