Currently, vampirism trends rise within the popular media. Over the past year, conversation exploded regarding recent films and TV shows, such as the 2024 “Nosferatu,” “Sinners” and AMC’s adaptation of “Interview with the Vampire.” Throughout social media, people turn further attention toward shows and movies such as “The Twilight Saga” and “The Vampire Diaries.”
“‘The Vampire Diaries’ is the only [vampire show] that I have watched, and the plot is just there. Twilight is just my OG. The acting may be horrendous, but it’s still up there for me. I feel like, for some reason, Twilight has risen in popularity, but I don’t know why,” magnet sophomore Abrianna Santiago said.
Since the sudden resurgence of conversation surrounding vampires rose simultaneously with threats of an economic recession throughout the U.S., plenty of people started to jokingly hypothesize that the new trend could indicate a recession.
Throughout history, the popularity of vampires, along with other monstrous creatures in the media, reflected heavily on society’s anxieties surrounding topics and events current at the time. In fact, this phenomenon possesses the name the Monster Theory.
In Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s 1996 book, “Monster Theory,” Cohen describes the way society views monsters, reflecting the constant shifts of cultural moments and values in which the monster exists. When the Monster Theory applies to vampires, the bloodsuckers represent societies’ fears and anxieties surrounding their realities. In the monster theory, there exists a norm or another. The norm describes the normal average human. The other describes what the average human would consider an outcast, scary or monstrous.
The other exhibits its dissent from what’s considered unnatural by opposing sane human behavior, such as causing harm to innocent individuals or experiencing immortality. The monster brings chaos to their surroundings, which mirrors reality with moral panics surrounding groups of people that don’t outwardly look or act in a way that certain cultures may accept as normal or acceptable. Thus, the “other” in media surrounding monsters, especially vampires, constantly represents problems within populations such as racism, homophobia and financial crises.
In the late 1800s, when vampires first took on the traditional form the public dreads today, books such as “Dracula” and “Carmilla” first debuted, exhibiting a prime example of the Monster Theory. These texts explored themes of queerness, perfectly mirroring society’s views and taboos about homosexuality at the time.
During the late ‘80s, “The Lost Boys,” a movie about two boys who move to a town full of vampires, premiered. In the following months after the movie’s initial release, Black Monday, one of the worst global market crashes in history, occurred. Another example of economic correlation playing a role in vampirism popularity occurred during the 2000s and early 2010s. Not only did this era mark the 2008 economic recession, but also the height of vampire media, such as the “Twilight” books and movies, “True Blood” and “My Babysitter’s a Vampire.”
“I feel like “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” isn’t too edgy, and it’s very comedic. It’s just very comforting, and the characters are very attractive — it just gives me 2000s vibes. The idea of vampires and how they interact with humans is cool [because of] their decisions on whether to kill humans or not, and how they survive amongst humans by blending in. I think vampires coming back is to distract us from everything going downhill [in our society],” magnet sophomore Faith Clark said.
Now, as trade wars rage on, Trump implements combative tariffs against countries and a constant lingering fear of a recession hits the American public, leaving the sudden comeback of vampire media justified. As media such as “Twilight” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” become available on sites such as Netflix and YouTube, it appears evident that the timelessness of vampires provides others comfort during hard times. Even if society enters into moral panic or economic troubles, the public can always look to vampires to find solace in a savage garden of a world.
