Vampire Campfire

It’s the season 2 finale, and Vampire Campfire is headed out west to investigate stories that pit vampires against cowboys, set European undead in the American desert, and bring to life the haunting that lives on in the West’s blood-soaked soil. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah explore how Bram Stoker ended up writing a bona fide Texan cowboy into Dracula (yes, really!) and how the Count ended...

We’re headed back to Atlantis this week to continue asking: if vampires are figments of the Gothic imagination, why do so many authors insist on examining them under a microscope? If our nightmares haunt us with fears of the unknown, what exactly do we gain from the paragraphs on paragraphs of exposition that tell us exactly how those monsters came to be? In other words, have sci-fi vampires been...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com Welcome back to the Campfire — our special bonus section! In this episode, Hannah regales Rebecca with tales from Lynsay Sands’ long-running Argeneau vampire romance series. Yes, these are the vampires from Atlantis we mentioned in our last episode , and no, learning more details does not make it make sen...

Vampires are creatures of folklore. So why do some writers feel the need to create their own origin stories for how the first vampires came to be? Do we really need to know, especially if it involves reptilian creatures that live in long-lost, technologically-advanced cities (no names)? Are they tying themselves in knots trying to answer a chicken–egg question nobody asked? In this episode, Rebecc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com Welcome back to the Campfire — our special bonus section! In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah tell our very first Vampire Campfire guest (Hannah’s mom!) all about the extremely 2000s movie Dracula 2000 . As a pretty ridiculous member of the Dracula-verse, this time-capsule film has it all: a teeny tiny co...

Intentionally or not, vampires (and their associated tropes) are pretty good at making us laugh. What we want to know is, when are we laughing with them, and when are we laughing at them? Is our mocking mean-spirited, or does it come from a place of love? In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah venture into the land of comedy, camp, and parody to see how these genres not only add a spin to our most fa...

Despite what her marketing team will tell you, Carmilla was not the sole inspiration for Dracula — but she does get the honor of being the first lesbian vampire and, along with a few mythological goddesses, has inspired a whole lineage of sapphic vampires over the last 150 years. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah explore the extensive history of the sapphic vampire, from the uses and abuses of v...

From glowing crosses to squirt guns full of holy water, it’s hard to find a piece of modern vampire media that doesn’t at least pay homage to the “common knowledge” that vampires are anathema to all that is holy. But this may be a more recent trope than it seems, and in this episode, Rebecca and Hannah take a metaphorical walk through the churchyard to trace the early vampire literature that estab...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com Welcome back to the Campfire — our new bonus section! In this episode, Rebecca regales us with the utterly nonsensical plot of Morbius as a (formerly) passionate Marvel fan. Hannah questions the difference between “living vampires” and “dhampirs,” ponders the feeding habits of vampire bats, and gets confu...

Moving on from last week’s discussion of (spooky scary) child vampires, in this episode Rebecca and Hannah look at how and why the vampire was turned into a character for children’s consumption. They do their best “bleh bleh bleh” impressions, share their lingering childhood fears, and break down the different types of vampy scares made for the younger generation — from the “all bark, no bite,” to...

Immortality isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be — especially if you end up trapped in the body of an immortal pre-teen. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah discuss when the promise of eternal youth turns into the horror of never-ending childhood, what it would feel like to be a grown woman trapped in the body of a little girl, the logistics of sourcing blood when you look like a doll (it may o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com Welcome to the Campfire — our new bonus section! In this episode, Hannah regales Rebecca with all the steamy and silly details of the 2024 romantasy novel Forged in Blood . They discuss “why-choose” romance, Hannah’s unwritten book about a hummingbird shifter, vampires who like period blood, and why so ma...

While Dracula may not be a love tale ( as we discussed last episode ), there is genre of literature that wraps up vampires and romance in a pretty sexy ribbon. We’re talking about Romantasy! Today, Hannah and Rebecca explore how the “vampire boyfriend” has matured into the “adult vampire lover,” hearken back to the ancient origin of fated mates, talk blood bonds and born vampires, and consider whe...

