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The Strange Phenomenon of “Real Life” Vampires

Kaz Rowe

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We all love our favorite fictional vampires like Dracula and Lestat, but for decades there have been communities of "real life" modern vampires... and for centuries, people who seem to really have been vampires. So what's truth and what's just legend? Come learn with me!

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Sources

Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampirism by Joseph Laycock

Vampires in their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices by Michelle Belanger

The Real Vampires of Chicago by Robbie Lopez

Vampires in Chicago by essencecreations27 on TikTok

American Vampires and the Ongoing Ambiguity of Death by Michael E. Bell

Real Vampires as an Identity Group: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community by Joseph Laycock

Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism by Joseph P. Laycock

The Socio-Religious Beliefs and Nature of the Contemporary Vampire Subculture by David Keyworth

Online Vampire Communities: Towards a Globalised Notion of Vampire Identity by Aspasia Stephanou in Globalgothic

Vampires and Digital Mobile Media By Kirstin A. Mills in The Palgrave Book of the Vampire

Harry Potter and the Medium of TikTok: Shifting and POV Videos During Quarantine by Meghan McGorry

iamsamthevampire on Tiktok’s entire page basically

”Is Renfield’s Syndrome Real or As Fictional as ‘Renfield’ Himself?” By Cassidy Ward for SyFy https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/is-ren...

Delusions of Vampirism in an Adolescent and Treatment With Clozapine: A Case Report By Catherine O’Brien and Brian Hallahan

Real-Life Vampires Exist, and Researchers Are Studying Them By John Edgar Browning for Discover Magazine https://web.archive.org/web/201802141...

The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo:a research note towards comparative ethnography by John Edgar Browning

20 Comments

@mikkiemalice 1 year ago

imagine you did a fun cosplay and took an uber, the driver seems nervous and you troll her a bit. and then a few days later you find a tiktok the driver made bc she thought you were legit vampires lmao

@ladyariadneii 1 year ago

“A pale man with red hair”

they really found an Irishman and said “yep vampire”

@caitwon 1 year ago

Listen, I am no vampire, but getting a blood transfusion did make me feel better so they may be onto something.

@666kittycat666 1 year ago (edited)

“I gotta go vampire mode”
Hard cut to her sped up running.

Truly art

@squeenx 1 year ago

DYING at the Lyft driver and the 4 hot goth guys 😭😭

@dumbdumb8526 1 year ago

My silly little headcanon that i dont actually believe is that all these people who claim that they're real vampires are actually real vampires but just energy vampires who thrive on making people cringe.

@MFrederickM 1 year ago

"Their skin looked cold" Lady, it's fall in Chicago. Of course their skin looked cold. If you're cold, they're cold!

@Pierogilover 1 year ago

"I felt a chill- and yes it was winter" is so funny

@Jack-je1zt 1 year ago

I feel like every queer or neurodivergent high school friend group knew one kid who solely identified as their White Wolf Vampire OC for over a year.

@justinedwards5047 1 year ago

I found it hilarious that in the Anthony the vampire clips the interviewer seems to let it go when he says he does drink blood and he can enchant people but says she can't believe him when he says he sleeps in a coffin, a very easily do-able thing that pretty much anyone with enough commitment to procure a coffin could do

@beelzevuv 1 year ago

I remember my "vampire phase" as a teen in the late 90s; it's a lot of fun

The concept of "real vampires" is hilarious to me... we always joked about my dad of being a vampire — he was pale and oddly youthful for his age, worked at night, hated the sun , hated garlic — he once was in a motorcycle accident and the hospital staff refused to believe he was injured that day because he healed far too quickly.

Humans are so fascinating

@corvidgreen5332 1 year ago

"don't play with me, you don't sleep in a coffin" made me remember that my dad had a friend who did in fact sleep in a coffin. not for vampire reasons, just because.

@Kelly_C 1 year ago

5:33 interviewing vampires in new orleans? i swear ive heard that one before...

@rexthelegend3180 1 year ago

Honestly, my take on any of this stuff is: if it's not hurting anyone, then I don't care. People are being cringe? I have bigger problems. Once you stop caring about "cringe," you can actually start enjoy yourself.

@cmfymedia 1 year ago

obsessed with the dark background setting and then there's just tutter chilling

@lamelusina 1 year ago

This seems like a good place to remember that father Sebastian was accused of sexual harassment by more than one girl ❤️

@RootBeerChickBeauty 1 year ago

Omfg I know for a fact the Chicago vampire lady picked people up from the sanctum nye party at the epiphany center I was literally there it was goth/vampire themed lmao

@ccdaly2561 1 year ago

I print out the transcript and say "ah, creepy paper..."

@chris7263 1 year ago

I met a kid who claimed to be a vampire when I was volunteering at a youth shelter some years ago. He claimed he was actually much too old to be there (it served 18-25) and made some comments about how ignorant people are, they didn't know what's really going on, etc etc. I tried to be really gentle with him, honest that I didn't believe him because playing along felt condescending, but acknowledging that I don't know everything and could be wrong, to give him space to keep it up if he wanted and not make an argument out of it. He was like 19 and experiencing homelessness, if this got him through the day then I'm not gonna tell him to stop. I imagine that he DID feel like people were ignorant about what he was going through. My first thought when I hear about other "real vampires" is that I hope this is helpful to them in whatever's going on in their lives.