Before getting into the juicy religious details concerning Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twlight and The Vampire Diaries here are some general religious ideologies about vampires in general. 

 

• Chapter 5 of Bogatyrëv's novel, Vampires in the Carpathians discusses how people have seen apparitions of Christ or the Virgin Mary and how others have seen vampires. Belief in apparitions and supernatural beings are still common for the peasants of the Carpathians. Bogatyrëv states that as he was walking with a peasant in a village, they stopped by a stone cross and told him that "recent images of Christ and the Virgin had appeared there recently" (127). In the chapter others claim they saw a vampire, "The vampire can be a man, a horse, or a dog. If you go fishing you give him fish to eat. Afterwards you catch a cartload of fish. But you can't talk to him. He causes fear that you can't talk to him" (132-133). This is interesting and can be easily compared to the devil since he also appears in many forms. In Christianity the supernatural is usually regarded as being evil, dangerous and harmful to humans, and so with the contrats of seeing vampires as opposed to Christ this can mean that vampires are a good representation of the devil.

• Partridge and Christianson's, Lure of the Dark Side : Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture talks about vampires in popular culture and its effect in the decline of religion. Nowadays vampires are represented as being either the villain or hero whereas in the past in Stoker's Dracula the vampire was always the villain. "A development in which religion and spirtuality have been marginalized or completely written off in contemporary vampire movies" (Partridge and Christianson 106). Dracula is "created" in Stoker's story by drinking the blood from a crucifix. After his wife's death, Dracula denies God and stabs a crucifix with his sword, drinks the blood that comes from it and makes a pact with evil indicating he is similar to satan. In the old vampire movies and even some recent ones that including shows as well, the means of killing a vampire was with crucifixes, holy water or a wooden stake (representing the wooden cross that Jesus died on). Partridge and Christianson give a perfect example of religion and faith in the movie Dracula has Risen from the Grave. Dracula and a priest have a confrontation and Dracula ends up falling from a cliff and landing on a cross sticking up from the ground and he dies. Today however, as seen in Twilight the way vampires are killed is by ripping off their heads and burning their remains, which shows how the religious aspect is taken out.

• Paul Barber's, Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality talks about the appearance of vampires over time, he descibes vampires as being, "lanky, having long crooked fingernails, wearing a black cloak, thin and pale" (Barber 39-40). Today however, you can really see the difference in vampires on tv and in movies. Vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries and Twilight are all very attractive and physically fit, they wear normal clothes (no capes) and are very charming. This makes the viewers feel that maybe vampires aren't so bad.

• Hannah Goodwyn's article, "A Christian Response to Vampire Obsession" discusses how vampire movies and tv shows have "glamorized vampires to the point that some young fans can think of nothing else" (Goodwyn), vampires are basically humanized to seem real. To read the full article 

• Moonlight's article, "Are Vampires Replacing Religion for Teens?" looks at how teens these days are so obsessed with these fictional vampire shows that "teenagers are not looking for answers to life’s big queries in established religious institutions. Instead, they engage in intense idolization of films and TV shows about vampires and other supernatural beings" (Moonlight). To read the rest of the article