Why Are Vampires Taking Over TV?

October is finally here, shining a spotlight on everything that goes bump in the night. When it comes to iconic monsters, though, one in particular has been enjoying a huge pop culture resurgence: vampires. After the heyday of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries in the early 2010s, there was, for the most part, a notable shortage of memorable blood suckers. But in 2021, I’m pleased to report that vampires are back with a vengeance.

We can’t discuss the vampire resurgence without first acknowledging the power of the Twilight renaissance. Things have been building since last year, when Stephenie Meyer announced the release of the fifth book, Midnight Sun (told from broody vampire Edward Cullen’s point of view). At the same time, the series exploded in popularity on TikTok, as millennials and Gen Z content creators alike semi-ironically revisited Twilight as a source of nostalgia and levity throughout quarantine.

So when it was announced that all five Twilight films were headed to Netflix this July, it’s no wonder people began rewatching the series in droves. Yes, they’re bizarre movies about vampires who go to high school over and over, sparkle in the sunlight, and play absolutely iconic games of baseball during thunderstorms. It’s ridiculous; but in such a strange time, why not revisit one of our most absurd cultural phenomena together?

The Twilight renaissance has become such a mainstay in pop culture that explicit references to the infamous franchise keep cropping up in TV’s greatest vampire show this side of True Blood: FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. Based on Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 film of the same name, the mockumentary centers on a coven of centuries-old vampires (Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, and Mark Proksch) residing in the fantastical world of 21st century Staten Island, New York with their familiar-turned-vampire hunter, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).

Now in its third season, What We Do in the Shadows is the rare TV adaptation of a film comedy that not only lives up to the original, but arguably surpasses it. Like any good mockumentary, the series effortlessly makes you feel like one of the gang — even if you haven’t spent eons moonlighting as a bat.

Apart from the newfound workplace comedy that comes from the dysfunctional coven suddenly being tasked with leading the Vampiric Council, Season 3 further enriches What We Do in the Shadows by focusing on the characters’ strangely relatable foibles. Lovesick vampire Nandor (Kavyan Novak) is searching for a wife to spend eternity with, while lone human Guillermo struggles to navigate his place among his friends now that he’s discovered his family’s vampire-hunting origins. Thanks to an excellent comedy ensemble and a delightfully dysfunctional paranormal world, What We Do in the Shadows continues cementing blood suckers’ place in comedy.

And it’s not just What We Do in the Shadows — although vampires aren’t explicitly mentioned in American Horror Story: Double Feature or Midnight Mass, both shows further this trend, making for some of their respective creators’ most ambitious storytelling yet.

Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story has told campy, chaotic tales for a decade now, but by squeezing two stories into one season, Double Feature somehow has even more going on than usual. The first half, “Red Tide,” revolves around struggling writer Harry Gardner (Finn Wittrock), who hauls his family to a winter home in Provincetown in hopes of beating his writer’s block. Harry’s neighbors soon approach him with a solution: By taking a performance-enhancing black pill known as Muse, he can unlock his full creative potential and all the Hollywood adoration that comes with it. Users with real talent develop an insatiable hunger for blood that leads them to prey on poor Cape Cod locals, while the untalented are turned into Nosferatu-like monsters who wander the town freely.

As Evan Peters’ Austin tells Harry during one particularly on-the-nose moment, “Metaphorically…maybe [the bloodlust is] about artists stealing other people’s lifeblood to inspire our work.” It’s fitting that Murphy, who has churned out project after project as part of his $300 million Netflix deal alone, was drawn to exploring the dark side of the artistic process. And “metaphorically,” sucking those around you dry for inspiration is pretty damn vampiric.

Similarly, Mike Flanagan’s latest series, Midnight Mass, draws on common vampire tropes to create deeply personal, character-driven horror. Informed by Flanagan’s own Catholic upbringing, the series tells the story of Crockett Island, whose isolated community is rocked by the series of supposed miracles that begin occurring at St. Patrick’s Church, the Catholic parish where most residents come to worship. Soon after the mysterious new priest Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) arrives in town, something begins stalking the island.

In episodes three and four, it’s revealed that Father Paul is actually the parish’s elderly priest, Monsignor Pruitt. During a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he was attacked by a winged, creature who drained the old man of blood, before reviving him with some of its own. This blood restores Monsignor’s youth, but also leaves him with a thirst for human blood and an inability to step into the sunlight without getting burnt alive.

Monsignor walks away from the encounter desperate to believe that the creature is an angel of God, and given that Catholics believe they literally consume Christ’s body and blood to gain eternal life, it’s easy to see why he made that assumption. But when the priest decides to secretly serve the townsfolk blood at Communion and create a town full of blood-thirsty undead as a “gift from God,” Flanagan manages to empathetically explore how easily an all-consuming belief system can be manipulated into something far more sinister.

You may be wondering: Where did this big vampire resurgence come from? Honestly, I’d argue that it points to the enduring appeal of vampires more than anything else. Twilight‘s nostalgic appeal has been growing more and more mainstream for years, What We Do in the Shadows stands out by putting a clever, paranormal spin on mockumentary TV, and Murphy and Flanagan’s new shows use vamps to flesh out ideas they’ve already been ruminating on for a while.

But even if this vampire boom is largely coincidental on the surface, it’s notable that we keep coming back to watch these bloodsuckers. We’ve come a long way from the days of vampires being depicted solely as murderous, violent creatures. Sure, they still grapple with bloodlust. But modern-day iterations tend to be much more human, allowing us to project our own anxieties — about everything from sexuality to loneliness to creative pursuits — onto creatures who are then forced to deal with these issues forever, all while appreciating the fact that watching vampires is fun.

So if they keep taking over Hollywood, then honestly? I’m in.