In Anne Rice's debut novel, "Interview with the Vampire," she writes into existence a type of vampire unlike any we'd encountered before, one who needs to drink blood to keep their immortal body thriving, but hates the idea of doing so. For Louis de Pointe du Lac, the first reluctant vampire, the act of drinking isn't a dark gift, it's an un-kickable addiction.
Prior to this novel, which was released in 1976, what we knew of vampires came from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), and later adaptations of that source material brought about by F. W. Murnau's German silent film, "Nosferatu," (1922) and Tod Browning's "Dracula," (1931), starring Bela Lugosi. These vampires, although lovesick, charming and seductive in their own right, lacked the humanity of Rice's — and their depictions would be much harder to tie thematically to addiction because in order for a character to be painted as an addict they have to try to quit whatever it is they're addicted to and find that they cannot. The thought of going "vegetarian," as Louis calls it, substituting animal blood for human blood, would have never crossed Dracula's mind.
