"Mysteries at the Museum" Vampires: Mysteries at the Museum Specials

1 00:00:02,053 --> 00:00:08,590 ¶¶ 2 00:00:08,693 --> 00:00:10,993 Of all the monsters the human imagination 3 00:00:11,095 --> 00:00:14,329 has willed into existence, nothing quite matches 4 00:00:14,432 --> 00:00:17,800 the perverse, surreal characteristics of vampires. 5 00:00:17,902 --> 00:00:20,669 But why do they fascinate us? 6 00:00:20,771 --> 00:00:24,406 Vampires are bloodsucking, sun-fearing, 7 00:00:24,508 --> 00:00:28,444 shapeshifting immortal demons that should terrify us. 8 00:00:31,682 --> 00:00:33,582 I'm digging deep into a legend 9 00:00:33,684 --> 00:00:36,852 that has fed our imaginations and plagued our nightmares 10 00:00:36,954 --> 00:00:39,321 for generations 11 00:00:39,423 --> 00:00:42,424 to explore the story of vampires. 12 00:00:42,526 --> 00:00:44,660 Even now, people believe in the undead. 13 00:00:44,762 --> 00:00:47,362 From medieval folklore... 14 00:00:47,465 --> 00:00:50,499 This is where the torture would have happened. 15 00:00:52,203 --> 00:00:54,269 ...to Count Dracula himself. 16 00:00:56,006 --> 00:00:58,173 From Bram Stoker's Transylvania 17 00:00:58,275 --> 00:01:00,776 to the gory dungeons of Vlad the Impaler, 18 00:01:00,878 --> 00:01:04,680 I'm here to find out what is fact and what is fiction 19 00:01:04,782 --> 00:01:07,149 when it comes to the world's most infamous 20 00:01:07,251 --> 00:01:10,719 bloodsucking fiends, vampires. 21 00:01:10,821 --> 00:01:14,590 It's all right here. This is how to be a vampire. 22 00:01:14,692 --> 00:01:16,959 I'm Don Wildman. 23 00:01:17,061 --> 00:01:19,027 I've explored the world's greatest mysteries, 24 00:01:19,130 --> 00:01:21,964 examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. 25 00:01:22,066 --> 00:01:23,899 That is unbelievable. 26 00:01:24,001 --> 00:01:26,101 Now, I'm digging deeper into some of the most 27 00:01:26,203 --> 00:01:29,037 perplexing and famous cases in history. 28 00:01:29,140 --> 00:01:31,774 My goal--to get closer to the truth. 29 00:01:31,876 --> 00:01:33,976 Let's burn this place down. Let's burn it down. 30 00:01:34,078 --> 00:01:38,147 On this special episode of "Mysteries at the Museum"... 31 00:01:38,249 --> 00:01:40,649 Vampires. 32 00:01:45,823 --> 00:01:48,223 For over 1,000 years, 33 00:01:48,325 --> 00:01:50,259 vampires have fueled our superstitions 34 00:01:50,361 --> 00:01:52,528 and haunted our nightmares, 35 00:01:52,630 --> 00:01:56,064 but what do we really know about vampires? 36 00:01:56,167 --> 00:01:59,034 I want to find out how much is legend 37 00:01:59,136 --> 00:02:01,570 and how much is real when it comes to 38 00:02:01,672 --> 00:02:03,539 these bloodsucking monsters. 39 00:02:03,641 --> 00:02:06,008 To do that, I've traveled to the place 40 00:02:06,110 --> 00:02:09,111 where the vampire began, to what is now 41 00:02:09,213 --> 00:02:12,314 the eastern European country of Romania. 42 00:02:12,416 --> 00:02:16,084 Today, Romania is a vast, mountainous collection 43 00:02:16,187 --> 00:02:19,855 of towns and villages known for its natural beauty and wildlife, 44 00:02:19,957 --> 00:02:23,158 but back in the day, 45 00:02:23,260 --> 00:02:25,928 Romania was a land full of mystery, 46 00:02:26,030 --> 00:02:29,398 known for its colorful folklore and superstitions, 47 00:02:31,368 --> 00:02:33,468 but no part of Romania has more to do 48 00:02:33,571 --> 00:02:35,904 with the story of vampires than the place where 49 00:02:36,006 --> 00:02:38,173 I'm starting my journey-- 50 00:02:38,275 --> 00:02:40,776 the very real region of Transylvania, 51 00:02:40,878 --> 00:02:43,478 the birthplace of vampires. 52 00:02:49,620 --> 00:02:51,987 Vampires seduce us with sex appeal, 53 00:02:52,089 --> 00:02:54,489 lust, and the promise of eternal life 54 00:02:54,592 --> 00:02:58,193 and repel us with their savage thirst for blood. 55 00:02:58,295 --> 00:03:01,697 Sometimes, they are sophisticated aristocrats, 56 00:03:01,799 --> 00:03:04,533 while other times, they are rotting, 57 00:03:04,635 --> 00:03:07,870 bloodsucking demons resembling zombies. 58 00:03:07,972 --> 00:03:11,874 But those are just some of the depictions that have 59 00:03:11,976 --> 00:03:14,443 developed over hundreds of years. 60 00:03:14,545 --> 00:03:17,713 Of course, the most famous vampire of all 61 00:03:17,815 --> 00:03:21,049 is Count Dracula, a pop culture icon 62 00:03:21,151 --> 00:03:23,518 featured in horror movies, television, 63 00:03:23,621 --> 00:03:25,888 and literature throughout the ages. 64 00:03:27,658 --> 00:03:29,925 Dracula is the main character of Bram Stoker's 65 00:03:30,027 --> 00:03:33,061 infamous horror novel, written in 1897 66 00:03:33,163 --> 00:03:35,664 and set here in Romania. 67 00:03:35,766 --> 00:03:37,666 Stoker's terrifying gothic novel 68 00:03:37,768 --> 00:03:39,668 popularized the vampire as we know it 69 00:03:39,770 --> 00:03:43,372 and continues to shape how we think of vampires today. 70 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:51,074 71 00:03:52,383 --> 00:03:54,283 The tale of Dracula began 72 00:03:54,385 --> 00:03:56,385 deep in the Romanian countryside 73 00:03:56,487 --> 00:03:59,554 in the now famous region called Transylvania. 74 00:03:59,657 --> 00:04:02,791 Check it out-- 75 00:04:02,893 --> 00:04:05,627 Bran Castle. Beautiful. 76 00:04:11,468 --> 00:04:14,336 This looming castle is what Bram Stoker's Dracula 77 00:04:14,438 --> 00:04:16,538 called home, 78 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:18,807 so why does Stoker adopt it as a setting 79 00:04:18,909 --> 00:04:20,742 for his vampire novel? 80 00:04:22,846 --> 00:04:25,013 Hello! Hey, Don! 81 00:04:25,115 --> 00:04:29,017 Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker, 82 00:04:29,119 --> 00:04:32,187 is here to share how the Dracula character was born. 83 00:04:32,289 --> 00:04:34,489 Nice to meet you-- whoa, whoa, whoa. 84 00:04:34,591 --> 00:04:36,792 How are you? Well, I'm great. 85 00:04:36,894 --> 00:04:38,827 This is a picturesque spot. It certainly is. 86 00:04:38,929 --> 00:04:41,229 So why this castle? 87 00:04:41,332 --> 00:04:43,265 You gotta remember where this is. 88 00:04:43,367 --> 00:04:45,667 You know, for those guys in that time, in the 1800s, 89 00:04:45,769 --> 00:04:48,603 people in Europe, in England, they knew nothing 90 00:04:48,706 --> 00:04:50,872 about this part of the world, it was literally the land 91 00:04:50,975 --> 00:04:54,409 beyond the forest, this was deep, dark spooky stuff. Okay. 92 00:05:00,284 --> 00:05:02,184 What did this look like in the day? 93 00:05:02,286 --> 00:05:04,186 Well, I tell you something-- Bram actually had 94 00:05:04,288 --> 00:05:06,655 a collection of books that actually showed us 95 00:05:06,757 --> 00:05:09,157 what it looked like-- this is one of Oh, I see. 96 00:05:09,259 --> 00:05:12,728 the two images that he actually used to create the description of this I see. 97 00:05:12,830 --> 00:05:15,731 in his writing--what he did was he used Transylvania 98 00:05:15,833 --> 00:05:18,767 as the location because of all the superstitions 99 00:05:18,869 --> 00:05:21,136 from this part of the world, and most importantly, 100 00:05:21,238 --> 00:05:23,672 he wanted to create a sense of reality. Yeah. 101 00:05:23,774 --> 00:05:26,141 The fact that it's set in a real place 102 00:05:26,243 --> 00:05:28,977 gives it a sense of authenticity. With real superstitions and mythologies. 