In 2024, vampires are coming back in full swing

Pop culture can't stay away from the allure of vampires. With an origin story rooted in a distant past, it seems that this year the sharp-fanged fantasy character has made a comeback thanks to new releases like What We Do In The Shadows. After the initial introduction of many Millennials to pop culture vampires, such as the hugely popular Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, which has sold over 160 million copies worldwide (and its equally popular film adaptations), the show Vampire Diaries and YA-themed media, it became rare to encounter vampires on screens. But in 2019, the first season of FX's mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows aired, a show based on the 2014 film of the same name that offers an irreverent, absurdist, and extraordinarily memeable interpretation of the vampire genre, adding an innovative yet surprisingly genre-conforming take on vampires to the canon. With the sixth and final season set to air this year, What We Do In The Shadows was joined in 2022 by another critically acclaimed vampire-themed TV series, AMC's gothic horror Interview with the Vampire.

Based on Anne Rice's novels, What We Do In The Shadows was renewed for a third season even before the final episode of the second season aired on June 30. Just like FX's mockumentary, the adaptation embraces the queer elements that have been part of the pop culture vampire canon, more or less explicitly, since Carmilla, the gothic novella by Irish author J. Sheridan Le Fanu. After What We Do In The Shadows, this year vampires will make headlines again with the sui generis horror Abigail and the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot. Focus Features will also release a remake of Nosferatu in the United States on December 25. Directed by Robert Eggers, the mind behind the folk horror cult film The Witch (2015), and featuring a stellar cast, the film will mark the end of a year of great popularity for the genre.

It's no surprise that vampires continue to be a staple of popular culture. They have always been suggestive metaphors for a wide range of themes, from collective fears to power dynamics, to intimate themes such as love, sex, and gender identity. Vampires offer a unique perspective to explore current themes through protagonists rich in dichotomies: familiar and mysterious, repugnant and captivating. Dark mirrors of ourselves, no longer monstrous like Bram Stoker's Dracula but similar to us. Through the vampires of the new millennium, we explore a new question: not just what it means to love and be loved, but also what it means to be a family and the complexities and idiosyncrasies of these bonds. After all, what makes fantasy stories fascinating to us is not only the call of the unknown and the supernatural, but also their way of offering the audience the opportunity to explore the darkest corners of their own selves. In an era where social media and current events seem inescapable, the sometimes comic, sometimes unsettling tales of these immortal beings allow us to examine the nature of humanity through escapism: while the teeth they wear are cinematic prosthetics, the emotions they speak of are real. And they are also ours.