And here are some of their answers:

“I enjoy all stuff vampire the most. there is something sexual and romantic about them that compels me to be drawn in to their culture. I mostly like reading vampire stuff but there has been a few good movies. werewolves are ok. I see the draw to the wild abandon that can be tempting for some. zombies do absolutly nothing for me.” – Jessica W.

“Vampires have beauty and mystery and the allure of darkness while maintaining a mostly humanlike appearance. They relate to humans but will always be on the outside and that makes their existence both sad and interesting.” – Lemon L.

“None I’m sick of the over-exposure of all of them, when I go to a book store and all I see is books about them and hard to find a real sci fi book.” – Jim R.

“That’s a pretty big question. Cause you could easily just pick one of the three and leave it at that. But, To really answer it. I would have to have a type. I mean, Are we talking Twilight Vampires, Drackula vampires, Ann Rice vampires. Jim Butcher Vampires. You, Also have to break this down for WereWolves. And, For zombies. Well that’s’ easy you ether have mindless slow ones. Or Mindless Fast ones. A intelligent Zombie is not a zombie it would be a greater undead. But honestly I have no clear answer.” – Tony K.

“Werewolves. I’ve always like the concept of just losing control like that. Weird I know but it has always appealed to me” – Ben F.

“Zombies. Because they (until recently) were not a central portion of a story line quite the way the others (vamps/wolves) are. In “The Walking Dead” while they still do not get the portrayal that I would like (uh smart Zombies anyone?), they at least still help move the story along. Yes, it isn’t a central element in that they don’t feature into every single episode or in every scene but the background part that they encompass, the danger they represent, and the way they are affecting the centeral characters is different from what I’ve seen elsewhere.

In most Zombie flicks it’s MDK (Mass Death Kill/Murder Death Kill) on a large scale with non-stop action. Always about killing and surviving the night, not really about surviving and killing only when you have to. No real story with the ‘human’ characters either. I just feel I would connect better with a movie that had a smarter Zombie. “Zone One” by Colson Whitehead is a book I’ve read last year before Halloween. Good read for Zombie lovers.” – Sorta Creative

“If I had to become one of them, I’d prefer vampire. It would allow me to retain the greatest amount of control over myself. For most terrifying to have to face: zombies. By the time they get to me, and/or I’m made aware that they actually exist, I imagine there would be a nearly unstoppable number of them. Can’t remember which show it was, but they computer modeled vamps vs zombies. The vamp punched through the head of a z and one of the experts commented, “Oh good, you killed one.” there are just sooooooo many zombies… How long could you keep up the fight?” – Bill W.

“Werewolves. Zombies are gross. And vampires have been used so much. Werewolves are usually portrayed as powerful, earthy, and group oriented. They blend in better so stories about them have more room. Vampires are restricted to night (or to sparkles which is just wrong, very wrong). Werewolves have all that energy and power. I think the cold, lonely, and self-loathing vampire image had just been beaten to death. And, again, zombies? Gross. You can use them for supporting minions but that’s about it.” – Rhonda B.

“The vampire and zombie are very overplayed, especially lately. The werewolf is probably the most versatile out of all of them. They can blend into society, have a pretty amazingly difficult way to kill them, and can be either your best ally or worst enemy. Vamps and Zombies are mostly selfish creatures, which is terrible in any situation you can imagine.” – Cr G.

“Always been a fan of werewolves. They are very loyal to their pack/ family, are living breathing creatures, though long lived not immortal and there is just something so primal and terrestial about them that strike a cord deep within human kinds psyche (Well at least with me)” – Mike V.

The world has had a fascination with Vampires from ancient times, they have been objects of fear, desire, loathing, entertainment and since the 1960’s a draw card to thousands of followers of a more in-depth nature.

Today the world is primarily focused on the entertainment vampires such as those in the smash hits “True Blood”, “The Vampire Diaries”, “Being Human”, The Twilight Saga” and the writings of Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer and their like but beyond these, beyond the much lauded Hammer Films from Britain and beyond the Hollywood hype and box-office vampires there is a world populated by people who consider themselves to be real living vampires.

From as early as 1966 modern vampires have been following their self-ordained path when Anne de Molay (1930-2002) established the Order of Maidenfear after investigating the archetype of the vampire and drawing the conclusion that vampirism, in a psychic sense, was a very real interaction with life energy. Sharing her vision, Anne formed a group and established the Order of Maidenfear. Four years later, in 1970, The Order purchased large premises in Philadelphia that was to become House Maidenfear.

The more modern community is a movement that has grown out of a period of contemporary history that began in 1996 with the Long Black Veil & Vampyre Lounge events at the Mother Nightclub in New York City. Under the patronage of Chi Chi Valenti, one of the owners of Mother, and her partner DJ Johnny Dynell a unique themed night was established and in August of 1996 Father Sebastian, of Sabretooth Fangsmithing renown, was invited to host the event.

The original patrons of the event were, in the main, the clients of Father Sebastian and in an atmosphere of vampire ambience that promoted a strict dress code and an exclusive door policy these core of members formed the basis for a group known as “Clan Sabretooth”

One of the other notable things that came out of this period was the development and publication of “Sabretooth’s Vampyre Almanac” and “The Black Veil” code of ethics that was the set of rules for the event drawn from the etiquette of renaissance fair events and the Fetish/BDSM scene. “The Black Veil” went on to become a widely translated and widely adopted set of guidelines employed by many groups in the vampire subculture around the world.

