Unused Vampire Tropes

Given the popularity of the undead in mainstream media these days (or nights, as the case might be) one hopes a bit more variety might show up in the various movies and t.v. shows of the genre.

Books of course have nearly every trope imaginable, but also (nearly always) have far smaller audiences.  So let us deal with film and television.

Here are some ideas/themes/story elements that I haven't seen yet.  Every single one seems quite viable, enjoyable, full of potential.  And for the record, by no stretch of the imagination are they my own invention.  Each can be found somewhere in undead literature already--but hardly at all elsewhere.  Producers, writers, directors--take note.

• Detective turned vampire.  Oh wait, you say.  What about Angel or Forever Knight or Blood Ties, etc.?  Haven't we seen enough of these?  Actually, no.  All of the above are vampires-turned-detective.  What about someone who is already a detective, perhaps an FBI agent or a regular cop or some such, who becomes a vampire yet continues in his (or her) job?  This has all kinds of possibilities, not least watching the newborn undead learn the truth of their existence (a fascinating process with Jessica on True Blood incidentally) and at the same time solving crimes.
• Vampire Origins.  With the possible exception of the Dracula 2000 trilogy  (which was fun, but made little sense since vampires predate the birth of Christ), this is a startling untapped vein (sorry, sorry) of intrigue, mystery and adventure.  Consider how much Spielberg got out of the Holy Grail and the Lost Ark of the Covenant!  Think also how vampires themselves might view the question.  Would they be any less divided on such than mortal men?
• Undead Secret Masters.  Paranoia is good wellspring of story-telling, if a sad facet of normal human existence.  That is why The X-Files' frankly ridiculous theory about the JFK assassination had "legs"
  
  
  and the so-called "Masonic Conspiracy" about Jack the Ripper has made a couple of thrilling movies (even if the theory itself is nonsense).  But what about a story that explored the notion that a cabal of powerful vampires really do control the world, much as the Illuminati or the Gnomes of Zurich or some such are said to?  It could be they aren't particularly vicious or evil, even.  Our heroes might even work for them, tracking down genuine threats to world order and tasting all the angst that might go along with such a job.
• Bloodlines.  Quite simply, there are different types of vampires--each has their own culture, powers, weaknesses, etc.  Kindred: The Embraced dabbled in this ever so slightly, as did Forever Knight but what about exploring the idea as a genuine story element with real consequences?   How would it be if some vampires burned in sunlight, while others could shapeshift and still others needed to sleep in their original graves, and so on?  Imagine how such bloodlines might interact!
• Mysticism.  Understandably enough, the vampires portrayed on shows like The Vampire Diaries and movies like Let Me In are grounded in the physical.  But what about a totally different direction?  Legends of the supernatural tell much stranger tales--of beings that can be in two places at once, that are in some sense not even matter as we know it, vampires as more akin to blood-drinking ghosts than paranormal predators of humans.  Remember the owls on Twin Peaks?  Or the spookiness of the Let's Scare Jessica to Death?

Fave TV Characters (Fantasy)

Always a good standby in the blogging game...a list of favorites (or not). In this case, here are five favorite characters from fantasy television series. For my purposes (and frankly, for most other peoples') fantasy shall be defined as having to do with the props and tropes of magic. This is opposed to the same for science, even if said science is total garbage (yes, I'm talking about you Lost in Space and Space:1999).

Tara McClay from Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be my single favorite witch character ever. Not least because she was so totally herself rather than any stereotype. I did not in fact see her first appearance (in the brilliant "Hush") when it first aired, so my initial exposure to her was this pretty, shy girl telling Willow that she was "yours." My thought at the time--Does Willow realize this girl is totally in love with her? So began what I still think of as one of the best love stories on television. It ended tragically, for which many fans never forgave Joss Whedon. Some of them in a message board I then frequented declared me persona non grata because I viewed the killing of a fictional character as rather less of a crime than the Bush Administration's policies regarding AIDS. Yet I continue to hold Tara in my heart--a lonely, bright, passionate girl who found love and friends and strength. Having once bet Amber Benson, who played her, I can tell you the actress is no less a lovely person.

Of all the many vampires that have been on t.v. shows, in the end my favorite remains Urs from Forever Knight. She only appeared in the third (and sadly, last) season of that program, seen maybe three times in total. But what a fascinating person! At first she seemed like nothing but a waif/go-go dancer who happened to be a vampire. Interesting enough right there, but then we learned her past. Upon a river boat in the XIXth century, she was a professional gambler's 'girl' until she met Javier. They were drawn together, and she recognized him as one of the undead. She asked him to "do it" and he brought her across (as the lingo of that show went). But what she'd been asking for was to die, not to live forever. In her eyes one could see a startling amount of wisdom, an understanding of pain and desperation far more than even the two or three lifetimes she had already walked. She didn't still long for death, and in the end forgave Javier. She even liked him. But frankly, I was longing for more and more stories about her when the series ended.

Willie Loomis from Dark Shadows was clearly based (at least in terms of the Barnabas Collins storyline) on Dracula's Renfied. But he was much more over the course of the series, not only in terms of the original show but its 1991 incarnation. Loomis in both cases is a Grade F Loser, someone clever but crude and not a little bit dishonest. Enslaved by a vampire, he became the epitome of irony as that abject status made him a better person. He became a loyal friend, one with more than a bit of wisdom to impart as time went on. Eventually, it became clear that he and Barnabas even became friends of a kind. At any rate, I cannot think of another character like him on another t.v. show--this wretched low-life with just a hint of something more, becoming that more and far better than he had been through his servitude to a blood-drinking monster. In a way, he is rather what Hakken is trying to be in Let The Right One In.

Ezekiel Stone on Brimstone was a detective. He murdered the man who raped his wife, then a few months later died. Naturally, he went to Hell. But years later, there's a jailbreak from the Inferno. Satan has little or no power on Earth so he sends Ezekiel back to retrieve his lost ones. In return, he'll get a "second chance at life on earth" whatever that means. A great premise, but totally dependent upon the central character--in this case a man with no inclination to self-contemplation forced by circumstances to doing precisely that. Much of the show consisted of Ezekiel and the Devil sparring over the former's soul, about the question of whether he is truly evil. At the same time, really disturbing questions kept popping up. For example, one of the souls to be returned was a Dutch collaborator during WWII. He sent dozens of children to concentration camps, not out of malice but cowardice. Now, immortal, he uses his abilities to help others. In fact, he's something of a superhero. Yet Ezekiel has to send him back--a conflict brought fantastically to life by Peter Horton.

Jessica is my favorite character on the cable series True Blood. In case you've just returned from Anarctica, that is the hugely popular show set in a world where vampires have "come out of the closet" and people are trying to adjust to that fact. Jessica is a rebellious teen raised in a super-strict Louisiana household, changed into a vampire against her will as an act of penance when the lead (Bill) killed a vampire to save his human lover (Sookie). At first she just seemed like the most hilariously obnoxious brat, but then as I got to know her she grew on me. A rebel with barely a clue, she was actually a virgin when turned and all-too-obviously still barely aware of her own identity. On top of that, she fell in love with a nice young man who loved her smile and didn't care that she was technically dead. The road of their romance is not without bumbs, curves and if I'm reading events right more than one toll bridge. But I'm rooting for them, and for her. She's trying. Half the time, she's funny. The other half the time, she's heart-breaking. And in both instances she can be frightening.

Five seems enough for now.