103 00:05:31,115 --> 00:05:33,348 Born in Dublin in 1847, 104 00:05:33,450 --> 00:05:35,884 the worst year of Ireland's potato famine, 105 00:05:35,986 --> 00:05:38,620 Stoker was a sickly, bed-ridden child. 106 00:05:38,722 --> 00:05:41,990 His mother would often regale him with tales 107 00:05:42,092 --> 00:05:45,327 of people being buried alive during the fever epidemics 108 00:05:45,429 --> 00:05:47,662 of 1832. 109 00:05:47,765 --> 00:05:51,066 As Stoker grew as a writer, his love of history 110 00:05:51,168 --> 00:05:54,636 and science continued to feed his macabre imagination, 111 00:05:54,738 --> 00:05:57,639 which planted the seeds for the creation of 112 00:05:57,741 --> 00:06:00,008 the world's most infamous vampire. 113 00:06:00,110 --> 00:06:02,477 Wow. 114 00:06:02,579 --> 00:06:06,715 It is a perfect setting for a great story, isn't it? 115 00:06:09,820 --> 00:06:11,720 So as far as the story of Dracula, 116 00:06:11,822 --> 00:06:13,555 this is where it all starts. 117 00:06:13,657 --> 00:06:15,557 Yeah, and Bram used this castle as his inspiration 118 00:06:15,659 --> 00:06:17,325 for Castle Dracula. 119 00:06:21,698 --> 00:06:24,232 While Stoker had published other novels, 120 00:06:24,334 --> 00:06:27,335 none would capture the imagination like Dracula . 121 00:06:27,438 --> 00:06:29,838 Published in 1897 122 00:06:29,940 --> 00:06:32,174 and set at the end of the 19th century, 123 00:06:32,276 --> 00:06:35,010 Dracula tells the story of the young Englishman, 124 00:06:35,112 --> 00:06:37,112 Jonathan Harker, as he travels 125 00:06:37,214 --> 00:06:40,115 through Transylvania on business. 126 00:06:40,217 --> 00:06:43,652 Harker is there to meet a mysterious Transylvanian nobleman... 127 00:06:43,754 --> 00:06:46,688 Count Dracula. 128 00:06:46,790 --> 00:06:49,891 But soon, Harker comes to realize 129 00:06:49,993 --> 00:06:52,661 that he's a prisoner of a bloodsucking fiend 130 00:06:52,763 --> 00:06:55,630 and trapped inside his stone fortress. 131 00:06:58,135 --> 00:07:00,068 I've gotta show some pretty cool things. 132 00:07:02,973 --> 00:07:05,107 Dracula's secret passageway. 133 00:07:06,810 --> 00:07:08,710 Dacre's offered me special access 134 00:07:08,812 --> 00:07:10,912 to get some rare insight into Bram Stoker's 135 00:07:11,014 --> 00:07:13,281 fascinating process as he created 136 00:07:13,383 --> 00:07:16,184 the most infamous vampire of all time. 137 00:07:21,158 --> 00:07:23,058 This is a collection of the resources 138 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,961 that Bram used for his writing of Dracula . Wow, cool. 139 00:07:26,063 --> 00:07:28,096 And we've got some of his notes. 140 00:07:28,198 --> 00:07:30,098 And they represent all the information 141 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:32,300 that he extracted from these books. 142 00:07:32,402 --> 00:07:34,302 And here's the timeless classic itself. 143 00:07:34,404 --> 00:07:37,405 Here it is--this is a first edition book that's been in the family for a long time. 144 00:07:37,474 --> 00:07:41,209 And the cool thing about this is this is Bram's copy that he gave to his mother. 145 00:07:41,311 --> 00:07:44,846 You can read it right there. To my dear mother, Abraham Stoker. 146 00:07:44,948 --> 00:07:47,716 So he did a tremendous amount of research 147 00:07:47,818 --> 00:07:50,752 prior to even writing this book, yes? Yeah. 148 00:07:50,854 --> 00:07:53,421 I mean, we know it took about seven years 149 00:07:53,524 --> 00:07:56,858 from the dates on these notes to put this whole thing together. 150 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,161 It seems so obvious that you'd need to do this research, 151 00:07:59,263 --> 00:08:02,230 but it's really that which makes this novel so scary, 152 00:08:02,332 --> 00:08:05,066 'cause these are real places and even a real castle. 153 00:08:05,169 --> 00:08:09,070 These are three pages that he actually took 154 00:08:09,173 --> 00:08:11,907 notes from all these other books and created the traits 155 00:08:12,009 --> 00:08:15,443 that a vampire-- we know nowadays that most vampires 156 00:08:15,546 --> 00:08:17,479 have no looking glass, no reflection. 157 00:08:17,581 --> 00:08:20,215 It's a menu of vampire traits. Sure it is. 158 00:08:20,317 --> 00:08:23,618 That's fascinating-- see in the dark. See in the dark, painters cannot paint him, 159 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,388 can't reproduce him. That's amazing. 160 00:08:26,490 --> 00:08:29,324 Power of getting himself large or small, 161 00:08:29,426 --> 00:08:31,326 shapeshifting. Right, seeing in the dark. 162 00:08:31,428 --> 00:08:34,329 Yep, money's always old gold. God, it's all right here. 163 00:08:34,431 --> 00:08:36,331 This is how to be a vampire! 164 00:08:36,433 --> 00:08:39,234 So he's really a genius of synthesizing 165 00:08:39,336 --> 00:08:41,636 all of these ideas. Absolutely. 166 00:08:41,738 --> 00:08:43,805 That's really his mark as a writer, isn't it? Yeah. 167 00:08:43,907 --> 00:08:46,708 He created a manual that was followed for 100 years afterwards. 168 00:08:46,810 --> 00:08:49,444 I mean, all the great vampire stories and movies Yeah. 169 00:08:49,546 --> 00:08:51,580 and all that... He did all the work for everybody else. 170 00:08:51,682 --> 00:08:53,348 That's incredible. 171 00:08:54,985 --> 00:08:57,719 But there was one more gem that Stoker found hidden 172 00:08:57,821 --> 00:09:00,255 within his research-- 173 00:09:00,357 --> 00:09:03,225 a book about a medieval ruler who reigned 174 00:09:03,327 --> 00:09:06,161 over a Romanian kingdom known as Wallachia. 175 00:09:06,263 --> 00:09:08,964 His name 176 00:09:09,066 --> 00:09:11,266 was Vlad Dracula. 177 00:09:13,136 --> 00:09:15,070 This is, you know, a question everybody asks. 178 00:09:15,172 --> 00:09:17,539 How did Bram ever decide on the name Dracula? 179 00:09:17,641 --> 00:09:20,375 And what we understand 180 00:09:20,477 --> 00:09:23,245 is that from his notes, he took out this book 181 00:09:23,347 --> 00:09:26,848 called the Account of Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia , Mmhm. 182 00:09:26,950 --> 00:09:29,251 And look what was written in there, read that. Oh, there you go. 183 00:09:29,353 --> 00:09:32,354 Dracula, page 19 of this book. Yes. 184 00:09:32,456 --> 00:09:34,856 Dracula in Wallachian language 185 00:09:34,958 --> 00:09:37,058 means devil. Yes. 186 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,394 Because of that word, devil, Yeah. 187 00:09:39,496 --> 00:09:41,896 that solidified in Bram's mind the character he wanted. 