Vampires in Boston

[samthereaderman.livejournal.com]

Many of you in the community are aware of the endless rumors about vampires in Sunnydale. In vain we who take a more scientific approach to the matter of Sunnydale say stories like these spread without any basis, that high school students spread stories based on mere rumor, or even that authorities over-react to the presence of a few Goths.

Well, here's a story from the Boston Globe that shows how this can happen.  Boston Latin officials seek to quash 'vampire' rumors.

Note: No real vampire at all.  But I'm sure some here will say that this is another example of a coverup, that the federal government has the initiative to send in their monster fighting army team, or even that they have faith there is a "vampire slayer" in Boston.  Hogwash.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

You can never rule out media-stirred panics, of course, but it really doesn't account for much of the Sunnydale weirdness - even real vampires would barely be a blip on the radar when you look at the other things that went on, such as the high school explosion, freak weather, FJMS (False Jonathan Memory Syndrome), black helicopters, etc. etc.

Could it be some sort of media source that led to rumours? Were there any vampire shows on US TV around the late nineties / early years of this century? The only one I can think of easily is the show with the vampire cop, Forever Knight, which doesn't really seem to be the sort of thing that would arouse superstitious rumours. I think I also heard of a TV show based on the Vampire role playing game, but I don't know much about it. And the British show Ultraviolet was around that time, but I don't think that ever reached the USA. Apart from that you have Anne Rice and the Anita Blake books, again not really obvious as a source that would lead to such widespread rumours.

Media sources

[samthereaderman.livejournal.com]

Why limit it to TV (although I think Kindred the Embraced aired in 1996)? The only vampire show on TV now is the HBO series True Blood yet the Boston Globe clip to which I linked shows that rumors about vampires in high school are active today. Yes, this Boston panic is probably due to the popularity of the Twilight books and the recent movie but in the 1990s, there was Interview with a Vampire (with both Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, I'm sure it was popular with the high school set), a 1993 remake of Dracula, and even the first Blade movie.

As to the other things you mention, certainly explosions have mundane causes and there are plenty of stories of black helicopters all over the country. I'm not sure what you mean by freak weather. I heard of a brief snowstorm but no other incidents. I admit, you got me at False Jonathan Memory Syndrome except this is a worldwide phenomeon (Yes, there was a Jonathan in Sunnydale who tracks closely with the false memories but the false memories happened everywhere.)

[rangermatthias.livejournal.com]

There was also a revival of the tv series Dark Shadows in the early 90's. Very "Goth" moody.