Welcome to Gay Male Vampire, the best source for everything gay vampire related. I created this site to share my passion (fetish) of vampires, and to bring together other fang lovers. If you are looking for other gay men into vampires, look no further (and if you live in or near London, feel free to get in touch). — Sebastien Terrean
Vampires are sexy. Gay vampires are even hotter. I’m not talking about Bela Lugosi vampires, but the modern vampires since the time of Lost Boys. Vampires have never been more popular than in the last few years, but this surge has actually been decades in the making. And this is also true for gay vampires.
Actually, even though the mainstream vampire genre has adopted our ‘coming out’ story, there are other parallels between the rise of vampires and the freedoms of the LGBT community as we went from being sexual outsiders to acceptance. While queer horror remains a small sub-niche of both horror and queer fiction/cinema, the majority has been focused around the vampire (something less true for the mainstream horror genre which is more diverse).
There a several points in history where vampires became more mainstream, starting with Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Before then there had been a few other novels, but mostly vampires were still rooted in folklore, and many cultures chronicled vampire-like creatures in their society. Dracula has remained an enduring story of the vampire genre which filmmakers have returned to many times. Yet gay vampires were not included in these stories for many more decades, despite homoerotic subtexts present in Dracula and other vampire stories.
It was during the 60s when vampires were sexualized and fetishized. What began as R-rated films with naked female vampires eventually lead to Interview With The Vampire and The Hunger. In those early days there were even a few gay vampire adult films, and I do mean proper celluloid films produced before the arrival of video tape. While Hollywood tried to suppress the homoerotic themes in Interview With The Vampire, Lestat and Louis being partners had always been in Anne Rice’s original idea.
Through the 80s vampires grew in popularity and thanks to a stream of films including The Lost Boys, Fright Night, and Near Dark, vampires were becoming cool while keeping a scary and vicious edge. For gays novels started to appear, along with a handful of porn films. But vampires didn’t really come out for gays until the 90s and even into this century. The written word was the first place gay vampires could be found, though there were many classic homoerotic stories almost a century before.
Post-2000 saw the first gay vampire television show, the Lair on HereTV, and films such as Scab, Vampire Boys, Vampires: Brigher in Darkness, Bite Marks, and Vamperifica have given us gay vampires who have been both sexy and dangerous. Of course the numerous adult films also paved the way for vampires to be the subject of our sexual fantasies. There are more adult films featuring vampires than regular gay movies. Of course not all are even worth watching, but I also have a bias when it comes to vampire films and some basic requirements (vampires must have fangs).
Vampires have been used to break down social barriers for over a century. Dracula was a significant novel for its’ time, using fantasy to take on the norms of Victorian society. Sexualized vampires have been used to justify those in society who don’t conform to the mainstream, after-all vampires are meant to be outside the rules of society and therefore not constrained by “traditional values” or basically free to sleep with whomever, whenever and whatever. Vampires are a surrogate for being ourselves; we can project our hidden desires on them and allow them to live the wicked and filthy lives we’d like to lead.
It’s so easy to see how this could help the queer community, another group once on the fringe which didn’t live according to society’s norms. The two came together and you had vampires that could be gay or maybe not even labelled, they just were. Were they evolved or possessed, it didn’t matter. Instead they could get away with their deviant lifestyles and seeing those characters of ‘fantasy’ doing normal things (along side the abnormal blood drinking, but I’m not judging) must have been freeing for audiences, including the gays.
So as authors and filmmakers sexualized vampires, we began to accept them not always as something to be scared of, but turned on by. Nearly every vampire film goes in one of two directions: pure-horror or sexy-vampire. As vicious and murderous as some vampires might be, they are either monsters devoid of humanity (30 Days of Night, Bite Marks) or have enough humanity to not be simply walking dead. The old mythical animated corpse searching for fresh blood has been spun off as the zombie (which owes its’ origin in the vampire myth), which leaves us with the evolved (or possibly infected) human we know little about.
Maybe not all of us want to be vampires, to be strong and powerful, immortal and uber-sexy, but there’s a reason vampires continue to be featured in words and on-screen, and why we are so drawn to them. Beyond the fear, there’s a pull towards these renegades, the bad boys and deviants. For me it’s certainly the fangs, those sharp-pointed hard protruding and penetrating fangs. Combined with all that a vampire is and you have an ultimate lover, but there is also the lure of becoming one too, of being young and immortal forever (though I’m not saying all gay men are vain and would opt to stay youthful forever… but I would).
Whether you want to become a vampire or would prefer to be seduced (or ravaged) by a vampire, I welcome you to our little community.
Gay vampires 101
Here’s a quick summary of the best of gay vampires to get you started on your journey into the world of these sexy fanged men.
Films to check out
Bite Marks: while it contains no gay vampires, the two main characters are gay and face monster-like vampires. Grab it on iTunes, Amazon.com or tlavideo
The Lair: grab all three seasons of the gay vampire drama on DVD on Amazon.com, Amazon.com or tlavideo. Season 2 also available for download per episode on Amazon.com Instant Video
Vamperifica: available on Blu-Ray from Amazon.com OR Amazon.co.uk
Vampire Boys: buy or rent on iTunes, tla, or Amazon.com
Vampires: Brighter in Darkness: English vampires, some with ancient pasts, battle ex-lovers. Get it from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
Adult films
Twinklight: a full movie plus many episodes which appeared sporadically in the two years after it was released, full of hot twinks with fangs sucking a lot more than necks. If you’re not into twinks, Twinklight might not be for you, however it’s one of the best gay vampire adult films made to date.
For the full list of adult films worth watching (and which to avoid), read out official ranking.
Become a vampire
There is a community out vampires out there in the real world; meetups and events to attend. One of the best Halloween events is the Endless Night Vampire Ball held each year in New Orleans. Endless Night Balls are also held in NYC, Berlin and many other cities. They are welcoming communities, and accept LGBT vampires, however few there seem to be. Attending such an event does require a commitment in the form of a dress code. And no more accessory is as important as a set of fangs.
If you are unable to grow a pair, there are many fang smiths around the world who can make you high-quality dental fangs. These snap into place over your teeth and blend in perfectly. We highly recommend this route for the serious vampire-lover.