With the advent and development of the World Wide Web the ability for more and more people to become involved in the “vampire scene” saw an explosion of on-line message boards, discussion forums and other resources for and about the world of real vampires.

Over the years the “community”, as it refers to itself, has undergone many changes and much re-defining in various interpretations. Once vampires were almost universally associated with the drinking of blood but following in the same vein as Anne de Molay’s interpretation the concept of the “Psi”, or energy vampire grew in popularity until today the strong probability exists that the so named “Psi vampires” are in the majority in the community. Know one knows for certain how big the community is, there are many differing opinions in the matter just as there are differing opinions in how to define a “modern vampire”. Estimates have ranged from 600 real self-identified vampires to as high as thirty or forty thousand worldwide. The fact is there is no “census” in the matter and it is one which remains open to debate and conjecture.

Today’s “real” vampires come in all shapes and sizes. They are clerks, drivers, mechanics, musicians, lawyers and doctors. Many of them separate the two lives to avoid personal exposure to bias and discrimination based on their personal beliefs about themselves. They are people that drink blood or who report to have the ability to extract “energy” from other people or the environment, both claim that they need to do this in order to maintain their health and fitness. There is no independent scientific observation available at this time that supports these claims but it is a strongly and deeply held belief that may be psychological, or physiological, or a combination of both. The best that can be offered by the community at this time is the chance to read and to make up your own mind. This, however, does not make it any the less real for the people in the community who self-identify as modern vampires. There are other web resources that propose different interpretations of modern vampirism, such as it being hereditary and passed on through generations, or being the product of a ‘retro-virus’ but as yet no scientific proof as to why modern vampires are the way they are and believe what they believe.

Perhaps one of the clearest and most succinct explanations of modern vampirism was written by author Sebastian DeCavalier for Socyberty’s “Paranormal”, in his article “Real Vampires?” he wrote;

“A real vampire has a soul of a vampire therefore real vampires are born and not turned. The closest thing that remotely resembles a turning would be our awakening and even that is stretching it. Our awakenings are actually more akin to personal discovery and realization and finally acceptance of who and what we have become than anything else. Do we consume blood? Yes! Some of us must gain that missing energy through the consumption of another’s blood. But before any misgivings occur, I must add that it requires less than an ounce if that to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. Others can gain this energy by taking it from the very source that generates the bodies aura. Still others gain through elemental and more nature oriented ways.”[1]

One of the great challenges faced by the community today is the quest for acceptance as a real and valid cultural group. Again, as with many other community topics, there is division amongst the members of the community as to whether such acceptance is really necessary or not. While some members, and their groups, work in the open and develop public service projects such as feeding the homeless and collecting, and distributing, necessities such as food and clothing for underprivileged families there are many others who keep to themselves and conduct their own lives and activities in a private fashion.

Another challenge is the problem of public perceptions that are fueled by reports of crimes, often violent, where the perpetrators profess to be “vampires”. It is a stigma that the community is trying hard to divorce itself from by working with researchers and professional authors to deliver their message through presentations and scholarly publications by reputable commentators who are not involved in the community except in the course of their studies.

There are many on-line representations of the community although the preponderance of message boards and discussion forums has started to decline in recent times as people move more and more toward social networking facilities such as Facebook and its like. One thing that might be noticeable to the outside observer, who happens upon one of the internet’s resources for real vampires, is that there are a great plethora of opinions, interpretations, definitions and disagreements to be read. The real vampire community today is, in its dynamic, the same as any other community group and as much as it may wish, at times, to appear otherwise it is under the same internal and external pressures and influences as any other social group. Within the “community” there are groups of ‘vested interest’, groups of ‘social interest’, groups of ‘elders’ and groups of independent members, or ‘ronin’ as they are known. Each group typically has its own agenda and its own “rules” and many of these groups are ‘members only’ affairs. On a different level there are collectives of ‘senior’ community figures such as the Voices of the Vampire Community (VVC) who ostensibly form for a particular purpose such as, “…to develop friendly relations among the various Houses, Covens, Orders, organizations, and individual leaders of the vampire community;”[2]

One commentator once observed that, “Getting a group of vampires to agree on anything is like trying to herd cats”, that saying has stuck and has been, in general, adopted by the on-line community as one method of explaining that its membership is unique and each and every member is different, it has also been invoked as a reason why the ‘community’ as a whole has exceeding difficulty in uniting behind a single message or approach to problems that it faces.

Real Vampire News has a readership that generates over one thousand page views per day on average and is read in more than one-hundred and thirty countries, this represents a very large population that are interested in the vampire subculture from something more than a popular entertainment perspective. As RVN’s owner, John Reason explains, “The main motivation for Real Vampire News is to provide news articles, short stories, explanations, and pretty much anything else pertaining to Real Vampirism.”[3]

©Real Vampire News 2012

[1] “Real Vampires?” DeCavalier, Sebastian, Socyberty – Paranormal

[2] Voices of the Vampire Community

[3] RVN – About Real Vampire News

References:

Real Vampire News

The Order of Maidenfear

Motherboards NYC

Father Sebastiaan.com

The film basically takes the incidence of “Underworld: Evolution” and added some new elements and characters.

