Thanksgiving Special: Romanticizing the Vampire & the Gothic Story

Welcome back for a special bonus episode! Rebecca and Hannah take a break from cooking a Gothic Victorian feast for their family’s Thanksgiving to climb onto their soapbox about recent adaptions of classic novels, parse the various definitions of Gothic (and how much it has to do with “vibes”), get to the bottom of the Victorian obsession with the occult, and put out call for any choreographers who want to collab on a Carmilla ballet. Plus, they discuss the menu for their feast in mouthwatering detail.Come vamps, join us around the campfire.Media mentioned in this episode:Fiction* The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, 1764* Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, 1818* “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori, 1819* Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847* Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872* Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897* The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 1959* The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, 1985* Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, 2005* House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson, 2022* Forged in Blood by Sadie Kincaid, 2024* Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis, 2025Film* Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1992* Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, 2023* Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023* Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, 2024* ‘Salem’s Lot, directed by Gary Dauberman, 2024* Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, 2025* Dracula, directed by Luc Besson, 2025* “Wuthering Heights”, directed by Emerald Fennell, 2026TV* “The Ghost of Suite 613,” The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, 2005* Interview with the Vampire, 2022-Visual Art* The Artist’s Despair Before the Grandeur of Ancient Ruins, Henry Fuseli, 1778* The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781* Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818Ballet* Giselle, American Ballet Theatre, 2025* Dracula, Colorado Ballet, 2025Additional Reading* Isabella Beeton, Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book, 1861* Alessandra Pino and Ella Buchan, A Gothic Cookbook: Hauntingly Delicious Recipes Inspired by 13 Classic Tales, 2024* Sarah Perry, “The Draw of the Gothic,” Paris Review (2018)* Hephzibah Anderson, “Why we are living in ‘Gothic times,’” BBC (2021)For podcast updates, vampire memes, and consumption suggestions, follow us on Instagram! @vampirecampfirepodTo understand the aesthetic of this episode, follow us on Pinterest, @vampirecampfirepodThis episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman.Note: We’re an affiliate of Bookshop.org and earn a small commission if you purchase through our links — allowing you to support indie bookstores and an indie podcast at the same time! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/subscribe