188 00:09:41,999 --> 00:09:44,766 It was a devil-like creature. 189 00:09:44,868 --> 00:09:48,770 Although it wasn't an immediate success, 190 00:09:48,872 --> 00:09:51,706 Dracula brought Bram Stoker critical praise 191 00:09:51,808 --> 00:09:54,876 and would go on to become his most successful novel, 192 00:09:54,978 --> 00:09:58,380 outliving its author and serving as the template 193 00:09:58,482 --> 00:10:01,049 for all vampires that followed. 194 00:10:01,151 --> 00:10:03,451 It's got eternal life, doesn't it? 195 00:10:03,553 --> 00:10:05,453 Sure, just like the character. 196 00:10:05,555 --> 00:10:07,422 Right, and it all started right here. 197 00:10:07,524 --> 00:10:09,824 In Transylvania, in this castle as his image 198 00:10:09,926 --> 00:10:11,493 of the perfect castle. 199 00:10:11,595 --> 00:10:13,495 And then goes out over that hillside 200 00:10:13,597 --> 00:10:14,929 and all over the world. 201 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:25,940 Fact and fiction, 202 00:10:26,043 --> 00:10:28,243 history and folklore. 203 00:10:28,345 --> 00:10:30,578 Under the surface of the vampire myth 204 00:10:30,681 --> 00:10:32,881 lies real truths. 205 00:10:32,983 --> 00:10:36,084 So who is the mysterious Vlad Dracula? 206 00:10:36,186 --> 00:10:38,520 And what else besides a name 207 00:10:38,622 --> 00:10:41,122 does he share with the most notorious vampire 208 00:10:41,224 --> 00:10:43,291 of all time? 209 00:10:43,393 --> 00:10:45,627 This is where the torture would have happened. 210 00:10:55,588 --> 00:10:57,621 I'm in Romania in search of the truth 211 00:10:57,723 --> 00:10:59,890 about vampires. 212 00:10:59,992 --> 00:11:02,193 My visit to Bran Castle, deep in the heart 213 00:11:02,295 --> 00:11:05,563 of the infamous and very real region known as Transylvania 214 00:11:05,665 --> 00:11:08,232 revealed something fascinating. 215 00:11:08,334 --> 00:11:10,935 Dracula, 216 00:11:11,037 --> 00:11:13,504 the most famous fictional vampire of them all 217 00:11:13,606 --> 00:11:16,607 is, in fact, based on a real man. 218 00:11:18,444 --> 00:11:21,612 His name was Count Dracul, Dracula. 219 00:11:25,251 --> 00:11:27,284 To find out more about him, I'm headed deep 220 00:11:27,386 --> 00:11:29,420 into the Romanian mountains. 221 00:11:31,424 --> 00:11:33,991 Over 500 years ago, this area in Romania 222 00:11:34,093 --> 00:11:36,460 was known as the Kingdom of Wallachia, 223 00:11:36,562 --> 00:11:38,863 and Vlad Dracula was king. 224 00:11:41,334 --> 00:11:43,300 Mei, how you doin'? Nice to meet you. 225 00:11:43,402 --> 00:11:45,736 Mei Trow is a Welsh historian and author 226 00:11:45,838 --> 00:11:49,139 who has extensively studied the history surrounding Vlad Dracula. 227 00:11:49,242 --> 00:11:53,644 He can show us the inside of this 15th-century fortress 228 00:11:53,746 --> 00:11:57,515 and the real dungeons that inspired the legend of Dracula. 229 00:12:01,454 --> 00:12:04,288 Ah, this is spectacular. Wow! 230 00:12:06,592 --> 00:12:09,326 This is the citadel. This is the home 231 00:12:09,428 --> 00:12:13,330 of Wallachia, it's the center, the capital, the heart Okay. 232 00:12:13,432 --> 00:12:15,799 of Vlad Dracula's kingdom. 233 00:12:15,902 --> 00:12:18,235 If you think, Wallachia was very small, about the size 234 00:12:18,337 --> 00:12:20,271 of New York State today. Okay. 235 00:12:20,373 --> 00:12:23,007 It's not modern Romania by any means, 236 00:12:23,109 --> 00:12:25,876 and we haven't got those national boundaries. 237 00:12:25,978 --> 00:12:28,245 They're constantly moving, as you say, constantly changing 238 00:12:28,347 --> 00:12:31,115 depending on the political situation. 239 00:12:31,217 --> 00:12:34,919 This is a kid who's raised in incredibly violent circumstances Yeah. 240 00:12:35,021 --> 00:12:36,654 from the get-go-- he would've seen 241 00:12:36,756 --> 00:12:40,291 people burned, uh, heads chopped off. Yeah, absolutely. 242 00:12:40,393 --> 00:12:41,959 Absolutely. You name it. 243 00:12:42,061 --> 00:12:44,461 This would have made him inured to it somewhat Yes. 244 00:12:44,564 --> 00:12:46,463 but also see its value. 245 00:12:46,566 --> 00:12:49,233 Yes, absolutely. Yep, yep. I mean, this is a kid, and he's royalty, 246 00:12:49,335 --> 00:12:51,735 so he knows this is how you control people. Yeah, yeah. 247 00:12:56,509 --> 00:12:58,475 When Vlad was only 17, 248 00:12:58,578 --> 00:13:01,779 his father was murdered by traitors inside his own kingdom. 249 00:13:01,881 --> 00:13:04,415 After his father's death, 250 00:13:04,517 --> 00:13:07,551 Vlad Dracula took control of the kingdom of Wallachia. 251 00:13:07,653 --> 00:13:09,687 And by this time, 252 00:13:09,789 --> 00:13:12,323 the kingdom had fallen into lawlessness, 253 00:13:12,425 --> 00:13:14,892 and the very same people who had betrayed his father 254 00:13:14,994 --> 00:13:17,328 were roaming free. 255 00:13:17,430 --> 00:13:19,930 The new king needed to assert his power, 256 00:13:20,032 --> 00:13:22,232 and he was out for revenge. 257 00:13:22,335 --> 00:13:26,070 He takes control in a place where people have not Yeah. 258 00:13:26,172 --> 00:13:28,339 been controlled for awhile. Yeah, that's right. 259 00:13:28,441 --> 00:13:30,975 How does he do that? All kinds of torture. 260 00:13:34,614 --> 00:13:37,114 And it was in these dungeons that Vlad Dracula 261 00:13:37,216 --> 00:13:39,350 avenged his father's death... 262 00:13:39,452 --> 00:13:41,952 in the most extreme ways. 263 00:13:42,054 --> 00:13:45,189 For example, people were literally boiled, Yeah. 264 00:13:45,291 --> 00:13:47,224 uh, in cauldrons of water. 265 00:13:47,326 --> 00:13:50,327 They were broken on a wheel, a gigantic wheel 266 00:13:50,429 --> 00:13:53,263 in which experts used iron bars Yeah. 267 00:13:53,366 --> 00:13:55,065 to break their limbs. 268 00:14:00,806 --> 00:14:03,407 Was he doing this for-- to set an example, 269 00:14:03,509 --> 00:14:06,644 or was this guy crazy? He shows an awful lot of traits 270 00:14:06,746 --> 00:14:09,980 of a psychopath-- he doesn't care about human suffering. 271 00:14:10,082 --> 00:14:13,984 But soon, Vlad's appetite for torture grew, 272 00:14:14,086 --> 00:14:16,286 and he created something 273 00:14:16,389 --> 00:14:18,422 even more brutal for his enemies. 274 00:14:24,430 --> 00:14:27,865 Wow. So this is the-- this is the real hellhole? This is. 275 00:14:27,967 --> 00:14:31,068 This is where it would all have happened, yeah. Ewugh. 276 00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:35,072 It's what the French call oubliette, 277 00:14:35,174 --> 00:14:38,942 the place of the forgotten, and this is where 278 00:14:39,045 --> 00:14:41,578 the torture would have happened. 279 00:14:41,681 --> 00:14:43,881 You can almost hear the screams down here. 280 00:14:47,053 --> 00:14:49,620 But it didn't end there. It didn't end there. 