“Underworld is now no longer so ‘under’ (below),” said the England star who starring in this sequel, Kate Beckinsale told MTV News. “People are aware of the existence of vampires and werewolves. Initially I woke up and realized he had a coma for 12 years and everything has been different. Once I knew what was happening, then I find the fact that I have a daughter aged 12 years, and it’s amazing story for my character, “he said.

Newcomers, Theo James, an English actor who plays the young vampire and a rebel named David, said, “In this story we push the boundaries a bit. You will have plenty of character and effects of greater tension. This is a 90-minute film not true-completely stopped. “

One new character, India Eisly, who plays the new princess Selene, agreed with the views of both. “This is truly nonstop action, from and back, from and returned to action, so continue.”

The director, Michael Ealy reveal something new and different in the film. “Taking pictures and filming is done in 3D and for the first time a human component,” he said. “I do not mean to give spoilers but this is the first time there is a human element in this series,” he said with a smile.

Ealy then said if there is a movie ‘Underworld’ fifth and he ended up there again, he hoped that the human characters do not last that long. “I just wanted something a little different,” he said. 

Like most of the other “Underworld” movies it focuses on the battle between vampires and lycans (Werewolves). However this movie was meant to add a third group to the battle and that is humans. This added third group is sadly a waste of what could have been an interesting plot, as most of the human action takes place in the title sequence of the movie. So instead of a human, lycan and vampire free for all it, ends up as yet another battle between the vampires and lycans.

Sadly their was no Bill Nighy in this sequel, which was a great shame as he makes for the perfect classical vampire,.

Despite these shortcoming the movie is fun it has exactly what any fan of this series of movie wants. It has Vampires and lycans beating each other to bits. It has plenty of action which would keep any Die Hard fan happy. And possibly the highlight of any Underworld movie Kate Beckinsale kicking arse in skin tight leather pants.

If you have never seen any of the “Underworld” movies before, it does not matter too much as basically all the important parts have been explained at the start of the movie. But I think this is the type of movie only fans of the previous “Underworld” movies and lovers of vampires and lycans will enjoy.

Azazel didn’t sleep good at all that night. His thought kept going back to Cat and the death of his and hers parents, and the tall vampire. He knew deep down that something wasn’t right, and that things might get out of hand. But he had to know the truth about who he was. He needed to know. Azazel heard a knocking at his bedroom window, he went to it and looked out and saw nothing. Turning he went back to bed, but he heard the knock again. This time he opened the window and was yanked though it! He landed on the ground hard, and bending over him was his master! He had long sharpened teeth and was leaning down to bite him. He tried to kick, but it was no good, he felt the teeth sinking in, he let out a scream. The next thing he knew he woke in his bed, sweat dripping from his body. He was dreaming, what did it mean dreaming about his master. He always told him to learn from his dreams, but what could he learn from this dream? He closed his eyes and went back to sleep, if he had checked his neck he would have seen the two holes healing there, are if he had checked the corner of the room he would have seen the tall vampire there. A wind blow though and the vampire was gone from sight.

The next moring Azazel woke, he was ready to go and find his past. He didn’t have to wait for Cat for she was already up and ready to go. They bought some horse’s then set out. Cat had told him something was telling her to go South, South was where he was from. What could be there? South was were the went though, for something was also pulling him there too. But what on earth could it be? They traveled many days, stopping only at  night to kill some vampires, and sleep. Azazel found that some of the vampires were scared of him and Cat. But why? Had news of the vampire killers gone around? At night as promised, Azazel tied cat up, in the moring she’d hurt for animals while he ate breakfast. He found himself not wanting to eat food, and he found that when he slept that he dreamed of the tall vampire, always biting him and drinking his blood. He grew stronger each day they traveled, Cat trained with him and together the would be unstoppable.

After sometime on the road, they finally reached Azazel’s village. He was not eatting anymore but finding himself craving blood. He was fighting it though, for he thought that maybe Cat was making him wonder what it was like. He wasn’t sleeping much either for fear of the tall vampire. He was getting kind of weak from food and sleep loss and Cat could tell. She never said anything, but watched him. She had this feeling, a feeling that he wasn’t human anymore. But it was just her she guessed. She never saw him get bit, or attcked, it would be mad to say he was turning. But all she thought and was thinking was about to turn into something really real.

Azazel watched from the trees as a coach come down the small pathway that stood between the trees. It was carrying a known vampire that killed many people. In this age vampires tried to fit in, it was 1754. Vampires traveled in coach’s to stay hidden from humans, some older vampires could even come out in the sun at times. This vampires that he was after was known for killing 200 people at one time draining all. As the coach came by Azazel leaped from the branch which he was sitting, landing on the coach. He drew out his stake, and slipping in though the coach window grabbed the vampire. He dug the stake in, but to his shock no dust appeared. It was blood! He had killed a human, but wait, on the side of his neck was to tiny wounds dripping blood. It was a trap. The horse’s stopped and he got out. Around him was 10 vampires, all baring sharp teeth. He was ready for them though, pulling his loaded crossbow from the side he shot the first vampire, dusting it right off. Then they all came at him, he somersaulted over one landing in front of another dusting it, at the same time sticking the stake backwards though the one he jumped over. Over and over he killed each one, the last one got his head cut off. After he finished he took one of the coach’s horse’s and left.

