mechana2015 (post: 1204799) wrote:Where on earth did you get this... I can name a ton of stories where this doesn't happen.
And frankly, most of the vampyre stories where this does not occur tend to be written by authors that are not very well versed in Catholic imagery, or wish to downplay this aspect of the vampyre myth. The connection is so strong that Thomas D. Foster, in his influential
How To Read Literature Like a Professor lists back to back chapters titled "Nice To Eat With You.... Acts of Communion" and "Nice To Eat You.... Acts of Vampires" that make significant connections between the two. Many of the methods that are useful in interpreting literature are also useful in interpreting cinema. Just a couple of examples of this motif in influential vampyre movies are as follows.
Nosferatu (1921)
Jonathan Harker has just reached the castle of Count Dracula to find a pasty-faced noble that looks suspiciously rat-faced. Dracula seats Harker down to a rich feast that prominently includes bread and wine. Harker feasts while Dracula remains superficially occupied with the details of his contract to move from Transylvania to Bremen. Then, after an especially skelletal clock strikes the midnight hour (the hour of death), Harker cuts his finger while slicing the bread and an especially tense standoff occurs between the two that makes Harker begin to suspect that Dracula is not as he seems.
Dracula (1931)
Renfield has arrived at Castle Dracula, but the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the ruined castle makes him suspect that it has been abandoned. Then, in a classic scene of film history, Renfield unexpectedly encounters the handsome and charismatic Count Dracula on a long staircase filled with enormous spider webs. After waxing poetic about predatory animals like wolves and spiders, Dracula leads Renfield into a well lit dining hall, and prepares a feast of bread and wine. Renfield cuts his finger while slicing the bread, and Dracula's bloodlust is triggered, but Renfield is obliviously saved by the crucifix (symbolic of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection) around his neck. Dracula offers Renfield wine after he places the crucifix in his pocket (symbolic of his personal rejection of Christ's sacrifice). When Renfield asks Dracula whether he will join him in drinking wine, Dracula responds with the classic line "I never drink.... wine." So influential was this line that when the theatrical production of Dracula was being revived, the directors had to add this line to the script because audiences everywhere demanded it.
If you wish, I can keep this list going for at least a dozen vampyre movies up to the present.
Still currently on the prologue, about 1/3 through.
Christianity is mostly implied between the characters.
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