Getting Rid of Cliches

Vampires are often portrayed as evil so what makes a vampire story come to life is usually down to the one vampire who is different from all the rest. This vampire, as seen in movies like Twilight with Edward Cullen the vampire who falls in love with a human and in The Little Vampire with Rudolph who makes friends with a human, becomes the protagonist for their failure to be normal (in an evil vampire way). Vampires, are depicted as evil right across the media, notably for their demonic features and blood sucking habits. It then becomes a little cliché when you see a werewolf within the same storyline because they are practically portrayed as the heroic opposite with a loyalty to humans. Most likely it’s because werewolves are similar to dogs so they can be seen as ‘man’s best friend’ unlike vampires who feed on ‘dog’s best friend’. The movie Van Helsing is a great example of this, if you’ve seen it you’ll know that I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘vampires are to demons as werewolves are to angels.’

Van Helsing (2004)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and Richard Roxburgh, Van Helsing is a very literal example. A vampire slayer named Van Helsing is sent to defend a town in Transylvania in which the vampire Count Dracula (dracul meaning demon in Hebrew) plans to spawn his own undead children by the hundreds. While venturing to thwart his plan and kill him, Van Helsing who has had his memory of the past taken away, discovers he is the archangel Gabriel Van Helsing (Gabriel- Left Hand of God, adapted from Bram Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing) and in a final battle he transforms into a werewolf and bites the neck of Dracula who has transformed into a bat-winged creature, killing him and filling the order that had been given to him nine generations ago.

Van Helsing Trailer:

What differs The Vampire Diaries from other fantasy-horrors is its many countertypes such as evil werewolves to avert from the clichés and good vampires among the evil "i vaant to suuck your bloood" type. Again it’s no surprise to find a witch among the same sort of storyline but because it’s The Vampire Diaries you’ll find yet again you can’t categorise them as either good or evil. Even the setting is a countertype of a typical teen genre featuring a highschool where instead of focusing the series on highschool antics, the series is focused predominantly on the town of Mystic Falls and its dilemmas. This is perhaps the biggest countertype in TVD compared to teen genres such as Glee, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mean Girls and High School Musical. Even the one vampire Stefan who initially is the main feature who sets the plot due to his heroics of being the only good vampire, eventually becomes the generalised evil vampire while his conspiring brother becomes good natured. His human girlfriend Elena is not a weak stereotype either but instead can put up a fight by literally stabbing a vampire in the back. In season 3 senes show her working out and learning to fight.Characters in the series are constantly developing and never quite seem to stick to a particular stereotype contributing to what makes The Vampire Diaries unique and successful.