Did Twilight really ruin vampires? (Death of Vamps/Zombies)

[VanityGirl]

Before you just say yes or no, read the whole thing so you don't make yourself look like an ass, mmk?

***I'm not a fan of Twilight, but I love vampires so I saw it, I did find many flaws and I didn't like sparkly vampires. However, I felt this needed to be brought up just to clearify tings.

I've seen people say, "Oh Twilight sucks because it ruined the scariness of vampire" among other complaints. The 'scariness' of vampires seems to be one of the biggest complaints, so I'll roll with that for this.

Zombies, yes zomies. When movies with zombies first came out, I can throughly admit to being scared stiff of zombies. Most people, who are sane, are not afraid of zombies nowadays. Why? What killed zombies from being so scary? Well, the action movie.
Think about it, once the Resident Evil's came out, you WANTED to be a badass zombie slayer and instead of being scared you wanted to kick ass and chew bubblegum. (And you were all out of gum >.<)

Now, back to vampires. I wouldn't dare say Twilight RUINED vampires. Sadly, vampires don't honestly have a set of "rules" to them. What do I mean by rules? Well, the only thing vampires have to do to survive is drink blood, their strengts and weakness are up to the person who creates a vampire character.

I can honestly say, what killed vampire scariness also killed zombie scariness. The action movies! Did you get a chill in Van Helsing? Probably not. It was an action movie. The vampires were well done in that movie, but I sure as hell was not afraid of them.

The long winded thing here is that I don't think you can blame one particular movie for ruining a whole race(?) of creatures. I think you need to blame several factors.

I love Shaun of the Dead, but it's just another reason that zombies aren't scary.
Once Bitten is another movie that kills the 'scariness' of vampires. (It's a comedy with Jim Carrey if you are unaware.)


What do you guys think?
Does it happen with a lot of horror types besides vampires and zombies?

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Twilight didn't start the death of vampires, but it has been the biggest and most recent cultural blow.

The whole vampire who can be good thing has been bandied around for ages, but people just don't realise how old the notion is. Varney the Vampire was not exceptionally terrifying, and he was around at the same time as Dracula.

The biggest offender is Buffy. Sure it was a great show, and managed to handle the vampire with a soul thing better than most (mainly by having all the others be soulless death machines), but that's where the idea got really thrust into public consciousness.

Twilight is the last rattling breath of the franchise, which started with Buffy's terminal cancer.

But don't worry, because as we all know, three days after death, the vampire rises again.

 

[Orange Monkey]

I think what peoples main problem is that vampires are now looked more upon as a teenage sex symbol akin to Zac Efron rather than their original role as demonic symbols of horror and blood lust.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

It didn't kill vampires, but it's started (or at least pushed along) a new interpretation of vampires. Personally I was happy with the old Blade/Underworld interpretation that we had going. It was more fun.

 

[Legion]

I agree completely, Underworld is another example; the main character is a vampire played by an attractive actress. She isn't the traditional looking skull-like vampire, but a sexy woman in tight leather, hardly 'terrifying' (unless Goth girls scare you).

As you rightly said, the only thing that defines vampires is the need for blood to survive, all else is individual to the writer.

 

[Ryuk2]

Yes, you can do what ever you want with vampires, but why call them vampires? I think Blood Rain (Ryen? Ryan? Rayne?) had different vampires, what did they call them? Dampires. I at least think they did it... not sure, but the point is that if your imaginative enough to change them, your imaginative enough to think of a name for them. The thing about Twilight isn't that they ''ruined'' vampires. They made a bad movie for 12 old girls and guys like ''What the buck'' if you know what i mean.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

I agree that Twilight isn't the be all and end off of Vampire movies but it did play a big hand in numbing vampires down. Sure Edward Mullet (or whatever he's called) isn't Nosferatu and he wasn't built on that model so yes, Twilight isn't solely to blame, but the model is still crap nonetheless.

It's a crappy version of something awesome and that's what most people are upset about. I agree that action movies do tend to desensitize you to vampires after awhile but there is a difference between having an action plot and having a lame plot. Guess where Twilight fall under?.

So again, Twilight isn't the sole reason why Vampires have a black mark but it did have a significant impact on its now lameness.

