Line #126 Main/VampiresSleepInCoffins


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4	[[quoteright:320:[[Film/DraculaAD1972 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wallpaper_vampire_monster_horror_coffin_dracula1.jpg]]]]
5
6	->'''Max:''' Well, you see, 99, according to the legend of the vampire, ridiculous though it may seem, vampires always sleep in their coffins. \
7	'''99:''' Why would they do that, Max? \
8	'''Max:''' Well, if you go around biting people on the neck, I guess you'll do just about everything.
9	-->-- ''Series/GetSmart'', "Weekend Vampire"
10
11	An old convention around vampires is the idea that these creatures of the night sleep in coffins during the day. The reason for this is fairly simple: one of the most commonly-given origins for vampiric myths is unusually pristine corpses being named sleeping vampires and blamed for local misfortune, and where else would one find those than in a coffin?
12
13	This trope works for several reasons, primarily to emphasize that they are members of [[TheUndead the living dead]] so their deviancy is naturally [[AnOddPlaceToSleep reflected in their sleeping habits]]. Additionally, coffins are a good way to keep out that pesky sunlight that tends to [[WeakenedByTheLight cause bad sunburns to vampires]]. On the downside, this might make the vampire more vulnerable to being attacked by someone with a WoodenStake.
14
15	A related stock move is the PivotalWakeup, a specific way that vampires get out of their coffins once they wake up.
16
17	As with any other VampireTropes, this one is [[OurVampiresAreDifferent prone to being played with or avoided]] as much as it is played straight.
18
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Advertising]]
25	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09HgzSr08po this commercial]] for Duracell batteries, a toy vampire powered by a Duracell battery awakens from his coffin after sleeping in there for three years, which the announcer uses to describe the shelf life of the then-new-and-improved Duracell battery.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29	* ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'':
30	** Alucard the vampire sleeps in his special coffin when he needs to rest; doing so also recharges his energy as most of his powers are sealed within the coffin.
31	** The new vampire Seras Victoria is issued a coffin, and is locked in it during the flight to Argentina in one episode as she's too young to resist sunlight or cross running water like Alucard can.
32	* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Myotismon/Vamdemon, a vampire Digimon ArcVillain, sleeps in a coffin in his castle. After his forces have invaded Tokyo, it's shown that he's taken his coffin along with him for the ride.
33	* ''Anime/{{Nightwalker}}'': The final episode shows Shido and Riho sleeping in a coffin together. Guni then closes the door and puts a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door for them.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* ''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight'': Requiem sleeps in a coffin in his private quarters on ''Resurrection''. He also uses it for sex when he is reunited with Rebecca.
38	* Averted in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Cassidy has never slept in a coffin, as vampires here have no connection to religion (they burn in sunlight and need to drink blood, but animal blood is fine). He later runs into a fellow vampire who invokes as many of the ClassicalMovieVampire traits as he can despite none of them being actually necessary (and some of them aren't possible, like turning into a bat). When this vampire offers him a place to sleep for the day, Cassidy is outright ''offended'' at being offered a coffin, and on being told there aren't actually any beds commanders the vampire's couch.
39	* ''ComicBook/FiendsOfTheEasternFront'': Captain Constanta and his vampire brigade rest in coffins during the day, when they are ferried around in a truck by [[TheRenfield their servant Cringu]].
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Fan Works]]
43	* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': From ''[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dungeon-keeper-ami-sailor-moon-dungeon-keeper-story-only-thread.30066/page-4#post-6355746 Invasion Planning]]'':
44	-->'''Ami''': ''"True. But tell me, where do vampires sleep?"''\
45	'''Jered''': ''"Coffins."''
46	* Creator/AAPessimal suggested that on the Literature/{{Discworld}}, vampires in the Discworld's Scandinavia would be few and far between in a society where funerals are done by settling light to a boat and pushing the blazing coffin out to sea. He suggested this would raise several practical difficulties for a vampire.
47	* ''Fanfic/NotTheIntendedUseZantetsukenReverse'': In Chapter 16, a vampire wants to do this trope:
48	--> He wondered if he could get a coffin.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
52	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', this is subtly referenced. Priya is a fan of ParanormalRomance novels and tends to act like she's a character in one. When she lies down on Tyler's roof she crosses her arms on her chest and keeps her legs together with her feet pointed straight up exactly as if she was a vampire sleeping in a coffin.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
56	* The Creator/BelaLugosi ''Film/{{Dracula\|1931}}'' films popularized the trope.
57	* Mocked in Creator/MelBrooks' ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'', with a scene where Dracula levitates majestically from his coffin only to bang his head on a low-hanging chandelier.
