Making vampires scary again

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by WriterDude, Dec 1, 2011.

  1. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    I prefer the Deadliest Warrior-version. To be short, they had a fight with zombies vs vampires. To make it a fair fight, they set 183 zombes (more or less) against 3 (unarmed) vampires. Even then it came down to one zombie vs one vampire in the end. ;) I don't want zombies in the story, but the vampires should as powerful as the ones on DW. 150 people vs three vampires? They should have brought more people. :p
     
  2. spklvr

    spklvr Contributor Contributor

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    I feel like I already answered this in your other thread. There are certain basics needed for a creature to still be that creature, and as these two things are the few constants when it comes to vampires, and pretty much the only things which have stayed true to the original myths, I believe that removing these features creates a different creature altogether. Also, the sexy vampire came to be around the time of the novella Carmilla by Le Fanu, published in 1872 (though I believe there were a few works before this as well, but I don't know them off the top of my head). Please don't argue with someone who has spent 11 of her 21 years of living reading vampire books :p

    Of course you can change what you want, but I really think you might as well just make up your own creature if you are going to change so many fundamental things.
     
  3. Ixloriana

    Ixloriana New Member

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    I have one vampire in my novel. I think this was a big inspiration for it: "Treacherous Vampire" by Kev Walker Pale, ugly, emaciated. Monstrous. I love it.

    For them to be scary, they have to be monsters again. I am kind of sick of these vampires who are just people who can only come out at night and have to drink blood. Well, I'm sick of them in romance and horror, anyway. They're just people with disabilities, not proper monsters. :/ Not they have to be mutated bat-creatures... there's something frightening about a monster that looks completely human, as well.

    Whether it's a natural creature, an unnatural monster, an alien, or an evil spirit taken up residence in a corpse, the point is that it has to be inhuman. Deadly is only part of it -- a thing that doesn't think the way people do is scary.

    How far you can change it before it stops being a vampire and starts being something completely different is up to you. You can call it a vampire regardless, but if it's a quadrupedal humanoid predator that is not supernatural or undead, was never human, does not drink blood, and is not affected by sunlight... I will start to wonder why you bothered calling it a vampire.
     
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  4. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    @spklvr: But you have a picture of Dean as your avatar, so what do you know. :D Nah, just kidding. I think it's perfectly fine to change most things we think of with vampires, as long as we don't ruin the essence of vampires. To be a bit less confusing, I think the important part is to let the reader think of them as vampires. I mean if the creatures technically drink blood, but they don't drink blood in the story, does it still count? Same with the humanity. If they characters discuss the creatures and ignore the fact they might have been human, does it still count?

    @Ixloriana: I agree. Vampires have to be monsters, and they should think and act like monsters. Did you see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"? A fun part was the apes trying to fight back agaisnt the humans. The humans tried to fight them as best they could, but they treated the apes as they would a human enemy. The apes, on the other hand, acted like apes do and fought in a very unexpected way. That's what vampires should do as well. They are not humans, so why would they act like it?
     
  5. Ixloriana

    Ixloriana New Member

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    I think I have to disagree. For all their physical differences, the apes in Planet of the Apes are still human in their thinking. The humans didn't treat the apes like they would a human enemy -- they underestimated the apes' intelligences and didn't account for their different physical abilities. Cool, interesting, fun, yes. But not scary. Scary was watching Ceasar stand at the foot of Will and Caroline's bed as they slept, and not knowing what he was going to do.
     
  6. spklvr

    spklvr Contributor Contributor

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    In horror, less is more. So ideally, we wouldn't know that much about these creatures anyway. Maybe the characters call them vampires, but if they behave and look like you described them in the first post, I doubt I would have considered them vampires myself.