A new year brings us a new season of Vampire Campfire along with a new Dracula adaption! This take on the tale is explicitly romantic, which begs the question: when did Bram Stoker’s 19th century classic turn into a love story? Rebecca and Hannah dig into the family tree of Dracula adaptions to unpack the layers on layers of intertext, question if they themselves are the crazy ones, discuss why wr...

Welcome back for a special bonus episode! Rebecca and Hannah take a break from cooking a Gothic Victorian feast for their family’s Thanksgiving to climb onto their soapbox about recent adaptions of classic novels, parse the various definitions of Gothic (and how much it has to do with “vibes”), get to the bottom of the Victorian obsession with the occult, and put out call for any choreographers wh...

Say hello to the vampire slayer, the hunter, the hero! Or are they the villain? Rebecca and Hannah chew on the big questions: Who has the right to slay? Where do they get their mad skills? And isn’t killing vampires murder? They discuss their favorite (and least favorite) hunters, break down the five main slayer archetypes, and sing a little Corey Hart. Come vamps, join us around the campfire — fo...

What makes a vampire story apocalyptic? What makes an apocalypse story vampiric? And why don’t more vampire stories end with the end of the world? In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah do some vampire math, face their wor(mie)st fears, nail down the difference between zombies and vampires, and rant about haunted houses. Would you survive the vampire apocalypse? Be warned, there might be ancient viru...

What happens when a vampire, a werewolf, and witch walk into a bar? Turns out, they either fight, fall in love, or work together to defeat evil! In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah look into why we so often see vampire stories that include werewolves and witches, discuss how they add to (and take away from) the vampires’ plotlines and powers, and uncover the lore that brought them together in the...

Have you ever met a vampire? There’s a good chance you have — they might just have consumed energy rather than blood. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah talk metaphorical vampires, from the earliest cinematic vamps to modern men who dance naked to early 2000’s disco-pop (iykyk). They argue that certain human characters are as vampiric as your favorite bloodsucking undead, discuss how classic vamp...

Have you ever wondered why the hell so many vampires are Confederate soldiers? Or why so many of your favorite vampire stories are set among the mists and mosses of New Orleans? In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah weed through the blood-soaked history of the Southern Gothic; examine the vampire books, movies, and TV shows that take place in and around the southern United States; and reveal what th...

To celebrate back-to-school season, Rebecca and Hannah enter the world of dark academia and vampire institutions of learning. Focusing on four books, Blue Bloods , Marked , Vampire Academy , and Immortal Dark , they discuss why vampires attend school, what rules keep them in check, and how they break free from expectations. Have you ever wished you could learn magic at a gothic campus with dusty l...

Rebecca and Hannah chew on the question: Are all vampires are a little gay? We discuss the background of Bram Stoker’s Dracula ; consider food, appetite, and eroticism; and critique the connection between vampire media and the AIDS epidemic. Rebecca rants about the infuriating homophobia in Vampire Academy, Hannah gets excited about the many vampiric scenes in Saltburn , and it’s determined that f...

Count Dracula wasn’t the first literary vampire, not even close! Rebecca and Hannah travel back to the 19th century to look at the vampire poems, short stories, and novels that came before Bram Stoker’s masterpiece. They talk about the scandalous relationships of Lord Byron, the canon of female vampires, the homosexual undercurrent of tales going back to 1810, and how these works set Dracula up fo...

Rebecca and Hannah consider the origins of the gothic romance, discuss the pros and cons of vampire boyfriends, and share their thoughts on what it would be like to date your high school sweetheart for eternity, and dive into the lore of Stefan from Vampire Diaries , Edward from The Twilight Saga , and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Come vamps, join us around the campfire. CW: brief mentions...

Rebecca and Hannah discuss the 2025 original movie Sinners , the 2024 adaptation of Nosferatu , and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire and how the three are working together to redefine the modern vampire (or not). They share their thoughts on everything from Orlok’s mustache and their love for Lestat and discuss whether or not we’re really in a vampire renaissance. Come vamps, join us around the ca...