58	* ''Film/FrightNight1985'': The vampire Jerry Dandrige sleeps in a coffin during the day.
59	* ''Film/FrightNight2NewBlood'': Charlie tries to hide in Gerri's coffin to witness her next BloodBath ritual. She notices and tries to eat him before he narrowly escapes by using his camera flash against her.
60	* In ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'', Count von Krolock and his son sleep in wooden coffins while the rest of the vampires sleep in stone crypts.
61	* ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'', has the vampire roommates sleeping in coffins, with the 8000 year old vampire [[LooksLikeOrlok Petyr]] sleeping in a stone coffin. One scene has Viago place a picture of a woman he loved years ago inside his coffin, and then the coffin lid shakes violently, implying that Viago is "busy".
62	* ''Film/CountYorga'' naturally did this. Though in the first movie, he didn't have any coffins for his brides, so instead had them sleep on stone tablets in his throne room until he awakened them to do his bidding. In the sequel (which takes place in a separate continuity) had him manage to give his brides proper coffins within his throne room while his own is in a separate room.
63	* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in ''Film/BramStokersDracula''. We only see Dracula in his coffin once in the film and that's when Harker sees it when trying to find a way out of the castle and seeing him rise out of it. Past that point, we only see Dracula crammed into boxes of Earth from Transylvania when sleeping. His brides likewise aren't shown sleeping in coffins when Helsing finds their chambers late in the film, all of them sleeping on stone slabs and using their dresses as covers of sorts.
64	* Invoked and Subverted in ''Film/TheLostBoys''. When Sam and the Frog Brothers go vampire hunting, they are startled to find them hanging like bats in a cave. Sam demands to know why when the Frogs told him there would be coffins. Edgar Frog lamely covers by saying "That's what this place is, one big coffin!"
65	* ''Film/CountDracula1977'' had Harker stumbling upon the resting quarters of Dracula and his three brides, all of them sleeping in coffins.
66	* ''{{Film/Vamps}}'': And so do humans sleeping with said vampires if they're in on the {{Masquerade}}.
67	* ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'': Lestat opens the film getting out of his coffin, having been woken up by an amateur hard rock band playing next door. However, he sleeps in beds for the remainder.
68	* Done for RuleOfSymbolism in ''Film/Daredevil2003''. The title character isn't a vampire, but he does do his vigilante work at night, and sleeps in a coffin-like sensory deprivation tank ([[BlessedWithSuck so he can get to sleep despite his]] SuperHearing) inside a crypt.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* The rules in Creator/BramStoker's original ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' novel are rather more complicated. Dracula can walk around in the daylight unharmed, but at the cost of losing most of his powers (most notably shapeshifting), and still has to rest sometime. He can only do so in a coffin containing soil from his homeland, and pouring holy water in the coffins ruins them for his use. A large part of the early hunt for Dracula involves eliminating all his coffins and safehouses in England.
73	* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', vampires sleep in coffins if they can, but they don't need to (and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent they're not actually undead in any sense]], they only do it because it provides more protection against sunlight than a bed).
74	* Zigzagged in ''Literature/TheDraculaTape'' by Creator/FredSaberhagen. In those stories, vampires can only rest on the soil of their homeland, and coffins are simply a common means of holding and transporting that soil. Dracula himself at various times uses coffins, large travel trunks, and sealed plastic mattress pads, all containing the necessary soil from his homeland.
75	* In the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' {{Gamebook\|s}} ''Literature/VaultOfTheVampire'', the vampire you are hunting, Count Reiner Heydrich, keeps several coffins in various locations around his castle. A major part of the quest is destroying them so he does not have anywhere else to flee to but the nearest coffin during the final battle.
76	* In [[Literature/GoldenDragonFantasyGamebooks Crypt of the Vampire]], another {{Gamebook\|s}}, you're supposed to fight the Vampire FinalBoss and kill him with a magic sword. However, if you didn't find the sword but you do have a crucifix, you can keep him at bay, run down the corridor behind him. There, you find his coffin in a secluded room, and can throw the lantern on it, destroying the coffin and the Vampire with him.
77	* In his book ''Dave Barry Turns 40'', Creator/DaveBarry gives some advice for looking young:
78	-->''Step One is never go out in the daylight. Your role model here is the vampire community, whose members keep their skin attractively smooth and waxy for thousands of years. I am not suggesting here that you should live in some dank castle, sleeping in a coffin by day and venturing forth at night to drink human blood; top dermatologists agree that there's no reason why you can't keep your coffin in your current home.''
