Vampirism as a Metaphor for Addiction in the Cinema of the Eighties (1987-1995)

Abstract

The use of several substances, commonly known as drugs, increased considerably from the fiftiesonwards. Use, habit and dependence were linked as cause and effect to economic, health-related andpolitical implications, which contributed to the emergence of the “drug problem” and addiction. Themedia played an important part in the origin, in the decade of the seventies, of the stereotype of the drugaddict as an individual who injected heroine. This stereotype was also assumed by cinema, especially byhorror films in their postmodern tendencies in the eighties. Thus, the traditional vampire becomes acreature who is addicted to blood and whose dependence, and mainly withdrawal symptoms, are recreatedwith the same iconography and interpretations with which the most traditionalist society perceiveddrug addicts. The development of the vampire metaphor not only reflects social fears of the threateningtemptation of addiction and the fear of transgressors who use forbidden substances, but it influences theviewers in a thought-provoking way that reinforces social stereotypes.

Keywords

• vampirismo
• drogadicción
• metáforas
• cine de terror.