I’m thinking about vampires as I work on this vampire novel, The Malcontent. As a teenager, I was saturated in the mid90s vampire revival, Poppy Z Brite, Anne Rice, goth subculture, nostalgia for Fright Night, Lost Boys, and Near Dark, and of course, Vampire: Masquerade.
What am I possibly hoping to add to the body of vampire myth that hasn’t already been said? Does it even matter if I don’t?
There is a proximity to the film Shadow of the Vampire. What drew me in about that movie is that there’s no vampire society. No complex rules of monster conduct. No magic in the brutality. I’m not innately against vampire tropes as they have evolved in fiction, but those narratives are not speaking to me as much as an intellectually uncurious immortal predator who is very old and completely alone. Perhaps, I am also drawn to the vampires of 30 Days of Night in that similar dogma of harsh survival.
My current draft is written in a way to not reveal any interior life or thoughts of the vampire. They simply are.
Intrigued!
I honestly couldn’t take the vampire society, tortured artist vampires, and sexy vampires material that has dominated the genre for the past 30 years.
I prefer the idea of singular monsters with their own limited cohort of stooges, familiars and thralls engaged in terrifying, horrifying pursuits.