The Moral Undead: Representations of the soul in contemporary vampire film and television

Abstract

This research examines representations of the soul in popular Western, post-millennial vampire film and television released between 2008 and 2017. A genre analysis, the study examines key vampire texts through the lens of sacred and secular philosophies of the soul, and argues that the contemporary vampire can be read as an ensouled creature with personhood. The research contributes to the film and television scholarship of the vampire horror sub-genre by offering a new way to conceptualize the vampire, and identifying what the study terms 'the sensitive cycle' of vampire horror.