Vampire cliches and stereotypes

The Tropes: Why some still work today and others need to die

We have watched many vampire movies and TV shows even read great novels but at the end of the day we tell ourselves: 'It's always the same things- so stereotypical, so cliched'. The tropes or stereotypes vary from behaviour to weaknesses. Some vampire cliches, stereotypes and characteristics work but others have been used so much that we are tired of them, many of those overused stereotypes have been rejected altogether in modern vampire fiction. This piece analyzes the stereotypes and characteristics that affect and are related to vampires. Here we will decide whether some stereotypes work or not.

Fear of sunlight

           Nosferatu by Murnau first introduced the idea that vampires could be killed by sunlight
                                           
Like most ghost and demon stories, the night creatures flee as soon as the sun rises or the call of the rooster is heard, this concept was used in a similar manner for the vampire.
It was often believed that vampires rose from the grave at night and return there in the morning, early folklore never mentioned that vampires might be vulnerable to sunlight. In nineteenth century vampire literature vampires were never killed by sunlight. Vampires were thought to move around and mingle like ordinary people during the daytime, their powers were said to manifest at night. The idea that sunlight was harmful to vampires was added to the mythology in the twentieth century and appeared in films, comics, books and TV. In these stories the vampires would collapse, burn to death, get a very bad sunburn, explode or turn to a pile of ash. The idea was very appealing to film makers and comic artists but had no real basis in traditional vampire mythology.

In 1922 the German film Nosferatu,  was released. It was regarded and of course it was a rip off of  Stoker's Dracula. It was a silent black and white film directed by Murnau and starred Max Schreck as the infamous creep faced Count. The film was sued by Stoker's widow Florence for copyright infringement and many copies of the film were destroyed. However some prints survived and that's the reason the film is still accessible today. The film is interesting because it is the first time that a vampire is killed by sunlight, the character of Count Orlock sneaks into the room of the helpless sleeping girl, bites her and forgets that the sun is rising and then dies.

In Stoker's Dracula the infamous count is actually spotted in the streets during the day. Carmilla the character from Le Fanu's novella of the same name, also walks around during the daytime.  Anne Rice chose to keep this trope for good dramatic tension, in her novels sunlight and fire are used to kill vampires, some use it to commit suicide or to punish other vampires. Lestat's maker Magnus kills himself with fire. The little girl Claudia is executed along with her 'new mother' Josephine by being locked in a room with no roof and burnt by the sun. Louis gets revenge on the Parisian coven responsible for Claudia's death by burning the theatre and the vampires in it.

The 'sparkle factor'
As everybody knows since the phenomenon of Twilight and the 'sparkling' vampires many are debating whether that was OK or just ridiculous. Everybody is used to the vampire going 'poof' when hit by sunlight, then there are stories in mythology of vampires wandering during the day.


The whole image and stereotype of vampires burning up in the sun, is getting old but is still there in movies, books and TV shows, because vampires need some major weaknesses and those weaknesses sell. The two main weaknesses are sunlight and stake through heart. True Blood has those as well as Vampire Diaries, the vamps burn but protect themselves with magic jewels.

Still on the subject of sunlight, the show Supernatural includes vampires who have rows of jagged teeth like small sharks and are only weakened by the sun not burned. They do prefer to come out at night and are better killed by decapitation. A cure for vampirism was introduced in the show that involves boiling and consuming the blood of the vampire who sired you. 

In 30 Days of Night vampires pick a small town in Alaska as their hunting grounds because during winter the sun does not appear. 

The sparkle factor that Meyer adopted is probably to portray some aspect of a weakness and to give a reason why vampires would chose to live in a cloudy rainy environment. I think that Meyer wanted to break away from silly cliches and tropes, the vampires in the series are very different from the vampires we're used to, the only thing that makes them vampires are blood consumption. I agree halfway that the sparkling is a bit silly but if you were a first time vampire author who extensively studied vampire fiction, would you chose as the main weaknesses the boring overdone cliche/trope or something new and original?  Maybe vampires should remain nocturnal creatures like owls and bats.

