History Main / FeralVampires

* ''Literature/IAmLegend'': Subverted. Protagonist Neville believes the vampires to be AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters. After being captured by them, he discovers that they are intelligent beings who see him as their equivalent of a vampire -- a remorseless monster who slaughters dozens in their sleep.

* ''Film/{{Blade}}'': Karen's ex-boyfriend Curtis Webb who after bitten by Quinn, gets turned into a feral 'ghoul', a rare defective vampire who will attack and feed on anyone including other vampires, though he is able to talk and remembers Karen and his relationship with her.

* ''Film/NearDark'' is the modern TropeMaker, born of its director's attempts to create a Western in a market with no demand for one. The film concerns a family of filthy redneck vampires who live out in the Oklahoma backwoods and prey on travellers. Unlike most example of this, the main vampirised character is sympathetic and grapples with his humanity and his hunger for blood.

* ''Series/TheStrain'' has the Strigoi. The Strigoi, apart from the intelligent ones like the Master, the Ancients, Quinlan and Eichhorst, are all predatory wild beasts without speech which only exist to drink blood, never having a purpose without the Masters guidance. They usually sleep communally in large piles during daylight hours like cats or dogs. The Feelers stand out the most, as they crawl on all fours like animals and communicate with clicking.

* The feral Vampyres in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''. Creatures than can be found in the Haunted Woods of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]] and in the God Wars Dungeon with the forces of Zamorak.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wargroove}}'' Vampires are winged, bat-like beings who live on fringes of society and hunt for blood in packs. They commonly nest in trees. The exception to this are the much rarer High Vampires (of which HeroUnit Sigrid is one) which resemble classical vampires instead.

* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'': lesser vampires are one of the first enemies fought in the game and they're barely more than lumbering, zombie-like creatures that posse little threat.

* ''Story of My Life'', the autobiography of Victorian writer Creator/AugustusHare, is probably best remembered for a sequence in which Hare recounts a vampire story told to him by a friend, a Cpt. Fisher. This story, "The Vampire of Croglin Grange" (or simply "The Croglin Vampire"), tells of a young female tenant of the captain's in the Cumbrian town of Croglin, who is repeatedly attacked in the night by a grotesque, {{mummy}}-like walking corpse. Eventually her brothers are able to track it to a local cemetery, where the townsfolk open a vault to find all the coffins but one have been gnawed to bones. In the remaining undisturbed coffin, they find the vampire, which they [[KillItWithFire burn]]. There's nothing of the romantic about this vampire, which comes across as an utterly inhuman, predatory ''thing''. The full story can be found [[https://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/GABC/The%20Vampire.pdf here]] if you're curious.

This trope is about vampires who are ''wild'' in some sense, be they outlaws, rural, or simply savage. They live a feral lifestyle outside of human society and are unlikely to be sympathetic, unless CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority or the NobleSavage are in play. In some cases, it's the result of a vampire [[HorrorHunger being driven insane by their need for blood]]. A setting with a VampireVarietyPack will likely have at least one species of vampire be feral by default.

It also makes more sense than the alternative, as [[FridgeLogic what peasant in their right mind would tolerate having a literal bloodsucking predator for a Lord or Lady]]?

* The vampires in ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' are animalistic in their mannerisms, being vicious and brutal in how they attack and feed on people. In fact, not including Barrow residents who have been recently turned, only their leader Marlow is ever shown speaking coherently (albeit in the vampires' BlackSpeech), the rest only snarling and howling.

* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' and its DirectToVideo sequels are set in the Titty Twister bar, a remote trucker bar used as a front for a vampire clan.

* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'': lesser vampires are one of the first enemies fought in the game and they're barely more that lumbering, zombie-like creatures that posse little threat.

* ''Series/TheStrain'' has the Strigoi. The Strigoi, apart from the intelligent ones like the Master, the Ancients, Quinlan and Eichhorst, are all predatory wild beasts without speech which only exist to drink blood, never having a purpose without the Masters guidance. They usually sleep communally in large piles during daylight hours like cats or dogs. The Feelers stand out the most, as they crawl on all fours like animals and communicate with clicking.