    I haven't read many horror novels, but in film, they tend to go for cheap scares. Something will suddenly pop out along with a sudden increase in volum, and I'll jump, but for the rest of the movie I don't actually feel scared. And there have been movies when they have had things pop out so many times I grow immune to it. Horror movies should give you chills down your spine and reach your deep, primal fears of being in danger, a pray, to something you can't escape or hide from and you don't know where is. To give you an example from a vampire movie, one of the creepier ones I have seen was Let the Right One In, original Swedish version. I don't even think it's horror, but one of the last scenes really freaked me out. When the kid is being held under water, and suddenly you see the body parts of the guy holding him under floating in the background. You don't get to see the attack, but you can imagine it. I think that had we seen it, it wouldn't have been scary at all. Also in the book version, the vampires are creepy! Completely human looking and have a similar, yet messed up, way of thinking. The scariest movie I have seen (that I can't remember the name of right now), we never actually see what the character is being followed by. She is in her home, and she sees shadows and hears sounds from outside, and she locks all the doors and windows, and then it comes inside her house and she can't get out anymore, and we never actually see if it's human or a monster, and it may or may not have just been the character's imagination, we just know its there somewhere. Seriously scary.
     
  7. HorusEye

    HorusEye Contributor Contributor

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    377300-bodhi.jpg
     
  8. Slinkywizard

    Slinkywizard New Member

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    Interesting post.

    You have, however, already answered your own question before you throw out ways they could potentially be more scary in a physical sense. Let me explain. Firstly, I'll say that twisting the meaning of Vampire too much, to me, is a no-no. If they don't drink blood, for example, they're not Vampires. That's just my opinion, but the Vampire stories I really don't like, are the ones that try to mess too much with the lore. This Vampire can walk during the day, this one takes stakes through the heart as a sign of affection, this one has awful, tawdry sex with garlic mannequins, so you'd better be scared! And so on. To me, that's bleugh...

    So, to the point. To make Vampires more scary, you only need be entirely subjective. I love the background idea you have here, specifically because if they did it without even contemplating the notion that Vampires might be real, you've already set up all the additional 'scariness' you're going to need for the length of whatever you care to write.

    Fear is experienced subjectively. That means it doesn't matter if we personally don't find Vampires – in the traditional sense – scary, it's still quite possible for us to be terrified by them if fear is meticulously portrayed through the eyes of your characters. If we identify with your characters, with their needs, their wants and have a good idea of what's at stake (see what I did there) if they perished, we fear for them. It's very important distinction. Would the movie 'Alien' have been scary if the alien of the title had been entirely alone on that ship? No. We're afraid because of what might happen to the characters, not because these particular Aliens have acid for blood. That's something mechanical, not emotional, and fear is an emotion.

    Concentrate on your characters. Play the action out through their fear, through their eyes, and we will be scared. The physicality of what they are is of far less importance. If I made you care about my character(s), I mean really care, you'll be scared for them even when an aggressively humming fart is in the room.

    That's where I think your focus should be.

    Hope that helps.
     
  9. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    @Ixloriana: True, the apes weren't scary, and they could have been far more apelike. But the point is the vampires should be vampires, not humans. But for them to be that, they can't have been human in the first place. They are humanoid, yes, but the similarities stops there. And as for Caesar, I think one of the creepiest part was early on when he showed anger for the first time. I think it was because he was peaceful and almost human one second, then turned into a wild animal the next. And if he had gone on a rampage, who could have stopped him?

    @spklvr: I agree, less is definitely more. That's why I want only a few vampires, but they should be really, really deadly. Have you seen Alien? It's one of the scariest movies I have ever seen, and there's only one alien. The fun thing is you don't get to see it until the very end. You only see it quickly now and then, so you sit there the whole movie not knowing what the heck they are up against and how (or if) it can be killed. That's one thing I don't like about Star Wars. In the original movies, Luke went to Jabba's palace, got thrown into a pit and was forced to fight a big monster. But we didn't get to see much of it, so we could only imagine what it looks like. In the later versions, they show the whole monster, removing the scary part. It's big and scary, yes, but what's the fun if you get to see everything?

    @Slinkywizard: I understand what you are saying, and I agree. The problem is I want the characters to expect vampires. They think the vampires are just like the movies, so they should be easy to kill. The scary part is when they arrive at the job, and it turns out the vampires are nothing like they are 'supposed to be'. Suddenly the character have no way out, the enemies are far more deadly than they thought and their weapons are ineffective. (what use is splashing holy water on a wolf? it won't work, and it won't have more effect on an animal like a vampire.)
     