According to Meyer in her Twilight guide, The Twilight Saga: The Official illustrated guide:

'In direct sunlight, the disparity between human and vampire becomes more obvious. The cellular membrane of the vampire is not as soft or permeable as in a human cell, it has crystalline properties that cause the surface of vampire skin to react prismatically, giving the vampire a glitter-like shimmer in sunlight.'

From the novel

'Edward in the sunlight was shocking... His skin, white...literally sparkled like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.' (Twilight, Chapter 13)

Meyers recreated the cliche of sunlight and no one else will be able to borrow or re-use it. 

Thankfully the graphic novel American Vampire introduces a new evolution of the creature where it doesn't fear or gets burnt by sunlight. 





Vampire Bill gets a nasty sunburn in True Blood

They used to burn to death in sunlight now they sparkle.

                            
                                    Dracula (Christopher Lee) destroyed by sunlight in the 1958 film. The film differed so much from the Stoker novel with character changes, different locations, and this destruction scene.

In modern TV and films or books, if the weakness is sunlight or not, does not make much difference.

Eternal Death

Immortality is often associated with vampires, every known vampires in fiction is immortal, maybe there's an exception for the half-human-half vampires or dhampir but that's unknown.
Immortality is often coveted by humans, to be able to live forever, to never grow old, sick and die. This is impossible in the real world and in works of fiction immortality always comes with a heavy price, in the vampire's case it's the thirst for blood. Immortality was regarded as some sort of curse, the Christian faith mentions 'eternal life' but not this way, it only refers to life in Heaven. Being immortal on earth is seen as a twisted version of 'eternal life'- often called 'eternal death'. The big questions are 'if the vampire is immortal then why does it need to feed on blood?' 'Is the vampire truly immortal?'  The answers are such: yes the vampire is immortal and yes must drink blood, if it chose to not drink blood it would probably die but that's never really been explored. In Vampire Diaries  if a vampire hasn't fed he would turn into a desiccated mummy and be awoken with blood, but they are not dead, just sleeping. In the show when a human dies with vampire blood in his system, he comes back to life and is in 'transition', that means that he can chose to die naturally or drink human blood and complete the transformation.

 In Anne Rice's novels the vampire Lestat chooses to stop drinking blood and buries himself for many years, he chooses to 'hibernate' and emerges later in the 20th century, not dead but very hungry. It is almost impossible for vampires to give up drinking blood, they might chose to 'fast' but eventually the thirst is too strong and they will feed.

We say vampires are immortal because they don't age and stay frozen with the same appearance and age they had before they were turned. There is an interesting exception in Bram Stoker's Dracula, when Harker meets the count for the first time, he is an old man with a mustache. Later in the novel Harker has not seen the count for days and stumbles upon a coffin with the count sleeping in it and looking ten years younger. An explanation might be that the count wasn't feeding on much blood and lack of blood was making him age, he had a big feed before setting off on his voyage to England where there would be more people besides gypsies and peasants to feed on. The blood gave him back youth and vitality.

This stereotype still works today because it is the attractive part of the vampire, to live forever and to have all the time in the world to see the events of history or to do something  like study, help the helpless or become a doctor like Carlisle Cullen, who knows he might find a cure for cancer? It might be lonely and torturing to live forever as long as you are not alone.

The ankh is the Egyptian symbol of immortality.


Here is an interesting video about the downside of immortality

Blood

Blood is the vampire's main food and  has always had holy and interesting significance. Blood was identified with life and thinkers. People would assign many sacred and magical qualities to blood and it was used in many different rituals. Ancient civilizations believed that drinking the blood of slain enemies warriors would gain the additional strength and knowledge. There are accounts of Roman doctors drinking the blood of slain gladiators in order to gain their strength, perhaps they even prescribed some of it to their patients.

For the blood is the life (Leviticus 17) has been quoted in many vampire books and other works of fiction.