281 00:14:49,722 --> 00:14:52,056 He invented a brand-new torture, 282 00:14:52,158 --> 00:14:54,024 and that, of course, was impalement. 283 00:14:56,896 --> 00:14:59,096 Vlad Dracula began publicly impaling 284 00:14:59,198 --> 00:15:01,765 his own people on tall, wooden stakes. 285 00:15:01,867 --> 00:15:05,135 It was a level of sheer brutality 286 00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:07,337 that horrified everyone 287 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,506 and earned him the infamous nickname, 288 00:15:09,608 --> 00:15:12,209 "Vlad the Impaler." 289 00:15:14,814 --> 00:15:17,781 Here we have the famous stake. 290 00:15:17,883 --> 00:15:21,351 That sharpened end is inserted up from below 291 00:15:21,454 --> 00:15:24,088 and goes right up through the body. 292 00:15:24,190 --> 00:15:26,557 If it goes through the brain, you're gonna die quickly, Yep. 293 00:15:26,659 --> 00:15:29,560 but if that doesn't happen, you're going to die slowly, 294 00:15:29,662 --> 00:15:32,830 and that was the whole point in the exercise. 295 00:15:39,638 --> 00:15:42,506 And soon, Vlad the Impaler's notorious reputation 296 00:15:42,608 --> 00:15:46,076 that ultimately inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula character 297 00:15:46,178 --> 00:15:48,879 would become known throughout the western world, 298 00:15:48,981 --> 00:15:53,150 because in 1462, the Turkish army 299 00:15:53,252 --> 00:15:56,220 invaded Wallachia, and the bloodthirsty Vlad 300 00:15:56,322 --> 00:15:58,589 was ready. 301 00:15:58,691 --> 00:16:01,558 He put a three-mile-wide screen Wow. 302 00:16:01,660 --> 00:16:03,794 of stakes, and on every one of them, 303 00:16:03,896 --> 00:16:06,230 there was a victim. 304 00:16:06,332 --> 00:16:09,133 We're talking about the so-called forest of the impaled. 305 00:16:14,974 --> 00:16:17,541 It's a new kind of psychological warfare. 306 00:16:17,643 --> 00:16:20,010 Yeah, exactly. Nobody had tried this before. 307 00:16:20,112 --> 00:16:22,980 And these are times of great superstitions, 308 00:16:23,082 --> 00:16:25,816 magic, etcetera-- that same soldier 309 00:16:25,918 --> 00:16:28,652 would have thought something evil was afoot. Absolutely. 310 00:16:28,754 --> 00:16:31,455 Remember that in the Wallachia language, 311 00:16:31,557 --> 00:16:34,158 Dracula means "Son of the Dragon." 312 00:16:34,260 --> 00:16:36,960 It also means "Son of the Devil," and here he is, 313 00:16:37,062 --> 00:16:39,496 he is proving that he is, indeed, the son of the devil 314 00:16:39,598 --> 00:16:42,132 with this diabolical scene. 315 00:16:47,006 --> 00:16:49,907 Vlad the Impaler may have been using impalement 316 00:16:50,009 --> 00:16:52,476 and other extreme tactics to scare off 317 00:16:52,578 --> 00:16:55,345 his much stronger enemies and create the impression 318 00:16:55,447 --> 00:16:58,215 of a mad ruler who knew no boundaries, 319 00:16:58,317 --> 00:17:01,685 but how did he become linked to vampires? 320 00:17:01,787 --> 00:17:04,922 The answer is because his thirst for power and dominance 321 00:17:05,024 --> 00:17:07,758 didn't stop at impalement. 322 00:17:07,860 --> 00:17:10,694 Vlad Dracula was even said to have the blood 323 00:17:10,796 --> 00:17:13,964 of the impaled Turkish soldiers brought to him in a bowl 324 00:17:14,066 --> 00:17:16,366 where he actually dipped his bread 325 00:17:16,468 --> 00:17:18,936 and consumed his enemy. 326 00:17:19,038 --> 00:17:22,005 Horrified, the Turkish army 327 00:17:22,107 --> 00:17:24,174 left the Wallachian border 328 00:17:24,276 --> 00:17:27,945 saying "The devil himself is at Târgoviste." 329 00:17:33,085 --> 00:17:36,353 The forest of the impaled was a stunning success... 330 00:17:36,455 --> 00:17:40,290 at first, but the Turkish army's sheer size and force 331 00:17:40,392 --> 00:17:43,961 eventually drove Vlad to what is now northern Romania 332 00:17:44,063 --> 00:17:48,098 to the region of Transylvania where, years later, 333 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,368 Bram Stoker's Dracula would be set. 334 00:17:54,607 --> 00:17:56,974 Vlad scorched the earth and poisoned the rivers 335 00:17:57,076 --> 00:17:59,209 along the way, destroying their value 336 00:17:59,311 --> 00:18:01,778 for his Turkish enemy, who was hot on his trail. 337 00:18:01,881 --> 00:18:04,882 High on the crest of the Romanian mountains, 338 00:18:04,984 --> 00:18:08,252 they cornered Vlad at another one of his fortresses, 339 00:18:08,354 --> 00:18:12,623 this one named Poienari Castle. 340 00:18:37,249 --> 00:18:39,216 More and more, Vlad was alone. 341 00:18:39,318 --> 00:18:43,020 Many in his army had deserted him, even Vlad's wife. 342 00:18:43,122 --> 00:18:45,622 Desperate upon hearing about the approaching Turks, 343 00:18:45,724 --> 00:18:48,692 threw herself from the walls of Poienari Castle 344 00:18:48,794 --> 00:18:51,194 to her death below in the River Arges. 345 00:18:51,297 --> 00:18:53,630 Just as it seemed Vlad was cornered, 346 00:18:53,732 --> 00:18:56,066 he somehow mysteriously slips away 347 00:18:56,168 --> 00:18:58,201 into the caves of the Carpathians 348 00:18:58,304 --> 00:19:00,604 and deep into the forests of Transylvania. 349 00:19:04,643 --> 00:19:07,277 The mysterious king hiding like a bat 350 00:19:07,379 --> 00:19:09,579 deep within the caves of Transylvania 351 00:19:09,682 --> 00:19:12,449 with a taste for blood. 352 00:19:12,551 --> 00:19:14,985 So if we compare him to the Dracula character 353 00:19:15,087 --> 00:19:18,956 he would later inspire, was Vlad Dracula a vampire? 354 00:19:19,058 --> 00:19:21,925 If a vampire is defined as one who feeds 355 00:19:22,027 --> 00:19:24,828 off the lives of others, then you could argue 356 00:19:24,930 --> 00:19:27,464 that Vlad Dracula was, indeed, a vampire, 357 00:19:27,566 --> 00:19:29,533 if only in the figurative sense. 358 00:19:29,635 --> 00:19:32,302 You can sense the power still 359 00:19:32,404 --> 00:19:34,972 of Vlad's bloodstained legacy. 360 00:19:36,976 --> 00:19:39,710 The vampire legend dates back over 1,000 years 361 00:19:39,812 --> 00:19:42,913 and does, indeed, have its roots right here in Romania. 362 00:19:43,015 --> 00:19:46,316 But while Vlad the Impaler inspired the greatest 363 00:19:46,418 --> 00:19:49,319 vampire of all time, who served as the model 364 00:19:49,421 --> 00:19:51,688 for vampires we know today, 365 00:19:51,790 --> 00:19:54,524 Count Dracula wasn't the first. 366 00:19:54,626 --> 00:19:57,561 So where, then, does the original vampire come from, 367 00:19:57,663 --> 00:20:00,897 and how much of it is based on something real? 368 00:20:12,645 --> 00:20:15,813 I'm deep in the land of vampires--Romania-- 369 00:20:15,915 --> 00:20:19,150 where a real-life king known as Vlad the Impaler 370 00:20:19,252 --> 00:20:23,121 and his craven thirst for blood inspired Bram Stoker's 371 00:20:23,223 --> 00:20:25,690 infamous character, Dracula. 