Comics Explained: Morbius, the Living Vampire

Recently, the movie trailer for Morbius has been released, so we'll be seeing the live-action debut of Morbius the Living Vampire. One of Spider-Man's foes, and an anti-hero as well, he has been an interesting character in the Marvel Universe. Although vampires do exist in the Marvel Universe, Blade being the most famous of Marvel's vampire, Morbius isn't really a vampire - that's why he's the 'Living Vampire'. 

Creation

Morbius debuted in the early-1970s when the now infamous Comics Code Authority started amending their draconian rules; fearing that the big publishers would abandon the Code, something which happened anyway, they started reforming some of their rules. One of the rules they amended was lifting the ban on featuring the walking dead, vampires, ghouls, zombies, and werewolves. Marvel decided to jump straight into the supernatural genre - after all, Stan Lee had worked on the supernatural comics of the 1940s and 1950s which were killed off by the Code. As Lee was working on a movie screenplay, and Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko had moved on by the 1970s, the task of creating a vampire antagonist for Spider-Man fell to one of Marvel's biggest writers - Roy Thomas. Years later, Thomas would be quoted as saying 'We were talking about doing Dracula, but Stan wanted a costumed villain. Other than that, he didn't specify what we should do'. Teaming up with artist Gil Kane they ended up creating Morbius the Living Vampire. Thomas was inspired by a movie he had watched years ago, and Kane modelled their living vampire off of actor Jack Palance. As a result, Morbius made his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971 becoming one of the earliest vampiric characters in comics for decades.

Origins

Morbius debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, but his origin was explained in the next issue through flashbacks. Dr. Michael Morbius was a Greek scientist specialising in biochemistry; he was such an expert in his field that he even won the Nobel Prize. However, he began developing a blood disorder which was slowly wasting him away. Not wanting to slowly die he began trying to find a cure, and he relied on a mixture of vampire bat DNA and electroshock therapy - if you notice a similarity between Batman's Man-Bat it is no coincidence. DC similarly wanted to take advantage of the Code's reforms, so also introduced their vampire-like villain in the comics of one of their most popular characters. Just like DC's Kirk Langstrom, Morbius's experiments went wrong and made his situation worse. Although he no longer suffered from his debilitating disease, his body underwent changes. He gained the ability to 'psionic glide', rapid health regeneration, super-speed, super-agility, and super-strength. However, at the same time, he became reliant on drinking fresh blood to survive, became injured by sunlight, became pale, grew sharp canines, and his nose flattened to resemble of bat's. Unlike actual vampires, he was a 'living vampire'. Morbius was still alive and lacked some of their weaknesses - he is unaffected by garlic, religious icons, and he cannot be killed by sunlight. When he does bite someone, and doesn't kill them, he too can create other living vampires - he can control these new vampires and he is far stronger than they are.

Now to his debut - in typical Spider-Man and Marvel fashion it is over-the-top. In The Amazing Spider-Man #100 Spider-Man grew four extra arms - finally he was a 'Spider-Man' having eight limbs. Wanting to reverse this he tried to find the Lizard - a scientist who, just like Morbius, tried to use animal DNA to help his body, but ended up turning him into an anthropomorphic lizard. Morbius moved to New York hoping that it could offer a place for him to research a cure for his condition. However, in his blood thirst, he slaughtered the crew of the ship which brought him to New York - just like Dracula slaughtering the crew which brought him to Britain. Unlike Dracula, with his blood thirst cured he is guilt-ridden, so tries, and fails, to kill himself. Secluding himself in what he thinks is an abandoned building, it is actually where Spider-Man and Curt Connors (the human form of the Lizard) are working on the cure for their conditions. When it fails, a frustrated Spider-Man smashes their test tubes waking up Morbius. Powered by blood-lust he attacked and almost killed Spider-Man unlike Connors, now transformed into Lizard, stopped him. During the battle Morbius bites Lizard partially transforming him back to Connors. Realising that Morbius holds the cure the duo track him across New York, and eventually extract his blood curing him - Spider-Man permanently, Connors wasn't as lucky.