The Hebrews believe that the blood is the life, but it can also be impure. Blood is sacred because it symbolizes the soul of the body and only God is the master of life and death. Blood is linked to the curse that struck humanity when Eve, gave in to temptation and urged by evil, caused the fall of man.
The menstrual blood is perceived as a horrible wound or a punishment from God to all the descendants of Eve. In the beliefs, menstrual blood is the source of curses, during her menstrual cycle, a woman must abstain from going out in public, for her presence could cause disasters such as bread and wine going bad or a bad harvest. She must not have sexual intercourse during her menstrual cycle as her blood is impure. Blood was then seen as a symbol of sin.


Blood is sacred in the Christian faith and refers to Christ's blood who healed people as it flowed down from his wounds when he was crucified. Before he was crucified Jesus Christ shared wine and bread with his disciples telling them that it was his blood and his body, he asked them to do this in memory of him. According to St Jean, this blood could give life. Worshipers had to be careful and not interpret this too literally. Thankfully, this practice of eating the 'body' and drinking the 'blood' of Christ is purely symbolic.The vampire feeds on blood as a defiance of this ritual.

During Roman times in France, Christians were persecuted. The Romans did not believe that Jesus was a god and were disgusted by the concept of 'eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ'. The Romans thought the Christians were actually killing people to drink their blood.

There were stories during the reign of Charlemagne where newly converted Saxons actually took the meaning too literally and consumed real flesh and real blood. He quickly put a stop to that.Despite regulations and forbidding such practices, consuming blood became a common thing in pagan rituals and demonology. Around the 11th century, witches and quack doctors would prescribe consumption of blood from young virgins to cure diseases and prevent old age.


In Dracula Lucy who was bitten, is diagnosed with blood loss and is given a blood transfusion, a medical novelty at the time. Lucy's suitors all give their blood. Later in the novel Lucy dies after being attacked one last time by Dracula, Lucy's fiancee Holmwood in his grief states that he had 'married' Lucy by giving her his blood and in the sight of God they were husband and wife.

Throughout history physicians  erroneously believed that diseases were always linked to the blood and that removal or replacing it was the remedy. Bloodletting was common during the middle ages and the Renaissance. The earliest experiments in blood transfusion were done about three hundred years ago, these were horrible and disastrous attempts to put animal blood into humans, the results were shock, kidney damage and death. The first attempts at blood transfusions date back to the Medieval Period, it was seen more as sorcery than medicinal. Poor starving peasants would sell some of their blood to doctors in order to feed themselves and their families. Not much different than blood banks today.


Later on doctors saw that transfusions between humans could be beneficial in cases of severe blood loss and anemia. During the 19th century it was poorly understood why certain bloods were compatible and others weren't. In the 20th century, human blood groups were identified and transfusion techniques were done properly in the trenches during World War 1.

This idea that a transfusion could counter the transformation introduced a new way of thinking about vampires, perhaps the thirst for blood isn't a supernatural condition but a medical one.
It was believed that vampirism was the result of misdiagnosed porphyria, a disease whose symptoms were extreme sensitivity to sunlight. It is a group of rare inherited disorders  of certain enzymes that help in the production of porphyrins and heme; what constitutes blood. There are manifestations of neurological complications or skin problems. It served as an explanation for the existence of vampires because of the similarities between pale and sun sensitive skin and the vampire characteristic, but this was rejected. Maybe people suffering from this condition were feared and possibly killed, in a time were medical science was unknown any diseased person could be seen as a vampire even sufferers of tuberculosis.

Anemia was another disease that was associated with vampires. The disease is caused by a reduction of either red blood cells or the oxygen carrying pigments of the cell- the hemoglobin. The signs and symptoms are pale skin, fatigue and sometimes fainting spells, these could easily be mistaken with a vampire attack. Lucy Westenra in Dracula  is diagnosed with Anemia by Dr. Seward, but later he confirms that she was suffering loss of whole blood not red blood cells.