  10. Slinkywizard

    Slinkywizard New Member

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    Yes, but your characters, subjectively, think that the Vampires in movies can't hurt them why? I would say it's because the Vampires they know are on a TV or a movie screen. Vampires are automatically nothing like they're 'supposed to be' by virtue of being real.

    The very best Vampire fiction uses the standard ruleset, but approaches the setup differently. Your setup is a good one, and the Vampires' 'reality' within the story is plenty in my opinion. In a quest for realistic scares, look for originality in situation rather than ruleset. If you catch my drift.
     
  11. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    I think I see what you're getting at. But what I mean is the characters decide to go hunt vampires, and they think the vampires can't hurt them because of the standard ruleset. The vampires in the movies are easy enough to kill, can't take sunlight, can't take garlic and so on and on. Once you know the rules, the vampires are harmless. Or at least easy to kill and defend against. But once the characters find the vampires, they quickly learn the hard way that the rules have changed. Suddenly they are not up against the movie-vampires, but an unknown enemy that's far more dangerous than they could dream of. And with the rules change, they have no idea how this new enemy can be killed, or even how they can defend themselves against it. Maybe the new enemy isn't a vampire at all, but the characters could call it that. Or maybe they think they will hunt vampires, but the real enemy is something else. As long as I don't name the new enemy, the reader can decide for himself or herself what the enemy is. If the reader wants vampires, they are vampires. If the reader wants something else, they are something else. In the end it doesn't really matter as long as the story is scary as hell. :)
     
  12. Slinkywizard

    Slinkywizard New Member

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    Yes, I like that idea. You could make it something different that the people who hire them think are Vampires, but they're actually something much worse, that would work.

    Or, if you wanted to keep them as Vampires, not break the rules, but bend them. Maybe these vamps can stand 10 minutes in the sun. Maybe garlic only works on a weekend (joke). But you see what I mean, keeping them as Vampires means you have to pay some homage to the lore, or those buying a Vampire book – and that's a very specific audience – will come at you worse than any Vampire you've ever read about. ;)

    We have to be wary of readership. Contrary to what is generally thought about a published novelist, readers don't think 'This guy's a genius; the way he's presenting Vampires is like nothing I've ever read', they tend to think instead 'Who the **** is this guy! And why does he think he can undo 150 years of lore?'

    You don't want to piss off those people. That's your audience. Mess with Vampire too much and you mess with them.
     
  13. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah, I see what you mean. The rules have to be bent, but not broke. The question is if I can't break any rules? Vampires in general have changed a lot of over the years, so they could change again. They should be deadly and scary, and I don't think you can do that if you have to stick to the rules. Vampires are simply too easy to kill, and most of the rules don't even make any sense. Holding a cross to guard against a vampire? That worked two hundred years ago, but it won't work today. Why would vampires sleep in coffins? And most importantly, do vampires sleep during the day? Over here in Norway, we have sun 24/7 during summer, so does that mean the vampires hibernate through summer? But we only have around eight hours of daylight now (if even that), so vampires could be up almost whenever they want. So most of the rules simply don't make sense and prevents the vampires from being scary. Even the sucking-blood part is pretty dumb, in my opinion. It makes much more sense to simply eat the victim. To make a scary vampire, we need new rules. But how can we have new rules without making a new creature?
     
  14. Slinkywizard

    Slinkywizard New Member

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    If you think the sucking blood part is dumb, do not, under any circumstances, write a Vampire book. Any potential audience you might have has just left the building.

    But also, they're easy to kill in movies, but not in your book, right? Because in your book they're not like on TV. When someone swings a stake at them in your book, they've already snatched it out of their hand and stuck it, well, you know were they've stuck it.

    I think the problem you're having is that a lot of Vampire writers bend the rules, and through the lens of all that bending, you're getting the impression that these rules are a) Breakable and b) Making them weak. Forget every bit of Vampire fiction where the good guy wins and think for a moment about how a situation in which a normal guy with a stick is going to win against a lightning-fast, injury-impervious, elephant-strong nightmare who can suck the life right out of you. If you don't think they stand a chance, then they don't.

