Five Foreign Unfilmed Fangers

We’ve seen it all with vampires, right? They come in forms of little girls, sexy men, and sparkling day-walkers (the worst, right?). What a tired old trope!
There may be an abundance of vampire flicks, and always more coming, but there are plenty of blood-suckers that have never stalked the silver screen. Almost every culture in the world has a version of a vampire in their folklore, and some of them are bizarre, grotesque, and downright terrifying. The kind that would put Klaus Kinski’s Nosferatu to shame (he really freaks me out)! Let’s begin…

This vampire comes from Greece, its existence established in the seventeenth-century by Leo Allatius. If a child is born in the time between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6th), chances are it is a Callicantzaro. There shouldn’t be much question as to whether your kid is one or not because they has a black face with red eyes, donkey ears, and of course, fangs. These little tykes have to live in the underworld, but they come back for the holidays (Christmas to Epiphany) to drink blood and eat people; they usually off their siblings first. There is no clear way to kill them, but if you want to prevent your child from becoming one of these charming little beings, you can hold the baby’s toes over the fire until they are nice and crispy.

Africa has several different species of vampires. The Adze is particular to the Ewe tribe and resides deep in the forests, usually up in the trees. It usually appears as a firefly, but if it is caught then it changes into a human-like figure, small, misshapen with a hunchback, black skin and long, sharp talons. It preferred to drink the blood of children and eat their hearts, fancying pretty or attractive children (well, that’s unsettling). The Adze also has the power to possess people and are considered witches in their humanoid form.

Malaysia gives us this vampire, which is created when a sorcerer puts the blood of a person murdered into a bottle and recites an incantation over the blood. The blood must remain in the bottle for two weeks before it begins to make its transformation. The magician will know the transformation is complete when the sounds of crying or chirping birds are heard from within the bottle. The sorcerer must then cut their finger and drain the blood into the bottle, establishing obedience and dependence from the Polong. When it is let out of the bottle is is a small, flying fiery creature shaped like a thumb or an egg. The creator of this creature may send it upon people to cause them illness, madness, or death. Even weirder, the Polong has a cricket-like demon pet called a Pelesit which makes an incision with it’s sharp tail into the Polong’s victim, where the Polong will then enter and suck their blood.

This Bulgarian bloodsucker can be created three ways. When a spirit refuses to leave its body, when a person dies violently or suddenly, or when a cat jumps over a grave. If one of these things happen, the corpse begins to bloat and the old skeleton turns to jelly for forty days, at the end of which a new skeleton forms. When they emerge again from the grave they are ugly as sin; sporting a single nostril, a long tongue with a barb at the end, and emitting sparks as they travel about at night (sort of the opposite of those twilight jokers, right?). They do drink blood, but only on occasion. Their favorite food? Manure. Yeah. They also like to smear it all over the place. They are a bit like poltergeists, less scary, more pesky. They are known to free the livestock and throw household items about.

Go ahead, try and say that. It’s a mouthful. This Filipino vampire is actually quite a beautiful woman–during the day time. Manananggal means “self-remover” and when night falls, that is exactly what she does. She separates at the waist, leaving her legs standing in place, with her entrails dangling out her torso as she takes off on huge bat wings. She loves to drink blood, but she’s picky. She will find a pregnant woman to feast on, using a long tongue to slurp right from the heart of the unborn fetus. There are ways to destroy her though, as she leaves her other half vulnerable. You could try and hide her legs, for if she doesn’t reconnect by daylight she’s a goner. Or if you really want to you can smear some salt or garlic right on the top there…

I, myself, am a huge vampire buff and will never tire of the regular old Hollywood nightwalkers, but if any filmmaker ever wants to switch it up and bring some originality to the game, there are plenty of creepy weirdos to choose from…