The fact that a vampire must feed his own blood to a near-dying victim for her to become like him, represents the spread of a disease. Just like many blood borne diseases like HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and viral hemorrhagic fevers. Now vampirism is seen as an infection.

The consumption blood, be it human or animal is still fascinating and makes the vampire who he is.

                                           Blood cells

The Holy Grail which represents the wine filled cup that Jesus Christ used and shared with his disciples stating that it was his blood.

In Anne Rice's novels the vampires drink from humans until the heart stops, if they drink from dead humans then they become sick, or something bad might happen to them. In the novel and film Interview with the Vampire it's never fully explained why vampires don't drink 'dead' blood, all we know is that they don't do it. This element was borrowed in the TV show Supernatural, Dean and Sam Winchester use blood from dead people and inject it into vampires to knock them out.

In True Blood vampire blood when ingested by humans causes them to have hallucinations and a very good drugged-up feeling, it is also used as a new Viagra and it can heal. In The Vampire Diaries vampire blood can heal any wounds but unfortunately not diseases such as cancer as we tragically see in Season 6, it has horrible consequences.
This trope will always be vital to vampire fiction.

This video explains where a vampire should bite to get a good blood meal.

Holy Objects

Vampires were associated with evil, all evil things go against God so any object that represents faith and God would frighten them and be used to destroy them. In many books, TV shows and films, vampires are scared by crucifixes and other holy objects but that was in the 19th century and 20th century vampires today don't fear those symbols anymore. Some TV shows chose to keep the use of holy objects, in Buffy for example, holy water and crucifixes scare the vampires because it burns their skin when they come in contact with them. In The Lost Boys holy water also works and it also hurts demons in the show Supernatural. Crosses don't bother Louis who states in Interview with the vampire that he is 'quite fond of looking at crucifixes' and Stefan in Vampire Diaries finds them decorative. In I Am Legend the character of Robert notices that crucifixes don't scare some vampires, so he tries another holy object: the star of David which works because those vampires were Jewish before they were turned. The question is: 'if you were a Christian before you were turned into a vampire then would a crucifix scare and hurt you?' The answer is, it might and that works the same for Jewish people. So that means that if you were an atheist before being turned into a vampire than the cross won't hurt you. That would be also correct but this theory was not really explored in most vampire fiction. 
Crosses are no longer used in modern vampire fiction today but holy water is still around. Let's think about the creatures that predate Christianity, surely the cross would have no effect on them. Perhaps the cross scared vampires in major works of fiction because it served as a cruel painful reminder of the 'good Christian' they used to be before turning into vampires.

                                                                        Holy water

                                       The star of David: the symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism

Silver

Silver has often been associated with purity and in European folklore was believed to be an antidote to various maladies and monsters. Silver was believed to be a repellant against vampires, this originates from its holy connotations. Silver bullets were believed to kill werewolves, this concept was probably borrowed, except that it is not in bullet form, a stake form or a sword. The concept also refers to the 30 pieces of silver Judas received when he betrayed Jesus. Silver burns and hurts vampires in True Blood. This trope works just as well for werewolves so should stay, though it is not used in many other works of fiction.

                                         Pam being burned by silver in True Blood

Stake through the heart

It was often believed that the only way to destroy monsters was to pierce their heart. It is one way to destroy vampires for ever. It was believed that to successfully destroy a vampire, the hunter had to drive the stake through the heart and out the other way of the vampire while he lay in his coffin, thereby 'nailing' the creature in the box.  A hammer had to be used or the wood had to be of hawthorn. It was stated by the Church during the 19th century that stakes had to be made out of the same wood as the cross on which Jesus died. The trouble was that said cross was probably made from four different types of woods, the exact type of wood was never confirmed. It could have been olive tree, cedar, cypress or palm.

