Friday, March 05, 2010

I like my Vampires scary

I love True Blood, the Vampire Diaries, the conflicted, tormented vampires from Ann Rice's books, but truly, my favourite vampire moments are when they are truly the bad guys.

Once upon a time, vampires sucked people's blood, killed them and in retaliation people hunted them down and killed them and it was tense and exciting and the sensual nature of the vampire was understated, but still present.

And while I love what has happened to vampires, and JR Ward's books, and Eric, and Damon, I still prefer my vampires lethal. One of my favourite horror movies of the past few years was Thirty Days of Night, where the vamps were sharp fanged and without mercy and really, really scary.

But where it all began was with a series of books, the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley. They almost derailed my third year exams in university. In them, (and it's been a while since I read them, so bear with me) the vamps were truly horrific. Lethal, evil, fascinating, and a true nemesis. Which sort of makes sense, as the books were horror, and about as far from romance as it gets.

But tense, and riveting, and the start of my love of vampires as the bad guy. Something I miss in romance, so if anyone knows of a romance where vampires are strictly the bad guy, let me know.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried J.R. Ward, Vampire Series, gosh, it's the best. Try it! Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. here is the link and there are 7 of theme;
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=j.r.+ward+black+dagger+brotherhood+series&sprefix=j.r.+w

Molly O'Keefe said...

That's Sinead - the purist

Chatty Girl - we love JR Ward's vampires. It's good to find another fan!

Eileen said...

Oh, my gosh! I'd almost forgotten when vampires were scary! :-) I remember sleeping with the light on for about six months after reading Stephen King's Salem's Lot.

Wait! I have a more recent one, too. The vampires in I Am Legend were almost not sentient. They were just killing machines.

Maureen McGowan said...

I'd love a good vampires as purely scary book, too.

But I wonder if they'd have the elements in them that romance readers want... Cannot wait to have some DWT and discuss.

Eileen said...

Interesting, Maureen. I think in a lot of ways, the horror readers want the scary and the romance readers want the seductive.

Although, check out Alyssa Day's Atlantis series. The vampires are crazy bad, but with their own agenda.

Anonymous said...

I forgot about I Am Legend, loved that as well. Vampires are my favourite form of horror, when done right.

Chatty Girl, you have great taste, we love JR Ward, for me that Zadist books is still one of my favourite romances

Simone said...

I'm with Sinead. Scary vampires!

I Am Legend is based on a 1950's novel that is very, very scary. Scarier than the film. Though I do love Will Smith.

If you want the original scary, you want Dracula. In the book he's basically an animal with a thin veneer of civilized human. He even smells like a rotting corpse. Dracula is the reason I can't really get turned on by vampires, lol!

Molly O'Keefe said...

Something about the smell of rot that is a bit of a turn off...

Eeleen Lee said...

I like my vampires scary too, and not namby=pamby Twilight milksops

A.J. Frey said...

I am a writer of vampire fiction, and I'm with you. I prefer the blood sucking, brain washing, sinister vampires. But sexy. Want sexy vampires. - but not boyfriend material. Bad boy to the 100th degree.

Eric is a great example, to me, of the perfect vampire. Sexy, but dark enough to be scary. I just want to thunk Bill on the nose, and tell him to quit whining and go bite some-freakin-body.

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