 

[ScarlettRage]

well i personally don't like twilight.
but if people want to be Fangirls/boys over it, who cares?
just leave all of the good Vampires for the people who like the real ones ie. Me
Zombies are also awesome btw. i also watch Dawn of the dead to just see some zombies

 

[Ophiuchus]

Right.

I've never seen or read Twilight and know very little about it, but the sheer amount of bitching about it makes me want to read it or rent the DVD so that I can find out why everyone hates it so much. Because, honestly, I can accept that most things will hold a certain level of unpopularity, but the amount of sheer unbridled hatred for this thing is pretty unusual.

On topic: no, vampires (and zombies, robots, aliens, and any other kind of supernatural life form) were ruined years ago by the fact that so many people refuse to shut up about them.

 

[orangebandguy]

Twilight has just stagnated them in a manner of speaking. It's made them all mushy and taken their big awesome collars away.

 

[Vierran]

Yes, you can do what ever you want with vampires, but why call them vampires? I think Blood Rain (Ryen? Ryan? Rayne?) had different vampires, what did they call them? Dampires. I at least think they did it... not sure, but the point is that if your imaginative enough to change them, your imaginative enough to think of a name for them. The thing about Twilight isn't that they ''ruined'' vampires. They made a bad movie for 12 old girls and guys like ''What the buck'' if you know what i mean.

Dhampir are the offspring of a vampire father and human mother.

OT: nothing has ruined the scariness of vampires or zombies for me but then i had nightmares about them as a child and all i need to do is think back to then and i remember.

 

[Amnestic]

Twilight has just stagnated them in a manner of speaking. It's made them all mushy and taken their big awesome collars away.

Yes, because vampires never got mushy before Twilight.

...nevermind.

 

[Space Cowgirl]

I never got into Twilight myself, but it completely tosses the original concept of a bloodthirsty killer of the night going about wrecking crap and replaces it with some... thing that went under the wussification ray a few times. Twilight didn't actually ruin Vampyres, perse, it just puts people in the completely wrong mindset about them. It's just the fact that people won't shut the bloody hell up about them that pretty much ruins it for everyone and Twilight just added more fuel to the fire.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I think what peoples main problem is that vampires are now looked more upon as a teenage sex symbol akin to Zac Efron rather than their original role as demonic symbols of horror and blood lust.

/thread x infinity.


Vampires are to "Mmh, I'd like to date one." instead of "It will take my soul and make me into a bloodsucking beast."



I've yelled at Twilight fans many times because of this.

 

[Cabisco]

I think alot of people who don't like twilight follow my view that it just feels like a teen melo drama, with everyone loving the cool in kids and the predictable romance etc. It's like the teen emo/scene kid eqivilant to high school musical. Alot of this high school musical comparision is that everyone i know who liked that... likes this.

 

[aarontg]

Yes, now that twilight is out in theaters where is it going to go from here? next swamp monsters, or mummies, or ghosts, it was a horrible idea from the start.

 

[heyheysg]

I don't really follow vampires, the last great impression of Vampires would be from the Legacy of Kain series.

Basically, vampires would the opposite of human beings, immortal, noble, stronger and better than us in every way, except for the lack of souls.

So it's a toss up between what you want, power or having a soul. Which is kinda pointless if you don't believe in Heaven.

It's an parable for people not to seek power or immortality and focus on being human instead.

 

[soladrin]

vampires started sucking the minute buffy and angel came on tv. apart from that. Vampires never were good on tv, they are good in books. (good books, twilight (wich i have allreay ritually burned 3 copies of) is not one of these)

Anyhow, the only good vampire movie i've ever seen is Interview with the vampire, and even that was only above avarage, not really all that great.

On another note. ALL the classic monsters are boring if you ask me, why do you think Alien was such a great hit (apart from the fact that it just fuckin rocks). Something new, tada!

Underworld is a good example btw, this movie ruined vampires AND werewolves, good going!

on a side note, when the fuck will they get a werewolf costume right in a movie? to date i havent seen one looking anything like they should be...

 

[The Great JT]

I'm dedicated to the fact that Hollywood is deliberately trying to make vampires and such seem less scary so their crappy serial killers like Jason Voorhees seem scarier by contrast, and Twilight seems like one of those attempts to make vampires less scary.