“Wake up you sleepy head.” Azazel woke, he had only been asleep for an hour. “What?” “You have training to do, and plus you know you don’t get off that easy.” Azazel’s mentor and friend was pounding his foot on the floor. Azazel had slipped out in the night to kill vampires, he was not suppose to but he knew he was ready and last night showed him he was. “Please tell me Azazel that you didn’t do what I think you did last night?” “Master, their all dead.” “But you left the coach with the body in it, you knew we try to keep people from finding things out.  I just heard in the village about the human with bite marks found in the woods, they saying vampires did it.” “Well they are.” “I know, but others don’t need to know. Lets just end this, go do your training.” Azazel jumped out of bed and went outside. there he started working on he’s jumping, staking, and other such things. His master just didn’t get him, he was ready, he was nearly 18 and he could fight the vampires without his masters help anymore. He was strong, fast, and smart. Why then did he’s master feel the need to keep him locked up here? The truth was out there and he would find it one day.

Weeks turned into mouths, and Azazel soon was 20 years old and had killed more vampires then he could remember. He still wasn’t sure who he was, but he knew he was getting close. His master left him, finally saying he was ready. He set out on his own, killing vampires all over the world. He was later told to kill a vampire that was killing a farmers sheep, he set out that night and was waiting for the vampire. He thought vampires only killed humans, but this one never touched the family that lived there. He was waiting in the brush when he saw the vampire coming. Hooded, and walking very fast, it went for the nearest door to the barn where the sheep were. He followed close behind, going in the same door. He saw the vampire lean over a sheep and bend its head, he took his crossbow from his side and said. “Stop, turn around slowly so I can see you.” If there was one thing he learned was to make sure they were vampires, for some humans enjoyed playing them at times. The vampire dropped the sheep and turned, the hood still down Azazel said. “Now lift up your hood.” It did as told and Azazel was surprised to see the most beautiful vampire he’d ever seen. She was small, but very strong looking, she did not have red eyes as most vampires did, but her’s were deep green. She had the teeth, and a look of sadness, pleaing for someone to help her. Azazel lowed his bow, this vampire was someone he knew, or so he thought. “Who are you?” The woman answered, “My name is Cat. Who are you?” “Azazel, vampire killer, what are you doing here?” “I’ve come a long way, my parents were killed by vampires, they tried to turn me but something went wrong. I never fully became one, I do hunger blood, but only animals blood. I myself kill vampires.” There was someting about this woman that Azazel felt right at home with. Agaisnt better judge meant he took the vampire human with him, Cat as she was called. Seeing as how she herself killed vampires she might be able to help him. “I’m taking you with me, but don’t try anything or I will kill you, understand?” “Yes, but where will we go?” “That will be up to me.” Azazel never lived anywhere, but he knew of places to stay. He took the vampire human, hoping she might help him kill vampires, and maybe she might know who he was.

Twilight is told by 17-year-old Bella Swan, who moves from Phoenix to the small town of Forks, Washington, to live with her dad for the remainder of high school. There, she meets Edward Cullen and his family, who possess an other-worldly and irresistible beauty and grace to which Bella is drawn. Twilight is the tale of Bella and Edward’s burgeoning relationship, brimming with standard teenage drama alongside the unexpected, because, after all, Edward and his family are vampires. These undead friends have chosen to deny their urge to drink human blood, instead slaking their thirst with the blood of animals. Bella soon finds out, however, that not all vampires in her life are constrained by such scruples.

The book has been praised for its treatment of sexuality and morality. Although there’s plenty of yearning and sensuality, there is no sex, drinking, or drug use. Edward refuses Bella’s desire to be turned into a vampire herself, on grounds that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

Twilight is an easy and enjoyable read. Its first-person viewpoint keeps the the pages turning. This isn’t a masterpiece of literary achievement, however. You have to take it for what it is –- a unique and entertaining, if not flawlessly written, story. Twilight will almost certainly appeal to teenage girls and many women of all ages, but probably not to the majority of males. It’s sure to make readers eager to devour the next three novels.

In his essay “Ah Am Witness to its Authenticity,” Jason K. Friedman asserts that Poppy Z. Brite’s novel Lost Souls is among those that are “gothic novels set in the South rather than southern gothic novels” in part because it does not “seek to engage the region’s history or social conditions in any sustained manner” (191). His recognition of a difference between Southern Gothic and Gothic simply set in the south is certainly true, but his assertion that Lost Souls belongs in the latter category rather than the former is a misnomer. Friedman, it appears, would delegate only those novels that deal specifically with the American South’s history of slavery in the Southern Gothic category as is apparent by his referencing Leslie Fielder who states that “slavery and black revenge” is the “essential sociological theme of the American tale of terror” (414). To equate Southern Gothic solely with “slavery and black revenge” is akin to equating Germany solely with Hitler’s atrocities. Certainly slavery is an integral part of the American South’s history and plays no small role in Southern Gothic, but it is problematic to associate an entire region with only one aspect of its history because it ignores the rich and varied aspects of the region as a whole.

No one novel can fully encapsulate the nuances and subtleness of the American South or every aspect of its historical and social atmosphere. A Southern Gothic novel, however, should address an in depth facet of southern culture. Lost Souls begins thus:

In the spring, families in the suburbs of New Orleans […] hang wreaths on their front doors. […] The children have king cake parties. […] The child who finds a pink plastic baby in his slice will enjoy a year of good luck. The baby represents the infant Christ. […] Jesus loves little children (Brite 3).

