The REAL Monsters of Halloween

More of this Feature • Part 2: The Mummy and the Werewolf • Part 3: Witches     Related Resources • Brief History About the Dracul • Howard Carter and the Curse of the Mummy • The Wolf Inside    From Other Guides • Pagan/Wiccan Religion • Dracula: The Real Story

Think of Halloween and your mind conjures images of ghosts, vampires, witches and monsters. Our modern versions of them have largely been crafted by popular literature and, more influentially, the movies. But like many fantastic characters of myth and lore, they have a basis in reality.

Sometimes the true stories of these creatures that haunt our imaginations are just as weird and amazing as their fictional incarnations:

Dracula/Vampires
Today's vampire persona - the elegant blood-sucking creature of the night - comes primarily from Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's story, in turn, was based loosely on the real-life Vlad Dracula (1431-1476), a prince who actually did live in Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. The name Dracula is derived from a Romanian word that means "devil" or dragon." Obviously, Vlad Dracula was not a vampire, but Stoker undoubtedly used the historical figure as the basis of his vampire story because of Vlad's bloodthirsty style of dealing with those who opposed him. A Brief History About the Dracul states: "Vlad's brutal manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished earned him the nickname 'Tepes' or 'the Impaler,' the common name by which he is known today. Stories of Vlad's cruelties were circulating through Europe. His end came at the hand of an assassin at some point toward the end of December 1476 or early January 1477."

The legend of the vampire predates Bram Stoker and even Vlad the Impaler. Vampires Thru the Ages traces them back to 1047 and a document referring to a Russian Prince as "Upir Lichy" or Wicked Vampire. A century later, Walter Map's De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampire-like beings in England. Waves of vampire hysteria swept through Prussia and Hungary in the 1700s, fueled perhaps by disease, ignorance and maybe a psychotic serial killer or two.

The tradition of the vampire has been firmly established into our modern culture by Hollywood, television and the highly popular novels of Anne Rice.

Are there real vampires? No. There are small cults of people who call themselves "vampires," like to dress in "goth" fashion, avoid the daylight and might even drink human blood. But there's nothing supernatural about these people - maybe just something a bit... odd.

The Frankenstein Monster
Most people are aware that the story of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created come from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, wife of the acclaimed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. What many people do not know is that Victor Frankenstein was based on the real-life Johann Konrad Dippel (1673-1734), a kind of 18th century mad scientist who was born in 1673 in Germany at - believe it or not - Castle Frankenstein.

Educated as a physician, Dippel set up a laboratory at Castle Frankenstein near Darmstadt, Germany where he would be free to conduct his bizarre experiments. There's no record of whether or not he had a hunchbacked assistant named Igor, but Dippel (who often went by the name Konrad Frankensteina) spent a lot of his time with his hobby of alchemy - a popular pursuit of the day. Alchemy is a kind pseudoscientific experimentation with the elements - crazy chemistry - whose ultimate challenge was to be able to turn lead into gold. Like Victor Frankenstein, Dippel was also fascinated by the possibility of immortality through scientific means. He really did use the parts of butchered animals and exhumed human corpses in his vain attempt to "engender life in the dead," in his own words.

Unlike his literary and cinematic "decedents," Dippel did not rig up the body parts to elaborate lightning-powered gizmos and spark generators. Rather he boiled everything - skin, muscle, bone, blood, hair and organs - in large vats. When the surrounding community got wind of what Dippel was up to, maybe they didn't storm his castle with torches, shovels and rakes, but they did kick him out of town.

Shelly undoubtedly based her novel on Dippel's antics, since it is documented that she visited Castle Frankenstein in 1814 when she eloped with Percy. The ruins of Castle Frankenstein can still be seen today.

The Frankenstein monster is one of the most enduring images of Halloween, our most popular images of which come from James Whale's 1931 film and Boris Karloff's unforgettable portrayal. The story has been sequelled and retold in numerous movies, including some memorable Hammer films starring Peter Cushing and, of course, Mel Brooks' hilarious spoof, Young Frankenstein.

Are there any real-life man-made monsters? Not yet. But with our growing knowledge of the human genome, the means to manipulate DNA and our newly acquired ability to clone living creatures... who knows? Just recently it was announced that a company in Melbourne, Australia had succeeded in creating an embryo that is half human, half pig. Why they wanted to do such a thing was not revealed in the news story, but if such creations are now possible, who knows what real-life horrors await us in the near future.

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