In Buffy when staked the vampire turns into a pile of ash and in Vampire Diaries they turn grey and die, original vampires don't die and can be killed with white oak stakes. In True Blood vampires who are staked explode like blood filled balloons. This method of killing is referred to as 'ridiculous' by Louis in Interview with the vampire, vampires in the novel are killed by fire and decapitation. In Twilight stakes through hearts are also never mentioned, but vampires are killed by fire and having their heads pulled off or shattered. The stake is still used in modern vampire fiction but is a bit overused, decapitation, fire and other methods are more exciting. In Supernatural  vampires are decapitated. 

                                             The classic 'stake through the heart' scene

Edward almost being killed by the Volturi in New Moon

Invitations Only

It was often believed that a vampire could attack people in their own homes if they were invited in. A person's home was seen as his sanctuary and therefore offered protection from evil creatures. Once invited in the gateway has been opened and the vampire can come back in. In Buffy this trope is used, Angel is invited in Buffy's house but when he loses his soul and is evil she uses a spell to restore the protection of her house so he can't come in. If the vampires try to run into a house they are thrown back by an invisible force. In Vampire Diaries  this concept is also used, some vampires chose to hide in houses owned by humans so that rival vampires do not enter.If a vampire 'owns' a house or if the previous owner gives the house to the vampire then any person that said vampire has turned can enter that house. In True Blood vampires also have to be invited in, Sookie breaks up with Bill and evicts him from her house by saying 'I rescind my invitation' and Bill is pulled out of the house by an invisible force. In Let The Right One In, Eli tells Oscar that he must invite her in, he asks why and challenges her in asking what would happen if she just came in anyway. She does so and starts bleeding from every orifice and even the skin. She would have probably died if Oscar out of disgust and guilt hadn't said 'yes you can come in!' In Dracula the invitation concept is never mentioned and the vampire freely enters the house. It is implied that Dracula is able to enter Lucy's house because he already drank her blood when she was sleepwalking and he first bit her outside. In many early legends and in Slavic folklore most vampires attacked their own family members because they were able to enter into their own homes. 

This stereotype still works today and should stay because it portrays the invitation of evil into someone's home. It also plays on the concept that if a girl invites a vampire in she's inviting him in her bed. 

                                                             Eli beginning to bleed

Mirrors

According to folklore mirrors were seen as objects that would reveal a person's spiritual double and soul. So when people looked at mirrors they were relieved with the confirmation that they do have souls. It was believed that breaking a mirror would damage the soul and therefore create seven year's worth of bad luck.
It was often believed that evil beings cannot see themselves in mirrors, also due to the fact that they were 'too scary' to reflect on mirrors or their reflection would shatter mirrors. Vampires or evil beings were considered 'soul less' so had nothing to reflect. The mirror would be an eternal reminder of the vampire's condition and damnation.This was used in Dracula, Harker shaves while looking at himself in the mirror and turns around to notice the count but sees that the count has no reflection on the mirror. The Count complains that mirrors were objects of vanity and broke it.This was used in Buffy and Angel, the Fright Night films and The Fearless Vampire Hunters. This trope was effectively broken in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, in the film the vampires can be seen in mirrors. According to Rice, 'although vampires have certain supernatural attributes, they existed in the same physical universe as mortals and generally had to conform to the same physical laws, including those of optics.' In her novels the vampires are able to see themselves and admire their new physical changes after they were turned.This trope is no longer a special effects' supervisor's nightmare to edit the reflection out. In True Blood, Sookie asks about the mirror thing because obviously vampires can be seen in mirrors, Bill explains that they had to create the mythology to make humans fear them and mostly to hide themselves. It makes sense in explaining why vampires are so beautiful, they are able  to take care of their complexions and fashion sense. If they weren't able to see themselves they would probably look so ugly or so out of style! The whole crazy notion of reflection evolved to the point that vampires couldn't be filmed. that was used in the remake of Fright Night, Dracula 2000, and Being Human. I'm glad that this is rarely used now because it became ridiculous. This cliche is of course cleverly and hilariously used in the recent film What we do in the Shadows as the vampires are unable to see their reflections, dress in their era's clothing and have no fashion sense. 

Angel can't see himself in the mirror, how does he shave then?

