The family vampire
The family as a vehicle for contagion: the dead return to those they loved, and affection becomes the channel through which evil spreads.
Section /motifs
Motifs
Recurring narrative elements traced through folklore, literature, film and television.
The sound that announces the supernatural
Rings, drops, buzzing, chimes: sounds that precede an apparition and make it feel inevitable.
The threatening telephone
A voice enters the home even when the door is locked: domestic technology becomes a channel for threat.
The vampire child
The dead child who asks to be let back in: a motif that turns the instinct to protect into the monster’s way inside.
Theft from the dead
Stealing something from the dead provokes their return: a cautionary motif found in European legends and isolated by Bava in «La goccia d’acqua».