372 00:20:25,792 --> 00:20:27,925 So when it comes to vampires, 373 00:20:28,027 --> 00:20:30,161 what else is real? 374 00:20:34,801 --> 00:20:36,901 What we think we know about vampires 375 00:20:37,003 --> 00:20:39,637 is a list that seems as long as their history. 376 00:20:39,739 --> 00:20:41,706 They loathe garlic, 377 00:20:41,808 --> 00:20:44,175 fear sunlight, crucifixes, 378 00:20:44,277 --> 00:20:46,511 holy water, and they've been said 379 00:20:46,613 --> 00:20:48,913 to shapeshift into other creatures at their will, 380 00:20:49,015 --> 00:20:51,382 into wolves, even bats. 381 00:20:56,423 --> 00:20:58,890 Which brings me here, to the Moeciu Cave, 382 00:20:58,992 --> 00:21:01,559 just south of the Transylvanian border. 383 00:21:03,229 --> 00:21:04,996 Man, look at this place. 384 00:21:09,869 --> 00:21:11,903 Romania is famous for its caves, you know. 385 00:21:12,005 --> 00:21:14,505 The whole nation is built on limestone, 386 00:21:14,607 --> 00:21:16,407 so you're walking through the forest, you can find 387 00:21:16,509 --> 00:21:18,209 all these bat caves right here, 388 00:21:18,311 --> 00:21:20,445 and they are filled with the things-- just look at them. 389 00:21:20,547 --> 00:21:23,781 Behind every legend and superstition 390 00:21:23,883 --> 00:21:26,217 lies a kernel of truth, 391 00:21:26,319 --> 00:21:30,021 so where did vampires really come from? 392 00:21:30,123 --> 00:21:33,925 ¶¶ 393 00:21:34,027 --> 00:21:36,160 To find out, I'm headed to Sighisoara, 394 00:21:36,262 --> 00:21:38,596 one of the best preserved medieval towns 395 00:21:38,698 --> 00:21:40,431 in all of Europe, 396 00:21:40,533 --> 00:21:42,433 deep in the wilds of Transylvania. 397 00:21:42,535 --> 00:21:47,939 ¶¶ 398 00:21:53,246 --> 00:22:02,286 ¶¶ 399 00:22:04,290 --> 00:22:05,857 Dr. Rickels? 400 00:22:05,959 --> 00:22:07,959 Nice to see you. Good to see you. 401 00:22:08,061 --> 00:22:09,961 Dr. Laurence Rickels is a professor 402 00:22:10,063 --> 00:22:12,063 who's written extensively about the myths 403 00:22:12,165 --> 00:22:14,098 attached to vampires. 404 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,835 He can help me separate vampire fact from fiction. 405 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:22,940 Where do vampires come from? Where does the idea 406 00:22:23,042 --> 00:22:24,942 of vampires originate? 407 00:22:25,044 --> 00:22:27,979 Well, we know, um, of course, that the modern vampire 408 00:22:28,081 --> 00:22:30,414 has to be traced through Bram Stoker 409 00:22:30,517 --> 00:22:33,050 and his influences, but every bit of folklore 410 00:22:33,152 --> 00:22:36,521 I've looked at suggests that every civilization, 411 00:22:36,623 --> 00:22:39,190 culture, on record, um, 412 00:22:39,292 --> 00:22:42,527 had some kind of bloodsucking demon or god. 413 00:22:42,629 --> 00:22:45,897 ¶¶ 414 00:22:45,999 --> 00:22:48,232 Vampirism found its roots in the graves 415 00:22:48,334 --> 00:22:50,735 of old medieval towns like this one. 416 00:22:50,837 --> 00:22:53,604 In the 14th century, 417 00:22:53,706 --> 00:22:55,740 a plague known as the Black Death 418 00:22:55,842 --> 00:22:57,975 ravaged this village. 419 00:22:58,077 --> 00:23:01,546 Thousands of people died, and bodies began to pile up. 420 00:23:01,648 --> 00:23:03,881 And here, 421 00:23:03,983 --> 00:23:07,285 against this bleak backdrop, the vampire legend flourished. 422 00:23:16,262 --> 00:23:18,462 Wow, look at this cemetery. Gorgeous. Wow. 423 00:23:18,565 --> 00:23:22,400 We're at the highest point of this fortress town 424 00:23:22,502 --> 00:23:25,670 and what's most protected, the resting place of the dead. 425 00:23:25,772 --> 00:23:27,371 Interesting, yeah. 426 00:23:27,473 --> 00:23:29,373 I mean, today, we think of cemeteries as sort of 427 00:23:29,475 --> 00:23:32,543 pastoral, peaceful places to go and visit our loved ones, 428 00:23:32,645 --> 00:23:36,113 but in these days, they're worried about the undead. 429 00:23:36,215 --> 00:23:38,716 Worried what might come back out of the grave, 430 00:23:38,818 --> 00:23:40,918 especially in the evening. 431 00:23:44,490 --> 00:23:46,958 So in the time of the Black Death, 432 00:23:47,060 --> 00:23:50,595 you have very small areas, these cemeteries, 433 00:23:50,697 --> 00:23:54,298 suddenly packed up with too many people. 434 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,101 The overcrowding problem was already impressing 435 00:23:57,203 --> 00:24:00,137 throughout western Europe in particular. 436 00:24:00,239 --> 00:24:03,207 Look at this. 437 00:24:05,411 --> 00:24:08,446 So why would these stones be misplaced? 438 00:24:08,548 --> 00:24:10,481 I mean, they're not with any graves at all. 439 00:24:10,583 --> 00:24:14,485 Yeah, they were under pressure to make room for the dead. 440 00:24:14,587 --> 00:24:17,722 And in doing so, the villagers had to move 441 00:24:17,824 --> 00:24:21,092 freshly buried bodies, witnessing decomposition 442 00:24:21,194 --> 00:24:23,728 up close for the first time ever. 443 00:24:26,065 --> 00:24:29,433 So where did they come up with the notion of the undead? 444 00:24:29,535 --> 00:24:32,603 Well, if they had to unbury the recently deceased, 445 00:24:32,705 --> 00:24:36,607 they were bound to see signs of decomposition 446 00:24:36,709 --> 00:24:40,611 that they were not prepared to read. Right, because this had never happened before, 447 00:24:40,713 --> 00:24:42,780 this kind of, uh, the necessity to find 448 00:24:42,882 --> 00:24:45,216 new space for so many bodies. Right. 449 00:24:45,318 --> 00:24:47,551 Suddenly this phenomenon of understanding what actually 450 00:24:47,654 --> 00:24:49,587 happens in the grave. Right. 451 00:24:49,689 --> 00:24:51,689 And in the course of decomposition, 452 00:24:51,791 --> 00:24:55,626 internal gases can build up and mount. Yeah. 453 00:24:55,728 --> 00:24:58,829 Not only are there bloated distortions in the body 454 00:24:58,931 --> 00:25:02,099 that seem so alive after several weeks in the ground, Yeah. 455 00:25:02,201 --> 00:25:05,569 but also, the gases can prompt the corpse simply to sit up. 456 00:25:09,942 --> 00:25:12,143 Certain things continue to grow on a corpse-- 457 00:25:12,245 --> 00:25:14,612 fingernails, the hair. 458 00:25:14,714 --> 00:25:17,615 The blood builds up and starts to flow out of the mouth. 459 00:25:17,717 --> 00:25:20,718 Given these graveside experiences, 460 00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:24,522 they would learn to fear the dead as forces that could 461 00:25:24,624 --> 00:25:27,391 tear one down into the underworld. 462 00:25:27,493 --> 00:25:31,395 So naturally, they would have to develop rituals and practice 463 00:25:31,497 --> 00:25:33,431 to protect themselves from this. 464 00:25:33,533 --> 00:25:36,033 They had never seen decomposition on this scale. 465 00:25:36,135 --> 00:25:38,736 Because it's not just a flatline--the body produces 466 00:25:38,838 --> 00:25:41,939 a kind of light show, special effects that no one expected. 