Popular Culture as Source Material

Urban and gothic horror stories are an important part of modern popular culture. In fact, in many ways, Vampire: The Masquerade is itself a grand synthesis of modern horror tropes. Casting a wider net: most book, film and TV libraries are full of useful reference points that can be used to make your Vampire games more colourful or give them an edge.

• On vampires in literature, key touchstones include Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and the many works by the authors Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Charlaine Harris. The seminal graphic novel 30 Days of Night and other works by Steve Niles should not be overlooked.
• On vampires in film, beyond the many screen adaptations of Dracula, also see The Hunger (Tony Scott, 1983), Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987) , The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987), Byzantium (Neal Jordan 2012), Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch 2013) and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014). The Swedish language film adaption of Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) is also excellent.

Beyond works involving vampires specifically, there is plenty of inspiration to be found in a variety of other places.

• For supernatural terror, see the original The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981) or the classic Japanese horror films such as Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998) or Ju-On: The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu, 2002).
• For more psychological fare, try any of Stephen King’s other novels, or any of the cinematic thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock. Also see the films What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000), Skeleton Key (Iain Sof t ley, 2005), or either version of The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1988 and 1993).
• To consider the horrible, twisted things that people can do to each other, watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005) or Saw (James Wan, 2004). Also see The Walking Dead graphic novels, or the TV series adaptation of the same.
• For visceral but more straight-forward violence, see The Raid (Gareth Evans, 2011), John Wick (Chad Stahelski 2014), Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000), and Kill Bill parts 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarentino, 2003 and 2004).
• For other things that go bump in the night, try the TV shows Supernatural, Grimm or the X-Files.
• While not really horror, few works show the complexities of urban poverty and political corruption as well as the TV series The Wire created by David Simon. His subsequent show Treme, exploring similar themes in and around the city of New Orleans, also should not be overlooked.

Also remember that there are real world myths and legends about vampires that can be drawn upon. Bram Stoker himself was inspired by eastern European legends. Many cultures around the world have stories about blood suckers, the unliving, and the restless or hungry dead.

— ♤ ♡ ◇ ♧ —

Misc:

• Wikipedia entry for Vampires in popular culture
• Wikipedia entry for Vampire