79	* In the ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' series, sleeping in coffins in one of the quirks of Dracula's bloodline. Other varieties of vampire have different sleeping arrangements.
80	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
81	** In ''Literature/ReaperMan'', Arthur Winkings and his wife start sleeping in a crypt after they're turned into vampires, but it's implied that they're only doing it because they've heard that's what vampires do and not because it's an actual necessity.
82	** In ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', we learn that Mrs. Cake has started renting room in her house to members of the undead community, including a vampire who sleeps in a coffin lined with dirt, but with the addition of gravel to help with his bad back.
83	* Ann Hodgman's ''Literature/MyBabysitterIsAVampire'': Vampires don't actually ''have'' to sleep in coffins, but they do have to sleep in the dirt they were buried in. Vincent Graver keeps that dirt in his coffin for conveniences' sake. The vampires in Castle Vladestan in ''My Babysitter Goes Bats'' also sleep in their coffins.
84	* In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', titular Phantom, while not a vampire [[spoiler: or a phantom, for that matter]], usually sleeps in the coffin.
85	* Being a ClassicalMovieVampire, Barlow from ''Literature/SalemsLot'' does this. His newly turned minions simply sleep out of the sun (basesments, attics, under the floor, etc).
86	* Zig-zagged in ''Literature/JohannesCabal'': [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Horst]] makes do with any closed container at hand, including a large trunk for most of the first book, but when a CardCarryingVillain league tries to recruit him in ''Literature/TheBrothersCabal'', it offers him a suite with a proper coffin on a bier.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
90	* Defied in the ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}''.
91	-->'''Angel:''' Vampires don't sleep in coffins. [[YourVampiresSuck It's a misconception made popular by hack writers and ignorant media]]. In fact, you know, we can and do move around during the day! As long as we avoid direct sunlight! GOT IT?!
92	** Though this borders on HypocriticalHumor, as both Angel and Spike spend large portions of the series living in crypts.
93	* ''Series/ForeverKnight''
94	** When a PolicePsychic has a vision of Nick Knight sleeping in a coffin he explains that he doesn't, though most her visions are true. Nick just sleeps in a bed (and even a sunbed), or the trunk of his car when he's caught away from his home in daylight.
95	** While hiding out at the [[VampiresOwnNightclubs Raven]], Don Schanke decides to check out the CreepyBasement and is surprised to find a coffin there. Janette stops him just in time from opening it, as there's a vampire lying in it (she explains away the coffin by saying that some members of her nightclub have unusual fetishes).
96	* ''Series/GetSmart'': In "Weekend Vampire", the VillainOfTheWeek is an assassin who's [[ScoobyDooHoax pretending to be a vampire to scare people]]. The coffin lid is actually the entrance to a SecretUndergroundPassage, because he knows no-one will dare open it.
97	* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'':
98	** At the vampire family's townhouse, Lestat de Lioncourt, Louis de Pointe du Lac and Claudia sleep in coffins during the daytime.
99	** Averted with Louis in his Dubai penthouse because its shielded windows block sunlight. The following quote is from "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder In Throes of Increasing Wonder...]]":
100	--->'''Daniel Molloy''': That's the sun out there. Where's your coffin?\
101	'''Louis''': You're standing in it.
102	** Also averted with Armand in 2022 because he's a DaywalkingVampire thanks to his [[StrongerWithAge advanced age]]. "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S2E1WhatCanTheDamnedReallySayToThe What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned]]" affirms that he and Louis sleep in a bed.
103	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DNtxOO0DI&t=1m11s In the extended Season 2 trailer,]] the ''Théâtre des Vampires'' coven rest in coffins.
104	* ''Series/LasVegas'': In one episode the Montecito is hosting a group of clients who like to pretend that they're vampires. At first Sam Marquez is pretty curious about their private parties, but when she sees the coffins in their room, she just calls them lame.
105	* An episode of ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' ups this trope's importance, where the vampire actually needs her coffin in order to survive; once the heroes push it into an incinerator, the vampire [[NoOntologicalInertia instantly dies]].
106	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E21 Red Snow]]", Titov, the mayor of the small Siberian town which has become a [[TheGulag gulag]], stores the vampires' coffins in the town's disused, boarded up church. They are empty during the winter months when there is no sunlight from October to April, but Titov and others protect the vampires during the summer months when the coffins are occupied during the day. In exchange, the vampires protect the townspeople from dangerous criminals and animals.
107	* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': Juliet and her parents sleep in coffins. Juliet's is decorated with roses and butterflies, while her parents' coffins are hidden behind a wall.
