Perception of the Vampire: Analysis

by Sammi Shuma

From Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922) to Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008), many interpretations of the vampire have appeared on screen. Sometimes they appear more monstrous with hideous fangs and claws or look more human to mask their true intentions and (oftentimes) for a young girl to fall in love with them. When it comes to vampire movies, most of these ‘creatures of the night’ are male characters. Their alluring nature traps women into their gaze, lost forever. A male is the predator while the female is the prey. In a film like Fright Night (Craig Gillespie, 2011), the vampire, Jerry, trails after a highschool girl. In the case of Matt Reeves’, Let Me In (2010), the roles are reversed. It is the story of a 12 year old boy, Owen, becoming friends with and ultimately falling in love with a female vampire, Abby. As we find out what Abby is towards the middle of the film, we see where her true intentions lie with Owen. Comparing this to the events in Fright Night, we will see some of the differences between how male and female vampires are portrayed in film. Depending on their gender, their characteristics change the level at which audiences can empathize with them. 
There is a distinct difference in goal when it comes to why the vampire is targeting a character. Abby’s main goal is survival, to continue killing to help herself. She is not neat or methodical when she attacks her prey. At the beginning of the film, she has a man, who poses as her father, Hakan, go out on his own to get blood for her. On one of these trips, Hakan gets into a car accident, leaving Abby to fend for herself. While Hakan would attain blood without leaving a trace, Abby was less methodical. Attacking one of Owen’s neighbors, she is impulsive and reckless. She struggles to control her impulses, making her dependent on others to survive. She needs a servant. Hakan’s death was bound to happen, and Abby planned for his replacement to be Owen. As a vampire, she has the inability to take care of herself in a way that will prolong her existence. Due to her lack of self control, she uses her charm to trap Owen into Hakan’s fate. Owen is a tool, an opportunity to continue living an easier life where she does not have to control her impulses.

Jerry is self-sustaining, as he has been able to keep himself alive for over 400 hundred years. We see him be able to have a day job, with enough money to buy a house. When it comes to drinking blood, he doesn’t kill his victims, but turns them into vampires and has them live in his basement. Jerry is methodical and he has a plan in which he can fulfill on his own. He goes after Amy for companionship, but also to get back at Charley, a teenaged boy who is actively trying to kill him. He strides for a larger goal; to have dominion over his subjects. We see that he is actively manipulating his victims through compliments and his charm in his need for power. He is the main driver of conflict throughout the film; Jerry pushes against the other characters, willing to do anything for his goal because he has the strength and confidence to do so. Abby is much more passive, being more willing to have opportunities come to her. As she takes time to form a relationship with Owen, it becomes difficult to realize her manipulative strategies until near the end of the film. Jerry relies on his strength to meet his goals while Abby uses her intellect to swoon a boy into being her caretaker. 

While their goals are on a different scale, each of them wants control of others. Their means ultimately change the audience’s perception of Jerry and Abby. As the truth about Abby is unknown to us at the start of the film, audiences are left to fill in the gaps about her past. Being introduced to her, we see her and Hakan walking into Owen’s apartment complex. Abby walks barefoot in the snow, giving us the impression of mistreatment and lack of care on Hakan’s part.
There are common traits that vampire characters have on screen. Dracula (Tod Browning, Karl Freund, 1931) and Twilight show how alluring vampires are. Women are drawn in simply by their gaze. Jerry and Abby accomplish this in different ways. In Fright Night, Jerry captures the hearts of several female characters through his muscular frame and confidence. He’s a lady’s man, able to attain anyone he chooses. It is his predominantly male traits that get him what he wants, succeeding for most of the film’s runtime. He is portrayed as a real villain, an unstoppable force. His charming façade quickly falls apart in the audience’s mind, becoming unlikable. Fitting into the typical vampire model, his dark intentions are clearly laid out to the audience early on. While this is amplified by the story telling, Jerry’s physique and domineering allows him to achieve his goals with ease. As he has no faults, he appears less human to the audience. Empathizing with his character becomes impossible because he has no faults.

Abby is portrayed as weak, lonely and excluded from the joys of childhood. As she meets Owen at the playground of their apartment complex, she doesn’t go for him immediately. She tells him that they cannot be friends and she tries to avoid him. As a young girl, she is shy and reserved, leaving us to feel she is withholding herself from the goal of companionship. The film gives Abby and Owen the time to form a meaningful relationship, where Abby struggles to get what she wants. It is through these struggles that the audience feels empathetic and invests in their friendship. Her gendered characteristics separate her from other vampire characters. Unlike Jerry, Abby struggles to achieve her goal. She appears more human to the audience, which ultimately blindsides us by the end of the film. The idea of the vampire becomes reimagined as is more than a villain to the main characters. Abby is endowed as a trusting best friend to Owen, we see her work to be by his side. She doesn’t just take what she wants simply because she can, but makes discoveries as to what works and what doesn’t. It is in her imperfection that Abby is likable, which is a departure from other descriptions of vampires in film.
Out of the hundreds of vampire movies available to watch, very few show vampires depicted like Let Me In. While she has fangs and kills people, she fails to eat her prey in a way that protects her from being discovered. Abby fails, seeking food and shelter from the assistance of others. Despite the strength she may possess as an immortal monster, her female fragility makes her easy to empathize with. Jerry is a more common example of a vampire in film. He takes whatever he wants without consequence, making his death satisfying to the audience. We see his true intentions early on in the film while Abby’s is masked by her weaknesses. By comparing Fright Night and Let Me In, we have seen how the difference of gender can make a vampire character more likable and easier to empathize with.