…Or other mythical “conditions” like them? (Zombiism, Mummyism (sp?), or whathaveyou)
Now, obviously, there aren’t a lot of historical myths about curing Vampirism, etc…but in modern mythology, like in the movies, there’ve actually been a few.
Even aside from “Kill the ‘head’ Vampire/Werewolf/Zombie, and the people he’s infected turn back to normal.” I mean, those stories are a dime a dozen.
There was an old Lon Chaney Jr. movie (who’s title I can’t remember) that featured a mad scientist who was working to cure Vampirism and Lycanthropy. It involved blood transfusions, I think.
And in Blade…
…a hematologist Blade rescues finds a way of using gene therapy to reverse the effects of vampirism in newly-bitten victims.
So…are there any others? Magical or technological, from film, literature, TV shows or mythology…any method counts. As long as it’s been shown to work, or at least hasn’t been shown not to work, at curing a patient of their undead affliction. Without killing them.
And a fistful of dinars says that this thread doesn’t get any responses.
Exorcism, application of holy symbols, I’ve seen that drive the vampire out of infected people in movies before, but that’s usually for freshly bitten people.
The White Wolf RPGs had a condition vampires could attain where they no longer needed blood, and were somehow aligned against the forces of evil, but I cannot recall the details. It was not a return to being a normal human, but evolving into something less monstrous but more powerful.
Ah, yes. Gehenna, I believe. Or maybe I have it mixed up with something else. Hard to say since I haven’t looked at the books in a few years.
It isn’t a cure, it is only moving to a less destructive path of vampiric “enlightenment.” You have learned to control the Beast - that which makes the vampire go nuts for blood - and you can live happily on plain old animal blood.
As for lycanthropy, I have heard only one single instance of a possible cure, and that’s in D&D. In every other film, book and show where lycanthropy has been featured, you’re pretty much screwed.
I saw a TV movie a few years ago, involving a vampire, a werewolf, and a Frankenstein-type creature. I think it turned up on Sci-Fi channel last year, too.
Leading man was in love with female werewolf. After killing his rival (the vampire), he took the seriously-wounded werewolf to the hospital, where he commandeered an operating room and some doctors at gunpoint.
He ordered the doctors to let the wolf die on the table (not hard, since they were scared to touch it!). In keeping with legend, she turned back to human form. Leading man then ordered doctors to bring her back to life. This didn’t appear too hard, and she was cured… the lycanthropy apparently ending with her clinical death.
I seem to remember some 10-15 year old made-for-TV movie where an IV of garlic extract would cure someone of vampirism. Don’t remember the name of the movie, though.
Given that vampires are dead, there really isn’t much available in the way of a cure. A very long time ago, when it was still in 1st run, I used to watch the Dark Shadows tv show. Barnabas Collins spent countless episodes looking for a cure. IIRC, the “cure” finally came when somebody pounded a stake through him. He then mysteriously re-appeared a few episodes later as a normal human. It was all kind of a senseless mishmash, but then that could describe the whole series.
In the movie Near Dark a character named Caleb was “infected” but IIRC never “turned” completely. He was cured by massive blood transfusions.
In the second of the John Capenter’s Vampires movies there are experimental drugs that hold vampirism in check and, when take in massive doses, will allow fully-turned vampires to function in partial sunlight without bursting into flame. There’s at least one other recent film with the same plot device.
That is Golconda wherein the Vampire maintains a certain level of humanity (not falling to the ‘beast’ and becoming some ravening blood hungry animal or some depraved being wherein people are merely cattle and cannon fodder. Basically how like normal humans you are. As a general guide the older you are the more likely it is that you are disillusioned and have less humanity. The more humanity you have the closer to a ‘perfect’ person you are… ie for reference normal humans have about a level 3, psychopaths 0/1, priests/nuns/monks 5 (or anyone with True Faith in whatever deity. Does NOT have to be Christian God can even be Buddha, Allah, etc), Pope 8, Jesus 9/10*)
When you have attained Golconda you maintain your humanity, you need only feed about once a month or two instead of every night, you are at peace with yourself and no longer fighting between the human and the beast.
Gehenna is the Vampire Apocalypse when all the founders will rise up and eat their children and then Caine will rise and kill all of them and anyone left because his law is that no one shall make any more without his express permission. He has not given permission and so they all must die.
gets shivers awaiting Gehenna which is coming in 2004, along with the Winter, Apocalypse etc etc
[sub]*This is just a basic guide as I understand it. I may be wrong but it’s about as accurate as my memory of what I’ve read, heard and talked about with other gamers.[/sub]
Uhm… I can’t really think of cures other then the ones mentioned. According to the Harry Dresden series vampirism can be held in check, but only as long as the person infected has enough willpower to refuse to feed on blood.
Well, John Webster has conclusively chronicled the fact that one cannot cure a lycanthrope by pelting him with forty urinals filled with rosewater. I haven’t got any better ideas, myself.
Hey, I remember that! Although I think there was a downside; I seem to recall at the end of the movie that the former werewolf was going to age far more rapidly than a normal human.
Wasn’t it some made-for-tv movie? Made by NBC? Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of the actors’ names…
In An American Werewolf in Paris, which was an unworthy sequel to An American Werewolf in London, lycanthropism could be cured by eating the heart of the person that turned you into a werewolf.
According to tradition, if a vampire restrained fron drinking blood for seven years, he would become human again. Unfortunately, upon his death he would become a vampire again.
Again with the Dark Shadows I vaguely remember a cure for lycanthropism being mentioned. I think Quentin was told that if a werewolf could kneel in the same place for 100 years then a cure would be effected. But my memory is fuzzy on that.