Religion and Vampires: Views on Religion

By Author, Poet, and Playwright Valek Mitsuhide Akechi

When looking at religion in pop culture I immediately think of Gothic films and literature. I say this because I worked on an essay for another class where I looked at religion in Dracula through three lenses and learned that Gothic literature is often considered to be mocking religion in some way or other. One of my favorite Gothic films is Interview With the Vampire in which Lestat often makes religious references in explaining a vampire’s life/purpose as well as when he is trying to persuade other characters. In general Gothic literature holds characters much like Lestat in that aspect. The supernatural beings in the literature are often depicted as against religion or in some ways religion is deadly to them; for example, vampires being unable to look at crucifixes which the character Daniel Malloy asks Louis about at the beginning of the film.

In the graveyard scene Louis makes the statement that he and Lestat ought to be in Hell because of their nature as vampires (the need to drink blood to survive). The response he gets is not one most people would be expecting, especially when discussing the acts of killing people for feeding purposes because Lestat very casually says, “And what if there is no hell, or they don’t want us there? Ever think of that?” Here he implies that Hell does not actually exist which is why they are not there. To add to that statement he claims that if it does exist, vampires are not wanted there. Lestat sets up the idea that vampires as a species are not tied to religion, and if one has read The Vampire Lestat they would know he was originally Catholic because his father was a French marquis. They refer to being a vampire as the “Dark Gift” which could be interpreted largely as a show of falling out of God’s favor when it is tied in with Lestat’s evolution as a character throughout the novels and film. But he contradicts the distance between vampires and religion when he says, “Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves.” In this statement within the same scene he compares vampires to God in a way that sets them apart as if they are chosen ones of God who are to kill humans. A final note on this character is that when he tells Claudia that her mother went to Heaven he adds that everyone except them (vampires) goes to Heaven. It’s almost like he is declaring they defy religion while also possibly implying God wants them where they are because of his previous statement. 

Louis has a different perspective on this by saying oftentimes that they belong in Hell, but he also makes a claim stating that “there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in it.” Here he declares that his life as a vampire is a sort of Hell within itself because he does not know what his purpose is. Unlike Lestat who makes a place for himself Louis feels like he no longer has a purpose and seeks to find one within his life as a vampire. The most significant religion-related scene with Louis is when a sex worker in New Orleans has been “terrorized” by Lestat and thinks she is already dead. She pleads to Lestat asking for a priest and mockingly he tells her that Louis is a priest. His actions are to make Louis give in to the desire for blood, leading the already bleeding woman to get closer and closer to Louis in a bid for him to go crazy and essentially finish her off. Louis however resists while declaring that Lestat be the one to finish her off. Louis seems to be the one with more respect for religion while still not aligning with it. Another aspect that is not shown in the 1994 film is that in the novel, Louis' brother was part of a religious community or at the very least extremely religious; which could be a reason for his particular point of view in contrast to Lestat.

The last character with any relation to religion is Armand, who is the oldest vampire alive during the time of the film and novel. His general background in the novel is that he could paint angelic/cherubic scenes and that he looked like an angel. It can be said that similarly to Lestat he fell away from God. Armand says the famous lines, “I know nothing of God, or the Devil. I have never seen a vision nor learned a secret that will damn or save my soul…” He is not rejecting the entire notion of religion, but he also does not endorse it. He merely states that he personally has not seen or come in contact with anything regarding his soul being saved or damned for any reason. Armand offers the viewers a neutral stance in the way he doesn’t act nonchalant about it but rather that he, in four hundred years, has not learned anything that would claim either aspect of religion. 

Overall it is very interesting to see how different Gothic films choose to either mock or display religion. Within the film based on Anne Rice’s novel three of the main characters hold a different stance on religion and its role in the lives of vampires ranging from someone who has no morals, to someone who sort of does, and ending with someone who might have morals on certain issues. I believe that it is one of the few Gothic novels/films that actually has a diverse view on religion through the perspectives of non-human beings.