467 00:25:47,113 --> 00:25:49,547 So while vampires may not be real, 468 00:25:49,649 --> 00:25:52,583 the characteristics we attribute to them came from 469 00:25:52,685 --> 00:25:55,853 real face-to-face exposure to dead bodies in cemeteries 470 00:25:55,955 --> 00:25:58,122 just like this. 471 00:25:58,224 --> 00:26:00,191 When you add that to the real-life story 472 00:26:00,293 --> 00:26:04,328 of Vlad the Impaler and Bram Stoker's infamous Dracula character, 473 00:26:04,430 --> 00:26:08,099 you start to see the birth of the vampire as we know it today. 474 00:26:11,671 --> 00:26:14,205 So originally, 475 00:26:14,307 --> 00:26:17,908 the function of vampires is to explain the undead. Mmhm. 476 00:26:18,010 --> 00:26:21,645 Uh, why these bodies looked like they did, essentially, 477 00:26:21,748 --> 00:26:23,781 explain away that crazy phenomenon, 478 00:26:23,883 --> 00:26:26,016 but it doesn't go away. 479 00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:28,219 I mean, the vampire is everlasting. 480 00:26:28,321 --> 00:26:30,354 The first vampires that you recognize 481 00:26:30,456 --> 00:26:34,225 in the graveyard here locally were more like zombies, ghouls, Yeah. 482 00:26:34,327 --> 00:26:37,361 that were hungry to stay alive. 483 00:26:37,463 --> 00:26:40,731 Once it comes to American popular culture, 484 00:26:40,833 --> 00:26:42,733 you have these two choices, 485 00:26:42,835 --> 00:26:46,837 between an aristocratic lineage and zombieism. 486 00:26:49,809 --> 00:26:53,210 The vampire count is someone that one can idealize, 487 00:26:53,312 --> 00:26:56,747 but with the zombie, especially, as is the case 488 00:26:56,849 --> 00:26:59,917 in most zombie films where you don't recognize the people, 489 00:27:00,019 --> 00:27:02,153 you thrill to the killing of them, because that's, 490 00:27:02,255 --> 00:27:05,122 um, the germination phase of mourning. 491 00:27:05,224 --> 00:27:08,225 You can only mourn someone if you kill that person 492 00:27:08,327 --> 00:27:10,327 Interesting. that's dead. 493 00:27:10,429 --> 00:27:13,197 These two characters, the zombie and the vampire, 494 00:27:13,299 --> 00:27:16,000 are two aspects of the same process, 495 00:27:16,102 --> 00:27:18,769 Count Dracula being this idealized version, 496 00:27:18,871 --> 00:27:21,238 so he's very, kind of, interesting and sexy, Right. 497 00:27:21,340 --> 00:27:23,374 but these zombies are disgusting, 498 00:27:23,476 --> 00:27:26,977 and it's telling that we're so fascinated by zombies now. 499 00:27:27,079 --> 00:27:29,446 Yeah. They've sort of taken over, haven't they? 500 00:27:29,549 --> 00:27:33,117 The pleasure that lies in killing the dead. Yeah, right. 501 00:27:33,219 --> 00:27:35,386 Here's to the dead. 502 00:27:35,488 --> 00:27:37,988 May they never come back. The dead dead. 503 00:27:38,090 --> 00:27:39,757 Stay dead. 504 00:27:44,897 --> 00:27:48,032 So now, I understand where much of the fear 505 00:27:48,134 --> 00:27:50,534 surrounding vampires comes from. 506 00:27:50,636 --> 00:27:52,870 Some people relied on superstitions 507 00:27:52,972 --> 00:27:55,339 to ward them off, but others didn't. 508 00:27:55,441 --> 00:27:58,375 They took matters into their own hands, 509 00:27:58,477 --> 00:28:01,345 battling suspected vampires face-to-face. 510 00:28:01,447 --> 00:28:04,915 They were the vampire slayers. 511 00:28:19,231 --> 00:28:22,065 I'm in Romania, the birthplace of vampires, 512 00:28:22,167 --> 00:28:25,302 to find out what is fact and what is fiction. 513 00:28:25,404 --> 00:28:28,572 Today, there is still evidence being unearthed 514 00:28:28,674 --> 00:28:32,909 that shows how extreme the fear of vampires really was. 515 00:28:33,011 --> 00:28:36,746 In order to fend off bloodthirsty vampires, 516 00:28:36,849 --> 00:28:40,083 people in these medieval villages began to fight back, 517 00:28:40,185 --> 00:28:43,353 and these brave few were called vampire slayers, 518 00:28:43,455 --> 00:28:46,289 and according to legend, their methods could be brutal. 519 00:28:46,391 --> 00:28:50,093 But how do we really know 520 00:28:50,195 --> 00:28:52,129 how people reacted generations ago? 521 00:28:52,231 --> 00:28:54,564 Some experts think they have proof. 522 00:28:59,037 --> 00:29:01,138 Archeologist Andre Gonciar 523 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,240 has invited me to see a current dig 524 00:29:03,342 --> 00:29:05,976 in an old graveyard dating back to the 14th century. 525 00:29:06,078 --> 00:29:10,013 He has unearthed mysterious discoveries that reveal 526 00:29:10,115 --> 00:29:12,816 the fears and superstitions of the past. 527 00:29:12,918 --> 00:29:16,153 So all these piles of dirt, 528 00:29:16,255 --> 00:29:20,157 this is what you've taken out of the tombs? That is correct. 529 00:29:20,259 --> 00:29:22,325 We are in a cemetery, right? Right. 530 00:29:22,427 --> 00:29:24,294 So we are bound to encounter human remains 531 00:29:24,396 --> 00:29:26,363 that are completely mixed with the dirt 532 00:29:26,465 --> 00:29:29,399 that belong to a past that literally everybody forgot. 533 00:29:29,501 --> 00:29:31,768 Look at that. 534 00:29:31,870 --> 00:29:34,905 There's a Romanian village person 535 00:29:35,007 --> 00:29:37,507 and their teeth. 536 00:29:37,609 --> 00:29:40,043 He had pretty good teeth, didn't he? 537 00:29:40,145 --> 00:29:42,546 He had some nasty little cavities, though. 538 00:29:42,648 --> 00:29:45,215 Oh, yes, that was probably the least of his problems. 539 00:29:45,317 --> 00:29:48,718 This takes us back to the time 540 00:29:48,820 --> 00:29:52,189 when people believe in undead and vampires 541 00:29:52,291 --> 00:29:55,592 and werewolves and all the rest of it. Oh, absolutely. 542 00:29:55,694 --> 00:29:58,195 Well, that being said, even now, people believe, actually, 543 00:29:58,297 --> 00:30:00,197 literally believe in the undead. 544 00:30:00,299 --> 00:30:04,000 There are rituals for them when people are buried. Still, yeah. 545 00:30:04,102 --> 00:30:07,337 It's amazing to me how the mystery of, you know, 546 00:30:07,439 --> 00:30:10,273 what happens to us after we die lives on. 547 00:30:18,650 --> 00:30:20,483 These graves, or graves in general, 548 00:30:20,586 --> 00:30:22,852 are a perfect lens to study culture, yes? 549 00:30:22,955 --> 00:30:25,789 It's the point of intersection 550 00:30:25,891 --> 00:30:29,693 of social conventions, of folklore. Right. Doesn't get any more basic. 551 00:30:29,795 --> 00:30:32,195 Or any more honest. Yeah, exactly. 552 00:30:32,297 --> 00:30:35,999 Recent archeological digs in burial grounds 553 00:30:36,101 --> 00:30:39,436 from Ireland to Romania have brought remarkable 554 00:30:39,538 --> 00:30:42,339 new evidence to the surface about medieval populations 555 00:30:42,441 --> 00:30:44,774 and the fear of the undead. 556 00:30:44,876 --> 00:30:47,811 They're called deviant burials. 