* As mentioned above, in Medieval vampire, lore vampires were seen as mindless, animalistic {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s with little or no remainder of their human personality.

* ''Story of My Life'', the autobiography of Victorian writer Creator/AugustusHare, is probably best remembered for a sequence in which Hare recounts a vampire story told to him by a friend, a Cpt. Fisher. This story, "The Vampire of Croglin Grange" (or simply "The Croglin Vampire"), tells of a young female tenant of the captain's in the Cumbrian town of Croglin, who is repeatedly attacked in the night by a grotesque, {{mummy}}-like walking corpse. Eventually her brothers are able to track it to a local cemetery, where the townsfolk open a vault to find all the coffins but one have been gnawed to bones. In the remaining undisturbed coffin, they find the vampire, which they [[KillItWithFire burn]]. There's nothing of the romantic about this vampire, which comes across as an utterly inhuman, predatory ''thing''.

This is a CyclicTrope -- before vampires were stereotyped as [[VampiresAreRich rich]], [[WickedCultured suave]] and [[VampiresAreSexGods erotic]], they were seen as bestial shambling corpses who could barely pass for human. LooksLikeOrlok is also a throwback to this perception of vampires. With the popularity of films like ''Film/NearDark'', ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' and ''Film/TheLostBoys'' and backlash against {{Friendly Neighbourhood| Vampire}} {{Vegetarian Vampire}}s, this trope is increasingly popular.

This trope is about vampires who are ''wild'' in some sense, be they outlaws, rural, or simply savage. They live a feral lifestyle outside of human society and are unlikely to be sympathetic, unless CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority or the NobleSavage are in play.

* As mentioned above, in Medieval vampire lore vampires were seen as mindless, animalistic {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s with little or no remainder of their human personality.

* The Necrach bloodline is a downplayed example. They all [[LooksLikeOrlok Look Like Orlok]] and shun the company of humans or the trappings of civilization and nobility, living alone in the wilderness. However, they do this out of practicality more than anything else -- Necrachs are scholars and researchers by nature and avoid mortals in order to avoid having their libraries and laboratories set on fire by angry mobs, and with their appearance it's impossible for them to live near mortals anyway.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has the Strigoi, a vampiric bloodline who cross this over with OurGhoulsAreCreepier. They are feral monsters living in lightless caverns and crypts and ruling over the ghouls who share the crypts with them. Strigoi characters are, however, still lucid enough to command armies in-game.
** The tabletop game also features Varghulfs and Vargheists, vampires of any bloodline who stop embracing the trappings of aristocracy (willingly in the former case, unwillingly in the latter) and subsequently end up devolving into feral, monstrous forms as a result. While still somewhat intelligent, they are too bestial and indulgent in their blood thirst to even function as army commanders and count as monsters in-game; Vargheists' desperate thirst for blood also gives them the [[TheBerserker "Frenzy" rule]].

''VideoGame/ElderScrollsVSkyrim'' has you face a Vampire named "Feral Vampire", however this vampire isn't wild and was actively plotting to use the Volkihar castle hounds against themselves as an act of revenge for exiling him.

* ''Film/TheLostBoys'' is as important as ''Film/NearDark'' to the emergence of this trope. The film is about the disappearance of two boys in a remote California town, and it quickly transpires that they have been transformed by a vampire biker gang.

Subtrope of OurVampiresAreDifferent and often of HillbillyHorrors. See also OurZombiesAreDifferent, as the two are often similar. Contrast ClassicalMovieVampire and VampiresAreSexGods.

This is a CyclicTrope -- before vampires were stereotyped as [[VampiresAreRich rich]], [[WickedCultured suave]] and [[VampiresAreSexGods erotic]], they were seen as bestial shambling corpses who could barely pass for human. LooksLikeOrlok is also a throwback to this perception of vampires.

* ''Film/NearDark'' is the modern TropeMaker, born of its director's attempts to create a Western in a market with no demand for one. The film concerns a family of filthy white trash vampires who live out in the Oklahoma backwoods and prey on travellers. Unlike most example of this, the main vampirised character is sympathetic and grapples with his humanity and his hunger for blood.