Vampires turning to dust doesn't make sense to me and maybe someone can help me. It makes sense that a vampire turns to dust by sunlight and fire because they burst into flames which is like cremation. However why does staking or decapitation turn them to dust. Is it because they are reverted to their true age so if they are hundreds of years old their turn to dust but if not they will just die. Or is the releasing of the demonic spirit cause the body to explode up into dust. Lastly why do their clothes turn to dust. If sunlight or fire burn them their cloting would set on fire also. However if the staking and decapitatin turn the body to dust why do their clothes also turn to dust? Someone with knowledge on this topic please help me out.

Well in the Buffy world everything she slays turns to dust, cause Sarah Michelle Gellar is just cool like that, but i have read somewhere that vampires dont even turn to dust they kinda i guess melt away like Wicked Witch of the West style, i dont know correct me if im wrong on this

That would all depend on what version you're reading.

In the mythological style, they didn't turn into anything (correct me if I'm wrong Rhuen or Saturn), they just died.

yeah, that's what I figured too. Although... how did they do it in Blade? hmm, did they have the vampires 'dust' too? From fire and light the vampires dusted, and maybe even by the silver sword... can't quite remember.

I think in Blade they just erupted into a super-heated flame and then vapourised.

I think Vampires turning into dust was a Hammer Horror invention, but I'm not 100% sure, and the logical reason is yes, once the spell of everlasting life is broken, the body reverts to the state it should be in - so with a vampire a couple of centuries old, then it's a case of 'dust to dust' - very biblical if you ask me.

Bahamut is pretty much correct in saying that the corpse would revert to a normal corpse, until the angry villagers burnt it to ashes.

Back in Europe when they actually hunted what they thought were vampires, they would go to the graves and drive a stake through their hearts into the ground, which was supposed to keep them pinned there.
When they had reports of creepy findings, they said that the bodie in the coffins looked plump and sometimes flushed, as if they were still alive, or had just eaten a large meal. In such cases, when they drove the stake in, they claimed the body became pale and thin... then again, if you had a sharp wooden spike driven into your heart, youd probably loose enough blood to make you pale and thin...

Anyhoo, theres your historical standpoint! :cofpap:

Going by the myths I know Vampires when killed emitted a stench of rot and simply fell dead. It wasn't until the 16th century that the legend of vampires truning to flame or dust came into being. I will admit there are many myths about the vampire and most of them differ greatly in the way these beings die.

Cool! Can you dig out some info about when they first started turning into dust because it's good for my education? I always thought it was a Hammer thing.

I'll see what I can find. :)

yea that'd be interesting to see the they way vamps died before the whole dust thing came into act

dust, most definitely! if not there is just no point in the stakage. i mean, have you seen the original buffy movie? it takes one vamp ages to die once he gets staked. at least with dust, there's closure.

That would be nice if that could really happen in real life... :rolleyes:

To be honest i prefer it if they turn to dust than melting or anything cos i mean have you seen from dusk till dawn damn thats just messy. I dont usually see many melting vamps on movies usually either dust or die.

It seems a lil scientificly impossible to turn into dust, also impossible for vamps to exist, but I readd a book called I AM LEGEND and it said that there is a germ that turns people into vamps, and when that germ comes into contact with air it rapidly decomposes. Good book I recommend to horror fans.

It depends on the myth but in some older ones, the vampire still wears the clothes he was buried in, in which case the vampire and his clothes would turn to dust. As for actual films and their ideals then i really cant explain why this happens other than the fact you cant explain fully why vampires exist so why could we explain why certain things happen to them when they die.

I have to agree with you, that was all based on books until the film industry you know. And even if the bodies are actually deteriorating under that far forgotten pair of clothes in the coffin, they probably would turn to dust after a few thousand years. But if they change clothes, it really just doesn't make sense. So anyway, I think that the dust thing is neat but the idea that you burn up so quick that you're vaporized is pretty nifty too.

I prefer the vampire just dying...it gives it more realism, I mean even though vampires are not scientifically possible, it sounds even more impossible for someone to just crumble to dust when they died.

even though i think dusting is the only way to go, i also like the way the vampires in Underworld die.

Man I tried asking this ages ago and I still got no idea. Personally I'm just going to go with the idea that the clothes don't turn to dust with the body, but everyone is still stubbornly believing they do. The clothes have nothing to do with the body so there's no way they could go with the body unless the body burnt up.


Ooo interesting thought flash!
What if, when the vamp gets staked it creates an immediate decomposition of the body? I'm sure every one of us has at some stage stuck their hand in a compost heap and felt how hot it gets in there. Well if the decomposition rate was to be increased to the speed at which a vampire's body is supposed to decompose when they get staked, it could be possible that the heat increased as well and the body burns up in the process......

Or perhaps I should just stop thinking about these kinds of things at 2:30 in the morning......

*wanders off in a sleep deprived daze*