Have you ever met a vampire? There’s a good chance you have — they might just have consumed energy rather than blood. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah talk metaphorical vampires, from the earliest cinematic vamps to modern men who dance naked to early 2000’s disco-pop (iykyk). They argue that certain human characters are as vampiric as your favorite bloodsucking undead, discuss how classic vampire tropes like “crossing the threshold” show up in metaphor, and name-drop lots (and lots) of bodily fluids.
Come vamps, join us around the campfire.
CW: mention of suicide, brief mention of sexual assault, discussion of body (dental) horror
Major spoilers:
* Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 1862
* A Fool There Was, directed by Frank Powell, 1915
* The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, 1993
* House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson, 2022
* Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennel, 2023
Other media mentioned in this episode:
Poetry
* “The Vampire”by Rudyard Kipling, 1897
Fiction
* “The Vampyre” by John Polidori, 1819
* Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 1862
* Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872
* Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897
* “Luella Miller” by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, 1902
* Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, 2023
Film
* Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, 1931
* Nosferatu the Vampyre, directed by Werner Herzog, 1979
* The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed Anthony Minghella, 1999
TV
* What We Do in the Shadows, 2019-2024
Additional Reading
* Sarah Sceats, “Oral Sex: Vampiric Transgression and the Writing of Angela Carter,” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 20, no. 1 (2001)
* Dracula’s Daughters: The Female Vampire on Film, edited by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka, 2013
* Charles Bramesco, Vampire Movies, 2018
* Christopher Frayling, Vampire Cinema: The First 100 Years, 2022
For podcast updates, vampire memes, and consumption suggestions, follow us on Instagram! @vampirecampfirepod
This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman
