Vampires: Folklore, fantasy and fact - Michael Molina

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The myth of the bloodsucking vampire has stalked humans from ancient Mesopotamia to 18th-century Eastern Europe, but it has differed in the terrifying details. So, how did we arrive at the popular image we know, love and fear today? And what truly makes a vampire...a vampire? Michael Molina digs up the science and the superstition.

Lesson by Michael Molina, animation by The Moving Company Animation Studio.

Good evening!

What's the matter?

Are you afraid of vampires?

Hehe, no need to worry,

I'm not staying for dinner.

Ahahaha. I'm here to guide you

through a brief history of vampires,

illustrating how our image has changed

from a chambling corpse

to the dapper gentleman you see before you.

Vampires are nearly as old as you humans.

Stories about us, our evidence,

appear in cultures extending as far back

as prehistoric times.

But we weren't called vampires back then

and most of us did not look the way

we imagine vampires today,

far from it!

For example, the Mesopotamian lamashtu

was a creature with a head of a lion

and the body of the donkey,

and the ancient Greek striges

was simply described as blood-thirsty birds.

Others were even stranger.

The Philippine manananggal would severe her upper torso

and sprout huge, bat-like wings to fly.

The Malaysian penanggalan was a flying female head

with dangling entrails.

Heh heh heh heh heh.

And the Australian yara-ma-yha-who

was a little red guy with a big head,

large mouth,

and blood-suckers on his hands and feet.

Oh, and let's not forget the Caribbean's sukuyan,

the West African obayifo,

and the Mexican tlahuelpuch.

Hehe, charming, aren't they?

Though they look vastly different,

all of these beings have one common characteristic:

they sustain themselves by consuming

the life force of a living creature.

This shared trait is what defines a vampire,

all other attributes change with the times.

So, how do we arrive

at the reanimated fellow you see before you?