Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

According to myths, legends or authors, the vampire has strengths or weaknesses different. Thus, in the novel by Bram Stoker, Dracula schools are listed in detail by one of the characters, Dr. Van Helsing:
"You should know that the nosferatu does not die, like a bee, once he made a victim. On the contrary, it becomes stronger, and stronger, it gets even more dangerous (...). It makes use of necromancy, art, as the etymology of the word, is to raise the dead to guess the future, and all the dead which he may be approaching his orders (...). It may, with some reservations, however, appear wherever and whenever it wants and in one form or another of his choice, but even the power to a certain extent, to get master of elements: the storm, fog, thunder, and be guided by lower creatures such as rats, owl, the bat, phalène, foxes and wolves, which can be large and smaller and, at times, it goes exactly as if it no longer existed. "
The same character states, however, later that several means are used to eliminate the vampire:
"He is a prisoner, a man condemned to the galleys, plus a madman locked in a shed. Go where he wanted him is prohibited. He who is not a being by nature, however, it must obey certain laws - why we do not know. All doors did not open, but previously it has been requested to enter, so it only can come whenever he wants. Its power ceases, as indeed that of all malignant Powers in the early light of dawn. It enjoys a certain freedom, but at specific times. If it is not at the point where it would be, it can not get there at noon, or remove, or at sunset (...). Thus, while the vampire can accomplish its own will, provided it complies with the limitations imposed on him and is confined in his field: his coffin to him, his hell to him, or in a place not blessed (. ..), And yet it can move only very specific moments. It is also said he could not pass water at high tide alive or when the sea is flat. And then there are things that deprive him any power, such as garlic, we know enough, as this symbol, my little gold cross, before which it recedes with respect and fled. There are still other (...): a branch of wild rose, put on his coffin, unable to escape, a bullet blessed that we draw on her coffin the kill and it would then a real death. As the pile that is pushing in his heart, we know that also gives him eternal rest, eternal rest he knows even though he cut his head. It does not reflect in the mirrors and his body does not cast a shadow. "
In the first film based on the novel, Nosferatu, Murnau does only one way to eliminate the vampire: a woman at heart pure must forget sunrise to count. From this was born the belief in the harmful effects of sunlight on vampires, which will operate in most films. In addition, Murnau like other filmmakers not discuss all the faculties of vampires - for the sake of easing the plot, certainly. But they lend to others, so the films in which has played Bela Lugosi have developed the idea that vampires had a hypnotic powers allowing them, among other things, effectively seducing women.
In his Dracula, Coppola invents new rules. Thus, its main character is capable of eating and drinking. It can also move the day - and not only at certain times.


Thus, the vampire :
-feeds on blood;
-is already dead and can not be killed by a new practices Special stake in the heart, nail -on the head, a beheading or cremation (the folk tradition demanded four times the It must then be buried at the corner of a crossroads (several variants);
is immortal (ie is not subject to old age);
practice the "chewing." In many legends, the vampire is not nourished with blood, but also human excrement and flesh, even his own: the vampire practice indeed automastication of his flesh and his clothes,
becomes more powerful with age, ie that better resist the holy places or holy water by example;
-has the pale complexion or a skin of a white blafarde;
-has the ability to transform itself into an animal (any animal or only wolf, bat according to the authors) or mist The forms which are loaned according to the authors may be varied: the frog, spider, sometimes even vegetables and other inanimate objects. It should be noted that, unlike the man reached lycanthropie, which must remove her clothes before taking the form of loup-garou, the vampire does not seem to need to undress for change in animal;
-is very strong, very fast, has excellent night vision
-may be postponed, injured by sacred symbols (crucifixes, holy water)
-does not support the sunlight;
-can read the mind;
-is not reflected in the mirrors;
-can not cross a threshold or enter a building without being invited;
-can not cross running water;
-is indisposed by the smell of the garlic;
-is obliged to count all the seeds of a bag in front of him overthrown, and undo all the --nodes it crosses, even if the day arrives, and can not divert them that when he finished them
-has a gift for seduction which he uses to approach some of its prey, often women.
-does not drink blood and eat the flesh of a human death, which can cause serious poisoning.