557 00:30:51,583 --> 00:30:54,050 When you have a cemetery where the treatment of the body 558 00:30:54,152 --> 00:30:56,620 in the grave is different, 559 00:30:56,722 --> 00:30:59,489 it is a deviant environment. 560 00:31:02,728 --> 00:31:04,928 The word deviant refers to the fact 561 00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:07,063 that this is not a normal burial. Yes. 562 00:31:07,165 --> 00:31:08,898 In a normal burial, they wouldn't be worried 563 00:31:09,001 --> 00:31:11,935 about things happening after this person's put in the ground. 564 00:31:12,037 --> 00:31:14,304 Deviant burial worries about that person. 565 00:31:14,406 --> 00:31:17,707 Why were they worried about that person? Those, uh, spirits 566 00:31:17,809 --> 00:31:20,844 are not at peace. 567 00:31:20,946 --> 00:31:23,580 They cannot find their way on the other side. True. 568 00:31:23,682 --> 00:31:26,583 And so they come back for revenge. 569 00:31:35,827 --> 00:31:37,394 So this is your land back here? 570 00:31:37,496 --> 00:31:39,629 Yes, this is where we get all the bones together, 571 00:31:39,731 --> 00:31:42,265 we wash them and we analyze them, 572 00:31:42,367 --> 00:31:44,734 we reconstruct whatever we can reconstruct, and we prepare them 573 00:31:44,836 --> 00:31:48,738 for preservation and whatever 574 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:52,075 we need to do next in terms of analysis, in terms of DNA. 575 00:31:56,181 --> 00:31:57,514 Wow, who is this? 576 00:32:00,752 --> 00:32:04,954 This is one of the strangest graves we've found yet. 577 00:32:05,057 --> 00:32:07,023 Where did you find it? Where does this come from? 578 00:32:07,125 --> 00:32:09,592 About five kilometers just on the other side of the rise 579 00:32:09,695 --> 00:32:11,861 from where we were just a bit ago. 580 00:32:11,963 --> 00:32:14,130 Male, female? It's female. 581 00:32:14,232 --> 00:32:16,066 What's absolutely fascinating about it is 582 00:32:16,168 --> 00:32:20,136 when you look at the vertebra, they're highly compacted, 583 00:32:20,238 --> 00:32:23,273 and they're compacted at a very, very steep angle. 584 00:32:23,375 --> 00:32:27,010 When this happens, the shape of the spine, 585 00:32:27,112 --> 00:32:29,946 it's very convoluted. Sure. 586 00:32:30,048 --> 00:32:33,516 So she was the archetype image of the... 587 00:32:33,618 --> 00:32:36,386 the wicked witch that you can see...yes. The old woman like this. 588 00:32:40,392 --> 00:32:42,359 She was surrounded by babies. 589 00:32:42,461 --> 00:32:44,761 What do you mean? What I mean... 590 00:32:48,767 --> 00:32:51,267 Oh, these are children. They're babies. 591 00:32:51,370 --> 00:32:53,269 Look at this, oh, my goodness. 592 00:32:53,372 --> 00:32:55,705 Boy, it just breaks your heart to see this. 593 00:32:55,807 --> 00:32:58,908 And these were found near this woman in the same church. 594 00:32:59,010 --> 00:33:02,379 Three of almost a hundred children that were found What?! 595 00:33:02,481 --> 00:33:05,448 surrounding the old lady of the church. No kidding. 596 00:33:07,119 --> 00:33:09,018 We may never know the real story behind 597 00:33:09,121 --> 00:33:12,555 this remarkable deviant burial or if it's connected 598 00:33:12,657 --> 00:33:16,559 to a fear of the undead, but other graves 599 00:33:16,661 --> 00:33:19,863 excavated throughout Europe have provided archeologists 600 00:33:19,965 --> 00:33:22,632 with more direct evidence. 601 00:33:22,734 --> 00:33:25,335 There are a couple of cemeteries where they excavated graves 602 00:33:25,437 --> 00:33:29,439 where the people that buried the dead in those graves 603 00:33:29,541 --> 00:33:31,808 took extra precautions to make absolutely sure 604 00:33:31,910 --> 00:33:34,244 that that person would not rise from the grave. 605 00:33:34,346 --> 00:33:36,913 They put blades across their throats, 606 00:33:37,015 --> 00:33:39,783 so when they rise from the dead, they would get decapitated. Wow. 607 00:33:39,885 --> 00:33:42,652 They would stick stones into their mouths 608 00:33:42,754 --> 00:33:44,921 so they could not bite anymore. 609 00:33:45,023 --> 00:33:48,558 They would put big nails in the lid of the coffin 610 00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:50,360 so when the dead comes back to life, 611 00:33:50,462 --> 00:33:53,396 they would just simply impale themselves in those nails. Wow. 612 00:33:53,498 --> 00:33:55,865 This is really the source of this idea of the undead, 613 00:33:55,967 --> 00:33:59,202 this restlessness of the soul needing to be dealt with 614 00:33:59,304 --> 00:34:00,970 by the living. 615 00:34:06,111 --> 00:34:09,045 Fear of vampires was common throughout all of Europe 616 00:34:09,147 --> 00:34:11,114 for hundreds of years. 617 00:34:11,216 --> 00:34:13,750 Is there evidence in Romania today 618 00:34:13,852 --> 00:34:16,386 that this fear still exists? 619 00:34:20,625 --> 00:34:26,962 ¶¶ 620 00:34:29,267 --> 00:34:32,301 ¶¶ 621 00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:43,612 ¶¶ 622 00:34:43,714 --> 00:34:45,781 ¶¶ 623 00:34:45,883 --> 00:34:48,050 Hollywood has kept Bram Stoker's Dracula 624 00:34:48,152 --> 00:34:50,686 and the vampire legend alive and well, 625 00:34:50,788 --> 00:34:53,556 feeding off of a new franchise every couple of years, 626 00:34:53,658 --> 00:34:55,925 each more sensational than the last, 627 00:34:56,027 --> 00:34:58,194 but in some places, 628 00:34:58,296 --> 00:35:00,563 remote corners of the world, 629 00:35:00,665 --> 00:35:02,865 time seems to stand still, 630 00:35:02,967 --> 00:35:06,068 and the old superstitions still reign supreme. 631 00:35:14,946 --> 00:35:17,246 Look at this--I'm meeting a local resident here 632 00:35:17,348 --> 00:35:20,349 who's lived here for many years to talk to her 633 00:35:20,451 --> 00:35:23,519 about the, you know, beliefs in this area about the dead. 634 00:35:26,724 --> 00:35:28,624 Hello, hello. 635 00:35:31,762 --> 00:35:33,929 Hello. This is Don. 636 00:35:34,031 --> 00:35:35,631 Don. Very nice to meet you. 637 00:35:35,733 --> 00:35:37,299 Don. Don. 638 00:35:37,401 --> 00:35:40,069 Brezan Alexandrina. 639 00:35:40,171 --> 00:35:42,338 Brezan Alexandrina. Da. 640 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,141 Let's see inside. Da. 641 00:35:45,243 --> 00:35:49,245 How long as Alexandrina lived here? 642 00:35:49,347 --> 00:35:51,747 She's 87. 643 00:35:51,849 --> 00:35:54,783 She's, uh, she's been born here, 644 00:35:54,886 --> 00:35:57,653 6th December 1930. Wow, okay. 645 00:35:57,755 --> 00:36:00,689 So many generations of her family have lived 646 00:36:00,791 --> 00:36:03,192 even before that, I imagine. Yes. 647 00:36:12,103 --> 00:36:14,770 Alexandrina, this is such a mysterious land. 648 00:36:19,277 --> 00:36:21,610 Do you recall, when you were young, 649 00:36:21,712 --> 00:36:24,713 where the stories of vampires may have come from? 650 00:36:24,815 --> 00:36:27,082 You know, where did those beliefs start? 