Other Appearances

Since his debut Morbius has periodically appeared in a wide range of comics - sometimes as a villain and sometimes as an anti-hero. In Marvel Team-Up #3 his fiance Martine Bancroft tracked Morbius to the United States. One of the reasons why he travelled across continents was through the fear that he could lose control and kill Martine. She was adament that she could help Morbius, in fact she would be one of the regular occurring characters associated with Morbius. Naturally, she knew the smartest people around could help the vampire, so she tracked down the Fantastic Four. Together the Human Torch and Spider-Man tried to capture Morbius, but he was too strong and managed to flee. In 1973, to get around the Comics Code Authority Marvel started publishing magazines with maturer content and one of these was Vampire Tales. Among the stories to find its way into the 11-issues were those including Blade, and an adaptation of one of the earliest vampire novels - The Vampyr. Morbius was featured in most of the issues, and this would pave the way for his regular appearance in Marvel's Adventure into Fear which began publishing in 1974. He would periodically appear until 1992 when he gained his own title which lasted for 32 issues. This was to tie into the Midnight Sons. Dr Strange regularly formed temporary teams to act as hit squads into the wider Multiverse - when a supernatural threat appeared he could send them to swiftly deal with it. The same year Morbius debuted, one of Strange's teams also debuted - The Defenders. The Midnight Sons were formed to stop demonic and supernatural threats seemingly by the Ghost Riders Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch in Ghost Rider Vol.3 #28, but behind the scenes it was due to Dr Strange. Morbius fought alongside the Ghost Riders, Damien Hellstorm the Son of Satan, sorceress Jennifer Hale, and Werewolf-by-Night. Among their foes have included the Mother of Demons Lilith and zombies from the Marvel Zombies universe. Of course, Morbius has had run-ins with Blade - during Civil War he even registered with the government in an effort to get Blade to.

Morbius has had a sporadic history, and often with other bigger characters - most notably Blade or the Midnight Sons - so that's where we will leave it for today. I hope you found it interesting, and for future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Vampires: A Brief History

Illustration of a vampire from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté (1934)

 Throughout the whole vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both.

                                                 - Montague Summers, The Vampire His Kith and Kin, p. 1 

Welcome to the last week of 2019's Month of Horror, and today we're looking at the vampire: perhaps the most infamous of all monsters to come from human history. Some form of the vampire myth has existed worldwide, ranging from the jiangshi in China or the wazimamtoto from colonial Kenya. Today we'll only be looking at the vampires of Europe, but get ready when we look at vampires of Africa in the future. From Bram Stoker's Dracula to Anne Rice's Lestat vampires have remained a enduring and sinister figure in folklore and popular culture of Europe.

Origins of a Myth

Lamia and a Soldier

Stories of vampires have been found across the world for millennia. The ancient Greeks had the stories of the striges, creatures who would eat the flesh of mortals at night, and in ancient Jewish beliefs shape-shifting women called estries were blood-drinking demons who came out at night. It was later in history that the vampires which we are more familiar with began emerging, with there being a spike from the 1500s to the late-1700s. This time period also coincided with spikes of reports of other demonically associated beings - namely werewolves and witches. It is no coincidence that vampires are often associated with these beings - the strigoi of Romania, for example, was seen as a living vampire and also happened to be a witch with two hearts. The planet was going through a climate crisis known as the Little Ice Age where intense weather conditions - snow during the spring, hail storms, and heavy rains - were blamed in Europe as either punishment from God or due to supernatural forces. Some of the most intense witch hunts occurred during this period for this reason. A string of wars and plagues further added to an air of hysteria over the supernatural. Many hundreds were tried and murdered for witchcraft, and bodies were mutilated through fear that they may rise as a vampire.

Archaeologists and historians have put forward several theories about why the tales of vampires emerged during this period. A case study shows one theory really well, Matteo Borrini unearthed a mass grave in Venice dating from sometime from the late-1500s and early-1600s where the skeleton of an elderly woman showed signs of an anti-vampire exhumation had taken place - the remains of her clothing indicated that she may have also been accused of witchcraft. Prior to the development about how corpses decay the natural process of decomposition was blamed on vampirism. As the corpse decays the skin shrinks making the teeth and nails appear longer, and the decomposition of organs creates a 'dark fluid' which leaks out from orifices - the ones most notable being the mouth and nose. As these mass graves were unearthed to make room for more plague victims grave diggers seeing these signs of decomposition linked this to their knowledge of vampires - fluids from decomposition was seen as being fresh blood from victims. Saul Epstein and Sara Libby Robinson also explain the escape of gas from decomposing bodies as sounding like 'groans' and 'moans' which could be mistaken as the rustling of the undead. Furthermore, poor living quarters meant that tuberculosis, often referred to as 'consumption', was interpreted as being due to vampires. Tuberculosis causes the victim to grow pale and waste away - something seen as being due to a vampire slowly draining the blood from a victim.

What causes Vampirism?

The Werewolf or the Cannibal

 by Lucas Cranach the Elder

There are many different ways about how an individual could become a vampire. Most of these are related to interactions with a vampire itself. In Romania, it was believed that if a vampire stared at a pregnant woman would cause the newborn to become a vampire. In Germany, the Nachzehrer never left the ground but used the occult to harm surviving family members. Of course we all know the best known aspect of the vampire myth. If you are bitten by a vampire, or die because of a vampire drinking your blood, you become a vampire. A common trait among vampires, especially in Romania which went on to inspire wider vampire stories thanks to Bram Stoker's Dracula, was that when a child was born with something out of the ordinary this would case vampirism. Being born with a caul, being the seventh child, a third nipple, polydactylism, or extra hair were seen as portraying signs that the child would become a vampire. Another common theme was an individual committing sin - the period coincided with the Reformation and the Wars of Religion meant that salvation and faith became increasingly tense. This is also seen by how vampirism was largely documented in only Christian communities - in 1554 Rabbi Radbaz's tale of a woman resurrected as a vampire remains one of the few instances of vampirism reported in Jewish literature. Quite interesting, the Catholic Church tried to discourage the belief in witches and vampires - in 1749 Pope Benedict XIV officially declared the belief in vampires to be due to 'imagination, terror and fear.'

Faith and sacrilege were key parts of what could cause vampirism. Witches were often seen as being resurrected as vampires - the strigoi of Romania were witches seen as 'living vampires' until their death when they became moroi, literally meaning death. Witches and werewolves were seen as becoming vampires when they died, and it was widely believed that they could turn people still living into vampires. In Romania, not only could a pregnant woman's infant become a vampire when one looked at her, but also a witch staring at her could also do. Around the time of the Salem Witch Trials New England saw a vampire panic for several years - witchcraft and vampirism were intrinsically linked. Sin, excommunication, and dying before being baptised were seen as also causing vampirism - those unable to enter the Kingdom of Heaven were cursed to rise from the dead as a vampire. An unfortunate aspect of life is that the most marginalised were often accused of being witches, werewolves, and vampires. Isolated individuals from communities, religious minorities, and ethnic minorities were seen as being prone to the supernatural - it is no coincidence that Jews were regularly blamed for the supernatural as they were cast out from hegemonic society. Elderly, widowed women who no longer produced commodities for wider society were regularly accused of witchcraft - the 'vampire woman' discovered in Venice was believed to be around the age of 61. In Russia, it was believed that Romani became vampires when they died - the Romani have regularly been cast out and persecuted in European history. Just as hysteria today often affects the vulnerable the most, the hysteria over witchcraft and vampires is no exception.

Stopping Vampires

The 'Vampire of Venice'

There were several ways to slay a vampire, or prevent one from attacking. Of course there are the universally known ones, garlic, religious imagery, having to invite them inside, a stake through the heart, and decapitation. However, there are many often overlooked methods. Vampires were often seen as unable to cross moving water, and apparently could not resist counting - spreading seed on the floor or throwing down a net could halt a vampire in its tracks. It would spend its time counting the seed or the holes in the net. Archaeologists have also unearthed quite gruesome ways how locals tried to prevent vampires from rising from the grave. In Gliciwe, Poland a suspected vampire grave site was found where the occupants of the graves were decapitated and the heads placed on their legs to prevent them from rising. Placing a stake through the body was a common way as it physically prevented vampires from rising - in the 1990s a male skeleton was found dating from the 1800s on the Greek island of Lesbos with stakes placed through the pelvis, neck, and ankles, and in some areas of present-day Romania still stake bodies to the ground. Across Europe, those who had died through suicide, if they had seen as being a witch or werewolf, or died with some great sin or after being excommunicated were often buried with a stake through them to prevent a vampire from rising. With the Venetian woman she was exhumed and a heavy brick was placed in her mouth - this was seen as preventing vampires from being able to feed. German Protestants also filled the mouths of corpses with dirt as this was seen as another way to prevent them from feeding. As late as 1892 when 19-year-old Mary Brown died of tuberculosis in Rhode Island, and when her brother fell sick, it was believed that she became a vampire. Her body was exhumed, burned, and her ashes mixed into a potion for her brother to drink; this was a Hessian belief how to stop a vampire, her brother died anyway. As late as 1968 a supposed vampire was sighted in London's Highgate Cemetery, the infamous 'Highgate Vampire', which had self-proclaimed vampire hunters being arrested for staking, beheading, and burning corpses on the suspicion that they were vampires.