108	* ''Series/TrueBlood'' plays with it a little. While many vampires sleep in coffins, an enclosed space will serve the same purposes. Bill sleeps under the floorboards of his old family home during the day.
109	In Young Dracula , the vampires do sleep in coffins during the day and come out at night .
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Manhua]]
113	* Spoofed in one ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' story which has Master Q spending a night in a haunted castle and meeting it's lord, a stereotypical western-style vampire. After the vampire reveals its intention to suck Master Q's blood, Master Q makes a bolt for it, leading to a slapstick ScoobyDoobyDoors-style chase culminating in Master Q accidentally stepping into the vampire's bedroom and breaking the coffin by stomping a hole on it's lid. The vampire lord even comments, "You broke my bed!"
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
117	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. In early versions of ''Advanced D&D'', vampires are required to rest in coffins (or similar containers) during daylight hours unless they are deep underground.
118	* A variant in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'': Members of Clan Tzimisce don't need to sleep in coffins, but they ''do'' need to sleep in two handfuls of their native soil or be weakened. It's often noted that coffins are one of the easiest ways to keep all that soil together.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Video Games]]
122	* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'': When half-vampire Alucard uses a save point, it summons forth a coffin around him, invoking this trope.
123	* Buttercup in ''VideoGame/CuteBite'' sleeps in a coffin by default, but after having spent many years locked in one until she lost her memory, she's not always happy about it. Depending on her personality type, she may demand the right to take naps in an actual bed.
124	* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterPC'' have various spawners, machines that create different monsters, in each levels. Vampire spawners appropriately enough resembles the classical vampire coffins, complete with crosses on their fronts.
125	* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
126	** In ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', if you have expansions, vampires can sleep in coffins, but vampires can also sleep in normal beds.
127	** In ''VideoGame/TheSims4 Vampires'' expansion pack, vampires have the option of sleeping in beds or coffins, unless they have a weakness that restricts them to coffins.
128	* Zig-zagged in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', it is not required for vampires to sleep in a coffin, and some of them, such as Hert and Sybille Stentor, can sleep on a bed perfectly fine. But some vampires, such as Alva, and those living in Castle Volkihar and Redwater Den, do sleep in coffins. You can also find several coffins littered all over Broken Fang Cave, although they're not usable. You can however sleep in those found in Castle Volkihar and Redwater Den even when you're not a vampire. With the ''Hearthfire'' expansion installed, installing furniture in a house while playing as a vampire character gives the option of adding a coffin in the basement, which can be used in the same way as a bed.
129	* ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'': A vampire that has been plaguing Rivertown sleeps in a coffin hidden in a cave behind a locked grate.
130	* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Remilia Scarlet insists that she would never sleep in a coffin, saying they're for dead people. [[BrickJoke Eventually, however]], we're shown her actual bedroom, and it contains an elaborate four-poster bed... with a coffin on it.
131	* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodnet}}'', vampiric party members can only rest in a coffin (actually a sarcophagus you steal from the museum) lined with dirt from their home.
132	* In ''VideoGame/{{Witchery}}'', players afflicted with vampirism have the ability to build and sleep in coffins in order to skip to nighttime, just like how a normal player can skip the night with a bed. They can still sleep in normal beds, though. ''[[SpiritualSuccessor Bewitchment]]'' subverts it, as it allows any players to sleep through the day in a coffin regardless of whether or not they're a vampire.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Webcomics]]
136	* That's what Jerome from ''Webcomic/HungryCity'' is doing at the start of the story... and then he wakes up to a ZombieApocalypse.
137	* Cheryl and Charles had a comic in ''Webcomic/VampireHusband'' [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/vampire-husband/coffin-shopping/viewer?title_no=677887&episode_no=22 shopping for coffins for Charles.]]
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Web Original]]
141	* In ''WebAnimation/MinilifeTV'', Snowball the vampire sleeps in the very Easy-Bake Coffin he was created in until Season 5 when he gets a new one.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Western Animation]]
145	* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': Alucard spent his recuperation in a coffin, and levitates out of it when Trevor and Sypha find him.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/ErnestLeVampire'': Ernest always awoke from his nightmares by [[CatapultNightmare sitting up]] in [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ernest_the_vampire_wide_eyes.jpg his coffin]], before then closing it and going back to sleep.
147	* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' episode "Chi of the Vampire", while the Chans are visiting an [[HauntedCastle old castle]] in China, Jade opens up a coffin and accidentally awakens a sleeping [[ChineseVampire Jiangshi]], which then roams around to attack them.
148	[[/folder]]

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