YMMV / The Vampyre

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Aubrey's fascination with Ruthven comes off like a crush to many modern readers.
• Complete Monster: Lord Ruthven is the original aristocratic vampire, and a piece of work in both the short story and theatrical adaptations:
  • In John Polidori's short story The Vampyre, Ruthven is a sexual and psychological predator who befriends protagonist Aubrey and uses him as bait to draw in women. He murders Aubrey's Love Interest Ianthe, and then fakes his own death, making Aubrey swear to tell no one. When Aubrey returns home, he finds Ruthven engaged to his sister, whom he plans to kill. Aubrey finally violates his oath, leading to his death; the warning comes too late, and the servants find Aubrey's sister the day after the wedding, drained of blood.
  • Der Vampyr, by Heinrich Marschner: Lord Ruthven is a Satan worshipper, who must drink the blood of three women over a twenty-four hour period or forfeit his soul to Hell. He kills a girl named Janthe, then fakes his death after her father shoots him, making his friend Aubrey, who he once saved, keep his being a vampire a secret. The next day, Aubrey finds Ruthven has hypnotized his Love Interest Malwina's father into engaging them; he has also begun preying on a girl named Emmy. Ruthven kills Emmy, handing her soul over to his masters, then goes through with his plans to marry Malwina, while using his supposed friendship with Aubrey and the oath that the latter swore, to keep him from warning her and her father that Ruthven will kill her. In the end Ruthven is struck down by his own masters, moments before he can kill not only Malwina, but Aubrey too, whom he regards as a traitor for trying to stop Ruthven from killing his girlfriend.
  • The Vampire, by Alexandre Dumas: Lord Ruthven attaches himself to the party of Count Gilbert, murdering Gilbert's love Juana and enslaving Gilbert with a vow to him, competing against the being known as "the Ghoul", an entity who serves Satan like himself but has fallen for Gilbert. Ruthven seduces and murders Gilbert's sister while framing Gilbert as a madman, returning again to try to kill Gilbert's new love Antonia while glorying in the immortality he obtained from so many innocent lives.
• Genre Popularizer: Of vampire fiction.
• It Was His Sled: It's actually meant to be a secret that Lord Ruthven is a vampire despite the title. The assumption by audiences of the time would be that he was a Serial Killer pretending to be a vampire rather than the real thing.

---