I Woke Up a Vampire x Near Dark

 The Bloody Business

By: Isabel Graham

Hey y’all!

Today’s blog post connects the 2023 television series I Woke Up a Vampire, referred to here as “IWUAV”, to Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 movie Near Dark. Looking for a simple show to pass the time, I stumbled upon the former in Netflix’s “New Releases” sections. Set in a metropolitan area in the 21st century, it entails a young girl, Carmie Henley (Kaileen Chang), discovering her supernatural abilities on her 13th birthday. With the aid of her closest friend Kev Gardner (Niko Ceci), she learns she is a “Vampling”, half-human and half-vampire. She detects she is in danger from “Hunters,” whose job is to exterminate “Blendeds” like her (half-human, half-mythical creatures). I watched both the pilot and the second episode before realizing the extreme similarities between the show and my previous watch, Near Dark. Near Dark is set in a rural Western location and portrays a teenage cowboy, Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), and his love-hate relationship with a vampire named Mae (Jenny Wright). He is forced into her coven after being bitten and fights his insatiable bloody urges and lustful desires with his rational, human thought and love for his family. 

IWUAV's Carmie Henley

Although I admit, that IWUAV was pretty cheesy as it targeted a preteen audience, several aspects of the source related heavily to the film Near Dark, which was mainly aimed at an audience of teens and young adults. Although casting slightly younger actors, the Netflix series illuminates aspects and contradicts parts of the film in a myriad of ways. First, in the show, becoming a “Blended” or a “Mythic” is inevitable as it is hereditary - Carmie “grows” into her powers on her 13th birthday. In the movie, one must be bitten and infected by a vampire before they are “turned” into one themselves. Another difference is the powers that come with being a Vampling in IWUAV. Carmie gains superspeed, enhanced strength, energy blasts, and flying abilities. She has no desire for human blood and is only regarded as a danger to humans because “it is the ‘different’ they can’t handle”. In Near Dark, the Vampires are immortal and gorge on human blood, becoming an obvious threat to human civilization. However, in both adaptations, the vampires are not portrayed as freaks. In the show, they assume innocent, middle-school children, and in the film, are seductive “punk-rock” type figures. Both are deceivingly designed to be approachable, for their own benefits and safety. 

Near Dark's Vampire Coven

When both Carmie and Caleb begin to understand the immensity of their situation, the two directors portray the protagonists’ confusion of identities in similar, uncut, shots. Carmie is shown walking through a tunnel and hearing ominous voices whispering to her. Caleb is shown limping down a train track, clutching onto his stomach. Both were extremely disoriented and, more importantly- scared- about their disturbing “inhuman” revelations. Additionally, both productions portray these adolescent/beginner vampires as immature and incomplete until they make their first kill or fully understand their abilities. Until these milestones, they would still pass as humans. Passing as humans allows viewers to relate to the “pre-evil” beings. The vampires in Near Dark were physically a threat to humanity, and likewise, in IWUAV, Mythics are dangerous because they want all Blendeds to join them against humans in a complete fight for power. Carmie realizes that she is “dangerous because she can still choose” (on their 16th birthday, Blendeds choose to develop as a full Mythic or revert to a Human). In the film, Caleb is also a liability to the coven of vampires because he can choose to either fight with them or leave such a life and run back to the protection of his mortal family. It is important to note that family also resembles a central idea in both works. In the show and in the film, family provides safety, reassurance, and acceptance of the "unnatural".

I could go on and on about the development of the vampire and horror genre in mainstream television and movies from the 20th to 21st century - but I will save you the bother. Though visually different, I Woke Up a Vampire and Near Dark truly do have the same structure and complexity of ideas when it comes to mythical creatures and their perception by humans. Danger, love, family, friends, and general tropes of vampire portrayal are all overlapping themes of the two works.