The Modern Vampire

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Vampires as we now know them emerged with Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), although both built on earlier works. In their works, vampires moved away from Christian fears, although both works still heavily rely on Christian theology, and more towards seductive icons portraying fears of sex. Carmilla depicts the fears over female sexuality with the titular vampire being a woman seducing another woman - in a time where homosexuality was illegal lesbian vampires were seen as breaking the natural order. Meanwhile, in Dracula Stoker built upon centuries of folklore, history, and Carmilla as well. Count Dracula combined older myths with those of his own creation - he had long nails and climbed on walls, could manipulate dogs and bats, went against God, and had to rest in the soil in which he was buried, but he also had Vlad Tepes becoming a vampire, turning into bats, dogs and mist, and was sexualised. Reflecting contemporary Victorian fears Dracula shows many aspects of fears concerning sex, and especially sexually transmitted diseases. Largely absent from adaptations Dracula's palms are hairy - a reference to the Victorian belief that masturbation caused you to have hairy palms - combining modern and earlier Christian taboos over sex. Furthermore, Dracula spreading his vampirism, largely to middle-class women, represents the contemporary fears over syphilis and the corruption of the English middle-class. Dracula becomes the transgression of Victorian sensibilities, as the vampires of the past represented transgressions of Christian sensibilities. One of the first adaptations, the German silent film Nosferatu (1922), further built upon the vampire mythos. Vampires had always been weak to sunlight being creatures of darkness, but they were not killed by sunlight. Nosferatu was the first time that vampires specifically died thanks to sunlight. Thanks to Stoker's departure the modern vampire was born, and has evolved continuously. Now we have a wide range of vampires in popular media - from the teenage heartthrobs of the Twilight series, to the tragic and homoerotic vampires of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, to the classic depiction of Dracula by Bela Lugosi in Universal's Dracula.

Vampires have evolved over the centuries reflecting changes and hysterias in society. Which is why they are the perfect way to end 2019's Month of Horror. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018)

-Jan Perkowski, The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism, (Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1989)

-Montague Summers, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin, (New York: University Books, 1969)

-Saul Epstein and Sara Libby Robinson, 'The Soul, Evil Spirits, and the Undead: Vampires, Death, and Burial in Jewish Folklore and Law', Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, 1:2, (2012), 232-251

-Paul Sledzik and Nicholas Bellantoni, 'Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief', American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 94:2, (1994), 269-274

-Christine Dell'amore, '"Vampire of Venice" Unmasked: Plague Victim and Witch?', National Geographic News, (26/02/2010), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

-Heather Pringle, 'Archaeologists Suspect Vampire Burial; An Undead Primer', National Geographic, (15/07/2013), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

-Becky Little, 'The Bloody Truth about Vampires', National Geographic, (26/10/2016), [Accessed 25/10/2019]

Thank you for reading. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Review: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Trick 'R Treat

As we come to the end of 2016's 'Month of Horror' I thought it would be a good idea to review a severely underrated horror movie. Trick 'r Treat never got a widespread showing when it was released instead having it shown in a select few cinemas. The only reason why I know about the film is because James Rolfe of Cinemassacre.com reviewed it two years ago. Trick 'r Treat is also one of the few movies which truly embraces the premise of Halloween; even the Halloween movies, with the exception of the third one, merely had the holiday as a backdrop. Halloween is my favorite holiday, I love horror, I'm interested in pre-Christian belief systems, and I am not religious holidays like Easter and Christmas never had the same effect which Halloween had. As a result I was very eager to see this film, so let's begin the review.

Plot

It is not easy to explain the plot of Trick 'r Treat. It is an anthology movie where instead of one story finishing another begins all four stories, (roughly), occurs at the same time. If you look out at times you can hear or see characters from another story in the background. One story, the first and shortest one, revolves around a couple coming back from a costume party. The girlfriend is very dismissive of the traditions of Halloween whereas the boyfriend fully embraces and loves them. It soon turns out that it is a wise idea to respect the traditions. Another story deals with a murderous principal, (played by Dylan Baker), who takes the traditions of Halloween. The third revolves around a virgin student, (played by Anna Paquin), whose friends and older sister are trying to get her to lose her 'virginity' but there is a twist to it. My favorite story deals with a group of kids pranking an unpopular girl from their school at the site where a bus full of mentally ill children crashed into a lake, and it happens to go brutally wrong. The final story deals with the neighbor of the homicidal, Halloween-loving principal, (played by Brian Cox), who loathes Halloween and comes afoul of a figure seen in all the other stories. Seen in every story is a child wearing a burlap sack called Sam who acts as the enforcer of the Halloween traditions.