651 00:36:48,072 --> 00:36:49,972 She says they... 652 00:36:50,074 --> 00:36:53,175 they believe that this comes from witchcraft, 653 00:36:53,277 --> 00:36:56,745 black magic, so you want 654 00:36:56,847 --> 00:36:59,181 to do something against that. 655 00:37:03,788 --> 00:37:06,956 As recently as 2004, 656 00:37:07,058 --> 00:37:09,825 in the remote village of Marotinu de Sus, 657 00:37:09,927 --> 00:37:13,495 half a dozen people were charged with desecrating a man's grave. 658 00:37:13,598 --> 00:37:16,065 Their reasoning? 659 00:37:16,167 --> 00:37:18,601 He had become a vampire, 660 00:37:18,703 --> 00:37:21,537 or as locals call it, a strigoi. 661 00:37:21,639 --> 00:37:25,140 A young woman had fallen ill in the village. 662 00:37:25,243 --> 00:37:28,644 She claimed that her recently deceased uncle 663 00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:31,580 had been visiting her to drink blood from her heart. 664 00:37:31,682 --> 00:37:33,916 In the dead of night, 665 00:37:34,018 --> 00:37:36,285 the band of villagers had exhumed her uncle's body, 666 00:37:36,387 --> 00:37:39,421 used a pitchfork to crack open his chest, 667 00:37:39,523 --> 00:37:41,924 and drove a stake through his heart. 668 00:37:42,026 --> 00:37:44,893 Then, they took the heart, stake and all, 669 00:37:44,996 --> 00:37:47,696 to the nearest crossroads where it was burned, 670 00:37:47,798 --> 00:37:51,166 and then, the ashes were given to the young woman to drink. 671 00:37:51,269 --> 00:37:54,169 In doing so, she would be healed, 672 00:37:54,272 --> 00:37:56,605 and it was ensured that the strigoi 673 00:37:56,707 --> 00:37:59,508 was now truly dead. 674 00:37:59,610 --> 00:38:02,111 In small, removed villages like Marotinu de Sus, 675 00:38:02,213 --> 00:38:05,247 it's traditionally believed that after a body 676 00:38:05,349 --> 00:38:07,516 has been in the grave for 40 days, 677 00:38:07,618 --> 00:38:10,586 it can become a strigoi, or as we know it, 678 00:38:10,688 --> 00:38:12,855 the walking dead. 679 00:38:12,957 --> 00:38:15,190 A strigoi can live and walk 680 00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:17,359 among the living 681 00:38:17,461 --> 00:38:19,662 and attack them whenever they choose. 682 00:38:27,738 --> 00:38:30,105 It's fascinating to see firsthand 683 00:38:30,207 --> 00:38:32,675 how the ancient ways are still so much a part 684 00:38:32,777 --> 00:38:34,677 of contemporary life here. 685 00:38:34,779 --> 00:38:37,346 Romania's origins, its history, its folklore 686 00:38:37,448 --> 00:38:40,849 is very much in the hearts and minds of all these people 687 00:38:40,951 --> 00:38:43,285 living in these rural communities. 688 00:38:43,387 --> 00:38:47,589 Why do vampires continue to capture our imagination? 689 00:38:47,692 --> 00:38:51,727 And will this fascination haunt us for eternity? 690 00:39:02,373 --> 00:39:05,074 Everlasting life, 691 00:39:05,176 --> 00:39:07,443 a stake through the heart, 692 00:39:07,545 --> 00:39:09,745 the kiss of death. 693 00:39:09,847 --> 00:39:12,281 For over 1,000 years, our unsatiated 694 00:39:12,383 --> 00:39:14,550 vampire obsession has endured, 695 00:39:14,652 --> 00:39:17,620 but what gives this bloodthirsty legend 696 00:39:17,722 --> 00:39:20,556 everlasting life is the fact that it's rooted 697 00:39:20,658 --> 00:39:23,259 in real people and moments from history, 698 00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:26,062 starting with the dead bodies that piled up 699 00:39:26,164 --> 00:39:29,031 during the Black Death right here in Romania. 700 00:39:29,133 --> 00:39:32,101 Vampires were a way for people to cope with the real horrors 701 00:39:32,203 --> 00:39:34,437 they saw every day. 702 00:39:35,940 --> 00:39:38,140 That gory folklore spread and found its way 703 00:39:38,242 --> 00:39:40,676 into the eager hands of Bram Stoker, 704 00:39:40,778 --> 00:39:43,446 who brought the very real region of Transylvania 705 00:39:43,548 --> 00:39:45,948 and a fictional character named Count Dracula 706 00:39:46,050 --> 00:39:48,250 to the rest of the world. 707 00:39:48,352 --> 00:39:51,854 So while Dracula may be the most recognizable and frightening 708 00:39:51,956 --> 00:39:54,590 vampire of all time, he was, indeed, 709 00:39:54,692 --> 00:39:57,426 partly based on a real, bloodthirsty ruler 710 00:39:57,528 --> 00:39:59,962 known as Vlad the Impaler. 711 00:40:01,766 --> 00:40:04,033 Vlad Dracula's reign was as long as it was violent. 712 00:40:04,135 --> 00:40:06,936 His daring escape from the tunnels beneath 713 00:40:07,038 --> 00:40:09,839 Poienari Castle was by far the last time the world 714 00:40:09,941 --> 00:40:11,340 would ever hear from him. 715 00:40:11,442 --> 00:40:13,976 He beat invading armies for years to come. 716 00:40:14,078 --> 00:40:15,678 Indeed, he even managed to reclaim 717 00:40:15,780 --> 00:40:18,114 the Wallachian throne once more. 718 00:40:18,216 --> 00:40:21,250 It was almost as if Vlad was immortal-- 719 00:40:21,352 --> 00:40:25,688 that is, until 1476, when Vlad Dracula met his end. 720 00:40:30,728 --> 00:40:33,129 Just over 40 kilometers north of Bucharest, 721 00:40:33,231 --> 00:40:35,531 hidden in the center of this wooded island, 722 00:40:35,633 --> 00:40:37,766 is Snagov Monastery, 723 00:40:37,869 --> 00:40:40,336 where many believe Vlad Dracula's remains 724 00:40:40,438 --> 00:40:42,404 are laid to rest. 725 00:40:45,176 --> 00:40:47,910 Legend suggests that Vlad was ambushed and beheaded 726 00:40:48,012 --> 00:40:50,312 by the Ottoman Empire and that monks 727 00:40:50,414 --> 00:40:53,115 at this monastery moved his headless body here 728 00:40:53,217 --> 00:40:55,251 to rest for all eternity. 729 00:40:55,353 --> 00:40:57,720 To this day, 730 00:40:57,822 --> 00:40:59,822 there is a plaque marking a stone 731 00:40:59,924 --> 00:41:01,724 in front of the altar that suggests 732 00:41:01,826 --> 00:41:04,660 Vlad Dracula is here and finally dead. 733 00:41:10,501 --> 00:41:12,968 Reality and fantasy, 734 00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:14,904 history and fiction. 735 00:41:15,006 --> 00:41:17,673 The vampire legend blurs the boundaries between it all 736 00:41:17,775 --> 00:41:21,343 and reminds us of the mysterious magic behind the exotic 737 00:41:21,445 --> 00:41:23,979 and unknown-- from the seductive allure 738 00:41:24,081 --> 00:41:27,850 of a Transylvania castle to the war-torn borderlands 739 00:41:27,952 --> 00:41:30,352 between the Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. 740 00:41:33,057 --> 00:41:35,624 Vampires have been around this place forever, 741 00:41:35,726 --> 00:41:38,060 and from the looks of it, 742 00:41:38,162 --> 00:41:40,496 they're not going anywhere, lurking in the shadows 743 00:41:40,598 --> 00:41:42,798 for generations to come. 744 00:41:42,900 --> 00:41:51,473 ¶¶ 745 00:41:51,576 --> 00:41:58,080 ¶¶ 745 00:41:59,305 --> 00:42:59,471 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm