I’m a sucker for a good vampire tale, having cut my teeth on Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the book, not the movie. I believe I first read the tale in junior high school, and afterwards immersed myself in everything having to do with vampires.
As a result, I have no patience with tales that stray from Stoker’s vampire lore. Vampires drink blood. It’s the only food they can ingest. Garlic, crosses, and holy water are absolute no no’s for a vampire, and any film that allows a vampire to scoff at such things is just wrong. Wrong, I tell you.
Vampires have no reflections and are most commonly killed by having a stake driven into their heart; although, the sun can burn them to a crisp if a stake isn’t at hand. Of course the problem with that is in luring the undead into the light of day. Good luck with that.
I have been known to yell at the screen or a book when the rules aren’t followed. And sparkly vampires? Don’t get me started.
The Netflix limited series, Midnight Mass, is a vampire tale; although, I don’t believe the word “vampire” was ever uttered. I might be wrong, though. The story covered at least two of the rules; I won’t say which two, but the scenario never included any mention of garlic or reflections in a mirror.
And as for crosses and holy water, well, I need to watch the whole thing again to see if they toed the line. It is, after all, titled Midnight Mass. They may have skirted the holy water rule on a technicality, but I’m fairly certain there were crosses involved. And how am I supposed to handle that? Am I going to allow (gasp!) an exception to the rules?
Peace, and sweet dreams, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
I have watched some of this series but not all. I agree that it is vampire ish. I think the way the story tellers got around breaking the vampire rules is to leave the interpretation open.
Upon reflection, while writing this comment, I am wondering if it is a deliberately a little more open ended and the source of the power is more satanic or demonic?
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Could be—it’s quite philosophical in places.
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Did you ever read Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Historian”? I was blown away by it when it first came out.
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I have not read that! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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Kind of a modern take on the whole Dracula legend. I know she won a big bidding war for the rights to the book and it was that year’s bestselling novel.
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I downloaded it. Can’t wait!
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Yay! Hope it’s as good as I remember it being, lol.
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The reviews look good.
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I’m stoked! Can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it.
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Funny, vampires never occurred to me when watching Midnight Mass. I wasn’t sure what the townspeople were becoming, but not that. Hmmmm… maybe I need to re-watch.
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Interesting! It’s the first thing that occurred to me. Maybe I also need to rewatch!
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No, you are probably right. I just saw a winged monster and religious fanaticism but there were definite vampire-like qualities. Anyway, I enjoyed the show.
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Oh, I read Dracula in eighth grade, too. I fell in love with that love story. So I read to my kids every night before bed and when my son was about 11 he told me that he was old enough to read himself before bed. Broke my heart! So I told him I would read him one more book and then I’d stop. That book was Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While we made our way through the book, the university where I was teaching did a performance of that book. So I gathered my son, husband and my step-daughter for front row tickets for the play. Not a good idea! In a play the actors have to project of course. When Dracula spoke with fangs he couldn’t help but spit out his words, literally. So the four of us got quite a shower of Dracula spit! (The next time I bought us tickets for a play there, I got balcony seats!)
Oh, Leslie, thank you for that memory. I am going to have to write about that one. Enjoy your series. If I had Netflix I would check it out.
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Oh my! You had a 4D experience!!!
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