    Watch an MMA match; UFC or some such. It's nothing like a movie fight where Rocky stands there getting punched over and over with his guard down. That's Hollywood. So un-Hollywood your Vamps and you don't need to change the rules.
     
  15. Ixloriana

    Ixloriana New Member

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    Maybe an idea would be to list the attributes that make you think "vampire" and then how you want to get rid of/change/justify them.

    Let's see... if I had to redo vampires entirely to make them "natural"....
    • Humanoid -- To be mistaken for humans that have risen from the grave, they have to be humanoid. ...Okay, maybe they only have to look like humans from a distance.
    • Hematophagy -- Not unheard of even in natural creatures. Creatures that drink blood: vampire bats, certain insects (ticks, bedbugs, mosquitoes, butterflies,) leeches, lampreys. Perhaps replace fangs with insectoid mouth-parts or leechlike suckers for optimum blood suckage.) I'm thinking... wide mouth with fangs for latching on, and then a lamprey-like "tongue" (picture) which the vampire attaches to the neck of its victim to suck its blood.
    • Flight -- I like the idea of them not actually flying, but just being able to quickly climb trees. Strong legs for high leaps would be good, as well. Ability to glide would be a bonus. +gliderflaps
    • Mind Control -- Uses high-pitched sounds to communicate and for echolocation. These sounds, though mostly inaudible to humans, can cause discomfort.
    • Power Over and Ability to Become Animals -- Within the vampire's territory, it is the top predator. Because it is only really interested in its prey's blood, other creatures often flock to its kills for the scraps. The high-pitched cries it makes while hunting will draw these scavengers, which will sometimes lead a vampire to prey.
    • Invisibility and Ability to Become Fog -- A limited chameleonic ability, where the vampire can temporarily restrict bloodflow into the capillaries nearest to its skin, turning its flesh an even more dead, greyish color that blends well with foggy nights. This ability is not possible after the vampire has gorged itself on blood.
    • Weakness to Holy Objects -- Wishful thinking.
    • Weakness to Garlic -- Strong scent disrupts its ability to smell.
    ...I will call him Homo chiropterus and say that this is a creature related to humans, but on a separate evolutionary branch, which evolved to hunt its relatives. I even drawed a picture. It is totally 4:00 AM and I am way too tired to be thinking about this stuff so forgive my inane ramblings and overuse of ridiculous words.
     
  16. Baba Yaga

    Baba Yaga Member

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    I've never really found vampires scary- not even the animalistic ones from 30 days of night. What terrifies me are completely deranged humans who revel in purposeless violence. Like Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, The Strangers, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.

    I think if, in the physical transformation, you cold also transform the internal, psychological cliche of the vampire as an intelligent, seductive and ultimately strategic being into an unhinged psychopath who works on nothing more than spontaneous bloodlust born from centuries of indulging cruel murder and torture, and would cut it's own face off to fulfill their need for suffering. Now you have something scary. Something that doesn't stick to any rules, something that has no ego, emotions or sense to appeal to, something utterly unpredictable.... and all the while just human-looking enough to make your protagonists keep trying to figure out its seemingly non-existent motives. I would read that. And then I would sleep with the lights on.
     
  17. Monosmith

    Monosmith New Member

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    Dracula was and always will be the difinitive vampire for me. I've read the original novel and had to say that I'm quite impressed, and I can't see authentic vampires being any other way.

    For me, part of the identity of the vampire is how their supernatural allure appeals to the dark recesses of the mind and its superstitions. If I wanted a vampire to be frightening, I would appeal to those superstitions.

    The impression that I was under with Dracula was that he had sold his soul to the devil for immortality, which is how he became a vampire in the first place. My interpretation of a person bit by a vampire becoming a vampire is that they are possessed. The soul of the infected individual person is blocked off from the Holy Spirit and is therefore bound to its own dark ways. These spiritual assumptions, again, made them interesting for me, because then even their nature became supernatural.

