The Obscene and Banned Poetry of Charles Baudelaire

Sex, blood and death can be found in the twisted works of poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) and while some found these poems captivating, others felt that they were positively obscene. In the 1857 original edition of Flowers of Evil, the influential poet wrote two poems, “The Vampire” and “Metamorphoses of the Vampire.” These vampire poems…

Little Girl Vampire Flick Almost Ready to Film

Geoff Orlowski is a young filmmaker in New York.  He has a cast, a script and has shot test footage for what he describes as “a story about acceptance, individuality, loyalty, misconception, betrayal and of course a blood thirsty vampire.”  His movie is in fact titled simply The Vampire, and now all he needs if…

The Art of Vampires

Vampires are seductive and dangerous being of the night, they have captivated the minds of authors, film makers, and of course, artists. Pieces of art depicting these mysterious and dark beings have existed for well over a thousand years. Let’s explore this bit of this history, shall we… The earliest depiction of a vampire is…

The Hauntingly Beautiful Poetry of Conrad Aiken

There are quite a few lovely vampire poems that have been penned, but one of my (many) favorites is Conrad Aiken’s The Vampire. This chilling and bloody poem captures both the allure and horror of the vampire. Published in 1914, The Vampire is a poem about a remarkably beautiful vampiress who captures the hearts of…

Duchy Opera’s ‘The Vampire’

I’ve got some excellent news for our British readers! This October the Duchy Opera will be presenting a touring production of Heinrich Marschner’s classic German romantic opera, The Vampire. Originally adapted from the short story by John Polidori, The Vampire was first performed in 1828, in Leipzig. Since 2011 is the 150th anniversary of Marschner’s…

The Meaning Behind ‘The Vampire’ by Rudyard Kipling

Everyone that reads poetry occasionally comes across a poem that doesn’t make complete sense to them. While reading some classic vampire poetry I came across such a poem – The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling. Had this poem not had “vampire” in the title I would have never thought it was about vampires at all. But…

Are There Vampires in Final Fantasy?

A few days ago I was watching Final Fantasy: Advent Children for, oh, the millionth time, and I wondered “Are there any vampires in any of the Final Fantasy games?” I mean, the Final Fantasy franchise has been going strong since the 80s with well over a dozen games, so there has got to be…

The Infamous Sergeant Bertrand

In the late 1800s there was notorious criminal known at the time only as “The Vampire.” It was later discovered that this criminal was Sergeant Bertrand and before he was caught in 1849, he terrorized the city of Paris. Bertrand, a military engineer of the 74th Regiment, had been breaking into multiple cemeteries. Once he…

The Infamous Montague Summers

Way back when science was beginning to beat out illogical superstition there was still a man that was well known for his occult knowledge. Montague Summers (1880-1947) was a semi-famous English cleric, Gothic scholar and at the time, the leading figure on the occult. Even though he spent nearly his whole life studying the supernatural,…

Vampires and Pedophilia

One of the seldom visited complex topics of vampirism, is the aspect of pedophilia that is associated with a centuries old creature and a fifteen year old teenager. Is the relationship pedophilic? There are a few different perspectives and aspects of pedophilia’s hypothetical existence in vampire pop-culture; whether it’s there or not may be subjective,…