The Origin of Spooky Halloween Monsters

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I have a question for the Rogues during this spooky Halloween season, "Where do the classic horror story monsters like vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein's monster, et al, come from?"

What is the basis of the classic old haunted house or castle, one that is usually in ruins, that is inhabited by some old eccentric aristocrat from some European family bloodline? Or some mad scientist, that one is pretty classic. I am speaking of Gothic Horror of course, as opposed to slasher or other types of stories.

Just fishing around for opinions on this subject, one I have of my own.

Let's hear what you got Rogues, Inquiring minds want to know.

Concerning vampires, I believe most modern embellishments originated with Bram Stoker, except impaling their hearts was actually a thing! "The Russians say that, when driving a stake into the body of a vampire, this must be done by one single blow, as a second blow will reanimate the corpse." If you wanted to get to the heart of the matter, it'd be best to study Slavic folklore, in which vampires merely became inanimate when exposed to sunlight and also hearing a cockerel.

Interesting facts:

"If the horse refused to pass over any grave, even in spite of repeated blows, that grave was believed to shelter a vampire."

"Horses will also often betray great uneasiness in passing over places where a body has been buried."

"No dog or cat must be allowed to leap over the corpse or enter the room."

"In some places the jumping of a boy over the corpse is considered as fatal as that of a cat."

As a rare phenomenon, Dr. Z. J. Pierart makes a strong case for their actual existence. They were prevalent in eastern Europe, which had favorable conditions for their return from the grave, they were somehow able to roam around outside their body after dying, until their corpse was exhumed and burnt. The only reliable way to stop them from appearing is to burn the corpse.

Vampires were also related to suicide cases. "In Scotland it is still thought that the body of a suicide will not fall to dust until the time when he should have died in the order of nature." Recently, I was reading up on the sayings of the Romanov healer Philippe Nizier, he claimed, "Les suicidés souffrent le temps qu’aurait duré leur vie normale." (Suicide victims suffer for as long as their normal lives would have lasted.)

The classic vampire from Eastern Europe, Bram Stoker's Dracula. A living dead count that died some three hundred years previously and now survives as the undead by feeding on the blood of innocent victims. He resides in a run-down castle and sleeps in a coffin during the daylight. This story, a major classic, is getting close to what I have been thinking about in regards to where these horror stories actually come from.

These things originate from old legends and tales obviously, but where did those stories come from and what motivated their creation? There is a major connection to all these stories and I'm curious if anyone here will come to the same conclusions I have.

Let me mention Frankenstein's monster. Set in the early 1800s, a mad scientist reanimates a human corpse that goes on the nut and can't be stopped. How does this relate to Dracula, the Wolfman, and the rest of these characters? An older legend of course (The Golem of Prague) and we have the added theme of a man of science using his knowledge to act out against God and nature. Where and when have we heard this type of story before? All these Gothic Horror stories are related and I'm hoping to not have to lead anyone to my conclusion, but allow them to come to the same naturally. What I'm thinking is not that far out there, it's pretty obvious actually. This paragraph is a huge clue about where I'm headed with this.