By beginning Lost Souls with a depiction of Mardi Gras, Brite engages the most basic of social interactions present in southern culture: family, food, and faith. While Mardi Gras has its roots in the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, it has been associated with the Christian church since Rome converted (Davis), and marks a period of celebration prior to the sacrifices of Lent. It is a time to not only willfully embrace excess, but also a time for families to share in the celebration before returning to the normalcy of Christian life. I contend that Brite’s Lost Souls is Southern Gothic because it explores these intricately woven basics of southern existence all of which are integral to the region as a whole. I aim to examine one of these social interactions, that of the family, within the contexts of both Lost Souls and the American South.

The Family

The family has been an integral part of Gothic literature from its conception. Novels such as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho illustrate how family dynamics dictate nearly every aspect of a character’s life: with whom one associates or marries, one’s standing within both the family and the community, and how fortune or lack thereof influences both intra- and inter-family alliances. The family in Southern Gothic plays as integral a role; it is the focal point of individuals’ stories and runs concurrently and “interactively with the actions of individual members” (Stephens 3). Status, however, is determined more by ancestry and lineage than it is by finances. This is why the saga has been “a principal feature of southern writing” and has shown the family to be the “central and enduring institution in the South” (Stephens 2). Lost Souls is not a saga in the strictest sense of the definition, but “short fictional forms […] have also marked [the saga’s] development” (Stephens 11). Lost Souls does exhibit certain saga-esque qualities: the lineage of characters for three generations, the hierarchy both within the family and the family within the community, and the existence of geography as a central location (Stephens 2-3).

Relationships: Blood, Kin, and the Community

The southern concept of family incorporates three separate types of relationships: blood, kin, and the community (Stephens 2). These interconnections are woven throughout Lost Souls with each individual and each family connected to each other in one of three ways: immediate family, extended family, or the community in which they all exist. With the Biblical “begats” as their basis (Stephens 4), there are three family groups in Lost Souls: the vampires, the humans, and the witches. While each family member is not necessarily blood-related within their families the southern saga, like the Biblical “generational story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph,” includes “collateral descendants” (Stephens 4), related to the family by means other than blood. The Twins, for example, can be included in both the vampire family and the witch family. Despite their being “a different sort of vampire” who “appreciate[s] the taste of blood but do[es] not need it” and who “will destroy […] as surely as any bloodsucker” (Brite 278), they are also connected to the witch family through their association with Arkady and Ashley.

Likewise, “magick” binds Arkady and Ashley with Miz Deliverance’s lineage (Brite 267). Arkady states, “‘Everyone knows of Miz Deliverance. […] Everyone who has dealings with magick’” (Brite 267). These types of community-related connections are what make it possible for Nothing to be the common link between each family, connected by blood to Zillah and Jessy, and connected by community to Ghost, bound by the shared love of White Horse whiskey, Dylan Thomas, and music.

Transgression of the family

Donna Heiland states that “Gothic fiction at its core is about transgressions” (3), and the southern family is transgressed in every sense in Lost Souls. When they are first introduced, Zillah, Twig, and Molochai “wished they had fangs” (Brite 5), implying a sense of reverence for their ancestors because the ancestors had what is no longer available to them as descendents. As the description continues, however, it becomes apparent that the reverence will be opposed: “but they had to make do with teeth they filed sharp, and they could walk in sunlight as their great-grandfathers could not. But they preferred to do their roaming at night” (Brite 5).

The vampire legacy has shifted, morphed, and been diluted due to the intermingling of vampires and humans. Fangs have been lost, but the ability to walk in sunlight has been gained. This desire for what was and the reality of what is sets the dichotomy as the ancestral hierarchical standings are violated.

Southern Family Bonds and Hierarchy

Southern families are tied together by socialization and bonding over food, and by extension, drink (Roof 120). This allows for recognition of those whose familial ties match those of another. According to anthropologist Mary Douglas, “if food is treated as a code, the message it encodes will be found in the pattern of social relations being expressed. The message is about different degrees of hierarchy” (qtd. In Roof 111). When Zillah, Twig, and Molochai first identify themselves to Christian, Molochai “picked up the empty green-and-gold Chartreuse bottle, broke it […] and drew a razor-edge gash across […] his right wrist” offering it to Christian who “pressed his lips to the gash […] and sucked like a baby” (Brite 7-8). When Molochai offers his blood to Christian he is not only recognizing the familial ties that exist between them, but he is also, at Zillah’s direction, establishing the family hierarchy. In southern families, the eldest is typically offered the first choice of food and drink. By allowing Christian the first drink, Molochai affirms Christian’s elder status. That Molochai took direction from Zillah, however, shows that he places Zillah higher in the family hierarchy than he does Christian. That Twig drinks next places him on equal footing with Molochai.

Matriarchy and its Disregard

The last drinker, Jessy, brings to light another aspect of the family dynamic. The family story is shaped by a number of constructs, one of which is the residual effect “of a patriarchal-matriarchal conflict” (Stephens 4). The exact nature of this conflict is never explicitly states in Lost Souls, but one of “the transgressive acts at the heart of gothic fiction” is the “resistance to” patriarchy (Heiland 5). This dynamic fuels the discard of the matriarch.

In the southern family, the matriarch historically held a key position. She shifted the locus from public politics to the enduring strength of the private family and its extended kinships. [She] determined who should marry whom, made their private sense of decorum and propriety a matter of family rule, maintained rituals and occasions that held one generation to another, and kept talismanic objects that embodied family memory (Stephens 102).

