“Everything about me draws in you in. My voice, my face, even my smell.” -Edward Cullen, Twilight
Vampires are predators by nature. Every single one of the vampires in my three mediums of comparison exhibit some form of special influence via their appearance. Different uses of these forms of control will result in a myriad of human emotions; the person they’re using these “powers” on will either feel overwhelmed, in total compliance, fearful, or sexually aroused. This is another feature of the vampire’s genetic makeup that makes them brilliantly beautiful, frightening, and intriguing all once.
The above trailer from the film version of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire provides a glimpse into the physical appearance of a vampire. Existing as the oldest of my three cultural mediums of depicting vampires, Anne Rice remains “traditional” in her molding of the story. Vampires are literally seen as the walking dead in many ways, thus the cold, pale-white skin (that is also mentioned in the Twilight section below). Although the vamps look human in many aspects (similar to True Blood), they appear to have this bewitching sixth-sense that lures an unsuspecting neck to their fangs. Speaking of teeth, the undead characters from Rice’s story have retractable fangs that they employ to suck the blood from their victims (extremely different from Twilight, very alike with True Blood). Even though their eyes remain the same color they were in their human life, they take on a new, unfathomable quality–as if the sunlight they can no longer walk in goes into their eyes, placing a brighter, more inviting characteristic into their irises.
The above clip is from the movie-version of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series and does a fantastic job exhibiting the story’s take on the appearance of a vampire. Continuing with the myth that all vamps in “existence” are drop dead gorgeous (pun intended…haha), Edward Cullen explains to his human love interest, Bella Swan, that it’s all part of luring in prey. The pale and cold skin, sultry features, and extraordinary eye colors all play their role in capturing food. Some major physical features that may coincide or depart from other representations of vampires include eye color and fangs. In the Twilight oeuvre, the vamps either have 1) red eyes (the most common, derivative of consuming human blood to survive) 2) golden eyes (much less common, associated with only living off the blood of animals) or 3) black eyes (a sign of lack of feeding and moodiness to say the least). Oddly enough, as far as fangs go, the vampires of Twilight have none to speak of. Their teeth are described (and portrayed in the movie) as normal-looking; the aspect that makes their teeth so deadly is the rock-hard, unbreakable quality they have–their teeth are said to be able to bite through anything.
After viewing the fan-made True Blood video above, one thing is obvious: vampires look just like us until you see their fangs come out or they cry (tears of blood). As mentioned in my previous blog, this is a positive feature in my point of view. Hypothetically, if vampires have been around for many centuries on end, either living amongst us at nighttime or dwelling in the shadows, they couldn’t look too terribly different from a human without getting publicly outed sooner. Thus, I find this portrayal of vampires to be grotesquely realistic. Most bloodsuckers in the story look the same as they did in their human form, and the quality of paleness isn’t as forthcoming as other vampire stories may reflect. Unlike Twilight’s take on eyecolor and fangs, the creatures of the night in this series have the same eyes they came into the world with; additionally, the vamps look much more frightening because of their razor-sharp retractable fangs that can either 1)come out on command or 2) come out when the vamp is aroused, extremely angered, or in pain.