    So you could say that I prefer them as dark, intelligent beings. Dracula was very intelligent, and so were the ladies he turned into vampires.

    Here's my version of how to make vampires frightening in the way they ought to be:

    You don't know much about them: People are afraid by the unknown. There should always be some mystery surrounding the vampire(s), whether it's their background or the extent of their powers.
    Mysticism and sorcery: At the end of the day, I prefer vampires as demons and not as some work of science fiction. If you want thriller, come up with something rational. True horror comes from the supernatural.
    Intellect and a powerful personality: This also goes with the idea of the unknown, because what makes them frightening is that they know far more than you. It ought to be frightening that there is a supernatural spirit of darkness scheming and plotting against you. And their personality must be powerful, because otherwise it's just an animal. No, it has to be very personal.
    They stalk the opposite sex: Much of the most successful horror is based off of sexuality. I much prefer it.
    Seductive: Darkness can be quite scary once you find yourself attracted to it. Brahm Stoker's vampires were most certainly able to attract the opposite sex, but even more than that, Dracula was able to seduce a madman into servanthood.
    Hypnotism: I'm not always for this, not always against it. Usually I avoid it because I really don't want to tempt readers into thinking it's cool or take the concept lightly. However, the idea that someone could invade your mind, the sanctuary of your identity, is unnerving. It's similar to the sexuality detail, in fact. It would be outright disturbing if they were to be included together.
    Darkness: I know some people think that the vampires would be cooler if they were awake during the day. However, I think that it takes away from the fear of the night. Darkness is their element for a reason, and there is also a good reason for why the superstition originally evolved that way: it was what scared people the most. I also think that it's more useful for the purposes of suspense. However, I should note that Dracula could endure sunlight. He just couldn't physically move while the sun was still up.
    Fangs: I like fangs. I really do. However, I prefer it the fangs are the canines, not the incisors, otherwise it looks stupid.
    Territory: Dracula had an interesting relationship with his territory. It's not essential for a vampire, but it's an element that always intrigued me. He seemed to want to invest in expanding his territory over to Britain, and while he was there he had to sleep in coffins filled with soil from Transylvania.
    Authority: Dracula had a control over many animals. I believe these were his minions because he was in a position of supernatural authority, being a demon and a spirit.
    Shapeshifting: It need not be a bat. Dracula also transformed into a large dog and a speck of dust. Now, I definitely think that there's a right way to go about this. It should be used to make the vampire scarier by making him seem more surreal and more mysterious, not just as a superpower.
    Superhuman strength: I like it. And that with other enhanced physical abilities. You don't want to take on a vampire.
    Blood: On the subject of strength, I believe that their bloodsucking ought to be addressed. Dracula became more powerful with the more blood he drank and the more vampires he created. I also believe that the vampires he created were loyal to him and under his control, so there's a hierarchy in place. I like that. A lot. It goes with the territory idea. It's not so much of a horror element for me as it is an aspect of vampires I particularly love.
    No reflection: It's not a must, but I think that it's interesting. It's a useful horror tactic, only it needs to be approached just right so it doesn't seem tacky.
    Cannot come into houses unless invited: I like this simple defense. It often helps with giving a story suspense. Imagine having a vampire outside of your house every night and knowing you're being stalked. Besides, who's not to say that the vampire cannot manipulate his way into a person's supposed safe-ground? I also think that this all ties in with the territory thing. It's not a must, but it's preferred.
    Holy Relics: Okay, I don't really care about the garlic, but I feel Holy Relics somehow should fend them off. I'm not necessarily saying that it's Holy Water or a cross, but if there's something blessed, because even I love the idea that vampires ought to be frightening, I also think that as demons there should be overwhelmed by the presence of God. However, I think that the details about this ought to be tricky. I don't think that God would lie waiting in the places people think about. Like, for example, perhaps someone's wedding ring symbolized what has truly been a marriage under God. Perhaps the vampire would be a bit repulsed by that.
    Killing them: I'm actually open to many different ideas of how to kill them. It doesn't just have to be staking them in the heart and cutting their head off. I'd be for more creative and well-explained methods, considering that I know the history to the staking superstition and it doesn't impress me. In the end, I do encourage new ideas for vampires overall, in accordance with the #1 rule of being mysterious,so if I were to write vampire stories they would include a new detail, but it would be used poetically with everything else.
    Christopher Lee: I just had to throw that out there. He's awesome.

