[Editorial] Mom, Dad, I’m a Vampire: LGBT Themes in My Best Friend Is a Vampire

The ‘80s provides no shortage of low-budget, campy teen-horror movies like Fright Night (1985) and Teen Wolf (1985), but less discussed among them is 1987’s My Best Friend Is a Vampire, starring Robert Sean Leonard in one of his first roles as dorky teen turned vampire, Jeremy Capello.

While discussions have been held and articles written about LGBT themes in ‘80s horror, few—if any—have looked at My Best Friend Is a Vampire through this lens, mainly because this movie isn’t very well known. This is more than likely because the movie is not very good, to be honest, but for a late ‘80s teen movie to explicitly address being gay and making deliberate parallels between the gay community and vampirism is daring.

The movie begins with Jeremy giving the viewer a Ferris Bueller-esque voiceover during a dream sequence. This meta-narrative style is never used again in the duration of the movie. Most important in this scene is the introduction of band geek Darla Blake (Cheryl Pollak), who looks almost exactly like Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink. She’s notably androgynous. Her hair is short, and she incorporates masculine clothing into her personal style. Jeremy doesn’t know why he’s fixated on her. He goes as far as to acknowledge she’s not the type of girl most guys would have a crush on. His best friend Ralph (Evan Mirand), who drives him to school every day, doesn’t understand it either, especially when a popular cheerleader seems to be interested in Jeremy. 

Ralph encourages Jeremy to have casual sex to get over his hang ups about women, which Jeremy is hesitant to do. Still, he finds an opportunity to do so when he delivers groceries to a beautiful older woman’s house and she invites him back after dark. He returns, and what he assumes will be a sexual encounter goes awry when the woman, Nora (Cecilia Peck), bites him just before a vampire hunter, Professor McCarthy (David Warner), breaks in to kill Nora. Jeremy, misunderstanding the situation, leaves in a hurry, telling Ralph that Professor McCarthy must have been Nora’s husband.

The exchange of blood as a metaphor for sexuality in vampire media has been explored numerous times, and My Best Friend Is a Vampire is no exception. When Modoc (René Auberjonois), an older vampire who becomes Jeremy’s mentor, first tries explaining vampirism to him, he tells Jeremy that Nora was “infected.” Jeremy is visibly distraught at this, considering the implications of a bloodborne infection in the 1980s. Modoc clarifies that he’s talking about being a vampire, and when Jeremy finally realizes that what Modoc is saying is true, he spends more and more time with the man.

Modoc gives Jeremy a guide to being a vampire, which refers to vampirism as an “alternative lifestyle.” He tells Jeremy most vampires drink pig’s blood instead of human blood. He also reveals some of the powers that vampires have like shapeshifting, slow aging and being able to control others’ actions—to an extent. As Jeremy’s vampirism causes problems in his growing relationship with Darla, who isn’t that interested in dating in the first place, he finds that his powers generally don’t work on her. In fact, Jeremy’s powers don’t work on women through most of the movie.

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While all of this is going on, Jeremy’s parents are confused at how much time Jeremy spends with Modoc, who he’s never introduced to them. All they see is their son frequently getting into an older man’s expensive car. This, along with Ralph’s odd behavior after Jeremy “comes out” as a vampire to him, leads them to believe Jeremy is gay.

Of course, Jeremy revealing his vampirism to Ralph doesn’t go as planned. Ralph tells Jeremy’s parents that Jeremy’s odd behavior can be chalked up to “girl troubles.” When he goes up to Jeremy’s room and he reveals he’s a vampire, Ralph initially rejects Jeremy, feeling shocked and betrayed. He returns downstairs, visibly distraught, and Jeremy’s parents ask what’s wrong. Ralph tells them that some things are “too personal.”

As Jeremy navigates his vampirism and convinces Ralph he poses no threat to him, they discover that Professor McCarthy thinks Ralph is the vampire and has been following him and staking out his house. McCarthy’s name could be a direct reference to McCarthyism, which in addition to the Red Scare of the 1950s included a “Lavender Scare” which targeted LGBT people. 

Jeremy’s parents debate between each other whether or not Jeremy is gay, but when they see Jeremy driving off in Modoc’s car, recognizing it by the license plate NITEMAN, it’s the final nail in the coffin. His parents are then seen reading books like 1 Teenager in 10: Testimony by Gay and Lesbian Youth and Are You Still My Mother? Are You Still My Family? They want to understand what Jeremy’s going through, and after a brief discussion agree that they support his being gay. 

As Jeremy tries to get back in Darla’s good graces,  Professor McCarthy kidnaps Ralph, who he still believes is a vampire. Jeremy decides to bring Darla with him to save Ralph and tells her that his being a vampire is the reason for his weird behavior. She’s skeptical at first but realizes he’s telling the truth. They arrive at a church just in time to stop Professor McCarthy from killing Ralph. Jeremy tries to convince Professor McCarthy that vampires just want to exist in peace, like any other group of people. McCarthy seems set in his ways until Modoc and his coven appear and decide to turn McCarthy, reasoning that they’d rather he become an ally than dead. 

Jeremy’s parents have caught wind of the situation and are prepared to tell Jeremy that they support his being gay, until he introduces Darla to them. They’re thrilled and quickly change the subject to Jeremy’s new relationship. This ending seems rushed and disingenuous, especially while the movie was daring enough to address LGBT themes explicitly. Also interesting is how outdated some of the jokes are, while the movie was progressive in this one particular area. One could argue that My Best Friend Is a Vampire could stand to be remade, fully embracing the LGBT themes throughout instead of throwing them away at the last minute. 

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