vampires

A ‘vampire’s’ remains were found about 30 years ago. Now DNA is giving him new life.

He had been in his grave so long that when his family dug him up to burn his heart, the organ had decomposed and was not there.

Desperate to stop him from stalking them, they took his head and limbs and rearranged them on top of his ribs in the design of a skull and crossbones. He was a “vampire,” after all, and in rural New England in the early 1800s, this was how you dealt with them.

When they were finished, they reburied him in his stone-lined grave and replaced the wooden coffin lid, on which someone had used brass tacks to form the inscription “JB 55,” for his initials and his age.

Now, 200 years or so after the death of what has become the country’s best-studied “vampire,” DNA sleuths have tracked down his probable name: John Barber.

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Blood Lust: Illuminating Perspectives in Let the Right One In

The Other transcending oceans and borders is a concept that is commonly explored in fiction, working particularly well when engendered by the monsters of the horror genre. Though The Other exists in so many places, the way the anxieties and perceptions of them are presented in film can vary drastically from region to region. Take Germany’s Nosferatu, for instance, and 1931’s Dracula from the United States. Both films are loose adaptations of the same novel, but the Count is presented as an alien-like deformity in one, and a handsome, mesmerizing character in the other. Because of this, I wanted to travel across the world to Sweden through this week’s film to determine the ways in which presentations of The Other in Let the Right One In differ from what I’m used to in American vampire fiction. The film reflects the general attitudes held by the society in which it was produced and, with so much of its content being undeniably queer, this is especially true in regard to issues of gender and sexuality.

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This is What Real Life Instagram Vampires Look Like

FROM BAT-LIKE DREADS TO PRESERVING THAT ETERNALLY YOUTHFUL GLOW, WE TALKED TO FOUR SELF-IDENTIFYING VAMPIRES TO FIND OUT THEIR BEAUTY ROUTINES.

This week marked 22 years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on television and the occult classic continues to live on in our hearts and on SKY reruns. From Angel and Darla to Spike and Drusilla we all remember what the vampires of the Buffyverse looked like. Ashy skin, gothy hair, brooding stares and a whole lot of leather. Cut to sharp fangs, yellow contacts and prosthetic t-zone wrinkles whenever they turned full vamp mode. But that was the 90s. What about now? What do the vampires of 2019 look like? And, no, not the fictional kind. What do the real-life, vampire-identifying, Instagram-dwelling individuals look like today? What are their beauty rituals? Are they into wellness? Do they like vampire facials a la Kim K? We talked to four vampires to find out. Meet 25-year-old Darsuss, a federal contractor from Washington DC, 20-year-old tattooist Velvet Venom from San Francisco Bay Area; Scottish model Lou Graves, and 21-year old artist Abby Holgerson from Maryland.

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[Rumor] Marvel Planning Rated R ‘Blade’ Return With Wesley Snipes?

Over the years, Wesley Snipes has repeatedly expressed interest in reprising the role of vampire-slayer Blade, which he first played back in 1998. In other words, Snipes was kicking ass as Blade long before superhero movies became Hollywood’s top commodity, but the fan-favorite character has yet to be introduced into Marvel’s more recent cinematic universe.

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