The matriarch, then, is the one who holds the family together and maintains the family’s sense of itself, both as a separate entity and as part of the larger community. She decides family alliances and relays the family stories to subsequent generations of family members. This position of matriarchal authority has historically presented a quandary for women in the South. Women’s strength must be veiled and they must never publically usurp men’s authority. Women can be strong, but they should epitomize the archetypal “Southern Belle.” Women must never show their strength physically nor express an overt desire for sex. The separation of what are considered traditional male and female roles is the source for the existing “patriarchal-matriarchal conflicts” in Lost Souls.

Matriarchal exclusion is reflected in each of the family lines. Nothing feels “the web of power collapse” when his adoptive mother enters his room (Brite 27), and he has to “cleanse himself of [her] touch” (Brite 29). Ann is raped by Steve, used as a pawn by Zillah in order to take revenge on Steve, and dies as the result of an attempted abortion meant to save her from dying in childbirth. Jessy’s mother committed suicide when Jessy was five years old. Jessy herself dies giving birth to Nothing. Even reserved and dignified Christian shows a disregard for the mother figure when he falls prey to his base nature after Nothing has been born and Jessy is dead. She was “ruined” and “bloody” and it was “so much blood to go to waste. [He] licked his lips, licked them again” (Brite 10). For Christian, Jessy has been reduced to something to feed on and nothing more. It is Jessy who fully represents the “lingering influence of patriarchal-matriarchal conflicts” (Stephens 6), and her treatment reinforces the disregard of the matriarch.

Southern Women and their Roles

Robert O. Stephens asserts that “women’s stories may also carry a subversive subtext that shows women must be taught to be strong even while they are trained for apparently submissive roles based on beauty and femininity” (10). Christian describes Jessy as having “pretty ways and a sweet shy smile” (Brite 5), but she is assertive about her desire for both blood and sex. While Christian and Twig are feasting on Molochai, Jessy’s “stomach clenched, […] her mouth watered, and a secret message travelled from the softest fold between her legs to the deepest whorl of her brain” before “she […] tore Molochai’s arm away from Twig, and tried to fasten her lips on the gash. But Molochai turned furiously on her and batted her away, hard across the face” (Brite 8).

One of the many Biblical interpretations concerning sex is that it is for procreation only and not for enjoyment, especially not for women’s enjoyment. This mindset appears to be associated with conservative, evangelical Protestantism which is, perhaps superficially so, linked with the American South. Women are to be chaste and pure with no thoughts given to earthly desires, which is consistent with the traditional role of women in Gothic literature. It is Jessy’s inability to adhere to the submissive role of the female that intensifies the conflict between her and the vampires, between the maternal and the paternal. Her intrusion into what is considered the male domain is unwanted and repelled. By interrupting the “male bonding” she has perpetuated the “patriarchal-matriarchial” conflict. As a result, Molochai’s rebuff excludes her from the vampires’ family.

The Results of the Lack of a Matriarchal Figure

When Zillah, Molochai, and Twig leave New Orleans the night after Mardi Gras has ended, they leave unaware of Jessy’s pregnancy. “None of them had seen a child of their race being born, but they all knew that their mothers had died in childbirth. They would not have stayed around” (Brite 9). According to philosopher John Locke, a woman’s “role in procreation” is to simply be that of a “vessel” (Heiland, 10). The vampires’ disregard of Jessy reduces the mother figure to such a role. As a result, the matriarch holds no place of esteem. Because the matriarch is responsible for, among other things, educating her family about the rules of “decorum and propriety,” Zillah, Twig, and Molochai, as well as the other children, never learn proper societal behaviors due to the lack of a positive matriarchal figure. The rituals once governed by the matriarch now revolve around the vampires’ base needs and wants and the “talismanic object” now rests in Zillah’s hands in the form of a “silver doubloon” adorned with a picture of Bacchus (Brite 7). The mother figure is castrated and cast aside while her children rebel. She had, in effect, become useful only for birthing, being the recipient of the male’s sexual pleasure, as a tool for determination of family hierarchy within the community, and as a potential food source. Without a mother’s guidance the children pair up with whom they choose often with disastrous consequences. They exist in a perpetual state of anarchy, fulfilling their every selfish desire. Their lives have become about the individual rather than the individual within the family.

Reverence for the Matriarch

Ghost is the only one who exhibits a true reverence for the matriarch. Like Nothing, he had a mother figure who survived his childhood: his grandmother, Miz Deliverance. This relationship is seen from Steve’s perspective. He states that he had “spent plenty of time in [Miz Deliverance’s] house as a kid, watching [her] mix herbs or cut out cookies with her heart-shaped cutters, building forts in the backyard, sleeping over in Ghost’s room” (Brite 17). In contrast to Nothing’s loveless upbringing by his adoptive parents, Ghost’s childhood was filled with love and affection. Mixing herbs and baking cookies suggests a warm, inviting home; allowing fort-making hints at support for creative endeavors, allowing growth and development through exploration. Overall, the passage suggests that Ghost was allowed to be a child who did not have to grow up too quickly. As a result of a nurturing mother figure, Ghost was able to develop and maintain a positive maternal relationship, something the other children lack. In some ways, he has assumed the matriarchal role. He is the guide, the seer, the nurturer who “listen[s] anyways […] because he [is] good” (Brite 107).

