Behind this turn is the crazy popularity of vampire-themed cultural products, among which True Blood and Twilight are regarded as the initiators of this popularity. Some people think that True Blood is an adult version of Twilight. The difference is that the selling point of Twilight is an extremely elegant narrative feature, which seems to promote a kind of altruistic true love beyond Freud. In contrast, True Blood is a bit "chaotic", because the mutual attraction between the protagonists is first based on sexual behavior and sexual psychology.
Of course, there is another text worth mentioning, that is, the Swedish vampire movie Bloody Invasion, which tells the friendship and warmth between a helpless gay boy whose parents are divorced and a little girl who is bloodthirsty for survival after being humiliated at school.
These three popular texts with parallel time axes also show that the popularity of popular culture has never been monolithic. They all try to respond to the harsh social reality in various ways, and "vampire" has become an incision for this kind of image to tear this society apart.
Sunny and sweet life philosophy in The Vampire Diaries
As a vampire-themed TV series that has persisted for eight years, The Vampire Diaries uses vampire myths, contains a lot of folk interesting supernatural things, and tells the stories of werewolves, witches, hunters, vampires and "second birth".
Like many vampire movies and TV series, The Vampire Diaries has its own rules: vampires can eat and drink; They are wearing rings cast by witches, so they can move freely in the sun; They want to suck human blood, but there are also leading men who eat blood bags; Vampires' own blood can save many dying people; In the face of "second birth" and "first generation vampires", werewolves and vampires don't have to be antagonistic, and witches' power can't be used whenever they want. ...
However, the most thought-provoking thing about this TV series is that vampires are not immortal. In this TV series, many important characters have died one after another, and no one here is safe. Although they may come back again, "leaving" has always been accompanied by the plot of each season. Until the end, the important hero left, just like he was a kind and just person at the beginning, this time to save everyone.
Therefore, unlike the opposition to "people" in the previous vampire images, "people" are rarely seen in The Vampire Diaries. Even the heroine of "Man" has experienced a bizarre life track such as becoming a vampire. The director said: "The Vampire Diaries does not focus on human beings, first vampires, and then the relationship between vampires and humans."
Perhaps this is what makes it different. There is no opposition to "people", but the "humanity" to be expressed is integrated into every "vampire". We can understand that this is an anthropomorphic TV series covered with a "vampire" shell. Vampires are immortal here, they can be evil, they can be very loving, and more importantly, they can be redeemed spiritually.
Of course, although many people are still recalling The Vampire Diary today, it is only a film and television work, and it will only be a passer-by on people's youth. After all, vampires only exist in the nothingness imagined by writers and authors. What the audience needs to do more is to find the fetters and warmth of human nature behind the image. Perhaps this is what really exists and deserves our understanding and cherish.