Hi all, happy November, and welcome back to the 2026 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! This is the ninth of your promised ten posts and it is a day late but it is here! Happy reading, stay spooky, and go to the library!

The idea for this year’s theme came to me when, in September, the girl I was babysitting was showing me her glitter dumplings, including her spooky ones. When she got to the vampire one, I said, on reflex, “Oh, vampires are my favorite!” and then realized that it was true. Vampires are my favorite. As much as I love a slasher, a possession, or a psychological horror, the stories I keep coming back to are vampires. I’m always happy when they show up in pieces of media I didn’t expect to find them in. I love vampires, and vampire movies, and so I thought it would be a fitting theme this year. And I was right! I had a blast writing this year’s Spooky Season Spooktacular, and I hope you all had a blast reading it!

The history of vampires is long and storied, beginning far before even Carmilla, but the modern vampire canon begins there, along with Dracula years later. And how it has sprawled. From Carmilla to ‘Salem’s Lot, from Salem’s Lot to The Lost Boys, and from The Lost Boys to Sinners, vampires have taken on a life of their own, far beyond what either J. Sheridan Le Fanu or Bram Stoker could have envisioned. Vampires have worn many hats over the years, serving as metaphors for war, AIDS, queerness, the Satanic Panic, and the rock and roll generation. Vampires have been gay since the beginning, and have gotten better written as far as being Black goes. Because vampires are immortal, they have seen every age of humanity, experienced every trend, and drank every type of blood imaginable. There might be a vampire out there today who experienced the War Of 1812 and is now being asked if he wants to try a Taki-flavored Crumbl Cookie. And I bet he’ll love it.

Similarly to Spider Man, vampires can be anyone, and anyone can be a vampire. From strange little not-girls in Sweden to ne’er-do-well teens in California, anyone can be turned. And in this, vampires are universal. It might be because tuberculosis was a very global thing, but basically every culture has some form of vampire myth that has carried through generations. Vampires are awe-inspiring, as are their hunters, with generations from the original Abraham Van Helsing to Peter Vincent to Guillermo de la Cruz, vampires have always had their counterparts, stalking each other across oceans of time - a cool line, if horribly misplaced. Vampires are lucrative, drawing in A-list actors like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and creating well-known character actors like Kiefer Sutherland and Harvey Guillen.

Vampires have been hot and decrepit, funny and scary, campy and serious, and never really entirely straight. They are, and have been, everyone. They’re also cool as hell. Like, universally. Vampires are my favorite for the more analytical reasons but also because they’re just super cool. So who’s your favorite bloodsucker? Do you like Interview With The Vampire or What We Do In The Shadows more? Do you agree that Sinners is the best horror movie of the last decade? No matter your answer, I hope you enjoyed this year’s So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular. Happy reading, stay spooky, and consume some vampire media!

Thanks for reading, all! I hope you enjoyed this year’s Spooky Season Spooktacular!