Corruption of the Patriarch and Disruption of the Family Dynamics

In addition to the “patriarchal-matriarchal conflict,” corruption of the patriarch also disrupts the family dynamics (Heiland 5). In Patriarcha, Sir Robert Filmer “locates the derivation of monarchy in literal patriarchy or fatherhood” using the Bible as his guide and cites “Adam as the first patriarchal ruler” (Heiland 9). In some conservative Biblical traditions the father is seen as the ruler of his home and can be viewed as having “royal authority over [his] children” (Heiland 9). When this authority is rejected and the “patriarchal structures” are corrupted, the result can be “violent an […] frightening” (Heiland 5).

As previously noted, the hierarchy has been disrupted in Lost Souls by the recognition of Zillah as the patriarch rather than Christian. By nature of Christian’s age, he should rightfully be the patriarch, though he does little to claim it. Like the Biblical Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Christian sells his birthright for the idea of companionship (Bible, Gen. 25: 29-34). Genesis 25, Verse 34 states “then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Bible). Christian, too, despises his birthright by allowing Zillah to assume the patriarchal role, placing emphasis on the family in the same way Esau places emphasis on food. Christian “wishes his victims could rise again and run with him, others of his kind to share the smell of the streets past midnight, the long hot days with the shades drawn, the taste of sweet fresh blood” (Brite 90). For Christian, vampire life has been a solitary pursuit. He is pained by the lack of familial connection. Christian dismisses Wallace’s loneliness because “how could humans ever believe themselves truly lonely when there were so many of them?” (Brite 56). Like all of the characters in Lost Souls, Christian feels that his loneliness is isolated, accessible only to him. He does not want the responsibility of being the family patriarch; he wants only family and companionship.

It is out of this need for companionship that Christian refuses to bite Jessy. She provides him with the closeness he craves, and is “a tiny bit of brightness in every ashen empty night” (Brite 5). Because Jessy is not a vampire, however, she cannot fully fill the void. Loneliness drives Christian to accept what she is able to offer despite his knowledge that it will end with her death. It is this loneliness, and his lack of regard for lineage and his role as patriarch that precipitates Christian’s decision to spare Nothing the same sense of alienation and solitude. He takes Nothing somewhere “where someone would love him. Someone human, away from the South, away from the hot night air and the legends. Nothing might escape the hunger for blood, might be happy, might be whole” (Brite 10). By leaving Nothing to be raised by an adoptive family, Christian ignores the continuation of the vampire lineage and severs Nothing from his true identity. In opposition to Christian’s intentions, leaving Nothing to exist in a life devoid of love and affection also removes Nothing from all that would dictate who he is: familial ties, family stories, bonding rituals. Christian also deprives himself of a companion and fully rejects his role of patriarch. He sees only the short-term solutions rather than the long-term implications of allowing Zillah to assume the role of patriarch.

The Unchecked Power of the Patriarch

Zillah initially appears to be somewhat of a kind benefactor, mirroring the restrained temperament of Christian. Following Molochai’s rejection of Jessy, Zillah’s “warm arms went around her […] a pair of large strong hands caressed her […] and a voice whispered, “His blood is sticky-sweet anyway, my dear—I can give you something nicer”” (Brite 8). Jessy will not get what she wants from Molochai, but Zillah will give her something even better: blood, sex, and a sense of acceptance.  Zillah possesses all the characteristics of a ruler and a leader. He is intelligent, charismatic, charming, and seductive. He is also manipulative, nihilistic, gluttonous, self-absorbed, and tyrannical. Zillah who “[is] the most beautiful […] with a smooth, symmetrical, androgynous face” and “brilliant” green eyes (Brite 5), is every bit as deadly as he is beautiful. His manipulative cunning and ability to hide behind his beauty keeps him from being challenged.

While Zillah, Twig, and Molochai are described “as much a family as anyone could be” (Brite 83), Twig and Molochai never act without Zillah’s direction. This could be construed as respect for Zillah since Twig and Molochai have “perhaps half a brain between them” and “[expect] Zillah to take care of them, to do their thinking for them” (Brite 37). Zillah’s role as patriarch / father figure is fused with that of leader / ruler. Both Twig and Molochai take “orders without question” and “were good fun” (Brite 37); Zillah presumes “they would both have been dead several times over” if they had not had his guidance (Brite 36). That may be a correct presumption, but it is Twig and Molochai’s blind trust coupled with Christian’s rejection of the patriarchal role that allows Zillah’s power to rise unchecked.

The consequences of Zillah’s actions affect everyone except him. Christian allows Wallace to blame him for Jessy’s death even though “Zillah had [killed her] with the seduction of his hands and his lips, with his fertile seed” (Brite 88). Ann is seduced by Zillah and discarded, as were the other matriarchal figures. Zillah uses his status and power for his own selfish desires. Like Christian, he does not think in the long-term, instead choosing to exist fully in the moment. This lack of foresight assists in the decline of the family, and despite the escalation of Zillah’s brutality, those in the vampire family continually protect him. He is the leader behind whom everyone blindly stands. This status quo remains until Nothing joins his vampire family.

