Brian Patrick McKinley
As a writer and avid reader of vampire fiction, I’ve seen a lot of different themes, styles, and clichés
come in and out of popularity over the years. Rather than nit-pick which is which, it’s easier to call all
of these things tropes, which is a more neutral term that has come to mean any sort of regularly
occurring metaphor, symbol, or literary device.
With that in mind, I decided to come up with a personal list of what I think are the top 5 vampirerelated tropes that have become over-used recently and need to be put to rest. You might agree, you
might disagree, and you might even want to put a sharp wooden stake through my eye, but I hope this
will give any vampire authors some food for thought.
To be fair, none of these tropes are beyond redemption, but I think that many of them have become
so familiar that authors are beginning to include them in their stories without any good reason. Maybe
they think they’re expected now. That way leads to Blandsville and the Land of Been There, Seen That.
Without further introduction, here’s my list:
5. MONSTERS, MONSTERS EVERYWHERE!
This is the current vogue in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal
Romance that owes its popularity to authors like Laurel K.
Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, and
others. The logic goes that, if vampires are real, so is every other
damn mythological creature, horror archetype, folktale monster,
and nursery rhyme character! So now we have an avalanche of kickass monster hunters who sleep with vampires, fight tooth fairies,
shoot it out with Sasquatches, barter with leprechauns, and ride
unicorns into battle against demon-possessed Minotaurs while
arch-angels battle candy-house witches in the skies above I think
we just need a few more monsters...
4. PUTTING ON THE GAME
FACE
This one we owe to movies like The
Lost Boys and TV shows like Forever
Knight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and
Angel, but because of their popularity it
has begun to crop up in vampire novels
as well. This is the idea that vampires
alone aren’t scary enough, so they have to
have a special “monster face” that they
bring out for feeding or whenever they
want to surprise someone into screaming
and running away. C’mon, really? A risen
corpse who can socialize with you before
leading you off alone to drink the blood
from your body isn’t scary enough?
A serial killer with super-human powers
isn’t enough?
Seriously, aside from comedic value, what do all of these creatures
bring? Ask yourself if your series really needs the entire monster
menagerie before you throw them in because “everyone else is
doing it.” I’ve gotten to the point where I find it refreshing to read
a story about vampires that doesn’t feel the need to include every
other type of monster, too. Build your world carefully. The best
kind of fantasy always keeps a foot grounded in the real world.
I’m a bit of a nit-picker, I admit, so the
idea that muscles re-arrange themselves
in the vampires face all for the purpose
of giving them a wicked Halloween look
just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Movies do it because their special effects
guys get bored, but there’s no excuse for
it in a novel. If your vampires are some
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form of demon, that’s great, but either
keep them possessed and looking normal
or make it a permanent transformation.
The reason vampires are fascinating and
frightening is because they are the
monster with the human face.