When I was a kid, my worst fear was vampires. They frightened me on a deep level in ways beyond fangs and transforming into bats, ways I couldn’t explain as a child. Something so sinister about these “posh” beings who appear convincingly human, but aren’t. A genteel facade to gain your trust and consent, to hypnotize and gaslight you so you invite them in (you must always invite them in, as a rule) before they finally reveal their brutal and satanic nature once you are under their control. The scene in Bram Stoker’s Dracula where his “brides” bring him the stolen baby in the sack and forcing Harker to watch him eat it, to his mind-breaking horror, only to be fed upon by the brides as a reward, directly after this massive influx of fear…so bone chilling to me, that depth of animalistic yet intelligent and intentional evil. Imagine me as an adult wrapping my head around the concept that fictional vampire literature and films were essentially the elite playing their karma trick on the world…revealing themselves, yet keeping the reveal insulated under code using the guise of fantasy…gaining our consent to their existence and rituals and leverage over us on a global scale.

Vampire myths and legends go back hundreds of years at least, long before they were introduced into pop culture. People believed in them for real. People who were ruled over by “noble families”. People whose children simply vanished into the night never to be seen again. I think it was not mere superstition. I have to wonder how much Stoker knew when he wrote his world famous novel.