Karen is confronted with the existence of vampires by accident, yet she discovers the most effective means of killing them scientifically. When you need to bring down a god, science seems to be the best weapon. Frost believes that the ancient ritual, decoded from a forgotten language, will turn him into a god. Although clearly intended as an action movie, the plot undermines the vampire religion with science. When Blade has his final showdown with Frost-now the blood god incarnate-it is the EDTA, the scientifically developed anticoagulant, that destroys him. They do, however, borrow the concepts of sacred scripture, sacrifice, incarnation, and even twelve disciples. Religion is not absent, it is just that Christianity is irrelevant for vampires. Erebus may be translated as “deep darkness,” and thus is appropriate for vampiric faith. Hades is a general term, but an entire geography of the realm of the dead was speculated. Erebus, of course, is borrowed from one of the many Greek terms for sections of the Underworld. ![]() Frost conspicuously bears the cognomen Deacon, and he plans a revolution that will bring about the incarnation of “the blood god.” This is because of a prophecy in the book of Erebus, “the vampire Bible,” shown hanging in strips like so many Undead Sea Scrolls. Still, not so fast-religion is not completely absent from this world. In the modern worldview, however, organic chemistry holds greater promise. Vampirism was, historically, based on diabolic influence and the signs of the “one true faith” had the ability to destroy them. At one point Karen tells the vampire Frost that he’s just infected, like with a virus. ![]() The faith-based origins, however, have disappeared. Vampires do respond to garlic and silver, and even to chemicals developed in medical labs. The first interesting connection, or more properly, disconnect, between religion and vampires is the fact that in Blade’s universe crosses and holy water do not work. The movie is the basis of my knowledge here. I’m aware that the figure of Blade is based on a comic book hero, but it is a series with which I’m unfamiliar. In keeping with my current explorations of vampire religiosity, I watched Blade for the first time.
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