Duke It Out: Vampires

Is it enough already with the fangs?

Eclipse is out, True Blood is back and there’s a veritable smorgasbord of undead hotties floating around right now in all their pale, gorgeous glory. Vampires, much like leggings and giant purses, have pretty clearly been the trend of the past couple of years with rip-off series’ and cash-ins than you can shake a stake at, but now I’m starting to wonder, is it time to say enough is enough?

By Lauren H

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m an unashamed vamp fangirl from way back in the Buffy era (Spike, *sigh*) and have read more than my fair share of vampire novels from Dracula to Anne Rice to Twilight. Likewise, I’m not going to debate the artistic merits of the recent incarnations of the vamp craze. What I’m asking is, is it time to say our blood-sucking appetite is sated and maybe give something else a crack at the limelight, or are we still desperate for all things “children of the night”?

On one side, vampires are a part of our cultural heritage. Practically every culture on the planet has some version of the creature in it’s lore, and people have always been almost inexplicably drawn toward the idea. Since the birth of vamp fiction, readers have been pulled to the idea of the taboo, the danger, and yeah, the hot hot (or, you know, cold, undead) sex. Vampires have everything it takes to make for a theme that will always be in our psyche’s so to say that we’ve had enough of them is like saying we’ve had enough of handsome, heroic male leads – sure, it’s been done to death (ha!) but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped loving it.

Still, it does seem like the whole vampire thing has gotten a little over-played in the last couple of years. Between the books, the movies, the TV shows… the really creepy sex toys that have forever scarred my brain; everywhere you turn, it’s “vampire this” and “vampire that”. It’s really kind of gotten out of hand. It seems like now it’s just an excuse to get some hot guys to be all broody and shirtless (the myths never mention vamps being allergic to shirts, but that certainly appears to be the case).  All trends have their time, and this one has been big for a long while now. Isn’t it about time we moved on?

So girls, are you still on the vampire bandwagon? Or do you think that this trend has passed it’s expiration date? DO you dream of a cold-blooded hottie coming to take you away, or are you ready to start drooling over guys with pulses again? Duke it out!