My two young boys love going to Costco. They love the two-seater cart, the samples, and there's usually something enormous to marvel at hanging from the ceiling. This spring and early summer, the enormous inflatable dinosaur water slide became an instant favorite. However, at our July Costco trip, we saw that the water slide had been taken down; replaced now with two larger-than-life figures in the middle of the store, looming over us as we enjoyed our samples and found our groceries. On one side, a werewolf with a tattered shirt and huge claws reached for us, his mouth open in a menacing roar. To his left stood what can only be described as a possessed pumpkin. Now, despite it being peak time for an impulsive water slide buy, our delightful dinosaur had been replaced by what my toddler called “a scary weird cat thing.” 

Thus, with the introduction of the scary weird cat thing at Costco, spooky season had officially begun. Spooky season, as I understand it, is the time to celebrate all things spooky, in honor of and inspired by Halloween, in the days, weeks (and sometimes months) leading up to it. Of course, we should not be surprised that the secular world has completely missed the point of All Hallows Eve or that we have utterly left behind the Catholic notion of memento mori. Spooky season certainly does not exist to remind you that you will die. Spooky season is about having fun being a little scared and scaring others. 

What did surprise me, as I was musing over the prolific use of bats in our library’s spooky decorations last year, is our culture’s complete misunderstanding of vampires. The paper bats scattered around the children’s area of the library aren’t meant to be a warning of imminent danger, as it is for those familiar with Dracula-like vampires. Instead of being frightening, “spooky” things like bats, witches, and ghosts are robbed of their power and glorified as amusement.  Naturally, there is plenty during Halloween time that is meant to be truly terrifying, but especially in areas focused on children, there is, instead, a soft introduction to the glorification of the gory, undead, and demonic through the fun of spooky season. 

Dracula, who is arguably the most famous vampire, is not meant to be spooky, as unfortunate cinematic reproductions have reduced him. Unlike the vampires of Twilight or Vampire Diaries, Dracula is not in need of someone to listen to him, to draw him out and love him for who he really is. No one will ever be capable of bringing out his good side because Dracula does not have a good side. Dracula is not misunderstood; he is evil. For readers of Bram Stoker’s original work, this is obvious. But for those only familiar with the movies, the waters have been muddied. However, in the world of the book, Dracula is the incarnation of evil. 

As the book begins, Jonathan Harker is on his way to Dracula’s lair. As he makes his way to his destination, he meets many of the local people. These men and women  try to warn him against continuing to Count Dracula; they whisper things like “satan,” “hell,” and “witch,” and frequently make the Sign of the Cross during the shared portion of their journey. Jonathan even notes in his journal to ask the Count about these superstitions. In our day, how many people have determined to regard all views on the demonic as superstitions? It is chilling to hear Jonathan plan to ask Dracula about the fear that surrounds him, especially as he learns the truth in a few pages. After coming face to face with Dracula, Jonathan comments: “And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill.” Dracula is an evil from a by-gone time, an evil that modernity, with all its conveniences, explanations, and rationality, had all but erased, at least superficially. The evil that Dracula represents does not fit into our modern views and therefore, we consider him to be merely a superstition, a peasant’s fear, irrational, and, most likely, fake. As Professor Van Helsing later says to Dr. Seward as he struggles  to understand: “Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.” Despite society’s best efforts, Dracula retains his power even in the modern age. Dracula, and the fight against him, reminds us that there are forces which the modern world cannot explain.

Dracula stands in stark contrast to the nebulous, fun, glorified, and supposedly harmless spooky season that has co-opted vampires. He simply does not care if you are amused by how spooky he is. Instead, like the devil, Dracula wants you to endure a fate worse than death: he wants you to suffer for all of eternity, as he himself has been doomed to suffer. Spooky season can, for the most part, be ignored, but Dracula cannot. However, we do not need to live in fear of a demonic presence entering our lives: like the devil, he must be invited into our lives in some way. The Count’s words of welcome to Jonathan before he crosses the threshold of Dracula’s castle reflect this: “Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” But once we have freely welcomed him, Dracula will fight doggedly for our souls. Dracula must be fought against; we are not meant to happily and tolerantly coexist together. Of course, this fight against Dracula is the focal point of the book. Although the reader does come face to face with Dracula in the beginning, he is quickly relegated to the margins of the story, despite being its title character. For much of the tale, he does not occupy a prominent visual place amongst the characters. This is not his story, it is the story of a heroic group of friends, bound by loyalty, honor, and the desire for the righteous, who determinedly fight against Dracula. In the original portrayal of this famous vampire, there is no glorification of him or the evil he represents. 

Dracula is a story of good versus evil, a fantastical story reminding us that we must be staunch in our fight against the very real forces fighting for our souls. We should not regard these things as petty amusements or allow children (or adults) to glorify things that are meant to represent evil. Spooky season feels like it will never end, but Dracula has been defeated.