Curious Obsession With Things That Bite!

During the last few years, there has been a surge of Movies & TV Shows about Vampires & Zombies.

Now, when I was a child, all Vampires resembled the archetypical appearance of Dracula. They slept in coffins, came out at night and when they bit their victims, it was a fair certainty that they would die! Yes, Vampires were supposed to frighten the life out of you and they definitely scared the pants off me!

Now, a couple of decades (and a bit) later, I, along with the rest of the nation, cannot get enough of Vampires!

For Me, it started with an American TV Series called Moonlight in 2007. This was followed a year later by Twilight. A series of Movies that changed the rules as far as Vampires were concerned. In Twilight, Vampires roamed freely during the day, though they did not go out in public if the sun shone, as their skin sparkled like millions of minute diamonds. Hence they lived in Forks, Callam County in Washington. A place where the sun did not come out that often at all.

In The Vampire Diaries, special rings allow Vampires to walk freely during the day and so with these new rules for Vampires that allow them to roam the streets amongst us during the day, the scope has been broadened for writers to explore Vampires, making programmes and movies appeal to a larger audience than just adults that get a buzz from jumping out of their skin with fright!

Werewolves too, have endeared themselves to us in this sequence of Movies & TV Shows, probably almost as much as Vampires. I have to confess to all the Jacob fans out there though, I am team Edward all the way!

Vampires no longer just exist in dark horror Movies that children fear. They have become beautiful, powerful, rich and alluring, despite their need for blood to survive. Good Vampires feed on the blood of animals, or as The Vampire Diaries portray, from blood bags taken from hospitals, rather than directly from the necks and wrists of human beings.

The Vampire Diaries is another series that’s had me glued to my screen. I downloaded all four seasons to my iPad and watched them all in record speed time. I am now impatiently waiting for the next season to be released to iTunes, to enable me to feed my spiralling Vampire obsession!

So why is it exactly, that we have all become so obsessed with these immortal beings that if they were real, would threaten our entire existence? Have Vampires really become sexy? Are Werewolves really our new guardian angels? Or is it simply those clever casting directors working their magic to ensure that only the most alluring Actors and Actresses play our fanged or furry friends?

Moving slightly away from the supernatural world of Vampires & Werewolves, We also have a new breed of Zombies on our Tv Screens. Well maybe not a new breed, but Zombies are now being explored and portrayed in many different ways. The attraction I have to Zombies is clearly a different draw from that of Vampires and Werewolves ( albeit in their pre-turned state.) TV Shows such as The Walking Dead, have made Zombies more fascinating. Still something to be feared, these diseased humans simply walk and feed on living beings, but they are slow and clumsy and easily killed with a powerful blow to the head. In the movie World War Z, however, Zombies have broken down all the barriers and rules of how they should act. They are super fast and aggressive and will only ignore those who are extremely ill.

In Warm Bodies, Zombies actually learn how to be human again and in I Am Legend, Zombie like creatures are born from an airborne virus that deforms humans into ‘cannibalistic mutants’ extremely photosensitive and who only come out at night as they will die in sunlight, as our olden day Vampires would have. They develop an extremely violent cannibalistic nature. These ‘Zombies’ are still pretty scary, but the Movie itself, is not. We are left wanting to find a cure, wanting to know how the next writer will portray the next tale of Zombies…

… I will be eagerly waiting!