Garlic

It is often believed that vampires hate garlic, it's a classic method of protection. It would be placed in the mouth of a vampire, used to seal keyholes, doors and windows, worn as necklaces and even rubbed on livestock.
It could have originated from ancient Egypt where it was believed to have healing powers. It was believed to protect from the plague and supernatural creatures. In Slavic culture it was used to prevent evil such as witches and sorcerers from entering a house or oneself from demonic possession. St Andrew was believed to have been the first person to give garlic to humanity. In Romania it was believed and still today that someone who didn't like garlic was a vampire. Garlic had to be put in a coffin along with the dead person to prevent him from returning as a vampire. In Asian countries such as China and Malaysia people would rub garlic on their bodies to prevent vampire attacks. Garlic has always been prized for its well known and sometimes poorly understood blood purifying and immune-boosting properties. Scientists point that garlic contains a high concentration of sulphur-like compounds which make it effective as an antibacterial and anti-fungal agent. It is obvious that superstitious pre-science societies felt the need to use garlic as a remedy when they believed that diseases where caused by dark forces. These days garlic has re-emerged in the movement of alternative medicine

In most vampire fiction garlic is seldom used, vampires hate the smell mostly because of their heightened senses. This is the case in True Blood. It was made very popular in Dracula as a protection method. In the novel, Van Helsing places garlic flowers in Lucy's room to prevent another vampire attack but Lucy's mother who was oblivious to the vampire threat removed the flowers because of the smell and poor Lucy was attacked again. Stoker introduced garlic as a vampire deterrent because he was inspired by the folklore of Romania that mentioned its use. 

Though it will always be a classic stereotype, it is not very popular anymore, it proved ineffective in the film The Lost Boys and Stefan in Vampire Diaries finds it quite delicious. 

Hypnotism

One of the coolest stereotypes of being a vampire, wouldn't you want to control humans with your hypnotic powers? In Buffy it's not used a lot, Drusilla hypnotizes and kills Kendra the slayer and seems to be the only one with that power. In Vampire Diaries it's called compulsion and used a lot. Sometimes vampires use it to 'calm' the victim and make him or her docile and easier to kill.  Other times, the vampire will chose not to kill the victim and 'compel' them to forget about the attack. Under compulsion a human is entirely under a vampire's control,they can manipulate people and make them do anything. In True Blood it's similar but called glamouring, Sookie is immune to it. In Dark Shadows Barnabas Collins hypnotizes people to tell him things and to manipulate them. This is still effective in many films and TV shows as it deals with the 'super powers' of the vampires and most fans love those. 

Barnabas Collins hypnotizing someone using his hand.

Shape-shifting
It was commonly believed that vampires are able to transform into animals to hide or escape. Dracula transforms into a dog and mist but the common choice is a bat. The flying mammal has always been associated with darkness, death and the supernatural. In earth sciences, bats play an important part in the ecosystem because they control the population of insects. 

The vampire bat which is native to South America, belongs to the family 'Desmodontidae', much like its fantastic counterpart it attacks its victims during sleep and drinks the blood. It most commonly attacks sleeping livestock, but recent deforestation and human impact has made it  desperate to look for other blood sources, such as humans. The realistic and sad consequence from the attack is the spread of the rabies virus. A vampire bat stealthily crawls toward the sleeping victim and picks a place where the skin is unprotected. It painlessly breaks the skin with its small razor-sharp incisors and licks the blood. It possesses an anticoagulant in its saliva that scientists are studying today for future developments in medicine.The blood keeps flowing and the bat is finished with its meal after 20 minutes, the animal is so bloated that it has trouble flying. The first discovery of vampire bats was made in 1565 by Benzoni who made the discovery in Costa Rica. He tells of stories of people being bitten on their toes while they slept.

 A vampire bat or Desmodus rotundus


Here is some additional info about vampire bats.

