I liked the Dresden Files approach to this, it is having faith in something that repels vampires, not the things people have faith in. So the main character repels vampires with a pentagram necklace and his faith in magic.
Same thing in Vampire The Masquerade, True Faith is just total and absolutely certain belief in something.
In one lorebook, a vampire was reportedly sent running when a panicked businessman brandishing his credit card, believing utterly that the power of money would protect him. He was right.
So, in theory, could an incredibly narcissistic person be immune to vampires because of their faith in themselves? Maybe an extreme charlatan type character? As long as they too believed in themselves.
Jesus had faith in himself, and he was immune to vampires. And the religion he taught was all about having faith in yourself too. He told his apostles that their own faith could move mountains just like his.
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Christians don’t need a cross in order to repel vampires. That’s just a crutch. A placebo. Anyone who has faith in themself as Jesus taught can do it.
I don’t think the movie addresses it and I’ve not read any of the comics, but I should.
My favorite explanation: “it confuses the shit out of their brains”
That just brought back a memory of some comedy film where a character is confronted by a vampire and whips out his necklace, the vampire cringes in fear but then sees it’s a Star of David. I want to say a Mel Brooks movie.
I Am Legend had the reverse, where it was entirely psychological on the vampire’s part. Neville tests crosses and crucifixes on some vamps and discovers they don’t repel his Jewish neighbor, but a Star of David does.
That makes sense to me, if you’re aiming for a “secular” explanation of vampirism. The true faith explanation still requires some source of supernatural power to affect the vampire from outside, while an amped-up placebo effect is sufficient to explain Matheson’s vamps. I always loved I am Legend for taking the idea so seriously!
I liked the castlevania one about how it’s just a shape that confuses their vision for some reason.
Which was a crazy lore addition considering hell and Satan are totally real in that world.
Blindsight/Echopraxia by Peter Watts had a good “science” based version. Vampires are an obligate carnivore/cannibal hominid that went extinct (after giving humans their “uncanny valley” fear btw as a survival trait to detect them) and had a heriditary fear of right angles due to a quirk in their visual cortex.
The idea being “right angles don’t occur in nature” and such. The problem with that idea is that they do, but still a decent series with some interesting ideas.
