In the Hammer/Shaw Brothers co-production The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Van Helsing (played by Peter Cushing) in in China touring and lecturing. At the same time, Count Dracula just happens to go to China as well, apparently visiting a clan of local Chinese vampires. The villagers hear Van Helsing is in the area, and implore him to come help deliver them from the vampire curse. He does so, accompanied by seven kung-fu-fightin’ brothers.
And at one point (getting back to the OP), there’s a lengthy dialogue scene where Van Helsing explains that crosses will be useless. Indeed, he passes out little Buddha figurines. These, he says, will ward off the forces of darkness. And so they do. (They also make their wooden stakes out of bamboo, but that’s a side detail.)
I’m going by memory here, so I may have some of the specifics wrong, but I think this is a pretty accurate summary.
Anyway: Vampires! Kung fu! Gratuitous nudity! This is one of the most entertaining bad movies ever made. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.
If, as I suspect, you have also seen “A Polish Vampire in Burbank,” that would make you the third person I’ve known, including myself to have ever partaken of that gem.
To All
It isn’t just christianity/jesus that wards off vampires. Don’t forget Ra.
There is only one God
He is the Sun God
Ra! Ra! Ra!
I prefer to use the good ol’ reliable cut-off-his-head-with-an-axe technique. Guaranteed to work regardless of the denomination (if any) of the vampire and the bearer.
Well, why is it that people swear using names of God and Jesus and ones that sound like it (Geez!)
Becasue Satan hates God, thats why.
I don’t think a cross will do anything, it has no power itself.
But the name of Jesus does.
Used it myself a few times.
Well, or because names like Jesus and G-d are sacred in western European societies, and curses tend to emphasize the sacred, the scatalogical, or the reproductive. I mean, I doubt in China, people swear by saying Jesus, or Geez…Jesus probably doesn’t come into their list of curses or obscenities at all.
Prety much everypne anwsered the OP correctly, epsically Cervaise and his movie thing. Point of the mythology of vampires or any other evil (Japanese Oni and kappa for example) are repelled by whatever is considered most holy and scarecd in their culture. WHich is why in the movie he described a cross wouldn’t work aginst Chinese Vampires but a Buddhist statue would. To the chinese Vampires it just looks like your waving around a Big lettr “t” at them. but likewsie to the euro vamps per se if I used a folded paper used in Shinto to ward off evil spirits, they would think I was waving around a white flag.
I got a cross on the wall, salt at my door and plan to get a couple of prayer scrolls written in Japanese…so pretty much my bases are covered
I think we’ve seen examples of literary vampires that have no religion and are not deterred by symbols - The Vampire Lestat laughs at people who try to ward him off with crosses, IIRC.
The idea of vampires is much older than Dracula, he, Camilla, and Lord Ruthven were just the first to make it into the European and subsequently American imagination. Every culture has its flesh-eating ghouls who come out at night.
What is interesting to me is how closely the modern depiction of vampire-making (you exchange blood with the vampire in order to become one) resembles the Christian communion - “Drink my blood and you shall have eternal life.” What is it about blood that contains power?
But, come to think of it – maybe the OP has a good point! After all, when I think of it, none of the crosses I’ve seen used to ward off vampires have been the fancy Catholic “Jesus On The Cross” crosses, merely the bare bones “Two Sticks Stuck Together” crosses, it’s clear that Catholicism is not THE ONE TRUE RELIGION! Gosh, won’t they be mad when they find out they’ve been tricked. I guess they should watch more vampire movies… :>
Of course, crosses just ward off vampires, and as we know from “John Carpenters Vampires” and “Blade”, the sun Explodes them graphically. So, if you have to have go to vampire country, choose Apollo over Jesus.
There is a hilarious scene in Love at First Bite (which I adore - maybe just for the idea of the deeply-tanned George Hamilton playing Dracula), where Dracula is sitting down with some people, including a vampire hunter, for dinner. The vampire hunter keeps trying to unobtrusively kill Dracula. One point, he reaches in his pocket to pull out his religious icon. Dracula rears back in fear, until he realizes it’s a Star of David.
In Terry Pratchett’s delightful Carpe Jugulum, the thoroughly modern vampire dad is determined to raise his vampire kids to be free of the old superstitions. He shows them flash cards of holy symbols from every religion in an attempt to build up their immunity. Unfortunately for the vampires, this plan backfires – there are so many different holy symbols that if you know them all, you end up seeing one wherever you look!
TOTALLY there are. Why do you think we’ve spent so long trying to mission Africa (or “infiltrate” as many would have it?) BECAUSE THE SPIRITUAL REALM IS FAR MORE TANGIBLE THERE. Because nobody there is so COMPLACENT. And don’t you dare dismiss it on anything other than balanced grounds.