Status Quo challenged

Initially, Nothing is treated exactly the same as any of Zillah’s toys, something to play with until the newness wears off. In incremental steps, however, Nothing passes each ritual Zillah presents for him. When surreptitiously slipped blood in a wine bottle, Nothing states, “I don’t think drinking blood is so weird” (Brite 141), surprising and disappointing Twig and Molochai who have become accustomed to the cruelty Zillah leads them to. Zillah recognizes that Nothing is different than the hitchhiker whose “mouth […] would twist in terror and disgust” when it was discovered he was drinking blood (Brite 143). Zillah notes, “[Nothing] had drunk from the bottle of blood without choking, without spitting or gagging. To the contrary—the blood had seemed to revive him, freshen his skin, brighten his eyes” (Brite 142). Blood has long held a “special status” in the south (Roof 114). Wad Clark Roof states that “it is the life force: a potent symbol of family and kin bonding, of unity among people” (114). It is the bonding over blood which affirms Nothing’s familial bonds with the vampire family.

Zillah expects Nothing to blindly follow him, as do Twig and Molochai. When confronted with the prospect of killing Laine, Nothing realizes exactly what Zillah is, exactly what he is, and thinks “they had seemed to recognize him from the first, and was that not sign enough?” (Brite 158). His apprehension over killing Laine lasts only until “he realize[s] […] he could tear Laine’s pulse open and drink from it. Not because Zillah wanted him to […] but because he wanted to” (Brite 159). With this epiphany, Nothing fully accepts his place in the vampire family, the birthright Christian had taken away.

The family story is partially shaped by “an awareness that later descendants lack the strength or nobility of earlier ancestors” (Stephens 4). When Zillah physically attacks Nothing over nearly being killed by Wallace, his grandfather, Nothing begins to assert himself:

I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. Nobody except Christian ever tells me anything. You don’t treat me like your son—you treat me like I’m half sex slave and half lapdog. When I’m good, you pat me on the head, and when I fuck up you yell at me and hurt me. But you never explain anything to me. What kind of father are you, anyway? (Brite 288).

Nothing recognizes that Zillah shows none of Christian’s dignified patience, though his question can be asked of all the patriarchs. Each one is ineffectual in providing the guidance their children need. But it is the lack of effectual patriarchs and matriarchs that allows the younger generations to feed on the same loneliness and alienation that plagued their ancestors and to transgress the southern family ideal. As a result they are left in a state of constant flux, making up their own rules or living without them, and existing only to fulfill their selfish, gluttonous desires with no thoughts to consequences. Fred Botting states that “the Gothic theme that the sins of the father are visited on the offspring is manifested in the representations of the illegitimacy and brutality of paternal authority” (129). Christian’s refusal to accept his birthright allows Zillah free rei(g)n, and emphasizes the lack of balance between the maternal and the paternal, which allows for Zillah’s excessive display of authority. It is Nothing’s ability to take charge and temper his urge for retaliation for Christian’s and Zillah’s murders at the hands of Steve and Ghost that finally rectifies the destruction caused by Zillah’s reign and Christian’s willingly allowing it. In the end, the matriarch represented by Ghost and the patriarch represented by Nothing destroy both the ineffectual vampire patriarchs, and a new family dynamic is born.

Works Cited

Botting, Fred. Gothic. London: Routledge, 1996.

Brite, Poppy Z. Lost Souls. London: Penguin Books. 1992.

Davis, Jim. Mardi Gras History. 1997. http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

Fielder, Leslie A. “The Power of Blackness: Faustian Man and the Cult of Violence”. Love and Death in the American Novel. United States: Dalkey Archive Press, 2003.

Friedman, Jason K. “Ah Am Witness to its Authenticity”. Goth: Undead Subculture. Eds. Lauren M.E. Goodlad and Michael Bibby. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.

Heiland, Donnal. Gothic & Gender: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

Life Application Study Bible, New American Standard Bible—Updated Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

Roof, Wade Clark. “Blood in the Barbecue? Food and Faith in the American South.” God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture. Eds. Eric Michael Mazur and Kate McCarthy. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Stephens, Robert O. “Introduction: Family Sagas, Southern Style”. The Family Saga in the South: Generations and Destinies. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.

Kate Backings, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warriors Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Ly-can clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species

my comment:I have never been a fan of the Underworld series its lack of detailed story left me mind boggling for answers but here in Underworld Awakening the series really starts to make sense. It tells you everything you wanted to know. I am now very curious to see if the franchise will go further. And now if you watch all the film makes perfect sense. Know I am now a big fan of the Underworld franchise I do not want it to go much further. I think it has carried on for too long. I think they need to make a final movie and be done with it. So yes this movie is good. If they decide to make a few more movies then I will be fine with it but I just think if they do it will completely ruin the series and I will only watch it if it the same director returns. Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein did a brilliant job directing this. They realised that the franchise had a lot of flaws so they decided to fix them. I think they both have a very successful career ahead of them. And I would love to see them take on more movies.

Peter Kurten The Vampire of Dusseldorf, was famous for being a serial killer of the late 1920s who delighted in the blood of his young victims, mostly women.

Baron Roman Von Sternberg-Ungern of Russia drank blood in the 1920s, in the belief that he was Genghis Kahn.

Stanislav Modzieliewski of Poland killed and drank the blood of his victims, he was convicted from a woman that played dead while he drank her blood. Next time remember to make sure their dead!

James Riva shot and drank his grandmother in 1980, he later said that another vampire that was talking to him in his head told him to do it.

Ali Kordiyeh the Tehran Vampire was a serial killer in Iran. He was executed by hanging in 1997. Before he was hung, he was beaten by the family’s of the victims.