The first time I ever saw it was in a DC comic book (one of those “Elseworlds” things) that was, seriously, a Batman/Houdini story. Houdini destroys a vampire with a Star of David, claiming “apparently you don’t need crosses for a Jewish vampire!” At the time, I thought it was a novel idea. Now that I see it was written by Howard Chaykin, I’m sure he stole it.
The book The Keep by F. Paul Wilson has an interesting take on it, as it’s set in Transylvania. It’s a big spoiler, though:
The main character, a Jew, suffers a crisis of faith when he sees that a vampire is repelled by a cross. He later discovers (in an extremely lame twist in an otherwise decent book) that the vampire fears it not because of its Christian context but because it’s the shape of the hilt of the sword that is the only weapon capable of destroying him.
Just for the sake of clarity: I did not mean to imply that I equate Judaism with atheism; I was responding off topic!
But while I’m off-topic, I really liked how they handled it in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” While trying to ward off the evil vampire Angel, Willow Rosenberg has to nail crosses all over her house, but hide them so her parents don’t see.
So it’s the faith of the vampire? Hmm…in Blacula, the main vein drainer doesn’t seem affected, but his offspring are…of course, it’s possible that while alive he didn’t have much contact with Christians. However, he was vampirized by The Count, so perhaps the weaknessess are not inheiritable? In the sequel, he is affected by voodoo, however. There it may have been the power of the beliver and his faith combined.
Of course, William Marshall also just plain kicked ass as a vampire, but that’s not important. That voice…
Malcolm Harker, agnostic grandson of Quincey (son of Jonathan & Mina), has little faith (his failure to take regular Communiom brings out the Dracula taint in his blood) but his use of a crucifix keeps the revived Lucy Westenra at bay. Also, his Jewish friend Jerry accidentally drinks a decanter of Consecrated Wine. Lucy W soon after drinks from Jerry & explodes as the “Blood of Christ” flows thru her system.
[spoiler]The cross had no effect on him, but he pretended it did in order to foment a crisis of faith in Dr. Cuza. Part of his mind games. The “vampire” later claimed that crosses shaped like the so-called “source of his power” (it actually was the hilt of a sword that could destroy him, like you said) had no effect on him.
Also, he wasn’t really a vampire…he had none of the weaknesses of traditional vampires, except possibly to fire, and he didn’t need to drink blood. Rather, he pretended to be a classical vampire to fool Dr. Cuza, and also supposedly in earlier times served as the source of the vampire legend.[/spoiler]
Also, one Mr. Riley Finn stakes a certain Bloody Awful Poet with a woodgrain plastic stake. The effect is to cause said Bloody Awful Poet considerable pain, but it does not make him all dusty. Apparently, it really does have to be wood.
A similar thing happened on Forever Knight, when La Croix got run through with a sword, and we learned later in the episode that it couldn’t have killed him because it was not made of wood.
Also, on F.K., in the episode where La Croix’s daugher Divia resurfaces, he had decapitated her and placed her in a sarcophagus sealed with the symbol of the Sun God Ra (band name anyone?), which had the same effect on her as a cross would farther into the Christian era.
La Croix, incidentally, professes to be an atheist, but is still affected by crosses. Go figure.
Several people have mentioned sunlight being harmful to vampires. Surprisingly, this is not part of classical vampire mythology. Early literary vampires like Dracula, Ruthven, Varney, Carmilla, etc. had no trouble walking around in the daylight. The first vampire killed by sunlight was Orlok in the 1922 film Nosferatu.
This is true, although it may be pushing things a bit to say that earlier vampires had no trouble during the day. Dracula did not have supernatural powers during the day (except at the exact moment of noon), and so prefered to use the time for sleeping. Carmilla walked freely in the afternoon, but never appeared in the morning. As Le Fanu does not suggest that morning light would be harmful to her it seems that the inability to rise between dawn and noon is one of the strange restrictions placed upon her by the vampiric curse, like being unable to adopt a pseudonym that isn’t an anagram of her real name.
That voice…