The overlapping plots of Trick 'r Treat are done really well. They do not get confusing and it is quite interesting to see how each scene fits into the chronology of the story. Each story even has a twist which fits extremely well in the overall narrative. Despite going from cruel pranks, to werewolves, to demonic pumpkin children, to vampires it seems natural. The way the story is structured allows it not to seem overly far-fetched. Director and screenwriter Michael Dougherty did a fantastic job. Surprisingly the murderous principal story is extremely tense which was very effective. My only criticism for the plot is with the prank story, and the virgin story twists it does seem somewhat predictable. I managed to correctly guess from the outset the prank story twist and I almost did correctly guess the virgin story twist, (without giving too much away I guessed it would involve a creature of the night but guessed the incorrect creature).

Acting

The acting varies in quality throughout the movie. The more well-known actors like Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox did fantastic jobs in their various roles. Surprisingly event the child actors did really good jobs which I was surprised about. Leslie Bibb who plays the girlfriend in the first story is somewhat stale although she is not in the film for too long so it's not a major issue. Similarly Anna Paquin's friends, although not the sister character, do seem overly cliche and boring but they are side characters which again is just me being pedantic.

Effects

Sam unmasked

The effects are stunning. I am a huge fan of practical effects which the movie heavily relies on. At only one part could I identify something as CGI, and even then it was not overly bad CGI. The mask for Sam when he's unmasked is fantastic. It genuinely looks creepy and the effect is enhanced through the lighting in that scene. The costumes and makeup for the zombie children are extremely realistic as well and at times were quite unnerving to look at. By far though my favorite effects involved the werewolves. It was a very unique transformation scene which was quite captivating to watch. I would say it was one of the best werewolf transformation scenes in cinema after The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.

Final Points

Trick 'r Treat truly embraces the idea of Halloween. It brings together the modern idea of Halloween, and the ancient idea of Samhein. We have parties and festivals, and then we have sacrificial rituals. We have urban legends, and we have spirits attacking people for removing their wards against evil. Trick 'r Treat embraces the old and the new. Quite literally as well due to the fact that there is a scene which I thought was referencing the fantastic vampire movie The Lost Boys. The demonic child character Sam also appeared in director Michael Dougherty's 1996 animated short Season's Greetings. It just shows that early ideas can be left to evolve and become something better.

Conclusion

For fantastic effects, creating a perfect Halloween atmosphere, with a few mediocre performances I would give Trick 'r Treat a 7.5/10. Thank you for reading and have a happy Halloween!

The Real Life Dracula

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Continuing 2016's 'Month of Horror' we'll look at possibly one of the most famous horror icons of all time: Count Dracula. Dracula came to life in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and is recognized as being one of the most influential vampire novels of all time, (another one possibly being Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla). Stoker's novel has heavily influenced the world's perception of vampires, and so has the many adaptations. The second adaptation Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, (the first adaption was a Soviet film entitled Drakula which has unfortunately been lost), created the ideas of vampires dying in sunlight. However, Bela Lugosi's performance as Dracula in Universal Studio's 1931 classic is the adaptation which heavily inspired all other perceptions of Count Dracula. The cape, his hypnotic stare, and the thick Romanian accent that are all associated with Dracula came from Lugosi's performance. Dracula, though, is not entirely a work of fiction. Count Dracula is based off of a real person; a real person even mentioned in the novel as possibly being Dracula himself. A real person whose name influenced Stoker to change the name of his antagonist from Count Wampyr to Dracula. This person was Vlad III, voivode (prince) of Wallachia/Walachia, better known as Vlad the Impaler.

