100 years on, the un-dead are in better shape than ever

It is, of course, entirely appropriate that the estate of Bram Stoker should choose to mark the 100th anniversary of the author’s death this year with a series of events, such as the publication of Bram Stoker’s Lost Journal, and a special edition of Dracula.

With other writers you might decide to commemorate their birth, or the date of their greatest work. But death — and in particular the way it needn’t stand in the way of a man’s career — was the underpinning theme of Bram Stoker’s most famous novel. And with the popularity of vampires at an all time high in the early years of 21st century, Stoker’s immortality seems just as assured as that of his most famous creation.

Written in 1897, Dracula has insinuated its way into the psyche of gothic horror readers and has spread through countless other books, movies and TV series. It is now impossible to quantify the impact such a seminal book has had since it was first published.

By today’s standards, Dracula is quite a slow moving novel that gradually builds its suspense and subtext. But that has not stopped it having perhaps a greater legacy than any other novel of its era.

The vampire industry is huge in itself. From the Hammer Horror films of the 1960s and the 1970s, to Anne Rice’s massively successful Interview With a Vampire series, it has grown and grown. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series has turned a whole generation of pre-pubescent girls into devotees of the un-dead. They have stepped effortlessly into new technology. Amanda Hocking became one of the first mega-stars of Kindle by self-publishing her vampire book, My Blood Approves.

And it is not just vampires, of course. Count Dracula is arguably the inspiration behind the whole horror genre. When George Romero created the shambling zombies that we know today when he penned Night of the Living Dead how much of that rabid thirst for the living was informed by Stoker? Quite a bit. The dead — or rather the sort of dead — wreaking havoc upon the living was one of the key themes of Dracula. And it has proved to be the basis for much of the genre.

What is fascinating about the Vampire genre is the way it has proved capable of constant re-invention. There is still an appetite for gothic horror but today’s readers and audiences seem to enjoy contemporary chills more. True Blood, American Horror Story and The Walking Dead are some of the most popular TV series ever screened. Zombies are big business. Suddenly they are as popular as cup cakes. From films, to television, to DVDs and e-books, the genre is as big as it has ever been. It is jok-ier, more tongue-in-cheek, and self-referential. But, like Dracula, it has a core creepiness, and it remains the perfect vehicle for writers, either low or high-brow, to explore our relationship with death.

What Stoker himself would make of his legacy is difficult to say. It is hard to imagine either Twilight or The Living Dead films would be much too his taste. But then again, as his most famous creation would have surely pointed out to him, you can’t always control what happens to you after you die.

Certainly this horror writer will be raising a glass of something red — wine, since you ask — to the great man on April 20th, in acknowledgement of the debt we all owe him.