    So there you have it. Obviously, this isn't what's right for your story, but I wanted to introduce this element to the discussion. When I think "scary" I think of something spectral that I might find in a ghost story.
     
  18. Makeshift

    Makeshift Active Member

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    Read the Wikipedia article on vampires for possible inspiration. You will find out that the "traditional" Dracula-like vampire is not the what people here call a traditional vampire. Folkloric vampires weren't always human, some of them didn't drink blood, they weren't always described as pale(in Europe it was pretty much the opposite, they were described as being more lifelike than they had been when they were alive) and they're was a lot more ways to kill them than just staking the heart(sometimes staking the mouth, the stomach, or the groin, burying them alive, drowning, exorcism, decapitation, burning or even shooting them with bullets). Although Bram Stoker did research on the folkloric vampires, in his fiction he departed from it in several ways. Even the vulnerability to sunlight was a later invention.

    Scary things are often not supernatural and supernatural things are often not scary. Even with classic horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft, for me at least, the better works are the ones with little or no supernatural elements. If one wanted to radically change vampires, I would also suggest discarding the paranormal and human elements. They're scarier if they think nothing like humans. You can't reason with them or understand their motives(which might be nothing more than appetite). You can't repel them with something as simple as crosses or mirrors or garlic. They can cross running water and enter houses without being invited. Vampires by definition suck either blood or some psychic life force, if they didn't, why would you call them vampires, so that's one element I would keep. That Homo Chiropterus seems really terrrifying, that's the direction I would go to. Portray vampires as natural, although immensely powerful beings and possibly explain or at least hint why paranormal beliefs have associated with them in the past.
     
  19. Burlbird

    Burlbird Contributor Contributor

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    For "original vampire" inspiration, here's a google-translated article about one of the first two "publicly aclaimed" vampires in Europe :)

    "But German and Austrian newspapers recorded a report from Serbia in which a vampire has been seriously talked about. In several foreign newspapers in the summer of the 1825. was described one of the first officially recorded cases of vampirism in the 19th century in Serbia and Europe. Certain Petar Blagojevic from the former principality of Serbia, described as being a good and honest peasant during his life, who died in the first days of August 1825 in the village of Kisiljevo and received an appropriate burial according to the Orthodox custom, in the presence of priests, relatives and friends.
    After his death, during next eight weeks nine people died in the village, after an illness that lasted only one or two days. On their deathbed all told the priest or the witnesses and relatives the same story: that they were visited late at night by Petar, who strangled them and told them they would die. The doctor could not discover any infectious disease in dying men, but poor mental condition and the fear is inexplicable. The situation has not changed even after the memorial service of 40 days, people continued to die. When the wife of the late Peter fled her family home in to another village, she told her family that her late husband came to her in a dream and asked that she send to his grave a new pair of shoes, as the old ones were "worn off" walking at night in the village. Ten weeks after his death, in the presence of village elders, priests, doctors and other witnesses, and fifty villagers, they excavated the tomb to see whether he was still in it.
    When the grave was dug up and the crate opened all have seen the the dead body of Peter, but with no traces of any changes on the body, as if he was buried a few hours before. Strange was the fact that his shoes were worn out as opposed to his clothing. According to well-known folk custom of "destroying the vampire" with incense and the prayers of the priests, the peasants knocked a wooden stake through the body of the late Peter, and fresh red blood came out of the body. Then the villagers decided in each case, the body should be burned to ashes and then the ashes thrown into the river. Among other things in addition to the signature of the witness, the case was then officially signed by the village clerk."

    :D
     
  20. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Well, I must say, this sounds like the new Predators film! You know, when the people are put in a reserve where the predators hunt and it's the very cat and mouse game you're talking about.