The appearance of a bat always gave an unsettling impression to people. Bat winged demons have always been depicted in religious iconography as dark travesties of angels. The idea of possessing wings and flying has always captured the imagination of humans. Freud states that flying dreams are sex dreams, dreamlike images of flying monsters represent dangerous or forbidden sexuality- something very familiar in the vampire genre.

The animals that Dracula turns into are significant in folklore and superstition. Bats have always been feared as well as dogs. Shape shifting is an interesting trope related to 'super powers' but seldom used. Only in cartoons such as Hotel Transylvania, Adventure Time, in the novel Dracula, and in Carmilla  where she transforms into a cat-like creature. Transforming into animals is not mentioned in any TV show or modern fiction, perhaps it is too complicated to use in terms of special effects or just simply not interesting anymore. Exceptionally this trope is funnily explored in What we do in the Shadows where the character of Vladislaw, mentions his power of turning into all sorts of animals, images are shown oh him as animals but his bearded face remains, not a very effective power to hide with. 



Others:

Vervain

In The Vampire Diaries garlic has no effect on vampires, the show introduced a new plant that hurts vampires: Vervain. This nice smelling flowering plant burns vampires and makes them sick when they ingest it. It protects humans from compulsion and attacks. The plant has long been associated with divine and supernatural forces. It was used in magic rituals and ancient herbal medicine and protection against spells. This trope is a new re-invention of the plant that protects against vampires. 

Wolfs bane or Aconitum is a plant used in poisons and traditional Chinese medicine, it was used as a poison for wolves and associated in folklore and superstition as a potion to cure or slow the process of lycanthropy, basically a remedy for werewolves. In the show The Vampire Diaries werewolves can be poisoned and hurt just like vampires but with the plant Wolfs bane. It seems all supernatural creatures have weaknesses to different plants. This trope works as it rejects garlic as a repellent and uses flowers that most people have almost never heard of. 

                                                                Vervain as a flower

                       Dried vervain placed in a necklace to be worn around the neck for protection

                                                     Wolfs bane or Aconitum Variegatum



Coffins, Crypts and catacombs

The coffin, crypt or catacomb is the vampire's traditional daytime retreat. The coffin has several symbolic meanings. Boxes or closed compartments suggest hiding and living in secret or waiting patiently for a great reveal, hence the easy opening of the door. The coffin may also be a symbol of a mother's womb, a mysterious transition between life and death.

 In 19th century Gothic fiction a vampire would sleep in a coffin. Louis and Lestat 'sleep together' in a coffin until Louis gets his own. In modern day vampire fiction, coffins are too passe and rarely used because the modern vampire prefers a bed. In Twilight  Edward does not need a bed because he does not sleep. In Buffy crypts are the new vampire 'cribs' so are abandoned hotels in Los Angeles like in Angel. In The Vampire Diaries  and The Originals the main vampire characters use coffins to put away their siblings when they have been punished. The punishment: being daggered and turning into a husk, the vampire comes back after the dagger is removed.

                                                              Spike in his crypt

Conclusion:

Most of these tropes and stereotypes still work for entertainment purposes while others have lost their purposes and are no longer popular. Many sterotypes are still important such as blood-drinking, immortality and major weaknesses because they shape the vampire. Without those the genre that fans are familiar with would be completely recreated and that wouldn't be entertaining. Some tropes can be recreated and reinvented cleverly (matter of opinion) just like Meyers created the 'sparkle' factor and the Vervain in Vampire Diaries.

Here is a  hilarious clip from 'What we do in the Shadows' where Viago (Taika Waititi) and Wladislaw (Jemaine Clement) explain some facts about vampires.

References:

. Montague. C. (2010)  Vampires: From Dracula to Twilight- The Complete Guide to Vampire Mythology, Chartwell Books.

. Melton, Gordon J. (2010) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Visible Ink Press

. Marigny, Jean. (2010) Sang Pour Sang: Le Reveil des Vampires. Découvertes Gallimard 

.Skall, D. J. (2006) Vampires: Encounters with the Undead. Black Dog & Leventhal, New York.