In This Thread, We Are Preparing to Hunt Vampires

hmm. these instructions on the box are in German. great.

if you ever want a nice, light, sin-absolving snack!

http://www.muppetcentral.com/_images/sesame/count_cape.jpg

http://www.pischinger.at/upload/4.jpg

OK, they're useless on vampires, but have a tasty chocolate filling.

colin, how do you say "We've come to cap some vampires" in german?

Or something like that.

torches will be available for one and all, upon request.

Jane's Lycanthropy and Vampirism Quarterly (Europe). Great story about the growth of the Cosa Feratu's infiltration of the blood bank market and how Romania's recent entry into Nato may be exploited by them. The spread on the new silver munitions was hot too.

also, i've got an order form here for some iced-out, bling bling crosses. who wants one?

http://www.icedoutgear.com/images/Men

yeah, here, some water will help wash it down."

You all have to read up on the science before we hunt...

not sure why, just will.

Inspired by a post on the 1979 horror thread, all I recall about Love at First Bite is a gag about some guy flashing a Star of David at Dracula and he is all, ha ha, wrong icon, or something like that. Which is something I have always wondered about in vampire mythology, and something that afaict is never/rarely addressed in vampire lore (setting aside its blood libel origins). Dracula is always repelled/harmed by crosses, specifically, but does that mean Dracula exists in a specifically Christian-centric world that affirms Christianity as the One True Religion? If a non-Christian flashed a cross, would it work? Has that ever come up in a movie/book/show/whatever? (See also: The Exorcist; could a non-Catholic clergy have expelled the demon, or does the movie's mythology also only work within a One True Religion scenario?)

There’s an old Chris Claremont X-Men comic where that happens - they’re fighting Dracula, Wolverine makes a cross using his claws, it’s ineffective because he’s “not a true believer” or whatever, but then Kitty Pride’s jewish star necklace is effective.

Dracula operates according to the rules Bram Stoker set down in his novel, and Stoker's rules a very much a rational, science-flavored interpretation of the power of faith. early D&D held that a cleric's power to turn (or destroy) undead was a function of the strength of their belief in their deity. later editions problematized this in just the way you are, trying to address how such abilities work in world with thousands of competing gods, how evil clerics might deal with the undead, what powers a fallen paladin might have, etc. and you can safely assume that the world of fanfic has tackled the subject exhaustively.

feels like most vampire movies or TV shows are focused the rules you need to follow to kill vampires less than the philosophical implications of said rules. in the Lost Boys they kill vampires with holy water but it's basically a video game... it's not like the two Coreys are drawing strength from their burning passion for Christ. they literally draw their methods from comic books.

In Salem's Lot the priest's cross stops working when his faith begins to flag.

That's definitely a theme of a lot of vampire hunter lore, you gotta have faith. Never do they say which faith, or faith in what, but again, the number of vampire movies that feature weaponized religious talismans other than crosses (and other Christian things, like holy water) is afaict smaller than the ones that feature none of that stuff (ie "Near Dark" and other neo-vampire flicks). Not that there's anything wrong with that! But it does seem like an unexplored avenue is this most explored of monsters.

Oh, when that cross comes up without devotion
Well, it takes a strong man, baby
Or vamps are unfazed by the lord