By Suzanne Carré

The vampire is unique among our nightmares for having a pair of fangs. Drinking blood is a religious taboo and part of what associates the vampire with pure evil. We have slept uneasy for millennia, worried every sunset, in fear of the vampire stalking us at night.

But it has been an uneasy relationship with the vampire we’ve invited. Vampires take the form of what we fear most. Throughout the ages we have fashioned the vampire into the manifestation of our deepest concerns. And it seems vampires are happy to do this because they always win with our cooperation. We might revile the vampire but at the same time we are mesmerized by them.

It is so easy for the vampire to command their will, all they do is reveal their fangs. Common sense insists we run but not from the vampire. We invite them to control our minds, do their will with our bodies, and pluck our souls. Interestingly, no other demon has this respect from us—even the Devil we expect to bargain with.

Bite the Nite

So, what is it about those sharp, elongated canines that have the skin on our necks flushed in anticipation? I think it’s a combination of many things. The function of fangs is certainly more than the association of pain with pleasure, or death and sex. The highly erotic penetration of the fangs into our veins is via the mouth of the vampire. The bite is very intimate. It is not only a kiss of death but a kiss into immortality. Mix this with our vulnerability while we sleep, and our erotic dreams caused by the vampire’s approach, and we have a window into the human psyche.

But psychology aside, the power of fangs for us in this day (as opposed to the Victorian era) is the magic achieved on film. Nothing compares to the intimacy achieved with a camera to give the fangs a dimension lacking in narrative. For the first time we didn’t just have to imagine the vampire, we saw the vampire, and we loved what we saw. We’ve been hankering for more vampire fangs every new release.

Fang-less over you

I have said before the fangs are a symbol of the vampire’s sexual potency. We expect to see the fangs before the vampire uses them. The control they have over us in the way we acknowledge their possession of fangs. They have the power and we go to the dentist to acquire that self-same power. Fangs to us only have to be there, not used, to gain respect of the supernatural. It is in the having that we identify and become one with the vampire.

But what of a vampire created without fangs? The absence of fangs is not necessarily a lack of eroticism in the sexually charged cult-horror flick “The Hunger” (staring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie) Yet, the lack of fangs in Twilight speaks volumes about the no-no of sex for the teen stars. Suggesting sex they can’t have is confirmed by the androgynous vampires.

What seems more common than no fangs at all is the retractable variety. Two notable examples are True Blood and Vampire Diaries. It works well in modern film because the special effects allow for the pop-out variety of canines. The added attraction is the timing. Although I’m not into instant fangs myself (in my novel, the vampires have ever-present fangs), the effect in drama is the delay of the bite. As I mentioned before, the wait and promise of a bite is mental foreplay. The vampire also has to gape more, hiss more, be more of everything that’s supposed to be vampire behavior, to give the appearance of the fangs that crucial display.

Show us your fangs, honey

Having fangs seems to be one of the human drawbacks if you’re a vampire. What do you do with your fangs at a party? Everyone can see you’ve got more than dental decoration in your mouth and they’re bound to ask. Personally, I don’t think this is the reason why writers leave the fangs out completely (and castrate their vampires) or have the fangs retractable (much like unzipping a fly—just wait while I get out my fangs).

We make it into a comedy routine—like the joke of a vampire placing their fang endowed dentures in a glass beside their coffin—what to do with the fangs weighs in as heavily as what to wear for tonight’s date. Oh my, you have such big—yes, they’re called fangs, grandma. So, how do your fangs hang—past the level of your molars? Come on, all you bad boys out there, do you compare the size of your fangs? And how much of your fangs do you use—do you go all the way—are you into deep penetration (how deliciously wicked)?

While the fangs make us smile (and laugh) it is very important for the vampire. In my novel, I discuss the subtle way vampires deal with a set of permanent fangs. It depends if you’re male or female. The good girls of the preternatural domain have shorter fangs than the males, they are straight and so sweet all the female has to do is pout slightly, half-way to preparing the lips for a kiss, to hide them. With the habit of relaxing their eyelids, so half the eyes are covered, the effect gives the female vampire a look as if she’s just about to come. I highly recommend this sultry look even if you don’t have fangs to hide.

For the male, with his longer, curved fangs, the bulk adds to his sex appeal much like a bulge in the pants marks masculinity. Now the focus is to what the male has between his lips, and my hero has more than a pair of fangs in his mouth.

Gently Darling, Don’t Bite

We have a problem with the fangs. We must. It seems the romance of vampires stops short of the actual bite. We want it—oh sure, but that’s for the horror effect. But it’s not the violence that stops the film. In the beginning of horror movie making, the showing of blood was a taboo against gore and the fangs were dangerous weapons. Now we’re saturated with violence in the movies—body parts and blood fly across the screen, the crashes and explosions are more graphic—but we don’t invite the vampire to show us how it’s done. Sex on film is more acceptable, the ratings are more flexible for artistic erotica, but again the vampire has to wait.

Anyone who says the vampire bite is non-sexual—they’re lying! The whole idea of the vampire getting more than blood out of the bite is too kinky to discuss (the attraction of True Blood certainly). Then  the very thought the victim might actually enjoy it—well, that’s why they have ratings to prevent this kind of pornography (sex with the undead is still classified as necrophilia).

It’s the penetration—admit it, please. The bite and sex are the same. The thought of the victim receiving the bite is more than a rape scene where the human lies back and lets the vampire have fun. It’s the ultimate form of sexual intercourse—premeditated, non-mechanical, intense, intimate, and a rush guaranteed to satisfy. Showing the fangs in action is almost the same as a close-up of linked genitalia. And what about the vampire biting a second time—reentry will never be the same—and all we can say is—gee, that vampire is so good?

So why do we assume the vampire does anything other than watch us in the night, or sit upon our chests, so we can’t breathe, the way incubuses do? How have we shaped the vampire to make their behavior acceptable? Next time I look at the good, bad and ugly things vampires get up to.

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