The Land of Dracula

Walachia c.1390

Walachia was a principality located in what is now Romania. At the start of the fifteenth century Walachia became a puppet state of the far larger and more powerful Ottoman Empire to the south. Vlad Tepes, (Vlad Dracula), was born between 1428 and 1431 in Transylvania to the voivode, Vlad Dracul, who would seize Walachia when his half-brother died in 1436 becoming Vlad II. Several years prior to this Vlad had joined an order called the Order of the Dragon which was a fellowship of Christian knights designed to resist the Muslim Ottoman Empire from conquering Christian Eastern Europe. It was his membership of this fellowship that Vlad gained his surname 'Dracul', Romanian for 'devil' or 'dragon', so as a result his son was called Vlad Dracula, 'son of the dragon'. When Vlad Tepes was born Transylvania and Walachia were trapped in constant warfare with the Kingdom of Hungary to the north constantly warring against the Ottoman Empire to the south. In 1442 the voivode of Transylvania, John Hunyadi, managed to route the Ottoman Empire in Walachia Vlad was forced to flee to the Ottomans. The Ottomans promised to restore Vlad but, in return, he would have to give them annual tribute and, leave his sons, Vlad and Radu, as hostages at Tokat. During this period of captivity he tried to escape leading to him being beaten, possibly sexually assaulted, and generated a deep loathing of the Ottomans.

Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler

In 1447 Vlad II and his son, and Vlad Dracula's oldest brother, Mircea, were killed fighting against John Hunyadi and his puppet voivode who then invaded the Ottoman Empire. With the Ottomans invading Walachia Vlad quickly broke into Walachia and declared himself voivode. However, this was short lived and he had to return to exile in the Ottoman Empire. He returned in 1456 and reigned until 1462 when he was imprisoned by the Hungarians. He would remain captive until 1476 and would continue his reign for a short period until his death either in the December of 1476 or the January of 1477.

During his time in power he would often war against the Ottomans, and brutally suppress opposition to his rule. His cruelty is what has made him famous. A papal legate in 1462 wrote to the pope to inform him of the stories of Vlad's cruelty, and in 1463 a poem was performed for the Holy Roman Emperor entitled Von ainem wutrich der heis Trakle waida von der Walachei (Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia). Among the brutalities that Vlad has reportedly committed included having people who performed homosexual acts to boiled in oil, mass executions of boyars at the start of his second reign, and of course impalement. Vlad has refined this method of execution so much that it could take up to three days for a person to die, but it was not a simple stake through the heart as we would imagine killing a vampire would be like. The stakes he impaled people on were very large. A good example is this 1499 German woodcut below of Vlad having people impaled.

The woodcut

After refinement he would have some people impaled through the anus until it went through another part of the body, (there is a woodcut depicting this but due to Google's policies it is too gory and disturbing for me to show you). Even the unrefined method of impalement did not bring a quick death. Victims could be still be left for days until they died through exposure. Some of the most gruesome accounts say that Vlad would dine among the impaled bodies, (as depicted in the woodcut), and dip his bread in blood. On the banks of the Danube it is believed that he had around 20,000 people impaled! Fifteenth century sources also claim that he regularly had people boiled alive, skinned alive, disemboweled or decapitated. Historia Pannonica, written around 1495, even says he had the turbans of some Ottoman messengers nailed to their heads as it was against their custom to take them off while greeting someone. Vlad III Dracula's legacy after his death remained a bloody one with Europe naming him Vlad the Impaler.

How much is true?

Most of the sources of Vlad's atrocities come from either German or Russian sources; most of these originate after his death. The Holy Roman Empire was not allied with Walachia so had reason to portray him negatively, and the Russian paint him negatively as he converted to Catholicism. A combination of most of our depictions being after his lifetime, and from people who were actively against him could indicate that the atrocities were overblown. However, this does not whitewash his infamy. However, outside of Walachia Vlad was known for his cruelty which does show that he did have a reputation. Even Romanian historians and oral tradition, which usually shows Vlad more positively, reports on his cruelty. Constantin Rădulescu-Codin, an early twentieth century Romanian teacher, compiled local legends of Vlad and, some are just as disturbing as the German and Slavic sources, including Vlad burning the lazy, poor and lame. From here Vlad's penchant for sadism and cruelty can be corroborated. Although it is likely that the number of Vlad's victims were exaggerated his infamy is still well justified.

Count Dracula is regarded as one of the greatest villains of both literature and cinema. Even when he is the 'hero', such as in the manga and anime Hellsing, he is still cold, ruthless and sadistic. Something similar to his real life counterpart. Vlad the Impaler may have been unable to turn into a bat or cloud of fog, or could sleep outside a coffin, but he did share the sadism and ruthlessness of the vampire which he inspired.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:

-One Bloody Thing After Another by Jacob Field

-http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/historical-periods/draculaimpale#identifier_1_2300

-http://www.history.com/news/draculas-dungeon-unearthed-in-turkey

-http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/was-dracula-a-real-person