    Anyway, hate to be the one to say this, but anything can be scary if you build it up right. I am convinced that even the classical vampires can be made scary if you write it right (of course, no guarantees if it ever gets made into a movie, but you're writing a book, not a film) So instead of musing on this thread, WRITE!

    As for horror inspiration, how about Japanese horror? They're experts at being really, really creepy.
     
  21. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    WriterDude, I like the idea of some unknown creature that's not a vamp at all. I like the idea of your characters getting into their gig -- mainly as a joke -- thinking they're up against a vampire but also thinking that it's a person pretending to be a vamp, not really taking it seriously. Then, when things have proven to be supernatural, they think they're against a real vampire, but then, it turns out that no...it's something else, something worse.

    This also has the element of genuine surprise. With an opening of a bunch of people chasing down probably-fake vampires for shits and giggles, of course the reader is going to expect the vampires to turn out to be real. But if it's something even worse? Maybe even something going after the vampires as we know them? That's scary. Everything that's truly scary for me has taken me by surprise, including the fact that I wasn't even expecting to be scared at all. Before I saw the Blair Witch movie, when friends were telling me about the plot, I thought it was going to be some boring documentary about witchcraft trials in the 1700s (I was like 12). Then I watched it and whammo, was scared without thinking I'd be. I think your story has that advantage on your side. :)
     
  22. Helmsing

    Helmsing Member

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    I disagree with this. Vampires were thought of as sexy and seductive long before” Interview with the Vampire” however most authors are unable to portray cunning, evil, and intelligent with sexy and seductive. Hence the reason why in the books Twilight the vampires are eye candy but don’t come across as vicious even though they, as vampires, are meant to be such.
    Here is a bit from Dracula…. “In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner. I thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them, they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon. The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips”

    Another bit… “She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever, and I could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than before, and on the cheeks was a delicate bloom.”
    The count himself is also described as being a seductive and cunning person, perhaps not sexy but good looking. So I understand you want the Vampire to be more animal like but to me the most terrifying vampire is the cunning one that can blend into society.
     
  23. Slinkywizard

    Slinkywizard New Member

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    Nicely put, Van Helmsing. Dracula is one of my favourite all-time reads. After it, I'm not certain why anyone else bothered, to tell you the truth.
     
  24. bassbonediva

    bassbonediva New Member

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    I just have to say that what you're talking about turning vampires into sounds eerily like the movie "Priest." They are kinda, sorta, not really humanoid. They are beyond NOT sexy. In fact, they're not anything like "traditional" vampires beyond the inability to tolerate sunlight and crosses. Problem is, I didn't find the vampires in Priest even remotely scary. Why not? Because they were TOO different from what one normally thinks of as vampires. They became not vampires, but some sort of weird hybrid human-monster thing that could kill without compunction or provocation. They weren't the undead (meaning they were once human, but were now inhabited by a demon), they were a separate species from humans entirely.
    [​IMG]
     
  25. cruciFICTION

    cruciFICTION Contributor Contributor

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    You know what? I loved that little cartoon bit that was all, "As long as there have been humans, there have been vampires," and then the rest of the movie sucked. That one line was the one redeeming feature.
    Vampires are supposed to be scary because they're human, though. I'm pretty sure that when I originally posted in this thread I mentioned that the part of vampires that comes from fear is that it's a human losing all their morals and inhibitions, but also all their humanity and compassion and everything good about being human.
    It also had too many slow motion bits. And using flying ninja crosses to jump higher while already in mid-air? PLEASE. I know action scenes are good, but that was stupid.

    Actually, there were three other redeeming features. 1. The man who played the main character was once seen "trudging" as Geoffrey (sp? My brother's name is spelled this way) Chaucer. 2. The main character's brother was played by Stephen Moyer, who plays the vampire Bill Compton in True Blood. It's ironic as hell that he gets attacked by vampires then. 3. The other main guy, the young sheriff guy? He's a vampire from the Twilight movies according to my little sister. I don't remember him, but meh. I've seen him on the posters, I think. Also ironic.
     

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